Methods and systems described herein facilitate virtual interactions between users that more closely resemble their in-person counterparts. In particular, the methods and systems simulate in-person interactions in virtual environments through the use of complex spatial algorithms. For example, in some embodiments, the methods and systems provide avatar-based video conferencing systems in which avatars are connected by video/voice chat to any avatar based on one or more criteria.

Video conferencing systems capable of hosting conversations among numerous remote participants have become increasingly prevalent in recent years. Similarly, there has been an increase in the number and type of virtual environments that allow users to interact with one another through virtual avatars. Despite the increases in processing speed and graphical capabilities, these video conferencing systems and virtual environments, and the interactions of users within them, still fail to appropriately simulate in-person interactions.

Systems and methods for triggering livestream communications between users based on motions of avatars within virtual environments that correspond to users


A data processing apparatus including a drawable hopper table with a hopper and an image reading head. Sheets are conveyed from the hopper to a stacker arranged below the hopper table, and the stacker includes a pusher for discharging sheets. The hopper table and the pusher are moved by a common motor and a gear mechanism. The gear mechanism includes a partially toothed gear, so as to drive one of the hopper table and the pusher. A cam mechanism is incorporated with the gear mechanism to prohibit the movement of the not driven one. Also, a top cover is pivotally attached to the hopper table about a pivot arranged on one side of the top cover remote from the hopper, the image reading head is pivotally attached to the top cover about a fulcrum arranged on one side of the top cover near the hopper.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data processing apparatus such as an image reading apparatus or an image forming apparatus or the like devices.
2. Prior Art
Conventional image reading apparatuses can be roughly classified into an ADF (automatic document feeder) type, a flat bed type, and a composite type. FIG. 57 in the attached drawings illustrates an image reading apparatus of the ADF type. As shown, the image reading apparatus of this type comprises a hopper 74 onto which documents or sheets to be read are set, a reading head 73 for reading information on the document, and a stacker 75 onto which the documents are discharged after they are read. A plurality of documents can be set onto the hopper 74 and are automatically and successively conveyed through the image reading apparatus by conveying rollers 76. The reading head 73 such as an image sensor, and information recorded on the document can be read by the reading head 73. The documents are discharged onto the stacker 75. As described above, the image reading apparatus of the ADF type can operate automatically and continuously, and the efficiency of the operation is higher than that of the other type of image reading apparatuses. Therefore, the image reading apparatus of the ADF type is suited for the applications where large amounts of documents must be read at high speed.
An image reading apparatus of the flat bed type is shown in FIG. 58 in the attached drawings. The image reading apparatus of this type is provided on its upper surface with a flat bed unit having a reading window 72, and a reading head 73 is arranged within the reading window 72. A cover 76 is attached to the flat bed. To read the documents using the image reading apparatus of the flat bed type, the documents are set onto the reading window 72. When the reading operation is started, the reading head 73 moves to scan the document, whereby information on the document is read. To read another document following thereto, the document that has been read is removed from the reading window 72, and a new document is placed on it.
The image reading apparatus of the flat bed type requires replacement of the document after every reading operation, and is not suited for reading the documents at high speed and, hence, does not have a high reading efficiency. However, it has a simple structure and a low cost because it does not have a document feeding mechanism, so the image reading apparatus of the flat bed type has been widely used for the applications where large amounts of documents need not be read at one time. The documents such as books cannot be set to the hopper and cannot be read by the image reading apparatus of the ADF type, but they can be read by the image reading apparatus of the flat bed type.
There is proposed an image reading apparatus of a combination of the ADF type and the flat bed type, by which it is possible to select the reading operation depending upon the kind of documents to be read.
In addition, the data processing apparatus in the form of a printer comprises a hopper for setting the printing papers and a stacker onto which the papers will be discharged after printing. Some printers have a plurality of hoppers onto which papers of different sizes can be set to cope with a plurality kinds of the printing papers.
The conventional equipment, however, has problems as described below. In the image reading apparatus of the ADF type or in the printer equipped with the hopper and the stacker as shown in FIG. 57, the hopper and the stacker project from its casing to the exterior thereof. Therefore, much space must be maintained for holding them, so that the hopper and the stacker do not interfere with other apparatuses.
Recently, it has been urged to efficiently utilize the space in offices, and available space for setting office equipments such as personal computers, keyboards, image reading apparatuses and/or printers are decreasing. To meet this demand, equipments are becoming smaller in size, but there are limitations. In particular, the hoppers and stackers of the image reading apparatuses and printers have their sizes determined depending upon the sizes of the documents (printing papers), and cannot be made small.
EP-Al-0621719, filed by the same assignee as for the present case, discloses a data processing apparatus having a box-shaped casing having parallel and horizontal cavities and a hopper table arranged in the upper cavity. The hopper table has a hopper onto which a plurality of sheets can be set and a reading head, and the lower cavity of the casing serves as a stacker. Sheet conveying rollers are arranged for conveying the documents from the hopper through the reading head to the stacker. A plurality of documents can be handled at a time, and yet, the hopper and the stacker do not project from the casing. Therefore, this apparatus can solve the above described problems.

Data processing apparatus having a movable hopper table


Saltcake generated by the aluminum industry is completely recycled through a process that simultaneously liberates the contained aluminum metal and dissolves the soluble salt fluxes to recover aluminum metal, aluminum oxide and salt fluxes by temperature controlled wet milling, rapid solids-brine separation and solar pond evaporation of the resulting clear brine. The temperature of the feedwater is 70.degree. F. or less to retard the exothermic reaction of aluminum metal with water, thereby minimizing the loss of metal to oxidation and the evolution of undesirable gases. Low temperature is maintained by using process water at or below the desired temperature, by forcibly cooling the mill with ambient air, and by controlling transit time through the mill to avoid excessive grinding of the aluminum metal. Minimizing the production of fine aluminum particles reduces the total surface area of aluminum metal available for exothermic reacton with the water. Particle size is controlled by monitoring the aluminum metal product and slurry from the mill in order to adjust the feed rate of saltcake and water to the mill. Particle size control also permits maximum recovery of aluminum. The slurry from the mill is rapidly separated by filters and clarifiers into aluminum oxide and clear brine. The brine is then evaporated in solar pond(s) to recover salt fluxes.

This invention relates to the production of aluminum and, in particular, to the recovery of aluminum, oxides, and soluble compounds from saltcake.
Companies producing aluminum can be divided between "primary" smelters producing aluminum from ore and "secondary" smelters producing aluminum from a combination of aluminum ingots and recycled scrap. Secondary smelters melt the aluminum ingots and scrap with a flux consisting of salts, such as sodium chloride, potassium chloride, cryolite (Na.sub.3 AlF.sub.6), or mixtures thereof. The flux melts and floats on the molten aluminum, protecting the aluminum from the oxygen in the air. metallic aluminum combines readily with oxygen, even at room temperature. At the temperature of molten aluminum (1218.degree. F.), the attraction for oxygen is very strong. Even with flux, a substantial fraction of the aluminum reacts to form aluminum oxide. In addition, aluminum globules are entrained in the flux, which is skimmed off as dross.
The dross has an aluminum content of fifteen to fifty percent by weight, the remainder being salts and oxides, and there are many processes for recovering this aluminum. Typically, the dross is heated with additional flux and the aluminum is removed by draining or other means, leaving behind what is known as "saltcake." Saltcake has essentially the same components as dross but in different proportions. Specifically, the recoverable aluminum content is typically four to six percent. At this level, it has not always been economically feasible to further process the saltcake for the recovery of aluminum or the other intrinsic value items, salt and aluminum oxide. The saltcake is raked off, or otherwise removed from, the molten aluminum, stored in suitable containers until cool, and dumped in a landfill as large chunks, e.g. typically twelve to forty cubic feet in volume.
Because of its high salt content, forty to fifty percent by weight, saltcake is ecologically undesirable although not toxic. The problem is that rainwater causes the salt to leach out of the cake, enter the ground, and eventually reach agricultural, industrial, or potable water supplies. A related problem is the shear bulk of the saltcake being sent to landfills. At this time, the amount of saltcake produced in the United States alone is approximately one million tons per year and the rate of production is likely to continue to increase, as it has for the past decade. Reducing or eliminating this material from landfills would significantly ease their burden and would be ecologically beneficial.
While there are commercially viable operations for recovering aluminum from dross, there are few stand alone, commercially viable operations in the world for recovering aluminum, oxides, and flux from saltcake. Part of the problem is the amount of salt, which is approximately half of the weight of the saltcake. Dissolving the salts with water requires large quantities of water and great amounts of energy to heat and then evaporate the water to separate and recover the salts. The cost of the water and energy, compared to the cost of a landfill, is part of the reason presently proposed techniques are not commercially feasible. A landfill is a relatively inexpensive outlet for saltcake.
Another part of the problem is the volume of saltcake to process. Many processes which have been developed in the laboratory or in pilot plants have not proven economically feasible in commercial applications. Increasing the number of facilities is not an answer because of the cost of construction and equipment which must be amortized. Landfills are (presently) an inexpensive alternative, unless salt is banned as a landfill material, as it has been in some areas. Finally, the brine itself is a problem because it is corrosive, eroding and clogging pumps, fittings, and pipes, requiring rigorous maintenance or replacement.
The processes proposed for recycling either dross or saltcake can be divided among those which leach first, those which grind first, and those which leach and grind simultaneously. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,752,328--Peterson and 4,368,070--Fracchia are examples of the first type; U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,723--Lyon and 4,732,606--Kobele et al. are examples of the second type; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,073,644--Papafingos et al. is an example of the third type.
Leaching first is unsuited to recycling large quantities of saltcake since the chunks of saltcake have a low surface area to volume ratio, causing the leaching to take an unacceptably long time. The Peterson patent describes leaching the salt from one ton of saltcake in a little over nine days. With a million tons of saltcake being produced annually, nine days is an excessive time for processing one ton of saltcake.
Dry grinding is unsuitable since the particles produced are necessarily quite small. Dry grinding is dusty, causes high wear, and is more costly than wet milling.
Basically, all processes use screening to separate the aluminum from the oxides. The underlying assumption in screening is that the aluminum particles are larger than the oxide particles at a particular point in the process.
Dry grinding grinds some of the aluminum into fine particles, which are then collected with oxides and oxidized.
In accordance with the invention, simultaneous grinding and leaching is preferred. It has been found that control of particle/chunk size of the saltcake is important for the recycling process. Unlike the Papafingos et al. patent, the saltcake is in larger chunks going into a mill (four inches vs. less than one inch). Also unlike the Papafingos et al. patent, cold water, not hot water, is used for leaching the salts from the saltcake. The advantages of these, and other, differences from the prior art are discussed in the Detailed Description of the Invention.
In view of the foregoing, it is therefore an object of the invention to provide a process for recycling saltcake that is cost competitive with dumping the saltcake in a landfill.
Another object of the invention is to increase the yield of aluminum in the recycling of saltcake.
A further object of the invention is to provide a process for recycling large quantities of saltcake, on the order of one hundred thousand tons per site per year.
Another object of the invention is to provide a process for completely recycling saltcake into re-usable components, thereby obviating the need to store any residue in a landfill.
A further object of the invention is to minimize the oxidation of aluminum during the recycling of saltcake.
Another object of the invention is to improve the autogenous milling of saltcake.
A further object of the invention is to reduce the wear on pumps and other machinery handling brine.


Typed input is received at a text field from a keyboard, such as a virtual keyboard displayed at an electronic communication device. Text prediction using the typed input can be performed to obtain at least one text-predicted candidate word and an associated confidence value. Speech recognition can be performed on audio input received via a microphone to obtain at least one speech-recognized candidate word and an associated confidence value, which can be adjusted based on the recency of the audio input. A candidate word having a highest confidence value can be selected from the text-predicted and speech-recognized candidate words for display as a suggestion to the user for selection by the user. The suggested candidate word can be displayed on a fret of the virtual keyboard.

Text entry using keyboards of electronic communication devices can be subject to error, which can reduce typing speed and generally reduce the effectiveness of text entry and of communications. Such error is particularly evident in touch-screen virtual keyboards.
Many schemes exist to correct errors in text typed with a keyboard. Word auto-correction and auto-completion are known. However, many of such schemes do not typically use information other than keyboard key presses, and those that do use such information do so in a subordinate manner, yielding precedence and control to the auto-correction or auto-completion algorithm. Further, such schemes do not typically work with context-based keyboard text prediction.

Text entry at electronic communication device


The fluid line between a drain opening at the bottom of the tub and an opening located at a higher level in the tub includes a line segment, which serves solely to keep the washwater in the tub in circulation between the upper opening and the drain opening. The line also has a solid pipe segment with a transparent region, at the wall of which a sensor is mounted that responds to the turbidity of the washwater. The sensor has an optical transmitter and an optical receiver. The sensor elements are built into a forked housing so as to securely mount and protect the sensor from the severe shaking during spin cycles. The forked housing embraces the pipe segment and the housing is adapted to the outer shape of the pipe segment at the faces which are in contact with the transparent region.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention pertains to a drum-type washing machine with a multi-part fluid line extending between a drain opening located at the bottom of the tub and an opening located in the tub geodetically above the drain opening; the fluid line includes a line segment that serves solely to keep the washwater in the tub in circulation between the upper opening and the drain opening, and which has a solid pipe segment with a transparent region; a sensor is attached at the wall that responds to the turbidity in the washwater and includes an optical transmitter and an optical receiver.
One such drum-type washing machine is known from German patent disclosure DE 36 03 323 A1. There, the sensor is installed so far downward toward the bottom in the washwater drainage system that water remaining in the washwater drainage system can lead to calcification of the transparent region and reduce its transparency. This has a tendency to render the measurement values picked up by the sensor incorrect. Moreover, the prior art turbidity sensor is subject to severe shaking during spin cycles, since the line segment is secured by one end to the vibrating tub and on the other to the stationary washwater pump. The tub vibrations are therefore transmitted to the sensor. Moreover, the fastening points of the line segment are as a result subject to very severe stresses.

Drum-type washing machine with a multi-part fluid line


A vehicle occupant restraint system for a seat of a vehicle. The system includes a first arm portion mountable on a first side of the seat, the first arm having an engaging portion; and a second arm portion mountable on a second side of the seat, the second arm having an engaging portion, the engaging portion of the first arm portion being engageable with the engaging portion of the second arm portion to restrain an occupant on the seat. At least one of the first arm portion and the second arm portion is adjustable relative to the seat.

An example of an existing vehicle occupant restraint system for ensuring that an occupant uses the restraints includes a seatbelt tongue on an elongate flap extending from the seat that normally obstructs entry into the seat. This existing system requires the occupant to move the flap out of the way before the occupant can sit down on the seat. Once the occupant occupies the seat, the occupant can then reposition the flap across their waist and fasten the seatbelt tongue on the flap into the seatbelt buckle. This existing system is intended to force the occupant to use the restraint by locating components of the restraint system in the way of the occupant (i.e., by obstructing the seat). The nature of this restraint system makes it cumbersome to use by the occupant.
In this context, there is a need for improved vehicle occupant restraint.


An electrical cable includes a cable jacket defining a central longitudinal axis and a plurality of twisted pairs of insulated conductors oriented longitudinally within the cable jacket. Each of the twisted pairs of insulated conductors has a width. A filler element is disposed in the cable jacket and is located adjacent to at least one of the twisted pairs of insulated conductors. The filler element defines a width that is substantially larger than the width of each the twisted pairs of insulated conductors. The filler element has a central axis laterally offset from the central longitudinal axis of the cable jacket. The filler element reduces alien crosstalk from an adjacent cable. A separator is disposed in said cable jacket between the twisted pairs of insulated conductors to reduce crosstalk between the twisted pairs of insulated conductors.

Interference between electrical cables bundled together in a cabling system decreases the efficiency of data transmission by the cabling system. Alien near-end crosstalk (ANEXT) and alien far-end crosstalk (AFEXT) noise is caused by the electrical unbalance between the twisted pairs of insulated conductors of adjacent cables. ANEXT and AFEXT are transmission noises that can increase the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and bit error rate (BER) in a cable transmission system, such as for a local area network.
Specifically, ANEXT and AFEXT occur when some of the signal current in a twisted pair of one cable couples with another twisted pair of another cable external to the signal path and along the path of a circuit between the two pairs. That noise corrupts the signal in the twisted pair external to the original signal path. When the circuit between the noise emitting and receiving twisted pairs egresses one cable boundary and crosses another cable boundary, the noise becomes alien crosstalk. Crosstalk also occurs between the twisted pairs of insulated conductors of the cables themselves.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Reduced alien crosstalk electrical cable with filler element


A plurality of sensor circuits each including an oscillator circuit, a detection electrode, and a ceramic resonator for changing a resonance frequency in accordance with a change in small electrostatic capacitance detected by the detector electrode and outputting a detection signal corresponding to a change in resonance frequency are formed on a circuit board. Detector electrode surfaces A.sub.1 to A.sub.4, B.sub.1 to B.sub.4, and C.sub.1 to C.sub.4 of the first to third sensor circuits are formed on the upper surface of the circuit board in a divisional manner. The detection surfaces of the respective sensor circuits are arranged to have codes in the scanning direction of an object to be detected. The fixed capacitances of the detection surfaces are decreased, and a change of state of the object can thus be detected at a high resolution. Since the detection surfaces of the respective sensor circuits are arranged to have codes in the scanning direction, detection data on a wide area can be obtained with a small number of sensor circuits.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a capacitance sensor apparatus of divided multi-electrode type having a plurality of sensor circuits continuously arranged for detecting a change in external electrostatic capacitance.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Apparatuses for detecting paper thickness are known. One apparatus uses a potentiometer and another apparatus is designed to detect a change in thickness as a change in electrostatic capacitance. This change in electrostatic capacitance can be measured as a change oscillating frequency of an oscillator circuit in accordance with the change in electrostatic capacitance. However, these apparatuses have poor detection precision and cannot detect the thickness and surface state of a sheet-like medium, e.g., paper or a film with a high sensitivity and high precision.
The present applicant previously proposed a capacitance sensor apparatus which can detect a change in small electrostatic capacitance with a high sensitivity of 1.times.10.sup.-5 pF in U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,359, issued Jul. 27, 1993. This capacitance sensor apparatus will be referred to as '359 patent. As shown in FIG. 1, the '359 Patent is constituted by: a sensor circuit comprising an oscillator circuit 14 having a ceramic resonator 19, a resonance circuit 21 having a ceramic resonator 15 different from the ceramic resonator 19 of the oscillator circuit 14, a detector circuit 16, an amplifier circuit 17, and an AFC (Automatic Frequency Control) circuit 18; and a detector electrode 20.
The oscillator circuit 14 outputs an oscillation frequency signal having a fixed high frequency of 0.5 to 10 GHz. The detector electrode 20 confronts an object to be detected to detect a change in small electrostatic capacitance with respect to the object to be detected and includes the detected change in small electrostatic capacitance to the resonance circuit 21. The resonance circuit 21 changes the resonance frequency in accordance with the change in small electrostatic capacitance detected from the detector electrode 20, forms an amplitude modulation signal corresponding to the change in resonance frequency by using the oscillation frequency signal from the oscillator circuit 14 as a carrier, and applies it to the detector circuit 16 as the detection signal. The detector circuit 16 envelope detects a detection signal, converts it to a signal within the detection band of the small electrostatic capacitance detected by the detector electrode 20, and applies this signal to the amplifier circuit 17. The amplifier circuit 17 applies the envelope detection signal detected by the detector circuit 16 to a desired signal processing circuit. The AFC circuit 18 corrects the resonance frequency of the resonance circuit which is biased by such influence as an environmental change to stabilize the resonance frequency.
According to the '359 Patent, since the change in small electrostatic capacitance detected by the detector electrode 20 is detected as a change in resonance frequency of the resonance circuit 21, a change in small electrostatic capacitance which is as small as 1.times.10.sup.-5 pF can be detected with a high sensitivity.
The present inventor derives from the '359 Patent and develops an apparatus suitable for detection of a sheet-like medium by utilizing this prior art.
To apply the prior art to detection of a sheet-like medium, a detector electrode 20 is constituted by an electrode plate having a length almost equal to the width of a sheet-like medium 3, as shown in FIG. 3. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, a ground electrode P is disposed to oppose the detector electrode 20 at a gap S through which the sheet-like medium 3 passes. A change in electrostatic capacitance, when the sheet-like medium 3 passes between the detector electrode 20 and the ground electrode P, it is detected by the detector electrode 20. The detected change is applied to the ceramic resonator 15 of the circuit shown in FIG. 1, thereby detecting the thickness, humidity-absorbing state, and surface roughness of the sheet-like medium 3, or a foreign material attached to the sheet-like medium 3.
However, when the detector electrode 20 is set to have a length almost equal to the width of the sheet-like medium 3, as shown in FIG. 3, the surface area of the detector electrode 20 is increased to increase its fixed capacitance Co. The resolution is decreased when the small electrostatic capacitance is to be detected.
In order to eliminate this problem, as shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of small detector electrodes 20 may be arranged in the widthwise direction of a sheet-like medium 3 to be connected to sensor circuits 22 similar to that shown in FIG. 1. When the plurality of capacitance sensor circuits 22 are arranged adjacent to each other in this manner, and the oscillating frequencies of oscillator circuits 14 of the respective capacitance sensor circuits 22 are slightly different from each other, the oscillating frequency of adjacent circuits can interfere with each other. This degrades the detection capability of the small electrostatic capacitance. Furthermore, when the sensor circuits are connected respectively to the plurality of detector electrodes 20, the number of capacitance sensor circuits 22 is largely increased to complicate the overall configuration, resulting in an increase in apparatus cost.

Capacitance sensor apparatus of divided multi-electrode type


Disclosed are a receptor protein which recognize a novel cytokine, i.e., interleukin-18, a monoclonal antibody specific to the protein, and uses thereof. The receptor protein is useful as pharmaceutical to treat and prevent autoimmune and allergic disease because it suppresses and regulates excessive immunoreaction. The monoclonal antibody specifically reacts with interleukin-18, exhibiting efficacy in purification, detection and inhibition of interleukin-18.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a novel receptor protein recognizing a specific cytokine, more particularly, to a novel protein composing interleukin-18 receptor (hereinafter abbreviated as "IL-18R") or IL-18R protein, as well as to a monoclonal antibody specific to the IL-18R protein.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Interleukin-18 (hereinafter abbreviated as "IL-18) is a type of cytokine or substance which mediates signal transduction in immune system. As seen in Japanese Patent Kokai Nos.27,189/96 and 193,098/96 and Haruki Okamura et al., Nature, Vol.378; No.6,552, pp.88–91 (1995), IL-18 was provisionally designated as "interferon-gamma inducing factor" immediately after its discovery: This designation was changed later into "IL-18" in accordance with the proposal in Shimpei Ushio et al., The Journal of Immunology, Vol.156, pp.4,274–4,279 (1996). IL-18 in mature form consists of 157 amino acids and possesses properties of inducing in immunocompetent cells the production of interferon-gamma (hereinafter abbreviated as "IFN-γ") which is known as useful biologically-active protein, as well as of inducing and enhancing the generation and cytotoxicity of killer cells. Energetic studies are now in progress to develop and realize various uses of IL-18 in pharmaceuticals such as antiviral, antimicrobial, antitumor and anti-immunopathic agents which have been in great expectation because of these properties of IL-18.
As described above, in nature, cytokines including IL-18 are produced and secreted as substances responsible for signal transduction in immune system. Therefore, excessive amounts of cytokines may disturb the equilibria in immune system when they are produced or administered in the body of mammals. The surface of usual mammalian cells may bear certain sites or "receptors" which are responsible for recognition of cytokines: Secreted cytokines transduce no signal in cells till they are bound to the receptors. In normal immune system, there would be definite equilibria between respective cytokines and their receptors. Thus, in this field, with the purpose of developing and realizing IL-18 as pharmaceuticals, in addition to the clarification of physiological activities of IL-18, an expedited establishment of mass production and characterization of IL-18R protein have been in great expectation.

Kabushiki Kaisha Hayashibara Seibutsu Kagaku Kenkyujo


A miniature chip antenna which can be utilized as an antenna for use in a high-frequency region is provided. The chip antenna comprises a substrate, at least one conductor, and at least one feeding terminal. The substrate comprises a dielectric material portion and a magnetic material portion, at least a part of the magnetic material portion being exposed to the exterior of the substrate. The conductor is formed at least either on the surface of the substrate or inside the substrate. The feeding terminal is provided on the surface of the substrate to impress a voltage on the conductor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a chip antenna, and more specifically, to a chip antenna used for mobile communication equipment for mobile communication and local area networks (LAN).
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 10 is a side elevational view of a conventional chip antenna. The conventional chip antenna 50 comprises an insulator 51 which has a rectangular parallelopiped shape and consists of a lamination of insulator layers (not shown in the figure) comprising powders of insulating material such as alumina, steatite and/or the like, a conductor 52 which consists of silver, silver-palladium and/or the like and is provided inside of the insulator 51 in the form of a coil, a magnetic member 53 which consists of a powder of insulating material such as an amorphous metal powder and is provided inside of the insulator 51 and the coil conductor 52, and external connecting terminals 54a and 54b which are applied and/or printed at the drawing terminals (not shown in the figure) of the conductor 52 subsequent to heating of the insulator 51. In other words, the chip antenna 50 comprises the magnetic member 53 around which the conductor 52 is coiled, and which is embedded in the insulator 51.
In conventional chip antennas as described above, a magnetic member having a high permeability, such as an amorphous metal magnetic member, is placed in the coil conductor and embedded with the insulator in order to enhance the inductance value of the conductor, and by means of which the chip antenna has been miniaturized.
However, the value of the Q factor of the amorphous metal magnetic member deteriorates in a high-frequency region and the value of the loss factor increases by using a structure in which an amorphous metal magnetic member of high permeability is placed in the coil conductor and embedded with the insulator. For such reasons relative to the characteristics, conventional chip antennas are rarely utilized as antennas in high-frequency regions.
The present invention has been accomplished to solve the above-described problems.

Chip antenna having dielectric and magnetic material portions


A water feed system at constant temperature keeping the hot water from mixing with the cold water in a single tank, the cold water being fed during use of the hot water, comprising a cold water filing tube, a solenoid of controlling circuit and a double layer type hot water means with a single tank, characterized in that: a cold water flexible container such as a bag is provided above a hot water storage tank, a cold water feed tube is provided on the upper portion of the cold water container; and a cold water discharging tube is connected to the single hot water storage tank, whereby under the control of a control circuit, upon use of the hot water, the cold water is fed into the closed means above the hot water storage tank while upon nonuse of the hot water, the cold water in the flexible container is compressed into the hot water storage tank, thereby keeping the hot water in the hot water storage tank at a predetermined level.

This invention relates to a water feed system at a constant temperature keeping the hot water from mixing with the cold water fed during use of hot water, particularly to a water feed system adapted to heat storage type hot water tank of flushing type toilet, electric water heater and drinking machine. During use of the hot water, the cold water is firstly fed into closed flexible means in a single hot water tank. The flexible means will then lower down, as the cold water increases and the hot water decreases. Upon nonuse of hot water, the cold water discharging tube is caused to open by the control circuit. Under the external force, the cold water stored inside the closed means will flow out of the discharging tube into the hot water tank whereby the hot water is kept from mixing with the cold water fed during use of the hot water.
The conventional water heater which electrically heats the cold water, for example, the heat storage type hot water tank of the flushing type toilet, provides a cold water feed system in which upon flushing with the hot water, the cold water is made up into the hot water tank. After a lapse of long while for continual use, the cold water will increase while the hot water will decrease, as a result of which the water thus mixed will get colder. To solve this problem, an electric current and a voltage of greater power ratio are used to instantaneously heat. For they use specific high voltage and electric current, the drawbacks such as the complicacy in fitting, the difficulty in execution, the costliness in enlarging the equipment, the highness in the failure rate of the equipment and the lack in safety due to the overload of electric current are apparent. As to drinking machine, while the cold water and the hot water may be respectively used, a cold water tank and a hot water tank are required, as a result of which the volume of the machine will increase to occupy a larger space and the cold water insufficient for a long time will cause an adverse effect.
To obviate the above drawbacks, this invention provides a single tank type water feed system keeping the hot water from mixing immediately with the cold water fed during use of the electrically heated water wherein closed means is provided on the upper portion inside the single tank hot water container for the cold water to feed therein during use of the hot water, at the same time of which a control circuit actuates the electromagnetic valve in the discharging tube to a closed position; upon nonuse of the hot water, the control circuit actuates the electromagnetic valve in the discharging tube to an open position, whereby the effect of the external force applied upon the cold water stored in advance in the closed means decreases and the cold water is fed into the hot water storage tank from the discharging tube communicated with the closed means. After the closed space is totally compressed, that is, after the cold water in the flexible space is totally pushed into the hot water storage tank, the cold water will stop feeding, and the cold water fed will be heated by the heater to maintain the hot water within a predetermined temperature. Therefore, the cold water will not mix with the hot water during use of the hot water. And upon nonuse of the hot water, the cold water is fed again and heated to a predetermined temperature so as to be ready for use.

Water feed system at constant temperature keeping the hot water from mixing with the cold water fed during use of the hot water in a single tank

4 Fl., No. 14, Sub-Lane 10, Lane 583, Jong-Iang No. Rd.


A phase change memory (PCM) cell includes a first electrode, a heater electrically connected to the first electrode, a PCM material electrically connected to the heater, a second electrode electrically connected to the PCM material, and a resistive liner in direct contact with and electrically connected to a sidewall of the heater and to the PCM material.

The present invention relates to computer memory, and more specifically, to phase change material memory devices with resistive liners.
Phase change memory (PCM) can be utilized for both training and inference in analog computing for artificial intelligence. The PCM structures can include phase change memristive devices with tunable conductivities and overall high device resistance with high retention to minimize energy consumption. This tuning can be the result of creating an amorphous phase in the PCM material. However, the resistance of the PCM material can change over time, which can negatively affect the integrity of the stored data.

Phase change memory cell resistive liner

International Business Machines Corporation


Provided herein is a compound of formula I:

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder of the central nervous system and the leading cause of a progressive dementia in the elderly population. Its clinical symptoms are impairment of memory, cognition, temporal and local orientation, judgment and reasoning but also severe emotional disturbances. There are currently no treatments available which can prevent the disease or its progression or stably reverse its clinical symptoms. AD has become a major health problem in all societies with high life expectancies and also a significant economic burden for their health systems.
AD is characterized by 2 major pathologies in the central nervous system (CNS), the occurrence of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillar tangles (Hardy et al.1, Selkoe2). Both pathologies are also commonly observed in patients with Down's syndrome (trisomy 21), which also develop AD-like symptoms in early life. Neurofibrillar tangles are intracellular aggregates of the microtubule-associated protein tau (MAPT). Amyloid plaques occur in the extracellular space, their principal components are Aβ-peptides. The latter are a group of proteolytic fragments derived from the β-amyloid precursor protein (APP) by a series of proteolytic cleavage steps. Several forms of APP have been identified of which the most abundant are proteins of 695, 751 and 770 amino acids length. They all arise from a single gene through differential splicing. The Aβ-peptides are derived from the same domain of the APP but differ at their N- and C-termini, the main species are of 40 and 42 amino-acid length. There are several lines of evidence which strongly suggest that aggregated Aβ-peptides are the essential molecules in the pathogenesis of AD: 1) amyloid plaques formed of Aβ-peptides are invariably part of the AD pathology; 2) Aβ-peptides are toxic for neurons; 3) in Familial Alzheimer's Disease (FAD) the mutations in the disease genes APP, PSN1, PSN2 lead to increased levels of Aβ-peptides and early brain amyloidosis; 4) transgenic mice which express such FAD genes develop a pathology which bears many resemblances to the human disease. Aβ-peptides are produced from APP through the sequential action of 2 proteolytic enzymes termed β- and γ-secretase. β-Secretase cleaves first in the extracellular domain of APP approximately 28 amino acids outside of the trans-membrane domain (TM) to produce a C-terminal fragment of APP containing the TM- and the cytoplasmatic domain (CTFβ). CTFβ is the substrate for γ-secretase which cleaves at several adjacent positions within the TM to produce the Aβ peptides and the cytoplasmic fragment. The γ-secretase is a complex of at least 4 different proteins, its catalytic subunit is very likely a presenilin protein (PSEN1, PSEN2). The β-secretase (BACE1, Asp2; BACE stands for β-site APP-cleaving enzyme) is an aspartyl protease which is anchored into the membrane by a transmembrane domain (Vassar et al.3). It is expressed in many tissues of the human organism but its level is especially high in the CNS. Genetic ablation of the BACE1 gene in mice has clearly shown that its activity is essential for the processing of APP which leads to the generation of Aβ-peptides, in the absence of BACE1 no Aβ-peptides are produced (Luo et al.4, Roberds et al.5). Mice which have been genetically engineered to express the human APP gene and which form extensive amyloid plaques and Alzheimer's disease like pathologies during aging fail to do so when β-secretase activity is reduced by genetic ablation of one of the BACE1 alleles (McConlogue et al.6). It is thus presumed that inhibitors of BACE1 activity can be useful agents for therapeutic intervention in Alzheimer's Disease (AD). WO 20110711357 discloses oxazine derivatives suitable as BACE1 inhibitors.
Furthermore, the formation, or formation and deposition, of β-amyloid peptides in, on or around neurological tissue (e.g., the brain) are inhibited by the present compounds, i.e. inhibition of the Aβ-production from APP or an APP fragment.
Objects of the present invention are novel compounds of formula I, their manufacture, medicaments based on a compound in accordance with the invention and their production as well as the use of compounds of formula I in the control or prevention of illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease. The novel compounds of formula I have improved pharmacological properties such as low ER values.
The present invention provides novel compounds of formula I, which are difluoro-cyclopentaoxazinyls and difluoroenzooxazinyls having BACE1 inhibitory properties, their manufacture, pharmaceutical compositions containing them and their use as therapeutically active substances.

Difluoro-hexahydro-cyclopentaoxazinyls and difluoro-hexahydro-benzooxazinyls as BACE1 inhibitors

Abstract: as wells as a pharmaceutical composition, a process of making and a method of using a compound of formula I. The compounds of formula I are BACE1 inhibitors useful for the treatment of, for example, Alzheimer's Disease.


Provided is a method for berth allocation of a multiline bus station and speed guidance of buses. The intelligent control center sorts all buses between the current station and the previous station to form the BusNumber table, and performs speed guidance for all buses in the BusNumber table. Whether the guided bus can pass through the signalized intersection is determined. The buses that cannot pass through the signalized intersection are guided by acceleration, and those that cannot pass through the signalized intersection by acceleration guidance method update their speeds based on the phase state of signal light, so as to pass through the signalized intersection without stopping in most cases. All buses are conducted through speed guidance methods, and the berths are allocated for all the buses under different conditions.

Due to the accelerated urbanization process, urban population rapidly expands, and the number of urban vehicles continuously increases, which not only causes serious traffic congestion, but also increases air pollution such as smog. At present, major cities have implemented mandatory policies such as purchase restrictions, license restrictions and number restrictions. At the same time, the public transportation is greatly enhanced.
Generally, residents take the public transportation as the main travelling way. Since the public transportation has large passenger capacity and occupies less road resources, it is considered as an important measure to ease urban traffic congestion. The bus stations are a main part of public transportation, and play an important role in the public transportation network. The operational efficiency of the bus stations affects the service quality of the whole public transportation to a certain extent. However, there are still various problems of urban bus stations. At present, bus lines generally have covered most areas of city to meet the needs of high passenger flow volume. However, the bus stations cannot effectively guide the buses and passengers, and thus the whole transportation line fails to operate efficiently and orderly. Specifically, on the one hand, the bus stations cannot predict the information of upcoming buses, and passengers blindly and disorderly wait for the bus. Bus drivers may frequently start and stop the bus or even not park at the stop station due to the confusion of passengers. On the other hand, a bus station is usually designed for multiple lines, and when the dispatching center cannot dispatch buses in an orderly manner, buses may line up in the bus station. In this way, passengers are unable to take the bus in an orderly manner, and local traffic congestion occurs.
Some scholars have researched on how to effectively improve the service level of the bus stations. Currently, there are two ways to achieve the object. One is to make a rough berth allocation for the buses to be parked, and the other is to obtain the bus information by setting detection points near the station for the berth allocation. However, the above two ways still have shortcomings. For example, in the case of limited urban road resources, most bus stations are straight lines that are integrated with the road, rather than harbor-shaped stations. Under this condition, the buses must enter the station one by one, and the overtaking is almost impossible, in which the first way cannot fully and effectively utilize the vacant berths on the station. The second way is to sort the arrival orders according to the time when the buses enter the guidance area, but it is difficult to deal with the problem of inconsistent driving time in different directions caused by complicated traffic conditions. In addition, although the upcoming buses can accurately obtain detailed information of the upcoming buses, buses of different lines may enter the station at the same time since the berth state and the service time of parked buses are not taken into consideration. For the station with limited berths, buses cannot be effectively allocated with berths and may line up in the bus station.

Method for berth allocation of a multiline bus station and speed guidance of buses


A valve has suction and vacuum supply sides and a valve housing inbetween, a flexible dividing wall delimiting a control space in the valve housing connected to the vacuum supply side via a vacuum passage, and a valve body arranged on the dividing wall moving between open/closed positions. The valve body has a sealing portion sealing off or opening up the vacuum passage in closed/open positions. Based on a control space vacuum, the volume of the control space reduces with a deformation of the dividing wall, and the valve body moves from the open to closed position. The valve body has a suction-side passage connecting the suction side to the control space so air is suctioned from the suction side into the control space, and penetrates the dividing wall with the sealing portion on one side and a guide portion on the other side of the dividing wall.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a valve for vacuum handling devices or vacuum clamping devices, having a valve housing which has a suction side and a vacuum supply side for connection to a vacuum supply device, a flexible dividing wall which delimits a control space in the valve housing, which control space is connected to the vacuum supply side via a vacuum passage, and a valve body which is arranged on the flexible dividing wall and can be moved between an open position and a closed position, wherein the valve body has a sealing portion which seals off the vacuum passage in the closed position and which opens up the vacuum passage in the open position, and wherein, based on a vacuum that develops in the control space, the volume of the control space is reduced with a deformation of the flexible dividing wall, and the valve body is moved from the open position into the closed position, so that when suction is freely applied while the suction side is unoccupied, the valve body can be moved to the closed position as a result of a vacuum that develops in the control space, wherein the valve body has a suction-side passage for connecting the suction side to the control space in terms of flow. This type of valve closes automatically when a suction point is unoccupied, thereby preventing undesirable leakage from the suction side of the valve to the vacuum supply side.
2. Description of Related Art
Various solutions for preventing undesirable leakage when the suction point is unoccupied are known. For example, DE 34 29 444 A1 discloses a flow valve in which a valve element embodied as a ball is displaceably situated in a flow channel. When suction is freely applied through the unoccupied suction point, the strong flow impulse carries the ball along in the flow channel and up to a valve seat, thereby sealing the flow channel. Because they are activated by flow impulse, valves of this type are prone to malfunction as a result of flow bursts. Even when the suction point is occupied, the valve may close unintentionally at the start of a suctioning process as a result of the initial flow burst.
Also known are valves that close automatically when the suction side is unoccupied not as a result of a flow impulse, but as a result of a static pressure difference that develops under free suction. DE 198 14 262 C2 discloses a valve having a valve housing which has a suction side and a vacuum supply side for connection to a vacuum supply device, a flexible dividing wall which delimits a control space in the valve housing, which control space is connected to the vacuum supply side via a vacuum passage, and a valve body which is arranged on the flexible dividing wall and can be moved between an open position and a closed position, wherein the valve body has a sealing portion which seals off the vacuum passage in the closed position and which opens up the vacuum passage in the open position, and wherein, based on a vacuum that develops in the control space, the volume of the control space is reduced with a deformation of the flexible dividing wall, and the valve body is moved from the open position into the closed position, so that when suction is freely applied while the suction side is unoccupied, the valve body can be moved to the closed position as a result of a vacuum that develops in the control space, wherein the valve body has a suction-side passage for connecting the suction side to the control space in terms of flow. The control space, which is delimited by a flexible portion of the valve body, is in constant connection with the vacuum supply side. When the control space is compressed, the flexible portion is deformed, moving the valve body to its closed position. The control space is completely sealed off from the suction side in terms of flow. When suction is applied while the suction side is occupied, a vacuum will not develop on the suction side. This causes the control space to become compressed as a result of the static pressure difference between control space and suction side, thereby moving the valve body into its closed position. This valve has the advantage over valves that function by means of flow impulse that malfunctions resulting from flow bursts can be prevented. However, the time scale for automatic closure and the sensitivity to pressure fluctuations must be adjusted for the specific vacuum handling device or vacuum clamping device that is controlled by the valve.
DE 102 16 220 A1 discloses a vacuum pressure valve having a valve housing with a suction side and a vacuum supply side for connection to a vacuum supply device, a flexible dividing wall which delimits a control space in the valve housing, which control space is connected to the vacuum supply side via a vacuum passage, and a valve body which is arranged on the flexible dividing wall and can be moved between an open position and a closed position, wherein the valve body has a sealing portion which seals off the vacuum passage in the closed position and which opens up the vacuum passage in the open position, and wherein, based on a vacuum that develops in the control space, the volume of the control space is reduced with a deformation of the flexible dividing wall, and the valve body is moved from the open position into the closed position, so that when suction is freely applied while the suction side is unoccupied, the valve body can be moved to the closed position as a result of a vacuum that develops in the control space, wherein the valve body has a suction-side passage for connecting the suction side to the control space in terms of flow, in which the valve body is formed by a disk-like element.

Valve for a vacuum handling or clamping device, and vacuum handling device


A trust network has at least one transmission medium supporting transmission of data, wherein data transmitted is in at least some instances transmitted in discrete portions, two or more nodes terminating discrete legs in the transmission medium, and trust software executing from a machine-readable medium by a processor on one or more of the two or more nodes. The one or more nodes executing trust software apply trust logic to transmission of the discrete data portions.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is in the field of digital communication, and pertains more particularly to systems, hardware and software for aiding participants in communication to decide whether, and to what extent to trust other participants in communication and interaction.
2. Description of Related Art
An object of the present invention is to apply and manage concepts of trust in computerized processes. Trust, however, is not an attribute of machines such as computers, but a complicated and not completely understood attribute of human cognition and emotion. People, in interaction with other people, and also with other animals and machines, especially computerized machines, in order to function smoothly in the world, are obliged to accomplish an almost continuous flow of decisions. Although in the flow of thought for a person, such decisions are not always posed as distinct questions with distinct answers, for purposes of this discussion the decision process can be illustrated in that way. Consider two persons in conversation about almost any subject. In the back-and-forth flow of such conversation, each party has to be asking himself/herself what should I tell this person? Can I answer that question truthfully? What might be the consequences of telling this person this particular nugget of information? How well do I know this person? Has this person been truthful with me in the past? Has she kept my confidence? Can I trust her?
Every question/answer, although typically not posed in the flow of thought as a distinct question to be answered, is a step in the process of trust, and the exchange of information, or deal struck, will be shaped by the answers each person in the conversation makes to these, and other hypothetical questions. In an extreme case of distrust, one person might simply cut off the conversation, or, in another instance of complete trust, divulge a large amount of very sensitive information.
Going beyond personal conversation between people in the same room, and not employing special equipment, consider people in more remote conversation, such as by telephone. Depending on the type of telephone system and equipment used, and also on the purposes of the communication, there may be a considerable variety of typically computerized equipment involved. A person placing a call to another over a connection-oriented switched telephony (COST) system, which is a term in telecommunications art for what is also known as the "plain old telephone system" (POTS), will be using a telephone connected through a local switch, which may be computer-telephony integration (CTI) enhanced (or not), and the call may be routed over trunk lines and intermediary switches, which may be enhanced with computer functionality, to telephony equipment at the recipient's end. The purpose of such a telephone call may be a conversation between friends, or it may be a call to a person offering something for sale, or a call to a toll-free number to reach, hopefully, and agent at a call center, to seek service or information in one matter or another.
At various termination points in such a call set up there may be opportunities to record all or part of the voice exchanges. There may be uncertainty about who the person at the other end says he is. There may be questions about the competency or skill of an agent to whom one is eventually connected. There are trust issues in all of these situations and examples, and more.
Very similar issues abound in other forms of communications and transaction situations, such as email, chat sessions, Internet sales, on-line banking, remote investment management over all sorts of networks, and much more.
An object of the present invention is to teach systems, methods and means by which trustworthy transaction may be encouraged, promoted and secured, and by which untrustworthy transaction may be avoided. Means are taught in various embodiments of this invention to use intelligence at various points in networks and network apparatus to aid participants in managing their personal trust issues in communication and transaction, and to aid enterprises in managing their trust issues as well. In addition, unique apparatus and methods directly associated with physical networks are taught.

Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc.


A control processor has an output pattern generating circuit operating in cooperation with a free running timer, and a virtual OCR program for virtually realizing a large number of timer outputs by use of the output pattern generating circuit. Because more timer outputs than the actually incorporated timers are handled, the function of timer outputs is implemented with a higher degree of freedom and in a wider range of applications. For its enhanced function and availability, the control processor costs less.

The present invention relates to a control processor incorporating a high-speed microcomputer and, more particularly, to a control processor that is able to adapt to various vehicle types and to be easily mounted thereon while being inexpensive to produce.
An automotive control processor is disclosed illustratively in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 3 -228102. With the number of cylinders and the configuration of onboard sensors varying from one engine to another, the conventional engine control processor selectively employs a microcomputer having an optimum I/O configuration (comprising timers, counters, analog I/O terminals, etc.) for a particular engine controlled by that processor.
That is, conventional engine control processors each require a microcomputer incorporating a different I/O configuration depending on the engine type. Because the control processors cannot be standardized, the costs involved tend to rise.


A numerical controller restores internal data of an NC section, shifts to a machining resumption temporary suspension state, and passes an identification number extracted from NC section program resumption block data to a PMC section. The PMC section, when receiving the identification number, restores a signal state of the PMC section and a state of a peripheral machine section, and, when the restoration is completed, notifies the NC section of the completion of the restoration. Then, the NC section cancels the machining resumption temporary suspension state and shifts to a state in which machining can be resumed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a numerical controller that controls a machine tool, the numerical controller having a program resuming function for facilitating re-execution of a machining program after execution suspension of the machining program.
2. Description of the Related Art
A numerical controller having a program resuming function for facilitating re-execution of a machining program after execution suspension of the machining program has been publicly known.
In the conventional program resuming function, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-53801, in preparation for suspension of machining of a workpiece, program resumption block data for resuming the machining of the workpiece is acquired during the machining of the workpiece. The program resumption block data includes data necessary for a program resumption such as a block number of a block being executed in a machining program, a start point and an end point of the block being executed, various kinds of modal information of the block being executed, a number of a master program and a block position for calling a sub-program, and a total number of blocks from the master program to the block being executed.
However, to actually resume workpiece, it is necessary to restore, according to a block in which the machining is resumed, not only a state of a block commanded by the numerical controller but also states of a programmable machine controller section (PMC section) to which an input-output interface is connected, a programmable logic controller (PLC) or a computer connected to an interface of a numerical control section (NC section), or the like and peripheral machine sections connected to the programmable machine controller section, the programmable logic controller, or the computer (hereinafter collectively referred to as "PMC section").
For restoring the state of the PMC section, an operator checks contents of a machining program, selects necessary auxiliary functions (signal state changing commands), and manually command the auxiliary functions. This technique is known, though there is no description in above mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2009-53801. If the machining of the workpiece is resumed while the state of the PMC section cannot be correctly restored, it is likely that the workpiece and tools are broken.
As measures against this likelihood, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 6-202723 discloses a method of, in re-executing a machining program from a position of suspension of the machining program, comparing states of a machine during the suspension and during the re-execution of the machining program and generating a restoring program to enable a state of the machine to be returned to the state during the suspension. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 10-43953 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,984,506) discloses a method of storing control data representing a machining state while machining is executed and returning the control data when the machining is resumed.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 6-202723 mentioned above, a number of a tool in use, the number of revolutions of a spindle, and an M command state are stored during the machining suspension and commands for restoring the number of the tool in use, the number of revolutions of the spindle, and the M command state are generated as a restoring program. However, when there is a function of changing the state of the machine not via the commands, it is difficult to restore the state of the machine. For example, when there is a function of changing a feed speed override and a spindle speed override according to a cutting load, it is difficult to restore states of the overrides only from the information explained above.
The technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 10-43953 mentioned above relates to a method of classifying the control data into static control data and dynamic control data and storing and restoring the control data. The dynamic control data is always stored to restore the state of the machine during the machining suspension. However, the technique is based on the premise that all data are unitarily managed. For example, when necessary data is separated and present in the NC section and the PMC section and independently managed in the NC section and the PMC section, the technique cannot be adapted to a resumption and execution of the machining program.
Some command is described as a single auxiliary function on a program but is recognized as an aggregate of a series of plurality of machine operation commands in a numerical controller. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-35815 discloses that, if the numerical controller executes the series of the plurality of machine operation commands, when an operation is suspended halfway in the auxiliary function, the remaining machine operation command is re-executed. However, this technique is not for restoring the state of the machine but for re-executing the remaining operation of the suspended auxiliary function.

Numerical controller having program resuming function


A coated cutting tool has a base material of a WC-based cemented carbide and a film formed on the surface of the base material by a chemical vapor deposition method. The coated cutting tool has a rake face, a flank face and a cutting edge ridgeline part positioned between the rake face and the flank face being provided, wherein a total film thickness of the entire film is 3 to 20 μm in an average film thickness, and one or more oblique cracks where an extension angle of the crack to the surface of the film is 45° or less are present at the rake face within 300 μm from the cutting edge ridgeline part.

It has heretofore been well known that a coated cutting tool in which a film comprising a kind of a single layer film or two or more kinds of a plural layer film in, for example, a carbide, a nitride, a carbonitride, a carboxide and a carbonitroxide, and an aluminum oxide of Ti is formed by deposition on the surface of the tungsten carbide-based cemented carbide (in the following, WC-based cemented carbide) base material by a chemical vapor deposition method with a total film thickness of 3 to 20 μm has been used for machining of a steel, etc.
In general, when a film is formed on the surface of the WC-based cemented carbide, a tensile stress is remained to the film, so that it has been said that fracture strength of the coated cutting tool is lowered whereby the tool is likely fractured. Until now, it has been proposed to release the residual tensile stress of the film by generating cracks by shot peening, etc., after forming the same, and significant effects have been obtained (for example, see Patent Document 1 and Non-Patent Document 1.). However, depending on the uses or the conditions to be used of the tools, higher fracture resistance is required in some cases.


The invention provides a human zinc RING protein (ZIRI) and polynucleotides which identify and encode ZIRI. The invention also provides expression vectors, host cells, agonists, antibodies and antagonists. The invention also provides methods for treating disorders associated with expression of ZIRI.

Zinc binding (ZB) domains are found in numerous proteins which are involved in protein-nucleic acid or protein-protein interactions. ZB proteins are commonly involved in the regulation of gene expression, and may serve as transcription factors and signal transduction molecules. A ZB domain is generally composed of 25 to 30 amino acid residues which form one or more tetrahedral ion binding sites. The binding sites contain four ligands consisting of the sidechains of cysteine, histidine and occasionally aspartate or glutamate. The binding of zinc allows relatively short stretches of polypeptide to fold into defined structural units which are well-suited to participate in macromolecular interactions (Berg, J. M. et al. (1996) Science 271: 1081-1085).
Classes of ZB domains are characterized according to the number and positions of the residues involved in the zinc atom coordination. ZB domains which contain a C.sub.3 HC.sub.4 sequence motif are known as RING domains (Lovering, R. et al. (1993) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 90: 2112-2116). The RING domain binds two zinc ions in an arrangement structurally different from that of the zinc finger. The RING domain consists of eight metal binding residues, and the sequences that bind the two metal ions overlap (Barlow, P. N. et al. (1994) J. Mol. Biol. 237: 201-211). The consensus sequence C-X.sub.2 -C-X.sub.(9-27) -C-X.sub.(1-3) -H-X.sub.(2-3) -C-X.sub.2 -C-X.sub.(4-48) -C-X.sub.2 -C provides for loops of varying length which form the overlapping Zn binding sites. The two Zn binding sites are formed by four pairs of metal-binding Cys and His residues. The first and third pairs bind one metal ion, while the second and fourth pairs bind the other (Barlow, et al., supra). Functions of RING finger proteins are mediated through DNA binding and include the regulation of gene expression, DNA recombination, and DNA repair.
The murine BMI-1 gene encodes a protein of 324 amino acids. This protein, which is found in the nuclei of a variety of normal cells, contains a RING domain near the amino-terminus (Haupt, Y. et al. (1991) Cell 65: 753-763). Retroviral insertional mutagenesis of E-mu/myc transgenic mice by infection with Moloney murine leukemia virus (MuLV) accelerates development of B lymphoid tumors. In about half of independently induced pre-B-cell lymphomas, the provirus integrates in or near the BMI-1 gene and causes enhanced transcription of BMI-1. Haupt et al. (supra) concluded that myc-induced lymphomagenesis may entail the concerted action of several genes including the putative nuclear regulator BMI-1.
The human BMI-1 gene encodes a protein of 326 amino acids which shares 98% identity to the mouse amino acid sequence (Alkema, M. J. et al. (1993) Hum. Mol. Genet. 2: 1597-1603). Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) on metaphase chromosome spreads localized the human BMI-1 proto-oncogene to the short arm of chromosome 10 (10p13), a region known to show translocations and to be involved in various leukemias (Alkema et al., supra).
The breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility-1 (BRCA1) gene encodes a predicted protein of 1,863 amino acids which contains a RING domain in its amino-terminal region (Miki, Y. et al. (1994) Science 266: 66-71). BRCA1 is expressed in numerous tissues including breast and ovary. In sporadic breast cancer, BRCA1 mRNA levels are markedly decreased during the transition from carcinoma in situ to invasive cancer (Thompson M. E. et al. (1995) Nature Genet. 9: 444-450). Furthermore, experimental inhibition of BRCA1 expression with antisense oligonucleotides produced accelerated growth of normal and malignant mammary cells but had no effect on nonmammary epithelial cells. Thompson et al. (supra) suggest that BRCA1 may normally serve as a negative regulator of mammary epithelial cell growth and that this function is compromised in breast cancer either by direct mutation or by alterations in gene expression.
The chicken zinc RING protein, C-RZF, is 381 amino acids in length. Its expression occurs as a consequence of the binding of cytotactin/tenascin (CT/TN), a substrate adhesion molecule, to chicken embryo brain cells (Tranque, P. et al. (1996) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 93: 3105-3109). In addition to the RING zinc-binding motif, C-RZF also contains a leucine zipper, a nuclear localization signal, and an acidic transcription activation domain. These results suggest that C-RZF binds DNA and functions as a transcription regulator in response to a signal transduction network related to the CT/TN expression. Alternatively, C-RZF may function in communication between cell adhesion events at the cell membrane and changes in the nucleus, which regulates cell shape, migration, or differentiation (Tranque et al., supra).
The discovery of a new human zinc RING protein and the polynucleotides encoding it satisfies a need in the art by providing new compositions which are useful in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of inflammation and disorders associated with cell proliferation and apoptosis.


A method for automatic identification of a hair region is provided wherein edges are identified from an original image including a face and hair, the direction and length of the lines which form each individual edge are stored, line bundles in which lines of the same direction are gathered are searched, the color of the line bundles is established to be the hair color, line tracing is performed to identify lines which connect to line bundles and also have afore-mentioned hair color, and the pixels on the identified lines are established to be the hair region. A hair color simulation image is formed by changing the hair region, automatically identified in this manner, to a specified hair color.

An advice service has been proposed (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-195568) wherein a subject transmits an image of his or her own face, including hair, to an information provider such as a maker of hair care products, and the information provider, using a calculating means, forms a simulation image wherein the hair region in that image is changed to the hair color desired by the subject and provides to the subject the simulated image and information related to the hair dye required to achieve, with the subject's hair, the hair color in that simulated image. In this case, distinguishing the hair region and the non-hair region of the original image is automatically done by means of a calculating device, based on such things as brightness, hue, and the continuity of changes thereto.
In recent years, communications networks such as the Internet have advanced and, moreover, even camera-equipped mobile telephones which utilize the Internet have come into widespread use, and thus it is expected that this advice system can be utilized easily and extensively by subjects.
However, for many images transmitted by subjects there are cases where, if the hair region is identified from those images based on a standardized reference, such as hue, the hair region cannot be accurately identified due to differences in photo-taking conditions such as camera model and lighting. Particularly in cases where the hair color is a light blonde, and hue and brightness are close to skin color, this tendency is large.
As a method for identification of the hair region, a method is known (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H11-188183) wherein a region corresponding to the hair region is chosen from a two-dimensional image by dividing the two-dimensional image into the same hue regions, identifying the same hue and continuous regions and conducting matching with a prepared template. However, with this method, the hair region may not be identified accurately, for example, in the case where the hue of the skin color and the hair color are similar to each other and where the background is not a solid color.

Method for automatic identification of a hair region


A normal-through jack that includes a housing, wherein a first and second coaxial conductor and a switch are enclosed within the housing. The housing includes a front portion and a back portion. The front portion has a first access port and a second access port extending therefrom, and the back portion has a first coaxial cable-connector and a second coaxial cable-connector extending therefrom. The first coaxial conductor extends between the first coaxial cable-connector and a first end of a resistor, wherein a second end of the resistor is coupled with the first access port. The second coaxial conductor extends between the second access port and the second coaxial cable-connector. The switch is adapted to provide an electrical connection between the first coaxial conductor and the second coaxial conductor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally directed to patch jacks for use in telecommunications networks.
2. Background Art
A telecommunications network allows signals to be transmitted and/or received between various remote network elements (e.g., telephony and data). Complex connections exist between the remote network elements. These complex connections are typically routed through a number of switching centers. Examples of switching centers include a central office (as employed by a Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC)), Competitive Local Exchange Carriers co-located with RBOC central offices, or a "telecom hotel" (which is a collection of separate facilities generally located with other telecom carriers).
The switching center will often utilize electronic and/or manual digital cross connect systems (e.g., DSX3 cross connects). For example, a digital cross connect (DSX) can be used to connect a first network element's transmission to a second network element's receiver, and the first network element's receiver to the second network element's transmission. In this way, the DSX enables communication from one network element to another in a two way communication. In other words, a DSX can be used to "cross" the transmitted signals (Tx) of a first user with the received signals (Rx) of a second user, and vice versa.
Manual rear cross connect DSX3 modules are typically mounted in large bays within the switching center. A rear portion of the DSX3 modules is connected to the telecommunications network in a complex fashion. A front portion of the DSX3 modules allows for centralized access to the complex connections of the telecommunications network—i.e., it allows signals of the telecommunications network to be tested and/or monitored. "Testing" means breaking a circuit on which the signal travels and transmitting and/or receiving a unique bit pattern. "Monitoring" means accessing the signal without breaking the circuit on which the signal travels; typically a signal is monitored through a resistor.
The front portion of a common manual rear cross connect DSX3 module includes six access ports: (i) an OUT Test port, which allows the Tx signal to be tested; (ii) a CROSS-OUT Test port, which allows the crossed Tx signal to be tested; (iii) an OUT Monitor port, which allows the Tx signal to be monitored; (iv) an IN Test port, which allows the Rx signal to be tested; (v) a CROSS-IN Test port, which allows the crossed Rx signal to be tested; and (vi) an IN Monitor port, which allows the Rx signal to be monitored.
Telecommunications networks are utilized for telephony and connection of data. Some switching centers of telecommunications networks do not cross the signals of the telecommunications networks. For example, "telecom hotels" connect remote network elements in a pass-through or normal-through fashion—i.e., without crossing the signals.
The switching centers that connect remote network elements in a normal-through fashion use DSX modules, because there are currently no other economic alternative modules that allow centralized test and monitor capabilities. However, utilizing DSX modules in a normal-through fashion makes testing and/or monitoring network signals cumbersome. In addition, much of the functionality provided by a typical six port DSX module is not utilized when the module is used in a normal-through fashion.
Therefore, what is needed is a central-access test and monitor module for use in normal-through applications.

Normal-through jack with monitor and test ports


The disclosed embodiments provide for checking documents for security compliance when the documents are printed, scanned, or copied. A security status is determined based on security indicators within a document's content. Security indicators can be located within a document's text, figures, watermarks, security marks, and invisible marks. Security indicators can be found by comparing a document's content to a set of stored indicator descriptions. The indicators found are used to determine a document score and security responses are triggered based on the document score.

The invention of literacy led to the production of documents. Shortly thereafter, the need to maintain information security was noticed. Early efforts at maintaining information security included limiting the number of literate people. In more modern times, literacy is widespread and information security is maintained, in part, by limiting document distribution. Documents have been given security levels such as confidential, secret, top secret, and eyes only to indicate who may access the document. Some levels of document security are administrative rules within organizations whereas others are legal requirements. HIPAA requires certain security measures for people's medical records. There are similar legal requirements for the financial data and reports of publicly traded corporations. Likewise, government documents are often classified within one of numerous security levels and unauthorized access or distribution of those classified documents can lead to criminal charges.
Maintaining information security by limiting the distribution of documents has become difficult with the widespread availability of printers, scanners, facsimile machines, and multi-function devices ("MFDs") because it has become so trivial to create electronic or physical copies. In order to preserve information security, copies of documents must be subject to the same controls as the originals. Systems and methods for securing information and documents in the presence of printers, scanners, facsimile machines, and MFDs are needed.

Security compliance checking of documents


A method and computer system for conducting a progressive, price-driven combinatorial auction wherein equilibrium prices supporting optimal allocation are provided. The auction mechanism allows bids on bundles and uses an innovative price setting mechanism that ensures that the bundle prices reported by the auction have the property that each participant's or bidder's tentative allocation maximizes the value reported in the participant's bid. The auction is progressive, and requires that a participant's new bid improves his previous bid in a precisely defined manner. The auction terminates when no participant submits a new bid, or according to some other specified criterion.

The recent U.S. FCC auctions in electromagnetic spectrum have kindled interest in mechanisms that allocate bundles of discrete, complementary resources, and is of direct relevance to e-commerce applications. The FCC and its consultants expected that the licensees would see significant synergies from operating the same spectrum bands in geographically contiguous regions of the country, or contiguous bands in the same region. However, the mechanism designers employed by the FCC developed the Simultaneous Ascending Auction (SAA) (McMillan, 1994; McAfee and McMillan, 1996), which received very positive press when it generated billions of dollars of revenue for the U.S. government. The SAA allocates resources by operating a first-price auction for each resource. The auctions are synchronized, and the mechanism enforces an eligibility constraint that restricts bidders from bidding on more items than they had "active" bids (i.e. winning or newly submitted) in the previous round.
However, recent studies have shown that combinatorial auctions, which permit bids on combinations of items, can perform significantly better than the SAA. It is well known that when bidders have complementary preferences, price equilibria may not exist. That is, there may not be prices on individual objects that support the optimal allocation. One example is reproduced in Table 1. The efficient allocation is indicated with an asterisk.
TABLE 1An example without equilibrium prices for individual goods.ABABBidder 1003*Bidder 22 2 2
Economists have studied the conditions under which price equilibria exist. For example, it has been shown that price equilibria exist if a gross substitutability condition holds (Kelso and Crawford, 1982), or if utility functions satisfy the no-complementarities condition (Gul and Stacchetti). Bikhchandani and Mamer (1997) demonstrated that equilibria exist if the total value of the solution to the discrete allocation problem is equal to the value of the corresponding relaxed linear optimization problem. In these cases, a simple market structure in which each object is sold in independent auctions can lead to the efficient outcome.
When the above conditions do not hold, we must resort to more complex auction mechanisms to achieve the desired outcomes. The benchmark allocation mechanism is the Generalized Vickrey Auction (GV A).
Generalized Vickrey Auction
The GVA is an incentive compatible, efficient, and individually rational direct revelation mechanism. Each bidder submits its utility function, and the auction computes the optimal allocation and charges each bidder a payment. The bidder's payment, πi, is the impact that its presence has on the welfare of the other bidders.πi=V(f*(I/i))−[V(f*)−vi(fi*)],where f*(I/i) is the optimal solution to the problem of allocating the resources when i is excluded, V is the total valuation of the indicated solution, and vi is bidder i's valuation for the resources allocated to it in the indicated solution.
The GVA extends the intuition gained from Vickrey's (1961) seminal work, and results by Clarke (1971) and Groves (1973) in general allocation problems. The mechanism's incentive compatibility property follows from the fact that its bid determines what the bidder gets, but not how much it pays (or receives).
The GVA has several drawbacks that inhibit its use in practice. The main imperfection of the GVA is that it is not budget-balanced. It may be necessary for the auctioneer to subsidize the auction in order to get both buyers and sellers to bid truthfully.
A second weakness, highlighted by Banks et al. (1989) is that the GVA requires that each participant specify her utility function, which (potentially) requires that she report 2n−1 values. If the preferences cannot be expressed in a compact form, this requirement may make the GVA impractical. In addition, when participants reveal their true preferences they may leave themselves open to manipulation by an unscrupulous auctioneer (seller). For example, a common manipulation used by sellers in an English auction involves using a "shill" who tries to bid up the highest bidder even after the second highest real bidder has dropped out.
In many cases it may be costly for bidders to determine their true valuations for every possible combination of items, the majority of which play no role in determining the solution. Parkes et al. (1998) argue that the cognitive costs of accurately determining one's true valuation is a major factor in the predominance of the English auction online—a participant needs an accurate appraisal of its value for a good only if it is still in the running near the end of the auction.
A third objection to using the GVA in practice is that, even in the one-sided case, it computes discriminatory payments. That is, if, at the end of the auction, the auctioneer were to announce the allocations and payments computed by the mechanism, some bidder may desire another's bundle. This can be seen in the example in Table 2, in which the items A and B could be two different units of the same resource.
TABLE 2An example in which the GVA payments are discriminatory.ABABBidder 15*5 7Bidder 25 5*8
The GVA payments are π1=$3, and π2=$2. Even though (by incentive compatibility) no course of action would have made bidder 1 better off than truth-telling, he would still envy bidder 2.
Combinatorial Auction Designs
Several alternatives to the GVA have been suggested. One major distinction among the candidates is whether or not they allow bundle bids.
The motivation for permitting bundle bidding is to combat the exposure problem (Rothkopf et al., 1998). Without bundle bids, bidders who have superadditive valuations are forced to either bear risk or bid over-cautiously. Suppose, for example, bidder i has a valuation for the bundle AB that exceeds the sum of its value for A and B alone. If bidder i offers no more for either A or B than their individual values, the bidder may fail to purchase the bundle even when the combined cost is under its valuation. On the other hand, if i is less conservative, it can offer more than its value for one of the goods. The strategy exposes the bidder to potential losses if, in the end, it gets only one item and pays more than its value for that individual item.
Allowing bundle bids introduces the free rider problem (Rothkopf et al., 1998), in which bidders buying smaller bundles need to collaborate to displace a larger bundle bidder. Consider the situation where bidder 1 values A at $5, bidder 2 values B at $4, and bidder 3 values AB at 7. Suppose bidder 3 has offered $6 for AB. Neither bidder 1 nor bidder 2 can displace bidder 3 without taking a loss. In order to displace bidder 3, the two bidders have to collaborate. However, the more that bidder 2 bids, the less bidder 1 will have to contribute to displace bidder 3. The same logic holds for bidder 2. Thus, the two bidders have an incentive to free ride on each other, which could lead to a coordination failure and an inefficient outcome.
Banks et al. (1989) proposed an iterative mechanism, called the Adaptive User Selection Mechanism (AUSM), that allows bundle bids. AUSM posts the current best allocation on a bulletin board visible to all of the participants. To become part of the current best allocation, a new bid has to offer more than the sum of all of the bids it displaces. Bids that are not part of the best allocation are posted in a publicly-displayed standby queue designed to facilitate the coordination of two or more smaller bidders combining on a new bid large enough to displace a larger bidder. However, posting bids on a standby queue reveals information about the bidders that they may prefer not to reveal.
Both SAA and AUSM have complex strategy spaces and have so far proved intractable to game-theoretic analysis. Ledyard et al. (1997) executed a series of controlled experiments to investigate the performance of three mechanisms: sequential ascending bid auctions, the SAA, and AUSM. In problems the authors classified as "hard"—involving significant complementarities and a range of solutions—AUSM significantly outperformed the other two mechanisms. This led the authors to conclude that, when there are complementarities, mechanisms that allow package bidding will perform better. This seems to have been taken to heart by the FCC and its consultants, and the current recommendation is that the FCC should explore mechanisms that allow bidders to bid on bundles (CRA, 1998).
Recently, Demartini et al. proposed the Resource Allocation Design (RAD) (DeMartini et al., 1998), which combines features of AUSM and SAA. RAD allows bidders to place bids on bundles, then computes the locally efficient allocation. In this situation, the locally efficient allocation is also revenue maximizing.
A linear program is solved to generate approximate prices, and a beat-the-quote rule is used. Bidders need to maintain eligibility by continuing to win items, or by submitting new bids.
In experimentation with Cal Tech students, RAD averaged more efficient solutions in fewer iterations than either AUSM or SAA. However, RAD has shortcomings of its own. One problem that plagued both SAA and RAD was that some bidders lost money. This turned out to be a side effect of the eligibility rule. In order to maintain eligibility in future rounds, participants often placed low bids on items they didn't really want, but which they ended up winning anyway. A second drawback of RAD is that the prices computed by the linear program are not guaranteed to be separating prices. This makes it difficult for bidders to determine whether they are winning.
Another ascending auction that is being investigated is iBundle (Parkes, 1999). iBundle allows bids on bundles and computes the locally efficient allocation. It associates payments with bundles, in effect, announcing a payment lattice as a price quote. There are three variations of iBundle, which differ based on the manner in which payments are computed: iBundle(2) announces anonymous payments to every bidder, iBundle(3) announces discriminatory payments, and iBundle(d) announces discriminatory payments for some bidders, and anonymous payments for the rest. In all three versions, the auction ends when no bidders submit new bids, and the winners pay the price for their bid.
In both RAD and iBundle, the winners pay the exact amount of their bids. In general, charging bidders their bids has an undesirable property, namely, that it may not correspond to a payment equilibrium—at the final payments, a bidder may wish to purchase a bundle other than the one allocated.
Consider a simple example where bidder 1 has bid $5 for A, $4 for B, and $7 for the bundle AB. Bidder 2 offers $2 for A, $3 for B, and $6 for AB. The bids are diagrammed in Table 3.
TABLE 3An example in which charging bid payments is not an equilibrium.ABABBidder 15*47Bidder 22 3*6
The optimal allocation assigns A to bidder 1 and B to bidder 2. Suppose we have reached the end of the auction and that these bids actually represent the bidders' true valuations for the items. If we charge each bidder its bid, then bidder 1 will pay $5 for A, and bidder 2 will pay $3 for B. At these payments, bidder 1 would rather buy B than A, because that would provide her with a surplus of $1, whereas purchasing A for $5 leaves her no surplus.
The U.S. patent to Ausubel U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,975 discloses a dynamic combinatorial auction system which allows for combinations of items. The system runs a very large number of simultaneous ascending auctions which results in the GVA prices. Thus, the Ausubel's system does not produce uniform prices which can be revealed to all of the participants.
The following U.S. patents are only generally related to the present invention: Barzilai et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,045; Shavit et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,799,156; and Godin et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,118.

Method and computer system for conducting a progressive, price-driven combinatorial auction

The Regents of the University of Michigan


A micro-programmable digital filter includes a plurality of programmable filter elements, an instruction memory for storing a control program, at least one instruction decoder for programming the filter elements based on the control program, and arithmetic logic for selectively scaling and accumulating output values received from the filter elements and providing accumulated values as inputs to the filter elements. The filter elements are typically coupled in series so that a coefficient output from one filter element can be passed to an adjacent filter element for implementing longer filters. A separate instruction decoder may be included for each filter element. Execution of the separate instruction decoders is typically staggered so that the instruction decoders can share the instruction memory and an accumulator without collision. Each filter element can be programmed to implement a different filtering function, or multiple filter elements can be programmed to operate on a single filtering function.

Certain communication devices transmit and receive signals over a communication medium, such as a wireline, wireless, or optical communication medium. These communication devices typically include digital filters for performing various filtering operations, such as Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filtering, Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) filtering, decimation, interpolation, and echo cancellation. The types and configurations of digital filters (e.g., the number of taps or bi-quads) for a particular implementation are typically selected based on the type of communication system and the expected characteristics of the communication medium. Often, the types and configurations of digital filters selected for a particular implementation are tradeoffs to obtain acceptable performance over a range of possible conditions.