A facsimile machine and a self-diagnosis method performed by a facsimile machine are provided. The facsimile machine receives a self-diagnosis execution command, performs self-diagnosis according to the self-diagnosis execution command, and outputs a self-diagnosis result report.

The disclosure relates to a facsimile machine and a self-diagnosis method performed by the same.
Facsimile (fax) machines are terminals for performing data communication by using a public switched telephone network (PSTN), and thus are office automation equipment that transmit or receive fax data, such as a document and an image, by using a PSTN. Facsimile functionality may be included in a multi-function printer that performs image forming operations, such as printing, copying, faxing, and scanning.
Regarding types of after-service (A/S) of these facsimile machines, a user may bring a facsimile machine to a service center to fix the facsimile machine. Alternatively, an A/S engineer may visit a client to fix a problem of a facsimile machine, which may be more convenient due to the size and weight of the facsimile machine. Also, a user may address a problem of his or her facsimile machine according to a problem-solving method received via a remote diagnosis.
However, users may not address a problem in many cases. Even when an A/S engineer visits a client and addresses a problem, an accurate diagnosis may not be achieved due to low skill of the A/S engineer, and accordingly A/S costs due to a re-placement of a component (for example, a print board) may increase.

Facsimile machine including modem unit and line interface unit and self diagnosis method performed by the same

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A messaging session is established between a first user and a second user where messages are sent from a first user using a first device to a second user using a second device. During the messaging session, the second user may decide to use a third device. A presence update may be received that specifies the third device. Messages sent from the first user are then routed to the second user at the third device. These messages are routed without the second user having to manually start a new messaging session with the first user.

The present invention generally relates to messaging and more particularly to techniques for processing messages during a conversation between users.
Advances in technology have created many ways of communicating with users. For example, users may communicate using email, instant messaging (IM), short message service (SMS), multimedia service (MMS), facsimile (fax), voice, etc. Users may have any combination of devices that communicate using the above methods.
An instant message (IM) conversation is typically between two instant message clients for two users having the conversation. The IM clients may be, for example, running on personal computers. At some point during the conversation, a user may want to switch to another device but continue the conversation with the other user. For example, a user may want to use a mobile device, such as a cellular phone with an IM client, to continue the IM conversation with the other user. However, the user cannot continue to send messages in the same conversation that was initiated using the IM clients on the personal computers. Rather, the user would have to manually reconnect to the other user to start a new conversation using the cellular phone with the IM client. Accordingly, the original conversation is terminated and a new conversation is started with the new device.
The above process includes many disadvantages. For example, whenever a user desires to change devices, the original conversation is ended and a new conversation is started with the new device. This requires manual steps by the user to start a new conversation. Also, when a user switches devices, the new device may not have the same capabilities as the old device. Thus, the user may not be able to even communicate with the other user using the new device.

Managing devices and messages for users during a messaging session


A unit cell for use in a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell comprising: a membrane/electrode assembly including a fuel electrode and an oxidant electrode disposed on either side of a solid polymer electrolyte membrane, the assembly being sandwiched from either side by a first separator and a second separator to give a stacked construction to form therebetween a fuel gas flow passage and an oxidant gas flow passage. The solid polymer electrolyte membrane has a projecting portion projecting outwardly beyond the fuel electrode and the oxidant electrode, and the projecting portion is coated by a reinforcing resin member. Connecting grooves formed on a primary face of the separators connecting both ends of the fuel gas/oxidant gas flow passages with a fuel/oxidant gas feed/discharge ports, respectively. The reinforcing resin member is placed so as to bridge openings of the connecting grooves in order to give a tunnel construction to the connecting grooves.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a unit cell for use in a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell that employs a solid polymer electrolyte membrane, and to a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell wherein a plurality of unit cells are stacked.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fuel cells have been noticed as to their ability to be an electric generator. As one example of these fuel cells, a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell is known generally. As is well known, the solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell is able to produce electrical power by means of an electrochemical reaction when supplied with oxygen (air) as an oxidant and hydrogen as a fuel, these being supplied onto the surfaces of a pair of catalyst electrodes superposed against either face of an electrolyte which is a solid polymer electrolyte membrane, such as a solid ion exchange membrane or the like.
In solid polymer electrolyte fuel cells, it is important that these be consistent supply of oxygen and hydrogen onto the surfaces of the catalyst electrodes in order to consistently and efficient produce the intended voltage. It is also important for the appropriate temperature to be maintained. Accordingly, there is typically employed a cell of a structure wherein a membrane/electrode assembly (MEA) composed of a breathable porous membrane oxidant electrode and a fuel electrode disposed on either side of the solid polymer electrolyte membrane is assembled with a first separator superposed against the oxidant electrode face thereof and a second separator superposed against the fuel electrode face thereof. A plurality of such unit cells are stacked and electrically connected directly to produce the desired voltage.
An oxidant gas flow passage is formed by means of covering with the oxidant electrode a recess disposed on the first separator, and fuel gas flow passage is formed by means of covering with the fuel electrode a recess disposed on the second separator. A coolant flow passage is formed by a recess disposed in a secondary face of the first separator or second separator on the back side from a primary face which is superposed against the electrode, by covering the recess with the secondary face of another adjacent cell.
At respective peripheral edges of stacked unit cells, there are formed perforating therethrough in the stacking direction an oxidant gas inlet and an oxidant gas outlet, a fuel gas inlet and a fuel gas outlet, and a coolant inlet and a coolant outlet. The oxidant gas inlet and oxidant gas outlet are connected to both ends of the oxidant gas flow passage, whereby oxidant gas is supplied to the membrane/electrode assembly through the oxidant gas flow passage. Likewise, the fuel gas inlet and the fuel gas outlet are connected to both ends of the fuel gas flow passage, thereby supplying fuel as to the membrane/electrode assembly through the fuel gas flow passage. In addition, the coolant inlet and coolant outlet are connected to both ends of the coolant flow passage, circulating coolant through the coolant flow passage.
However, these solid polymer electrolyte fuel cells of conventional construction may still suffer from disability in producing sufficient electrical power. Namely, for ensuring an excellent capability of electric power generation, it is important that the membrane/electrode assembly and separators be assembled together with a high precision alignment. Since the membrane/electrode assembly employed in the conventional fuel cell is considerably thin, it was significantly difficult to dispose the membrane/electrode assembly between the first and second separators with a high precision alignment thereto.
JP-A-11-045729 or other documents propose a use of a frame disposed covering the peripheral edge of the solid polymer electrolyte membrane of the membrane/electrode assembly. With this arrangement, the membrane/electrode assembly is reinforced, making it possible to precisely install the membrane/electrode assembly between the first and second separators with ease and precision.
In order to produce an electric voltage with stability, the solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell shall should ensure an stable supply of the oxygen gas (oxygen) and the fuel gas (hydrogen) to respective surfaces of the catalyst electrodes. For the stable supply of these gases, it is important to prevent a leakage of gases through gaps formed between the separators or between the separator and the membrane/electrode assembly. To meet this ends, the conventional solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell, as shown in JP-A-2000-294254 etc., sealing rubber layers are disposed between the adjacent ones of the mutually stacked membrane/electrode assemblies and separators so that the membrane/electrode assemblies and separators are stacked on one another via the sealing rubber layers, thereby preventing gas leakage through gaps between the stacked members. Typically, the sealing rubber layers are arranged for surrounding the fuel gas flow passage and the oxidant gas flow passage.
However, the sealing rubber layer employed in the conventional solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell may cause the gas leakage problem at around connecting portions between the gas flow passages and gas inlets/outlets. Described more specifically, the sealing rubber layer is arranged for fringing the gas flow passages and the gas inlets/outlets connected to the gas flow passages. Therefore, if the membrane/electrode assembly of a flat plate shape is smaller than the separators and located inside the gas inlets/outlets, the peripheral edge portion of the membrane/electrode assembly is partially located on the gas flow passage and the connecting flow passage, leading to a risk that gas fed to one side of the membrane/electrode assembly leak into the other side. That is, since the solid polymer electrolyte membrane is a sheet considerably thin and readily deformable, its peripheral edge portion placed on and exposed to the flow passages will be readily deformed due to gas feeding pressure, thereby producing gaps between the separators and the membrane/electrode assembly. Thus, there was a risk that the fuel gas and the oxidant gas could leak around the peripheral edge of the membrane/electrode assembly into the other side.
Another measure has been proposed to prevent the gas leak around the peripheral edge of the membrane/electrode assembly. For instance, it may be possible to form a connecting flow passage by utilizing a groove open in the primary face of the separator. The opening of the groove is covered by means of a rigid lid member fitted thereon in a bridging fashion, so that the connecting flow passage is of tunnel construction. This lid member is provided with a sealing rubber layer bonded thereto. By sandwiching the peripheral edge portion of the membrane/electrode assembly (solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell) between the sealing rubber layer formed on the separator and the sealing rubber layer formed on the lid member, the gas leak around the peripheral edge of the membrane/electrode assembly can be prevented. This measure is able to prevent the gas leak effectively, but on the other hand, it needs an additional component independent of the separator, resulting in the increased number of components and deterioration in production efficiency due to the need for a precise alignment of the lid member.

Unit cell for solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell


A method for manufacturing a three-dimensional object by successively solidifying layers of a building material at positions in the respective layer corresponding to the cross-section of the object is provided, wherein at least a partial region of a layer is solidified such that a pattern is generated, which pattern contains a plurality of substantially parallel solidification lines (V, S), and at least a partial region of a subsequent layer is exposed such that a pattern is generated, which pattern contains a plurality of substantially parallel solidification lines (V, S) that are rotated with respect to the solidification lines of the pattern of the previous layer by an angle (α) that differs from 180°, 90° and 45°.

The invention is related to a method and a device for manufacturing a three-dimensional object by a successive linear solidification of layers of a building material at positions in the respective layer corresponding to the cross-section of the object.
In laser sintering as well as in stereolithography and other related layer-wise manufacturing methods there are known various exposure patterns for filling regions, i.e. regions that are located in the respective layer inside of the contour defining the outline of the object.
In particular in order to minimize shrinkage effects and residual stress there have been developed exposure patterns that divide the area to be exposed into partial areas and expose these in differing sequences if necessary. Such exposure patterns are for example described in EP 0 429 196 B1, DE 42 33 812 C1 for stereolithography and in DE 100 42 134 C2 for laser sintering. Typically, the direction of the exposure vectors is rotated by 90° from layer n to layer n+1, leading to the same exposure orientation in each second layer. Also in electron beam sintering special exposure methods such as a helical or a meandering exposure of partial regions are used as described in WO 2004/056509.
From EP 0 590 956 A1 an exposure method for stereolithography is known, in which a light beam is directed across a layer in a plurality of vectors that are in parallel, wherein the direction of the vectors changes from one layer to the successive layer by 180°, 90° or 45°. These methods have disadvantages. In each layer material properties are created having a preferred orientation or for an exposure with crossing directions two preferred orientations. An anisotropy that results from a numerous repetition of few exposure directions leads to a spoiling of the mechanical properties of the whole part. Also the quality of the surface may be affected, e.g. pore formation may occur.
Moreover, there are known further exposure methods for laser sintering—mainly in order to avoid warpage—such as a spiral exposure as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,676,892 B2 or an onion-ring-like exposure as described in DE 101 12 591 A1. These methods vary the exposure directions within a layer, however, typically repeat the same exposure direction at many positions in layers that lie one on top of the other. Therefore, these methods have similar disadvantages.

Method and device for manufacturing a three-dimensional object


A method is provided for improving a signal-to-noise ratio in a received signal. The method involves receiving a spread spectrum signal (SSS) with a power level below a noise floor of a receiver. The SSS is generated by modulating a data signal using a spreading sequence (SS) comprised of a random number sequence (RNS). The SS can be generated using a chaos generator or any other deterministic means. The method also involves comparing a magnitude of each number of the RNS which was used to generate the SSS to an adaptable threshold value. The adaptable threshold value is selected based on a minimum magnitude of each number necessary to produce samples having a predetermined signal-to-noise ratio. Notably, samples of the received SSS are excluded from a receiver processing based on a result of the comparison. Similarly, each number of a random number sequence is excluded from the receiver processing based on the comparison.

1. Statement of the Technical Field
The invention concerns communications systems. More particularly, the invention concerns a communications system receiver configured to (a) improve the effective signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a spread spectrum signal and (b) recover input data from the spread spectrum signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are many types of communications systems known in the art, such as multiple access communications systems, low probability of intercept/low probability of detection (LPI/LPD) communications systems and spread spectrum communications systems. Many of these systems depend on square wave symbol and/or spreading sequences. Other systems induce exploitable correlations via square-wave pulse shaping. Non-square wave spreading sequences (including chaotic spreading sequences) have also been employed but require significantly more computational power to synchronize. Communication signals employing non-square wave spreading sequences are typically more secure and robust to interferers. As described herein, a chaotic spreading sequence consists of a sequence of numbers having values that appear to have unpredictable transitions characteristics following that of a mathematically chaotic evolution and near ideal statistical properties, yet follow a well-defined deterministic evolution.
Such communications systems can also be configured to operate such that a communications signal has a spread power level below the noise floor of the environment as measured at the communication system receiver. The term "noise floor" as used herein refers to the level of noise which exists in a signal, measured at the input of a communication system receiver.
A multiple access communications system can handle a greater number of users as compared to conventional communications systems, whereby users typically simultaneously re-use a shared communications bandwidth. Each additional signal (optimally orthogonal) may be treated as additive noise. Also, an LPI/LPD communications system can generate signals having less detectable features (or lower measurable power levels) as compared to conventional communications systems since the ambient noise power masks the signal. The signals generated by such communications systems can operate at relatively low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), which forces reconstruction and data decision to rely on stochastic signal processing. Any method or device that improves this low SNR will improve the data estimation capability of the communications system, permitting some combination of increased throughput, reduced transmit power, or lower probability of detection/exploitation.

Selective noise cancellation of a spread spectrum signal


A method and apparatus are disclosed for providing enhanced pay per view in a video server. Specifically, the present invention periodically schedules a group of non pre-emptible tasks corresponding to videos in a video server having a predetermined number of processors, wherein each task begins at predetermined periods and has a set of sub-tasks separated by predetermined intervals. To schedule the group of tasks, the present invention divides the tasks into two groups according to whether they may be scheduled on a single processor. The present invention schedules each group separately. For the group of tasks not scheduleable on a single processor, the present invention determines a number of processors required to schedule such group and schedules such tasks to start at a predetermined time. For the group of tasks scheduleable on a single processor, the present invention determines whether such tasks are scheduleable on the available processors using an array of time slots. If the present invention determines that such group of tasks are not scheduleable on the available processors, then the present invention recursively partitions such group of tasks in subsets and re-performs the second determination of scheduleability. Recursive partitioning continues until the group of tasks is deemed scheduleable or no longer partitionable. In the latter case, the group of tasks is deemed not scheduleable.

In recent years, significant advances in both networking technology and technologies involving the digitization and compression of video have taken place. For example, it is now possible to transmit several gigabits of data per second over fiber optic networks and with compression standards like MPEG-1, the bandwidth required for transmitting relatively low. These advances have resulted in a host of new applications involving the transmission of video data over communications networks, such as video-on-demand, on-line tutorials, interactive television, etc.
Video servers are one of the key components necessary to provide the above applications. Depending on the application, the video servers may be required to store hundreds of video programs and concurrently transmit data for a few hundred to a few thousand videos to clients. As would be understood, the transmission rate is typically a fixed rate contingent upon the compression technique employed by the video server. For example, the transmission rate for MPEG-1 is approximately 1.5 Mbps.
Videos, for example movies and other on-demand programming, are transmitted from the random access memory (RAM) of the video server to the clients. However, due to the voluminous nature of video data (e.g., a hundred minute long MPEG-1 video requires approximately 1.125 GB of storage space) and the relatively high cost of RAM, storing videos in RAM is prohibitively expensive. A cost effective alternative manner for storing videos on a video server involves utilizing magnetic or optical disks instead of RAM. Video stored on disks, however, needs to be retrieved into RAM before it can be transmitted to the clients by the video server. Modern magnetic and optical disks, however, have limited storage capacity, e.g., 1 GB to 9 GB, and relatively low transfer rates for retrieving data from these disks to RAM, e.g., 30 Mbps to 60 Mbps. This limited storage capacity affects the number of videos that can be stored on the video server and, along with the low transfer rates, affects the number of videos that can be concurrently retrieved.
A naive storage scheme in which an entire video is stored on an arbitrarily chosen disk could result in disks with popular video programming being over-burdened with more requests than can be supported, while other disks with less popular video programs remain idle. Such a scheme results in an ineffective utilization of disk bandwidth. As would be understood, the term "disk bandwidth" refers to the amount of data which can be retrieved from a disk over a period of time. When data is not being retrieved from a disk, such as when the disk is idle or when a disk head is being positioned, disk bandwidth is not being utilized, and is thus considered wasted. Ineffective utilization of disk bandwidth adversely affects the number of concurrent streams a video server can support.
To utilize disk bandwidth more effectively, various schemes have been devised where the workload is distributed uniformly across multiple disks, i.e., videos are laid out on more than one disk. One popular method for storing videos across a plurality of disks is disk striping, a well known technique in which consecutive logical data units (referred to herein as "stripe units") are distributed across a plurality of individually accessible disks in a round-robin fashion. Disk stripping, in addition to distributing the workload uniformly across disks, also enables multiple concurrent streams of a video to be supported without having to replicate the video.
Outstanding requests for videos are generally serviced by the video server in the order in which they were received, i.e., first-in-first-out (FIFO). Where the number of concurrent requests is less than or not much greater than the number of concurrent streams that can be supported by the server, good overall response times to all outstanding requests are possible. In video-on-demand (VOD) environments, however, where the number concurrent requests, typically, far exceeds the number of concurrent streams that can be supported by the server, good overall response times are not possible for all outstanding requests using FIFO.
To provide better overall response times, a paradigm known as enhanced pay-per-view (EPPV) was adopted by VOD environments, such as cable and broadcasting companies. Utilizing the enhanced pay per view paradigm, video servers retrieve and transmit video streams to clients at fixed intervals or periods. Under this paradigm, the average response time for a request is half of the fixed interval and the worst case response time for a request would be the fixed interval. Furthermore, by retrieving popular videos more frequently, and less popular video less frequently, better overall average response times could be achieved. Finally, by informing the clients about the periods and the exact times at which videos are retrieved, zero response times can be provided.
Although a set of videos are scheduleable on a video server employing the EPPV paradigm, determining an exact schedule for which new streams of videos are to begin can be difficult, particularly when the periods and computation times, i.e., time required to transmit a video or segment, are arbitrary. The goal is to schedule the set of videos such that the number of streams scheduled to be transmitted concurrently does not exceed the maximum number of concurrent streams supportable by the video server. The complexity of scheduling videos in an EPPV paradigm is NP-hard--wherein the complexity of scheduling periodic videos increases exponentially as the number of videos being scheduled and the number of processors by which the videos are transmitted increases. Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus which can effectively schedule videos periodically on a video server employing the EPPV paradigm.

Method and apparatus for providing enhanced pay per view in a video server employing a coarse-grained striping scheme


A system, method and computer program product for detection of epidemics caused by malware programs or computer viruses. Detection of local and global epidemics is performed automatically. A source of an epidemic is calculated and analyzed based on collected statistics. A spread of the epidemic is predicted and an accurate prognosis referring to the time frame and to geographical areas of the epidemic spread is made. The prognosis is made based on a calculated value of “connection strength” coefficient. The connection strength coefficient reflects a volume of information exchange (i.e., a number and a quality of connection channels) between the countries. An epidemic is detected in its infancy and its spread is monitored in time and propagation across different countries. Then, effective security and protection measures can be invoked in a timely manner.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to anti-malware technology, and more particularly, to detection and prevention of computer virus-related epidemics.
2. Description of the Related Art
Detection of viruses and malware has been a concern throughout the era of the personal computer. With the growth of communication networks such as the Internet and increasing interchange of data, including the rapid growth in the use of e-mail for communications, infection of computers and networks through communications or file exchanges is an increasingly significant consideration. Infections take various forms, but are mostly related to computer viruses Trojan programs, or other forms of malicious code (i.e., malware).
Recent incidents of e-mail mediated virus attacks have been dramatic in terms of speed of propagation and for the extent of damage, with Internet service providers (ISPs) and companies suffering service problems and a loss of e-mail and networking capability. In many instances, attempts to adequately prevent file exchange or e-mail mediated infections significantly inconvenience computer users and improved strategies for detecting and dealing with massive virus attacks that transform into epidemics are desirable.
A conventional approach to detecting viruses is signature scanning. Signature scanning systems use sample code patterns extracted from known malware code and scan for the occurrence of these patterns in another program code. A primary limitation of the signature scanning method is that only known malicious code is detected, that is, only code that matches the stored sample signatures of known malicious code is identified as infected. All viruses or malicious code not previously identified, and all viruses or malicious code created after the last update of the signature database will not be detected.
In addition, the signature analysis technique fails to identify a virus if the signature is not aligned in the code in the expected fashion. Alternatively, the authors of a virus may obscure the identity of the virus by opcode substitution or by inserting dummy or random code into the virus functions. Nonsense code can alter the signature of the virus to a sufficient extent as to be undetectable by a signature scanning program, without diminishing the ability of the virus to propagate and deliver its payload.
Another virus detection strategy is integrity checking. Integrity checking systems extract a code sample from known benign application program code. The code sample is stored together with the information from the program file, such as the executable program header and the file length, as well as the date and the time stamp of the sample. The program file is checked at regular intervals against this database to check that the program file has not been modified.
A conventional approach uses so-called white lists i.e., the lists of known "clean" software components, links, libraries and other clean objects. In order to compare a suspect object against the white list, hash values can be used. The use of hashes is disclosed, for example, in WO/2007066333 where the white list consists of hashes of known clean applications. In WO/2007066333, checksums are calculated and compared against the known checksums.
However, detection of a virus in a computer system is only one part of the task. It is far more important to detect a potential for an epidemic that can infect hundreds and thousands of computers within numerous networks. In US Patent Publication No. 20080134335, a method for determining a potential spread of a detected virus is disclosed. However, it happens after the virus hasstarted to spread and does not prevent an epidemic.
In US Patent Publication No. 20060259967 and US Patent Publication No. 20060236392 a method for detecting malware based on a level of activity of some events is disclosed. Once an activity threshold is reached, security measures are applied. U.S. Pat. No. 7,418,732 discloses a method for processing network packets in order to prevent from spreading malware within the network. In US Patent Publication No. 20090064332, a method for detecting a source of malware threat and determining the level of a potential hazard is disclosed. Also, in US Patent Publication No. 20060070130, a method for determining a source of malware once the malware is detected is disclosed.
However, conventional systems do not provide an efficient detection and prevention of epidemics when a massive number of computer systems and entire networks get infected very fast.
It is apparent that improved techniques for detection and prevention of computer virus-related epidemics are desired. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a system and method that addresses the need for detecting and predicting the epidemics.

Method and system for detection and prediction of computer virus-related epidemics


An aftercooler through which a first fluid passes. A cooling fan applies a cooling fluid to the aftercooler. A variable speed motor is rotatably coupled to the cooling fan. A temperature sensor, in communication with the first fluid, is located downstream of the aftercooler. A controller controls operation of the variable speed motor based upon the temperature applied to the temperature sensor to prevent condensate freeze-up.

This invention relates generally to aftercoolers for fluid compressors, and more particularly to mechanisms which regulate cooling of a cooling core portion of an aftercooler to thereby prevent the aftercooler from overcooling a working fluid when the aftercooler is used during periods of cold ambient temperatures.
As is well known, an aftercooler is a heat exchanger for cooling a compressed working fluid, such as air, which is discharged from a compressor. The aftercooler cools the working fluid to a predetermined temperature to make the working fluid less destructive during its use with an object of interest.
There are several known devices which limit fluid flow through the aftercooler based upon indications from a thermostat. An example of such a device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,354,945. In these systems, a portion of the cooling fluid applied from the cooling fan to the cooling core is blocked, reducing the effectiveness. Additionally, and in these systems, the cooling fan continues to operate at the same angular velocity, using the same amount of energy and causing the same amount of cooling fan wear as if the cooling fan was operating at full speed.
The foregoing illustrates limitations known to exist in present cooling systems for aftercoolers. Thus, it is apparent that it would be advantageous to provide an alternative directed to overcoming one or more of the limitations set forth above. Accordingly, a suitable alternative is provided including features more fully disclosed hereinafter.

Compressor aftercooler apparatus for use in low temperature operations, and method of use


A mixing and/or evaporating device (12) for an exhaust system (5) of an internal combustion engine (1) encloses in the circumferential direction a cross section, through which flow is possible. The device (12) has two mutually opposite long side walls (21, 22) and two mutually opposite short side walls (23, 24). The short side walls (23, 24) connect each the two long side walls (21, 22) to one another. A plurality of guide blades (25), which project in the direction of the other long side wall (21, 22) and are set at an angle in relation to the axial direction (20), are arranged at at least one axial end (26, 27) at at least one long side wall (21, 22). Additional guide blades (29) are arranged at at least one long side wall (21, 22) at a distance (s) in the axial direction (20) from an axial end (26).

An exhaust system of an internal combustion engine is usually equipped with means for cleaning or treating the exhaust gases removed from the internal combustion engine. It may be necessary in this connection to introduce a liquid educt into the exhaust gas stream, to evaporate it therein and to mix it with the exhaust gas. It may be necessary, for example, to mix a fuel with the exhaust gas upstream of an oxidation catalytic converter in order to bring about heating of the exhaust gas stream by an exothermal reaction of the fuel in the oxidation catalytic converter. The heated exhaust gas stream can then be used downstream of the oxidation catalytic converter to heat another exhaust gas treatment means, for example, another catalytic converter or a particle filter, to operating temperature or regeneration temperature. Furthermore, SCR systems are known which operate with selective catalytic reaction and are equipped with an SCR catalytic converter, which takes up NOx from the exhaust gas stream. A suitable reducing agent, for example, ammonia or urea, preferably an aqueous urea solution, is added to the exhaust gas stream upstream of the SCR catalytic converter. The ammonia will then bring about a conversion of the nitrogen oxides present into nitrogen and water in the SCR catalytic converter.
It applies to all educts fed in the liquid form into the exhaust gas stream that the desired effect can be achieved satisfactorily only if sufficient evaporation of the educt as well as sufficient mixing of the gaseous educt with the exhaust gas stream can take place between the site at which the liquid educt is introduced and a site at which the educt is consumed. The mixing and/or evaporating means mentioned in the introduction, which are arranged in the flow path of the exhaust gas between the site at which the educt is introduced and the site at which the educt is consumed, are used for this purpose.

Eberspächer Exhaust Technology GmbH & Co. KG


In one embodiment, a system for deskewing signals on parallel bus channels includes several parallel channels that carry several data input signals and a pair of complementary voltage and timing reference (VTR) signals. The system also includes several receivers, with each receiver coupled to receive a data input signal and the pair of complementary VTR signals. The output of each receiver is based in part on a comparison of the received data input signal with the pair of complementary VTR signals. In one embodiment, a pair of VTR signals is selected from several pairs of VTR signals to widen the skew band on each channel. In one embodiment, each channel is skewed using a programmable delay circuit having a delay value based on the alignment of a data input signal relative to a pair of complementary VTR signals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data communications, and more particularly to parallel data communications in digital systems.
2. Description of the Background Art
Data is typically transferred between electronic devices by changing the data signal (e.g. current or voltage level) transmitted over a conductive wire or other coupling mechanism for conducting such transmission. Data transmission in which a group of data bits moves concurrently over several channels is referred to as parallel transmission, while data transmission in which data bits move over a single channel, one after the other, is referred to as serial transmission.
Parallel transmission, being generally faster than serial transmission, is widely used in applications where the length of the channel is relatively short, e.g., a bus connecting integrated circuits on a printed circuit board, a connection between a printer and a personal computer, communication between closely located systems, etc. However, parallel transmission over long distances can be affected by different propagation delays in the parallel channels. This difference, when it exists, causes the arrival times of individual data bits at the destination receiver to be different, and the difference in arrival times is referred to as "skew".
Skew is generally not disruptive in applications where the channel lengths are kept relatively short and the data transfer speeds are slow. However, as channel lengths or data transfer speeds are increased, the propagation delay on individual channels accumulates, thereby increasing the duration and effect of the skew. A sufficiently large skew can further cause data bits from one word to drift into the data bits of the next word, resulting in data transmission errors.
Various approaches exist for addressing skew-related problems in conventionally configured systems. One approach is to create individual serial data bit streams from the data in each channel. This approach involves encoding a clock signal into the transmitted bit stream at the transmitter, and then using signal processing techniques at the receiver to recover the clock signal and reconstruct successive data words. Unfortunately, the additional encoded clock data utilizes valuable channel bandwidth of each channel during transmission, and requires complex signal processing at the receiver.
Another approach, which is employed in modems, is to perform a complex set of durational analyses using test signal patterns on each of the parallel channels. The tests are designed to reveal a "characteristic skew" of each channel. Compensation or filter circuits are then used to compensate for the determined durational variance for each channel. This approach, however, is also problematic in that the propagation delays causing the skew can be dynamically affected by a significant number of variables, such as temperature, voltage, etc., which variables are themselves in constant flux. Hence, the tests are not sufficiently accurate over a longer period of time. To compensate for this, data transmission is frequently interrupted for relatively extensive periods of time in order to effectively take the system offline (with regard to "live" data), inject the test patterns and conduct the durational tests in an ongoing manner. Consequently, data transmission rates suffer.
Another approach involves "hand tuning" individual wires of a wire bundle and then painstakingly assembling the hand-tuned wires into a data transmission cable. This scheme does mitigate the skew problem somewhat by allowing longer cables to be produced without exceeding certain maximum acceptable durations of channel skew. It does not, however, address the root of the problem and can only achieve marginal improvements in channel length. The resulting cables are also very expensive in comparison to the benefit they confer, making them unsuitable for general widespread use.
As was already noted, the above approaches have been developed according to conventional data communication systems, in which the transmitted data signal (e.g. voltage level) for each received bit of data is detected against a fixed reference voltage (e.g. d.c. reference voltage). The approaches have also been widely adopted for differential signal switching in which the receiver digitizes small swing signal to full power supply rails for each channel regardless of skew (assuming the differential pair has limited skew compared to all channels in the parallel bus). Some have also been adopted for pseudo-differential signal switching, in which the receiver digitizes the small swing signal to full swings using a fixed voltage reference regardless of skew.
Unfortunately, as was also noted, each of the above approaches is also problematic with regard to even the particular systems for which they were developed.
Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods capable of enabling a more accurate and reliable manner of detecting, or further, compensating for skew distortion, and thereby providing for more reliable transmission and reception of signals (including parallel data channels) over longer distances, at higher frequency or both. There is also a need for such systems and methods that are capable of conducting such detecting and/or compensating with minimal detrimental impact on channel bandwidth, and further, with minimal added implementation costs and complexity.

Method and system for deskewing parallel bus channels to increase data transfer rates


Pressure gauges according to this invention provide pressure measurement on all brands of crimping tools, including 6-Ton D3 tools. In particular, this design eliminates the need to remove the tool crimp head to measure the pressure of the crimping tool. Additionally, this design eliminates the need to install additional dedicated fixtures on the crimping tool to measure the ram pressure. This design incorporates a self-centering profile to avoid side-loading when mounting the pressure gauge in the crimping tool. The dial indicator on pressure gauges of this invention captures and holds the maximum pressure reading with the use of a simple manual lever. The lever can be easily reset for the next pressure reading. Pressure gauges according to various embodiments of this invention include dual piston pressure sensors. Additionally, pressure measurement is accomplished with a simple hydro mechanical manometer display.

This invention relates to a force monitoring device for a crimping tool. More particularly, this invention relates to a pressure gauge to measure the crimping force of a crimping tool.
Crimpers, also called crimping tools, pinch wire terminals and connectors to wires or conductors to prepare them for use in electrical or communications applications. They have nests and indenters that vary in size and shape according to application. Manual crimpers are suitable for portable applications that create small terminal connections while power crimpers use air, electricity, hydraulic power, or a combination of these to aid compression, and are used in high volume applications. Crimpers can be used for applications ranging from manual field repairs to fully automated terminal production operations.
Modern compression style electrical compression connectors are crimped to secure the wire to the connectors. Crimping tools have a variety of crimping profiles and pressure levels to accomplish the task. To ensure proper applied crimping pressure the tool operators regularly have their tools calibrated. One popular crimping tool is referred to as 6 ton tool. Each crimping tool may have a variety of crimping dies or profiles and one common die is referred to as a D3 crimping die. Manufacturers of crimping tools may offer pressure gauges to calibrate their crimping tools. However, such manufacturers only offer dedicated gauges for their own tools.
Measurement of a crimp force is of particular interest when crimping to ensure a good crimp is achieved, particularly when using hand-operated and battery operated mechanical crimp tools. Existing crimp tools do not indicate the crimping pressure to produce a good crimp during a crimping process. Large crimp tools, such as hydraulic and pneumatic crimp tools, use pressure transducers that measure the operating pressure of the compressible fluid used to drive the crimp tool. The small mechanical crimp tools are hand-operated and, thus, do not have compressible fluid that can be measured to determine whether a good or bad crimp was obtained. Accordingly, a need exists for a gauge that measures a crimping force to determine whether a good or bad crimp was obtained regardless of the make of the crimping tool.
Because mechanical crimp tools do not monitor the force applied during the crimping process, conductor insulation can be damaged by applying excessive force during the crimping process. Although such force typically does not damage the conductor, the insulation can split or otherwise be damaged, thereby creating a conductive path through the insulation. Accordingly, a need exists for a crimping tool gauge that measures the crimping force to produce a quality crimp resulting from the crimping process.
Some pressure gauges for crimping tools do not measure the actual applied pressure delivered by the crimping tool. Such gauges measure the pressure of the tool's actuation ram and then an implied crimping pressure is calculated through the mechanical leverage of the tool head to the D3 or die area. These calculation methods do not account for variations from power transmission through levels of tolerance, friction and deformation. As such, the pressure gauge fails to account for all factors which influence the force delivered by the crimping tool.
Other known pressure gauges for crimping tools require inserts or modifications to the crimping tool jaws to obtain a pressure reading. Such devices, as a result, are cumbersome to use and require added hardware and devices to obtain a pressure reading on a variety of different crimping tools.
These and other shortcomings with known pressure gauges for crimping tools need to be addressed to provide a pressure gauge which measures the actual crimping pressure applied by a variety of different crimping tools from a variety of manufacturers without the need for added fixtures or supporting devices.

Pressure measuring device for crimping tool


A method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display device in which two transparent insulation substrates are adhered to each other and a liquid crystal is injected into an injection area defined by a seal pattern comprising sealing material. The method comprises the steps of: starting application of the sealing material to either one of the two substrates from a position different from a cutting position of the substrate to form a liquid crystal injection hole and a liquid crystal injection area, and ending the application at a position different from the cutting position to form the seal pattern; oppositely placing the two substrates, and pressing and adhering the two substrates with the sealing material; and cutting the adhered two substrates at a predetermined position and injecting the liquid crystal from the injection hole.

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display device.
FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a liquid crystal panel of a conventional liquid crystal display device, and FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line A--A in FIG. 5. In the drawings, numeral 1 denotes a pair of opposed transparent insulation substrates composed of transparent insulation substrates 1a and 1b. Numeral 11 denotes an alignment layer formed on the transparent insulation substrates 1a and 1b; numeral 10 a seal pattern comprising a sealing material for adhering a pair of opposed transparent insulation substrates 1 and determining an injection area of liquid crystal; and numeral 3 a liquid crystal injection hole which is an opening of the seal pattern 10. Numerals 16a, 16b, . . . , 17a, 17b, . . . denote respectively display electrodes extending under the sealing material to a substrate terminal 4. The substrate terminal 4 is formed on either one la of a pair of transparent insulating substrates for transmitting a signal to the display electrodes 16, 17 from outside, and is separated from the pixel area through the sealing material. Numeral 5 denotes a cutting position of the transparent insulation substrate 1a, when forming a panel, on which the substrate terminal 4 is formed, and numeral 6 denotes a cutting position of the other transparent insulation substrate 1b when forming a panel.
Next, the manufacturing process of the conventional liquid crystal display device is explained.
First, an alignment layer 11 is transferred to the surfaces of two transparent insulation substrates 1a and 1b to be calcined, on at least one of which there are formed electrodes and a substrate terminal 4. Next, on either one of the transparent insulation substrates 1a and 1b, a sealing material is applied to form a seal pattern 10 having a liquid crystal injection hole 3. Next, the two transparent insulation substrates 1a and 1b are oppositely placed and pressed on each other, and the sealing material is cured to form a pair of opposed transparent insulation substrates 1. Thereafter, predetermined panel assembly steps are carried out, the adhered pair of transparent insulation substrate 1a, 1b, are cut at the substrate cutting positions 5 and 6, and liquid crystal is injected from the liquid crystal injection hole 3 to form a liquid crystal panel.
Conventionally, the seal pattern 10 is formed on the surface of either one of the pair of transparent insulation substrates 1 by screen printing method or dispenser method.
According to the screen printing method, a substrate is held under the screen plate comprising a mask having an opening of a predetermined shape and is rubbed with a roller with a sealing material being adhered to the surface of the roller over the screen plate to apply the sealing material to the substrate corresponding to the opening of the mask to form a seal pattern. The principle of this method is to use a sealing material in place of an ink and a substrate in place of paper in an ordinary mimeograph printing.
According to the dispenser method, after a sealing material into which a predetermined spacer is kneaded is filled in a syringe, the syringe is set on a dispenser, and the sealing material filled in the syringe is discharged by mainly utilizing a pneumatic pressure. The space between the substrate and the discharge part is precisely controlled, and a predetermined amount of sealing material is applied in a predetermined pattern by computer control to form a seal pattern.
As described above, with respect to the method for forming an area into which liquid crystal is injected in a liquid crystal display device and forming a seal pattern for adhering a pair of transparent insulation substrates, there have been conventionally proposed several methods, but they are not effective. For example, in a screen printing method, since the screen plate is directly brought into contact with the alignment layer formed on the transparent insulation substrate, there has been a problem to cause defective orientation due to stain or damage of the alignment layer.
Further, according to the dispenser method, due to discharge of the sealing material by pneumatic pressure, the discharge amount is not stabilized so that the shape of the seal pattern is not uniform at the application starting position and application ending position. That is to say, at the application starting position, because of the necessity to elevate the discharge pressure to a pressure level at which the sealing material can be applied, the actual application starting position is displaced from the application starting position targeted by the seal pattern. Alternatively, by allowing the dispenser for applying sealing material to stand at the application starting position for a predetermined duration of time, delicate fluctuation of pressure occurs to cause dropping of sealing material from the syringe, thereby giving large initial discharge amount to make the shape of the seal pattern at the application starting position larger than the target size. At the application ending position, due to the residual inner pressure in the syringe, there has been a problem that the application of the sealing material cannot be stopped at the application ending position.
For example, FIG. 7 is an explanatory plan view of the substrate in the case where an injection hole is formed on the substrate terminal, and FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken along the line B--B in FIG. 7. As shown in FIG. 7, when setting the application starting position 10a and the application ending position 10b of the seal pattern 10 at the liquid crystal injection hole 3, there arise the conditions where the seal pattern 10 at the liquid crystal injection hole 3 is not sufficiently formed to the substrate cutting position 6 or the sealing material projects to the substrate terminal.
In case that the seal pattern 10 for the liquid crystal injection hole 3 is not sufficiently formed to the substrate cutting position 6, as shown in FIG. 9, there is formed a gap 12 between the application starting position 10a of the seal pattern 10 and the substrate cutting position 6, so that a foam 14 might mix in the liquid crystal 13 from the gap 12 during injection of the liquid crystal 14 to cause a defective display of liquid crystal display device.
Further, when the sealing material projects to the substrate terminal 4, the cut piece 15 of the substrate adheres to the sealing material to make it impossible to remove the cut piece 15.
The present invention has been made to solve the problems as described above, and its object is to form a seal pattern capable of preventing defective injection of liquid crystal caused by inclusion of foam during injection of liquid crystal or defective cutting of substrate in the process of forming a liquid crystal display panel.

Method for manufacturing liquid crystal display device


An X-ray optical device includes a crystal containing a channel, which passes through the crystal and has multiple internal faces. A mount is configured to hold the crystal in a fixed location relative to a source of an X-ray beam and to shift the crystal automatically between two predefined dispositions: a first disposition in which the X-ray beam passes through the channel while diffracting from one or more of the internal faces, and a second disposition in which the X-ray beam passes through the channel without diffraction by the crystal.

Various techniques for X-ray analysis are known in the art, such as measurement of X-ray diffraction, reflectivity, fluorescence, or other types of scattering from a sample. Typically, each type of measurement requires an X-ray beam with certain qualities, such as collimation (i.e., angular spread of the beam), monochromatization (range of photon energies), and focal size (beam width on the sample). In general, the desired qualities may vary depending on the type of sample and objectives of the measurement. The beams that are output directly by common X-ray sources, however, such as metal-anode X-ray tubes, for the most part do not meet these quality constraints.
To overcome these limitations, X-ray optical elements have been developed to enhance beam collimation, monochromatization and focal properties. For example, a variety of X-ray mirrors are commercially available to collect and then collimate and/or focus an X-ray beam, such as multi-layer mirrors made by AXO DRESDEN GmbH (Dresden, Germany) and Rigaku Corporation (Tokyo, Japan). As another example, to achieve particularly fine collimation and monochromaticity, the X-ray beam may be reflected through a channel in a crystal of highly-perfect silicon or germanium, such as channel-cut crystals manufactured by Crystal Scientific (UK) Ltd. (Alnwick, Northumberland, UK).
Some X-ray measurement systems are designed to accommodate adjustable and/or interchangeable optics, to enable the user to vary or select beam properties to suit different types of measurements. This sort of capability is available in certain commercially-available systems, such as the D1 Evolution system produced by Jordan Valley Semiconductors Ltd. (Migdal Ha′emek, Israel). Multifunction systems of this sort are described in the patent literature, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,120,228 and 7,551,719, whose disclosures are incorporated herein by reference. X-ray diffractometers with interchangeable optical features are also described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,665,372, 7,711,091 and 7,684,543.


In a network system based on a content name, a terminal device may generate and transmit a block query requesting a plurality of segments, and may receive segments corresponding to the block query based on a transmission direction of the block query.

1. Field
The following description relates to technology for routing data in a content-based network, and more particularly, to a terminal device, system, and routing method that may route requested data between network apparatuses based on content name.
2. Description of Related Art
The Internet may be used to provide a one-to-one communication based on a host-to-host connection. However, in an actual Internet environment, networking may be performed based on data or contents, instead of the network hosts. For example, users may have more interest in data rather than an apparatus that stores the data.
During the reception of desired data using a network apparatus, a redundant procedure may occur because of non-matching between an Internet structure and an actual utilization pattern. This redundant procedure may deteriorate the throughput of a network.
Accordingly, there is a desire for routing technology that may match an Internet structure with an actual utilization pattern and also enhance the throughput of a network.

Terminal device based on content name, and method for routing based on content name


A method transcodes a compressed multi-layer video bitstream that includes a base layer bitstream and an enhancement layer bitstream. The base and enhancement layers are first partially decoded, and then the partially decoded signals are combined with a motion compensated signal yielding a combined signal. The combined signal is quantized into an output signal according to a quantization parameter, and the output signal is variable length encoded as a single layer bitstream. In a preprocessing step, the enhancement layer can be truncated according to rate control constraint, and the same constraints can also be used during the quantization.

Compression enables storing, transmitting, and processing of videos with fewer storage, network, and processor resources. The most widely used video compression standards include MPEG-1 for storage and retrieval of moving pictures, MPEG-2 for digital television, and H.263 for video conferencing, see ISO/IEC 11172-2:1993, "Information Technology—Coding of Moving Pictures and Associated Audio for Digital Storage Media up to about 1.5 Mbit/s—Part 2: Video," D. LeGall, "MPEG: A Video Compression Standard for Multimedia Applications," Communications of the ACM, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 46-58, 1991, ISO/IEC 13818-2:1996, "Information Technology—Generic Coding of Moving Pictures and Associated Audio Information—Part 2: Video," 1994, ITU-T SG XV, DRAFT H.263, "Video Coding for Low Bitrate Communication," 1996, and ITU-T SG XVI, DRAFT13 H.263+Q15-A-60 rev.0, "Video Coding for Low Bitrate Communication," 1997.
These standards are relatively low-level specifications that deal primarily with spatial compression of images or frames, and the spatial and temporal compression of a sequence of frames. As a common feature, these standards perform compression on a per frame basis. These standards achieve high compression ratios for a wide range of applications.
Video coding standards, such as MPEG-4 for multimedia applications provide several new coding tools, including tools to improve the coding efficiency, and tools that support object-based coding and error-resilience, see ISO/IEC 14496-2:1999, "Information technology—coding of audio/visual objects, Part 2: Visual."
One of the main problems in delivering video content over networks is adapting the content to meet particular constraints imposed by users, networks and devices. Users require playback with minimal variation in perceived quality. However, dynamic network conditions often make this difficult to achieve.
Fine granular scalable (FGS) coding has been adopted by the MPEG-4 standard. The tools that support FGS coding are specified in an amendment of the MPEG-4 standard, "ISO/IEC 14496-2:1999/FDAM4, "Information technology—coding of audio/visual objects, Part 2: Visual." An overview of FGS coding is described by Li in "Overview of Fine Granularity Scalability in MPEG-4 video standard," IEEE Trans. Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, March 2001.
FGS coding is a radical departure from traditional scalable coding. With traditional scalable coding, the video is coded into a base layer bitstream and possibly several enhancement layer bitstreams, where the granularity is only as fine as the number of enhancement layer bitstreams that are formed. The resulting rate-distortion (R-D) curve resembles a step-like function.
In contrast, FGS coding provides an enhancement layer bitstream that is continuously scalable. Providing a continuous scalable enhancement layer bitstream is accomplished by a bit-plane coding method that uses discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients. Bit-plane coding allows the enhancement layer bitstream to be truncated at any point. In that way, the quality of the reconstructed video is proportional to the number of decoded bits of the enhancement layer bitstream.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional FGS encoder including a base layer encoder 102 and an enhancement layer encoder 101. An input video 103 is provided to a typical base layer encoder. The base layer encoder includes DCT 110, Quantization (Q) 120, motion compensation (MC) 130, inverse quantization (Q−1) 140, inverse DCT (IDCT) 150, motion estimation 160 with motion vectors 161, clipping 170, frame memory 180, and variable length coder (VLC) 190 components. The output of the base layer encoder is a base layer bitstream 104 having some predetermined minimum constant bit-rate (CBR). Typically, the CBR is very low, for example, 20 Kbps or less. Thus, the base layer bitstream 104 can be transmitted over high and low bandwidth channels.
An enhancement layer bitstream 105 is generated by subtracting reconstructed frames of the base layer bitstream 103 from the input video. This yields an FGS residual signal in the spatial domain. Enhancement layer encoding is then applied to the residual signal. The enhancement encoder 101 includes a DCT 190, followed by bit-plane shifting 192, a maximum operation 194, and bit-plane VLC coding 196 to produce the enhancement layer bitstream 105.
FIG. 2 shows a FGS decoder including a base layer decoder 201 and an enhancement layer decoder 202 that are applied respectively to the base layer bitstream 104 and the enhancement layer bitstream 105 to produce a reconstructed a base layer bitstream 291 and a reconstructed enhancement layer bitstream 292. The decoder includes a variable length decoder (VLD) 210, inverse quantizer 220, inverse DCT 230, motion compensation 240, frame memory 250. The FGS residual signal 292 is reconstructed by passing the enhancement layer bitstream 105 through bit-plane VLD 260, bit-plane shift 270 and IDCT 280 components. The FGS residual signal 292 can then be added to the reconstructed base layer bitstream 291 to yield the enhancement video 293. The combined signal 293 is clipped to ensure that the signal is bounded, i.e., 8-bit pixels values are in the range [0, 255].
A selective enhancement method to control the bit-plane shifting in the enhancement layer bitstream of the FGS coded video bitstream was described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,263,022, "System and method for fine granular scalable video with selective quality enhancement," issued on Jul. 17, 2001 to Chen, et al. There, the quantization parameter used for coding the base layer video also determined the corresponding shifting factor. The bit-planes associated with macroblocks that were deemed more visually important were shifted higher.
A key point to note is that the bit rate of the base layer bitstream is some predetermined minimum. The enhancement layer bitstream covers the range of rates and distortions from a minimum to near lossless reconstruction. Also, after the enhancement layer bitstream has been generated, it can be stored and re-used many times. According to e.g., network characteristics, an appropriate number of bits can be allocated to a frame and transmitted over the network, taking into consideration current network conditions. It is important to note however that there is no quantization parameter to adjust in that scheme.
The MPEG-4 standard does not specify how rate allocation, or equivalently, the truncation of bits on a per frame basis is to be done. The standard only specifies how the scalable bitstream is decoded. Additionally, traditional methods that have been used to model the rate-distortion characteristics, e.g., methods based on quantization parameters, no longer hold with a bit-plane coding scheme used by the FGS coding. As a result the perceived quality of the reconstructed video can vary noticeably.
Because differential sensitivity is key to human visual perception, it is important to minimize the variation in the perceived quality rather than overall distortion. Optimal rate allocation can be done by minimizing a cost according to an exponential R-D model. This leads to a constant quality among the decoded frames, see Wang, et al., "A new rate allocation scheme for progressive fine granular scalable coding," Proc. International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, 2001. However, the prior art rate allocation methods typically use exhaustive searches not suitable for real-time applications, and do not work on low bit-rate signals. In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/961,987, "Transcoder for Scalable Multi-Layer Constant Quality Video Bitstreams," filed on Sep. 24, 2001 by Zhang, et al., an FGS-based transcoder that extracts R-D labeling points has been described to provide an output bitstream that has a constant quality.
The FGS coding method and rate allocation techniques described above are useful for transmission over dynamic channels. The key assumption made is that the receiving device has a decoder that can process both base and enhancement layer bitstreams. In practice, this may not always be true, especially for today's low-power mobile devices, such as cellular telephones and personal digital assistants (PDAs).
The only existing way to overcome this problem is to simply transmit the base layer bitstream to the receiving device. The main drawback of that approach is that the base layer bitstream is usually coded with a minimum constant bit-rate resulting in a very low quality decoded video. Therefore, if there is additional bandwidth available, then the connection and the device capabilities are under-utilized. In order to convert the FGS coded video to a single layer bitstream with higher quality than the base layer bitstream only, some other means of transcoding is required.
As shown in FIG. 3a, this can be accomplished by a transcoder 300. In a simplest implementation, the transcoder includes an FGS decoder, including a base layer decoder 320, an enhancement layer decoder 310, an adder 330, and a single layer encoder 340. An input compressed base layer bitstream 301 and a compressed FGS enhancement layer bitstream 302 are fully decoded, then re-encoded to a single layer bitstream 303 with output bit-rate Rout. Usually, the output rate is lower than the input rate. In practice, full decoding and full encoding in a transcoder is not done due to the high complexity of encoding the decoded bitstream. The detailed operation of this transcoder 300 is shown in FIG. 3b where the components function as described above for FIGS. 1 and 2.
A prior art method for transcoding and scaling a bitstream has been described by Sun et al., in "Architectures for MPEG compressed bitstream scaling," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, April 1996. There, four methods of rate reduction, with varying complexity and architecture, were described.
FIG. 4 shows one example method. That method is referred to as a single layer, closed-loop architecture. In that method, an input video bitstream 401 is partially decoded, i.e., macroblocks of the input bitstream are variable-length decoded (VLD) 410, and inverse quantized with Q1 420 to yield discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients. Correction DCT coefficients are added 440 to the incoming DCT coefficients to compensate for the mismatch produced by re-quantization. That correction improves the quality of the reference frames that will eventually be used for decoding. After the correction has been added, the newly formed blocks are re-quantized with Q2 450 to satisfy a new rate, and variable-length coded 460.
To obtain the correction DCT coefficients 430, the re-quantized DCT coefficients are inverse quantized 470 and subtracted 480 from the original partially decoded DCT coefficients. That difference is transformed to the spatial domain via an inverse DCT (IDCT) 490 and stored into a frame memory 495. The motion vectors associated with each incoming block are then used to recall the corresponding difference blocks, such as in motion compensation 496. The corresponding blocks are then transformed via the DCT 430 to yield the correction component. A derivation of the method shown in FIG. 4 is described in "A frequency domain video transcoder for dynamic bit-rate reduction of MPEG-2 bitstreams," by Assuncao et al., IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, pp. 953-957, 1998.
Assuncao et al. also described an alternate method for the same task. In the alternative method, they used a motion compensation (MC) loop operating in the frequency domain for drift compensation. Approximate matrices were derived for fast computation of the MC blocks in the frequency domain. A Lagrangian optimization was used to calculate the best quantizer scales for transcoding. That alternative method removed the need for the IDCT/DCT components.
The prior art clearly teaches methods of transcoding compressed single layer bitstreams for bit-rate reduction. However, the prior art does not teach a method of transcoding a multi-layer bitstream to a single layer stream. In particular, there is a need for efficient transcoding methods that convert the multi-layer bitstream consisting of a base and FGS enhancement layers to a single layer bitstream with a higher quality than the base layer bitstream.

Video transcoding of scalable multi-layer videos to single layer video

Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.


The present invention provides carbohydrate encapsulated nanoparticles. In particular, the present invention provides metallic nanoparticles (e.g. gold nanoparticles) that are encapsulated in biologically important carbohydrate molecules, such as sugars, sugar derivatives, P-blood group antigens and analogues thereof. The present invention also provides methods of employing these carbohydrate encapsulated nanoparticles in diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Basic scientific disciplines such as chemistry, biology, physics, and materials engineering are evolving and merging into interdisciplinary efforts in applied materials research, nanosciences, and molecular biotechnology. The aim of efforts is to develop advanced nanoparticles for use in a variety of emerging technical and biomedical fields. Recently, metallic, semiconducting, and magnetic nanoparticles have been developed through these efforts that are tailored to applications in electronics, optics, biotechnology, pharmaceutical and biomedical applications as well as for continued investigation in materials research and nanosciences.
The development of nanoparticles is typically conducted using bottom-up molecular design and fabrication methods (e.g., chemical synthesis and molecular self-assembly) rather than top-down methods (e.g., miniaturization). Bottom-up design and fabrication methods focus on creating increasingly larger functional systems from self-assembling molecules and colloidal building blocks. Typically, molecules used in bottom-up design and fabrication methods are selected based on their ability to provide distinct intrinsic functionality, such as steric, optical, electronic, catalytic properties, etc. The molecules should also have predictable tendencies in their specific constitution, configuration, and dynamic properties to ensure specific self-recognition and self-assembly.
For example, large quantities of inorganic nanoparticles can be prepared from various materials by relatively simple methods. The dimension and size distribution of these particles is optimally controlled within fairly narrow ranges. The most common materials used for producing nanoparticles include metals (e.g., Au), metal oxides, semiconductor materials (e.g., Ag2S, CdS, CdSe, and TiO2), and certain polymeric materials. The properties of metallic nanoparticle arrays depends on the size and shape of the colloidal particles they are made from as well as on their spatial arrangement.
Recently, improved understanding of the chemical and physical properties of nanoparticles has allowed researchers to fabricate nanoparticles with specific biocharacteristics and biofunctional groups. Researchers have used advanced recombinant biotechnology techniques to design and fabricate biofunctional groups such as, nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrate ligands, and supramolecular complexes from the these components, suitable for attachment to organic and inorganic nano-, micro-, and mesosopic scale particles. The attachment of biomacromolecular assemblies to nanoparticles provides a strong potential for the development of novel inorganic materials useful for biosensing, electronics, information processing, and catalytic applications.
Despite advances in nanoparticle design and fabrication, the emerging nanoparticles field still has many problems to overcome. For example, various problems exist in the fabrication of inorganic nanoparticles, including, degradation and inactivation of sensitive biological compounds due to harsh reaction conditions, and unpredictable ligand-exchange reactions that occur at colloid surfaces that hinder the formation of stable bioconjugates. Additionally, the synthesis of stoichiometrically defined nanoparticle-biomolecule complexes is very challenging. Thus, there remains a need for sensitive and low cost biofunctionalized nanoparticle based biosensors for a number of medically important analytes such as cell surface (e.g., bacteria adhesions) ligands.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Provided is a vibration actuator including: an electromechanical transduction member that transduces electric power to a mechanical vibration; a transmission member that transmits the vibration from the electromechanical transduction member as a driving force; and an abutting portion that abuts on the transmission member and moves relative to the transmission member in response to the driving force. One of the transmission member and the abutting portion includes pores in its surface contacting the abutting portion or the transmission member at an area occupancy of 2% or higher. In this vibration actuator, the average area of the pores may be 3 μm2 or larger. The other of the transmission member and the abutting portion may include iron in its surface contacting the one.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a vibration actuator.
2. Related Art
There is a vibration actuator that includes: a vibrator that generates two flexural vibrations each perpendicular to the center axis of a shaft; and a rotor that rotates about the shaft being frictionally driven by the vibrator (see Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1 Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-287246
A vibration actuator cannot generate a large drive torque if the portions of the vibrator and rotor that contact each other are formed of a rigid material having abrasion resistance.

Vibration actuator having improved torque


A machine part for agricultural, turf, mining or construction equipment for processing material is provided. The machine part comprises a base material. A clad material is deposited on the base material to form at least one blunt edge along the body. The clad material comprises a second hardness greater than the first hardness.

Augers are well known in the art and have been employed in many industries over the years. Augers have proven particularly useful in the field of agriculture. For example augers are employed in combines, transport tube augers, and grain bins to name just a few of the many agricultural uses for augers. Examples of such agricultural augers are shown for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,126 and European Patent No. 2200914.
Frequently augers are used to move fungible materials like grain from one location to another. Often times the material being moved by the augers is hard and abrasive. The hard material, for example, dried corn, is abrasive and erodes the flight of the auger. Over time, the erosion of the auger flight diminishes the flight's and thereby the auger's performance and efficiency. Such wear may cause the auger or even the equipment employing the auger to be replaced. Further, in some instances such worn auger flights can damage the very material that it intended to move.
The auger's loss of performance can be attributable to at least two types of erosion. The first type of auger erosion is found on the top edge of the flighting. In an auger application such as a transport auger such erosion creates an undesirable gap between the auger flight and the tube in which the auger turns. The increased gap allows the conveyed material to slip past the auger flight, not be moved up the tube and thereby result in decreased efficiency. The reduced efficiency of the auger system can eventually lead to the system becoming inoperable.
A second example of erosion is attributable to that which occurs along the face of the flighting. This type of erosion typically takes place along the outer periphery of the flight face and can eventually lead to large segments of flighting becoming detached from the auger.
Efforts have been made to address such auger flight erosion. For example various hard face coatings including thermal spray, plating and various heat treatments through induction or hardening have been applied to the flighting. Further efforts to address the wear problem have included the use of ultrahigh molecular weight flighting as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,666,033 or adding additional material to the flight face near the outer edge of the flighting. Additional material to a conveyor is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,937,317.
In Agricultural applications traditional weld face techniques have also been applied to augers. However, such efforts introduce a great amount of heat into the auger flight. Because the cross section of the flighting is thin, the high heat applied in this manner can distort the flighting material and further disadvantageously impart undesired metallurgical properties. Such efforts to address auger flight erosion have proven costly, labor intensive and have not reduced to the desired degree of reduced erosion and increased efficiency.

Machine part with laser cladding and method


A memory has a first memory block, a second memory block, a data bus, a first sense amplifier, a second sense amplifier, a first circuit, and a second circuit. The first sense amplifier is coupled to the first memory block. The second sense amplifier is coupled to the second memory block. The first circuit is coupled to the data bus and the first sense amplifier. The first circuit switches from precharging the data bus to providing data when the first memory block is selected and is decoupled from the data bus in response to the first memory block being deselected. The second circuit is coupled to the data bus and the second sense amplifier. The second circuit switches from precharging the data bus to providing data when the second memory block is selected and is decoupled from the data bus in response to the second memory block being deselected.

1. Field
This disclosure relates generally to memory, and more specifically, to a multiple block memory with complementary data path.
2. Related Art
In certain instances, memory is designed by combining several memory blocks to satisfy the requirements imposed by a system designer. These requirements may relate to constraints, such as the number of blocks, the number of I/O data paths, the number of rows per block, word length, process, voltage, temperature, and timing constraints. A memory designer may design memory blocks that may satisfy these constraints individually. When several memory blocks are combined to form a memory, however, these constraints may create timing problems. Specifically, for example, in such memories, data read from sense amplifiers corresponding to the memory blocks is latched in a global data hold latch. The global data hold latch is used to hold data indefinitely. The global data hold latch must tri-state just prior to the sense amplifier driver is activated. Global data hold latch must re-activate prior to the sense amplifier is tri-stated. These timing constraints are typically managed using global timing controls. Managing the timing relationship of the global data hold latch and the sense amplifier is difficult, however, across different requirements associated with the memory. Accordingly, there is a need for a multiple block memory with complementary data path.

Multiple block memory with complementary data path


A modified TDEAT (tetrakisdiethylamino titanium) based MOCVD precursor for deposition of thin amorphous TiN:Si diffusion barrier layers. The TDEAT is doped with 10 at % Si using TDMAS (trisdimethlyaminosilane); the two liquids are found to form a stable solution when mixed together. Deposition occurs via pyrolysis of the vaporised precursor and NH3 on a heated substrate surface. Experimental results show that we have modified the precursor in such a way to reduce gas phase component of the deposition when compared to the unmodified TDEAT-NH3 reaction. Deposition temperatures were the range of 250-450° C. and under a range of process conditions the modified precursor shows improvements in coating conformality, a reduction in resistivity and an amorphous structure, as shown by TEM and XRD analysis. SIMS and scanning AES have shown that the film is essentially stoichiometric in Ti:N ratio and contains low levels of C (˜0.4 at %) and trace levels of incorporated Si (0.01<Si<0.5 at %).

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to barrier layers.
2. Background of the Invention
The introduction of CVD metal diffusion barriers into mainstream Back End of Line semiconductor manufacture is becoming increasingly more common. Due to the continued shrinking of device feature sizes traditional PVD techniques such as long throw and collimated sputtering have been superseded by ionised sputtering techniques that offer impressive increases in bottom coverage. However, for Cu metallisation a very thin but effective barrier material is needed in contact with the interlayer dielectric (ILD) to prevent Cu diffusion and so the conformality of deposition is paramount. Atomic layer CVD (ALCVD) offers seemingly perfect conformality and high purity layers with good diffusion barrier properties. Use of ALCVD technology as a diffusion barrier is however not without its problems; high resistivity materials, low deposition rates and ALCVD's sensitivity to surface conditions are some of the issues currently under investigation. Metal organic CVD (MOCVD) is seen as a promising technology due to its higher deposition rate, good conformality and relatively low process temperatures but has the difficulty in meeting the challenge of producing a robust low resistivity barrier to Cu diffusion.
Significant efforts have been made to develop metal organic (MO) precursors for the MOCVD of both TiN and TaN, materials with good adhesion to ILDs and excellent diffusion barrier characteristics to Cu. Thin films deposited from such precursors systems however have been found to have high resistivity, mainly due to the incorporation of large amounts of C and H within the growing film. Poor conformality due to significant gas phase reaction can also be a drawback.
So-called "amorphous TiN" has been reported in the literature, but, as discussed in more detail below, all known examples contain crystallites. For many uses of bulk materials, the presence of these crystallites may be irrelevant. However, as indicated above, barrier layers for ILD are extremely thin and are approximately the same thickness as the dimensions of the crystallites. The presence of such crystallites would therefore prevent such materials forming effective barrier layers and these materials have therefore been discounted for this use.

Method of forming amorphous TiN by thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD)


A zipper closure for a reclosable bag has a male profile and a female profile, the male profile being snappingly engagable within the female profile to close the zipper closure. One of the male and female profiles includes a collapsible element which forms a hermetic seal between the male and female profiles when the male profile is engaged within the female profile.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the packaging art, and, more particularly, to the art of reclosable plastic bags or packages having extruded zippers. In particular, the present invention relates to extruded zippers having two mutually interlocking members, at least one of which is partially collapsible so as to form a tight seal when interlocked with the other.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Reclosable bags used, for example, for storing household foodstuffs are typically made of polyethylene. As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,416,199 to Imamura, which is commonly assigned with the present invention, a reclosable bag may be formed of two opposed walls and having a mouth equipped with fastener profiles. These profiles include a male profile attached to one wall and a female profile attached to the other wall. The profiles are shaped so that, when they are aligned and pressed together into an engaging relationship, they form a continuous closure for the bag. The bag may be opened by pulling the walls apart at the mouth, thereby separating the male and female profiles from one another.
The prior art is replete with different shapes and arrangements for the male and female profiles. In many cases, the profiles are designed to provide relatively high resistance to opening from inside the package, while rendering the package relatively easy to open from the outside.
Because the male and female profiles must be shaped so as to be readily interlocked with one another, they may not form an entirely airtight closure. For this reason, peel seals are used in the reclosable plastic packages used for the retail sale of foodstuffs to ensure that the packages remain hermetically sealed prior to sale. Moreover, the peel seals can also serve a tamper-evident function by whitening or otherwise discoloring when being opened, thereby providing a means by which a prospective purchaser could be alerted to the possibility that the package had been opened prior to purchase.
Following purchase, there may still be a need to form a hermetic seal after the initial opening of the package to preserve the freshness of any contents remaining in the package. The present invention is an extruded zipper having male and female profiles which provide such a seal.


An adapter device for controlling a rocket engine nozzle under conditions of external pressure that can lead to the jet separating inside the nozzle, the nozzle being fitted with a diverging portion that is movably mounted relative to a stationary portion of the nozzle, thrust deflection then being achieved by swivelling the diverging portion so as to deflect the jet of combustion gas in contact with the inside wall of the diverging portion. The device includes a structure disposed inside the diverging portion in such a manner as to reduce the diverging nature of the flow section thereof and to increase the bearing area of pressure forces exerted by the jet on the diverging portion during swivelling thereof.

The present invention relates to steerable nozzles for rocket engines. The field of application of the invention is more particularly, but not exclusively, that of missiles, in particular tactical missiles having a diameter of less than about 500 millimeters (mm) and intended for operation under varying conditions of external pressure. A typical example of such a missile is a tactical missile launched from a submarine. The missile is ignited at great depth (about 150 meters (m)) and terminates its operational lifetime in the atmosphere after it has followed a determined trajectory obtained by controlling its nozzle(s).
The technology that makes use of a moving diverging portion for steering thrust presents numerous advantages compared with other known technologies for steering thrust such as those using a steerable nozzle on a flexible abutment, for example. Nozzles in which only the diverging portion is movable present thrust deflection capacities that are much greater than those which can be obtained with steerable nozzles in which the entire nozzle flow section is movable. This improvement in thrust deflection is explained by the fact that when the moving zone of the diverging portion is in a swivelled configuration, there exists an asymmetrical pressure field which leads to an amplification coefficient that is greater than 1 compared with the geometrical effect on its own. This technology and its advantages compared with other types of steerable nozzle are described in particular in French patent application FR 02/08370.
Nevertheless, such controllability can be obtained only on the assumption of not disturbing the flow in the flow section passing through the nozzle, where such a disturbance would be associated with the external pressure and the nature of the medium (liquid or gas). Unfortunately, given the combustion pressure levels presently generated in thrusters and the expansion profiles adapted for optimizing thrust thereof over the entire duration of a mission, the jet in the "active" thrust-deflection zone of the diverging portion can become separated in the presence of an external pressure that is high.
This phenomenon is shown in FIG. 1 which is a highly diagrammatic view of a rocket engine fitted with a nozzle having a moving diverging portion. The rocket engine comprises a casing 10 surrounding a combustion chamber 11 which opens out into a nozzle. The nozzle 20 is formed by a throat 12 receiving the hot gas produced in the combustion chamber, and by a diverging portion 20. The diverging portion 20 is movably mounted on the throat 12, which is itself secured to the end of the casing 10. Thus, the diverging portion is the only moving portion of the nozzle and by pivoting it enables the jet of combustion gas coming from the throat to be deflected so as to steer the trajectory of the thruster by changing the direction of its thrust vector.
Under conditions of high external pressure, as occurs under the sea, the diameter D of the jet 32 from the nozzle shrinks, causing the jet to become separated from the wall of the diverging portion, as shown in FIG. 1. This comes from the fact that nozzles are generally optimized as a function of the overall performance of the launcher. For this purpose, an expansion profile (i.e. the variation in the section of the nozzle) is defined as a function of a certain altitude referred to as the "matched" altitude, above which the majority of the flight is situated. Below this altitude, the nozzle is overexpanded and the high external pressure can lead to the jet becoming separated from the wall of the diverging portion.
When the jet separates from the wall of the diverging portion, a disturbed zone 30 is formed which extends from the point of jet separation to the end of the diverging portion, and into which the external fluid is drawn, which fluid can be a liquid or a gas, depending on the medium. The zone 31 against which pressure forces are applied, which leads, on swivelling, to a lateral force for steering the trajectory of the missile, and which usually extends over the entire inside surface of the diverging portion, becomes restricted to the upstream fraction of the diverging portion, i.e. to the fraction between the outlet from the throat and the point at which the jet separates inside the diverging portion. The asymmetry of the pressure field inside the diverging portion is considerably reduced, thereby reducing the lateral force that steers the missile. The influence of the lateral force on missile steering is even more limited since the zone of force application is located close to the point where the diverging portion bears against the throat (reduced lever effect). Thus, so long as the jet is separated from the wall of the diverging portion, the controllability of the nozzle remains very limited.
Furthermore, separation of the jet inside the nozzle can lead to instabilities causing vibratory stresses that are mechanically harmful.
The problem of reduced controllability due to the jet separating inside the diverging portion is particularly awkward in nozzles having a moving diverging portion since it is the forces that are applied against the inside wall of the diverging portion that enables the missile to be controlled in flight. In other systems using steerable nozzles, such as those including nozzles with a flexible abutment, it is the entire stream from the nozzle that is moved. Thus, the jet of gas ejected from the combustion chamber is deflected directly on leaving the throat since the axis of the throat is offset together with that of the diverging portion. Consequently, the thrust vector is steered at the throat of the nozzle, i.e. upstream from the diverging portion, so separation of the jet inside the diverging portion then has practically no influence on the controllability of the nozzle.

Adapter device for a rocket engine nozzle having a movable diverging portion