A method and apparatus for a signal encryption device constructed to perform synchronous stream cipher encryption for a sequence of input words with restricted codes. The encryption device includes a keystream generator for producing a sequence of pseudorandom words from a key, and an adder that is used to sum the output of the keystream generator and the input words. A lookup table of size substantially twice the number of possible input words provides encrypted codes excluding restricted codes from the summed signal. A signal encryption and decryption system is constructed by including a second keystream generator for producing a second sequence of pseudorandom words from the key, and a second adder to produce a second summed signal from the output of the second keystream generator and the encrypted codes. A corresponding lookup table provides decrypted codes excluding restricted codes from the second summed signal.

When a signal containing valuable signal content, particularly a digital signal with video content, is transmitted from an information source through a channel to a receiver, it is frequently necessary to encrypt the signal to prevent unwanted reception by an unintended receiver. To reliably prevent unwanted reception, the plaintext digits of the input signal are frequently encrypted one digit at a time using a key that differently encodes the successive digits before transmission through the channel. A process that uses different encoding for successive digits is called a "stream cipher," which can be very secure against an undesired receiver. When decryption is performed using the same key, the process is further described as being "symmetric." Stream ciphers are a frequently preferred encryption process because the amount of digital computation is substantially reduced compared to alternative encryption processes that encode large blocks of input data. Symmetric encryption processes are also preferred due to the resulting simplicity for a user to manage keys.
Encoding with a key invariably results in an encoding period over which the encryption process repeats. However, for a substantially complex keystream generator, such as a 128-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard, also called "Rijndael," a widely used block cipher created by Joan Daemen and Vincent Rijmen) core, the length of encoding period repetition is sufficiently long to render the encryption substantially unbreakable. For even higher levels of security, the key can be changed before the encoding period repeats.
Synchronous stream cipher encryption refers to a process operating on a stream of input words wherein word-by-word encryption is performed independently of the input data stream. A commercial application frequently relying on synchronous stream cipher encryption is projection of digital video images in movie theaters. A typical digital cinema projection system includes a playback server that produces a digital video signal for a coaxial link to a digital video projector, such as a DLP® projector. Strong signal encryption is necessary for the coaxial link, because the video data produced by the server generally contains substantially higher video resolution than commonly available DVD video discs, which produces high value in alternative markets. Video data contained in server memory is already strongly encrypted to prevent reproduction. Unencrypted video data openly transmitted over a coaxial link can easily be diverted to an unintended receiver for easy unencrypted capture.
FIG. 1 illustrates a digital channel typically used in cinemas to couple a video source (not shown) to a projector (not shown). Input video signals 105 and 106 containing luminance and chrominance video data, respectively, usually with 10-bit precision, are encrypted in blocks 108 and 109. The digital encrypted signals from these blocks are multiplexed by multiplexer 110 over coaxial link 112 that transmits binary data to demultiplexer 114. After decryption of the demultiplexed signals in blocks 115 and 116, plaintext luminance and chrominance signals are reproduced on output leads 117 and 118.
A typical coaxial link between a server and a projector used in commercial cinemas is a 1.45 Gb/s HD-SDI (high definition, serial digital interface) link. An HD-SDI link is a 10-bit link with 1024 possible data codes. For 10-bit words representing a video signal, eight codes are restricted by commonly used video specification SMPTE-292 so that synchronization and other control functions can be provided for the video equipment. The eight restricted codes in the SMPTE-292 specification are the first four and last four 10-bit binary codes of the 1024 possible codes in a 10-bit signal, i.e., the codes are 0000, . . . , 0003 and 1020, . . . , 1023 (represented here using decimal notation). For a functional channel, these eight restricted codes cannot be encrypted without disabling operation of the projector. Thus, a modulator/demodulator pair in such systems is not permitted to generate or operate on these restricted codes.
FIG. 2 shows a digital signal encryption process of the prior art often used for video signals. Encryption is accomplished by modulating the plaintext input with a pseudorandom keystream in the server, and decryption is accomplished by demodulating the resulting ciphertext with the same pseudorandom keystream in the projector. Using lookup tables ("LUTs") and an AES core running in counter mode as the keystream generator, strong, efficient encryption and decryption engines can be realized. Encryption/decryption arrangements that use substantially identical processes for encryption and decryption are called "complementary."
In FIG. 2, a plaintext data stream, typically comprising 10-bit video words, is supplied as signal 202 from a video source to encryption block 205. Using a key 213 inputted to encryption block 205, keystream generator 210 produces a stream of pseudorandom, 10-bit words on lead 231. Encoding is performed using lookup table 216 that contains possible combinations of 10-bit input words and 10-bit pseudorandom words from the keystream generator 210. The resulting 10-bit ciphertext data stream produced by the lookup table and transmitted on lead 208 is inputted to decryption block 206. In decryption block 206, keystream generator 211, using key 214, produces a stream of pseudorandom 10-bit words on lead 232. Decoding is performed using lookup table 217 that again contains possible combinations of 10-bit input words and 10-bit words from the key-stream generator 211. Plaintext output data is provided on lead 203. This encryption/decryption arrangement can be constructed to be symmetric and complementary.
The arrangement illustrated in FIG. 2 can be used to produce ciphertext excluding the eight restricted words, and is operable with a wide range of encoding maps. It can implement nearly any other coding scheme by appropriately defining the lookup table mapping data. However, a significant disadvantage of this scheme is the large amount of memory that is required for the lookup table, which renders it impractical to implement using, for example, presently produced FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays). For a 10-bit data input/10-bit encryption system commonly used in cinema applications, a lookup table with roughly a million entries is required.
A second modulator/demodulator arrangement of the prior art that can be used to produce ciphertext excluding the eight restricted words is illustrated in FIG. 3. In FIG. 3, a plaintext 10-bit data stream 302 is inputted to encryption block 305. Encryption is performed by inputting a key 313 to keystream generator 310, which produces a pseudorandom stream of 10-bit words on lead 331. The plaintext input 302 is coupled to adder 321, which subtracts the number 4 from the input data. The output from adder 321 and the output of keystream generator 310 are coupled to adder 322, producing an 11-bit summed output, supplied to block 316. Block 316 performs a modulo-1016 operation on its input, and its output is coupled to adder 323, which adds the number 4 to the input data to produce the 10-bit ciphertext output on lead 308, which is transmitted over a communication channel such as coaxial line. In a modulo operation such as encountered with a summing operation, a summed result that exceeds the modulo index is altered by subtracting the modulo index from the summed result, eliminating thereby the possible need for an additional bit to represent the summed result.
Upon reception at the remote end of the communication channel, the decryption process performed in block 306 uses key 314 supplied to keystream generator 311, which produces a pseudorandom stream of 10-bit words represented by 332. Three adders, 324, 325, and 326, are also used in the decryption process, subtracting and then adding the number 4 to the data stream to produce 10-bit plaintext output 303. Block 317 performs a further modulo-1016 operation.
The process illustrated in FIG. 3 is used in movie theaters to provide video data protection for projection arrangements requiring exclusion of the eight restricted binary codes. This scheme requires no memory for lookup tables, but requires six to eight 10-bit adders (possibly including two for the two modulo functions). This scheme is the most restrictive in terms of selecting an encryption mapping, and is inefficient in terms of the amount of digital processing that must be performed for each input data word, requiring six to eight independent addition operations. The substantial number of arithmetic operations required to support a high-definition video signal, such as 1.45 Gb/s, results in a need for high-performance digital circuit elements, which add die area and expense to an integrated circuit.
The use of modulator/demodulator pairs, particularly pairs based on addition or modulo addition for synchronous stream cipher encryption, with and without restricted words, is well-known in the art. However, limitations of prior art processes in arrangements that exclude encoding of restricted words from the data stream and maintaining a high level of data security are a need for large lookup tables or extensive digital computation for encryption/decryption for each input word. Prior art schemes are also hampered by inflexibility in selection of data mappings. A need thus exists for an apparatus and method to perform highly secure encryption and decryption that is not encumbered by these limitations, particularly for systems communicating high data rate signals.

Method and apparatus for synchronous stream cipher encryption with reserved codes


A ride attraction includes a vehicle having a seat mover for use by physically disabled passengers. A swing arm is pivotally attached to a jack post in the boat, with an extension arm attached to the swing arm. The physically disabled passenger is moved to a loading position on a seat supported by a dolly. The extension arm of the seat mover engages the seat. The seat is locked onto the extension arm and unlocked from the dolly. The jack post lifts the seat high enough to clear the side of the vehicle. The seat is swung into position in the vehicle and lowered on the jack post, and then locked into position in the vehicle. Accordingly, the physically disabled are provided access to theme park ride attractions.

The field of the invention is theme or amusement park ride attractions.
Theme or amusement parks have become increasingly popular. More sophisticated and creative ride attractions have been principle factors in the popularity and success of such parks. Theme park ride attractions typically involve vehicles, such as roller coaster type cars, rail cars, automobile type cars, etc. moving along a closed or continuous loop path, either on their own wheels, or on a sub-carriage or other support. Water ride attractions similarly have water vehicles, for example, boats, submarines, or flume vehicles, moving through a water filled channel or flume path. In general, the vehicles in these types of ride attractions have seats for several passengers. The passengers step into the vehicles and seat themselves. At the end of the ride, the passengers similarly step or climb out of the vehicle.
Because access to the ride vehicles requires that the passengers be able to walk, step up, down, or to one side, with at least a nominal level of agility, the physically handicapped have been largely prevented from enjoying these types of theme park ride attractions. Wheelchair users and others having limited mobility, while increasingly gaining access to public and private buildings, transportation systems and other facilities, remain virtually excluded from most if not all of the premier attractions at amusement and theme parks. Accordingly, improvements in theme park ride attractions are necessary to better accommodate the physically disabled.

Ride attraction system for the physically disabled


Shuffle optimization in map-reduce processing. The method includes: obtaining intermediate results from a plurality of mappers for an application on a computing device; combining the intermediate results from the plurality of mappers; and partitioning the combined intermediate results into intermediate results for respective reducers for the application based on respective keys of the combined intermediate results.

Map-Reduce is a framework for processing parallelizable problems across huge datasets using a large number of computing nodes, collectively referred to as a cluster or a grid. The processing can be performed on data stored either in a filesystem (unstructured) or in a database (structured). The processing usually comprises a "map" processing, a "shuffle" processing and a "reduce" processing. In the "map" processing, each of mappers processes input data and writes output data to a temporary storage on a disk. In the "shuffle" processing, output data from the mappers will be redistributed based on output keys produced by the mappers, such that all data belonging to one key are located on the same node. In the "reduce" processing, respective reducers process each group of output data, per key, in parallel.
Particularly, in the Map-Reduce frame, for each mapper, intermediate results will be stored in memory after its generation, stored into a local disk after computation and then be copied into memory for network transmission, which means many processes. Besides, it might also result in a huge amount of files. For example, if there are M mappers and R reducers, there will be M*R intermediate files stored in the local disk. Usually, each of M and R is a large number, for example 1000, which might result in one million files for a file system such as Hadoop or Yarn system. Furthermore, such a huge number of files might in turn induce issues such as huge Input/Output (I/O), and etc.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


An optical waveguide device includes: a substrate; an optical element arranged on the substrate; and an optical circuit part having an optical waveguide formed on the substrate. The optical circuit part includes: a core whose optical axis is matched with the optical element; and a dummy core arranged on a same layer to the core and exposed on a side being not opposed to the optical element when the optical element is arranged on the substrate. The relative position between the optical waveguide and the optical element can be recognized by observing the dummy core. The planar shape of the optical circuit has a convex portion. The width of the convex portion and the width of the optical element are same in the opposing edge face where the optical element and the core is opposed to one another.

In an optical access market, optical transceivers are used. As an optical transceiver, the micro-optics type module and the PLC (Planar Lightwave Circuit) module are known. The micro-optics type module includes an LD (Laser Diode), a PD (Photodiode), a thin film filter, a lens, and the like. The PLC module is configured by fabricating a quartz waveguide on a silicon substrate, and surface-mounting an LD, PD and the like. Both of them have advantages and disadvantages; however, the PLC module is advantageous in cost and delivery because it is not required to perform the optical axis adjustment while monitoring the optical output.
As a mounting method for such a PLC module, the passive alignment mounting is known. In the passive alignment mounting, alignment of a waveguide chip in the planar direction is performed by image-recognizing alignment markers with infrared light. Alignment in the vertical direction is performed with a block called the pedestal. The pedestal is fabricated with high accuracy. By putting an optical part on the pedestal, the height of the optical part and the height of an optical waveguide can be aligned with high accuracy.
FIG. 1 is a birds-eye view illustrating a reference example of the passive alignment mounting. FIG. 2A is a plan view and FIG. 2B is a side view. In this reference example, a semiconductor laser chip (LD chip) is presumed as an optical element. An optical circuit part 120 is formed on a silicon substrate 101. The optical circuit part 120 is formed with a core 105 functioning as an optical waveguide.
The optical circuit part 120 can be formed by a following method: on the silicon substrate 101, a lower clad layer 102 is formed. On the lower clad layer 102, a core layer serving as a source of the core 105 is formed. On the core layer, a photoresist having a pattern of the core 105 is formed by the photolithography technique. An unmasked portion is removed by the RIE (Reactive Ion Etching), and thereby the core 105 is formed. Subsequently, a reflow glass layer 103 (or a buried layer) is formed. On the reflow glass layer 103, an upper clad layer 104 is formed to thereby complete the optical circuit part 120.
Examples of a cross-sectional configuration of the optical circuit part 120 formed by such a process are illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4. If the thickness of the film removed by the RIE is small, an unnecessary core layer 105a remains in addition to an optical waveguide region as illustrated in FIG. 4. In such a configuration, optical waveguide characteristics are largely deteriorated, and therefore it is not preferable that the unnecessary core layer 105a remains.
In order to surely remove the unnecessary core layer 105a, the lower clad layer 102 is typically also etched to some portion thereof in the core layer etching step because it is impossible to selectively etch only the core layer by the RIE. FIG. 3 illustrates a cross-sectional structure of the optical circuit part 120 formed in this manner. In this example, a lower surface of the core 105 is higher than the boundary face between the lower clad layer 102 and the reflow glass layer 103 in a region other than the core 105. FIG. 1 illustrates such a stacked structure.
In order to mount the LD chip 109, a silica film in a predetermined region on the silicon substrate 101 is removed. On the silicon substrate 101 in that region, pedestals 106, an electrode 107, and alignment markers 108 are formed. The pedestals 106 are designed such that when the LD chip 109 is placed on the pedestals 106, the height of an active layer 110 of the LD chip 109 and the height of the core 105 of the optical circuit part 120 coincide with each other. The electrode 107 is formed to make an electrical connection to a connecting terminal of the LD chip 109. By aligning the alignment markers 108 with alignment markers 115 on an LD chip 109 side, and fixing the LD chip 109 to the pedestals 6, an optical axis in the planar direction can be aligned.
The followings are reference techniques regarding the connection between an optical waveguide formed on a substrate and an optical element: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application JP-A-Showa, 63-5310; and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application JP-A-Heisei, 8-334655.

Optical waveguide device and manufacturing method thereof


The present disclosure relates to an assisted exoskeleton rehabilitation device, comprising: a back structure comprising a back crossbeam, a back supporting panel with an adjustable length, and a shoulder pneumatic muscle element mounted on the back supporting panel; an arm structure; a shoulder joint assembly, by which the arm structure is connected to an upper end of the back structure; and a waist structure. An upper end of the back supporting panel is fixedly connected to the back crossbeam, and a lower end thereof is fixedly connected to the waist structure. The shoulder joint assembly comprises a curved shoulder joint connecting panel, a shoulder traction wheel, a shoulder traction line, a first hinge mechanism and a second hinge mechanism. One end of the shoulder joint connecting panel is connected to the upper end of the arm structure by the first hinge mechanism to form a bend-stretch revolute pair of the shoulder joint, and the other end of the shoulder joint connecting panel is connected to the back crossbeam by the second hinge mechanism to form an abduction-adduction revolute pair and a medial rotation-lateral rotation revolute pair of the shoulder joint assembly, and the shoulder traction wheel is fixed to the upper end of the arm structure. The shoulder traction line is connected at one end to the shoulder traction wheel, and connected to the shoulder pneumatic muscle element at the other end.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to the field of biomimetic machinery, and in particular, to an assisted exoskeleton rehabilitation device driven by pneumatic muscles.
In modern society, it is necessary to develop an assisted exoskeleton device to provide limbs and body support services for care workers when they carrying the elderly or patients. This can greatly reduce the physical labor intensity of the care workers while ensuring the safety of both patients and care workers, so that the care workers can work in an easy and efficient manner. For the elderly with degenerative muscle function, an assisted exoskeleton device can help them carry out self-service in their daily life. For patients with arm injuries, an exoskeleton device can help them perform daily rehabilitation training, so that they can quickly restore their body functions.
The assisted exoskeleton rehabilitation device is a typical human-machine integrative system that performs specified functions and tasks under the control of the wearer by means of such technologies as sensing, control, information acquisition, and mobile computing. Most of the existing exoskeletons are driven by conventional motors, hydraulic cylinders, pneumatic cylinders, etc. This traditional driving method has the disadvantages of high cost, low power/mass ratio, oil leakage, and poor flexibility. Consequently, the exoskeleton product is too heavy to meet the requirements of portability and flexibility. Moreover, the price of exoskeleton product is high, such that it cannot be used widely.

Assisted exoskeleton rehabilitation device

BEIJING BOE OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


Provided is a method of transporting fluid which involves acoustic ejection into a small opening. The opening may be, for example, the inlet opening of a sample vessel. Alternatively, it may be an opening in a microfluidic device. The ejection is typically, but not necessarily carried out through the application of focused acoustic energy. The fluid being transported typically comprises a moiety of interest for analysis or further processing, which may be a biomolecule. The volumes of transported fluid may be in the nanoliter or picoliter range. Ejection may occur from very small volumes and the ejected droplet may carry away a significant fraction of the volume from which ejection occurs.

Mass spectrometry is a well-established analytical technique in which sample molecules are ionized and the resulting ions are sorted by mass-to-charge ratio. Advances in mass spectrometry have made it possible to obtain detailed information regarding a wide variety of sample surface types. In the semiconductor industry, for example, secondary ion mass spectrometry is used to determine the composition of microscopic regions of wafer surfaces. As another example, in the biotechnology arena, surface-based mass spectrometry is used to analyze single nucleotide polymorphisms in microarray formats. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,322,970 to Little et al.
Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization (MALDI) is an ionization technique commonly used for mass spectrometric analysis of large and/or labile biomolecules, such as nucleotidic and peptidic oligomers, polymers, and dendrimers, as well as for analysis of non-biomolecular compounds, such as fullerenes. MALDI is considered a "soft" ionizing technique in which both positive and negative ions are produced. The technique involves depositing a small volume of sample fluid containing an analyte on a substrate comprised of a photon-absorbing matrix material selected to enhanced desorption performance. See Karas et al. (1988), "Laser Desorption Ionization of Proteins with Molecular Masses Exceeding 10,000 Daltons," Anal. Chem. 60:2299-2301. The matrix material is usually a crystalline organic acid that absorbs electromagnetic radiation near the wavelength of the laser. When co-crystallized with analyte, the matrix material assists in the ionization and desorption of analyte moieties. The sample fluid typically contains a solvent and the analyte. Once the solvent has been evaporated from the substrate, the analyte remains on the substrate at the location where the sample fluid is deposited. Photons from a laser strike the substrate at the location of the analyte and, as a result, ions and neutral molecules are desorbed from the substrate. MALDI techniques are particularly useful in providing a means for efficiently analyzing a large number of samples. In addition, MALDI is especially useful in the analysis of minute amounts of sample that are provided over a small area of a substrate surface.
Surface Enhanced Laser Desorption Ionization (SELDI) is another example of a surface-based ionization technique that allows for high-throughput mass spectrometry. SELDI uses affinity-capture reagents, such as antibodies, to collect samples from a complex mixture, which allows in situ purification of the analyte followed by conventional MALDI analysis. Typically, SELDI is used to analyze complex mixtures of proteins and other biomolecules. SELDI employs a chemically reactive surface such as a "protein chip" to interact with analytes, e.g., proteins, in solution. Such a surface selectively interacts with analytes and immobilizes them thereon. Thus, analytes can be partially purified on the chip and then quickly analyzed in the mass spectrometer. By providing different reactive moieties at different sites on a substrate surface, throughput may be increased.
Recently, mass spectrometry techniques involving laser desorption have been adapted for cellular analysis. Cellular assays such as mass spectrometry are carried out to provide critical information for the understanding of complex cell functions. U.S. Pat. No. 5,808,300 to Caprioli, for example, describes a method for imaging biological samples with mass spectrometry using surface-based ionization. This method allows users to measure the distribution of a specific element or small molecule within biological specimens such as tissue slices or individual cells. In particular, the method can be used for the analysis of specific peptides in whole cells, e.g., by obtaining signals for peptides and proteins directly from tissues and blots of tissues. In addition, the method has been used to desorb relatively large proteins from tissues and blots of tissues in the molecular weight range beyond about 80 kilodaltons. From such samples, hundreds of peptide and protein peaks can be recorded in the mass spectrum produced from a single laser-ablated site on the sample. When a laser ablates the surface of a sample at multiple sites and the mass spectrum from each site is saved separately, a data array is produced, which contains the relative intensity of any given mass at each site. An image of the sample surface can then be constructed for any given molecular weight, effectively representing a compositional map of the sample surface.
One important issue to successful MALDI and MALDI-like profiling and imaging as described above is the controlled application of a mass-spectrometry matrix material to the tissue surface, either as a series of features or as a continuous coating so as to provide mass spectrometry matrix material at each site of laser ablation. For example, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,808,300 to Caprioli, the mass spectrometry matrix material may be applied as a continuous and uniform coating of less than about 50 micrometers in thickness. In order to apply the mass spectrometry matrix material in a controlled manner, carefully metered amounts of sample fluids should be accurately and precisely placed on a sample surface. The ability to closely compare relative abundances of a given protein between two tissues is dependent on the application of matrix in exactly the same way to both tissues.
Most current small-volume dispensing techniques, however, are not suitable for precise and reproducible matrix material application, due to limitations in volume or in accuracy of placement. For example, capillaries having a small interior channel (e.g., Eppendorf-type capillaries) are often used to transfer fluids from a pool of fluid. Their tips are submerged in the pool in order to draw fluid therefrom. In order to provide sufficient mechanical strength for handling, however, such capillaries must have a large wall thickness as compared to the interior channel diameter. Thus, the physical dimensions of such capillaries limit their fluid-handling capability. In addition, since any wetting of the exterior capillary surface results in fluid waste, the high ratio of wall thickness to channel diameter exacerbates fluid waste. Also, the pool has a minimum required volume determined not by the fluid introduced into the capillary but, rather, by the need to immerse the large exterior dimension of the capillary. As a result, the fluid volume required for capillary submersion may be more than an order of magnitude larger than the fluid volume transferred into the capillary.
A number of patents have described the use of acoustic energy in printing. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,308,547 to Lovelady et al. describes a liquid drop emitter that utilizes acoustic principles in ejecting droplets from a body of liquid ink onto a moving document to form characters or bar codes thereon. As described in a number of U.S. patent applications, acoustic ejection provides for highly accurate deposition of minute volumes of fluids on a surface, wherein droplet volume—and thus "spot" size on the substrate surface—can be carefully controlled, and droplets can be precisely directed to particular sites on a substrate surface. See, e.g., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002037579 to Ellson et al. In other words, nozzleless fluid delivery provides high fluid-delivery efficiency through accurate and precise droplet placement. Nozzleless fluid ejection also provides a high level of control over ejected droplet size.
Acoustic ejection is a technique that is well suited for depositing minute volumes of fluids on a surface because the technique allows for control over droplet volume and thus "spot" size on the surface, as well as control over the trajectory of ejected droplets and the precise location of the deposition sites on the surface. See, e.g., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20020037579 to Ellson et al. While nozzleless fluid ejection has generally been appreciated for ink printing applications, acoustic deposition is a generally unknown technique in the field of cellular analysis. Recently, focused acoustic energy has been used to manipulate cells and engage in cell sorting. See U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 20020064808, 20020064809, 20020090720, and 20020094582 to Mutz et al. In addition, as cellular assays often involve the immobilization of sample cells on a substrate surface and the controlled exposure of the cells to one or more fluids, there exist opportunities to improve cellular assay and analysis techniques through the use of acoustic ejection, particularly when such assays require the precise and accurate handling of small volumes of fluid. For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20020171037 to Ellson et al. describes the use of acoustic ejection for preparing and analyzing a cellular sample surface. Nozzleless acoustic ejection is used to deposit mass spectrometry matrix material at designated sites on a sample surface to form either a uniform matrix material layer or an array of individual sites. In addition, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20020195538 to Ellson et al. describes the use of acoustic ejection to selectively deposit analysis-enhancing fluid according to the surface characteristics of the cellular samples.
As alluded to above, conventional analysis-enhancing fluids for use in mass spectrometry are typically comprised of a mass spectrometry matrix material dissolved in a volatile carrier fluid. Once deposited on a sample surface, the carrier fluid is evaporated, thereby allowing the matrix material to precipitate and crystallize with the sample. It has recently been discovered, however, that such conventional analysis-enhancing fluids are not optimal for use in mass spectrometry when dispensed as low-volume droplets under ordinary dispensing conditions, because such fluids do not allow the matrix material to properly crystallize with the sample.
Accordingly, there is a need for methods and systems that overcome the disadvantages and limitations associated with previously known technologies.


A device for processing a biological material is disclosed. The device includes a syringe barrel comprising beads, a filter positioned at a close end of the barrel, a plunger insertable into the barrel through an open end, and a needle. The plunger includes a paddle assembly that is configured to mix a biological material with the beads after the biological material has been harvested from a patient.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Biological materials are routinely processed in order to enhance various properties or characteristics of the biological materials. For example, whole blood is often harvested from a patient or retrieved from a blood bank, and fractionated. The whole blood can be fractionated into a red blood cell concentrate, platelet-rich plasma, platelet-poor plasma, or an autologous protein solution. Likewise, bone marrow aspirate is often harvested and processed to generated concentrated bone marrow aspirate. The type of biological material being processed and the type of processing to be performed depend on individual patients and the conditions being treated.
Although biological materials are routinely processed, the devices used to process the materials are usually complex, costly, and require elaborate processing schemes. Such devices are often bulky and the processing schemes typically require multiple processing steps, which typically include centrifugations. Often, multiple centrifugation steps are necessary in order for a medical practitioner to arrive at the desired product. The centrifugation steps are timely and can result in product loss when isolating fractions.
Therefore, there is currently a need for new devices for processing biological materials that are cost effective, easy to use, and that require fewer processing steps than currently available devices.

Single step desiccating bead-in-syringe concentrating device


Computer systems, methods and program products for automating pseudonymization of personal identifying information (PII) using machine learning, metadata, and crowdsourcing patterns to identify and replace PII. Machine learning models are trained for classifying known column names or key names for processing, using metadata. Column or key names are classified to be unprocessed, anonymized or pseudonymized by a pseudonymizer without revealing PII or scrubbing data into a useless format. A library of crowdsourced patterns are utilized for matching PII to data values within column or key names and PII is mapped to replacement methods. Feedback from user annotations retrains the algorithms to improve classification accuracy and Deep Learning algorithms automate the identification of PII using regular expression generation to concisely articulate how pseudonymizers search for PII patterns within a data set. PII replacement is mapped consistently across entire data packages and the crowdsourced pattern library is updated with generated regular expressions.

Data anonymization is the use of one or more techniques designed to make it impossible or at the very least difficult to identify a particular person or personal identifying information related to a person from a data value. Data anonymization seeks to protect private or sensitive data by deleting or encrypting personally identifiable information from a database. Data anonymization methods include encryption, hashing, generalization, pseudonymization and perturbation. Data anonymization can be done for the purpose of protecting an individual's or company's private activities while maintaining the integrity of the data gathered and shared. Data anonymization techniques seek to conceal the identity and identifiers that can be applied to a person. Personal identifying information may include family names, first names, maiden names, aliases, addresses, phone numbers, ID numbers, social security numbers, credit card info, etc. Data anonymization is also known as "data obfuscation," "data masking," or "data de-identification.".

International Business Machines Corporation


A photonic television system for propagating an image of light, in the form of its original three dimensional photonic makeup, through an airless, light proof, wave guide structure, utilizing a unique system of plastic concave and convex lenses in tandem, whose physical spacing is preferably one focal length from each other, which results in the photons of the image to be continually expanding and contracting, as they automatically propagate through each lens to the end of the wave guide, where via conventional magnifying lenses, the three dimensional image can be seen by a viewer, in a manner similar when viewing a microscope or telescope.

The photonic television system is a completely new method and apparatus of transmitting images over a distance, as compared to the conventional electronic television system currently in worldwide use. By its very nature of using photons, instead of electrons, the photonic television system has no electronic circuits and over short distances utilizes no power at all.
The photonic television system transmits images over a short distance such as a closed circuit television system of monitoring various rooms of a house or office building. In order for this system to transmit images over a greater distance, a photonic image amplifier should be installed at various points along the route.
The conventional electronic system breaks the light images up into electrical signals which are then transmitted through a median such as a coaxial cable and or electromagnetic waves to the distant receiver which then converts the electric signals back to a visual image. The photonic television system does not break-up or convert the visual image, but instead transmits the image in its actual original form which is simply comprised of myriads of photons each at various levels or states (energy levels) (colors).
The design of the photonic television system is considerably simpler in relation to the conventional electronic television system. The photonic television system transmits the visual image by a medium called a photonic wave guide. The photonic television system comprises a unique system of lenses, all internally incorporated within a physical structure consisting of a photonic wave guide which is joined at both ends by a photonic camera and a photonic projector.
Conventional wave guides taught by, e.g., Kogelnik U.S. Pat. No. 3,410,623 and Gloge U.S. Pat. No. 3,653,738 are different from the wave guide system of the invention as follows:
(1) existing optical wave guides use coherent light (laser photons), as opposed to the incoherent light (conventional or natural photons of light comprised of myriads of frequencies) that the photonic wave guide uses; PA1 (2) existing optical wave guides transmit beams of light in which each beam conveys one bit of information; at any one instant of time, as opposed to the photonic wave guide which transmits images of light, in which each image conveys myriads of information (many colors or frequencies) at any one instant of time; and PA1 (3) existing optical wave guides have been designed to utilize the properties of coherent light to cause a desired function to occur, as opposed to the photonic wave guide which uses the properties of incoherent light to cause a desired function to occur.

Photonic television system with waveguide containing alternating concave and convex lenses


In an online marketplace, buyers and sellers engage in transactions. Some transactions are fraudulent. The online marketplace uses a fraud detection system that identifies fraudulent transactions before an account holder is defrauded. In some example embodiments of the systems and methods described herein, a fraud detection system uses information that is indirectly associated with a transaction to determine if the transaction is fraudulent. A user interface is provided that shows relationships between accounts and objects. In response to input received via the user interface, the fraud detection system performs an action on an account, an object, or a transaction.

Fraud detection systems identify fraudulent transactions based on data directly associated with the transaction. For example, a transaction by an account known to commit fraud, a transaction being paid for using a credit card known to be used in fraudulent transactions, and a transaction for an item to be shipped to a shipping address known to be used for fraudulent transactions may all be identified as fraudulent.

User interface for fraud detection system


Methods and systems for detecting defects on a wafer are provided. One method includes acquiring output for a wafer generated by an inspection system. Different dies are printed on the wafer with different process conditions. The different process conditions correspond to different failure modes for the wafer. The method also includes comparing the output generated for a first of the different dies printed with the different process conditions corresponding to a first of the different failure modes with the output generated for a second of the different dies printed with the different process conditions corresponding to a second of the different failure modes opposite to the first of the different failure modes. In addition, the method includes detecting defects on the wafer based on results of the comparing step.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to methods and systems for pattern failure discovery using comparisons of dies printed on a wafer with alternating failure modes for the wafer.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following description and examples are not admitted to be prior art by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Inspection processes are used at various steps during a semiconductor manufacturing process to detect defects on wafers to promote higher yield in the manufacturing process and thus higher profits. Inspection has always been an important part of fabricating semiconductor devices. However, as the dimensions of semiconductor devices decrease, inspection becomes even more important to the successful manufacture of acceptable semiconductor devices because smaller defects can cause the devices to fail.
In general, semiconductor fabrication processes involve printing multiple dies on a wafer at the same process conditions across the entire wafer. For example, an entire wafer is typically processed with the best known process conditions such that the same devices can be formed across the entire wafer with the greatest probability that the devices will be formed with the desired characteristics. However, in some instances, multiple dies may be printed on a single wafer with different process conditions. Such printing of a wafer may be performed such that dies printed at different process conditions can be used to determine more information about a design for the wafer or the process performed on the wafer.
In one such instance, a wafer may be printed with different focus and exposure values across the wafer. Modulated dies (i.e., the dies printed at values of the focus and exposure other than nominal) may be compared to a nominal die (i.e., a die printed at nominal values for the focus and exposure) using what is commonly referred to as a process window qualification (PWQ) wafer layout. Alternatively, a modulated die may be compared to an adjacent, less or more, modulated die using a focus exposure matrix (FEM) wafer layout. In a FEM wafer layout, the dies across a row on the wafer may be varied in exposure, and the dies across a column on the wafer may be varied in focus. In this manner, different dies can be printed on the same wafer with different combinations of focus and exposure dose. PWQ is intended to increase the detection sensitivity by comparing modulated dies to a nominal die. In contrast, FEM is often used to define a process window by comparing adjacent modulated dies to each other.
The methods described above that use modulated dies have several challenges. For example, too many defects can be detected in the methods described above, which impairs the ability to effectively sample defects. In particular, when comparing highly modulated dies to a nominal die, detection is easier but at modulations near normal, the noise level can increase. This results in a substantially high defect count and often makes it difficult to sample real defects. If a defect is sampled from a lower modulation, the amount of pattern deformation may be so small as to be non-existent and therefore may be ignored as nuisance. Often, defect review time is wasted, and a defect review tool user may experience fatigue in looking at so many non-relevant patterns. In other words, much effort can be wasted in inspecting and/or reviewing at irrelevant lithography conditions. In addition, even with exhaustive efforts in defect review, key weak points still may be missed due to lack of ability to verify the defects using scanning electron microscope (SEM) images.
The currently used wafer layouts for the methods described above are not efficient for delivering data with relatively high signal for the purposes of the experiments. For example, the shot locations of the wafer area used for nominal die (at least two columns) are wasted since they are not being used to print potential systematic defects. In turn, users often find that there is an insufficient number of modulations across a wafer. On the other hand, printing one die per modulation reduces the chance of finding systematic defects due to variation across the wafer. In addition, if the modulated die happens to be at a "quieter" area of the wafer, pattern failure due to cross-wafer variation may be captured as well.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to develop systems and/or methods that do not have one or more of the disadvantages described above.

Pattern failure discovery by leveraging nominal characteristics of alternating failure modes


A scanning SQUID microscope capable of high frequency magnetic field measurements uses a hysteretic SQUID detector and a pulsed sampling technique which permits to extend the bandwidth of the SQUID microscope to above GHz region. The system can be readily incorporated into a 4.2k scanning SQUID microscope for imaging chips at room temperature. By biasing the hysteretic SQUID with pulses of a predetermined amplitude, and adjusting a modulation flux applied to the hysteretic SQUID at a plurality of time delays between the activation of the sample under study and the bias pulse, the hysteretic SQUID can be switched on, and the modulation flux value corresponding to such a switching event as a function of time is considered as representation of the magnetic field emanating from the sample under study.

In scanning SQUID microscopes, the output from a small Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) is recorded as a sample is moved relative to the SQUID. The SQUID acts as the approximately point-like near field detector of the magnetic field, and the resulting data is used to construct an image of magnetic fields from the sample. The image of magnetic fields is further converted into the images of currents flowing in the sample under study by standard magnetical inverse.
The SQUID consists of two superconductors separated by thin insulating layers to form two parallel Josephson junctions. The device may be configured as a magnetometer to detect extremely small magnetic fields—small enough to measure the magnetic fields of living organisms.
The great sensitivity of the SQUID devices is associated with measuring changes in magnetic fields associated with one flux quantum. One of the discoveries associated with Josephson junction was that flux is quantized in units
                              Φ          0                =                                            2                            π                                                                                h                                      2                            e                                ≅                      2.0678            ×                          10                              -                15                                                                tesla              ·                              m                2                                                                        (        1        )
If a constant biasing current is maintained in the SQUID device, the measured voltage oscillates with the changes in phase at the two junctions, which depends upon the change in the magnetic flux. Counting the oscillations permits evaluation of the flux change which has occurred.
One of the main commercial applications of SQUID microscopes is fault detection of importance in the semiconductor industry. Images of the source currents can be generated by applying a magnetic inverse technique to the magnetic field images. Disadvantageously, with the present technology, the bandwidth of SQUID microscopes has not exceeded a few MHz. This is not an inherent limitation of the SQUID itself, whose bandwidth is many order of magnitude higher but rather of the electronics used to monitor the SQUID.
The present SQUID electronics consists of a feedback loop which maintains the magnetic flux through the SQUID loop constant. The electronics is based around an internal oscillator which operates typically at 100–300 KHz. The closed loop gain actually drops off somewhat lower than this value. Since the present invention of computer processors operate at over a GHz, well above the bandwidth of the present SQUID microscopes, the fault detection in the semiconductor industry with the present SQUID microscopes is somewhat limited for traditional scanning SQUID microscopes.
With the advance of semiconductor processor clock speed in excess of a GHz, the ability to image over a much larger bandwidth is desirable.
Therefore, the scanning SQUID microscopes with extended bandwidths to and above a GHz region is desirable and needed in magnetic microscopy.

High frequency scanning SQUID microscope and method of measuring high frequency magnetic fields


A fingerprint acquisition apparatus including a plurality of sensing units is provided. The fingerprint acquisition apparatus is used for sensing the ridge portion and the valley portion of a fingerprint. Each sensing unit includes a built-in capacitor. There is an inducing capacitance generated between each of the sensing units and the fingerprint while the fingerprint touches each of the sensing units. The fingerprint acquisition apparatus of the invention generates a fingerprint pattern by detecting the difference of inducing capacitances between the ridge portion of the fingerprint and the valley portion of the fingerprint.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a fingerprint acquisition apparatus, and more particularly to a fingerprint acquisition apparatus which determines a fingerprint pattern according to inducing capacitance.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional optical fingerprint acquisition apparatus includes a sensing lens, a light source and other relevant mechanical devices. Despite the precision is acceptable, it is difficult for the optical fingerprint acquisition apparatus to be applied to the single chip of a portable device (such as a mobile phone) due to the structural complexity of the system employed. In order to apply to the single chip, the fingerprint acquisition system can be implemented completely by a micro electromechanical (MEM) system. However, the cost is too high.

Fingerprint acquisition apparatus and method therefor


A vehicle suspension comprising first and second arms mountable to a vehicle frame for vertical swinging movement adjacent opposite sides of the vehicle frame, each of which mounts an axle for rotatably supporting at least one ground-engaging wheel thereon. Air springs are mounted between the arms and the frame in load-transmitting relation therebetween. An improved axle lift mechanism for lifting the axles and the at least one wheel responsive to relief of air pressure in the air springs is provided which comprises first and second telescoping guide members mountable to the frame, each of which have a distal end adapted to be positioned adjacent opposing sides of the frame and being movable between a retracted position and an extended position. A first lever mechanism is adapted to be mounted to the frame, and is mounted to the distal end of the first telescoping guide member and to the first arm. A second lever mechanism is adapted to be mounted to the frame, and is mounted to the distal end of the second telescoping guide member and to the second arm. The arms are raised with respect to the frame when the first and second telescoping guide members move between the extended and the retracted positions. A spring is mounted to the first and second telescoping guide member to bias the first and second telescoping guide members into the retracted position.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to axle lift mechanisms for load-carrying vehicles and, more particularly, to lift mechanisms for automatically raising an axle/wheel assembly so as to disengage the wheels from a ground surface.
2. Description of the Related Art
Several types of vehicles, including semi-trailer truck vehicles and the like, have multiple sets of axle/wheel assemblies arranged in tandem so as to adequately support relatively heavy loads. To adjust the load support provided by these tandem assemblies, it is known to employ suspension systems utilizing adjustably pressurized air springs and the like.
When the vehicle is carrying a relatively light load, it is desirable to relieve the load transmitting relationship between the vehicle and one or more of the axle/wheel assemblies, and also to disengage the axle/wheel assembly from ground contact so as to reduce tire wear. To relieve load support when an air suspension system is employed, air pressure in the suspension can be reduced. To achieve disengagement of the tires from the ground surface, devices commonly referred to as axle lift mechanisms can be employed. Prior lift mechanisms utilized stressed mechanical springs located adjacent each wheel which acted directly between a vehicle frame and the axle. When the downward load forces exerted on the axle by the suspension system were relieved, such as through deflation of air springs, lifting forces exerted by the mechanical springs pulled the axle upwardly to a raised position.
In addition to lifting a set of wheels from engagement with a ground surface, an additional function of the retractable suspension is to permit the utilization of the vehicle on a railway in addition to use on a highway. FIG. 1 illustrates a typical configuration of a trailer 10 having a suspension 12 in a retracted position, and mounted on a bogie 14 adapted for railroad use. The retractable suspension 12 serves to both lift the trailer 10 a sufficient distance to permit the rail bogie 14 or other support to be placed beneath the trailer and thereafter retract the wheels from the ground to permit the trailer 10 to rest and ride upon the bogie 14 or other support.
An example of one such axle lift mechanism is depicted in FIG. 2 and generally corresponds to the mechanism disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,771,812 to Pierce et al., issued Nov. 13, 1973 which is incorporated herein by reference. Referring to FIG. 2, a first prior art axle lift mechanism 16 is used with a vehicle having a wheel 18 mounted to an axle 20. The axle 20 is connected to a trailing arm 22 through a conventional U-bolt 24 and nuts 26. The trailing arm 22 is pivotably mounted through a pivot connection 28 to a bracket 30 rigidly secured to a vehicle frame 32. The opposing end of the trailing arm 22 is secured to a conventional air spring 34 mounted to the vehicle frame 32 through bracket 36.
When the air spring 34 is inflated, load from the vehicle is transmitted through the vehicle frame 32 to the trailing arm 22. The force exerted by the air pressure in air spring 34 pivots the trailing arm 22 through the pivot connection 28 so that wheel 18 engages the ground surface.
The first prior art axle lift mechanism 16 includes a lever arm 38 mounted to the vehicle frame 32 through a pivot connection 40. One end of a coil spring 42 is connected to the lever arm 38 above the pivot connection 40 with an opposing end of the spring 42 secured to the vehicle frame 32 by an adjustable connection 44. The axle lift mechanism 16 also includes a chain 46 having an upper end secured to lever arm 38 through a bolt 48 and a lower end secured to the axle 20 through a lug 50.
When the vehicle is carrying a relatively light load, it is desirable to disengage the wheel 18 from a ground surface. Accordingly, air pressure in the air spring 34 is decreased and the load forces normally exerted on the trailing arm 22 by vehicle frame 32 are correspondingly relieved. With the load forces on trailing arm 22 relieved, the tension of coil spring 42 rotates lever arm 38 in a counterclockwise direction. Correspondingly, link chain 46 lifts the wheel 18 and axle 20 to an appropriately raised position as shown in dotted line format in FIG. 2.
A second prior art axle lift mechanism 60 is shown in FIG. 3 and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,634,141 which is incorporated herein by reference. Lift mechanism 60 is used with a trailing arm 62 pivotably mounted at one end to a bracket 66 through pivot connection 64. Bracket 66 is rigidly secured to a vehicle frame 68. Although not shown in FIG. 3, the trailing arm 62 can also be connected to a vehicle axle and releasably coupled in a load supporting relationship to the vehicle frame 68 through an air suspension system in a manner similar to trailing arm 22 depicted in FIG. 2.
The lift mechanism 60 includes a lever arm 70 having its lower end coupled to the vehicle frame 68 through a pivot connection 72. A rigid bar 74 is pivotably coupled at one end to a top portion of the lever arm 70 in an over center arrangement through pivot connection 76. An opposing end of rigid bar 74 is received through an aperture of a spring cup 78 and secured thereto with a fastener 80.
The spring cup 78 and rigid bar 74 are mounted within a tubular housing 82 shown in sectional configuration in FIG. 3. A spring 84 is mounted within the housing 82 and has one end which bears against spring cup 78 and an opposite end which bears against a stationary lip 86 of housing 82.
A link 88 is also coupled to lever arm 70 and rigid bar 74 at the pivot connection 76 which is correspondingly connected to a clevis link 90 and lifting chain 92 comprising a series of links 94. The lifting chain 92 is connected at its lower end to the trailing arm 62 through an anchor 96.
The operation of the second prior art axle lift mechanism 60 is similar to the operation of the lift mechanism 16 previously described with respect to FIG. 2. That is, with the air spring (not shown) in a deflated state, the lift mechanism 60 will operate to lift the trailing arm 62 and interconnected axle and wheels. The lifting force is provided by forces exerted by the compression spring 84 bearing against the spring cup 78. The forces exerted on the spring cup 78 are translated through the rigid bar 74 to rotate the lever arm 70 through pivot connection 72. Rotation of lever arm 70 correspondingly exerts lifting forces on trailing arm 62 through bar link 88, clevis link 90 and lifting chain 92.
FIG. 4 shows a third embodiment of a prior art axle lift mechanism 100 also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,634,141 which is used on a vehicle having a normally lowered axle/wheel assembly to automatically lift and maintain the assembly in a raised position when the vehicle is not heavily loaded. A trailing arm 102 is connected to a vehicle axle (not shown) and an air spring (not shown). The trailing arm 102 is pivotably coupled at one end to a vehicle frame 104. The lift mechanism 100 includes a flexible strap 106 secured at one end to the trailing arm 102 and wound around a pivotable cam 108. The opposite end of the strap 106 is coupled to a rod 110 adjustably engaged with a spring cup 112. A tapered coil spring 114 which is coaxial with the rod 110 bears against the spring cup 112 and exerts forces on the rod 110 and strap 106 sufficient to rotate the cam 108 and lift the trailing arm 102 and axle (not shown) to a raised position when the pressure in the air spring (not shown) is relieved.
The flexible strap 106 acts as a cam linkage which operatively connects the coil spring 114 and the trailing arm 102. The flexible strap 106 is connected so that forces exerted by the coil spring 114 are translated coaxially through the flexible strap 106 to lift the trailing arm 102.
In prior art axle lift mechanisms disclosed in FIGS. 2-4, a spring mechanism is required to be located adjacent each wheel on each side of the axle in each suspension which requires the use of more than one spring and its associated components for each suspension. These additional components add materials cost and additional weight to the vehicle.


A computer-implemented method for referencing a mutable out-of-line monitor for a shared object in read-only memory, comprising creating a lockword with a pointer field set to zero and a pre-set inflated bit when the object is stored in read-only memory. An out-of-line monitor table is referenced when encountering the lockword with the pointer field set to zero and the pre-set inflated bit. The desired monitor referenced in the out-of-line monitor table is identified based on the address of the lockword.

1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates generally to distributed environment synchronizers, and, more particularly, to out-of-line monitors for shared objects stored in read-only memory.
2. Description of Related Art
It is often desirable to share data structures between threads or processes in a distributed computing environment to coordinate and communicate between multiple threads or processes in execution. However, implementation of a shared object invariably requires the implementation of access control. A monitor is one data structure that satisfies this need. A monitor enables mutually exclusive access to variables within the shared object. Additionally, a monitor allows one thread or process to wait for conditions triggered by another thread or process accessing the shared object. Monitors are therefore successful data structures for implementing access control.
Monitors typically require some form of mutability to indicate and handle a "contention" event, which occurs when one computing thread or process attempts to acquire a lock on a shared object while the lock is already held by another thread or process. Monitor data is traditionally stored in the header for a shared object. This presents a challenge when the shared object is stored in read-only memory, because a read-only object will invariably have a read-only header. The common solution places the monitor data within a table, rather than in the header. In a mixed environment containing both read-only and read-write objects, this solution causes unnecessary performance degradation, because read-only and read-write objects are identical from the viewpoint of the managed runtime. A table search would be required to access the monitor of any object. The traditional solution of referencing monitor information within the object headers is far more optimal.

Synchronizer with out-of-line monitors for shared objects in read-only memory


Chemical bath deposition (CBD) has proved top be the most favorable method for application of a buffer layer to semiconductor substrates, for example, chalcopyrite thin-film solar cells, whereby previously cadmium sulphide (CdS) was deposited and as cadmium is a highly toxic heavy metal, alternatives have been required. According to the invention, the semiconductor substrate is dipped in a solution for approximately 10 minutes, produced by the dissolution of zinc sulphate (0.05-0.5 mol/l) and thiourea (0.2 to 1.5 mol/l) in distilled water at a temperature being held essentially constant throughout said period. For the first time, the ZnS layer permits comparable or higher efficiencies than conventionally only achieved with toxic cadmium compounds. The method is hence much more environmentally-friendly with the same result.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention, in general, relates to a novel method of applying a zinc sulfide buffer layer to a semiconductor substrate by chemical bath deposition, and, more particularly, to the absorber layer of a thin-film solar cell. The method may also be applied, for instance, in the production of II-IV "superstrat" thin-film solar cells and chalcopyrite "superstrat" thin-film solar cells.
2. The Prior Art
Currently, great efforts are being made to develop cost-efficient solar cells. In this respect, chalcopyrite thin-film solar cells represent the latest state of development. In this connection, layers of copper and indium are applied to a substrate. Gallium may be added optionally. The gallium is then reacted with selenium and/or sulfur (CIS, CIGS or CIGSSe, generally CIS solar cells). Among the thin-film technologies, the CIS technology is especially interesting because of its environmental compatibility and because of its low costs.
The solar cells are produced by initially applying, usually in a high vacuum, an electrically conductive layer, usually a sputtered layer of molybdenum, onto float glass or soda lime glass followed by CIS, CIGS or CIGSSe of a thickness of less than 3 μm. As a rule, a buffer layer of cadmium sulfide is applied to this absorber layer. The cover layer then is a transparent and conductive layer, the so-called window layer. For producing modules, the absorber is applied to a structured glass-molybdenum substrate and is also structured following the application of the buffer layer, resulting in an electrical connection. By contacting and framing the entire structure a thin-film solar module results which serves to convert light energy into electrical power.
Because of the disadvantages of glass as a substrate various efforts have also been made to use flexible materials instead of glass. Thus, solar modules are known in which a metallic band is used as the substrate. Plastic foils have also become known for the CIS deposition. An electrolytic application of the CIS layer has also been suggested.
For such thin-film solar cells to operate efficiently, a buffer layer is required between the absorber layer (e.g. Cu(InaGab)(SxSey) and the window layer (i-ZnO/ZnO:Ga). It protects the surface from damage which may result from the application of the window layer. Furthermore, it provides for surface-doping of the absorber layer as well as for passivation of the surface to yield lower surface conditions. The three usual processes, viz. sputtering, vapor deposition or (electro-)chemical deposition are used to apply this very thin buffer layer. Sputtering and vapor deposition both require considerably complex apparatus. Chemical bath deposition (CBD) up to now precipitating cadmium sulfide (CdS) has so far been most desirable. Moreover, below 50 nm, only CBD results in a thin homogenous and uniform cover.
Since cadmium is an extremely toxic heavy metal attempts have been made to find alternatives. Thus, instead of cadmium sulfide, zinc sulfide (ZnS) may be used as well (see, e.g. Nakada et al., Polycrystalline (Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Thin Film Solar Cells with Chemically Deposited Sulfide (CdS, ZnS) Buffer Layers; 2nd World Conference and Exhibition on Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conversion, 6-10 Jul. 1998, Vienna.
However, chemical bath deposition processes using zinc sulfide have good deposition rates only when simultaneously using hydrazine. In such a process, zinc sulfide is precipitated from a solution of zinc acetate, thiourea, ammonia and hydrazine, see e.g. Neve et al., ERDA Analysis of ZnSx(OH)y Thin Films Obtained by Chemical Bath Deposition, Mat. Res. Symp. Proc. Vol. 668, 2001 Materials Research Society, H5.3.1- H5.3.6 or Ennaoui et al., Highly Efficient Cu(Ga,In)(S,Se)2 Thin Film Solar Cells with Zinc-Compound Buffer Layers, Thin Solid Films 431-432 (2003) pp. 335-339. According to the tests by Neve et al. ammonia may be left out; however, hydrazine is absolutely necessary. Since, however, hydrazine is classified as toxic and carcinogenic, this process offers not much of an ecological advantage. See Herrero et al. Journal of Electrochemical Society, Vol. 142, No. 3, 1995, S. 764-770.

Method of the application of a zinc sulfide buffer layer on a semiconductor substrate

Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin fuer Materialien und Energie GmbH


A method for initializing a device for performing acoustic speech recognition (ASR) using an ASR model, by a computer system including at least one processor and a system memory element. The method includes obtaining a plurality of voice data articulations of predetermined phrases, by the at least one processor via a user interface. The plurality of voice data articulations includes a first quantity of audio samples of actual articulated voice data, and each of the plurality of voice data articulations includes one of the audio samples including acoustic frequency components. The method further includes performing a plurality of augmentations to the plurality of voice data articulations of predetermined phrases, to generate a corpus audio data set that includes the first quantity of audio samples and a second quantity of audio samples including augmented versions of the first quantity of audio samples.

In modern aircraft, advances in sensor and information processing technologies have led to a significant increase in the amount of information available to a pilot. Although this generally enables the pilot to gain a better situational awareness at any given time, the pilot often is required to scan information from several sources in order to gain that situational awareness. In addition, with the increased complexity of modern aircraft, the pilot may be required to control more aircraft systems and sub-systems than were present in less technologically complex aircraft of the past.
During aircraft operations, a pilot is required to accurately determine and maintain continual awareness of various elements of the current aircraft status, such as speed, altitude, location, direction of flight, external atmospheric conditions, cabin conditions, fuel status, and rate of change of various parameters, among a host of other things. Furthermore, it is particularly important to ensure, during take-off and landing, that the aircraft is functioning normally within various parameter bounds, and that external conditions are favorable for the take-off or landing maneuvers. In general, however, given the number of parameters that a pilot needs to accurately determine and monitor during the various phases of aircraft operations, the pilot may have very limited time to make important decisions regarding control of the aircraft.
In addition, the pilot frequently may be required to remove a hand from the control instrumentation and to divert his or her attention from the task at hand to manipulate physical components of a user interface (e.g., keys, dials, buttons, levers, and so on) in order to alter the aircraft operations in light of the information associated with the monitored parameters. The monitoring and control of the aircraft may impose a considerable amount of strain on a pilot, at times.
One method/system that has been developed in recent years to assist the pilot in maintaining situational awareness and reducing the manipulation of physical components of the user interface is acoustic speech recognition (ASR). ASR methods/systems receive voice inputs from either the pilot or an air traffic controller and make appropriate changes to the aircraft systems that otherwise would have required a pilot input. For example, ASR methods/systems may be capable of receiving a voice input from an air traffic controller (sent via radio to the aircraft) indicative of a request for change in radio frequency, altitude, heading, speed, or some other aircraft operational parameter, which may be recognized and automatically input at the appropriate system of the aircraft, thereby relieving the pilot of this burden. In another scenario, ASR methods/systems may be capable of receiving a voice input from the pilot indicative of a command for change in radio frequency, altitude, heading, speed, or some other aircraft operational parameter, which may be recognized and automatically input at the appropriate system of the aircraft, thereby relieving the pilot of this burden.
One challenge in ASR technologies has been achieving an acceptable level of accuracy in speech recognition, so as to avoid incorrect inputs to the aircraft systems. In prior art ASR methods/systems, an acceptable level of accuracy in speech recognition has been based on model training by a large amount of "voice corpus" data. As used herein, the term "voice corpus" data refers to the "body" of voice recordings that is used to train the ASR system. In aviation industry applications, however, collecting and labelling voice corpus data is difficult due to the number of different speakers (any given aircraft is typically piloted by numerous different flight crews) and the ambient sound environment (engine and other sounds during flight may distort the voice corpus data).
Based on the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide aircraft cockpit acoustic speech recognition methods and systems that achieve a relatively high accuracy level with limited voice corpus data. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the disclosure will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, brief summary, technical field, and this background of the disclosure.

Methods and systems for cockpit speech recognition acoustic model training with multi-level corpus data augmentation


A wire rod or a steel wire of a bamboo nano-structure, whose mean grain diameter in a C-direction section is 200 nm or smaller, is prepared by applying a hot or warm working and additionally applying a cold working to a steel and next, by performing a forging, by a tool or a die such as cold pressure production, to a section, of a desired, limited site, other than a section parallel to an L-direction, an equiaxed nano-structure, whose mean grain diameter is 200 nm or smaller, is formed in this site. As a typical example of a formed article, there is enumerated a high strength micro screw in which a shaft outer diameter is 1.6 mm or smaller, a surface layer part of a head part recess has equiaxed nano-structure and a hardness Hv≧300, and a screw main body portion has bamboo nano-structure and a hardness Hv≧250.

In regard to a formed article represented by a fastening component, such as a bolt and a screw, used in various products extending from a precision large machine such as automobiles and air craft to a small precision equipment such as various electric appliances and information equipment, a greater toughness and a greater increase in life are demanded from viewpoints of safety, convenience and compactification of the product, or the like. Moreover, about a manufacturing process of the formed article, it is also an important requirement to reduce a load to environment.
Hitherto, in regard to the toughening of a steel-made component, it is achieved by optimizing mainly an alloy constituent, and conditions of a working and a heat treatment. In regard to this, recently, there is studied a manufacturing technique of the formed article, in which an energy conservation, a conservation of natural resources, and a reduction in environment load become possible. For example, in JP-A-2004-60046 (hereafter, referred to as Patent Document 1), there are proposed a high strength formed article including a screw and the bolt, and a manufacturing method of the same, i.e., the high strength formed article whose strength is ensured by forming a hyperfine structure, e.g., a pressure-produced article, and various components and members, without depending on an addition of alloy element or a refining treatment, and the method capable of simply manufacturing that high strength formed article. That is, according to the Patent Document 1, there is disclosed the high strength formed article in which a wire rod whose mean grain diameter in short diameter is 0.5 μm in minimum is header-formed, and which is worked to a small screw or the bolt or a rivet by being form-rolled (refer to, e.g., paragraph number 0018, Table 2, Table 3 in the same Patent Document).
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2004-60046 However, in the same Patent Document, the mean grain diameter of the formed article is 0.5 μm even in minimum, and a tensile strength TS is 843 MPa even in maximum. And, especially, about a structure form and a strength as to a cold pressure-produced part in a head part of the wire rod made hyperfine grains to 0.5 μm in the mean grain diameter, there is neither description nor suggestion. Accordingly, in regard to the formed article in which a strength in a site, to which the cold pressure production is applied, is especially emphasized, and a strength higher than a level disclosed in the same Patent Document is demanded in a formed article main body, it is impossible to cope with it.

High strength formed article comprising hyperfine grain structure steel and manufacturing method of the same

National Institute for Materials Science


A droplet discharging method for discharging a liquid inside a pressure chamber as a droplet from a nozzle, by applying a drive waveform to an actuator for causing change in volume of the pressure chamber filled with the liquid, is characterized by that: by taking volume of the pressure chamber as V, taking cross-sectional surface area of the nozzle as A, taking a length of the nozzle as l0, taking a density of the liquid to be discharged as ρ, taking viscosity coefficient of the liquid to be discharged as μ, and taking rate of transmission of a pressure wave transmitted through the liquid inside the pressure chamber as c, these respective factors are established in such a manner that a condition expressed by the following inequality expression is satisfied:

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a droplet discharging method and apparatus, and more particularly, to a droplet discharging method and apparatus whereby a liquid, such as ink with high viscosity, or the like, can be discharged at a sufficient speed in the form of a minute droplet, by means of an inkjet method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A droplet discharging apparatus according to an inkjet method records images, or the like, by discharging a liquid, such as ink, or the like, towards a recording medium, as droplets, from nozzles formed on the recording head. There are various ink discharging methods for an ink droplet discharging apparatus based on an inkjet method, and a method is known, for example, whereby the volume of a pressure chamber is caused to change by means of deformation of a piezoelectric ceramic, ink is provided into the pressure chamber from an ink supply passage when the volume is increased, and the ink inside the pressure chamber is discharged from the nozzle as a droplet when the volume of the pressure chamber is reduced.
In an ink droplet discharging apparatus of this kind, in order to increase the resolution of the recording, it is necessary to discharge ink droplets of small volume, and hence various means for achieving this have been implemented. For example, a method is known wherein an ink droplet is torn off, thereby miniaturizing the size of the propelled ink droplet, by pulling back a portion of an ink droplet that is about to be propelled from a nozzle, by applying a subsequent additional drive waveform to an actuator for changing the volume of the pressure chamber, after a drive waveform for discharging ink has been applied (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-170515).
Moreover, as described above, the drive waveform for discharging ink is applied to the actuator which changes the volume of the pressure chamber, and subsequently, an additional drive waveform for miniaturizing the ink droplet is applied, whereupon a drive waveform for stabilizing the vibrating state of the meniscus face of the ink is further applied, and in such a manner that the speed of the droplet of ink discharged subsequently is prevented from declining (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-227203).
However, both of the cases disclosed in the reference patents described above are premised on the fact that the ink inside the pressure chamber performs vibration (intrinsic vibration) according to a natural period, ink droplets being miniaturized before discharging by utilizing this intrinsic vibration in the case of the method according to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-170515, and the meniscus face of the ink being stabilized by means of a subsequently applied stabilizing waveform (pulse), as described above, if the viscosity is low due to high temperature, by utilizing this intrinsic vibration, in the case of the method according to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-227203, so that both cases are premised on the intrinsic vibration of the meniscus face, and the discharge timing is controlled by a drive waveform which utilizes this intrinsic vibration, then the design of the drive waveform is subject to temporal restrictions and cycle-related restrictions, and hence improvements are desired.
In general, as the viscosity of a liquid increases, the resisting force directly proportional to the flow rate of the liquid also increases. Consequently, in the case of high viscosity in a conventional ink droplet discharging apparatus as described above, then if a droplet is discharged by driving the actuator under the same drive conditions as a low-viscosity liquid, the speed of the propelled droplet declined in accordance with the aforementioned resisting force. Moreover, if the viscosity of the ink is high, then the refilling of the ink after discharge of the ink droplet will be slow, and consequently, it will take a long time to return to the initial state after discharging of the ink, and hence the recording (printing) speed will decline.

Droplet discharging method and apparatus

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Disclosed are systems, apparatus, devices, methods, media, products, and other implementations, including a method that includes determining, at a first wireless device comprising multiple transmit antennas, at least one signal transmission characteristic according to at least one pre-determined varying transmission characteristic determination process. The at least one transmission characteristic includes, for example, a transmit antenna selected from the multiple transmit antennas, a beam characteristic, a cyclic delay diversity parameter, and/or any combination thereof. The method also includes transmitting from the first wireless device to a second wireless device a signal using the at least one signal transmission characteristic determined according to the at least one pre-determined varying transmission characteristic determination process. The transmitted signal is configured to facilitate position determination of the second wireless device upon deriving at the second wireless device a reconstructed value of the at least one signal transmission characteristic determined at the first wireless device.

One technique to facilitate location determination is based on use of signal parameters of a signal received at a device whose position/location is to be determined. For example, measurements such as round-trip time (RTT), received signal strength indicator (RSSI), etc., can be used to facilitate position determination through such techniques as, for example, RTT-fingerprinting, RSSI-fingerprinting, etc.
Signal information needed for position determination (including indoor positioning determination using signals transmitted by WiFi base stations) can generally be collected by anyone with access to the venue. This may be problematic for venue owners operating the signal-transmitting base stations, who could lose possible monetization benefits they could have received from providing position-determination services that are being diverted by 3rd party (e.g., other mapping/location-determination service providers).
Furthermore, future positioning systems will likely leverage on-phone sensor measurements (accelerometers, rate gyros, magnetometers and barometers) as well as WiFi signals. Beacon messages from APs might be leveraged to obtain position or speed-dependent measurements. For instance, the RSSI and the channel impulse response (CIR) as estimated by a receiver from the beacon messages are dependent on position of the receiver relative to an AP. Variations in the CIR and the RSSI (i.e., fast fading statistics) can be used to estimate a mobile's speed (or at the very least, a stopped state). Currently, it is difficult to prevent/inhibit anyone from leveraging these kinds of receive-only measurements for positioning purposes.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Varying processes to control transmission characteristics for position determination operations


A package (100) is disclosed which includes a blister with two halves (150,160) that rotate apart, the blister flanges being sealed within two paperboard cards (110, 120). The package may be opened by tearing across the paperboard cards, then rotating or tilting the blister halves apart.

This disclosure is thus directed to blister packages and, more particularly, to easy-opening blister packages which, after opening, maintain a neat appearance. A package is made of a blister whose flanges are sealed between two paperboard cards. The blister has two halves that may be separated to gain access to the package. The two halves may be held together by the paperboard cards, until the package is opened by a controlled tear or break across the paperboard cards, after which the blister halves may be separated.
The package allows the user easy access, without a tool, into a blister container that is initially sealed. The package may then be placed into a reclosed, unsealed configuration, with good appearance similar to an unopened package.
Manufacturers and retailers of consumer goods, such as pharmaceuticals, software, electronics, health and beauty products and the like, typically package their products in tamper resistant security packages. For example, many consumer goods are packaged in blister or clamshell packages formed by positioning a consumer good in a flanged blister made from various polymeric and/or paperboard materials and sealing the flanged blister between two paperboard substrates. Consumers have voiced disapproval of such packages because of the difficulty of opening the same and the potential for being cut on a rough edge especially of plastic blisters. Packages may therefore be made based largely on paperboard, for example, NATRALOCK packages. Packaging made primarily of paperboard is more sustainable than packaging made from petroleum-based plastics. The paperboard used in such packages may be tear-resistant as described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,144,635.
Some packages may comprise a paperboard card and a polymeric blister. In any case it would be advantageous to have a package that protects its contents well but is fairly easy to open. Advantageously the package may be opened without seriously degrading its appearance. Advantageously the package may also be reclosed after it is opened.


A linear turn down valve structure is disclosed, for gaseous fuels. The valve structure can advantageously be produced with aluminum alloys of die-casting grade, by means of a squeeze die-casting process. The valve structure comprises a valve body and a cap having register members to provide a self positioning and assembly of the main components of the valve. This eliminates the possibility of radial and axial misalignment thereof and secures a gas tight connection; a valve plug having passages in cooperation with a cap cam having three steps, to allow the safe switching of the continuous gas flow from maximum to minimum flow positions, as well as a safe turn-off position in a single operation; and a minimum flow control device to allow flow metering in order to permit the burners to operate with a wide variety of commercial gaseous fuels.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to a valve structure for controlling domestic range burners and, more particularly, to a valve structure which may be manufactured preferably of aluminum alloys by the process of injection squeeze die-casting.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are a great number of valve structures which are known for controlling domestic range burners which are traditionally manufactured of copper or brass.
Also, there are a great number of valve components that improve the performance of such valves by providing diverse degrees of flame and including security devices.
Nevertheless, because of the cost of the traditional materials and number of independent pieces that are manufactured in numerous stages, it is desirable to simplify the structure of the valve, in order to reduce the number of pieces which have to be independently machined and assembled, as well as to impart to them characteristics of performance and functionality, utilizing lighter materials that allow them to produce them by means of injection squeeze die-casting processes.
The valve structure of the present invention, comprises a plurality of components which, because of their design and assembling, allow the components to be produced with aluminum alloys of die-casting grade. This permits the combined benefits of the squeeze die-casting process, such as allowing the use of commercial aluminum alloys of die-casting grade in order to obtain high performance mechanical and tribological properties by refining the grain size with a final forge which secures the porosity control. This results in the production of a minimum of post-manufacturing machining operations because of their low rugosity surface finishing. This is achieved with a surface finishing process for the valve workpiece, carried out by fluid-bed burring turbo abrasion, which imparts a surface hardness that improves its wearing strength and reduces its friction coefficient.

Valve structure for domestic range burners


A magnifying assembly includes a plate with a first side, a second side, a first end and a second end. The plate is mountable to a planar surface. A panel has a first edge, a second edge, a third edge, and a fourth edge wherein the first and second edges are positioned opposite of each other. The panel has a centrally disposed window extending therethrough. A pair of wells extends into the third edge. A magnifying lens is mounted to a peripheral edge of the window. Each of a pair of arms has an inner end positioned within one of the wells. The outer ends of the arms are each hingedly coupled to the first end of the plate. The panel is selectively abuttable against the plate when the arms are fully extended into the wells. The magnifying lens may be selectively pivoted and extended outwardly away from the plate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to magnifying devices and more particularly pertains to a new magnifying device that may be positioned in a convenient location for reading medication labels and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of magnifying devices is known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,289 describes a housing that is attachable to the bottom of a shelf. A magnifying glass is removably extendable into the housing and may be extended outwardly away from the shelf so that it may be used. Another type of magnifying device is U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,162 which includes a magnifying glass that is attached to an articulated arm assembly. A clamp is attached to the arm so that the arm may be positioned on the edge of a table or cabinet. Yet another such device is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,847,883 and includes a clamp to which a magnifying lens is attached.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the need remains for a device that includes a magnifying lens that may be folded up against a wall or under a counter and which includes an internal lighting system for viewing an item being magnified. Such a device may be positioned in places where required most such as adjacent to a food cabinet for reading food labels or in or near a medicine cabinet for reading medicine bottle labels.


A method for tracking objects, including identifying and locating an object using a first method, identifying and locating a person using a second method, and associating the object and the person.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of tagging of objects and people with radio transponders, and more particularly to an improved system and method for determining the location of tagged objects.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a class of businesses in the world economy that focus on the movement of physical objects from a pre-specified place at a pre-specified time (the pickup) to a pre-specified place at a pre-specified time (the drop-off). The objects being transported may vary dramatically in size (from an envelope to a train locomotive) and may vary dramatically in the environmental restrictions that the object can endure without damage during the time between pickup and drop-off. Any business that performs this type of service can benefit from knowing the attributes (both the space-time location and environmental) that each object will experience (predictive), is experiencing (near real time) or has experienced (logged).
There are several approaches that are currently employed in this and related industries that involve instrumenting each object, instrumenting selected objects, instrumenting test objects whose sole purpose it is to mimic a real object and infer from the handling of the test object what a real object will experience. Such instrumentation may be associated with the object from pickup to drop-off, or, may be associated for only a portion of the pick-up to drop-off such as an instrumented tub that contains an object. In such cases, onboard tub instrumentation will be taken as representative of the object's space-time-environmental conditions during the period of time the object is bonded to the tub. Such approaches require a system that provides logical association and disassociation with temporarily bonded instrumentation.
Another common approach is to instrument the path that objects will follow and associate a space-time position and appropriate environmental measurement with the objects as they encounter various points in the instrumented path. Such measurements may be strung together to infer the space-time-environmental conditions experienced by each object. This second approach (instrumenting the path) has the considerable advantage of minimizing the investment for each object, since the cost of instrumenting the path can be amortized over all monitored objects that transverse the path. Finally, combinations of all these approaches can be used. The final decision about which methods to employ is typically made based on a cost/benefit basis
There are many cases where knowledge of an object, or package, location can improve existing processes. Some examples of these processes are:                Movement of packages from a pickup point to actual delivery point.        Movement of packages through a sorting facility.        Movement of packages on loading docks, to ensure packages are placed in the correct container/vehicle        Placement of goods in warehouse or stockroom.
In the case of transportation companies, for each package or container there is knowledge of its destination as well as the corresponding routing information. However, a package may be placed on the wrong vehicle during transportation and not follow the optimum route to its destination. Thus, the potential for missing a committed delivery schedule exists, which may result in the transportation company providing refunds to customers and further have a negative impact on customer satisfaction and customer retention for the transportation company.

System and method for improved item tracking