A parameters modification system for a contact center is provided. The parameters modification system includes an input module for enabling a user to provide an input indicating one or more parameters required to be modified. The parameters modification system further includes a determination module for determining a surface based on key performance indicators (KPIs) associated the one more parameters. The determination module further determines an optimal path in the determined surface. The parameters modification system further includes a modification module for modifying the one or more parameters along the determined optimal path so that key performance indicators associated with the one or more parameters remain within a predetermined threshold.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention provide a system and a method for modifying operations of a contact center to meet a business requirement. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention provide a system and a method for modifying parameters of a contact center.
2. Description of Related Art
Contact centers are employed by many enterprises to service inbound and outbound contacts from customers. A typical contact center includes a switch and/or server to receive and route incoming packet-switched and/or circuit-switched contacts and one or more resources, such as human agents and automated resources (e.g., interactive voice response (IVR) units), in order to service the incoming contacts.
Contact centers distribute inbound and/or outbound contacts for servicing to any suitable resource according to predefined criteria. In many existing systems, the criteria for servicing the contact from the moment the contact center becomes aware of the contact until the contact is connected to an agent are client or operator-specifiable (i.e., programmable by the operator of the contact center) via a capability called vectoring. Normally, in present-day automatic call distribution (ACD) when the ACD system's controller detects an agent has become available to handle a contact, the controller identifies all predefined contact-handling pool for the agent, usually in some order of priority and delivers to the agent the highest-priority, oldest contact that matches the agent's highest-priority pool. Generally, the only condition that results in a contact not being delivered to an available agent is where there are no contacts waiting to be handled.
Agents are typically associated with a specific communication manager (CM) and automatic call distribution (ACD) such as contact center (CC) Elite. Further, the contact center employs both in-house agents and outsourcers. The contact center may outsource a certain percentage of calls (e.g., 10 percent) to the outsourcers due to cost reasons or language reasons. The contact center may have a specific agreement with the outsourcer. For example, the contact center will outsource 10 percent of calls to the outsourcers provided the outsourcer answers those calls within 20 seconds, and if the outsourcer does not answer those calls within 20 seconds, the contact center may punish the outsourcers by reducing the percentage of calls outsourced to the outsourcer by 3 percent.
Typically, supervisors manage key performance indicators (KPIs) such as wait time. Supervisors may manage the percentage of calls assigned to be handled by the in-house agents and by the various outsourcers. At times due to business reasons as explained above (e.g., when the outsourcer does not meet service level agreement requirement), a supervisor may need to change the percentage of calls directed to a specific outsourcer. For example, supervisors may need to reduce the percentage of calls directed to a specific outsourcer from 20 percent to 15 percent. Consequently the percentage of calls directed to other agent pools would increase. To avoid adverse impact to service level agreements (SLAs), other parameters may need to be modified to ensure that the SLA remains within proper limits. For example, agent skills or number of agents assigned to a specific region may need to be modified.
However, conventional technique of bulk changing of parameters may cause large swings in one or more KPIs and cause a specific SLA to drop below accepted threshold. This is due to that fact that the contact center is a multi-variable system with n1 inputs (e.g., specific attributes of agents, number of calls requiring specific skill set, number of agents with specific attribute, etc.) and n2 outputs (e.g., various KPIs such as average wait time, total revenue, number of calls resolving issue in first time, etc.). For example, a four dimensional system may have two KPIs wherein KPI1=f(x,y), and KPI2=f(x,y) where x and y are attributes that the supervisor can change. Presently, if the supervisor first changes x (e.g., the percentage of calls directed to a specific outsourcer) then KPI1 would improve but KPI2 may drop below threshold. Alternatively, if the supervisor first changes y (e.g., the number of agents with a specific skill) then KPI2 would improve but KPI1 may drop below threshold. Hence, neither path provides an optimal route because in either case one of the KPIs may drop below acceptable threshold. Further, the supervisor can change only one parameter at one time, causing bulk changes in the value of parameter. However, bulk change of parameters may cause large swings in specific KPI and cause a specific SLA to drop below accepted threshold.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and method that is capable of modifying parameters so that none of the KPIs drop below the acceptable threshold.

System and method for modifying parameters in a contact center


An aluminum alloy member resistant to cracking and having high strengths and excellent stress corrosion cracking resistance is manufactured by expanding a 7xxx aluminum alloy hollow extrusion at a rate of 5% or more. Specifically, a 7xxx aluminum alloy hollow extrusion containing Zn of 3.0-9.5%, Mg of 0.4-2.5%, Cu of 0.05-2.0%, and Ti of 0.005-0.2%, in mass percent, and prepared through press quenching is subjected to a reversion treatment, to pipe expansion within 72 hours after the reversion treatment, and to temper aging. The reversion treatment includes heating at a temperature rise rate of 0.4° C./second or more, holding in a temperature range of 200-550° C. for longer than 0 second, and cooling at a rate of 0.5° C./second or more. The ratio Y (σrs/σ0.2) of the tensile residual stress σrs to the 0.2% yield stress σ0.2 after temper aging and the total content X of Mg and Zn satisfy Expression (1):Y≦−0.1X+1.4   (1).

Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2010-159005 and JP-A No. 2010-69927 describe pipe expanding of 6xxx series aluminum alloy hollow extrusions by electromagnetic forming. JP-A No. 2007-254833 and JP-A No. 2005-105327 describe 6xxx series aluminum alloy hollow extrusions having excellent expanding workability and being formed by electromagnetic forming. JP-A No. 2010-196089 describes a 6xxx series aluminum alloy hollow extrusion having excellent expanding workability and being formed by hydroforming. The 6xxx series aluminum alloy hollow extrusions described in these patent literatures each subjected to pipe expanding under a condition of T1 temper where the material exhibits high formability, and thereafter aged.
Independently, the application of pipe expanding to 7xxx series aluminum alloy hollow extrusions has been examined, which materials contain alloy elements such as Zn, Mg, and Cu in large amounts and thereby have higher strengths after temper aging than other series alloys do. The 7xxx series aluminum alloy extrusions, however, even being materials (T1 temper materials) after press quenching and before temper aging, undergo hardening due to natural aging and suffer from inferior formability. For this reason, the 7xxx series aluminum alloy hollow extrusions, when subjected to pipe expanding at a practical-level expansion rate of 5% or more, readily stiffer from cracking in the expanded (worked) sites. This tendency is more remarkable in higher alloys.
For better formability, a reversion treatment has been performed on 7xxx series aluminum alloys hardened by natural aging, as described typically in JP-A No. H07-305151, JP-A No. H10-168553, JP-A No. 2005-194020, and JP-A No. 2007-119853.

7xxx series aluminum alloy member excellent in stress corrosion cracking resistance and method for manufacturing the same


A multi-part nail corrective brace for treating an ingrown toe- or fingernail has a brace part and a bridging piece. The brace part has a pair of hooks that are installed under the left and right edges of the nail to be treated. In application, the bridging piece is joined to the brace part by joining loops or indentations. Tension is applied to lever the nail up so that it is no longer ingrown. The joining loops or indentations can be in the form of discs, which can be cut out to enhance their elasticity. These discs may be injection-molded of plastic or rubber.

This invention relates to a corrective brace for a toe- or fingernail, especially a toenail.
In foot care, toe nails frequently require attention because they become ingrown, that is, their outer edges press painfully into the flesh. Such a condition makes walking difficult. If an ingrown toenail is left untreated, the nail can puncture the skin, leading to an infection that can become serious.
One well-known treatment for an ingrown toenail is surgical removal of the nail. However, the results of this treatment are painful both during and after the operation, and it requires a lengthy period of recuperation. During recuperation it is difficult for the patient to wear socks or stockings and shoes, which in turn makes it impossible to walk normally.
A non-surgical treatment is presented by orthonychia: straightening the nail via a brace. Such a brace, with hooks on the side, grips the nail under the edges and levers them up by spring action. With this action the curvature of the nail is reduced, and the infected area around the ingrown nail heals.
One brace for this treatment is a one-piece or unitary brace. However, a unitary brace is not suitable for treating festering or infected nails. Furthermore, the unitary brace has a disadvantage in that nails vary greatly in their curvature and size.
DE 37 11 755 C2 discloses a nail-correcting brace which has two wire brace parts. It is fixed sideways over the nail and fitted at one end with a hook which is secured under the nail. The other end has a joining indentation to connect the brace with a spring clamp. Even though this brace is better than a unitary brace, it still has a major disadvantage: the spring clamp is not flexible enough for some cases and therefore cannot be used to treat them.


Double-sided polishing machine with an upper and a lower working disc, each comprising a polishing disc and a carrier disc. The working disc are co-axially arranged and rotatable relative to each other, a polishing gap being formed between the polishing discs. Said workpieces are machined in the polishing gap. A temperature control device being at least provided for the upper working disc by which a temperature control fluid can be conveyed through passages in the upper working disc. A spacing measuring device being associated with the working discs which measure the spacing in the polishing gap (gap width μ) at two radial spaced points of the polishing gap.

Double-sided polishing machines serve for polishing workpieces having coplanar surfaces, e.g. wafers. The plane parallelism is an essential quality criterion.
A double-sided polishing machine usually has two working discs which are rotationally driven by a shaft, preferably in opposite sense to each other. The shafts are co-axial. Each working disc includes a polishing disc and a carrier disc. Usually, the polishing disc has a steel disc which is firmly secured to the carrier disc. The facing surfaces of the polishing disc are covered by a polishing pad. The flat workpieces are accommodated by openings of so-called runner discs which can be rotationally driven by means of a tooth ring or a pin ring respectively. The workpieces move along a cycloidal path between the working disc or the polishing gap, respectively. The effective polishing surface of the upper and lower working disc thus is an annular surface.
Usually, a polishing medium is introduced into the polishing gap in form of a suspension. It is known to use the polishing medium for cooling purposes in that it flows on one side through passages between the carrier and the polishing disc and on the other side into the polishing gap through axial parallel bores in the polishing disc. It is further known to provide cooling passages between the carrier disc and the polishing disc (labyrinth) into which cooling medium is introduced e.g. water. The cooling medium is fed through axial passages in the driving shaft which are connected to an outer stationary cooling source through a rotary coupling.
Since the workpieces are moved in the polishing gap between upper and lower polishing disc the geometry (parallelism of the surfaces) is considerably determined by the geometry of the polishing discs i.e. through the difference in geometry between the upper and the lower polishing discs i.e. the polishing gap.
As already mentioned the temperature necessary for polishing performance can be controlled by a suitable cooling medium. At the beginning of the polishing step the temperature is for example 40° C. During the polishing process a considerable process temperature is generated. This deforms the polishing discs. As mentioned carrier disc and polishing disc are firmly interconnected and thus result in a different extension of both discs so that the working surface of the concerned polishing disc attains a convex shape. If the temperature in the polishing disc is reduced this results in a uniform polishing gap again.
The object of the invention is to provide a double-sided polishing machine wherein at any time an approximately uniform polishing gap is achieved throughout the radius of the polishing surface.

Peters Wolters Surface Technologies GmbH & Co., KG


Head-protective helmet including a single mounting means, e.g. a plurality of anchor clips, which at least assist in mounting an inner impact shell to the outer shell, mount a head band to the outer shell, mount a plurality of head straps to the outer shell, and depending upon the material of which the mounting means is made may absorb energy created upon a downwardly acting force being applied to the outer shell. A head band including pivotally interconnected forehead member and nape device. A mounting member particularly useful for mounting head-protective helmet components together.

This invention relates generally to a new and improved head-protective helmet and more particularly relates to a new and improved head-protective helmet which may be embodied as a firefighter's helmet, a head-protective helmet for EMS personnel, firemen, policemen, and the like. This invention also relates to a new and improved mounting member particularly useful for mounting head-protective helmet components together. This invention further relates to a new and improved head band particularly useful for mounting to a head-protective helmet.
By way of example, firefighters' helmets are known to the prior art which include an outer shell, an inner impact cap or inner impact attenuation shell mounted to the interior of the outer shell, a cradle or web of head straps which extends into the inner impact cap and is for engaging the head of a wearer of the helmet, and a head band for being fitted to the head of a wearer of a helmet. Such a firefighter's helmet is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,339 entitled FIREMAN'S HELMET WITH ENERGY ABSORBING LINER, patented Sep. 1, 1981, Peter A. Coombs inventor; this patent is incorporated herein by reference as if fully reproduced herein. The firefighter's helmet disclosed in this patent includes an outer shell 10 in which is mounted an inner non-resilient foam liner 20, sometimes referred to in the art as an inner impact cap or shell, a head band 40 attached to the liner by an adjustable system of holes and snap buttons 44, 45 on tab extensions 46, and a cradle of head web straps 32-33 mounted to the inner impact liner or cap 20 by a tube 25.
Another firefighter's helmet including in the above-noted firefighter helmet components is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,016 entitled PROTECTIVE HELMET ASSEMBLY INCLUDING RELEASABLE HEAD RETAINING ASSEMBLY, patented Sep. 3, 1991, Christopher E. Coombs inventor; this patent is incorporated herein by reference as if fully reproduced herein. The helmet components of the firefighter's helmet disclosed in this patent are mounted together in substantially the same manner as the elements of the firefighter's helmet disclosed in the above-referenced 4,286,339 patent, except that additionally a plurality of retaining clip members 70 are mounted to the brim of the outer shell 12 and engage the rim 42 of the foam liner or inner impact cap or shell 26 to maintain the inner impact cap within the outer shell below a predetermined load exerted on the inner liner by the head straps engaging the user's head due to a blow or load being applied to the outer shell. The helmet disclosed in this patent includes an adjustable head band 32 lined with a sweat band 34; the head band 32 is attached to the foam liner 26 by an adjustable system of holes 36 and snap buttons 38.
As taught in detail in the above-referenced patents, the inner impact cap or foam liner and the manner of mounting the cradle or web of head straps to the inner impact cap or shell attenuate or absorb impact energy or force transferred to the wearer's head upon, for example, an object striking the outer shell.
While the firefighters' helmets disclosed in the above-referenced patents have performed well, there still exists a need in the art for a new and improved head-protective helmet which may be advantageously embodied as a firefighter's helmet, or other helmet of the types noted above, and which head-protective helmet includes a single mounting means for mounting the firefighter helmet components together. And, while the head bands disclosed in the above-referenced patents incorporated herein by reference have performed well, there still exists a need in the art for a new and improved head band which is particularly useful for mounting to a head-protective helmet. There also exists a need in the art for a mounting member which is particularly useful for mounting head-protective helmet components together.

Head-protective helmet mounting member for mounting helmet components together and head band


A braking device for a pallet intended to run in a conveying track. The braking device includes a matrix and a braking element. The matrix includes the support service and exterior surface and a recess having various screws and openings. The braking element includes at least two protrusions which are disposed within the grooves of the matrix and project outwardly from the openings of the matrix at various stages of braking.

Conveying devices, such as those which are used for moving objects between different stations in a factory, usually comprise a conveying track in the form of a belt or a chain. The conveying tracks can be sunken in a trench with vertical side surfaces. Alternatively, they can be located on the horizontal upper surfaces of the trench or arranged in some other way.
The objects to be conveyed are arranged slidably in relation to the conveying tracks, either directly or via bearing means, what are known as pallets.
When a pallet is conveyed along the conveying device and arrives at a work station, it is stopped by a stop. Performance of the work operation on the load on the pallet can then begin.
When it is difficult to coordinate the work so that every pallet spends the same length of time in each work station, there is a risk of a queue of pallets being formed before a work station. It is inappropriate for the braking of a pallet which takes place before a work station to take place solely by virtue of the pallet colliding with the pallet in front. If work is being carried out on the load on the pallet in front, there is a risk of the load being damaged.
Attempts have been made to solve this problem by providing the pallets with rubber shock absorbers.
It has nevertheless been found that this does not provide the necessary shock absorption, for which reason the problem remains to be solved in an effective manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,121 describes a braking device for braking objects on a conveying track which seeks to solve the abovementioned problem. The braking device is arranged in the form of elastic elements positioned between the objects or pallets they are to brake. Under the pressure which arises when a pallet behind is braked against the braking device, the latter is compressed in the conveying direction. This results in the device expanding transversely to the conveying direction. When this expansion takes place, the braking device will, on account of its dimensioning, bear against the vertical side surfaces of the conveying track. Owing to the friction which then arises between the braking device and the side surfaces, the pallet will be braked. However, the construction above affords limited possibilities for varying the braking effect. There is therefore a need for a braking device which can be varied to a greater extent with regard to the braking effect.

Apparatus, arrangement and method for braking


The present disclosure generally relates to carbon fiber reinforced polyolefin compositions, which may have a relatively low density. The compositions may include a thermoplastic olefin, a filler component, a compatibilizer, and/or an additive package. In some embodiments, the filler component includes a plurality of carbon fibers. In addition, articles of manufacture and methods of making a carbon fiber reinforced polyolefin composition are provided.

In order to comply with increased fuel efficiency goals and other standards having an environmental impact (e.g., Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) in the US, and CO2 limits in the European Union (E. U.)), the automotive industry currently pursues weight reduction for many components used to make vehicles.
Polyolefin-based compositions are used to make a number of automotive components, including, but not limited to, spare-wheel compartment covers, underbody panels, seat backrests, engine and transmission covers, bumper fascia, rear panel shelves, and door trim panels. Typically, efforts to reduce the weight of these parts by altering the polyolefin-based compositions has had a negative impact on one or more other important properties of the various parts, such as stiffness, shrinkage, cold temperature impact performance, etc.
For example, carbon fibers have been used as reinforcement in polymer composites, due in part to their light weight, high stiffness, excellent thermal stability, and/or electrical conductivity. However, adding carbon fiber to a polyolefin-based composition typically results in a decrease in cold temperature ductility. This disadvantage, along with the high cost of carbon fiber, typically limits the use of carbon fiber reinforcement in the automotive industry.
Furthermore, for painted bumper fascia application, thermoplastic olefin (TPO) solutions with well-balanced stiffness and/or cold temperature impact performance after painting are desirable.
Therefore, there remains a need for polyolefin-based compositions that achieve a weight reduction without compromising one or more other properties, such as those properties related to fit and function, which may include the compositions' coefficient of linear thermal expansion (CLTE), shrinkage, gap closure, etc. In addition, an electrically conductive TPO may be advantageous because such a material may have the potential to improve electrostatic painting transfer efficiency in painted automotive parts, such as a bumper fascia, which may result in a further cost saving.

Carbon fiber reinforced polyolefin compositions and methods


The present invention provides a system for monitoring a physiological parameter of players engaged in a sporting activity. The system includes a plurality of reporting units, a controller, and a signaling device. The reporting unit has an arrangement of sensing devices that measure the physiological parameter of an individual player and generate parameter data. The controller receives the parameter data transmitted from each reporting unit and then processes the parameter data to calculate a parameter result. When the parameter result exceeds a predetermined value, the controller communicates with a signaling device that provides an alert to sideline personnel to monitor the player(s) in question. The system also includes a remote storage device for holding historical data collected by the system which permits subsequent analysis. The system can monitor a number of player physiological parameters, including the acceleration of a player's body part that experiences an impact and the temperature of each player.

Due to the physical nature of contact sports, such as football, hockey, and lacrosse, players receive a number of impacts during the course of play. The impacts cause an acceleration of the player's body part, including the head and brain.
Much remains unknown about the response of the brain to head accelerations in the linear and rotational directions and even less about the correspondence between specific impact forces and injury, particularly with respect to injuries caused by repeated exposure to impact forces of a lower level than those that result in a catastrophic injury or fatality. Almost all of what is known is derived from animal studies, studies of cadavers under specific directional and predictable forces (i.e. a head-on collision test), from crash dummies, from human volunteers in well-defined but limited impact exposures, or from other simplistic mechanical models. The conventional application of known forces and/or measurement of forces applied to animals, cadavers, crash dummies, and human volunteers limits our knowledge of a relationship between forces applied to a living human head and resultant severe and catastrophic brain injury. These prior studies have limited value as they typically relate to research in the automobile safety area.
The concern for sports-related injuries, particularly to the head, is higher than ever. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the incidence of sports-related mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) approaches 300,000 annually in the United States. Approximately ⅓ of these injuries occur in football. MTBI is a major source of lost player time. Head injuries accounted for 13.3% of all football injuries to boys and 4.4% of all soccer injuries to both boys and girls in a large study of high school sports injuries. Approximately 62,800 MTBI cases occur annually among high school varsity athletes, with football accounting for about 63% of cases. Concussions in hockey affect 10% of the athletes and make up 12%-14% of all injuries.
For example, a typical range of 4-6 concussions per year in a football team of 90 players (7%), and 6 per year from a hockey team with 28 players (21%) is not uncommon. In rugby, concussion can affect as many as 40% of players on a team each year. Concussions, particularly when repeated multiple times, significantly threaten the long-term health of the athlete. The health care costs associated with MTBI in sports are estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control considers sports-related traumatic brain injury (mild and severe) an important public health problem because of the high incidence of these injuries, the relative youth of those being injured with possible long term disability, and the danger of cumulative effects from repeat incidences.
Athletes who suffer head impacts during a practice or game situation often find it difficult to assess the severity of the blow. Physicians, trainers, and coaches utilize standard neurological examinations and cognitive questioning to determine the relative severity of the impact and its effect on the athlete. Return to play decisions can be strongly influenced by parents and coaches who want a star player back on the field. Subsequent impacts following an initial concussion (MTBI) may be 4-6 times more likely to result in a second, often more severe, brain injury. Significant advances in the diagnosis, categorization, and post-injury management of concussions have led to the development of standardized tools such as the Standardized Assessment of Concussion (SAC), which includes guidelines for on-field assessment and return to sport criteria. Yet there are no objective biomechanical measures directly related to the impact used for diagnostic purposes. Critical clinical decisions are often made on the field immediately following the impact event, including whether an athlete can continue playing. Data from the actual event would provide additional objective data to augment psychometric measures currently used by the on-site medical practitioner.
Brain injury following impact occurs at the tissue and cellular level, and is both complex and not fully understood. Increased brain tissue strain, pressure waves, and pressure gradients within the skull have been linked with specific brain injury mechanisms. Linear and rotational head acceleration are input conditions during an impact. Both direct and inertial (i.e. whiplash) loading of the head result in linear and rotational head acceleration. Head acceleration induces strain patterns in brain tissue, which may cause injury. There is significant controversy regarding what biomechanical information is required to predict the likelihood and severity of MTBI. Direct measurement of brain dynamics during impact is extremely difficult in humans.
Head acceleration, on the other hand, can be more readily measured; its relationship to severe brain injury has been postulated and tested for more than 50 years. Both linear and rotational acceleration of the head play an important role in producing diffuse injuries to the brain. The relative contributions of these accelerations to specific injury mechanisms have not been conclusively established. The numerous mechanisms theorized to result in brain injury have been evaluated in cadaveric and animal models, surrogate models, and computer models. Prospective clinical studies combining head impact biomechanics and clinical outcomes have been strongly urged. Validation of the various hypotheses and models linking tissue and cellular level parameters with MTBI in sports requires field data that directly correlates specific kinematic inputs with post-impact trauma in humans.
In the prior art, conventional devices have employed testing approaches which do not relate to devices which can be worn by living human beings, such as the use of dummies. When studying impact with dummies, they are typically secured to sleds with a known acceleration and impact velocity. The dummy head then impacts with a target, and the accelerations experienced by the head are recorded. Impact studies using cadavers are performed for determining the impact forces and pressures which cause skull fractures and catastrophic brain injury.
There is a critical lack of information about what motions and impact forces lead to MTBI in sports. Previous research on football helmet impacts in actual game situations yielded helmet impact magnitudes as high as 530 G's for a duration of 60 msec and >1000 G's for unknown durations with no known MTBI. Accelerometers were held firmly to the head via the suspension mechanism in the helmet and with Velcro straps. A recent study found maximum helmet accelerations of 120 G's and 150 G's in a football player and hockey player, respectively. The disparity in maximum values among these limited data sets demonstrates the need for additional large-scale data collection.
Most prior art attempts relate to testing in a lab environment. However, the playing field is a more appropriate testing environment for accumulating data regarding impact to the head. A limitation of the prior art involves practical application and widespread use of measurement technologies that are size and cost effective for individuals and teams. Therefore, there would be significant advantage to outfitting an entire playing team with a recording system for monitoring impact activities. This would assist in accumulating data of all impacts to the head, independent of severity level, to study the overall profile of head impacts for a given sport. Also, full-time head acceleration monitoring would also be of great assistance in understanding a particular impact or sequence of impacts to a player's head over time that may have caused an injury and to better treat that injury medically.
The present invention is provided to solve the problems discussed above and other problems, and to provide advantages and aspects not provided by prior systems of this type. A full discussion of the features and advantages of the present invention is deferred to the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System for monitoring a physiological parameter of players engaged in a sporting activity


There is provided a filter for filtering electromagnetic radiation, wherein said filter is arranged to transmit electromagnetic radiation of a first predetermined wavelength and to block transmission of electromagnetic radiation of a second, different predetermined wavelength; said filter comprising a first metamaterial. Optionally, the metamaterial may be formed of a plurality of material elements wherein each material element is at least one-dimensional and the size of the material element along each dimension is no greater than the size of the second predetermined wavelength. The filter comprises a second metamaterial arranged to provide second filtering of electromagnetic radiation.

Electromagnetic radiation filters are well known and have many practical uses. One such use is in filtering laser light in order to protect individuals from its effects. As is well known, when the eye is exposed to laser light, significant damage can occur. This is mainly due to the absorption of incoming photons and the heating of the living eye tissue. The potential damage depends on the intensity of the laser, that is the energy per second from the laser impacting on a given surface area, and the duration of the exposure. Two known types of laser are continuous wave (CW) and pulsed lasers. CW lasers are classified based on their power output whereas pulsed lasers are classified based on their total energy per pulse.
Protection from laser light has become increasingly important in everyday practical situations due to the proliferation of cheaper and more powerful laser systems. Certain laser products have in recent years become cheap to manufacture and thus commercially readily available. These products include so-called "laser pens" or "laser light pointers". In the UK there are regulations in place such that it is only allowable to manufacture and sell laser light pointers having a power of up to 5 milliWatts (mW). However these regulations are not consistent worldwide and it is possible in some countries to purchase cheaply a 1 Watt laser light pointer which has an effective area of up to four times the effective area of the most powerful laser light pointer available in the UK, and which can cause cornea damage to the human eye from as much as three miles away. Unfortunately there has been an increase in incidents of laser light pointers being deliberately pointed at vehicle drivers and also at aircraft whilst in flight. These incidents have potentially extremely serious safety consequences. Although laser light pointers do not have the ability to damage or destroy most vehicles or aircraft, they can and often do interfere with the ability of the driver, pilot or crew to maintain sufficient visual contact with the road, flight path or runway.
The potential safety consequences are particularly grave when a laser light pointer is directed at an aircraft during take off or landing.
Aircraft need to be at a relatively low altitude in order to be affected by the use of laser pointers on the ground. For this reason aircraft are most vulnerable during the approach phase of landing. During this phase an aircraft will typically be flying at around 6,000 feet and be lined up with the runway descending at a relatively steady rate of around 700 feet per minute. This makes the aircraft an object easy to aim at with a laser pointer. At the same time the crew onboard the aircraft will be increasingly focused on external cues outside the aircraft which allow the crew to control the speed, rate of descend and heading of the aircraft towards a successful landing on the runway. This makes the crew more prone to being affected by a laser beam pointer and potentially even to receive serious cyc injuries. This is certainly the case when the crew is conducting a "visual landing" or a "non-precision landing". During both such landing phases the flight crew navigate using primarily external cues to complete the approach and landing.
If a laser light is pointed at the crew at any stage of the approach phase the crew might be injured, lose momentarily sight of the runway or decide that a safe interference-free landing is not possible. This may lead to a "go-around" or "abort" in order to avoid an event which may significantly endanger the aircraft and the safety of those onboard. The go-around and its related procedures may lead to increased work load for flight crew and Air Traffic Control, which in turn may introduce other threats to safety. In busy airports such as those found in Europe, a go-around procedure might result in a high workload and relatively hazardous situation.
Pointing portable lasers at aircraft can also have an impact on the efficiency and cost of airline operations. A go-around involves the aircraft spooling the engines to a thrust setting of a take-off while climbing and then returning to the initial approach point to attempt another landing, all of which may last anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes. During such a manoeuvre, a 747-400 aircraft might burn up to 4 tonnes of additional fuel which at current prices may amount to around 6,000 USD. Other factors such as missed passenger connections and aircraft utilisation may make a go-around even more expensive.
There are many safety regulations and systems already in place for aircraft. Unfortunately some systems and procedures introduced to improve safety may actually increase the potential severity of laser pointers being aimed at aircraft. For example the use of Head-Up-Display systems (HUD), an expensive technology once used only in military aircraft, is finding its way increasingly into everyday commercial aircraft operations. The system is comprised of a glass in front of the pilot on which flight parameters and the position of the aircraft in relation to the runway are displayed. This system allows the flight crew to observe external cues as well as the aircraft attitude and speed (among other parameters) without having to look down to the instrument panel. This results in flight crew looking towards and out of the windshield throughout the approach and landing phase. Thus any laser point device aimed at the aircraft windshield will in all probability result in adverse effects to the crew.
There are numerous known solutions for filtering out laser light to protect user safety. For example Laser Protection Systems (LPS) are routinely used in laboratories around the world. They typically come in the form of goggles, eye-shields or contact lenses which are worn by the person susceptible to the laser radiation. They also come in the form of windows, which are placed around the laser location to protect the surroundings. These filters are usually built using polymers for low intensity lasers or glass for high heat densities.
There are several disadvantages associated with currently available LPS. They usually operate over a single band of light, providing protection from a single type of laser only. Additionally they are not sufficiently narrowband, thus they block more light than necessary and so distort the user's overall vision. LPSs are also usually tinted, artificially colouring the field of view. They therefore cannot always be used—for example, it is unsafe for an airline pilot to wear red goggles while flying an aircraft at night. And glass-based filters are heavy and cannot be comfortably worn by people.
No known system can provide filtration of electromagnetic radiation which is sufficiently accurate and focused for many practical purposes without distorting the propagation of electromagnetic radiation at other wavelengths that the user does not wish to filter. Furthermore many existing filters are impractical and/or too expensive for widespread use.
Aspects of an invention are set out in the appended independent claims.
There is provided a filter for selectively filtering electromagnetic radiation. The filter comprises a first metamaterial and a second metamaterial. Each metamaterial comprises a plurality of structural features having a size less than a predetermined wavelength. Electromagnetic radiation at the predetermined wavelength is blocked by the metamaterial owing to the carefully chosen structural features. The structural feature may be a thickness of a dielectric layer. The metamaterial may comprise a plurality of material elements and the structural feature may be the size of the material elements. The material elements may comprise any of: a metallic shape, a photonic crystal, a polymer material element or a liquid crystal. The metamaterials may comprise a nanostructured material, made from nanoscale material elements. The filter may provide optical transparency at all frequencies except at the selected frequency or frequencies which it is configured to block. Therefore it does not distort user vision except at the frequencies that have been deliberately blocked, for example particular laser frequencies that could cause harm to the user. The filter may block a single narrow frequency band or it may block a plurality of distinct narrow frequency bands. By combining metamaterials. the filter may block a selected frequency or selected frequencies of radiation over a range of angles.


A hybrid vehicle intermittently operates and stops an engine, travels through control over torque generated by the engine and torque generated by a second motor generator, causes a fuel vapor gas purge system to carry out purging of fuel vapor gas when a predetermined condition, including a condition that a coolant temperature is higher than or equal to a permissible temperature, is satisfied, and sets the permissible temperature to a value lower when a specific driving operation state that includes a state where the number of times of accelerator operation per unit time is higher than or equal to a threshold has been detected than when the specific driving operation state has not been detected. When the specific driving operation state has been detected, the hybrid vehicle increases the updating rate of a concentration learned value of fuel vapor gas, and decreases the rate of increase in target purge rate.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a hybrid vehicle that includes an internal combustion engine and an electric motor as drive sources and that includes a fuel vapor gas purge system for purging fuel vapor produced inside a fuel tank, and a control method for the hybrid vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
One of hybrid vehicles is able to travel with only the power of an electric motor while the operation of an internal combustion engine is stopped (hereinafter, referred to as "electric travel") and to travel with both the power of the internal combustion engine and the power of the electric motor (hereinafter, referred to as "hybrid travel").
More specifically, the hybrid vehicle starts hybrid travel by starting the engine when a vehicle required power that varies with an accelerator operation amount and a vehicle speed becomes larger than or equal to a start power threshold, and performs electric travel by stopping the operation of the engine when the vehicle required power becomes smaller than or equal to a stop power threshold during hybrid travel. That is, the hybrid vehicle operates the engine when the engine can be efficiently operated and/or when sufficient vehicle driving force is not obtained from only the electric motor, and stops the operation of the engine when the engine cannot be efficiently operated and/or when sufficient vehicle driving force is obtained from only the electric motor (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-9668 (JP 2006-9668 A)). In this way, the hybrid vehicle intermittently operates the engine. That is, the hybrid vehicle executes intermittent operation of the engine.
On the other hand, the hybrid vehicle includes a chargeable electrical storage device (for example, battery) that is able to supply electric power to the electric motor. Furthermore, in recent years, there has been developed a hybrid vehicle that allows the electrical storage device to be charged with electric power that is supplied from the outside of the vehicle (so-called plug-in hybrid vehicle). Hereinafter, charging the electrical storage device with electric power that is supplied from the outside of the vehicle is also referred to as "external charging".
When external charging is performed, the electrical storage device is mostly placed in a state close to a full charge state, so the remaining level of the electrical storage device is high. Therefore, the hybrid vehicle travels in an EV mode (CD mode) in which electric travel is given a higher priority than hybrid travel until the remaining level of the electrical storage device decreases to a mode change threshold after external charging. After that, when the remaining level of the electrical storage device becomes lower than or equal to the mode change threshold, the hybrid vehicle travels in an HV mode (CS mode).
For example, in the EV mode, the start power threshold and the stop power threshold are respectively set so as to be higher than the start power threshold and the stop power threshold in the HV mode. Thus, when the hybrid vehicle travels in the EV mode, a state where the engine is not operated frequently occurs.
On the other hand, the internal combustion engine mounted on the hybrid vehicle, as well as an internal combustion engine mounted on an ordinary vehicle, includes a fuel vapor gas purge system that introduces fuel vapor, produced inside a fuel tank, into an intake passage of the internal combustion engine (that is, the fuel vapor gas purge system purges fuel vapor gas). Fuel vapor gas is purged when the load of the engine is stable, and purging of fuel vapor gas is stopped when a variation in the load is large.
When fuel cut control is ended by changing the accelerator operation amount from zero to non-zero and fuel vapor gas starts to be purged immediately after the end of fuel cut control, the air-fuel ratio of air-fuel mixture that is supplied to the engine significantly fluctuates. In one related art, fuel vapor gas starts to be purged after a lapse of a predetermined period of time from an end of fuel cut control. Furthermore, in the related art, when a predetermined operation state in which fuel cut control is frequently executed through a frequent change of the accelerator operation amount has been detected, the period of time from the end of fuel cut control to the start of purging fuel vapor gas is shortened as compared with that in an ordinary operation state. Because the accelerator operation amount is frequently changed in the predetermined operation state, even when the air-fuel ratio slightly fluctuates due to an early start of purging fuel vapor gas, it is less likely that a driver feels torque fluctuations. As a result, according to the related art, it is possible to reliably purge fuel vapor gas while not making the driver experience torque fluctuations.
Incidentally, there is a driver who drives a vehicle while frequently changing the accelerator operation amount although the driver does not intend to change the vehicle speed by a large amount. That is, although such a driver does not intend to change the vehicle speed by a large amount, the driver frequently changes the accelerator operation amount from zero to non-zero or from non-zero to zero. Such a driving operation is also referred to as "aggressive driving operation (specific driving operation) or aggressive accelerator operation". When aggressive driving operation is performed, a variation in the load of the engine increases, so purging of fuel vapor gas is frequently stopped. In addition, as described above, in the hybrid vehicle, the operation of the engine is frequently stopped through intermittent operation, so the hybrid vehicle has a smaller number of opportunities to purge fuel vapor gas than the ordinary vehicle that includes only the internal combustion engine as the drive source. From above, when aggressive driving operation is performed in the hybrid vehicle, the amount of purged fuel vapor gas may be insufficient.

Hybrid vehicle and control method for hybrid vehicle


The invention is directed to polypeptides having pectate lyase (pectinase) activity, polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides, and methods for making and using these polynucleotides and polypeptides. The polypeptides of the invention can be used as pectate lyases to catalyze the beta-elimination or hydrolysis of pectin and/or polygalacturonic acid, such as 1,4-linked alpha-D-galacturonic acid. The invention provides methods of treating fibers, fabrics or any pectate- or polygalacturonic acid-comprising material using one or more pectate lyases of the invention.

Cotton fiber consists of a primary and a secondary cell wall. The secondary cell wall is practically pure cellulose, whereas the primary cell wall is a complex lattice of pectin, protein, waxes, pigments, hemicellulose and cellulose. In textile scouring of cellulosic material (e.g. knitted or woven cotton fabric) alkaline conditions (up to 10% NaOH) and high temperatures (up to 100° C.) are needed for effective removal of primary cell wall components. This harsh chemical treatment results in raw material losses and in substantial environmental burden. There are several different enzymes that have the ability to degrade pectin; these are the pectinases, pectin methylesterases, pectin lyases and pectate lyases.
"Size" is the name given to the substance or mixture of substances that is applied to the warp thread before weaving. The size forms a coating around the surface of the thread before weaving. This coating provides the lubrication and prevents the breakage of warp thread during the weaving operation. Some common chemicals used to prepare sizes are Polyacrylic Acid (PA), Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA), Starch, and Modified Starch. Cellulosic fibers including cotton, rayon and blend of these with synthetic fibers such as polyester, is usually sized with starch-based sizes. Desizing process removes the size before dyeing, printing and/or finishing. Starch sizes can be removed by hot acid wash, which will hydrolyze starch. However, acid hydrolysis results in loss of raw material since cellulose is also prone to acid hydrolysis. Starch sizes can also be removed by using hydrogen peroxide to degrade starch by oxidation. Desizing can also be an enzymatic process. Amylases have been used for many years in textile industry for removal of starch sizes. Conditions (e.g., pH and temperature) for enzymatic desizing are dictated by the operating conditions of the enzyme. Most amylases used in the application are relatively thermostable, however, they are neutral or acidic optimum enzymes.
"Scouring" is a process in which desized cotton fabric is processed to solubilize and extract undesired non-cellulosic material naturally found in cotton and also to remove applied impurities such as machinery lubricants. Scouring uses highly alkaline chemicals to remove the non-cellulosic material, which has a serious environmental impact. Additionally, the chemicals partially degrade the cellulose in the cotton fiber which causes a loss of fiber strength and raw materials and as such is a non-optimal process. The final step in the cotton fabric pretreatment process is bleaching in which the natural pigments and matter present in the fiber are bleached. A thermostable alkaline pectinolytic enzyme that could target specifically the non-cellulosic material could reduce or eliminate the use of harsh chemicals lessening the burden on the environment while maintaining the integrity and strength of the cotton fiber.

Pectate lyases, nucleic acids encoding them and methods for making and using them


To ensure the data corresponding to transactions has not been altered, a method and system are provided for generating secure endorsed transactions having transaction data representative of transactions and unique identifiers corresponding to parties endorsing the transactions. After receiving input, including transaction data and unique identifiers, unique codes are generated from the transaction data and unique identifiers. The unique codes constittue secure endorsements of the transaction data by the parties corresponding to the unique identifiers.

A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to point of sale equipment and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for generating secure endorsed transactions. The invention facilitates the generation of secure endorsed transactions by combining data representative of a transaction with a unique human identifier representative of the human that endorsed the transaction, such as a biometric, in a way that neither the transaction data nor the human identifier can be altered without detection.
B. Description of the Related Art
The credit card has become one of the primary methods of paying for goods and services throughout the world. People use credits cards every day to pay for a wide variety of goods and services, such as: food at a grocery store, clothes at a department store, gas at a gasoline station, airline tickets at a travel agent, automobiles at a car dealer, etc. Because of the nature of credit cards they have also become a primary means for transacting business over the Internet, another source of goods and services.
In order for a credit card transaction to be processed, a merchant must collect a variety of data associated with the transaction. This data typically includes the purchase price and date of the transaction, the account number and expiration date of the credit card, and the cardholder's name. The merchant may also collect the cardholder's signature, although it is generally not considered a part of the transaction data.
Once the transaction data is collected, the merchant transmits it, along with data identifying the merchant, to a credit card transaction processor. The credit card processor sorts the data according to the company that issued the credit card, and forwards the data to the appropriate company. At that point, the credit card issuer posts the transaction to the cardholder's account and the purchase amount is credited to the merchant.
In the past, credit card transaction data was recorded, transferred, and stored in the form of paper receipts. Over the years, the credit card industry has developed equipment that provides for the electronic acquisition, transmission, and storage of transaction data. This equipment, which is sometimes referred to a point of sale (POS) equipment, usually includes electronic terminals that read the account number and expiration date from a magnetic stripe on the credit card and transmit the transaction data to the credit card processor. In addition to reducing the industry's reliance on paper records, this equipment expedites the processing of credit card transactions and minimizes errors associated with the entry of transaction data.
Despite these advances, the typical credit card transaction still relies primarily on paper. For example, a cardholder presents a credit card to a merchant, who records transaction data using an electronic terminal. The recorded data includes the amount of the purchase, the cardholder's account number, the card's expiration date, the merchant identification number, and the date of the transaction. Once the terminal accumulates the transaction data, the terminal automatically dials the merchant's credit card processor or other authorization source and initiates an authorization request. When the transaction is authorized, the terminal displays and/or stores the approval code or authorization indicia received from the credit card processor. The approval code is recorded along with the other transaction data. The POS equipment typically includes a printer that is capable of printing a sales receipt. The sales receipt includes the transaction data and approval code, and provides a space for the cardholder's signature.
These prior art devices allow numeric data, such as purchase price, date, account number, and merchant identification number to be easily accumulated, stored, and transmitted between the merchant and credit card processor. Consequently, numeric transaction data may be transferred and stored without the use of paper receipts. Although this numeric data is sufficient to process the transaction, it is generally regarded as insufficient to validate or authenticate a transaction that is disputed by the cardholder. In the event a cardholder questions or denies the legitimacy of a transaction that appears on his or her credit card statement, it may be necessary for the merchant to produce a copy of the signed receipt as evidence that the cardholder was a party to the transaction. The signed receipt contains all of the necessary transaction data (date, time, store identification, sale items, prices, taxes, and signature) to verify the transaction. Therefore, it is necessary that a copy of each signed receipt be retained by the merchant for some period of time.
The storage and retrieval of signed receipts is costly, in terms of space, resource, and labor. Since the receipts must be stored for a long period of time, it is not uncommon for merchants to have a centralized storage area that encompasses tens of thousands of square footage of file cabinets containing the paper slips. Many merchants elect to convert the paper to microfiche and pay fees for shipping, conversion and storage. There is cost associated with the paper itself, as well as postage in sending the paper slips from the retail stores to the centralized storage location. Labor costs occur all throughout the handling process, from the shipment of the paper to the storage and retrieval of the paper. It is also not uncommon for a large merchant to staff 20 or more full-time employees whose sole function is to retrieve the paper slips to settle customer disputes.
Beyond the storage and retrieval of the receipts, lies a cost associated with the failure to locate them when necessary. Failure to locate a receipt is not uncommon because of the inherent difficulties of storing large quantities of paper, (especially in retail because the physical size of the paper is small) and the fact that there is typically a time frame associated with retrieving the paper. When working with credit card issuers, the time frame can be as short as 48 hours. This means that if the receipt is not located in 48 hours, then the receipt is considered either lost or was never in existence. In either case, the merchant will lose the amount of the sale that is sometimes referred to as a charge back.
This process of retaining and retrieving signed receipts is made easier if the merchant employs POS equipment that allows the cardholder's signature to be digitized, transmitted, and stored along with the numeric data associated with the transaction. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,448,044. In such cases, the signature is digitized the cardholder signs the credit card receipt. The digitized signature data and numeric transaction data are combined and transmitted to the credit card processor, where the data is stored for a predetermined period of time. If a cardholder disputes the validity of a transaction, the entirety of the transaction data, including a facsimile of the signature, may be provided by the credit card processor, and may serve as evidence of the legitimacy of the transaction. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,210 for a "Data card terminal with embossed character reader and signature capture."
While the combination of digitized signature data and numeric transaction data provides evidence of the legitimacy of the transaction when a dispute arises, it is not tamper resistant. Specifically, conventional systems that provide a combined digitized signature data and transaction data fail to address the problems associated with security of the combined data. For example, the digitized signature data associated with the transaction data for one transaction may be misappropriated and assigned to the transaction data for a different transaction. Similarly, transaction data itself may be modified or altered, thereby corrupting the data and making it, as well as the associated digitized signature data, unreliable.

Methods and apparatus for generating secure endorsed transactions


A gradient of gravity is defined by a change in the optical path length required to maintain equality in optical path lengths of two beam arms which direct light beams to impinge upon and reflect from two freefalling test masses.

Gravity is the force of inherent natural attraction between two massive bodies. The magnitude of the gravitational force is directly related to the mass of the bodies and is inversely related to the square of the distance between centers of mass of the two attracted bodies.
Gravity is measured as acceleration, g, usually as a vertical vector component. The freefall acceleration, g, of an object near the surface of the earth is given to a first approximation by the gravitational attraction of a point with the mass of the entire earth, Me, located at the center of the earth, a distance, Re, from the surface of the earth. This nominal gravity value, g=G×Me/Re2, is about 9.8 m/s2. Thus, the freefall acceleration due to gravity near the earth's surface of an object having a small mass compared to the mass of the earth is about 9.8 m/s2. An instrument used to measure gravity is called a "gravimeter."
The most accurate gravimeters are interferometric absolute gravimeters. The typical interferometric absolute gravimeter uses a freely falling test mass and a laser or single-frequency light beam which reflects from the freefalling test mass. The path length of the reflected beam changes as the test mass tree falls. The reflected light beam is combined with a reference light beam to develop interference fringes. Interference fringes are instances where the amplitude or intensity of the reflected and reference light beams add together to create increased intensity, separated by instances where the two beams cancel or create diminished intensity. Since the freefall movement of the test mass is established by gravity, the occurrence and timing of the resulting interference fringes defines the characteristic of gravity. The use of optical fringe interferometry to measure gravity characteristics is well-known and is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,351,122.
Fringes occur on a periodic basis depending upon the change in the optical path length of the reflected beam relative to the optical path length of the reference beam. One fringe occurs whenever the optical path difference between the reflected and reference beams changes by the wavelength of the light of the two beams. Movement of the test mass typically changes the beam path length by twice the amount of its physical movement because the physical movement changes both the entry path and exit path of the reflected beam path. In this circumstance, a fringe typically occurs when the object moves by one-half of a wavelength.
A gradient of gravity is the rate at which gravity changes in a certain direction and over a certain distance. A gravity gradient is therefore the change or first derivative of the gravity over distance. An instrument used to measure a gradient of gravity is called a "gradiometer."
Near-field variations or gradients in gravity are caused by localized variations in the mass or density of at least one of the two attracted bodies. For example, gravity gradients are used to establish the location of underground geological structures, such as a pool of liquid petroleum encased within an earth formation, narrow seams or "tubes" of high density geological materials such as diamonds or cobalt, or voids in a geographical formation caused by a tunnel or cavern. These changes in the subterranean material density are most measurable within a relatively short near-field distance, typically within a few hundred meters.
Subsurface density anomalies, for example from valuable nearby high density ore bodies or voids caused by tunnels or areas of low density material, affect the local value of gravity, g, at a level of about 1 part per million ( 1/106), and in some cases 1 part per billion ( 1/109). The large background of the earth's gravity requires that any direct gravity measurement to detect such subsurface anomalies have a very large dynamic range of parts per billion, otherwise direct gravity measurements will not be useful for locating and detecting such subsurface density anomalies. It is difficult to make gravimeters with such levels of extremely high precision. On the other hand, gradiometers cancel the large effect of the earth's gravity while preserving the ability to detect variations in nearby density anomalies. A gradiometer can have 3×105 times less precision than a gravimeter and still be used effectively to detect or locate nearby mass or density anomalies.
From a logical standpoint, the measurement of a gravity gradient (γ) is obtained by measuring the gravity values (g) at the different locations, subtracting the gravity measurements, and dividing the result by the distance (d) between the locations, i.e. γ=(g2−g1)/z. This quantity is referred to mathematically as the spatial derivative of gravity in the vertical direction. From a practical standpoint, this approach requires a relatively complex mathematical interferometric analysis of the fringes to obtain the gravity values at each location.
Another approach, also from a logical standpoint, is to interferometrically combine the light beam from one gravity measurement with the light beam from the other gravity measurement to create fringes. The number of fringes represents the gradient or differential in gravity. The practical difficulty with this approach is that the difference in the number of fringes is typically in the neighborhood of no more than one fringe, when the test masses move over a distance which can be accommodated by a reasonably sized commercial product. Obtaining an accurate value of the gravity gradient when that value is represented by a single fringe or less than one fringe is very difficult or impossible. The extent of mathematical processing required is extensive and complex, and the accuracy is compromised.
One approach to creating more than one fringe when measuring the gradient of gravity, is to impart a velocity difference between the two freefalling test masses. The test mass with the higher velocity will move a greater distance during freefall than the test mass with the lesser velocity, causing the reflected light beam to traverse a longer beam path. Because the number of fringes generated is related to the difference in the path lengths of the beams, the greater relative difference in the distance of test mass movement results in more fringes. The greater number of fringes makes the interferometric calculation more reliable and accurate, but nevertheless adds complexity to the mathematical calculations.
The size of the gradiometer instrument required to impart an initial velocity difference between the two freefalling test masses is increased, because of the necessity to accommodate the greater freefall distance of the faster moving test mass. Furthermore, the equipment required to impart the initial velocity difference is more complex, as our the requirements for determining when both test masses commence simultaneous freefall. These practical operational requirements, plus the added complexity in interferometric analysis and calculation, adds to the complexity of previous interferometric gradiometers.

Gradiometer and method of changing an optical path length to directly obtain a value of a gradient of gravity


The querying application of the present invention provides method and apparatus to find related queries having the greatest-valued and/or least-valued results. Elements (or inputs) of the related queries overlap with the elements of the user query. Preferably, the querying application of the present invention enables the user to trace other queries having the greatest-valued and/or least-valued results that overlap other elements of the user query. In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the querying application of the present invention provides method and apparatus to find non-related queries having the greatest-valued and/or least-valued results.

We live in an age of data. It pervades the lives of ordinary men and women—both at home and at work. The question arises: How should these people cope with this data explosion? The average person does not have a Ph.D. in statistics or any other data-analytic discipline. Yet, it is quite evident that such a person must be able to cope with the data explosion. For instance, is the day far off when employers will expect that their security guards be able to find patterns of break-ins in security logs?
The computer software industry has made progress in addressing the needs of non-technical users who must interact with data. Today, it is quite simple for even an inexperienced programmer to put together a user-friendly querying application for a new domain—be it banking, insurance, sports, entertainment or other domain—by making use of well-known tools and methodologies.
By way of illustrating those tools and methodologies, we show how easy it is to put together a querying application suitable for corporate security purposes. The application must provide a security guard with the means to ask questions about the incidents recorded in the on-line security log of a corporation. A logical model of the security log is generated by treating the log as a collection of incidents and by specifying attributes to describe those incidents. Typical attributes and their values for the security log application may include: type-of-incident, having values such as theft, assault, break-in, attempted-break-in, etc.; gravity-of-incident, having values such as minor, serious, etc.; location-of-incident, having values such as corporate-headquarters, region-x-headquarters, manufacturing-plant-a, etc.; shift-discovered, having values such as day, night, etc.; shift-occurred, having values such as day, night, unknown, etc.; year, having values such as 1998, 1997, etc.; quarter, having values such as first, second, third, or fourth; date-occurred, date-discovered, time-occurred, time-discovered, with sets of corresponding values such as 3/4/98 or 2300 hours, and so on.
After logically modeling the security log space, the next step is to define the actual computations that will be utilized by the querying application. Computations for the security log application may include: counting the number-of-incidents, determining the change-in-the-number of incidents in a year selected by the user (if the user does not select a year, the present year will be used) as compared with the previous year, determining the average-time-elapsed between the time of occurrence and the time of discovery of an incident, etc.
What makes it easy for even a novice programmer to produce such an application is that the programmer can use off-the-shelf systems. For instance, a relational database can be used to represent the logical model of the security log data. The programmer can create a table of incidents, the rows of the table representing specific incidents, and the columns of the table representing the attributes used to describe those incidents. A specific location in the table contains the value of the attribute which describes the incident.
It is also standard for such a database to include tools to define the computations to be executed on the table of incidents and to create a graphical user interface (GUI) to interact with the user. Simple computations such as sums, differences, averages, percentages, etc., may be easily generated and implemented using such tools. Consequently, the programmer can easily implement the computations required for the security log application.
The programmer can also use the tools to create a GUI that allows a user to ask questions about the security log data by selecting suitable values for the attributes and computations that are of interest. For instance, the interface can present the user with two lists, one for the attributes and one for the computations. The user can select one or more items in each of these lists. When the user selects an attribute, the user is presented with a further list of the possible values for that attribute. The user must-select at least one value for every attribute that is of interest to him.
The querying application allows even a non-technical user to ask questions about data without writing a single line of programming code. Instead, the user selects (i.e., points and clicks) items on a computer screen to obtain the desired information about the data. Those items have labels which correspond to physical events that the user is familiar with. For example, if the security guard wants to find out how many incidents have occurred in 1998 at the corporate headquarters during the night shift, the guard selects the computation number-of-incidents, and the values: night for the attribute shift-occurred, 1998 for the attribute year, and corporate-headquarters for the attribute location-of-incident (hereinafter referred to as the number-of-incident query).
After the user issues a query, the querying application computes a result for the present selection by processing the data in the security log. For the above example, the answer to the query will be an integer, such as 5, 10 or 151. It is appreciated that all computations supported by the security log querying application will output a number. For example, a positive integer for number-of-incidents, a positive or negative integer for change-in-the-number (of incidents in 1998 vs. 1997), and a real number for average-time-elapsed (between occurrence and discovery). Since the set of real numbers subsumes the set of integers, in general, we can say that computations in querying applications will map a string of attributes and their values to a real number.
Those skilled in the art will recognize that there are many methods of implementing the security log application that was described herein. For example, a user may have entered the values of the selected attributes instead of selecting the values from a list. However, the basic scheme—which is representative of the prior art in this field—remains unchanged.
The block diagram of the logical functioning of a querying application in accordance with the prior art is shown in FIG. 1. An input module 101 transmits a query 104 to a computation module 102. The computation module 102 executes the computations invoked by the query 104 and outputs the computation results 106 to an output module 103.
Those skilled in the art will understand the operation of the querying application in FIG. 1 from the workings of the security log querying application that was described earlier. The number-of-incident query example must be implemented by a stream of data that are logically partitioned into different fields. The query 104 may consist of two data fields, which contain information about the user's selections. One field specifies the set of attributes along with the values selected by the user for those attributes (hereinafter referred to as the attribute field), and the other field specifies the set of computations that will be presented with the selected values to the computation module 102 and executed to produce results. The contents of the attribute field may be further partitioned into sub-fields that correspond to the individual attributes selected by the user. The content of such a sub-field is the value selected for the corresponding attribute. In other words, the query 104 is a stream of bits that is partitioned logically into fields and sub-fields to identify the user's selections.
The input module 101 is primarily a number of computer storage locations, e.g., computer memory, disk storage, tape storage, etc., that are logically partitioned to capture the fields and sub-fields of the query 104, thus making it possible for it to receive and store the different selections of the user as well as to transmit the query 104 to the computation module 102 in a manner which preserves that differentiation. Similarly, the output module 103 is also primarily a number of computer storage locations that are logically partitioned into fields corresponding to the different computations that are supported by the querying application. The results of the computations invoked by the query 104 are stored in the appropriate fields.
Those skilled in the art understand that a variety of computations are used in querying applications. For example, the security log application employed three computations: a count of incidents (number-of-incidents), a difference between two counts (change-in-the-number), and the average value of a difference between two time intervals (average-time-elapsed). Other commonly used computations producing numeric results may include percentages, products (obtained by the multiplication of two or more numbers), etc.
Hence, for the purpose of capturing the prior art in FIG. 1, a computation is defined to be a computer implementation of a mathematical function that maps an n-tuple of attribute-value pairs, referred to as an attribute-valued string, to a real number, referred to as a computation result, where n is the number of attributes in the querying application. Thus, the number-of-incidents query has the attribute-value string shift-occurred=night, year=1998, location-of-incident=corporate-headquarters. The number-of-incidents computation maps that attribute-value-string to a number such as 5, 10 or 151.
Accordingly, the computation module 102 is a collection of a pre-specified number of computations (as defined above), each of which can be executed to produce a numeric result. Thus, the computation result 106 described in FIG. 1 is a stream of bits partitioned into fields that contain numeric results, a field for each computation in the set of computations.
There are some non-obvious issues that will be apparent to those skilled in the art. For example, the security guard did not specify a value for every attribute but only specified those attributes that the security guard was interested in. Although there was no value specified for the type-of-incident attribute, the number-of-incident query is still considered a well-defined query. The query requests that the number of incidents that occurred at night in 1998 at the corporate headquarters be computed. Those skilled in the art will recognize that there are several ways to handle such partial input. For example, a default value, namely, the "*" value, can be assigned to each attribute not specified by the user. Accordingly, the query 104 contains user-specified values in the data fields corresponding to the user-selected attributes and a "*" in the data fields corresponding to non-specified attributes. Alternatively, the query 104 may contain a special field that specifies the number of attribute-value pairs, so that the computation module 102 can interpret the query 104, even though only some of the attributes are specified. Logically, these two schemes are equivalent. It is appreciated that the "*" value implementation is used without any loss of generality.
The computation module 102 represents (or implements) a computation (using a computer program, a computer chip or some other comparable device) as a mathematical function, F: {v1, . . . , vk}→R, where k is an integer greater than or equal to 1; vi is either an element of the finite set of distinct values of an attribute, or vi is the default element *; 1<=i<=k; R is the set of real numbers.
Although it is straightforward for someone skilled in the art to create a query that can be used by a non-technical user, such as a security guard, such querying applications have a serious limitation, namely, they are limited by the user's imagination. For instance, if the security guard does not think about asking a specific question, the answer, no matter how interesting it may be, will lie hidden in the data. Furthermore, there is an argument to be made that the truly useful information in the data will lie only in such hidden patterns. After all, users would have already addressed situations that they were aware of. That is, if the security guard felt that a particular point of entry was vulnerable to a burglar, the security guard would have already taken preventive measures to counter such weakness. Consequently, the security logs would reflect the counter measures and querying the security log about the number of break-ins at that point of entry would likely return an answer of zero. Instead, it would be desirable to analyze the security logs to identify vulnerable points of entry that are unknown to the security guard.
Computer programs for such analysis do exist but historically the computer software industry has focused on the needs of the trained analyst with regard to finding such hidden patterns in data. There are numerous computer programs for this kind of user, who is skilled in the arts of computer programming and statistical analysis. Statistical packages allow such skilled user to produce a parametric model, e.g., a regression model, to predict when a theft might occur. Alternatively, such a skilled user can use a data mining program, e.g., a neural network, to produce a non-parametric model to predict when a theft might occur.
It is appreciated that such computer programs are beyond the reach of most users. Of late, there have been efforts to simplify these programs for the business analyst, who is usually someone with an MBA. While such users are not trained analysts, they have undergone a sophisticated schooling. While they may not know how to write a computer program for factor analysis, a program for analysis of influences, or a program that is a test for statistical significance, their schooling prepares them for how and when such programs, analyses and tests should be used. In other words, they are trained in the process of data analysis even if they are not prepared to write computer programs for data analysis.
But the average person does not possess an MBA. Such a person is truly a non-technical user with neither programming nor data analysis background. To the best of our knowledge, existing data mining programs are not suitable for use by such non-technical users barring the exception of programs such as IBM® Advanced Scout™ program that is used by coaches of the National Basketball Association (NBA™). The NBA™ coach does indeed fit the description of an average user. The principles that underlie the development of Advanced Scout™ suggest an approach to the development of data mining programs for non-technical users, specifically, the approach of using so-called general questions. Unlike the specific questions that were exemplified in the security log querying application, general questions do not require the user to specify all the circumstances of interest. Instead, it is the computer program that finds the circumstances of interest. For example, a general question may read "Under what conditions does Team 1 outscore Team 2"? Those conditions, which would include which player is playing what position on the court, which player is guarding whom, and so on, are left unspecified by the user. The computer program will find the conditions that are meaningful and call them to the attention of the user.
The problem with the above approach is that the developer of the data mining application must anticipate the general questions that the user is interested in, express and answer those questions in terms the user will understand, and finally, code that knowledge into the data mining application. This is only possible if the developer invests a lot of time in understanding a particular application of the data mining program. Consequently, this approach is costly and time consuming, as becomes evident if it is applied to the security log querying application discussed herein.
To add a capability of finding hidden patterns in the data to the hypothetical security log application, the programmer must understand what general questions are meaningful for the security guard and then develop a separate computer program to answer those meaningful questions. Perhaps even more troublesome, the user has to learn about two interfaces, one for the querying application and another for the data mining program. It would be desirable to avoid these extra steps.
It is therefore not surprising that computer software theorists and developers have lately begun to experiment with integrating querying applications and data mining programs. To the best of our knowledge, such integration has followed three approaches.
The first approach permits the users to link a querying application to a data mining application. A user asks questions in a querying application, and uses the knowledge of the answers to generate a subset of the data. The data mining program operates only on that subset of the data. Alternatively, a user reviews the results of a data mining program and generates a query based on the knowledge of that review. The user then employs the querying application to issue the query on the data. In the literature, those skilled in the art will appreciate that this type of linking is known as bundling of querying applications with data mining applications.
The second approach pre-computes data structures that are useful for certain querying applications and data mining applications. The common data structures provide a link between the querying application and the data mining application. Those skilled in the act will appreciate that this type of linking is known as On-line Analytical Mining (OLAM).
In the third approach, a user utilizes a querying application to ask questions about the result of a data mining program. Since the results of computations used in data mining programs are often numeric in nature and every result often refers to a specific selection of attributes, a querying application can be designed that allows a user to ask questions about those results. The difference between such a querying application for analysts and a typical querying application for non-technical users is that the former employs mathematically sophisticated computations, e.g., determining correlation between attributes, finding factors that influence an attribute, etc.
The above three approaches do not eliminate the extra step of having to learn about a new computer program, which is fundamentally distinct from the querying application, to find hidden patterns in the data. Nor do they address the intrinsic complexity of data mining programs.
Bundling a data mining program with a querying application simply packages two different programs together. Therefore, it does nothing to simplify the complex computations of the data mining program. Also, the user still must learn two interfaces, one for the querying application and one for the data mining program. In fact, the user may have to learn a third interface as well, which links the data mining program to the querying application.
Similarly, pre-computing and reusing data structures to support data mining computations which compute factors, influences or correlation does not simplify the mathematical primitives for the non-technical user. The non-technical user will still be expected to understand these statistical concepts.
Finally, designing a point-and-click interface to allow the user to ask questions about the results of data mining programs also does not simplify the mathematical primitives. The point-and-click applications simplify traditional querying applications such as the security-log querying application because the non-technical user does not have to write programming code to ask questions and the questions generally pertain to simple mathematical primitives such as sums, averages and percentages, that are simple and easy to relate to physical events that the non-technical user understands, e.g., number-of-incidents. If the mathematical primitives were complicated, such as correlation or influences, the point-and-click interfaces do not provide a mechanism to simplify that intrinsic complexity for the non-technical user.
Consequently, data mining programs even with point-and-click querying interfaces remain far too complex for non-technical users. It is not clear that such an interface is even desirable for analysts or sophisticated-business users. Such an approach does not guarantee that the user will become aware of all data mining results, since in a querying application the user must select all attributes of interest. This would defeat the whole purpose of having a data mining program to find hidden patterns in the data. Hence, it is more desirable to have a point-and-click interface to a data mining program that steps the user through all results as opposed to a querying application where the user makes the decision on what should be reviewed.
The above discussion will now be illustrated in the context of the security log querying application. The security log querying application must now find hidden patterns in the data as well as answer the security guard's questions. The above approaches suggest that the security log querying application must now support new, mathematically sophisticated queries too.
An example is a query to find the circumstances that correlated with large numbers of thefts or to determine the statistically significant factors in predicting a likelihood of theft. In keeping with the number-of-incident query format (computation=number-of-incidents, shift-occurred=night, year=1998, location-of-incident=corporate-headquarters) a new correlation query is defined as (computation=correlation, shift-occurred=night, year=1998). The output of the correlation query is a real number between 0 and 1 indicating the correlation between the incidents that occurred in 1998 and the incidents that occurred at night. But this approach has two drawbacks.
First, the correlation query is quite distinct from the original queries, since the correlation query involves a much more complex computation. In other words, the programmer has to implement a completely different computer program to support the new correlation computation, because such a complex computation is generally not provided (packaged) with traditional databases. Further, the user has to understand the interface to this new computer program.
Second, correlation is an abstract mathematical concept (as are the prediction of likelihood and determination of statistical significance). Unlike the simpler number-of-incidents computations, the security guard is no longer dealing with familiar concepts that he or she can immediately relate to physical events. In other words, the mathematical primitive used in this computation, namely, correlation, is not easy to explain to a non-technical user. It would be far more desirable if the security guard had to interpret only the simpler computations, which the security guard uses on a daily basis.

Method and apparatus for finding hidden patterns in the context of querying applications