A communication control method is a method in which a neighboring cell #1 supplements a coverage of an OFF target cell #2 by increasing transmission power of the neighboring cell #1, when setting the OFF target cell #2 to an OFF state. The communication control method comprises: a step A of informing, by a UE 100 connected to the OFF target cell #2, the OFF target cell #2 of neighboring cell received power that is received power of a radio signal from the neighboring cell #1; and a step B of deciding, by a server 400 that acquires the neighboring cell received power via the OFF target cell #2, on the basis of the acquired neighboring cell received power, an amount of increase in transmission power of the neighboring cell #1.

According to 3 GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), which is a project aiming to standardize a mobile communication system, a technology for power saving (energy saving), which reduces the power consumption of a network, has been introduced (for example, see Non Patent Document 1). For example, a cell managed by a base station is set to an OFF state (Deactivate) in the nighttime etc. when communication traffic is less.
Furthermore, according to the 3 GPP, in Release 12 and later, an improved energy saving technology is proposed to be introduced. For example, when setting one cell to an OFF state, transmission power of a neighboring cell is caused to be increased. As a result, it is possible to extend a coverage of a neighboring cell such that the neighboring cell supplements a coverage of a cell that is set to an OFF state (hereinafter, called as "OFF target cell").

Communication control method, network apparatus, and base station


A device is provided for cleaning of elongate flexible hoses. The device has a smooth radiused low friction entry fairlead that allows the soiled hose to be readily pulled along a straight line path through the cleaner. After entry, the surface of the hose passes through a set of pliant wiping flaps that closely engage the full circumference of the hose, wiping dirt and debris from its surface as it enters the active cleaning region. In the cleaning region, multi-stream jets of high pressure water blast and scour the moving hose""s surface, and the hose exits through a second set of pliant wiping flaps that wipe any adherent water from the hose surface. The active cleaning region, filled with water spray, is maintained at a negative pressure by means of an associated suction system which also sucks out the dirty water and debris. The pliant wiping flaps act as partial pneumatic seals, allowing maintenance of the negative pressure in the cleaning region. This negative pressure also urges water and dirt that may escape from the scouring region back into the low pressure evacuation region. The device is symmetrical with the cleaning region in the middle. Hence, the hose can pass through the device in either direction. The cleaned hose then leaves the cleaning device through a second smooth radiused low friction exit fairlead. The fairleads and wiping flaps are sufficiently non-resistant to hose travel therethrough that the device need not be anchored or provided with ballast to resist motion when the hose is moving through the device.

This invention relates to flexible hose, and in particular to cleaning dirt and debris from a flexible hose""s outer surface.
The cleaning of debris and dirt from the surface of a flexible hose after use in an untidy environment has been a problem for which a solution has long been sought. Apparatus and methods utilizing various techniques are disclosed in patents dating back at least a century, and a comprehensive review of some of these patents describing the prior art is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,415. Generally, these patents disclose a variety of combinations and configurations of hose cleaning techniques, but none provides a completely satisfactory solution to cleaning the wide variety of hoses in commercial and fire-fighting use today. A satisfactory solution must take into consideration not only the proper cleaning of the hose surface, but convenience of use and the environmental impact of the disposal of dirt, debris and waste liquid produced in the process. The present invention provides a unit adapted for effective cleaning of a wide variety of hoses in an environmentally acceptable manner.
The hose cleaning device of this invention provides an enclosure through which the hose is passed for cleaning. Initially, the hose preferably passes through a smooth radiused low friction entry fairlead that allows the soiled hose to be readily pulled along a straight line path through the cleaner. After entry, the surface of the hose passes through a set of pliant wiping flaps that closely engage the full circumference of the hose. The flaps both wipe dirt and debris from the hose surface as it enters the active cleaning region and contain liquid spray within the active cleaning region.
In the cleaning region, multi-stream jets of high pressure water blast and scour the moving hose""s surface. The water is preferably provided from multiple parts in a perforated pipe that surrounds the hose as it passes through the cleaning region. The hose exits the cleaning region through a second set of pliant wiping flaps that contain the liquid spray within the cleaning region.
The active cleaning region, filled with water spray, is maintained at a negative pressure by means of an associated suction system which also sucks out the dirty water and debris. The pliant wiping flaps act as partial pneumatic seals, allowing maintenance of the negative pressure in the cleaning region. This negative pressure also urges water and dirt that may escape from the scouring region back into the low pressure cleaning region.
Finally, the cleaned hose leaves the cleaning device through a second smooth radiused low friction exit fairlead. The fairleads are sufficiently smooth and are appropriately sloped to allow the hose to be pulled through the cleaner by an auxiliary reeling unit onto which the hose is wound after exiting the cleaner. The cleaning device is preferably mounted to a floor of a vehicle directly adjacent the reeling unit. The vehicle also supports a water source and suction unit which are both coupled to the cleaning region.
Carpet cleaning vehicles typically already include the water source, suction unit and reeling unit. Hence, addition of the cleaning device of this invention to such a vehicle provides the entire hose cleaning system. It will be noted that the unit is symmetrical with respect to the direction of hose travel, and the cleaning device works for either direction of hose movement. This symmetrical design feature allows for convenient positioning of the unit, since it can be rotated 180xc2x0 to allow the auxiliary pressure and suction lines to be on the side adjacent to the auxiliary high pressure water and suction units. This rotation ability provided by the symmetrical design feature, allows for ease of installation of the auxiliary pressure and suction lines and ergometric use.
Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a hose cleaning device which can continuously clean a hose passing through an enclosure and capture debris and cleaning liquid used within the enclosure.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning device which can be operated by high pressure cleaning liquid and suction equipment contained within a mobile cleaning vehicle such as a carpet cleaning vehicle and which can accommodate passage of hose used by such a mobile vehicle through the device such that the hoses used by the mobile cleaning vehicle can themselves be cleaned by the device of this invention, such as after use and before being rewound onto a reel within the mobile cleaning vehicle.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a hose cleaning device which has a central cleaning chamber through which the hose is passed which has high pressure water spray therein and which utilizes suction within the central cleaning chamber and pliable material adjacent where the hose passes into and out of the central cleaning chamber to contain liquid spray within the central cleaning compartment.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a hose cleaning device which can smoothly feed a hose into and out of the cleaning device without damaging the hose or allowing the hose to become caught within the cleaning device.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a hose cleaning device which can be manufactured with a small footprint from lightweight materials and provide reliable hose cleaning service with multiple repeat uses.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a hose cleaning device which is symmetrical about a hose pathway so that a hose can pass along the hose pathway in either direction with similar hose cleaning results.
Other further objects of the present invention will become apparent from a careful reading of the included drawing figures, the claims and detailed description of the invention.


A computer-implemented method is disclosed. The method comprises identifying one or more associations amongst a plurality of variables of a multidimensional multivariate dataset based on a data type of each of the plurality of variables. The method further comprises selecting one or more charts to be generated corresponding to the one or more associations based on at least one of the associations between the two or more variables, a number of the two or more variables, the data type of the two or more variables, and a number of rows of the dataset. The method further comprises generating an analysis report comprising the one or more charts.

Use of visualizations, such as charts, is considered to be one of the most effective ways of representing data. Such visualizations provide a comparative insight and a concise summary of the data in a lucid manner to an individual. As may be gathered, preparation of such visualizations is a skilled task. For instance, identification of type of chart and selection of appropriate variables for the chart may require domain expertise and accordingly, may require involvement of a skilled person. Furthermore, manual preparation of such charts is a cumbersome and effort-intensive process. As an example, in cases where the dataset is comprehensive, i.e., multidimensional and/or multivariate, and a plurality of charts is to be prepared, the preparation of the charts based on such a dataset may prove to be cumbersome and time-consuming task.
With the advent of technology, analytical tools have been developed that aid an individual to prepare the visualizations based on a given dataset. However, existing analytical tools still require multiple inputs from an individual to prepare the visualizations. For instance, the individual must select a type of the chart that is to be prepared and the variables that are required for the preparation of the chart. Plurality of user inputs may result in loss of standardization, consistency, and quality. For example, not all analysts would create a bubble chart when data has three related measures like sales, cost and profitability. Thus, such an insight would not be explored.
Furthermore, such existing tools are provisioned to prepare only one chart at a time. Thus, in cases where the individual may seek to prepare multiple charts, the individual must repeat the cycle of providing inputs for each of such charts. Again, this may prove to be a cumbersome task. Furthermore, post preparation of each of the charts, the individual has to manually export them to a document in order to prepare a collated report of such charts. As may be gathered, this increases the efforts involved in deriving insights from the multidimensional multivariate dataset.
Thus, there is a need for a solution that overcomes the above deficiencies.

Automatic selection of visualizations representing data based on data analysis


A computer-implemented method for reconciling records from a plurality of data sets includes receiving a first data set from a left data source, retrieving data from the first data set, and placing the retrieved data from the first data set into a first abstract record from the left data source. The method also includes receiving a second data set from a right data source, retrieving data from the second data set, and placing the retrieved data from the second data set into a second abstract record from the right data source. The computer-implemented method also includes comparing the first abstract record and the second abstract record.

This disclosure relates generally to reconciliation of two sets of data, and more particularly to methods and apparatus for reconciliation of multiple sets of data.
Reconciliation of two sets of data is required in many types of industries including, banking, telecommunication, retail and the like. There are many instances when various entities in an industry need to reconcile records to determine which entity is entitled to payment for more use of its system commonly referred to as arbitrage. Although there are certain standards related to many aspects of computer systems, there are really no standards for how electronic data is stored in various computer systems. Most likely, each entity has a one or more computer networks. Data and different representations of the data are stored in different ways depending on the needs/uses for the data by the different entities. Records may also need to be reconciled within an entity. In many instances, an entity will have multiple computer networks. Various groups within an entity will have different needs for data and each will configure differently to suite their particular needs. In short, there are many instances, including within an entity and between entities and even between industries, where the data may need to be reconciled between that store data in a different way or a different format. Due to configuration differences in different network systems, the data for a single event may be recorded by different network systems in different layouts or forms. In many instances, this makes reconciliation more important, as well as more complex to achieve.
Revenue assurance is one service industry that relies very heavily on technology for reconciling records between multiple data feeds. Revenue assurance compares records from multiple data feeds and identifies discrepancies that would lead to revenue leakage or over-billing of a service. In the telecommunications industry, for example, billable telephony records can be reconciled with the base signaling records as the billable telephony records pass through an organization's data collection, guiding, rating, and billing stages before the call appears as a line item on the customer's bill. Common issues include dropped billing records, incorrect start and end times, incorrect rating of the event, or inability to guide the billable record to the appropriate billable account. It has been estimated that as much as seven to fifteen percent of a telecommunications company's service goes unbilled due to revenue assurance issues.
Another example is related to web content delivery (e.g., ringtones, wallpapers, video clips, etc.), where the content is owned by third parties. Mobile companies are billed for their end customer's downloads and must ensure appropriate billing of the end customers. In yet another example, in the utilities industry, upwards of five to ten percent of capacity goes unbilled due to line leakage, un-metered lines, faulty meeting equipment, or fraud.
Not only are revenue assurance issues paramount to the profitability of an organization, these issues are also for compliance with numerous regulatory or governmental requirements, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). Unfortunately, current techniques for detecting and resolving revenue assurance issues re inefficient, costly, and of limited effectiveness.
Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.

Method and apparatus for reconciliation of multiple sets of data


According to various embodiments, methods and systems for determining pressure in an inflatable cuff of a tracheal tube may employ pressure transducers associated with a cuff inflation line or a pilot balloon assembly. The pressure transducers may be implemented to provide continuous or intermittent cuff pressure. Also provided are tracheal tubes with adapters or other devices that incorporate pressure transducers. The tracheal tubes may facilitate wireless cuff pressure monitoring.

The present disclosure relates generally to medical devices and, more particularly, to airway devices, such as tracheal tubes.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to aspects of the art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
In the course of treating a patient, a tube or other medical device may be used to control the flow of air, food, fluids, or other substances into the patient. For example, tracheal tubes may be used to control the flow of air or other gases through a patient's trachea and into the lungs, for example during patient ventilation. Such tracheal tubes may include endotracheal (ET) tubes, tracheotomy tubes, or transtracheal tubes. In many instances, it is desirable to provide a seal between the outside of the tube or device and the interior of the passage in which the tube or device is inserted. In this way, substances can only flow through the passage via the tube or other medical device, allowing a medical practitioner to maintain control over the type and amount of substances flowing into and out of the patient.
To seal these types of tracheal tubes, an inflatable cuff may be associated with the tubes. When inflated, the cuff generally expands into the surrounding trachea (or, in the case of laryngeal masks, over the trachea) to seal the tracheal passage around the tube to facilitate the controlled delivery of gases via a medical device (e.g., through the tube). As many patients are intubated for several days, healthcare workers may need to balance achieving a high-quality tracheal seal with possible patient discomfort. For example, if improperly overinflated, the pressure and/or frictional force of certain types of inflated cuffs against the tracheal walls may result in some tracheal tissue damage. While a cuff may be inflated at lower pressure to avoid such damage, this may lower the quality of the cuff's seal against the trachea. Low cuff inflation pressures may also be associated with allowing folds to form in the walls of the cuff that may serve as leak paths for air as well as microbe-laden secretions.
Additionally, the quality of a cuff's seal against the tracheal passageway may suffer over the duration of a patient's intubation time. For example, a seal may be compromised when a patient coughs, which may dislodge the cuff from a sealed position. Further, when the tracheal tube is jostled during patient transport or medical procedures, the force of the movement may shift the position of the inflatable cuff within the trachea, allowing gaps to form between the cuff and the tracheal walls. Accordingly, it may be desirable to monitor the internal pressure in the cuff to determine if the cuff is properly inflated.

Cuff pressure measurement device for a tracheal tube


An object of the invention is to provide a semiconductor device having improved performance. A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes: forming a trench and then forming a first insulating film made of a silicon oxide film through CVD using a gas containing an O3 gas and a TEOS gas to cover the side surface of the trench with the insulating film; forming a second insulating film made of a silicon oxide film through PECVD to cover the side surface of the trench with the second insulating film via the first insulating film; and forming a third insulating film made of a silicon oxide film through CVD using a gas containing an O3 gas and a TEOS gas to close the trench with the third insulating film while leaving a space in the trench.

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device. This method is suited for use, for example, in a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device having a trench portion.
There is a semiconductor device having an element isolation structure obtained by forming an insulating film in a trench portion formed in the surface, as a main surface, of a semiconductor substrate. There is another semiconductor device having an element isolation structure (deep trench isolation: DTI) obtained by forming an insulating film in a trench portion having an aspect ratio greater than 1. The term "aspect ratio" means a ratio of the depth of the trench portion to the width of the trench portion.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-66067 (Patent Document 1) discloses a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device including a step of forming, in the main surface of a semiconductor substrate, a trench that surrounds therewith an element in plan view and a step of forming an insulating film on the element and in the trench. In the technology described in Patent Document 1, the insulating film is formed so as to cover the upper portion of the element and at the same time forming a space in the trench.

Method of manufacturing semiconductor device


A belt feeder for the rapid and successive in-line transportation of small electronic components. The belt feeder has an inclined dispensing portion with at least one dispensing lane, a conveyor portion having an intermittently moving conveyor belt and at least one conveyor guide lane superposed above the conveyor belt, and a receiving nose structure having at least one nest structure mounted thereon at the end of the conveyor belt and forming a nest. The inclined track is positioned adjacent and above the conveyor track to allow the components enough space to be successively dispensed to the conveyor belt from the dispensing lane and into the conveyor guide lane where the component is intermittently carried forward by the conveyor belt until it comes to rest within its nest. A sensor system repetitively starts then stops the conveyor belt in response to the action of a pick and place or robotic assembly machine so that when the component is picked, leaving an empty nest, the next component is advanced into the nest. A solenoid-operated reciprocating sub-structure is used to intermittently move the nest structure out, away from the component in the nest and then back to receive the next component. A component brake device may be attached to the reciprocating sub-structure to provide braking of the components on the conveyor belt when the nest structure is moved out, away from the component receiving point. An optional component brake assembly superposed above the conveyor belt is also described.

The programmable assembly of electronic equipment made from a plurality of electronic components has generated a need for adaptable feeder units which are ready to mount into existing work envelopes for use with pick and place machinery and robotic work stations. In a particular example, electronic component feeders used in the pick and place or robotic assembly of integrated circuit boards and like electronics applications must provide steady and dependable delivery of components to a given work site. It is also important that each component be delivered within a certain time frame and in the correct orientation so that each component can properly interface with the automatic pick and place or robotic machinery to ensure that the preset scheduling of an efficient production line is maintained.
One of the problems with many existing component feeders is their common inability to concurrently deliver several diverse components to the pickup machinery. Numerous current assembly processes are limited because many feeders can only feed one type of component at a time. This then requires a time-consuming series of sequential pickups of the different components by the pickup machinery, often from various different pick locations which results in a longer production time and hence, a much less efficient process.
Another problem with presently available component feeders is their common reliance on tube feeding. Typically, components are stored and shipped in tubes which are later mounted in a conventional component feeder for ultimate delivery to the pickup machinery. The dependence on these tubes often makes the existing feeders less efficient because the components will at times jam in the tubes or in the tube to feeder transition. This results in missed picks because either no component is delivered to the pick location or components are delivered in the wrong orientation or at the wrong time.
Yet another problem with many existing component feeders is that even without tube feeding, the components will often jam in their feeder delivery lanes. These lanes are often either too narrow or too large to allow for smooth passage of the respective components. When such a jam occurs, the assembly process must be stopped and the delivery lane cleared of the jammed components. Improperly sized delivery lanes can also cause the components to arrive misoriented at the pick location. The pickup machinery would thus pick up a component which would have to be reoriented, often manually, before it could be correctly placed in a circuit board thereby causing further interruption of the assembly cycle.
Jamming or misorientation of parts is also a problem with many feeders which rely on gravity to move the parts down to the pick location. Gravity feed problems usually occur when large quantities of components are stacked behind the lead component. The components stacked behind the lead component present a cumulative weight which presses down on the lead component. The larger the cumulative weight, the greater the force which is present to push the lead part into its nest structure at the pickup location. This cumulative weight force will also be referred to as a "back pressure" force. This "back pressure" force often coacts with the inherent frictional characteristics of the nest structure to hold the lead component therein frictionally and, of course, the greater the "back pressure" force, the greater the frictional force holding the part in the nest structure to resist the lifting force of the pick and place machine when it attempts to lift the part from the nest.
A still further problem that is endemic to many existing belt feeders is that they use a continuous belt motion during operation. A continuously moving belt is undesirable because it continuously grinds on the components, particularly when these delicate components are held immobile at the pick point location waiting to be retrieved by the pickup machinery. Even though the component is stationary, the component pins usually remain in contact with the moving belt which may then wear away the plating on the pins and/or may also grind against other important architectural features of the component.
The above problems generally result in lost manufacturing capacity, higher rejection rates and greater attendant costs due to damaged components, and/or ultimately, excessive assembly downtime. Therefore, there exists a need for improved, efficient belt component feeders for the manufacturing of electronic assemblies. Such component feeders should consistently provide stable, non-continuous, non-abrasive delivery of a variety of multiple components to preselected pick locations within the proper time frame and in the proper orientation. It is toward these goals that the present invention is directed.

Belt feeder for component delivery system with intermittently moving conveyor


Methods are disclosed for recovering or determining logical structure of a document by assessing different combinations of vertical and horizontal cuts across a block of the document. The block is segmented using a scoring function that discards horizontal cuts in favor of vertical cuts shared among neighboring sub-blocks. The order in which the blocks and sub-blocks are segmented is then used to define the logical structure of the document, such as its reading order.

The following relates generally to methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture therefor, for determining logical document structure, such as, the reading or viewing order of a document.
While the use of electronically created and recorded documents is prevalent, many such electronic documents are in a form that does not permit that they be used other than for viewing or printing. Reasons for this restriction include, among others, the unavailability of the document in its native format (e.g., only scanned original of a document or lower-level representation exists), or the deprecation or disappearance of the document's original authoring environment (e.g., document editors that are no longer sold or operate on existing software platforms).
The recovery of document content (e.g., characters, words, etc.) and logical structure (e.g., viewing and reading order) form the basis for effective document reuse, beyond applications such as viewing and printing. However, when electronic documents are recovered by scanning a hardcopy representation or by recovering an electronic representation (e.g., PDF or Postscript representation), a loss of logical document structure usually results because the representations of the document is either at a very low level (e.g., bitmap) or an intermediate level (e.g., a document formatted in a page description language or a portable document format).
The logical organization of objects in electronic documents recorded in low-level or intermediate-level representations may lose certain high-level representations (e.g., that permit editing of high-level constructs) because they have been optimized for their particular application, such as printing, display, or storage. For example, the order in which objects forming a document formatted in a print-oriented or storage-oriented file format may be optimized for printing or storage rather than the logical order of the objects in the document. In order to achieve certain print, storage, or display efficiencies, electronic documents recorded in optimized print, storage, or display formats may dispose of high-level constructs or group elements of a document together in an order that appears out of its logical flow.
In contrast, hardcopy documents converted to an electronic form by scanning lose their document structure unless augmented with a high-level description (see for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,686, which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference). Optical Character Recognition (OCR) may be used for recovering and recognizing objects in a document image to identify low-level representations (e.g., at the character or word level) or intermediate-level representations (e.g., formatting, paragraphs and object detection) of a document image. In addition, there exists methods for recovering certain aspects of a document's high-level representation to allow applications that rely on a document's logical structure to operate or automatically process its content, such as, document editors and document readers.
Methods are known for determining a document's logical structure, or the order in which objects are laid out on a document image (i.e., "layout objects"). Such known methods exploit the geometric or typographical features of document image objects, together with or without the use of the content of objects and a priori knowledge for a particular document class. Such known methods are described, for example, in the following publications, which are incorporated herein by reference: R. Cattoni, T. Coianiz, S. Messelodi, C. M. Modena, "Geometric Layout Analysis Techniques for Document Image Understanding: a Review", ITC-IRST Technical Report #9703-09, 1998; Y. Ishitani, "Document Transformation System from Papers to XML Data Based on Pivot XML Document Method", International conference on document analysis and recognition (ICDAR), 2003; G. Nagy and S. Seth, "Hierarchical representation of optically scanned documents", Proceedings of the 7th International Conference On Pattern Recognition, pp. 347-349, 1984; Jaekyu Ha, R. M. Haralick, I. T. Phillips, "Recursive X-Y cut using bounding boxes of connected components", International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition (ICDAR), Vol. 2, 1995; and A. K. Jain, M. N. Myrthy, and P. J. Flynn, "Data clustering: A survey", ACM Computing Survey, 31(3):264-323, 1999.
One such known method for segmenting layout objects of a document image is known as the XY-cut method (see Nagy and Seth cited above). Briefly in one embodiment, the method consists in finding the widest cut or the widest empty rectangle (or valley) that crosses the entire page (or block), either vertically or horizontally. The page is then segmented into blocks, which are sized to fit their content. The method is applied recursively to each block, until no valleys remain. In one embodiment of the XY-cut method, bounding boxes of connected components of black pixels are relied on, in place of, image pixel data.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of page segmentation using the XY-cut method. In FIG. 1, the document image or page 104 has five layout objects (shown with cross-etched fill). When the XY-cut method is performed the first block or page 104 with Y-cut (or horizontal-cut) valley 106 is segmented into block 108 with X-cut (or vertical-cut) valley 110 and block 112 with X-cut (or vertical-cut) valley 114. The XY-cut method repeats until the layout objects on the page 104 are segmented into blocks 1 through 5, as shown in FIG. 1.
While the XY-cut strategy illustrated in FIG. 1 to cut the widest empty rectangle at each recursion works well for layout object segmentation on a page image, the strategy is less adapted for determining the reading order of layout objects on the page image, which reading order may be deduced from the cut hierarchy (e.g., for top-to-bottom and left-to-right reading order, with a vertical cut, the content on the left side of the cut comes before the content on the right side of the cut, and with a horizontal cut, the content on the top side of the cut comes before the content on the bottom side of the cut). For example, when employing the cutting strategy illustrated in FIG. 1 on a two column document page to determine the correct reading order of layout objects on the document page, an error may occur if the page is horizontally cut before cutting vertically along column separations.
There continues to exist, therefore, a need for an improved method for determining the logical ordering of layout objects on a document image, to properly order the content of the layout objects as it would be read by a person when the layout objects of a document image have no ordering (e.g., a scanned bitmap image) or have an incorrect ordering (e.g., are in an order optimized for printing, storing, or display). It would be advantageous if such a method is deterministic and efficient when the method processes a document image with numerous fine-grain layout objects and the layout objects present multiple alternatives in which a page document may be cut along column or row separations.
In accordance with the disclosure herein, there is provided a method for ordering layout objects of a document to determine their logical or semantic (i.e., reading) order. The method is adapted to exploit the geometric features of a document image, thereby advantageously permitting the method to be applied to various classes of documents, such as, documents expressed in various languages. The method may operate with layout objects of document images of various granularities, as the layout objects may contain one or more of letters, words, lines, or paragraphs. The layout objects may, for example, include combinations of textual content and image content.
In accordance with the various embodiments disclosed herein, there is provided a method, apparatus and article of manufacture therefor, for determining a logical order of a document, comprising: (a) assigning a page of the document to be a block having a width along a first direction (e.g., horizontal) and a length along a second direction (e.g., vertical) perpendicular to the first direction; the block having a plurality of layout objects arranged therein; (b) identifying a first set of hypothetical cuts, substantially between layout object boundaries, that span the width of the block; the first set of hypothetical cuts defining a set of sub-blocks with each sub-block having a width along the first direction and a length along the second direction; (c) identifying a second set of hypothetical cuts, substantially between layout object boundaries, that span the length of sub-blocks in the set of sub-blocks; (d) computing arrangement criteria of layout objects ordered according to the first and the second sets of hypothetical cuts; (e) modifying cuts in the first and second sets of hypothetical cuts, using the computed arrangement criteria, to merge cuts that span two or more sub-blocks along the second direction; (f) determining the logical order of the document using cuts between layout objects in the block remaining in the first and second sets of hypothetical cuts after performing (e).

Method and apparatus for determining logical document structure


An x-ray transmissive housing window for reducing non-uniform attenuation of x-rays in a rotationally driven x-ray device is disclosed. The x-ray tube is disposed within an interior portion of an outer housing that is filled with cooling fluid. An x-ray beam produced by the tube passes through the housing window, which is disposed in a port defined in the outer housing. The housing window includes a convexly shaped inner surface adjacent the cooling fluid. The shape of the window's inner surface cooperates with centripetal and other dynamic forces within the x-ray device to act on bubbles that form in the cooling fluid and attach to the window's inner surface. These forces create a moving force that acts on the bubbles at the housing window inner surface. The convex curvature of the inner surface enables the dynamic forces to displace the bubbles from the x-ray beam transmission region of the housing window.

1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to x-ray generating devices. In particular, the present invention relates to an apparatus for preventing non-uniform attenuation of an x-ray beam by bubbles formed in the cooling fluid of an x-ray generating device.
2. The Related Technology
X-ray producing devices are extremely valuable tools that are used in a wide variety of applications, both industrial and medical. For example, such equipment is commonly employed in areas such as medical diagnostic examination and therapeutic radiology, semiconductor manufacture and fabrication, and materials analysis.
Regardless of the applications in which they are employed, x-ray devices operate in similar fashion. In general, x-rays are produced when electrons are emitted, accelerated, and then impacted upon a material of a particular composition. This process typically takes place within an evacuated enclosure of an x-ray tube. Disposed within the evacuated enclosure is a cathode, or electron source, and an anode oriented to receive electrons emitted by the cathode. The anode can be stationary within the tube, or can be in the form of a rotating annular disk that is mounted to a rotor shaft which, in turn, is rotatably supported by a bearing assembly. The evacuated enclosure is typically contained within an outer housing, which also serves as a reservoir for a fluid, such as dielectric oil, that serves both to cool the x-ray tube and to provide electrical isolation between the tube and the outer housing.
In operation, an electric current is supplied to a filament portion of the cathode, which causes a cloud of electrons to be emitted via a process known as thermionic emission. A high voltage potential is placed between the cathode and anode to cause the cloud of electrons to form a stream and accelerate toward a focal spot disposed on a target surface of the anode. Upon striking the target surface, some of the kinetic energy of the electrons is released in the form of electromagnetic radiation of very high frequency, i.e., x-rays. The specific frequency of the x-rays produced depends in large part on the type of material used to form the anode target surface. Target surface materials with high atomic numbers ("Z numbers") are typically employed. The target surface of the anode is oriented so that the x-rays are emitted as a beam through windows defined in the evacuated enclosure and the outer housing. The emitted x-ray beam is then directed toward an x-ray subject, such as a medical patient, so as to produce an x-ray image.
Generally, only a small portion of the energy carried by the electrons striking the target surface of the anode is converted to x-rays. The majority of the energy is rather released as heat. To help dissipate this heat, the cooling fluid disposed in the outer housing assists in absorbing heat from surfaces of the x-ray tube and removing it from the x-ray device. This heat removal can be accomplished, for example, via radiation of the heat from the outer surface of the housing, or by continuously circulating the cooling fluid through a heat exchanger.
Despite the overall success of the cooling fluid in dissipating heat from the x-ray tube, however, certain areas within the x-ray device may not be adequately cooled. One of these areas is located between the respective windows of the x-ray tube and outer housing. Because of this, extreme heating of the cooling fluid in this localized region may occur. This extreme heating can exceed the ability of the cooling fluid to remove the heat. Consequently, intermittent boiling of the cooling fluid can occur in the localized region between the two windows, creating air bubbles within the fluid that tend to congregate on the inner surface of the outer housing window.
The accumulation of bubbles at the inner surface of the outer housing window is undesirable for several reasons. Principal among these relates to the fact that the air bubbles present in the cooling fluid at the window surface possess a distinct density, and thus a distinct rate of x-ray attenuation, from the fluid itself. Because of this density difference, x-rays passing through a bubbly fluid region will be attenuated a different rate than x-rays passing through a fluid-only region. Thus, bubbles that are created by intense heating of the cooling fluid and are randomly distributed on the inner surface of the outer housing window create a non-uniform attenuation of the x-ray beam that passes through the window. The result is a non-uniform x-ray beam exiting the x-ray device, which in turn produces inferior results for the particular application for which the device is being used. For instance, in medical imaging a non-uniform x-ray beam can cause the image quality and clarity of the radiographic images produced thereby to substantially decrease. For this and other reasons, bubbles present at the inner surface of the outer housing window are highly undesirable.
Non-uniform x-ray beam attenuation can be further exacerbated by an additional factor combining with the accumulation of bubbles on the outer housing window inner surface. As mentioned, many x-ray devices are utilized in connection with medical imaging systems, such as CT scanners. In such systems, the x-ray device is typically mounted on a gantry that spins at high speeds during the scanning process. This spinning subjects the x-ray device and its components to various rotationally related forces. These dynamic rotational forces are not of such a nature as to completely displace fluid bubbles formed at the surface of a typical housing window. However, these forces are sufficient to cause bubbles at the window surface to oscillate during gantry rotation. This bubble oscillation further increases the uneven attenuation of the x-ray beam, resulting in even more non-uniform beam characteristics.
In light of the above discussion, it would be generally desirable to produce an x-ray tube having superior beam characteristics. Particularly, a need exists for an x-ray device, and, more particularly, a housing window that is designed to eliminate the collection of cooling fluid bubbles on the housing window in order to reduce non-uniformity for the x-ray beam, especially in high-rotational environments.


Provided is a method for monitoring 3D printing equipped with a 3D printing slicer and a recursive loop structure. A 3D printing method according to an embodiment of the present invention sets up a slicing environment for 3D printing of a 3D model, generates a mechanical code by performing slicing according to the setup environment, monitors the status of the 3D printing according to the generated mechanical code, and, depending on the monitoring result, determines whether or not to re-perform the setup and subsequent steps. Accordingly, by semi- or fully automating the 3D printing engineering process, the time and effort for engineering performance involving human participation are reduced, and the human resource is concentrated on a more important area, such that the effects of enhancing the 3D printing output quality and assuring the quality can be expected.

FIG. 1 is a view illustrating a 3D printing output workflow. The output workflow of 3D printing includes three procedures, modeling, slicing (or machining), and monitoring, as shown in FIG. 1, and these three procedures are performed in phases.
When a problem arises in an output result of 3D printing, a person should manually re-perform these procedures. For example, there may be an error in an output result, such as a gap occurring between paths scanned with laser beams or 3D printing nozzles in a process of outputting one sliced layer. In this case, a person in charge of outputting may stop 3D printing, move back to the slicing procedure, adjust parameters provided in slicer SW, and then perform 3D printing again, and may identify a progressing state.
That is, a person monitors an output result with naked eyes, and may stop outputting when there is a doubt that an error occurs in the output result, and may move to a previous step and re-perform the step. However, there may be problems in accuracy and consistency, and there may be a problem that the time required to perform 3D printing is extended.

Method for monitoring 3D printing equipped with 3D printing slicer and recursive loop structure


An acoustic fluid machine has an acoustic resonator and a piston reciprocated by an actuator at the base of the acoustic resonator. A valve device is provided on the upper end of the acoustic resonator. External air is introduced into the acoustic resonator through the valve device. The piston has through-holes, through which front space communicates with rear space thereby reducing load applied onto the piston.

The present invention relates to an acoustic fluid machine on the basis of acoustic resonance in an acoustic resonator.
There is a known acoustic fluid machine in which a piston is reciprocated axially with minute amplitude at high speed in a larger-diameter base of an acoustic resonator so that a gas is sucked at the upper end into the acoustic resonator and discharged with pressure change in the acoustic resonator.
The acoustic fluid machine is utilized by amplitude pressure change of acoustic standing waves generated by resonance with the piston that reciprocates axially with minute amplitude, and the piston in the base of the acoustic resonator is reciprocated at high speed by an actuator.
The structure is simple and malfunction is difficult to occur. The acoustic fluid machine is expected to be used widely in the future.
However, in the acoustic fluid machine, a gas is sucked and discharged only by the piston which vibrates minutely, and there is a basic problem that compression ratio and flow rate obtained is relatively small. To obtain high-pressure high-flow-rate, it is necessary to lighten the piston and to increase output of the actuator. But if the piston is lighten, strength will become poor, and if output of the actuator is increased, it will increase cost for manufacturing the actuator.


A spinal implant provides support for desired parts of the spine. The implant can provide support in fusion situations. The spinal implant includes a pair of elongated members and a variable length cross-link. A variable length cross-link apparatus may couple to the first and second elongated members. Each variable length cross-link device may include a fixed portion having a receiver portion for attachment to a first elongated member. Each variable length cross-link may include a transverse portion. Each variable length cross-link may include an adjustable portion having a receiver portion for attachment to a second elongated member and a transverse portion engaging member. Inserting the transverse portion of the fixed portion into the engaging portion of the adjustable portion may form a cross-link for stabilizing motion between two elongated members. Engaging the adjustable portion at a selected point on the transverse portion establishes a length selected by the surgeon. The surgical procedure may use minimally invasive surgery or non-minimally invasive surgery, as desired. Components of the system may be inserted through sleeves attached to various coupling devices, or may be inserted and guided along wires at more lateral angles.

Modern spine surgery often involves the use of spinal implants to correct or treat various spine disorders and/or to support the spine. Spinal implants may help, for example, to stabilize the spine, correct deformities of the spine, facilitate fusion, or treat spinal fractures. Typical spinal implants may include rigid (i.e., via a fusion procedure) support for the affected regions of the spine. Such spinal implants limit movement in the affected regions (e.g., in a fused region) in virtually all directions.
Prior spinal implants typically use elongated members to support parts of the spine. The rods usually do not provide much protection against torsional forces or movement. Efforts have been made to address that concern. One solution is to connect elongated members using cross-link devices. Conventional cross-link devices, however, have many weaknesses. For example, conventional cross-link devices are inflexible and provide a very limited range of motion. Thus, a surgeon using conventional cross-link devices cannot readily adjust the spinal implant according to each patient's needs and anatomy. Furthermore, because a surgeon has to adjust a relatively large number of fasteners during the surgery, the installation of a conventional cross-link device can be time consuming, which is highly undesirable.

MIS crosslink apparatus and methods for spinal implant


A medical imaging apparatus includes a measurement unit with an x-ray source and a radiation detector rotatable around an examination subject to conduct a scan of the examination subject and thereby to obtain a data set, which is supplied to a computer. Within the computer, a shadowgraph of the examination subject is calculated in real time as the examination subject is displaced during the scan relative to the measurement unit. The data used to construct the shadowgraph are obtained at a selected projection angle, which is reached a number of times by the measurement unit during the scan. The shadowgraph is displayed in real time as well, to an extent correlated with the amount of relative displacement between the examination subject and the measurement unit. The shadowgraph can be calculated using a convolution equation, wherein the data are twice convolved, once in the longitudinal direction, i.e., the direction of displacement between the examination subject and the measurement unit, and once in a direction corresponding to the direction along which the radiation detector extends. A standard computer tomogram can also be calculated from the same data set from which the data for calculating the shadowgraph are selected.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a computer tomography apparatus of the type wherein the detector signals can also be processed to calculate a shadowgraph of the examination subject.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a so-called third generation computer tomography apparatus, it is known to rotate the measurement unit, for portraying a specific slice of the examination subject, by 360.degree. around the system axis and to calculate the computer tomogram from the output signals of the detector array. For defining the layer that is computer-tomographically displayed, the measuring unit is interlocked in a predetermined angular position to prevent rotation and a relative displacement between the measuring unit and the patient support ensues proceeding from a starting position. The length for this relative displacement is preset. Subsequently, radiation is triggered and the output signals of the detector array are acquired by the computer during the scanning. Only when the pre-set relative displacement has been completed, which corresponds to the desired length of the shadowgraph, is the shadowgraph calculated from the intermediately stored and partially processed output signals of the detector array. The calculation of the shadowgraph thus only ensues after the patient support has reached the pre-set final position.
The pre-setting of the length of the shadowgraph constitute an additional operating event. Since the portrayal of the shadow-graph ensues only after the measurement, it is possible that either too short or too long a measurement ensues. In the former instance, the exposure of the shadowgraph must be repeated; in both instances, the patient is exposed to unnecessary radiation.
It is also known to fashion a computer tomograph of the third or fourth generation such that a shadowgraph can be simultaneously produced with the tomographic exposure as disclosed in German Patent 41 03 588.

Computer tomograph having means for displaying shadowgraphs


A method for facilitating network communications from one or more independent execution threads by a dedicated worker thread. Because an operating system is not designed for use with a large number of threads, such a system requires the use of multiple computers for simulating a large number of virtual users. This increases complexity, as well as cost. The present invention reduces the number of threads needed, which reduces resource needs, and in turn increases the number of virtual users that can be simulated. According to the present invention, a worker thread uses non-blocking function calls to efficiently handle requests for network operations.

The wide adoption of the Internet, and networked computing in general, has resulted in the proliferation of computer servers. A server can be generally defined as a computer that provides services to other computers over a network. Among a server's many uses are the distribution of web pages, e-mail messages, files, electronic newsgroups and the support of multi-user virtual environments.
Evaluating a server's performance will usually depend on the nature of the server and the particular purpose it is used for. In the case of the Internet, one of the primary purposes of an
In reality, commonly used CPU's do not execute more than one thread or process at the same time. They just create that illusion by quickly switching between threads or processes. When a CPU switches between two threads or processes, it must execute a context switch, which means that it must replace all the data and instructions associated with the old thread or process with those associated with the new thread or process. Threads, however, have very little data that is unique to them, they usually share the process data with the other threads of the same process. Thus, switching between different threads in a single process is less resource consuming than switching between different processes, since switching between different threads of the same process requires the replacement of smaller amounts of data. So a single application can run several tasks as threads concurrently, without incurring the higher context switching costs of running several processes concurrently.
Server testing software often takes advantage of the multitasking capabilities of an OS by simulating each virtual user as a different process. An ordinary internet user engaged in usual internet activity, such as web browsing, will probably use several threads that make network calls. Thus, it would be accurate to simulate such a user by a process that contains several threads, each creating a network connection to the server.
Most commonly used operating systems are engineered to provide high performance for relatively small numbers of threads and processes. However, good server testing software should be able to simulate thousands of virtual users on a single machine. This would result in thousands of threads, which a commonly used OS may not be able to handle efficiently. Internet server is to process a large number of requests coming from a large number of different computers or users.
When a server approaches its maximum load it tends to slow down significantly. Thus, when a server accepts too many requests from too many users, it increases the time needed to process each request. As a result, all users experience degraded quality of service. For this reason it is very important for server administrators and network administrators, as well as software developers, to be able to choose and configure their servers in a way that enables them to handle foreseeable loads without significant service degradation.
One of the best ways to determine a server's performance capabilities is to test it. Testing is usually performed by simulating the environment of users and computers that are meant to be served by a server. While a server may be required to serve many thousands of users, using thousands of computers to simulate these users is usually impracticable. Thus, for testing purposes many users are simulated using a single or a small number of testing or simulation computers. These simulation computers run testing software, which is designed to simulate many users or computers that are making requests to, or generally exchanging information with the server. Usually these simulated users are called virtual users.
Testing software usually utilizes a multitasking Operating System (OS) and CPU. Most modem multitasking OS's support both process and thread multitasking. A thread is the basic unit of program execution. It includes a list of instructions that is treated by the processor as a single sequential flow of control. A process on the other hand is a larger unit of program execution, that may contain several threads. At any time a computer may be executing several processes concurrently and several threads within each process.

Serving concurrent TCP/IP connections of multiple virtual internet users with a single thread


A method of forming an isolation structure, comprising: (a) providing a base having a recess; (b) forming a stop layer on the base and in the recess; (c) forming a dielectric material on the stop layer so as to allow the rest of the recess to be filled with the dielectric material; (d) removing the dielectric material over the base by performing a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process until a part of the stop layer is exposed so as to form a dielectric layer in the recess; and (e) removing a part of the stop layer, wherein the another part of the stop layer and the dielectric layer filled in the recess constitute the isolation structure.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to an isolation structure and a method of fabricating the same, and more particularly to an isolation structure applied to an non-volatile memory, and a method of fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Local Oxidation of Silicon (LOCOS) is the traditional isolation technique. At first a very thin silicon oxide layer 12 is grown on the wafer 10, the so-called pad oxide. Then a layer of silicon nitride 14 is deposited which is used as an oxide barrier. The pattern transfer is performed by photolithography. After lithography the pattern is etched into the nitride 14. The result is the nitride mask as shown in FIG. 1a, which defines the active areas for the oxidation process. The next step is the main part of the LOCOS process, the growth of the thermal oxide 12a (see FIG. 1b). After the oxidation process is finished, the last step is the removal of the nitride layer 14 (see FIG. 1c). The main drawback of this technique is the so-called bird's beak effect and the surface area which is lost to this encroachment.
The Shallow Trench Isolation (STI) is another isolation technique. The STI process starts in the same way as the LOCOS process. The first difference compared to LOCOS is that a shallow trench 18 is etched into the silicon substrate 10, as shown in FIG. 2a. A pattern of the resist 16 is transferred to the silicon nitride layer 14, the silicon oxide layer 12, and also part of the silicon substrate 10. After underetching of the oxide pad 12, also a thermal oxide 20 in the trench is grown in the Furnace, the so-called liner oxide (see FIG. 2c). But unlike with LOCOS, the thermal oxidation process is stopped after the formation of a thin oxide layer 20, and the rest of the trench 18 is filled with a deposited oxide 30, which is performed by chemical vapor deposition (see FIG. 2d). Next, the excessive (deposited) oxide is removed with chemical mechanical planarization (see FIG. 2e). At last the nitride mask 14 is also removed (see FIG. 2f). However, the price for saving space with STI is the larger number of different process steps.
Therefore, there exists a requirement of an isolation technique, being capable of solving the above problems without complicating the manufacturing process and increasing the cost.

Isolation structure, non-volatile memory having the same, and method of fabricating the same


The first parameter generation unit 811 generates a first parameter, which is a parameter of a first recognizer, using first learning data including a combination of data to be recognized, a correct label of the data, and domain information indicating a collection environment of the data. The second parameter generation unit 812 generates a second parameter, which is a parameter of a second recognizer, using second learning data including a combination of data to be recognized that is collected in a predetermined collection environment, a correct label of the data, and target domain information indicating the predetermined collection environment, based on the first parameter. The third parameter generation unit 813 integrates the first parameter and the second parameter to generate a third parameter to be used for pattern recognition of input data by learning using the first learning data.

It is known that the performance of a recognition engine can be improved by learning using many pattern data. Moreover, tuning from a basic recognition engine to a recognition engine adapted to each environment is also performed. It is to be noted that a recognition engine may also be called a recognizer.
Moreover, various methods have been proposed for improving recognition accuracy depending on different environments. For example, PTL 1 describes a pattern recognition device that performs recognition processing depending on an environment in which a character is written. The pattern recognition device described in PTL 1 calls any one or more of pattern recognition processes for each state of a processing target extracted from an input image to perform recognition processing.
Moreover, PTL 2 describes an image recognition method of avoiding lengthening of additional learning due to a difference in imaging environments. In the image recognition method described in PTL 2, a similarity is calculated from a finite difference between an imaging environment at the time of imaging and an imaging environment information indicating each imaging environment managed in a parameter table. If the parameter table does not have imaging environment information indicating an imaging environment with a similarity higher than a predetermined threshold, a recognition control parameter corresponding to an imaging environment with the highest similarity among similarities smaller than the predetermined threshold is selected. Then, based on the selected recognition control parameter, a predetermined learning algorithm is used to generate a recognition control parameter to be used for recognition of a newly acquired image.

Pattern recognition system, parameter generation method, and parameter generation program


A cue tip shaper for shaping and reshaping a shapeable cue tip on a cue stick utilized for playing pool or billiards. The cue tip shaper comprises a planar base, and an arrangement of articulable guides for receiving and aligning a cue stick tip with a tip shaping scuff member. The cue stick is received between the guides and pressable against the scuff member. The tip is typically leather. A scuff surface is arranged on the scuff member secured in the planar base, and is in alignment with the movable guides.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for trimming and shaping and scuffing the tips of the billiard and pool sticks.
2. Prior Art
Billiards is an indoor game played on a rectangular table covered with felt. Players drive plastic balls against one another with a wooden stick called a cue. The cue has a leather tip which strikes the plastic balls. Billiards may refer to two different games, one including billiards which is often called pool, and the billiards game itself. In a game of pool, a white cue ball is used to drive a number of colored object balls, usually fifteen, into pockets at the edge of the table. In billiards, only three balls are used, two object balls being hit by one cue ball. The primary equipment for this game is a cue, which is typically made of a high-quality ash or maple wood, and may range up to about 57 inches in length. Such a cue or stick, has a tip, typically made of leather. The tip may be of hemispherical configuration. Striking the ball and hitting it to move in the desired direction is the critical requirement of these games. Slippage or sliding of the ball relative to the cue tip will certainly affect the path of the ball. Chalk is typically rubbed on the cue tip to prevent the cue from slipping off of the ball and spoiling a shot. During use, the cue tip may become worn or mis-figured. Sophisticated players will reshape the cue tip during a game to ensure the accuracy of their striking of the tip against a ball.
A variety of devices have been devised for shaping of the tip of a cue stick. One such device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,160 to Porper. The device disclosed in Porper is a cue tip shaping tool comprising a multi purpose tip preparer with a number of manipulable attachments therewith, which altogether, is rather complicated.
A further cue tip shaper is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,129,187 to Cain. This device comprises an elongated housing which is further complicated by a chalk applicator therewith. U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,618 to Lynn shows a generally cylindrically shaped cue tip shaper having the ability to receive a different cue stick at each end of the housing. This shaper also however, requires the use of a curved blade within its housing. Blades have to be replaced after they've been used several times, adding to the disadvantage of possible misalignment.
A similar condition exists in U.S. Pat. No. 5,887,350 to Porper, showing a trimming and shaping tool, which also utilizes a blade. This apparatus as well, requires the changing of a blade after several uses, adding to its complicated nature.
These exemplary prior art devices are somewhat complicated, and fail to have the ability to adapt themselves properly to any variation in cue stick tip diameter.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a cue tip shaper apparatus which will accommodate a multiplicity of cue stick tip diameters.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a cue stick tip shaper which will improve the accuracy of the cue and make the tip readily consistent.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a cue stick tip shaper which will improve the consistency of the ball striking and will minimize the necessity of changing tips as often as the prior art.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a tip shaper which will keep the cue sticks in proper alignment during the shaping operation and shape those tips properly relative to the cue stick.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a cue stick tip shaper which is usable on all shaft sizes, for example 10 mm to 14 mm. It is still yet a further object of the present invention to provide a cue stick tip shaper which will generate less heat during the shaping and scuffing operation, thus minimizing the de-layering of laminated tips.


An adjustable dumbbell includes a handle, a shaft rotatably engaged through the handle, a carrier attached to each end portion of the shaft and having an inner housing and an outer housing and one or more middle housings spaced from each other for forming two or more gaps between the housings and for engaging with weight members, and the inner housing and the middle housing each include a spring-biased projection extendible into the gaps for selectively latching the weight members to the handle and the shaft and the carrier, and a control device is rotatably engaged onto the shaft and coupled to the handle for actuating the spring-biased projections to latch the selected weight members to the handle and the shaft and the carrier.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an adjustable dumbbell, and more particularly to an adjustable dumbbell including an indicating structure or device for indicating the total weights of the weight members to be carried by the weight carrier or handle and for allowing the user to know how much weight he is carried or operated.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typical adjustable dumbbells comprise a handle to be grasped or held by the user, and a number of weight plates to be selectively attached onto the ends of the handle for weight lifting or exercising purposes, or for exercising or training the upper muscle groups or the lower muscle groups of the user.
For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2003/0114276 to Schiff, U.S. Pat. No. 7,137,931 to Liu, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,172,536 to Liu disclose several typical adjustable dumbbells each comprising two or more weight plates or weight members selectively or adjustably attaching or mounting onto the handle shaft or handle bar for being held or grasped by the users to train the upper muscle groups or the lower muscle groups of the user.
However, the total weights of the weight plates or weight members have not been shown; i.e., the user may not know how much weight he is carried or operated, and may have to check the other information in order to know how much weight he is carried or operated each time.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2004/0072661 to Krull, U.S. Pat. No. 6,669,606 to Krull, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,719,674 to Krull disclose the other typical adjustable dumbbells each also comprising two or more weight plates or weight members selectively or adjustably attaching or mounting onto the handle shaft or handle bar for being held or grasped by the users to train the upper muscle groups or the lower muscle groups of the user, and each further comprising a weight indicating structure or device for indicating the total weights of the weight members to be carried by the weight carrier or handle and for allowing the user to know how much weight he is carried or operated.
However, the housings or retainers for engaging with the weight plates or weight members should include or should be applied with a number of digits on the outer surface for showing or indicating the total weights of the weight members to be carried by the weight carrier or handle.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages of the conventional adjustable dumbbells.


A non-volatile semiconductor memory cell includes a semiconductor substrate with a source and a drain formed therein. A channel is defined between the source and the drain. Atop the channel is a floating gate which is controlled by the X-control line and the Y-control line. The floating gate is uniquely disposed in the semiconductor substrate relative to the control lines such that when it is not addressed, the memory cell is isolated from the rest of the memory cells. As a consequence, the normal programming, deprogramming, and reading operations with other cells are not interfered. Moreover, the unique structure also facilitates the addressing of each of the memory cell.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor memories, in particular, to non-volatile semiconductor memories such as Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM), or Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM).
2. Description of the Related Art
Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) semiconductor memory devices, specifically, floating gate MOS transistor structures used as memory cells, are well known in the art. Each of these devices is operated by charging or discharging a floating gate. The charged floating gate affects the underlying channel which in turn determined the conductivity between the drain to the source. In EPROM technology, the floating gate is charged by hot-electron injection from the channel and discharged by ultra-violet light illumination. In EEPROM technology, the floating gate is both charged or discharged by the Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) tunneling effect. Recently, there is a new generation of devices called the flash EEPROM which utilizes the hot-electron injection from the channel for the charging of the floating gate, and the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling effect for the discharging of the floating gate.
FIG. 1a shows a top plan view of a conventional floating gate MOS cell which is denoted by reference numeral 12. FIG. 1b shows a cross-sectional view taken along line 1b-1b of FIG. 1a. FIG. 1c shows another cross-sectional view taken along line 1c--1c of FIG. 1a. The cell of FIGS. 1a-1c includes a P-type silicon substrate 1 having an N.sup.+ -type diffusion drain 2 and source 3 formed in the substrate. Between drain 2 and source 3 is a channel region 4. A floating gate 6 is dielectrically disposed atop insulating layer 5 and extends over to the field oxide 9. A select gate 8 formed on an insulating layer 7 on the top of floating gate 6 and crosses over field oxide 9. A contact 10 formed atop the drain 2 provides connection to a metal bit line 11.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an equivalent circuit of the memory cell shown in FIGS. 1a-1c. In an memory cell array with the aforementioned cell construction, the N.sup.+ -type source 3 is connected to a source line SL, while the N.sup.+ -type drain 2 is connected to a bit line BL. Moreover, the select gate 8 is connected to a select gate line SGL. When such a cell is used as a flash EEPROM device, insulating layer 5 is intentionally designed with a thin geometry, for example, 11 nanometers. An illustration of such a design can be found in A. Umezawa et al., IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits (JSSC), vol. 27, No. 11, November 1991, PP1540-1546; or in T. Jinbo et al., IEEE JSSC, vol. 27, No. 11, November 1992, PP1547-1553. FlG.3 shows a set of exemplary voltage values at various terminals for the programming and deprogramming of the cell, along with the corresponding change in threshold voltages VT of the MOS transistor 12. The main disadvantage of this type of memory cell is that it is space consuming. As a consequence, number of cells integrated per unit area in the semiconductor substrate is relatively low. Moreover, during the deprogramming process, threshold voltage VT of the cell needs to be constantly checked and deprogrammed for an assurance that the threshold voltage VT of transistor 12 falls within a predetermined window. In this particular case, the predetermined window is from +1 Volt to +3 Volts. Phrased differently, threshold voltage VT of transistor 12 can not assume a negative value. The main reason is that if the threshold voltage VT of transistor 12 falls below zero volt, transistor 12 is at "ON" state with a conductive channel 4, resulting in bit line BL and source line SL being electrically shorted together. The consequence is twofold. First, floating gate MOS transistor 12 are normally arranged in a matrix format with bit line BL in each of the matrix columns connected together, and with the select gate line SGL of each of the matrix rows connected together. Source line SL of all the transistors are shorted together to ground potential. A conductive transistor 12 in any of the column will yield a false read operation in the particular column. In addition, a shorted channel 4 in transistor 12 effectively clamps the bit line BL to the ground potential. Thus any transistor 12 in the same column can not be programmed as it needs a +5 Volts on bit line BL as one of the conditions for programming as shown in FIG. 3.
Thus, the requirement imposed on prior art transistor 12 that it must fall with a predetermined threshold voltage window after deprogramming places further complication in design with extra circuitries.
In view of the drawbacks with the aforementioned memory cells, there are EPROM and EEPROM cells designed in the past with better performances. These cells are fabricated with thin field oxide regions and contacts. Examples of such cells are taught in R. Kazerounim et al., IEDM Technical Digest 1991, paper 11.5.1, pp 311-314; in B. J. Woo et al., IEDM Technical Digest 1990, paper 5.1.1, pp 91-94; in Y. Yamauchi et al., IEDM Technical Digest 1991, pp 319-322; or in Gill, U.S. Pat. No. 5,051,796, issued Sep. 24, 1991. These cells offer various improvements over the earlier structures. However, to attain a high gate capacitance coupling ratio, which is defined as the ratio of the coupled floating gate voltage to the active control gate voltage, the area of the main cell needs to be built with a large geometry. consequently, a large device consumes more space in a semiconductor substrate and increases the susceptibleness to noise. The reduction in noise immunity vulnerably exposes the memory cell to spurious signals which occur frequently during the programming process.

Non-volatile semiconductor memory cell with control gate and floating gate and select gate located above the channel


Flying Car, roadable aircraft, amphibian, multimode, multifunctional, composite versatile personal transport vehicle with twin, parallel fuselages, hulls, each with inflatable pontoons and/or wheels below and a cabin. Combined, aircraft, airplane, aeroplane, flying, air, aerial, airborne vehicle with variable, folding wings which is convertible via automatic transformation to a land vehicle and to a sea vessel. Two wings are stored between the fuselages. They extend on a system of rails, pivots and counter-rotating, fuselage-mounted arms which then sink flush into the wings' undersides and lock for flight. Upon wing extension and retraction, controls for road transport and flight controls alternately emerge or are stowed inoperably, as needed. Engine power alternately drives a propeller for flight, wheels for road travel and a separate, submersible, marine propeller for water transport.

Whereas almost all winged aircraft and most seaplanes have wheels and steering for taxiing on land, it is primarily their wingspan which makes them illegal or impractical for road transport. To be "roadable" the maximum allowed width varies between 2.44 m (8 ft.) and 2.55 m. In exceptions it ranges up to 2.60 m (8.5 ft.). Furthermore, cars are generally heavier, less streamlined and have a less critical centre of gravity than aircraft. Because of these major (and other minor) factors, a practical combined land/air vehicle ("flying car") for everyday use has remained an unsolved technical problem for over 100 years.
Some of the biggest names in the automobile industry have designed "flying cars": Ford "Sky Flivver" (1926) and Chrysler "VZ-6CH" (1957) at www.roadabletimes.com, Toyota #JP2005125976, Kawasaki #JP63130413, BMW #DE10215176 & #DE10159082 and Daimler-Benz AG (PARAT-Studie 1990—Personal Advanced Road Air Transportation). The PARAT study was produced in cooperation with Dornier. Other aviation companies to have made attempts were Boeing at www.roadabletimes.com, Messerschmitt MBB (Kyrill von Gersdorf: "Ludwig Bölkow and sein Werk-Ottobrunner Innovationen" Bernhard & Graefe Verlag 1987), McDonnell Douglas U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,649, Lockheed U.S. Pat. No. 2,762,584, North American, Avro VZ-9AV, Northrop, and Antonov (below). Other art has been the result of University projects, MIT #WO2007-114877. Governments are actively pursuing development. The Advanced General Aviation Transports Experiments (AGATE) was formed by the US Congress in 1992. It includes NASA and the FAA. Under its auspices, the Virginia Space Grant Consortium runs a design competition as do CAFE and NASA at www.cafefoundation.org/v2/pav_home.php for a PAV (Personal Aerial Vehicle). Other National Research Institutes are pursuing similar goals; #JP2004122945, #NL 256074 as are various military organisations U.S. Pat. No. 6,457,670. The commercial applications of such a vehicle in recreation, business travel, emergency service, commuting and tourism and the effect of its widespread use on infrastructure, logistics and mass transit over greater distances, especially over water, are self-evident.
Carrying the mass of at least one person into the air requires a certain amount of lift. This can be provided by a combination of engine power and wing area. But even a one-person solution is hard to fit into a vehicle only 2.55 m wide. For this reason, almost half the known art dispenses with conventional wings and merely employs jets, fans or rotors, making it expensive, loud and therefore largely impractical. The construction of roadable aircraft with integrated wings is far more difficult. It's more than just miniaturising or building to a smaller/narrower scale—since a human can't be "scaled down". It's an art in and of itself, requiring many compromises and combining many fields of knowledge.
Existing roadable aircraft art is divided into three broad categories;                1). "non-fixed-wing" solutions (employing rotors, jets and fans for lift),        2). "modular" solutions (whereby the wings, empennage and propeller comprise a separate unit which is attached to the road vehicle) and        3). "integrated" solutions (whereby wings and airscrew are integrated into and carried with the vehicle at all times). Integrated solutions are in turn divided into seven sub-categories,                    a). bi-/multiplanes,            b). parachute wings,            c). lighter than air,            d). high aspect-ratio wings,            e). telescopic wings,            f). folding wings and            g). swinging wings.
Occasionally, two or more of these elements are combined into one solution. The invention disclosed here is an integrated, swing-wing solution.


A magnetic recording and reproduction method comprising recording or reproducing a track of a rotating magnetic disk by means of a magnetic head, wherein the magnetic disk comprises a support and a magnetic layer containing ferromagnetic powder and a binder; the track has a breadth of 2 μm or less; and a frictional force between the magnetic layer and the magnetic head at innermost peripheral area of a recording region of the magnetic disk is 30 mN or less, a frictional force between the magnetic layer and a magnetic head at outermost peripheral area of a recording region of the magnetic disk is 20 mN or less, and a ratio of the frictional force at the innermost peripheral area to the frictional force at the outermost peripheral area is from 1.0 to 4.0.

As recording media for recording data of, e.g., personal computers, 2HD flexible discs (hereinafter referred to as "2HD-FD"), which are flexible magnetic discs, are now widely used, and a disc drive for 2HD-FD is carried in many personal computers as a standardized equipment. However, in recent years, the amount of data to be dealt with greatly increases, and the recording capacity of 2HD-FD is no longer sufficient in many cases. Accordingly, the increase in capacity of a flexible magnetic disc capable of easily handling is desired.
To meet the requirement, various techniques for the purpose of increasing the recording capacity of magnetic recording media have been developed and flexible magnetic discs far exceeding the recording capacity of 2HD-FD, e.g., magnetic discs having a recording capacity of 100 MB or higher, have been put to practical use. To cope with high density recording of data and data transfer at a high speed, recording and reproduction of these high capacity magnetic discs are performed with a magnetic disc apparatus using a magnetic head.
As is already known, there are cases where very important data (information) are recorded on magnetic discs, and recording and reproduction of data are generally performed repeatedly. Accordingly, it is of course required of high capacity magnetic discs to have excellent durability. Further, in recording and reproducing data, the load applied to the magnetic head of a magnetic recording apparatus is preferably smaller. For these requirements, coming of a magnetic disc having more excellent characteristics is required.
When a magnetic disc is revolved at a high speed and a magnetic head is run for seeking the surface of the disc for the prescribed time (e.g., from 200 to 300 hours in high temperature environment), there is a case where the magnetic disc takes a scratch and data cannot be recorded or reproduced, which leads to the occurrence of an error. One cause of the occurrence of scratches on a magnetic disc is the evaporation of a lubricant due to running and the reduction of a lubricating function.
It is disclosed in JP-A-2002-74649 (The term "JP-A" as used herein refers to an "unexamined published Japanese patent application".) that in the magnetic disc disclosed in the patent comprising a magnetic layer having provided on an intermediate layer, an appropriate amount of alkylamine lubricant is supplied to the surface of the magnetic disc without being adsorbed onto the nonmagnetic powder contained in the intermediate layer, so that the reduction of a friction coefficient can be realized without deteriorating electromagnetic characteristics and excellent reliability of the magnetic disc can be ensured.
Further, it is shown in EXAMPLES of JP-A-2003-16638 that the durability of a medium can be improved by reducing the frictional force applied to a magnetic head. However, it is known that a frictional force increases when the relative velocity between a head and a medium lowers, so that it is necessary to secure proper frictional characteristics in a wide range of relative velocity for ensuring stable frictional characteristics from the inside diameter to the outside diameter of a magnetic disc. Further, it has been known that when the value of frictional force is greatly different at the radius position, the attitude of a head changes, the spacing loss between a head and a disc becomes great and electromagnetic characteristics lower. This tendency is conspicuous when recording density is high, so that the improvement of durability was out of the question in the recording/reproducing system as attained in JP-A-2003-16638 having a track breadth in reproduction of 5 μm or more.

Magnetic recording and reproduction method


A method is provided for the monitoring of heat transfer devices. The method includes the acts of receiving data from a heat transfer device, and computing a performance indicator indicative of an incipient anomaly condition of the heat transfer device based upon the received data, and/or computing a normalized efficiency of the heat transfer device. The normalized efficiency represents a corrected efficiency that isolates effects of a process parameter on performance of the heat transfer device. The data represents a measurable process parameter or a change in a measurable process parameter in the heat transfer device. The method receives the data and computes a performance indicator to predict performance degradation of the heat transfer device over time based upon the received data.

1. Technical Field
The invention includes embodiments that may relate to a system and/or method for monitoring one or more a heat transfer device. The heat transfer device may be in a power plant.
2. Discussion of Art
Power plants may be classified based on the process for electrical power generation. Power plant classifications include thermal power plants, hydroelectric power plants, nuclear power plants, geothermal power plants, wind farms, and solar farms. Each generating modality operates with a specific differing input to produce an electrical power output. In a power plant, a heat transfer device may include a furnace firewall, air preheater, superheater, reheater, economizer, and the like. The heat transfer device may transfer heat from one medium to another medium to maintain a continuous generation of electrical power.
A heat transfer device function may produce an undesired by-product that can subsequently hinder the functioning of the processes. As a result, the efficiency of the power plant decreases with time and overall cost of operation of the power plant increases. Boilers, for example, form an integral part of power plant that uses combustion to generate steam to run turbines. Common types of fuel used to fire boilers include coal and fuel oil. Due to chemical by-products released during combustion, the boilers may foul or form slag.
Fouling is the accumulation of ash and by-products of incomplete combustion as a layer on an inner surface of a boiler. A layer of fouling substance may have low thermal conductivity that reduces the amount of heat transferred in heat exchanging components. In the case of a boiler, this may cause an increase in temperature inside the boiler for a given amount of steam production, a decrease in functional efficiency of the boiler, and an increase in pressure drop within the boiler due to reduced cross-sectional area. Slagging is a process similar to fouling. Slagging refers to deposition of solid or molten layers on the outside surface of the boiler tubes. A process known as sintering may form such layers. Sintering is the bonding of adjacent surfaces of particles into a hard deposit. Sintering subsequently strengthens the mass, causing an increase in tenacity of the deposit on the surface. Both fouling and slagging may be self-propelling processes, meaning that once an initial layer of a material forms on a surface, the layer causes more of the material to be deposited. Sometimes, more heat is requested from the combustion chamber to offset the efficiency loss, and the increased heat production exacerbates the problem.
An air preheater is a heat transfer component in a power plant. The air preheater may transfer heat from re-circulating flue gases to air. The outgoing flue gases from a combustion process may pre-heat air used in other processes. The pre-heating of air reduces the amount of energy spent in raising the temperature of an otherwise cold air to a desired temperature level. Because these flue gases contain organic and inorganic chemicals, the flue gases react with metal tubes disposed within the air preheater and cause corrosion and fouling.
Due to effects as described above, performance of these components drops over time and breaks down or forces a servicing outage. Addition of chemicals to the fuel and treating the device surface is a way of reducing the effects of fouling and slagging. The addition of chemicals may be undesirable. The existing systems that monitor boilers may have a reactive warning system. This means that the systems would raise an alarm or warning only when a problem affects the boilers or other a heat transfer device. By the time the alarm is raised, the effects of fouling and slagging may have progressed to a severe stage that leaves system operators with little option other than to shutdown the boiler for cleaning and/or treating the heat transfer surfaces to bring the boiler performance to acceptable limits. Also, such reactive warning systems may be incapable of predicting when a failure of the boiler might occur. In many cases, evaluation relies instead on the operator experience and knowledge of boiler performance to predict an impending failure.
It may be desirable to have a monitoring system that differs from those systems available today. It may be desirable to have a method of monitoring a system that differs from those methods available today.

Method for monitoring performance of a heat transfer device


The present invention is directed to flux compositions. One composition comprises an activator, a medium-viscosity solvent being a polymer, and a high-viscosity solvent being a copolymer containing first monomers and second monomers. Another composition comprises an activator, and a high-viscosity solvent comprising a copolymer containing first monomers and second monomers. Another composition comprises an activator of 6-12 percent by weight of glutaric acid, pimelic acid, tartaric acid, or mixtures thereof, and a medium-viscosity solvent of 88-94 percent by weight comprising a polymer with hydroxyl end groups. Another composition comprises an activator in a liquid state comprising poly(ethylene glycol)-diacid, and a medium-viscosity solvent comprising a polymer with hydroxyl end groups.

Fluxes play an important role in solder-joining electronic components, such as semiconductor devices, onto printed circuit cards or printed circuit boards (PCBs). Flux to is used in a process of flip-chip joining to a substrate that has ball grid arrays (BGA) or land grid arrays (LGA). In a typical process, by way of example, flux is applied onto a substrate followed by placing a chip onto the flux-applied substrate. Then, the chip-substrate module goes through a reflow process at a high temperature so as to make solder connections. The subsequently formed flux residue is cleaned (for example, with water) followed by drying the module. An underfill material is introduced into the gap between the chip and the substrate to maintain the integrity of the flip-chip package.
As the density of Controlled Collapse Chip Connection (C4) arrays and the chip size increase, the joining process sometimes produces non-wets at a corner of the large chip due to the smaller C4 size and the larger warpage of a substrate. It also becomes more difficult to clean flux residue, formed during flip-chip joining, out of the narrow chip-substrate gap of the large chip package.
Non-wets which make electrical open should be avoided, and flux residue often causes delamination between underfill and chip or between underfill and substrate, resulting in failure of flip-chip packages. As the size of solder balls in a chip decrease, slight movement of an aligned chip-laminate module during a reflow process can cause non-wets, because a typical high-throughput reflow tool tends to vibrate. Such non-wets can increase in the case of multi-chip modules.
Chemical components of a flux or its impurities can decompose or vaporize during reflow to give out vapors, which can cause chips to move out of position. Highly tacky fluxes can, however, prevent movement of chips even though vapors are coming out or a reflow furnace vibrates. Also, chemical components of the flux should have a boiling point that is higher than a typical reflow temperature in order to avoid movement of chips due to boiling. Solvent molecules of the flux, if they do not evaporate upon reflow due to their high boiling points, should be large enough so as not to diffuse into a substrate outer layer such as solder mask, which is relatively porous because it is a photoresist with silica fillers.
However, after joining, left-over flux and by-products of the reaction between flux and solders need to be cleaned, preferably with a low cost and environment friendly method because cleaning with organic solvent is not only harmful to human beings and the environment but also expensive, in regards to both the material itself and the waste treatment process. Therefore, it would be desirable to develop a flux that has sufficient tackiness and a sufficiently high boiling point, while the flux residue can be cleaned with water.
Many existing fluxes in the industry, however, provide an inadequate joining capability in case of lead-free solders, give non-wets at the corner of a chip, leave considerable flux residue onto chip, C4 and substrate surfaces after cleaning, diffuse into the substrate outer layer, and/or cause chip movement during reflow.
By way of example, existing fluxes include disadvantageous aspects such as being small enough to diffuse into a solder mask layer at a reflow temperature, resulting in a failure of the semiconductor package, not providing enough tackiness or viscosity, as well as often leaving residue after reflow that cannot be cleaned with water.
Accordingly, there is a need for soldering flux compositions that can effectively manufacture the modern and high-performance semiconductor packages used for computers, communication devices, home electronics, game consoles, audio/video equipments, automobiles, etc.

Flux composition and techniques for use thereof

International Business Machines Corporation