Techniques for delivering advertisements and similar promotional messages to mobile users using USSD technology are disclosed. USSD provides session-based communication in which transactions occur only during a session. Advertisements may be delivered through USSD in several ways: by inserting a short text into a message in a mobile-initiated USSD session, by temporarily diverting a mobile-initiated USSD session toward an advertisement sub-session, by triggering a network-initiated USSD session the main purpose of which is the delivery of an advertisement, and by causing a mobile user to initiate a USSD session the main purpose of which is the delivery of an advertisement. Also disclosed is a process for inserting advertisements into USSD messages, a process for inserting advertisement sub-sessions into USSD sessions, and a process for delivering advertisements with network-initiated USSD sessions.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the field of messaging services in mobile telecommunications networks. More specifically, the present invention discloses techniques for delivering advertisements and similar promotional messages to users of mobile devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Mobile telecommunications are now extremely popular. There are now more than one billion GSM (Global System for Mobile) subscribers worldwide. Usage has evolved from a purely voice-oriented model to data communications, messaging (Short Messaging Service (SMS)), multimedia (Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)), and browsing (Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)).
From the point of view of advertisers, mobile devices are an attractive channel of communication. However, at the present time there are surprisingly few techniques for delivering advertisements to mobile users in a way that is cost-effective, unobtrusive, and compliant with regulations. The present invention provides such techniques.
Prior art advertising on mobile devices typically proceeds via SMS or WAP.
SMS marketing campaigns consist in sending massive amounts of short text messages to mobile users. In case a mobile user wishes to request more information or to accept a promotional offer, the short text messages typically contain instructions for calling a telephone number, replying with another SMS message, or accessing a WAP site.
Advertising on WAP services is very similar to advertising on the World Wide Web (WWW). Both textual and graphical marketing messages can be added to WAP pages. "Click-through" hyperlinks allow users to access further information.
Other methods of delivering advertisements to mobile devices include the following. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/907,629 by Blom discloses a method involving an advertisement broker who obtains advertisements from advertisers and provides those advertisements to mobile users. But an advertisement is only provided to mobile users whose positions lie within a location associated with that advertisement, and the advertisement is sent to mobile users via email, which may not be supported by some mobile devices. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/907,899 by Gledje discloses a method whereby a service provider delivers advertisements to mobile users who are located in zones associated with those advertisements, who satisfy various demographic criteria, and who have subscribed to an advertising service. But many countries have privacy regulations that forbid provision of such location and demographic information to service providers. Further, location- and subscriber-based approaches are not appropriate for some types of advertising.
Current advertising on mobile devices faces a number of problems. Among these are the following.                1. The screens of mobile devices are much smaller than those of computers. Consequently, large advertisements may appear obtrusive, and small advertisements may go unnoticed.        2. Due to the nature of wireless networks, delivering advertising content to mobile devices is costly, either to the advertiser, to the mobile operator, or to the mobile user. It is more expensive to send SMS messages than to send emails, and mobile users are typically billed for the volume of WAP data they receive, which includes advertisements.        3. Unlike television viewers and computer users, mobile device users tend to look at their mobile devices only when they need to perform a specific task, such as answering or initiating a voice call, receiving or sending a Short Message, or accessing a WAP service. Moreover, it is difficult to divert the attention of mobile device users when they are about to perform one of these tasks.        4. Advertisements are most useful if they provide a way for recipients to respond to promotional messages immediately and at no cost. In most networks, sending a SMS reply or accessing a WAP page achieves the former objective but not the latter.        5. Advertisers need statistics to measure the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns.        6. When an advertisement is inserted into an existing service, the provider of that service desires to receive compensation for providing advertising space to the advertiser.        7. Mobile device users generally consider advertising messages to be an annoyance. Consequently, mobile operators are reluctant to allow advertising on their networks, for fear of losing customers.        8. Advertising is most effective when it is carefully targeted. However, many countries have strict regulations regarding privacy. Consequently, advertisers cannot have access to all of the relevant information, such as the identities and locations of users.
Various embodiments of the present invention address several of these problems.

Method and apparatus for delivering advertisements to mobile users


In an electromagnetically driven valve control system, it is determined whether an electromagnetically driven valve is in an attraction period at which a valve body is displaced. When it is determined that the electromagnetically driven valve is in the attraction period, it is further determined whether the period is in a first attraction period at which the valve body is close to a neutral position. When it is determined that the valve body is in the first attraction period, the upper control frequency or the lower control frequency is set to the value indicating the low frequency. When it is determined that the valve body is in the second attraction period at which the valve body is close to either the full-open position or the full-close position, the upper control frequency or the lower control frequency is set to the value indicating the high frequency.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a control system for an electromagnetically driven valve provided in an internal combustion engine.
2. Description of Related Art
JP-A-11-62529 discloses the technology for adjusting control frequency of a switching element upon control of exciting current supplied to an electromagnetic coil. In the aforementioned publication, the control frequency of the switching element is set to a high frequency upon displacement of a movable member of the electromagnetically driven valve so as to reduce operation noise generated when the movable member reaches one of displacement ends. Meanwhile the control frequency of the switching element is set to a low frequency when the movable member is held in the displacement end so as to suppress an energy consumption and heat generation owing to switching loss as least as possible.
The displacement of the movable member does not always require setting of the control frequency of the switching element to the high value. In the aforementioned publication, however, as the control frequency of the switching element is always set to the high value upon displacement of the movable member, the energy consumption and heat generation owing to switching loss unnecessarily occur.

Electromagnetically driven valve control system and method


Hollow core or xe2x80x9choleyxe2x80x9d optical fibers are filled with a gas or liquid which exhibits high Raman gain. Such gases as hydrogen and hydrogen isotopes are preferred embodiment. When these fibers are pumped with a pump laser, signals at an appropriate frequency carried by the fiber may be amplified, attenuated, changed to a different frequency, or mixed with other signals.

The field of the invention is the field of optical communications and optical fiber transmission and control of light signals.
The field of fiber optic communications has exploded in the last thirty years with inventions which provide optical fibers with low loss over hundreds of kilometers, lasers which are reliable and long lived, and optical amplifiers which remove the need to convert optical signals to electrical signals for amplification and reconversion back to optical signals.
The most common types of optical amplifier are short lengths (1 to 10 meters) of optical fiber doped with ions (typically erbium) which provide gain for optical signals when pumped with a pump laser. The short length of amplifying fiber are spliced into the long length passive fibers which carry the optical signals for tens to hundreds of kilometers between amplification steps. Other optical amplifiers make use of the Raman gain in the silica of the optical fiber. There is no doping of amplifying ions into the silica, since the non-linear properties of the silica itself are used for the amplification.
One recent development of optical fibers is the development of holey fibers, where the fibers are produced with voids or holes filled with air. The holey fibers produce different dispersion characteristics in the optical fibers. References pertinent to the above prior art are: E. J. Woodbury and W. K. Ng, Proc. IRE 50, 2347 (1962); E. J. Woodbury and G. M. Eckhardt, U.S. Pat. No. 3,371,265 (Feb. 27, 1968); M. D. Levenson and S. S. Kano, xe2x80x9cIntroduction to Nonlinear Laser Spectroscopy, Revised Edition,xe2x80x9d Academic Press (San Diego 1988); Y. R. Shen, xe2x80x9cPrinciples of Nonlinear Optics,xe2x80x9d John Wiley and Sons (New York, 1984); G. P. Agrawal, xe2x80x9cNonlinear Fiber Optics,xe2x80x9d Academic Press (San Diego, 1989); A. M. Zheltikov, xe2x80x9cHoley Fibersxe2x80x9d, Physicsxe2x80x94Uspekhi 43, (11) 1125-1136 (2000), Hecht, J.,xe2x80x9cHoley fibers cut their lossesxe2x80x9d, Technology Review, Apr. 17, 2001; Kafka, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,779, and Islam, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,903. The above references and patents are hereby incorporated by reference, including incorporated material.
It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber control means to control optical signals. It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber control means to amplify optical signals. It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber control means to attenuate optical signals. It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber control means to control optical signals selectively, so that one or more optical signals of a large plurality of signals are controlled while others of the plurality are not controlled. It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber control means to control dispersion of optical signals. It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber control means to shift power from one optical signal to another optical signal. It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber control means to perform logical operations on two optical signals. It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber apparatus to control optical signals. It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber methods to control optical signals. It is an object of the invention to produce optical fiber systems to control optical signals.
The present invention is a system, apparatus and method of use of an optical fiber having voids in the cladding and/or core, wherein the voids are filled with a fluid having non-linear optical properties for the control of light signals. Non linear optical properties are anticipated to be Raman gain for amplifying or attenuating optical signals, and resonant and non-resonant non-linear index of refraction for 4 wave parametric generation, amplification, and control of optical signals.

Holey fibers filled with raman active fluid


A soft start bridge rectifier circuit is described for controlling the operation of the bridge rectifier in order to ramp up the DC output upon connection with the AC input in order to limit in-rush current. Additionally, short-circuit/overload protection, temporary line loss protection and undervoltage checking circuitry is provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a soft start bridge rectifier circuit which limits in-rush current and provides short-circuit/overload protection.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional bridge rectifier circuits are not well equipped to handle high start-up currents and short-circuits which stress circuit components such as fuses, bridge diodes and smoothing capacitors. Typically, for example, the occurrence of an output short circuit destroys a protection fuse between the power supply and the bridge rectifier, requiring replacement of the fuse. To limit the in-rush current at turn-on, conventional circuits include a thermistor or a relay in series with the output of the rectifier bridge. However, thermistor protection, although inexpensive, is suitable only for low-power applications. Relay protection, while more reliable and efficient than a thermistor, presents a significant cost premium, typically 50% to more than 100% of the bridge rectifier cost, and occupies a significant amount of space, usually more than the bridge rectifier itself.
Therefore, a need exists for a self-contained bridge rectifier circuit which can be provided in a module or package similar to that of a conventional bridge rectifier, but which also provides in-rush current protection on start-up and short-circuit protection during operation without a significant cost premium.


A method for operating an image capture device having a sensor with an array of first and second pixels includes capturing an image a plurality of times with the second pixels to produce a corresponding second image signal, the second pixels being white pixels, capturing the image a single time with the first pixels to produce a corresponding first image signal, inputting selecting signals to the sensor via a row driver to obtain the first and second image signals from the first and second pixels, respectively, and converting the first and second image signals to respective digital values via an analog-to-digital converter.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to an image capture device and a method of operating the same. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to an image capture device having white pixels and exhibiting improved image readability and a method of operating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, image capture devices, e.g., digital cameras, mobile phone cameras, and so forth, may include image sensing devices, e.g., a complimentary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor, a charge-coupled device (CCD), and so forth, capable of capturing images in a form of image data, e.g., green (G), blue (B), and/or red (R) pixels. For example, a conventional image capture device may include a CMOS image sensor (CIS) with a Bayer color filter array (CFA), so that each pixel thereof may have a corresponding color filter to generate a G, B, and/or R color. More specifically, each pixel in the conventional CIS may detect a predetermined wavelength of light, and may convert the detected light into a corresponding electrical signal. However, a color filter of each conventional pixel may detect only a single color, i.e., only one-third of light incident on each conventional color filter may be sensed by the corresponding pixel, thereby causing poor color sensitivity.
Attempts have been made to improve color sensitivity by using white (W) pixels instead of G pixels. However, W pixels may absorb about three times more light than R, G, and/or B pixels, thereby reaching saturation, i.e., their photoelectric capacity, about three times faster. Once the W pixels are saturated, additional light incident on the W pixels may not be detected and/or converted to corresponding digital signals, by, e.g., an analog-to-digital converter, thereby causing information loss and/or reduced image readability.

Image capture device and method of operating the same


This invention relates to an exercise machine having an exercise station that includes an exercise bench and one or more exercise implements for allowing a user to perform one or more exercises. An adjustable exercise mass assembly is oriented perpendicularly to the exercise station and includes a pivotal lever. An exercise mass is carried on the pivotal lever and is movable back and forth thereon towards and away from the pivot axis of the pivotal lever to adjust the exercise resistance provided by the exercise mass. The exercise mass preferably comprises at least one selectorized dumbbell. Portions of the dumbbell can be removed from the pivotal lever for use as a dumbbell while some of the weights of the selectorized dumbbell remain in place on the pivotal lever. This allows the mass provided by the selectorized dumbbell(s) to be simultaneously used by multiple users.

Weight training has traditionally been done using free weights. Free weights comprise a plurality of individual weights that can be loaded in various configurations onto the ends of a weight lifting bar. Each free weight has a central bore to allow the weight to be slipped onto the end of the bar. Free weights are usually circular in shape and are made in large quantities out of cast iron or the like.
Free weights are quite efficient in accommodating relatively large numbers of users. This is so because different users will usually not require the same amount of weight when exercising. While one user might need 200 pounds for a workout, the next user might only require 50 pounds, a third user 25 pounds, and so on. Thus, the individual users simply use the numbers of free weights that they require. The other free weights are available for use by other users.
However, free weights have some disadvantages. For one thing, to adjust the exercise mass, the user must add or subtract weight from the weight lifting bar. This can be time consuming and annoying when the user needs a different exercise mass for each different exercise. In such a case, after finishing one exercise, the user must stop and adjust the number of free weights carried by the bar before beginning the next exercise.
In addition, free weights or a weight lifting bar carrying such weights can be accidentally dropped by the user. This is particularly true if the user has loaded too much weight on the bar or is a relatively inexperienced weight lifter. This poses a safety risk. The user or a bystander can be injured if a bar or a free weight is dropped and strikes the user or the bystander.
As a consequence, various exercise machines have been developed that use a weight stack for providing the exercise mass. The weight stack typically comprises a vertical array of weights permanently carried on the machine in a location that poses no risk to the user. The top of the weight stack is coupled by a cable to some type of exercise implement carried on the machine, such as a lat pull down bar.
In such an exercise machine, the user adjusts the exercise mass by moving a selector pin to different vertical locations in the weight stack. This couples the weight which has been pinned and all the weights above the pinned weight to the exercise implement. Thus, when the user moves the exercise implement while performing an exercise, all of the selected weights in the weight stack are elevated to form the exercise mass. The remaining unselected weights in the lower unused portion of the weight stack simply remain stationary on the machine.
Exercise machines of this type can be single purpose machines for performing a single exercise or can be multiple purpose machines for performing multiple exercises. However, regardless of which machine is at issue, the weight stack must be quite large to allow the user to select a high exercise mass if that is what the user desires. Thus, if a user wishes to lift 200 pounds, each machine must have at least 200 pounds of weight in the weight stack even though many other users of the machine might never lift that much weight. Consequently, such exercise machines are relatively "wasteful" since they must necessarily provide a large amount of available weight even though much of this weight is never used at any given time by most users of the machine.
In addition, it is difficult to accommodate a large number of users using exercise machines alone. The number of machines determines the maximum number of users. In a system using just single purpose machines, if two users want to simultaneously use the same machine for doing the same exercise, one user must wait even though all the rest of the exercise machines might be idle. This problem can be avoided in a system in which each exercise machine is a multiple purpose machine, but each multiple purpose machine is somewhat more complex and expensive than a single purpose machine. In addition, if there are only 5 or 10 such machines in the system, then only 5 or 10 users can exercise simultaneously at one time.
Certain exercise machines have been developed that utilize a weight carried on a pivotal lever as the exercise mass. In such machines, the position of the weight can be adjusted along the lever to vary or adjust the exercise resistance provided by the exercise mass. Thus, this machine allows a greater variation in exercise resistance even though the exercise mass used on the lever might be relatively small. For example, a 25 pound weight can give more than 25 pounds of exercise resistance depending upon how far it is moved away from the pivot axis of the lever. The Paramount Direct Power machine is an example of this type of exercise machine.
However, with known pivotal lever machines, only a single user can use the machine at a given time. The slidable weight carried on the pivotal lever cannot be removed completely or in increments for use by other users. The slidable weight must remain on the exercise machine at all times.
The assignee of this invention previously made and sold an exercise machine known as the PowerBlock Gym. This machine had an exercise station at which the user could perform multiple exercises using different exercise implements. However, rather than using a conventional weight stack, the exercise mass was formed by a pair of the assignee's adjustable selectorized dumbbells known as PowerBlock dumbbells. These dumbbells were carried on a vertically sliding tray that moved up and down a rear upright of the machine.
One advantage of the PowerBlock Gym was that the selectorized dumbbells forming the exercise mass could be wholly or partially removed and used by other users even while a first user was using the Gym. For example, if one dumbbell were removed from the tray and used as a dumbbell, the second dumbbell could remain on the tray and be used as the exercise mass of the machine. Alternatively, both of the dumbbells could be partially loaded with weight and removed for use as dumbbells. The remaining unselected weights of each dumbbell, namely the weights that were not coupled to the handles of the dumbbells, would remain on the tray for use by a user of the PowerBlock Gym.
While the PowerBlock Gym theoretically expanded the numbers of users that could exercise at one time, it was not a truly effective solution to the problem of getting optimum use from the machine. For example, each PowerBlock dumbbell weighed a maximum of 85 pounds. Thus, when two fully loaded dumbbells were contained on the tray, the maximum exercise mass was 170 pounds. This is not sufficient for some users when doing some exercises. There was no way to easily and effectively increase the exercise mass.
In addition, when one dumbbell was removed or both dumbbells were partially removed for use as dumbbells, the PowerBlock Gym could still be used by another user as noted above. However, in this situation, the exercise mass was reduced by the amount of the removed mass of the dumbbells. For example, if one complete dumbbell were removed, then the maximum exercise mass decreased by 85 pounds from 170 pounds to 85 pounds. As a practical matter, the PowerBlock Gym became almost unusable if too much of the weight of the selectorized dumbbells was removed from the tray.
Finally, in the PowerBlock Gym, it could be difficult or awkward to remove the selectorized dumbbells from the tray. The tray was inclined towards the rear of the exercise machine and was located behind a rear upright. A user could dismount the machine and walk around in back of the machine to lift one of the PowerBlock dumbbells up out of the tray. However, many users found the need to dismount the machine an annoyance.
Consequently, many users tried to remove the PowerBlock dumbbells from the tray by reaching to the rear from the front of the machine. However, in its normal lowermost position, the tray carrying the dumbbells was located at least partially behind the back rest of the exercise bench. Thus, the user would have to reach over or around the back rest to get to the selectorized dumbbells.
Moreover, the upright which carried the tray was located directly in the way of the user's head. Thus, some users might hit their heads on the upright when attempting to reach the dumbbells from the front of the machine. In addition, the tray carrying the dumbbells was inclined towards the rear of the machine or away from a user attempting to reach the tray from the front of the machine. Thus, it was difficult to remove the PowerBlock dumbbells from the front of the PowerBlock Gym.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an exercise machine that provides an exercise mass that is adjustable to provide a wide range of exercise resistance, but that also allows multiple users to simultaneously exercise using at least some portions of the exercise mass that can be easily removed from the machine.

Exercise machine using lever mounted selectorized dumbbells as exercise mass


A method for controlling the operation of a solenoid (14), in which solenoid the movement of the plunger is caused by bringing electric energy to the solenoid, whereby an electric current flows through the solenoid, the method comprising the following steps.                defining a model (6) for describing the current signal of the solenoid at certain time intervals from the activation moment of the solenoid onwards,        measuring the true current signal (7) of the solenoid at time intervals corresponding with the model,        defining a residual signal (8), which is the remainder between the signal of the model (6) and the true current signal (7), and        performing a threshold analysis (25) for the residual signal.

A number of fuel injection systems of engines utilize solenoids for controlling the operation of injector nozzles. This can be accomplished by directly operating the valve needle or indirectly by controlling, for example, the pressure level of injector nozzle servo oil by means of the solenoid valve. In both cases the operation is always based on the movement of the plunger of the solenoid. U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,901 by the applicant discloses a system based on indirect control.
An electric current flows through the coil of the solenoid when a source of electric energy is connected thereto. This produces a magnetic field that causes the plunger of the solenoid to move. In a solenoid, the electric current changes on the basis of the position of the plunger, and the current starts to decrease for a while especially when the plunger has started to move, thereby forming a local maximum value of the current. This information can be used for controlling the operation of the solenoid, especially it be used for observing the opening moment of the injectors nozzle. This information can also be used for making sure that the plunger has started to move.
Publication WO 03/007317 A1 discloses a method of controlling a solenoid. The starting point in this publication is, however, to define the moment when the injector nozzle has fully opened. The above-mentioned local maximum value of the current also occurs as the movement of the plunger stops. In the method described in the publication, the events during the movement of the injector nozzle are ignored.

Method of controlling the operation of a solenoid


A charge-domain filter (CDF) apparatus and an operation method thereof are provided. The CDF apparatus includes an input-signal combination network (ISCN), a switch-capacitor network (SCN) module, an output-signal combination network (OSCN), and a bandwidth compensation network (BCN). The input terminal of the ISCN receives an input signal. The SCN module is connected between the ISCN and the OSCN. The OSCN outputs an output signal of the CDF apparatus. The BCN senses the signal of the SCN module, senses the signal of the OSCN, or senses the signal of each of the SCN module and the OSCN, and correspondingly generates a forward signal or a feedback signal for the ISCN or the OSCN according to the sensing result to perform bandwidth compensation.

A CDF uses a filtering technique of a switched-capacitor network (SCN). The SCN is a common circuit in discrete time signal processing and includes a plurality of switches and a plurality of capacitors. By turning on and off the switches, the CDF could control the state of charge storage of the capacitors so as to filter an input signal. Compared to a capacitive resistive analog filter circuit, the filtering effect of the SCN is mainly decided according to the size ratio between the capacitors therein. Even if the process is altered to change the area of each capacitor, since the size ratio between the capacitors does not change with the process, the filtering effect of the SCN remains unchanged. Therefore, the SCN is suitable to be fabricated in a chip.
However, the average CDF decimates and samples the signal, and therefore a folding noise may be generated, thereby reducing system performance. Moreover, the average CDF generally does not use a bandwidth compensation circuit. As a result, the bandwidth thereof may be narrower, causing sinc-function distortion.

Charge-domain filter apparatus and operation method thereof

Industrial Technology Research Institute


Method of treating dry, free flowing, dust forming compositions with selected liquids to agglomerate a portion of the particles into groups of particles of sufficient size so that the treated compositions are substantially dust free and retain their free flowing properties, and the compositions produced by such treatment.

Dust, which is produced in large quantities as a result of handling, transporting and storage of particulate compositions, especially free flowing powders, is a constant source of annoyance and danger. It is irritating to the eyes and mucous membrane, especially the nasal passages. Constant exposure to dust may cause pulmonary disease either because of local tissue lacerations or because the dust particles serve as carriers for toxic microbes. Certain types of dust, particularly coal dust, form explosive mixtures when they attain critical concentrations.
Dust formation is a special annoyance in the field of hair treatment compositions such as those employed in hair dyeing and hair bleaching or frosting, or as a preliminary step to hair dyeing. Such compositions are well known. They normally contain powdered, oxidizing or bleaching compounds including peroxygenated salts such as perborates, percarbonates and persulfates. These include, for example, ammonium, alkali metal and alkaline earth metal peroxygenated salts. Often the particulate compositions will contain pH controlling agents such as silicates, phosphates and carbonates including, for example, sodium silicate. The presently preferred bleaching agents are persulfates and; of these, ammonium, potassium and sodium persulfate are most preferred. Often, the oxidizing powder will contain mixtures of persulfates such as ammonium, sodium and potassium persulfates. Other ingredients which may be utilized include thickeners, surfactants and the like. A swelling agent such as carboxymethyl cellulose or a vegetable gum is often added to give an emollient property to the final product.
For convenience, the hair treating compositions are provided as dry, free flowing powders which may contain a hydrogen peroxide precursor and are taken up in aqueous media just prior to use. If there is no precursor, the aqueous media will contain hydrogen peroxide. While such compositions are convenient, they do manifest a number of difficulties.
One such difficulty is dust formation caused by collision and abrasion of powder particles with each other during handling, storage and transportation. Another, is that, if the particles are not of uniform size, the finer particles, those most likely to produce dust, are at the top of the package.
Hair treatment compositions are usually provided as fine grained powders containing a number of discrete, dust forming particles of various ingredients with particle sizes below about 40 microns together with larger particles, even as high as 1000 microns. It is the particles of a size up to about 40 microns which are especially troublesome dust farmers. Often, there is a lack of uniformity in the compositions attributed, at least in part, to the fact that the various particles forming them have different apparent densities which causes them to separate during transportation and storage. As a result, the heavier particles concentrate at the bottom of the package while the lighter particles migrate to the top. This lack of uniformity causes variations in the hair treatment results which can be achieved because the portions withdrawn from the package for use are not of uniform composition. One way of alleviating the problem is by appropriate mixing, but this is inconvenient, time consuming and often overlooked. Another possibility is to prepare the compositions with particles of uniform small size, but dust forms every easily from fine particles.
There are many examples of adding various types of liquids or hydrophilic materials to powders to prevent dust formation. In extreme cases, sufficient amounts of such materials are added so that the powders are actually converted to pastes or creams. Generally speaking, these procedures have not been satisfactory because the additions tend to diminish the desirable free flowing characteristics of the powders and, in the case of creams and pastes, totally destroy these properties. Or, if insufficient additive is employed, the composition remains free flowing but still forms appreciable amounts of dust.
Hydrophilic materials, although recommended for producing dust free compositions, are not particularly recommended for hair treatment compositions because the components of such compositions react rapidly with water. Two problems arise with hair bleaches. These are:
1. Ammonium salts and alkali (generally, ammonium persulfate and sodium metasilicate) generate ammonia which is necessary for hair bleaching and will be lost by reacting with water. Further, sodium metasilicate after reacting with the ammonium salt will solidify, being converted to silica, and cannot be redissolved.
2. Persulfates decompose when moist or when heated excessively but the decomposition is more rapid when a moist persulfate is heated. Therefore, the bleaching ability is decreased if it remains wet. It is also decreased if an attempt is made to dry by heating.
For convenience, this invention will be described principally as it relates to hair bleaching compositions, although the terms "hair treating or treatment compositions" should be understood to include both dyes and bleaches. However, it is not limited to hair treating compositions. It may, for example, be employed with alkali metal and ammonium persulfates which are utilized not only in hair bleaching compositions but also in the paint and in the polymer industries.
Typical hair dying compositions which may be treated in accordance with this invention include oxidative, including auto-oxidative, dyes which may be provided as powdered primary intermediates and couplers. Many such products are known. Those which are presently employed on a wide scale include those listed in Table 1, below.
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ Primary p-phenylenediamine Intermediates: p-aminophenol o-aminophenol N,N-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)p-phenylendiamine 2,5-diaminopyridine p-toluene diamine Couplers: resorcinol m-aminophenol 1-naphthol 5-amino-o-cresol 2-methylresorcinal 4,6-di(hydroxyethoxy)-meta-phenylenediamine meta-phenylenediamine Auto-oxidative dyes 2,4-diaminophenol benzene-1,2,4-triol toluene-2,4,5-triol ______________________________________
Semipermanent dyes such as those listed in Table 2 are also included within the ambit of the invention.
TABLE 2 ______________________________________ N-(2-Hydroxyethyl)-o-nitroaniline 4-Nitro-o-phenylenediamin N.sup.1 -(2-Hydroxyethyl)-4-nitro-o-phenylenediamine N.sup.1 -Tris(hydroxymethyl)methyl-4-nitro-o-phenylenadiamine 2-Amino-3-nitrophenol 2-Amino-4-nitrophenol 4-Amino-2-nitrophenol 2-Amino-5-nitrophenol O,N-Bis(2-hydroxyethyl)-2-amino-5-nitrophenol N-(2-Hydroxyethyl)-2-amino-5-nitroanisole 4-Amino-3-nitrophenol N-(2-Hydroxyethyl)-4-amino-3-nitrophenol N-(2-Hydroxyethyl)-4-amino-3-nitroanisole 1-(3-Methylamino-4-nitrophenoxy)propane-2,3-diol 3-Methylamino-4-nitrophenoxyethanol 2-Nitro-p-phenylenediamine N1-(2-Hydroxyethyl)-2-nitro-p-phenylenediamine N4-(2-Hydroxyethyl)-2-nitro-p-phenylenediamine N1-Methyl-2-nitro-p-phenylenediamine N1,N4,N4-Tris(2-hydroxyethyl)-2-nitro-p-phenylenediamine N4-(2-Hydroxyethyl)-N1,N4-dimethyl-2-nitro-p-phenylenediamine N4-(2,3-Dihydroxypropyl)-N,N4-dimethyl-2-nitro-p-phenylenediamine 4-Nitro-m-phenylenediamine Picramic Acid N-Methyl-iso-picramic acid 4-Amino-2-nitrodiphenylamine 4-Hydroxy-2'-nitrodiphenylamine 4-(p-Aminophenylazo)-N,N-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)aniline 1,4,5,8-Tetraminoanthraquinone 1,4-Diaminoanthraquinone 1-Amino-4-methylaminoanthraquinone 1-(2-Hydroxethylamino)-4-methylaminoanthraquinone 2,4-Diamino-2'-hydroxy-5'-nitroazobenzene-5'-sulphonic acid (Sodium salt) ______________________________________
The various liquids and other materials which have heretofor been employed as dust inhibitors in hair bleaching powders have been specific in their usages and have not taken into account the aesthetics of the final product or the compatibility of the deducting agent with the bleach components, or with the hair.
According to German Published Application Number DE 40 26 235 A1, dust free compositions are provided by mixing ammonium, potassium and sodium persulfate granulates having a particle diameter of 0.1 to 0.6 cm with a water soluble thickener, a wetting agent and/or an emulsifier.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,838,064; 3,838,092; 3,947,089 and 3,993,584 all relate to the use of special grades of polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon) to control dust generated by fine powders. This procedure is not completely satisfactory because it is expensive and requires special mixing equipment. Additionally, when used in hair bleaches the small pieces of Teflon become trapped or entangled in the hair similar to gum.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,726,967 describes the use of water soluble polyvinylpyrrolidone or glucose in homogeneous hair bleaching compositions. These additives are solids, require specialized equipment for coating the particles and are not described as reducing dust formation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,637 and German Patent Number DE 3 814 356 C both describe the formation of hair bleaching paste compositions with an anhydrous organic carrier. Such compositions lack the convenience of free flowing powders, are much more difficult to manufacture and, because measurement is difficult, they must be packaged for individual use and are, therefore, not convenient or cost efficient for salon use.

Methods of controlling dust and compositions produced thereby


In a matrix operation apparatus for calculating output signals by multiplying input signals with coefficients, a plurality of matrix element calculating circuits multiply the input signals with corresponding coefficients to obtain matrix elements. An output calculating circuit adds and subtracts the obtained matrix elements to obtain one of the output signals. In this case, the coefficients are changed by a coefficient changing circuit which also controls the output calculating circuit, and thus the output calculating circuit generates the plurality of output signals in a time-divisional manner.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a matrix operation apparatus which can be applied to a matrix operation circuit for modulation and an inverse-matrix operation circuit for demodulation in a National Television Systems Committee (NTSC) system.
2) Description of the Related Art
Recently, in line with the advances made in image processor systems for high resolution television, video cameras, video units, and the like, a matrix circuit for modulation of color signals and an inverse-matrix circuit for demodulation of the modulated signals have been formed by digital semiconductor integrated circuits.
For example, in a modulation circuit of a transmitter, three color signals, i.e., a red signal, a green signal, and a blue signal are converted into two color difference signals and a brightness signal. In a demodulation circuit of a receiver, however, the two color difference signals, and the brightness signal are converted into three color signals.
In a prior art system, however, a matrix operation apparatus for a modulation circuit and an inverse-matrix operation apparatus for a demodulation circuit are individually designed, thus increasing the manufacturing cost. Also, the matrix operation apparatus and the inverse operation apparatus per se are complex, thus further increasing the manufacturing cost, which will be later explained in detail.
Note that such an inverse-matrix operation apparatus is a kind of matrix operation apparatus.


A method of capturing and analyzing information for a particle detection system comprises generating a reaction to a plurality of particles using a converter material, wherein the converter material is operable to interact with the plurality of particles. The method further comprises converting a response to the reaction to an electrical signal using a plurality of sensors, wherein the converter material is operable to be coated onto the plurality of sensors, and wherein each of the plurality of sensors comprises an array of discrete pixel sensors each with a respective (x,y) coordinate within the array. Further, the method comprises processing the electrical signal to generate data regarding each pixel on the array of discrete pixels and serializing the data collected from the plurality of sensors and transmitting the data over thin cables to a processing unit that is located at a separate and remote location from the plurality of sensors.

Neutrons are subatomic particles with no net electric charge. Neutrons and protons, another subatomic particle, together form the nucleus of all elements in the periodic table except hydrogen. Free neutrons are produced as a consequence of either nuclear fission, radioactive decay of elements or fusion. Special nuclear materials ("SNMs") such as plutonium that are used for making dirty bombs decay radioactively to produce neutrons. Detection of such neutrons is an effective way of tracking the source of SNMs. However, since neutrons do not carry any electric charge, their detection is problematic as compared to other charged subatomic particles. One method of neutron detection that has been successfully employed is to use materials that can capture incident neutrons and convert them into other easily detectable subatomic particles, such as alpha particles, tritons, gamma rays, etc.
Historically, high-pressure Helium-3 (He3) tubes have been the mainstay of neutron detection. Neutrons impinging on these tubes interact with He3 nuclei to produce triton and protium, both of which are energetically charged subatomic particles that migrate in the presence of a strong electric field inside the tubes towards the electrodes. Unfortunately, He3 supplies on the planet are running low and the price of He3 in recent years has increased twenty-fold in the last decade alone. Thus, there is a strong consensus in the field to replace He3 technology with alternatives, mostly scintillation based detection systems and Boron lined proportional tubes.
Scintillator detectors also have several limitations. First, scintillation crystals are expensive and made in small volumes due to a limited market. Second, complicated pulse shape discrimination algorithms need to be employed in these systems to discriminate neutrons from gamma rays, which also interact heavily with the scintillating crystals. Scintillation detectors also suffer from reliability issues on the field due to the use of scintillating crystals that can be sensitive to environmental factors such as humidity and salinity. The gamma discrimination capability of Boron lined tubes is better than scintillator detectors. However, being a proportional counter technology, Boron lined tubes are limited by their form factor in the scope of their applications. Moreover, there is an absence of a global supply chain to drive down their cost over time. Both scintillation and proportional counter based systems must contend with significant system-level noise that interferes with measurements of low incident neutron flux levels close to the cosmic background. They also lack modularity, flexibility to detect subatomic particles other than neutrons, and potential for rapid scalability.
Further, conventional methods of particle detection are typically too sensitive for extreme environmental conditions. For example, if a conventional particle detection system is being used to detect neutrons in a nuclear power plant or nuclear reactor after an accident, it may likely destroy any of the known systems for radiation detection.

Component configuration for a robust tunable sensor system for a high radiation environment


When the data is divided into blocks each having a set block size, and image data includes an object which extends over a plurality of blocks, the object is divided based on object information associated with the object. The object information of the divided object is re-set based on the object information associated with the object divided into blocks. Block vector image data are generated using the object having the re-set object information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for executing processing of input image data and a control method thereof, and a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image input/output system which is connected on a network, executes image data processing for external or internal image data, and outputs the processed image data is known.
As this image data input/output system, a so-called MFP (Multi Function Peripheral) is available.
FIG. 20 shows a controller 100 which controls the conventional MFP. In the controller 100, a CPU 102, memory controller (MC) 103, general-purpose bus 105, image processor 110, and image data rasterizer (RIP) 113 are connected via a system bus bridge (SBB) 101. Note that "RIP" is short for Raster Image Processor.
A hard disk controller (HDDCont) 106 which controls a large-capacity storage unit (HDD (hard disk drive)) 107 that stores image data is connected to the general-purpose bus 105. Also, a network I/F 109 which serves as an interface used to transfer image data with external devices via a network 108, to which the MFP is connected, is connected to the general-purpose bus 105. The image data includes those in page vector formats (PDL (page description language), PDF, SVG, and the like).
The HDD (hard disk drive) 107 is connected to the HDDCont 106. The HDD 107 is used as a storage medium of image data. Likewise, a system memory (Memory) 104 is connected to the MC 103. The system memory 104 is used as a medium for temporarily storing image data. The system memory 104 generally comprises a DIMM.
A scanner 111 and printer 112 are connected to the image processor 110. The image processor 110 applies predetermined image processing to image data input from the scanner 111, and outputs the processed image data to the controller 100. The image processor 110 applies predetermined image processing to image data stored in the controller 100, and outputs the processed image data to the printer 112.
Image data to be handled by the controller 100 include those in the page vector format (PDL, PDF, SVG, or the like), which are exchanged with external devices via the network, and those in the raster data format, which are exchanged with the scanner 111 and printer 112. The CPU 102 interprets image data in the page vector format input from an external device into primitive objects to convert it into intermediate data (DL data) called a DL (DisplayList), and outputs the DL data to the RIP 113.
These image data are temporarily stored in the system memory 104 in the controller 100. For this reason, many kinds of data such as raster data, page vector data (PDL or the like), DL data, and the like are stored on the system memory 104.
The HDD 107 stores image data input from the scanner 111, and raster data rendered by the RIP 113 as image data.
The RIP 113 often uses a method of processing blocks with a predetermined size such as bands, tiles, or the like determined in advance as processing regions in place of pages. By setting this processing region as a block such as a band, tile, or the like, which is smaller than a page, the memory capacity required upon rasterizing image data in the RIP 113 can be advantageously reduced. Furthermore, by parallelly executing processing for respective blocks, the rasterize processing in the RIP 113 can be advantageously speeded up.
In the aforementioned image processing system, for example, a line or curve object which extends over a plurality of blocks in a page often exists. By roughly classifying the rasterize processing method in this case, two methods, that is, a method of extracting only portions of that object included in the respective blocks and rasterizing them, and a method of dividing the object into those for respective blocks in advance, and rasterizing them are available (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-120639).
In the former method, as processing for each block, the RIP 113 rasterizes the object partway based on control point coordinates and attribute information of the object. The RIP 113 then checks if the object is included in each block. If the object is included in that block, the RIP 113 rasterizes only the included portion, thus ending the rasterize processing of the object in that block.
In the latter method, the control point coordinates and attribute information of the object are converted into those for respective blocks of the object, and are temporarily stored. After that, the RIP 113 rasterizes the object based on the control point coordinates and attribute information for each block, thus ending the rasterize processing of the object in that block.
Note that rasterize processing of line and curve objects mainly includes three types of processes: (1) an outline process for calculating the outline coordinates of the object, (2) a line width process for calculating coordinates separated by a predetermined distance from the outline, and (3) an end point process for calculating coordinates from the end points of the outline based on attribute information. With these processes, fill processing of the object is attained.
In the prior art, upon extracting and rasterizing only portions of line and curve objects included in blocks, it is effective to use a band or tile which has a relatively large processing unit. However, if too small a processing unit is used, the number of objects to be rasterized in respective blocks does not decrease, but the processing volume increases since the number of blocks to be processed increases. Therefore, it is difficult to further shorten the processing time and to reduce the storage capacity.
On the other hand, upon dividing line and curve objects into those for respective blocks and rasterizing these object in the prior art, the number of objects to be rasterized for respective blocks decreases. Hence, the processing time per unit block can be shortened. However, when an original object is divided into blocks, and each block is rasterized to a bitmap image, since each individual divided block is independently rasterized, a problem is posed.
That problem will be explained below taking FIG. 21 as an example.
Reference numeral 2001 denotes a part of page vector data, that is, a diagram based on an actually rasterized image. In this example, the page vector data 2001 has object data 2002 of a line segment. The object data 2002 is configured by vector data (illustrated as a white line in FIG. 21) designated with an instruction that connects initial and terminal point coordinates by a straight line, and a line width (that in a direction perpendicular to the white line) of that vector data. Assume that this page vector data 2001 is divided into block vector data 2003 and 2004.
The object data 2002 is divided into object data 2005 and 2006, which are respectively held in the block vector data 2003 and 2004. The block vector data 2003 and 2004 are independently rasterized using only the object data 2005 and 2006 included in themselves. For this reason, partial images in the original object data 2002 are omitted at the boundary between the blocks like the rasterized result, that is, raster data 2007 (first problem).
As another problem of a line object, a broken line object has attributes that designate line segment parts of the broken line, and blank parts of the line segments as its attribute values in some cases. When dividing page vector data having such a broken line object into block vector data, a blank part of the broken line deviates, as denoted by 12102 with respect to a desired output result 12101, as shown in FIG. 22 (second problem).
A case will be examined wherein page vector data of an object having a pattern whose color value gradually changes like a gradation pattern undergo conversion to block vector data.
Normally, a rendering instruction of gradation is expressed by the coordinate values of initial and terminal points, and a predetermined color value change amount. Upon dividing a gradation object in page vector data into block vector data, gradation is expressed by arranging a plurality of thin line segments having different color values.
According to this method, even when an object is divided, a gradation pattern can be expressed for respective block vector data. However, when the block vector data are re-used to restore page vector data, or when an edit operation is to be made for respective block vector data, the gradation pattern is segmented into blocks that are too small to restore the page vector data or to enable the edit operation (third problem).

Image processing apparatus and control method thereof, and program


Compositions of matter comprising nitro-substituted metal complexes of porphyrins are catalysts for the oxidation of alkanes. The metal is iron, chromium, manganese, ruthenium, copper or cobalt. The porphyrin ring has nitro groups attached thereto in meso and/or .beta.-pyrrolic positions.

This invention relates to metalloporphyrins useful as catalysts for the oxidation of alkanes, and more particularly to metalloporphyrins containing nitro groups on the porphyrin ring.
Nitro-substituted metalloporphyrins are known in the art. R. Bonnett et al, J. Chem. Soc., 30, 2791-2798 (1965) disclose a nickel complex of .alpha.-nitrooctaethylporphyrin, and also uncomplexed .alpha.,.beta.,.gamma.-trinitrooctaethylporphyrin. E. C. Johnson et al, Tetr. Lett. 26, 2197 (1976) disclose a magnesium complex of 5,10,15,20-tetranitrooctaethylporphine. L. C. Gong et al, Com. J. Chem., 63, 401-405 (1985), disclose zinc complexes of mono-, di-, tri- and tetra-nitrooctaethylporphyrins. J. E. Baldwin et al, Tetrahedron, 38, 685 (1982), disclose a zinc complex of dinitrotetraphenylporphine. M. Catalano et al, J. Chem, Soc. Chem. Commun., 1535-1536 (1984) disclose nickel, palladium, copper, cobalt, iron, magnesium and zinc complexes of betanitromesotetraarylporphyrins containing in some instances one and in some instances two nitro groups.
The complexes of the Bonnett, Johnson and Gong disclosures above have octaethyl groups at the .beta.-pyrrolic positions of the porphyrin ring and nitro groups at the meso positions of the ring. The complexes of the Baldwin and Catalano disclosures have aryl, e.g. phenyl, groups at the meso positions of the ring, and nitro groups at one or two .beta.-pyrrolic positions of the ring.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,394, issued Dec. 31, 1991 to D. H. Dolphin et al, from an application Ser. No. 455,663 filed Dec. 21, 1989 as a division of application Ser. No. 181,859, Apr. 15, 1988, U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,941, which was a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 39,566, Apr. 17, 1987, abandoned, discloses tetraphenyl porphyrins which are beta-substituted by fluoro or chloro and bear electronegative substituents, for example nitro substituents, on the phenyl.

Nitrated metalloporphyrins as catalysts for alkane oxidation


A fluid pump for transferring liquid material from one container to another is provided. The fluid pump is of a novel structure which comprises a circular base having a less diameter annular projection at a central portion and first guide slot radially formed through the body, an external annulus having a pair of second guide slots made in registry with the first guide slot to define a rectangular space therebetween for facilitating a slider to slide thereabout; a rotary disk disposed into the annulus including a plunger and pushing rod at under side for synchroneously sliding in a fluid channel and actuating the slider to move about so as to repeatedly alter the vacuum state in the pump for sucking the liquid material from one container and simultaneously discharging the sucked liquid material to another container.

The present invention relates to liquid transferring devices, and more particularly to a novel fluid pump which includes a rotary plunger and a rectangular slider transversely sliding about a guide groove in the pump perpendicular to the plunger. Their coactions repeatedly and alternately dispatch the fluid in an annular channel in the pump and in cooperation with the pairs of check valves which control the fluid orientation so as to suck and synchroneously discharge the liquid material from one container to another.
Typical liquid tranferring devices include generally a gear pump, a vane pump or a plunger pump which have their common disadvantages of greater vibration and noise and easpecially high abrasion ratio caused by a lateral component of force.
To obviate above disadvantages, my previous U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/727,270, filed Oct. 8, 1996, U.S. Pat. No. 5,707,224, provides a rotary plunger coacting with a perpendicular transverse elongate slider sliding about a circular chamber in the pump for obtaining a circulate fluid in the pump to transfer the liquid material from one container to another so as to reduce the vibration and the noise and obviate the lateral component of force in the pump in order to promote its efficiency. However, the components adapted therein are slightly complicated and couldn't reduce the cost to manufacture.

Fluid pump having a slider and a rotary disk


An embodiment in accordance with the present invention provides a method for non-invasively determining the functional severity of arterial stenosis in a selected portion of an arterial network. The method includes gathering patient-specific data related to concentration of a contrast agent within an arterial network using a coronary computed tomography angiography scan (CCTA). The data can be gathered under rest or stress conditions. Estimation of a loss coefficient (K) can be used to eliminate the need for data gathered under stress. The data is used to calculate a transluminal attenuation gradient (TAG). The data may be corrected for imaging artifacts at any stage of the analysis. TAFE is used to determine an estimate of flow velocity. Once velocity is determined, pressure gradient, coronary flow reserve, and/or fractional flow reserve can be determined through a variety of methods. These estimates can be used to estimate functional severity of stenosis.

The coronary arteries supply the myocardium, or muscle of the heart with oxygen and nutrients. Over time the coronary arteries can become blocked with cholesterol and other material known as plaque. Coronary artery disease results from this buildup of plaque within the walls of the coronary arteries. Excessive plaque build-up can lead to diminished blood flow through the coronary arteries and low blood flow to the myocardium leading to chest pain, ischemia, and heart attack. Coronary artery disease (CAD) can also weaken the heart muscle and contribute to heart failure, a condition where the heart's efficiency as a pump is compromised. This state can lead to electrical disorders of the heart that increase the possibility for sudden cardiac death. Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. CAD affects 17.6 million Americans and results in nearly half a million deaths per year. Despite access to sophisticated diagnostic imaging tests at a cost of $6.3 billion per year, over 1,000,000 US patients are referred to unnecessary invasive catheterization procedures exposing patients to inherent risks and a staggering $8 B financial burden to the US healthcare system.
There are several different diagnostics that are currently used to assess coronary artery disease and its severity. Non-invasive tests can include electrocardiograms, biomarker evaluations from blood tests, treadmill tests, echocardiography, single positron emission computed tomography (SPECT), and positron emission tomography (PET). Unfortunately, these non-invasive tests do not provide data related to the size of a coronary lesion or its specific effect on coronary blood flow, pressure gradients and fractional flow reserve.
Quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) is a well-established invasive method for visualizing and quantifying the size of an arterial lesion such as those associated with coronary artery disease. In this method, a radiopaque contrast agent is injected into the blood and an x-ray scan movie is acquired when the contrast agent has traveled into the coronary arteries. Clinicians can use this information to visually examine and to quantify the degree of obstruction. An area obstruction of greater than 70% has traditionally been considered flow-limiting and a candidate for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) (also known as coronary angioplasty).
While the above procedure can be used to visualize and quantify the size of the lesion or the degree of obstruction, it does not necessarily correlate to the functional significance of the lesion, i.e. the degree to which the lesion affect the rate of flow of blood through the artery. Therefore, additional assessments have been developed to determine functional significance of coronary artery lesions. In this regard catheter measured coronary flow velocity (CFV), pressure gradient (PG) i.e. the pressure difference across various arterial segments, coronary flow reserve (CFR), and fractional flow reserve (FFR) are the gold standards for assessment of the functional significance of coronary artery stenosis. These metrics are currently determined using diagnostic cardiac catheterization, an invasive procedure in which a catheter is inserted into a peripheral artery (for instance in a patient's leg) and threaded through the vasculature to the relevant areas of the coronary arteries. FFR is determined by calculating the ratio of the mean blood pressure downstream from a lesion divided by the mean blood pressure upstream from the same lesion. These pressures are measured by inserting a pressure wire into the patient during the diagnostic cardiac catheterization procedure. While this procedure provides an accurate measure of FFR for determining the functional severity of the coronary stenosis, it incurs the risk and cost of an invasive procedure.
Advances in multi-detector computed tomography (CT) technology now allows noninvasive access to several important factors in regards to coronary event risk: the overall coronary arterial plaque burden, the severity of coronary arterial stenoses, the location and consistency of plaque, and plaque configuration. While anatomic information on CAD by CT is important and has been shown to correlate with patient outcomes, there are other important determinants of patient outcome with CHD including the degree of epicardial blood flow reduction and the extent and severity of provocable myocardial ischemia. CT allows the assessment of coronary anatomy, coronary blood flow, and myocardial perfusion and thus, is uniquely positioned to acquire comprehensive information to guide the evaluation and management of patients with suspected CHD.
While coronary CTA has been shown to be an accurate test to diagnose the presence of coronary atherosclerosis and percent stenosis it has been shown to poorly predict myocardial ischemia compared to invasive and non-invasive standards. Compared to positron emission tomography, a 50% stenosis by CTA has a positive predictive value for myocardial ischemia of 26% a finding that has been reproduced in a number of studies. Compared to FFR, the invasive gold standard for determining the physiologic significance of a stenosis, percent stenosis by CTA shows only a moderate overall correlation (r=0.55) and no significant correlation with lesions ≦10 mm in length (r=0.16).
FFR can also be estimated based on a highly complex computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling in CT derived, patient-specific coronary artery models. This approach by HeartFlow Inc. and called FFRCT™ requires a high level of sophistication, is computationally intensive, and generally requires that patient-specific data be transmitted out of the hospital environment to a third party vendor. It is also expensive and can take several days to obtain results. Additionally, recent data testing this approach to predict actual FFR in a multicenter trial have been disappointing. For instance, the study did not meet its pre-specified primary endpoint, which was diagnostic accuracy of >70% of the lower bound of the one-sided 95% CI. One factor contributing to the computational complexity as well as the reduced accuracy of this approach is the lack of precise boundary and input conditions for velocity/flow rate for the artery of interest. An attempts to overcome this is made in FFRCT™ by combining a variety of information including patient-specific ventricular mass, resting coronary flow from population derived relationships and population derived measures of coronary resistances. The above information is combined with physiologic data such as blood pressure, heart rate and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling of the ascending aorta and all the major coronary vessels. This CFD model is also connected with the rest of the circulatory system via lumped-element (or "windkessel") models which contain a number of population derived parameters. However, this approach necessitates the use of ad-hoc parameters and generic (non-patient-specific) factors which can reduce the accuracy of the computed FFR. The quality of the CFD solution is highly sensitive to the computational grid that is employed and the need to generate a grid over the large section of the circulatory system (ascending aorta and coronary arteries) also introduces an additional source of inaccuracy and uncertainty in the results from the CFD calculation.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide an alternative non-invasive CT based method for assessing hemodynamic parameters such as determining the CFV, PG, CFR, and/or FFR for a given patient's coronary arteries. If such a method is computationally simple and relatively inexpensive, it could be implemented in the scanner or locally on a computer at the scanning facility, and the results made available within a relatively short time (order of minutes) after the completion of the scan. This would also allow the radiologist/clinician to interact in near-real time with the analysis tool. Such an approach would fundamentally change the practice of clinical cardiology and allow clinicians to accurately and rapidly identify specific vessels that are resulting in a reduction in the blood flow to the myocardium.

Method for estimating flow rates and pressure gradients in arterial networks from patient specific computed tomography angiogram-based contrast distribution data


A semiconductor memory includes two pull-down transistors provided at opposite ends of each word line of an interleaved-row array memory. Both of these transistors receive the same global phase signal and are therefore both rendered conductive when a word line is deselected. The two pull-down transistors, acting together, sink sufficient current to rapidly pull down each word line of an interleaved-row array DRAMs, thus minimizing shut-off time.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and more particularly to an apparatus and related method for reducing row-shut off time.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A conventional DRAM 10 is shown in FIG. 1 as including an array of memory cells 16 arranged in rows and columns. An individual memory cell 20, shown in FIG. 2, includes an access device, typically a transistor 26, coupled to a capacitor 28. Binary information is stored in memory cell 20 in the form of charge on capacitor 28. If capacitor 28 is charged, a logic level "1" is stored in the memory cell, and, if no charge is present, memory cell 20 stores a logic level "0".
As further shown in FIG. 2, the memory cell is located at the intersection of a word line 24 and data line 22. In particular, word line 24 is connected to the gate of transistor 26, while the drain is conneted to data line 22. In order to read information out of the memory cell, one of a plurality of row decoder circuits 14 (FIG. 1) drives a selected word line 24 high, thereby turning on transistor 26. Charge stored on capacitor 28 then passes from the source to the drain of transistor 26 and onto data line 22, where it is read out by column select circuitry 12 (see FIG. 1).
A word line is provided for each row of memory cells. Accordingly, for relatively large memories (e.g., 4 meg, 16 meg., 64 meg. etc.) a relatively long word line is required to connect to all of the memory cells of a given row. Due to layout considerations, it is frequently necessary to "interleave" the word lines in such arrays, wherein adjacent word lines are respectively serviced by row decoders and drivers positioned on opposite sides of the array.
A particular row decoder circuit, known as a "tree decoder" having a signal associated pull-down transistor for each word line, has been proposed. The tree decoder includes a plurality of series connected MOS transistors, the gates of which respectively receive a row address bit. An MOS transistor connected at one end of the tree decoder has its drain connected to receive a control signal or universal phase signal, and an MOS transistor connected at the other end of the tree decoder has its source connected to an inverter. The output of the inverter is connected to a word line, which is coupled to the drain of a pull-down transistor. The gate of the pull-down transistor is coupled to receive the universal phase signal and the source is connected to ground.
In order to select a particular word line, each of the address lines respectively connected to the gates of the MOS transistors of the tree decoder goes high, thereby rendering each MOS transistor conductive. The universal phase signal coupled to the selected decoder is made low, and this low voltage is passed through the MOS transistors of the tree decoder to the input of the inverter. The inverter then outputs a high voltage to drive the selected word line. At the same time, the low universal phase signal cuts off the pull-down transistor so that the word line is not shorted to ground.
After data has been read out from a memory cell connected to the selected word line, for example, the word line can be deselected by bringing the universal phase signal to a logic level high potential, rendering the pull-down transistor conductive and shorting the word line to ground, and thereby insuring that the output of the inverter is grounded.
In the conventional DRAM, word lines are typically made of polysilicon, which is relatively highly resistive. Thus, relatively large RC delays have been encountered in many DRAMs, requiring a long row turn-on time (i.e., the time to charge the word line up to a voltage that will render transistor 26 conductive), and row shut-off time (i.e., the time required to deselect a word line by discharging to ground). As a result, the overall speed of the DRAM is degraded.
In many applications, a long row turn-on time is not problematic. However, a long row shut-off time can adversely effect operation of the memory. One solution for reducing row-shut off time involves overlaying the polysilicon word line with a metal layer, which periodically contacts the polysilicon word line along its length. While effective in reducing the effective resistance of the word line, this approach is disadvantageous in that it requires additional processing or mask steps, which lengthen the manufacturing process and reduce yields.
The interleaved arrays described above can be fabricated to include shorter word lines having a shorter RC delay and shorter row shut-off times. Since the resistance of the word line is a function of its length, reducing the length of the word line reduces its resistance and, consequently, reduces the RC delay. However, by reducing word line length, additional row decoders are required, which increases chip size, thereby increasing manufacturing cost. Thus, it is desired to improve row shut-off time with no adverse impact on chip size.

Method and apparatus for reducing row shut-off time in an interleaved-row memory device


An ascending ordered list without duplication is generated based on a value list divided and held by multiple memory modules. An information processing system has multiple PMMs (Processor Memory Modules), and the PMMs are interconnected via a data transmission path. The memory in the PMM has a list of values, which are ordered in ascending or descending order without duplication. The PMM determines, for a storage value in the value list (LOCAL_LIST) held by the PMM, whether or not the memory module is a representative module representing one or more memory modules holding the storage value based on rankings determined for the individual PMMs and the value lists received from the other PMMs, and if the memory module is determined to be the representative module (RV-0 . . . RV-7), associates to the storage value and stores information indicating that the memory module is the representative module.

In this age as computers have been introduced throughout society, and networks beginning with the Internet have permeated everywhere, large amounts of data have been accumulated here and there. Massive calculations are necessary for processing such large-scale data, and it is only natural to attempt to introduce parallel processing for this purpose.
Parallel processing architecture can be largely divided into "shared memory type" and "distributed memory type". The former ("shared memory type") is a method wherein multiple processors share a massive memory space. With this method, the traffic between processor group and shared memory become bottlenecked, so building a realistic system using more than one hundred processors is not simple. Accordingly, in the event of calculating the square root of one billion floating-point variables, the acceleration rate for a single CPU is 100 times at best. Empirically, around 30 times is the upper limit.
Within the latter ("distributed memory type"), each processor has a local memory, and a system is built by linking these. With this method, a hardware system can be designed wherein several hundred to several tens of thousands of processors can be built in. Accordingly, the acceleration rate for a single CPU mentioned above in the event of calculating the square root of one billion floating-point variables can be several hundred to several tens of thousands. However, even with the latter, there are several problems which will be described later.
Patent Document 1: International Publication WO00/10103 (FIG. 3 and FIG. 4)
Patent Document 2: International Publication WO2004/092948

Information processing system and information processing method


A powerline based network including a powerline, a Bluetooth access point connected to the powerline, and a remote Bluetooth module connected to the powerline capable of communicating with the access point via the powerline. The access point includes a plug for connection to an electrical outlet of the powerline, a Bluetooth communication module for transmitting and receiving wireless data signals, an external network interface for communicating with an external network, and a routing means for routing data signals via the powerline. The remote Bluetooth module includes a plug for connection to an electrical outlet of a powerline, a Bluetooth communication module for transmitting and receiving wireless data signals, and a routing means for routing data signals via the powerline.

A typical wireless communication system includes a number of access points interconnected by a cable medium commonly referred to as a system backbone. Associated with each access point is a coverage area, in which an access point has sufficient signal strength to transmit or receive data signals from wireless communication devices. In order to provide sufficient coverage within a wireless communication system, access points have been distributed at separate physical locations throughout a home or business.
Before the advent of wireless communication systems, traditional data signals had been transmitted on independent networks such as telephone lines. More recently, in order to simplify and increase efficiency of telecommunications services to homes or businesses, powerlines have been used as a medium through which data signals may be transmitted from one electrical device to another over a local area network (LAN).
In lieu of powerline based networks, radio frequency (RF) technology has also been used to wirelessly connect one electrical device to another in a home or business. RF based networks, which include expensive access points, enable electronic devices to communicate wirelessly through RF signals. However, RF based networks rarely achieve complete coverage in a home or business due to obstructions such as metal laths in walls or interference from cordless telephones.
Thus, there is a need for a network that enables comprehensive wireless communication at relatively inexpensive cost.

Bluetooth access point and remote bluetooth modules for powerline based networking


A method for forming field effect transistors (FETs) in a multiple wafers per batch epi-reactor includes, providing substrates having therein at least one semiconductor (SC) region with a substantially flat outer surface, modifying such substantially flat outer surface to form a convex-outward curved surface, forming an epitaxial semiconductor layer on the curved surface, and incorporating the epitaxial layer in a field effect transistor formed on the substrate. Where the SC region is of silicon, the epitaxial layer can include silicon-germanium. In a preferred embodiment, the epi-layer forms part of the FET channel. Because of the convex-outward curved surface, the epi-layer grown thereon has much more uniform thickness even when formed in a high volume reactor holding as many as 100 or more substrates per batch. FETs with much more uniform properties are obtained, thereby greatly increasing the manufacturing yield and reducing the cost.

Epitaxial growth of semiconductor regions is a well known semiconductor device and integrated circuit (IC) fabrication technique. Despite the fact that epitaxial growth has been used for decades it is not free from difficulties and challenges, especially as device dimensions have become smaller and smaller and the materials used in the epitaxial layers or regions have become more complex, often times different than the substrate on which the epitaxial regions or layers are being formed, or both. Further, the ongoing need for continuing cost reductions in the manufacture of semiconductor devices and ICs prompts the introduction of epitaxial reactors adapted to process larger numbers of semiconductor wafers in a single fabrication batch. Use of such higher volume processing tools can give rise to epitaxial deposition problems not encountered with earlier low volume processing tools. Accordingly, there is an ongoing need for improved epitaxial fabrication methods and structures, especially in connection with manufacture of field effect transistors (FETs), including metal-oxide-semiconductor-field-effect-transistors (MOSFETs), particularly when being transitioned from low volume to high volume epitaxial deposition tools.

Epitaxial channel formation methods and structures


An aluminum composite panel, containing an aerogel, includes an aerogel composite using a silica aerogel and a thermoplastic resin. A method for manufacturing the same includes providing an aluminum composite panel containing an aerogel, by molding an aerogel composite from a mixture of 1-90 wt % of a silica aerogel and 10-99 wt % of a thermoplastic resin, and then attaching aluminum plates on an upper surface and a lower surface of the aerogel composite, respectively, while an adhesive resin is coated on the upper surface and the lower surface. The aluminum composite panel containing an aerogel, manufactured according to the present invention, has a lower hygroscopic property than the conventional aluminum composite panel, due to the silica aerogel, and thus has an effect of exhibiting excellent adiabatic property and flame retardancy, retains excellent moldability, is light, and has an effect of facilitating a construction work.

An aluminum composite panel has a sandwich structure in which a synthetic resin such as a polymer non-toxic polyethylene resin or an inorganic material is applied between two aluminum plates having excellent corrosion resistance. The aluminum composite panel is lightweight, thereby avoiding damages to the inside and outside of a wall, is very firm and smooth, and has an excellent design factor as well as excellent functionalities. For example, the aluminum composite panel has an adiabatic property for protecting a building and a sound insulation property. Accordingly, the aluminum composite panel is ideally suited for application to the internal and external finishing, partitions, ceilings or entrances of a building.
Conventionally, a aluminum composite is manufactured by mixing and heating flame retardant powder and polyethylene pellets to prepare a mixed paste, and then performing extrusion molding. However, when the aluminum composite panel is manufactured in such a manner, it is difficult, if not impossible, to ensure flowability of the mixed paste during the extrusion molding. Moreover, in the case of fire, a flame retardant synthetic resin filled between aluminum plates flows downward due to heat, and during extrusion using an extruder, to ensure the flowability of the flame retardant synthetic resin, the flame retardancy powder may not be mixed at more than maximum 60 to 65 wt %. Consequently, the flame retardancy of the aluminum composite panel may not be enhanced any further.
In addition, a method for manufacturing an aluminum composite panel by applying a flame retarding material, for example, magnesium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide or aluminum hydroxide to a base has been also known. However, this method leads to high equipment and manufacturing costs during the fabrication process. Moreover, when a panel is molded in a curved or circular shape, the panel lacks flexibility, and thus presents further difficulties during the fabrication process.
Meanwhile, glass wool or rock wool used as a base in the conventional aluminum composite panel exhibits a decrease in an adiabatic property and an increase in a weight over time due to high hygroscopicity.
As described above, the conventional aluminum composite panel does not have adequate adiabatic properties, flame retardant properties, moldability, and the like.

Aluminum composite panel containing aerogel and method for manufacturing same


Systems and methods are described herein for providing mobile devices with peer to peer access to telecommunications networks. The network-based systems enable mobile devices associated with subscribers of the telecommunications networks to establish direct connections with other mobile devices (e.g., third party mobile devices of users that are not subscribers) over peer to peer (P2P) communication protocols. For example, a mobile device can, over a P2P connection, act as a Hotspot, Wi-Fi tether, or bridge for a third party or other mobile device requesting access to the networks.

Although many folks have consistent, regular access to the telecommunications networks for which they subscribe, there are times when that access is limited or non-existent. For example, many locations (in the United States and worldwide) are covered by one or a few networks, and other locations cannot provide useful or robust access, due to hindrances from topography or infrastructure.
Further, there are many different ways to subscribe to a network. A user can access services (e.g., voice, text, or data communications) provided by a network carrier as a pre-paid subscriber, a post-paid subscriber, or combinations of the two. There are various drawbacks with being a certain type of subscriber and attempting to access a network. For example, a post-paid subscriber can reach an associated data cap or limit for a certain period (e.g., a month), and be charged at high rates for any additional data before the period ends. As another example, a pre-paid subscriber can run out of a data bucket, and not be able to easily renew the subscription before next wanting to utilize services provided by the network.
The drawings have not necessarily been drawn to scale. Similarly, some components and/or operations can be separated into different blocks or combined into a single block for the purposes of discussion of some of the embodiments of the present technology. Moreover, while the technology is amenable to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are described in detail below. The intention, however, is not to limit the technology to the particular embodiments or implementations described. On the contrary, the technology is intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the technology as defined by the appended claims.

Providing network access via mobile device peer to peer sharing


A machine translation apparatus includes a identification information detection unit that detects information identifiable to a designated object; a receiving unit that receives a source language sentence; a word dividing unit that divides the source language sentence into a plurality of first word by morphological analysis; a deixis detection unit that detects, from the divided word, a deixis indicating the object directly; a correspondence setting unit that sets the identification information of the designated object and the deixis in correspondence with each other; a semantic class determining unit that determines the semantic class indicating a semantic attribute of the designated objectbased on the identification information of the designated object corresponding to the deixis; and a translation unit that translates the source language sentence where the deixis is attached the attribute having the semantic class of the designated object.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a machine translation apparatus, a machine translation method and a computer program product for optimum translation based on a semantic relation between words.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, the range of application of machine translation has been limited to technical documents or the like having limited sentence patterns. With the recent development of the machine translation technique, however, a wide range of documents including Web documents have come to be capable of being handled for machine translation. Also, the combination of the machine translation technique and the speech recognition technique has given rise to a situation in which the practical application of a spoken language translation (SLT) apparatus (interpretation machine) for translating the human speech in the real world in real time.
The spoken language translation is required to accommodate the language phenomena different from a written language, such as the word ellipses, omissions of functional words, word order inversions, filled pauses, or filler insertions, and thus has many problems yet to be overcome for practical application.
One of these problems is the frequent use of a deixis in the spoken language. The deixis is defined as an expression including a deictic word such as "this" or "that" and a pronoun such as "I" or "you," directly reffering to an object in the utterance environment. When a deixis is used, the translation without identifying a referent could not lead to an appropriate translation and deteriorate the translation quality.
The English sentence "Can I take this?" including the deixis "this," for example, can be translated into Japanese sentence without identifying the referent. In this case, however, the verb "take" will be translated into the Japanese verb "toru," meaning "get into one's hands," while "take" has a lot of other appropriate translations according to a context. To guarantee a more accurate translation, what is referred by "this," which is a direct object of "take," is required to be resolved. When "this" could be resoloved to refer a taxi, for example, the translation of "take" will be "noru" that means "travel or go by means of a certain kind of transportation," or when the "this" could be resolved to refer a bath, the appropriate translation will be "hairu," meaning "get into somewhere."
By identifying the referent of the deixis in this way, a more appropriate translation is made possible and the translation quality can be improved. A conventional technique of anaphora resolution has been proposed to resolve a referent of a deixis by searching a proper antecedent from the preceding speech, but the accuracy is not enough to practical use.
On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 6,868,383 discloses a technique in which the input speech including a deixis is properly interpreted by identifying the referent of the deixis, whose referent is displayed on a screen of a PDA (personal digital assistance). When a user makes an utterance with deixis, he or she is required to point a object on the screen by a mouse or pen, simultaneously. This technique makes it possible to identify the referent of a deixis even in the absence of a preceding speech.
The technique disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,868,383, however, presupposes the presence of a referent in a virtual space of the screen on PDA. This technique, therefore, poses the problem of a very limited application range, when applied to spoken language translation, since SLT will be used in a various environment and the referred object can be anything in the real world.

Apparatus, method and computer program product for optimum translation based on semantic relation between words


A flexible aerogel and process of fabrication. An aerogel solution is mixed with fibers in a mold and allowed to gel. The gel is then processed by supercritical extraction, or by air drying, to produce a flexible aerogel formed to the shape of the mold. The flexible aerogel has excellent thermal and acoustic properties, and can be utilized in numerous applications, such as for energy absorption, insulation (temperature and acoustic), to meet the contours of aircraft shapes, and where space is limited since an inch of aerogel is a 4-5 times better insulator than an inch of fiberglass. The flexible aerogel may be of an inorganic (silica) type or an organic (carbon) type, but containing fibers, such as glass or carbon fibers.

The present invention relates to insulation material, particularly to aerogel type insulation, and more particularly to flexible aerogel composites for insulation (thermal and acoustic) and process of fabrication.
Insulators of various types have been developed for various application. For example, fiber glass, foamed organic polymers, and organic foam composites are well known and are used in the insulation, construction, and similar industries. These prior used foams, for example, generally are of relatively high density and were not suitable for many applications, such as high-energy physics applications, or as parts for inertial confinement fusion targets, which required very low densities.
In efforts to satisfy these needs, aerogels were developed. Aerogels are a unique class of ultra fine cell size, low density, open-cell foams. Aerogels have continuous porosity and a microstructure composed of interconnected colloidal-like particles or polymeric chains with characteristic diameters of 100 angstroms. The microstructure of aerogels is responsible for their unusual acoustic, mechanical, optical, and thermal properties. These microstructures impart high surface areas to the aerogels, for example, from about 350 m.sup.2 /g to about 1000 m.sup.2 /g. Their ultra fine cell/pore size minimizes light scattering in the visible spectrum, and thus, aerogels can be prepared as transparent, porous solids. Further, the high porosity of aerogels makes them excellent insulators with their thermal conductivity being about 100 times lower than that of the prior known fully dense matrix foams. Still further, the aerogel skeleton provides for the low sound velocities observed in aerogels.
Currently, aerogels of various compositions are known, and these aerogels were generally referred to as inorganic (such as silicon aerogels) and organic (such as carbon aerogels). Inorganic aerogels, for example, silica, alumina, or zirconia aerogels, are traditionally made via the hydrolysis and condensation of metal alkoxides, such as tetramethoxy silane. Organic aerogels, such as carbon aerogels, are typically made from the sol-gel polymerization of resorcinol or melamine with formaldehyde under alkaline conditions. The aerogels may be pyrolyzed following the gel drying or extraction process.
Each type of aerogel, inorganic or organic, involve the formation of a gel, and drying of the gel by either air drying or supercritical extraction. The final composition of the aerogel is determined by the processing of the gel, which may produce an xerogel, an aerogel, or a hybrid xerogel/aerogel. Following the drying operation of the organic gels, for example, the aerogel may be pyrolyzed to produce a carbon aerogel.
One means, known as supercritical extraction, for removing water from the water-based gel or aquagel to form an organic aerogel, for example, is by extraction of the gel with a relatively lower surface tension fluid, such as carbon dioxide. Because water is immiscible with liquid CO.sub.2, the aquagels are first exchanged with an organic solvent such as acetone and then slowly dried inside a temperature-controlled pressure vessel. The critical point of carbon dioxide (T.sub.c =31.degree. C.; P.sub.c =7.4 MPa) is low enough to facilitate its removal without degrading the gel structure. The time required for supercritical drying depends on the thickness of the gel. Traditional aerogels are not flexible.
Both the inorganic and organic aerogels have common and unique characteristics, and these characteristics often limit the effectiveness of that type of aerogel for certain applications. While both types of aerogels may have similar cell/pore sizes, densities, and surface areas, they generally differ in atomic number (Z). For example, inorganic aerogels generally have a higher Z than organic aerogels, in that silicon has a Z of 14, aluminum has a Z of 13 and zirconium has a Z of 40, while organic aerogels, consisting mostly of carbon having a Z of 6, hydrogen a Z of 1 with some oxygen having a Z of 8. Both types (inorganic and organic) as very effective as insulators, as pointed out above, for both thermal and/or acoustic applications. However, since traditional aerogels are not flexible, they have been less effective in applications in aircraft, ice boxes, or refrigeration, or for use as energy absorbers, etc. The present invention provides a flexible aerogel fabrication process.

Flexible aerogel composite for mechanical stability and process of fabrication

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