The present invention provides a method for processing defatted oil seeds, comprising the steps of: (a) solubilizing at least a portion of the protein contained in the oil seeds to produce suspended residual solids and a first solution comprising protein, phenolic-protein complexes, and free phenolic compounds; (b) treating at least a portion of the phenolic-protein complexes in the first solution to liberate at least some phenolic compounds from the phenolic-protein complexes thereby producing a second solution; (c) separating at least a portion of the free phenolic compounds from the second solution and recovering a free phenolic reduced solution; and (d) treating the free phenolic reduced solution to precipitate at least a portion of the protein as a precipitated protein isolate and recovering a treated solution containing a soluble protein isolate. Novel protein products are also disclosed. Food and drink products containing the novel protein products are also disclosed.

The following paragraphs are not an admission that anything discussed in them is prior art or part of the knowledge of persons skilled in the art.
Brassica seeds, including rapeseed, canola and mustard seeds, are a potential source of high quality protein suitable for human consumption. The defatted meals that can be obtained from these seeds contain about 40% w/w protein with a well-balanced amino acid composition, and have excellent functional properties. However, the use of Brassica seeds as a protein source is limited by the presence of certain undesirable toxic and anti-nutritional components, including glucosinolates, phytates, and phenolic compounds. The concentration of these undesirable components must be substantially reduced before these types of protein isolates are suitable for human consumption.
Glucosinolates are hydrolyzed in enzymatic reactions to form compounds that can interfere with thyroid function and cause liver and kidney damage at high concentrations. Phytates are strong chelating agents that bind to polyvalent metal ions in the body including iron, calcium and magnesium, rendering them unavailable for metabolism. Phenolic compounds impart an unpleasant bitter taste and a dark colour to the final protein products.
Phenolic compounds are particularly difficult to remove because some of the phenolics bind to the proteins in an aqueous media to form relatively large phenolic-protein complexes. Xu and Diosady (Food Res. Intl. 33:725 2000) characterized the canola protein-phenolic interactions in an aqueous media, using a series of chemical treatments followed by membrane separations. The results suggested that approximately 50% of the total extracted phenolic compounds formed complexes with canola proteins through ionic bonding (˜30%), hydrophobic interactions (<10%), hydrogen bonding (<10%), and covalent bonding (<10%). Although these figures may seem minor, if not removed, they could be concentrated to high phenolic compound levels in the protein isolates which represent only a small fraction of the meal mass.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,889,921, Diosady et al. discloses a process for the production of protein isolates from rapeseed, including the steps of alkaline extraction and isoelectric precipitation to obtain a precipitate from which a first product stream of protein is recovered. The depleted solution from the precipitation stage is subjected to ultrafiltration followed by diafiltration and drying to obtain a second product stream of recovered protein. These two protein isolates were produced with a combined protein recovery of over 70% of the protein present in the seed. Both products were of high protein content (>90%), essentially free of glucosinolates (<2 mol/g), low in phytates (<1%), and had desirable functional properties for a variety of food applications. However, both of the protein isolates had an unpleasant bitter taste and a dark colour. These unacceptable organoleptic properties were attributable to the phenolic compounds that were left behind in the protein isolates.
In the U.S. Pat. No. 4,889,921 patent, membrane processes are used to concentrate and purify the protein isolates. These processes separate dissolved components on the basis of their molecular sizes. Specifically, the membranes reject and retain large molecules in the retentate, while allowing small molecules (impurities) to pass through into the permeate. These processes are effective at removing the glucosinolates and the phytates, as they are relatively small and pass through the pores of the membrane. However, the relatively large phenolic-protein complexes tend to be rejected by the membrane, and thus remain behind in the retentate along with the protein isolates. Further, the precipitate from the precipitation stage also includes phenolics and bound phenolics.
There still exists an ongoing need for a method for producing protein isolates derived from Brassica oil seeds that have low concentrations of glucosinolates, phytates and phenolic compounds.
Introduction
The following introduction is intended to introduce the reader to this specification but not to define any invention. One or more inventions may reside in a combination or sub-combination of the apparatus elements or process steps described below or in other parts of this document. The inventor does not waive or disclaim his rights to any invention or inventions disclosed in this specification merely by not describing such other invention or inventions in the claims.
The present invention provides a method for processing defatted oil seeds, comprising the steps of:                (a) solubilizing at least a portion of the protein contained in the oil seeds to produce suspended residual solids and a first solution comprising protein, phenolic-protein complexes, and free phenolic compounds;        (b) separating at least a portion of the free phenolic compounds from the first solution and recovering a free phenolic reduced solution; and        (c) treating the free phenolic reduced solution to precipitate at least a portion of the protein as a precipitated protein isolate and recovering a treated solution containing a soluble protein isolate.
In one embodiment of the invention, the step of treating the free phenolic reduced solution to precipitate at least a portion of the protein comprises reducing the pH of the free phenolic reduced solution to form the precipitate.
In another embodiment of the invention, the step of separating at least a portion of the free phenolic compounds from the first solution comprises subjecting the first solution to membrane filtration to obtain the free phenolic reduced solution. Preferably, the membrane filtration comprises at least one of ultrafiltration, diafiltration and reverse osmosis.
In another embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises the step of treating at least a portion of the phenolic-protein complexes in the first solution in at least one point prior to step (b) to liberate at least some phenolic compounds from the phenolic-protein complexes.
In another embodiment of the invention, the step of treating the first solution comprises adding at least one salt to liberate at least a portion of the phenolic compounds from the phenolic-protein complexes.
In another embodiment of the invention the step of treating the first solution comprises the step of heating the first solution to liberate at least a portion of the phenolic compounds from the phenolic-protein complexes.
In one aspect of the invention, the temperature of the first solution is increased to between about 40° C. to about 75° C. In another aspect of the invention, the first solution is maintained at the increased temperature for a period of between about 10 to 180 minutes.
In another embodiment of the invention, the step of treating the first solution comprises adding at least one salt to liberate at least a portion of the phenolic compounds from the phenolic-protein complexes and the step of heating the first solution to liberate at least a portion of the phenolic compounds from the phenolic-protein complexes.
In another embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises the step of adding a surfactant to the first solution in at least one point prior to step (b) to liberate at least a portion of the phenolic compounds from the phenolic-protein complexes.
In another embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises the step of the adding a reducing agent to the first solution in at least one point prior to step (b) to inhibit the oxidation of at least a portion of the phenolic compounds.
In another embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises the steps of adding polyvinylpyrrolidone to the treated solution downstream of step (b) to adsorb at least a portion of the free phenolic compounds and removing the polyvinylpyrrolidone from the treated solution.
In another embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises the step of recovering at least a portion of the soluble protein isolate.
In another embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises the step of separating at least a portion of the suspended residual solids from the first solution prior to step (b), whereby a meal residue is obtained.
It will be appreciated that one or more of the above embodiments may be combined to obtain a method in accordance with the present invention.
The present invention also provides for a novel protein isolate comprising protein derived from mustard seeds. In one aspect of the invention, the mustard protein isolates may contain less than about 1% w/w phenolic compounds, preferably less than about 0.5% w/w phenolic compounds, more preferably less than about 0.2% w/w phenolic compounds, and most preferably less than about 0.02% w/w phenolic compounds.
In one aspect of the invention, the protein isolate is a precipitated protein isolate with protein in the range of between about 80% to about 110% w/w (N×6.25).
In another aspect of the invention, the protein isolate is a soluble protein isolate with protein in the range of between about 80% to about 110% w/w (N×6.25).
The present invention provides a protein isolate comprising protein derived from oil seeds when made by a method in accordance with the present invention comprising the steps of:                (a) solubilizing at least a portion of the protein contained in the oil seeds to produce suspended residual solids and a first solution comprising protein, phenolic-protein complexes, and free phenolic compounds;        (b) separating at least a portion of the free phenolic compounds from the first solution and recovering a free phenolic reduced solution; and        (c) treating the free phenolic reduced solution to precipitate at least a portion of the protein as a precipitated protein isolate and recovering a treated solution containing a soluble protein isolate.
In one aspect of the invention, the oil seeds are Brassica seeds.
In another aspect of the invention, the oil seeds are chosen from one of canola seeds, rapeseeds or mustard seeds.
In another aspect of the invention, the oil seeds are mustard seeds.
In one aspect of the invention, the protein contains less than about 1% w/w phenolic compounds, preferably less than about 0.5% w/w phenolic compounds, more preferably less than about 0.2% w/w phenolic compounds, and most preferably less than about 0.02% w/w phenolic compounds.
The present invention provides a protein isolate comprising protein derived from oil seeds when made by a method in accordance with the present invention comprising the steps of:                (a) solubilizing at least a portion of the protein contained in the oil seeds to produce suspended residual solids and a first solution comprising protein, phenolic-protein complexes, and free phenolic compounds;        (b) treating at least a portion of the phenolic-protein complexes in the first solution to liberate at least some phenolic compounds from the phenolic-protein complexes;        (c) separating at least a portion of the free phenolic compounds from the first solution and recovering a free phenolic reduced solution; and        (d) treating the free phenolic reduced solution to precipitate at least a portion of the protein as a precipitated protein isolate and recovering a treated solution containing a soluble protein isolate.
In one aspect of the invention, the oil seeds are Brassica seeds
In another aspect of the invention, the oil seeds are chosen from one of canola seeds, rapeseeds or mustard seeds.
In another aspect of the invention, the oil seeds are mustard seeds.
In one aspect of the invention, the protein contains less than about 1% w/w phenolic compounds, preferably less than about 0.5% w/w phenolic compounds, more preferably less than about 0.2% w/w phenolic compounds, and most preferably less than about 0.02% w/w phenolic compounds.
The present invention provides a protein isolate comprising protein derived from oil seeds when made by a method in accordance with the present invention comprising the steps of:                (a) solubilizing at least a portion of the protein contained in the oil seeds to produce suspended residual solids and a first solution comprising protein, phenolic-protein complexes, and free phenolic compounds;        (b) adding at least one salt to the first solution to liberate at least some phenolic compounds from the phenolic-protein complexes;        (c) separating at least a portion of the free phenolic compounds from the first solution and recovering a free phenolic reduced solution; and        (d) treating the free phenolic reduced solution to precipitate at least a portion of the protein as a precipitated protein isolate and recovering a treated solution containing a soluble protein isolate.
In one aspect of the invention, the oil seeds are Brassica seeds.
In another aspect of the invention, the oil seeds are chosen from one of canola seeds, rapeseeds or mustard seeds.
In another aspect of the invention, the oil seeds are mustard seeds.
In one aspect of the invention, the protein contains less than about 1% w/w phenolic compounds, preferably less than about 0.5% w/w phenolic compounds, more preferably less than about 0.2% w/w phenolic compounds, and most preferably less than about 0.02% w/w phenolic compounds.
The present invention provides a protein isolate comprising protein derived from oil seeds when made by a method in accordance with the present invention comprising the steps of:                (a) solubilizing at least a portion of the protein contained in the oil seeds to produce suspended residual solids and a first solution comprising protein, phenolic-protein complexes, and free phenolic compounds;        (b) heating the first solution to liberate at least some phenolic compounds from the phenolic-protein complexes;        (c) separating at least a portion of the free phenolic compounds from the first solution and recovering a free phenolic reduced solution; and        (d) treating the free phenolic reduced solution to precipitate at least a portion of the protein as a precipitated protein isolate and recovering a treated solution containing a soluble protein isolate.
In one aspect of the invention, the oil seeds are Brassica seeds.
In another aspect of the invention, the oil seeds are chosen from one of canola seeds, rapeseeds or mustard seeds.
In another aspect of the invention, the oil seeds are mustard seeds.
In one aspect of the invention, the protein contains less than about 1% w/w phenolic compounds, preferably less than about 0.5% w/w phenolic compounds, more preferably less than about 0.2% w/w phenolic compounds, and most preferably less than about 0.02% w/w phenolic compounds.
The present invention also provides for a food product suitable for human consumption, comprising a protein derived from mustard seeds. In one aspect of the invention, the protein contains less than about 1% w/w phenolic compounds, preferably less than about 0.5% w/w phenolic compounds, more preferably less than about 0.2% w/w phenolic compounds, even more preferably less than about 0.1% w/w phenolic compounds, and most preferably less than about 0.02% w/w phenolic compounds.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the food product is a processed meat product.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the food product is a vegetarian meat substitute.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the food product is a bakery product.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the food product is a nutritional supplement.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the food product is an infant formulation.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the food product is a bar.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the food product is a drink.
The present invention also provides for a food product suitable for human consumption, comprising a carbonated drink comprising a soluble protein isolate derived from oil seeds.
In one aspect of the invention, the oil seeds are preferably Brassica oil seeds, more preferably oil seeds chosen from one of canola seeds, rapeseeds, or mustard seeds, and most preferably mustard seeds.
In another aspect of the invention, the soluble protein isolate contain less than about 1% w/w phenolic compounds, preferably less than about 0.5% w/w phenolic compounds, more preferably less than about 0.2% w/w phenolic compounds, and most preferably less than about 0.02% w/w phenolic compounds.

Production of high-quality protein isolated from oil seeds


Systems and methods include control of a nuclear imaging scanner to acquire nuclear imaging scan data of a body, control of a computed tomography scanner to acquire computed tomography scan data of the body, determination of a scanning speed, of the nuclear imaging scanner, associated with each of a plurality of scanning coordinates based on locations of one or more internal volumes associated with radioactivity greater than a threshold level, a classification determined for each of the one or more of the internal volumes indicating a degree of clinical interest based at least in part on the radioactivity associated with the internal volume, and an attenuation coefficient map based on the computed tomography scan data, and control of the nuclear imaging scanner to scan the body over each of the scanning coordinates at the associated scanning speed.

According to conventional nuclear imaging, a radiopharmaceutical is introduced into a patient body by injection or ingestion. The radiopharmaceutical emits gamma rays (in the case of single-photon-emission-computer-tomography (SPECT) imaging) or positrons which annihilate with electrons to produce gamma rays (in the case of positron-emission-tomography (PET) imaging). A detector system located outside the body detects the emitted gamma rays and reconstructs images based thereon.
During an imaging process, the detector system is successively placed adjacent to portions of the body and detects gamma rays emitted from the body portions. Because the emissions occur over time, the duration for which a detector system is exposed to a body portion relates to the number of gamma rays detected from the body portion and, as a result, to the quality of the image reconstructed therefrom. However, the marginal benefit of extended exposure decreases with time, and it is also desirable to reduce overall acquisition time.
Conventional systems attempt to balance image quality and acquisition time by selecting from generic acquisition protocols which specify acquisition times for various body portions. In systems providing continuous bed motion, bed ranges and corresponding speeds are set to values which are believed to produce clinically-suitable images on a population average. What is needed are systems to efficiently determine and control scanning ranges and speeds based on anatomical structure and metabolic activity of a particular patient.


The present invention relates to a telephone which has, on account of its many functions, a multistage menu structure for operator prompting. In order that a user does not have to remember the entire menu, or the point where he is in the menu at a given time if he pauses when operating the unit, there is specified a process for communication between the telephone and the user which, by means of a program, indicates to the user when he inputs a help signal a program branch previously selected by him and the next options available to him within this program branch. Furthermore, a voice dialling system for carrying out such a process is specified.

The present invention relates generally to a voice-controlled telephone, in which the user can select between a broad range of functions. The present invention is concerned with a process and an apparatus for communication between the telephone and the user by means of a program.
Customary telephones nowadays have an increasing number of functions. Apart from a normal telephone call, in the case of which the number of the subscriber to be called is simply entered, there is the possibility of calling subscribers by means of name functions. Furthermore, many telephones have redialling and answer-machine functions. In the use of such a telephone, and even more so in its programming, the user is expected to find his way around in a complex menu structure. A user usually gets the assistance he needs for operating his telephone only from the operating instructions, which however are not readily at hand or cannot be read in every situation. A particular difficulty arises here, for example, in the case of telephones which are installed in a car and are used while driving. While the daily functions such as dialling a number or dialling up a subscriber by means of his name are undoubtedly familiar to every owner, this may indeed present a problem for the user who owns a different telephone. The more complex functions, such as storing names with associated telephone numbers or listening to answer-machine messages, however, undoubtedly require some concentration even for the practised user. Specifically when driving a car, however, a telephone user should not be distracted too much by operating his telephone. For this reason, today there are already car phones which are operated by voice control, without the actuation of any buttons.
Specifically in the voice-controlled operation of a telephone or a similar device with a complex menu structure, increased concentration is required to enter the next operating step correctly. One reason for this is that, for the voice-controlled system, no visual display means or different operating buttons are provided and another reason is therefore that it has to be possible to perform not just one function but many functions.

Process and apparatus for interaction between a telephone and its user


A process for extracting iris data for biometric identification includes a thresholding method where the thresholds are selected according to a nonparametric approach that considers the grey scale and does not require classifying pixels as edge or non-edge pixels. An eye image is first acquired, where the eye image has component images including an iris image with an inner boundary and an outer boundary. The eye image has a distribution of grey levels. Component images, such as an iris image or a pupil image, from the eye image are segmented according to the distribution of grey levels. The inner boundary and outer boundary of the iris image are determined from the component images. The iris image within the inner boundary and outer boundary is processed for biometric identification. The component images may be segmented by creating an eye histogram of pixel intensities from the distribution of grey levels.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to biometric identification using an iris image, and more particularly, to identification of the iris image in an eye image for extracting iris data.
2. Description of Related Art
Due to the unique character of each individual's iris, various systems attempt to use the iris for biometric identification. Such systems generally capture an image of the entire eye, which includes an image of the iris. The iris image must be identified before the patterns of the iris, which are unique to each individual, can be extracted for biometric analysis. In other words, the area that corresponds to the iris must be segmented, or separated, from the other components in the entire eye image. Conventional systems generally determine the boundaries of the iris image by searching for the edges that correspond with these boundaries. In particular, these conventional approaches depend on the contrast between the edges and the area around the edges, referred to as edge strength, to identify the boundaries. As described further below, this approach suffers from many disadvantages and fails to provide a robust method for finding and extracting iris data. For instance, because the edges between the iris and the sclera (limbic boundary) are often weak and hard to detect, conventional systems are beset with the difficult challenge of enhancing the weak edges to identify the iris boundaries adequately.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,291,560 to Daugman implements an integro-differential operator for locating the circular edges of the iris and pupil regions, as well as edges of the arcs of the upper and lower eyelids. As a first step, Daugman approximates the edge of the pupil to be a circle and sums the brightness along each circle with trial center coordinates (x0, y0) and incrementally increasing radius r. When radius r reaches the edge of the pupil, there is a sudden change in the brightness since the brightness of pixels in the pupil region should be different from pixels in the iris region just outside the pupil region. Various trial center coordinates (x0, y0) can be evaluated to find the center of the pupil. If the center coordinates (x0, y0) do not coincide with the pupil's center, some portions of the circle will still lie within the pupil region when the brightness suddenly changes. However, if the center coordinates (x0, y0) do indeed coincide with the pupil's center, when the brightness suddenly changes, no portions of the circle should be in the pupil region, so the rate-of-change of the brightness, or luminance, should be at its maximum. Thus, the problem of locating the pupil's boundary is reduced to an optimization problem where a three-parameter space is searched for the best combination of center coordinates (x0, y0) and radius r, i.e., where the absolute value of the partial derivative with respect to radius r of the integrated luminance along the circle is maximum. The search of the three-parameter space can occur in an iterative process of gradient-ascent.
As a second step, Daugman's approach for finding the outer edge of the iris, also known as the limbic boundary, is similar to finding the edge of the pupil but the previous approach is modified to account for the fact that i) the pupil is not always centered in the iris, ii) the upper and lower eyelids obscure top and bottom portions of the iris, and iii) the iris, unlike the pupil, has a concentric texture and may itself contain interior circular edges which could create sudden changes in integrated luminance along a circle. The process for detecting the iris edge therefore is restricted to two 45-degree arcs along the horizontal meridian and an area integral is used rather than a contour integral. The luminance for arcs of increasing radius and centered at the pupil center are evaluated as an area integral in polar coordinates. The value of radius r which corresponds to the maximum in the rate-of-change of integrated luminance with respect to radius r corresponds to an edge of the iris. This calculation is made for each arc separately since the left and right edges of the iris may be at different distances, i.e. radius r, from the pupil's center.
Disadvantageously, as Daugman acknowledges by using area integrals when processing the iris image, the algorithm can fail because it is susceptible to changes in luminance that do not occur at the boundaries, such as those caused by reflections, noise from a poor image, contact lens edges, or even by actual features or textures in the eye. In particular, the use of integro-differential operators are sensitive to the specular spot reflection of non-diffused artificial light that can occur inside the pupil, and such spots can cause the detection of the correct inner boundary to fail. Therefore, Daugman has also proposed the use of Gaussian filtering to smooth the texture patterns inside the iris region to avoid incorrect detection of false limbic boundaries, but this approach involves heavy computational complexity.
In addition, the process above must be modified to account for the fact that the edges are not clean edges and are somewhat fuzzy. The integrated luminance of a shell sum must be used rather than the integrated luminance of the circle, i.e. the rate-of-change of a shell sum is maximized. Therefore, use of the Daugman may require ad hoc adjustments of the shell size parameter.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,751,836 and 5,752,596 to Wildes et al. also implement edge detection algorithms. The process disclosed by Wildes et al. initially averages and reduces the input image using a low-pass Gaussian filter that spatially averages and reduces high frequency noise. The result is then subsampled without further loss of information but with the advantage of reducing computational demands. The iris is then localized by locating the limbic (outer) boundary of the iris, the pupillary (inner) boundary of the iris, and the eyelid boundaries. The iris is then taken as the portion of the image that is outside the pupillary boundary, inside the limbic boundary, above the lower eyelid, and below the upper eyelid.
The first step in locating each component of the iris boundary employs a gradient-based edge detection operation which forms an edge map by calculating the first derivatives of intensity values and then thresholding the result. Wildes et al. bias the derivatives in the horizontal direction for detecting the eyelids, and in the vertical direction for detecting the limbic boundary. The application of the process taught by Wildes et al. has the disadvantage of requiring threshold values to be chosen for edge detection. Poor choice of threshold values can eliminate critical edge points possibly causing failure in the detection of the circles and arcs making up the boundaries of the iris.
Using the resulting edge map, the second step employs a transform like that generally disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,069,654 to Hough. The limbic boundary is modeled as a circle with center coordinates (x0, y0) and radius r. Thus, the detected edge pixels from the edge map are thinned to increase the number of meaningful edges. The pixels are then histogrammed into a three-dimensional space formed by circle parameters x0, y0, and r (Hough circle transform). The (x0, y0, r) point with the most number of votes from the histogramming process then represents the limbic boundary. Similarly, the pupil is also modeled as a circle and the edge pixels are thinned and histogrammed into (x0, y0, r) values, where the (x0, y0, r) point with the most votes are taken to represent the pupillary boundary. The eyelid boundaries, however, are modeled as two separate parabolic arcs. The eyelid edges are thinned and histogrammed according to the parameters necessary to define a parabolic arc (parabolic Hough transform), where the set of parameters with the most votes is taken to represent the upper or lower eyelids.
In the article titled "Recognition of Human Iris Patterns for Biometric Identification" by Libor Masek, the Hough circle transform is also used, but unlike Wildes et al., Masek first employs Canny edge detection to create the edge map. Masek modifies Kovesi's Canny edge detection to allow for the weighting of gradients as Wildes et al. teaches for the detection of the limbic boundary with a vertical bias. The Hough circle transform is applied to find the limbic boundary first and then the pupillary boundary where the range of radius values for the search is set manually depending on the database used and the typical radius values in the images.
With respect to the eyelids, Masek applies Canny edge detection where only horizontal gradient information is taken. The eyelids are then located by fitting a line to the upper and lower eyelids through a linear Hough transform. A second horizontal line is formed from the intersection of the fitted line and the limbic boundary closest to the pupil in order to achieve maximum isolation of the eyelids. The use of the linear Hough transform is less computationally demanding than the use of the parabolic Hough transforms taught by Wildes et al. However, maximum isolation of the eyelid regions can isolate substantial portions of the iris itself and make the matching process less accurate.
Disadvantageously, Masek requires threshold values to be specified to create the edge maps, and as with Wildes et al., these threshold values are dependent on the database and the quality of images in the database. Poor choice of threshold values can eliminate critical edge points possibly causing failure in the detection of the circles and arcs making up the boundaries of the iris.
In "Experiments with an Improved Iris Segmentation Algorithm" (Fourth IEEE Workshop on Automatic Identification Advanced Technologies (AutoID), October 2005, New York), Lui et al. disclose a process known as ND_IRIS, which attempts to improve Masek's approach toward segmentation. Masek's method detects the outer iris boundary first and then detects the inner boundary within the outer boundary, but Lui et al. reverses this order by detecting the inner boundary first since there is often greater contrast between the pupil and iris, and thus the inner boundary can be easier to localize. Lui at al. also point out that edge pixels that do not lie on the iris boundary often cause the Hough transform to find an incorrect boundary. Thus, edges within the pupil and the iris are further reduced through thresholding before Canny edge detection. In addition, Lui et al. modifies the Hough transform and implements a verification step which compares the areas on both sides of a proposed boundary. Also, each eyelid is modeled as two straight lines rather than just one. Despite improved iris segmentation, ND_IRIS, like the Masek approach, fails particularly when the image quality is low. Published results also suggest that ND_IRIS problematically has higher recognition rates for light iris images than for dark iris images.
The conventional processes above are not robust because they all require searching for parameters that define the shapes that approximate the iris boundaries. Daugman searches for the best combination of center coordinates (x0, y0) and radius r to define a pupil circle and arcs that mark the left and right edges of the iris. Meanwhile, Wildes et al. applies the circle and parabolic Hough transforms which creates a histogram in to a parametric-space, e.g. a three-dimensional (x0, y0, r) space for the circle Hough transform, to define circular and parabolic shaped boundaries of the iris. Similarly, Masek applies circle and linear Hough transforms.
In addition, approaches that rely on edge strength to detect eye components may require the use of a edge strength threshold. Generally, the edge strength threshold must be determined adaptively at a high computational cost. If the selected edge strength is too high, only the edges from the eyelids and eyelashes can be identified. On the other hand, if the selected edge strength is too low, too many edges are identified for analysis. As a result, a fourth parameter corresponding to the threshold for edge strength, in addition to x, y positions and radii, must be searched. The edge strength threshold is determined iteratively by processing the database of captured images. If the camera settings or lighting conditions change, however, a new edge strength threshold must be recalculated by iteratively processing the database of images captured under the new camera settings or lighting conditions. As such, the need to recalculate parameters every time conditions change makes the conventional edge-detection systems above less robust.
In addition, the processes above can be highly dependent on the quality of the images being analyzed. For instance, Daugman requires a shell size parameter to be adjusted while Wildes et al. and Masek require threshold values to be chosen for edge detection.
Furthermore, because techniques, such as those taught by Daugman and Wildes et al., identify edges by analyzing localized areas of the image in an incremental manner, the techniques are computationally costly if the approximate location of the iris is not known. As such, a full search along the x- and y-axes as well as the radii for the entire image may be required.
In "Efficient iris recognition by characterizing key local variation" (IEEE Transactions on Image Procession, vol. 13, no. 6, 739-50, 2004), Ma et al. attempt to lower the computational cost by using a "global" projection along the x- and y-axes to find the minima position as the approximate position of the iris. A narrower region, e.g. 120×120, centered on the point is then binarized to a reasonable threshold using the grey level histogram twice to find the center. The lighting of the iris, however, usually creates a bright spot of spots inside the pupil, and results in the minima of the xy projection to be at the wrong location.
Despite the disadvantages of the approaches described above, current attempts to improve segmentation continue to focus exclusively on analyzing edges particularly through parametric approaches, namely the methods used by Daugman and Masek. As described above, Lui et al. uses a segmentation approach based on Masek. In addition, in the article "Person identification technique using human iris recognition," Tisse et al. implement an improved system based on the integro-differential operators as taught by Daugman in combination with a Hough transform. Moreover, in "A Fast Circular Edge Detector for the Iris Region Segmentation" (Biolgically Motivated Computer Visio: First IEEE International Workshop, Seoul, Korea, May 15-17, 2000), Park et al. propose using a method based on Daugman where the need for Gaussian filtering proposed by Daugman is eliminated by searching from a radius r that is independent of the texture patterns in the iris to find the limbic boundary.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A lubricating oil composition comprising oil, and an additive combination comprising a poly alpha-olefin polymer dispersant with a number average molecular weight above 2500, and a metal dihydrocarbyl dithiophosphate sufficient to yield a phosphorous content of up to 0.1 percent weight based on the total weight of the oil. The poly alpha-olefin polymer can be ethylene alpha-olefin copolymer such as ethylene-1-butene or ethylene-1-butene-hydrocarbyl polyamine. Preferably, the ethylene-1-butene-hydrocarbyl polyamine has a number average molecular weight of about 3300.

Lubricating oil compositions, such as crankcase oils, contain various additives to improve their performance. Among the additives are dispersants which keep harmful particles suspended in the oil. These dispersants are often functionalized polymers wherein the polymer is a poly alpha-olefin such as polyisobutylene.
The polyisobutylene polymers (PIB) employed in most conventional dispersants are based on a hydrocarbon chain of a number average molecular weight (M.sub.n) of from about 900 to 2500. PI having a M.sub.n of less than about 300 gives rather poor performance results when employed in dispersants because the molecular weight is insufficient to keep the dispersant molecule fully solubilized in lubricating oils. On the other hand, high molecular weight PIB (M.sub.n >3000) becomes so viscous that conventional industrial practices are incapable of handling this product in many operations. In addition, dispersants containing PIB result in significant engine wear in low phosphorous formulations or when used with dihydrocarbyl dithiophosphate DDP metal salts containing primary alcohol groups.
Since DDP metal salts with primary alcohol groups and low phosphorous oil formulations are very desirable in increasing fuel efficiency, it would be advantageous to use a dispersant that has good antiwear performance in low phosphorous oil formulations and in the presence of primary DDP metal salts. This is surprisingly accomplished in the present invention by using dispersants containing poly alpha-olefin polymer backbones with a molecular weight above 2500 (M.sub.n >2500).

Wear control with dispersants employing poly alpha-olefin polymers


A voice announcement technique for directly accessing a memory containing voice announcement data stored therein at the final output stage of the base station unit of a CT-2 digital cordless telephone system includes: a memory for storing voice announcement data therein; a conversion unit for converting voice announcement data received from the memory into a radio signal according to a CT-2 format, and for outputting the radio signal, a direct memory access control unit for accessing the data from the memory in a direct memory access manner when receiving a transfer request signal, and for sending the accessed data to a data bus, and an interface unit coupled between the conversion unit and the direct memory access control unit, the interface unit dividing the frequency of a direct memory access clock output from the conversion unit, and for generating the transfer request signal, while sending the data on the data bus to the conversion unit when the direct memory access control unit generates a transfer acknowledge signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital cordless telephone system, and more particularly to technique for sending a broadcast voice announcement from a base station of a CT-2 cordless telephone.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a base station unit in a second generation cordless telephone system (hereinafter, this system is referred to as a "CT-2" system) sends a voice announcement to a subscriber prior to the execution of a call service for the subscriber.
In an earlier CT-2 cordless telephone system, when a link is established between the base station unit and a subscriber, the base station must send voice announcement data to the subscriber. In order to send voice announcement data, a control unit included in the base station unit reads voice stated from a memory which is included in the base station unit. The voice stated is pulse coded modulation data. The control unit then sends the pulse coded modulation data read from the memory to a switching unit. The control unit continuously executes its original operation and then executes its switching operation to send the pulse coded modulation data from the control unit to an encoder. The encoder is an adaptive differential pulse coded modulation encoder which compresses the pulse coded modulation data output from the switching unit and converts the compressed data into adaptive differential pulse coded modulation data. This data is supplied to a formatter which may be a CT-2 formatter. The formatter converts the compressed data into a CT-2 format and outputs a radio frequency signal.
When the formatter outputs the voice announcement data, the switching unit outputs an interrupt signal to the control unit. In response to the interrupt signal, the control unit stops its operation and then jumps into an interrupt routine, and thereafter, the control unit executes the above-mentioned procedure.
Although the memory and encoder are respectively a source and a destination of voice announcement pulse coded modulation data in the above-mentioned configuration, they are configured to send and receive data via the control unit and the switching unit. However, the switching unit basically has a configuration which is not required for voice announcement broadcasting but is required for a normal call service. The control unit basically has a configuration required for services other than the call service. Where the control unit is configured to execute another function associated with voice announcement broadcasting, there is a disadvantage in that the control unit is overloaded. Moreover, the memory stores pulse coded modulation data in spite of the fact that the data to be finally used for broadcasting is adaptive differential pulse coded modulation data. Since pulse coded modulation data requires more storage space than the compressed data, there is a problem in that the memory which is adapted to store voice data for voice announcement broadcasting is inefficiently used.
The following U.S. patents each disclose features in common with the present invention but do not teach or suggest the specifically recited combination of features of the present invention:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,491 to Morley Jr. et al., entitled Telephone Answering Service With Integrated Voice And Textual Message Storage, U.S. Pat. No. 5,329,578 to Brennan et al., entitled Personal Communication Service With Mobility Manager, U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,739 to Higashiyama, entitled Cordless Telephone Apparatus With Message Recording And Reproducing Means, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,515 to Allen et al., entitled Call Completion System With Message Writing Indication Upon Registration Of Mobile With Basestatuion.

Voice announcement broadcasting technique for base station of CT-2 cordless telephone


Provided is a curable resin composition capable of forming a cured product which has excellent heat resistance, transparency, and flexibility and particularly excels in reflow resistance and barrier properties to a corrosive gas. The curable resin composition includes a ladder-type polyorganosilsesquioxane and an isocyanurate compound such as a triglycidyl isocyanurate compound, a monoallyl diglycidyl isocyanurate compound, a diallyl monoglycidyl isocyanurate compound, or a triallyl isocyanurate compound.

Materials having heat resistance of 150° C. or higher are demanded so as to cover (coat) semiconductor elements in semiconductor devices of high heat resistance and high breakdown voltage. Among them, materials (encapsulants) for covering optical materials such as optical semiconductor elements require excelling not only in heat resistance, but also in other properties such as transparency and flexibility. Phenylsilicones are now mainly used as encapsulants typically in backlight units of liquid crystal displays.
Patent Literature (PTL) 1 discloses a resin composition for optical element encapsulation, where the resin composition excels in transparency, ultraviolet resistance, and thermal coloration resistance. The resin composition for optical element encapsulation contains, as a resin component, at least one silsesquioxane selected from the group consisting of a liquid cage-structure silsesquioxane containing an aliphatic carbon-carbon unsaturated bond and containing no H—Si bond; and a liquid cage-structure silsesquioxane containing an H—Si bond and containing no aliphatic carbon-carbon unsaturated bond. The resin composition containing such a cage silsesquioxane, however, gives a cured product that is relatively hard, has poor flexibility, and is disadvantageously susceptible to cracking and fracture.
PTL 2 discloses a curable composition that contains a triallyl isocyanurate or another organic compound containing at least two carbon-carbon double bonds per molecule, where the carbon-carbon double bonds are reactive with SiH group; a chain and/or cyclic polyorganosiloxane or another compound containing at least two SiH groups per molecule; and a hydrosilylation catalyst as essential components. These materials, however, are still insufficient in properties such as cracking resistance.

Curable resin composition and cured product thereof


A foldable diaper bag, changing surface and play pad assembly is disclosed. The foldable diaper bag, changing surface, and play pad assembly comprises a circular portion and a rectangular portion attached to and extending outwardly from said circular portion, wherein said circular portion in combination with said rectangular portion define a keyhole shape.

A variety of different types of blankets, changing pads, and diaper bags are currently available. Conventionally, diapers, wipes, and related products are carried in a diaper bag, and a separate blanket or changing pad is utilized as a surface when changing an infant's diaper. What is needed is an assembly which is easy to carry, and which can be used as a diaper bag, a changing pad, and if needed, a soft, warm surface on which an infant can sleep, play, or eat.

Foldable diaper bag, changing surface, and play pad assembly


A synchronous rectifier includes: an integrator configured to integrate a voltage across a secondary side winding of a transformer over an integral period having an expected zero integral value; a first comparator configured to detect an end of a demagnetization phase of the secondary side winding based on diode detection; and a digital circuit configured to adjust a channel gain of the synchronous rectifier based on an integration error at the end of the integral period, the integration error corresponding to the difference between the integrated voltage at the end of the integral period and the expected zero integral. Corresponding methods of gain tuning and a power converter are also described.

Synchronous rectifiers (SRs) are widely used as a replacement for rectification diodes on the secondary side of a power converter such as a switched-mode power supply (SMPS). Synchronous rectifiers have better efficiency than diode rectifier circuits which are replaced with active switching elements such as power MOSFETs (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors), IGBTs (insulated-gate bipolar transistors), HEMTs (high-electron mobility transistors), etc. that are switched on and off in a controlled manner to enable rectification.
Synchronous rectifiers are typically controlled by either a direct sensing method or a Volt-second balance method. Direct sensing controls the SR power transistor based on direct detection of body diode conduction which requires costly high voltage technology. The Volt-second balance method is based on the principle that for steady state operation of an inductor in a power converter, the net inductor voltage in a switching period must be zero. The Volt-second balance method relies on internal estimation of demagnetization time to predict the SR turn off time. For example, in the case of DCM (discontinuous conduction mode) flyback, Volt-seconds are balanced in each switching cycle. A key advantage of the Volt-second balance method over direct sensing is that low voltage technology may be used for the SR controller.
An important parameter in stable operation of the Volt-second balance method is the matching of transconductance between the voltage across the transformer secondary winding and the power converter output voltage. If there is a mismatch, the SR power transistor may turn off earlier or later than ideal. If the SR power transistor turns off too early, a larger power loss will occur as current continues to flow through the body diode of the SR power transistor and results in lower efficiency. If the SR power transistor turns off too late (after the demagnetization), the power converter output voltage discharges which results in higher output ripple.
One approach that attempts to match the transconductance involves the use of an external resistor ladder. However, an additional pin is required for output voltage sensing in the cases of an integrated SR controller. If external tuning is required to ensure transconductance matching, it would be difficult for the controller to use the same output voltage sensing pin due to variable resistor divider ratio. Also, increased test time is expected. It is likely that resistor trimming is required so that process mismatch and tolerance can be eliminated for good balancing. However, this increases the test time at front end or back end of chip manufacturing. Furthermore, the reliability of synchronous rectification operation is lower over the SR lifetime. Degradation of components may lead to a mismatch of transconductance, which may lead to system failure as parameters are not monitored constantly over the SR lifetime.
Thus, there is a need for an improved transconductance tuning method for synchronous rectifiers.


An improved rotational mechanism, or roller assembly, including a central roof support, for use with a rotational building that is characterized by a movable vertical wall. The improved rotational mechanism was designed to prevent binding during rotation of the building, and to prevent or minimize lateral movement and tipping. The rotational mechanism comprises in part an angled member having a vertical leg and a horizontal leg, said horizontal leg projecting inwardly and mounted internally about the lower edge of the building wall. Cooperating with the angled member is an L-shaped angle member, where a radially projecting leg thereof includes at least one ball/transfer caster, preferably a plurality about the building foundation. In operation, the ball/transfer caster is in rolling contact with one horizontally disposed leg of the U-shaped channel. A comparable, laterally directed ball/transfer caster or conventional roller may also be incorporated into the mechanism. By incorporating the central roof support, one can relieve certain of the weight on the ball/transfer caster.

Buildings of the foregoing prior art patents are those having an upstanding vertical wall terminating in a roof along an upper edge thereof to enclose usuable space within the building. The walls include a lower, free standing edge spaced from a fixed foundation therewithin. Typically, the fixed foundation is defined by an outwardly facing wall spaced from the lower, free standing edge, where means are provided within the space to facilitate rotative movement between the fixed foundation and vertical wall.
An effective rotative mechanism, such as one that avoids binding during rotation of the building, has been a major concern of rotatable buildings. An initial effort is taught in '620, wherein the lower edge of the building wall includes an inwardly extending annular horizontal flange providing a track which rests on a series of radially projecting, horizontal rollers, where the rollers project from the building foundation. Additionally, a series of annular vertical rollers are provided as a way of minimizing binding of the relatively movable parts, when the building is moved.
Unfortunately, the mechanism of '620 was an expensive system, and not totally effective in controlling lateral movement. In '300, an improved roller mechanism is disclosed. Specifically, the lower edge of the building wall is provided with a radially inwardly extending flange of inverted U-shape which encompasses the upper peripheries of wheels rotatably mounted on horizontal axles carried by the foundation. It is stated that the inverted U-shape of the flange not only supports the building for free rotation about a vertical axis, but it at all times spaces the building wall from direct engagement with the wheels while restraining the building against substantially any lateral movement relative to the foundation.
While '300 represented an improvement to '620, experience revealed a frequent binding problem. In a structure utilizing the teachings of '300, it was readily apparent that the continuous and annular inverted U-shape flange rides on a wheel that rotates in a single plane on a fixed axis, in other words, round on flat. During rotation there was a tendency for the wheel to ride up the curved flange with the result that troublesome binding occurred.
The present invention represents a significant step forward in the development of an anti-binding rotational mechanism. The manner by which this development achieves this goal may best be understood from the following specification, particularly when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


There is provided an optical information recording medium which can meet opposite requirements of enhancement in ink absorption and fixation properties of an image forming layer and suppression and prevention of solid attachment of a printed portion, which has excellent printability to obtain high image quality and an excellent holding property of the printed portion, and which little makes the solid attachment on the printed surface layer occur. At this time, a thick layer can be formed even by the use of a coating solution for the image forming layer. The optical information recording medium has the image forming layer on various layers stacked on a surface of a light transmitting substrate and optically readable signals are recorded or can be recorded therein by the use of laser beams incident on the other surface of the light transmitting substrate, wherein the image forming layer includes an ink absorbing porous layer made of a resin layer containing vapor inorganic particles. A hydrophobic portion is formed in a portion beside the porous layer on the surface of a layer adjacent to the porous layer. An anchor layer is disposed under the porous layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The field relates to an optical information recording medium on which optically reproducible information is recorded or can be recorded, and more particularly, to an optical information recording medium having an image forming layer on which an image can be formed with aqueous ink with a recording layer therebetween on the surface of a substrate opposite to an incident surface on which recording light and reproduction light are incident, in which display performance with aqueous ink on the image forming layer.
2. Description of the Related Technology
In these days, CDs (Compact Discs) are spread in the field of audio and CD-ROMs are widely used as optical media for storing data with spread of PCs (Personal Computers). Further, with development and practical use of short-wave laser, DVDs (Digital Versatile Discs) allowing recording and reproduction of data with a higher density are widely used and with development and practical use of shorter-wave laser such as blue laser, optical disks corresponding to a HD DVD standard or a Blu-ray standard allowing recording and reproduction of data with a higher density are spread. As the DVDs, there is known a DVD-ROM for computer data, in addition to a digital video disk for video image. In the near future, a DVD dedicated to music is going to come to the market.
The CD or CD-ROM has a structure that a light transmitting substrate, which is a donut-shaped disk made of resin such as polycarbonate, is coated with gold or aluminum to form a reflection layer and is covered with a protection layer made of UV-curable resin or the like. In order to record data thereon, uneven pit lines are formed in a spiral arrangement on the surface of the light transmitting substrate. The pit lines are formed in advance at the time of forming the light transmitting substrate along a mold such as a stamp and the reflection layer is formed thereon.
The DVD or DVD-ROM has the same basic structure as the CD or CD-ROM. The thickness of the light transmitting substrate is a half of that of the CD and thus by bonding two sheets of light transmitting substrates having the half thickness, the total thickness of the disk is equal to that of the CD. For example, in a one-sided DVD or DVD-ROM, uneven pit lines are formed on one substrate, the reflection layer is formed thereon, and then another substrate not having the pit lines and the reflection layer is bonded thereto.
In addition to the CDs or DVDs on which data are recorded in advance by the use of the pit lines, optical information recording mediums such as CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, and DVD-RW on which data can be recorded after optical information recording mediums are manufactured are developed and used.
As such an optical information recording medium, there is developed an optical information recording medium on which an image can be printed with aqueous ink by the use of an aqueous ink pen or an inkjet printer, by forming an ink receiving layer for receiving aqueous ink on various layers such as a recording layer on the surface of the light transmitting substrate opposite to the surface on which recording light or reproduction light is incident. In the optical information recording medium, the ink receiving layer for fixing the aqueous ink on the surface of a protection layer or the surface of the bonded substrate.
Such a related art is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-216614.
Color print with high image quality is performed much by the use of inkjet printers. The color print is performed by jetting a plurality of color droplets to pixels of the ink receiving layer from an ink nozzle and adjusting colors and concentrations through the combination of colors or the amount of jetted inks. In this case, in order to obtain natural and good coloring, it is required that a plurality of ink colors jetted to the pixels are rapidly absorbed and fixed to the ink receiving layer without being mixed. In addition, in order to improve a water-resistant property such that solid attachment or thinning on the printed image could be prevented or the printed image could not be damaged due to moisture in air or moisture of a hand handling the optical information recording medium, it is necessary that the ink jetted onto the surface of the ink receiving layer is absorbed into and fixed to the ink receiving layer.
In order to accomplish rapid absorption and fixation of the aqueous ink into the ink receiving layer, the hydrophilic property of the ink receiving layer should be enhanced. However, in this case, it is also easy for the ink receiving layer to absorb the moisture of a hand or the moisture in air, so the solid attachment can easily occur. Accordingly, for example, when the optical information recording mediums are stacked for storage, the upper and lower ones are bonded to each other, thereby damaging the display quality and making the handling thereof difficult. The printed portion with the ink is blurred by the absorption of the moisture and the ink holding property is deteriorated, thereby reducing the durability of the print quality.
For these reasons, it is difficult to embody high image quality such as image quality of a photograph by allowing the opposite requirements of enhancement in ink absorption property of the ink receiving layer and the prevention of the solid attachment to be compatible with each other.

Optical information recording medium, method of manufacturing the same, and surface print method


Examples of a two-piece guide bushing apparatus are provided. A specific example comprises a guide bushing base comprising flanges which extend into the interior of the guide bushing base, and a guide bushing center comprising a spring clip. The guide bushing center is coupled to the guide bushing base and configured to be removable from the guide bushing base.

Guide bushings may be placed in conduits to guide the stems of tools through the bushing, to align the stems of tools with a desired orientation, and to reduce the wear of component parts of the tools. For example, guide bushings may be used with valves to reduce contact of the valve stem with other tools, in particular, metal tools. The guide bushing may also be used to maintain the valve stem in its proper orientation when there is fluid flow. Further, the guide bushing may be used to provide improved guidance to the valve stem and to align the different valve components (e.g., by aligning the valve plug with the valve seat a better valve shutoff may be achieved), and similarly, by aligning the valve stem with the packing the leakage past the packing may be reduced.
Over time, the guide bushing may need to undergo maintenance or be replaced, for example, the guide bushing may break or erode due to contact with high pressure fluid jets. In order to perform maintenance or to replace the guide bushing other adjacent tools or adjacent components of other tools (e.g., a valve seat adjacent to the guide bushing) may need to be removed in order to remove the guide bushing. These tools or components may become damaged when removed. As such, maintenance or replacement of the guide bushing may also induce additional expenditures to replace tools or components which were damaged in the process of removing the guide bushing.
Additionally, sometimes the central portion of the guide bushing may block access to the interior of the conduit. Should access to the interior of the conduit become necessary, the guide bushing must be removed. This removal process requires the removal of the other tools or components adjacent to the guide bushing which may result in damage to these tools or components as discussed. Further, even if the removal of the adjacent tools or components does not result in damage, the process of their removal takes additional time which may be problematic should the need for access to the interior of the conduit be urgent.
The illustrated figures are only exemplary and are not intended to assert or imply any limitation with regard to the environment, architecture, design, or process in which different examples may be implemented.


Apparatus and methods for analog-to-digital conversion of quadrature receive signals are provided herein. In certain implementations, a transceiver system includes at least a first pair of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) associated with a first quadrature receiver channel and a second pair of ADCs associated with a second quadrature receiver channel. The first and second pairs of ADCs can provide analog-to-digital conversion of the same receive signal, but can have different noise profiles relative to one another, such as a low pass noise profile and a band pass noise profile. The transceiver system can further include a reconstruction filter for combining the outputs of at least the first and second pairs of ADCs to generate output signals associated with a lower overall noise profile relative to that of either pair of ADCs alone.

Field
Embodiments of the invention relate to electronic systems, and more particularly, to analog-to-digital conversion in transceiver systems.
Description of the Related Technology
Certain electronic systems, such as receiver or transceiver systems, can include analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) for converting analog quadrature receive signals into digital data. For example, the electronic system can include a demodulator for demodulating a signal received from a transmitter to generate in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) receive signals. Additionally, the ADCs can be used to convert the I and Q receive signals into digital data, which can be further processed by digital processing circuitry.
There is a need for improved analog-to-digital conversion schemes in electronic systems, including, for example, wide bandwidth analog-to-digital conversion of quadrature receive signals in transceiver systems.

Apparatus and methods for wide bandwidth analog-to-digital conversion of quadrature receive signals


Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture for determining whether data written to source storage locations according to a write order is copied to corresponding target storage locations in the write order. Values are written to indicated source storage locations in a write order. The values written to the source storage locations are copied to corresponding target storage locations. The values at the target storage locations are read and a determination is made from the read values whether the values were written to the target storage locations in the write order.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system, and article of manufacture for determining whether data written to source storage locations according to a write order is copied to corresponding target storage locations in the write order.
2. Description of the Related Art
Disaster recovery systems typically address two types of failures, a sudden catastrophic failure at a single point in time or data loss over a period of time. In the second type of gradual disaster, updates to volumes may be lost. To assist in recovery of data updates, a copy of data may be provided at a remote location. Such dual or shadow copies are typically made as the application system is writing new data to a source storage device.
In data mirroring systems, data is maintained in volume pairs. A volume pair is comprised of a volume in source primary storage device and a corresponding volume in a target storage device that includes an identical copy of the data maintained in the source volume. Source and target storage controllers may be used to control access to the primary and secondary storage devices. The integrity of data updates is related to insuring that updates are done at the target volumes in the volume pair in the same order as they were done on the source volume.
In many application programs, such as database systems, certain writes cannot occur unless a previous write occurred; otherwise the data integrity would be jeopardized. Such a data write whose integrity is dependent on the occurrence of previous data writes is known as a dependent write. Volumes in the source and target storages are consistent when all writes have been transferred in their logical order, i.e., all dependent writes transferred first before the writes dependent thereon. For such application programs, the data must be transferred in the order in which the data was written to ensure data integrity.
Data mirroring systems may write the data written to the primary or source storage synchronously or asynchronously. For synchronous mirroring, a complete is not returned to a host initiating the write request until the data is copied to both the source storage and the target mirror storage. For asynchronous mirroring, complete is returned to the host before the data is written to both the source and target storage locations.
There is a need in the art to be able to determine whether mirroring software is copying data to the target storage location in the order in which the data is written to the source storage locations so that data consistency is maintained.

Determining whether data written to source storage locations according to a write order is copied to corresponding target storage locations in the write order

International Business Machines Corporation


A medical device has a compression plate for compression of a subject and/or a subject table for placement of a subject, and at least one radiation source that emits electromagnetic radiation. The compression plate and/or the subject table can be heated by the electromagnetic radiation radiated by the at least one radiation source.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a medical device with a compression plate for compression of a subject and/or a subject table for placement of a subject for a medical examination.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the medical field a number of the widely-varied devices exist that exhibit a compression plate and/or a subject table. In nearly every medical examination a subject to be examined is placed on a subject table in order to implement the examination. The subject tables used for this can be of different design; for example, they can serve for placement of an entire patient (as are used, for instance, in magnetic resonance tomography and computed tomography) or can also serve only for placement of a specific body part of the patient (for instance in orthopedic x-ray examinations or in mammography examinations).
Among other things, medical devices with compression plates are used for mammography or for implementation of a biopsy. In particular, the course of a biopsy can be monitored by many different analytical methods.
The compression of a (normally female) breast that is required for a mammogram today is frequently implemented with rigid, inflexible compression plates. For example, the compression plates used for this typically are formed of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA).
In mammography the compression of the breast serves on the one hand to reduce the thickness of the breast tissue to be x-rayed, so that scatter rays are reduced. Additionally, in the examination the breast is extended from the thorax of the patient by the compression of the breast, so a surface-proximal examination of the breast is enabled.
The compression of the breast is achieved by the compression device together with a rigid compression plate being displaced relative to a subject table on which the subject to be examined or to be compressed is supported. The compression of the breast or of the subject by means of a rigid compression plate (for example in a mammogram) normally does not allow a flexible consideration of an anatomy of the female breast varying from patient to patient. The compression of the breast with a rigid compression plate therefore normally leads to pain being experienced by the patient or damage to the subject to be compressed (in the event of non-living subjects).
In the field of mammography, a large number of differently-shaped rigid compression plates that are adapted to different sizes and shapes of female breasts are made available so as to allow the technician to select and provide a compression plate best adapted for a specific patient. The compression thus can proceed more comfortably for the patient.
To increase the utilization of the mammography device, however, frequently no changing of the compression plates ensues, in order to save time between mammography examinations and thereby increasing the patient throughput.
For examination of the breast of the patient by means of a mammography device, the breast is initially arranged on a subject table and is subsequently compressed by the compression plate.
Normally, both the compression plate and the subject table exhibit a surface temperature that coincides with the ambient temperature of the environment, normally room temperature of, for example, 20 degrees Celsius. Since the breast essentially exhibits the body temperature of the patient, i.e. approximately 37 degrees Celsius, the contact of the breast with the subject table as well as with the compression plate is perceived as uncomfortably cold by the patient.
The pain in the breast that is perceived by the patient during the compression as well as the feeling of cold occurring for the patient upon contact of the subject table or the compression plate with the breast leads to the patient having uncomfortable associations with having a mammogram.

Medical device with radiation-heated subject-contacting component


In a method for improved fresh air supply in a cooking apparatus, an inner housing is provided to circumscribe a cooking chamber. A fan chamber is separated from the cooking chamber via at least one flow guide element. The fan chamber has a fan with a fan wheel which comprises primary blades on its side facing the first flow guide element and auxiliary blades on its side facing the wall of the inner housing through which the axle of the fan wheel passes to connect with a motor arranged outside of the inner housing. The fan wheel is provided for the circulation of cooking atmosphere and/or suction of fresh air into the inner housing via a fresh air channel, a mouth of which is separated from the axle of the fan wheel and runs into the inner housing through the wall. Fresh air sucked in through the fresh air channel is initially conducted via at least a second flow guide element which prevents a direct impingement of the fresh air on the auxiliary blades and prevents an angular momentum effect by the auxiliary blades from being imparted on the fresh air. The fresh air then is conducted from the axle of the fan wheel into the cooking chamber via the radial guiding or conveying effect of the auxiliary blades.

The method and apparatus concerns a method for improved fresh air supply in a cooking apparatus and a cooking apparatus with an inner housing defining a cooking chamber as well as a fan chamber (separated from the cooking chamber via at least one flow guide element) for a fan with a fan wheel impeller which comprises primary blades on its side facing the first flow guide element and auxiliary blades on its side facing the wall (in particular back wall) of the inner housing through which the axle of the fan wheel passes to connect with a motor arranged outside of the inner housing. The fan wheel is provided for the circulation of cooking atmosphere and/or suction (intake) of fresh air into the inner housing via a fresh air channel whose mouth runs into the inner housing through the aforesaid wall of the same separated from the axle of the fan wheel.
Such cooking apparatuses are known in the prior art, see for example European Application 0 386 862 B1. They represent what are known as circulation air cooking apparatuses that allow an at least temporary fresh air supply to adjust desired climate proportions in the cooking chamber. For this purpose, fresh air is typically conveyed from a kitchen atmosphere into a cooking chamber of the cooking apparatus in order to displace portions of a cooking atmosphere, whereby the fresh air fraction of the aforesaid cooking atmosphere is increased while the fraction of other components such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, aromatic compounds and food-specific outgases is reduced. In such circulation cooking apparatuses in which the cooking atmosphere is significantly rotated via primary blades of a fan, a negative pressure for the take-up of fresh air via a fresh air channel is forced using auxiliary blades rotating with the primary blades and lying opposite the same. However, due to the scarce space ratios in a cooking device, it is sometimes not possible to place the mouth of the fresh air channel in the inner chamber (comprising the cooking chamber) of the cooking apparatus in axial proximity to the fan wheel where (in principle) optimal pressure ratios prevail. This has the disadvantage that now no maximum negative pressure is available as a driving force for the intake of the fresh air.
Furthermore, specified in DE 103 39 099.5 (not previously published) by the applicant is a cooking apparatus that ensures an improved fresh air supply in that the, so to speak, blind, mutually rotating air and/or cooking atmosphere is or are directed over at least one constriction on the back side of a fan wheel, thus on the side opposite the primary blades (which side is equipped with auxiliary blades) during each rotation of the fan wheel, such that there a streamline compression occurs. This streamline compression is accompanied with a pressure reduction given nearly isochoric state changes.

Method and cooking apparatus for improved fresh air supply


A computer system, computer-readable medium and a method for performing activity based cost modeling. A cost object array has dimensions defined by weight arrays each corresponding to facets of the business by which one would assess profitability and efficiency, such as by products and customers. Each element of the weight arrays represents a user-definable classification, such as particular product families or geographic regions, and is assigned an allocation weight. A cost driver array has the same dimensions as the cost object array comprising metrics, such as the quantity sold or dollars of revenue. A weighted allocation factor for each cost object is a function of the allocation weights and the cost driver for that cost object, normalized over all the cost objects. Activity costs are allocated to a particular cost object in proportion to the weighted allocation factor associated with that cost object.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of business analysis and planning and, more specifically, to activity based cost management.
2. Description of Related Art
Activity Based Cost (ABC) Modeling is a useful financial tool for managers to make strategic and operational decisions. Business organizations manage detailed information about their sales structure and their cost structure. Sales information is collected by individual transactions that can be directly classified by facets such as date, store, stocking keeping units (SKUs), quantity, price, customer and payment method. General ledger and payroll costs are collected by functional information such as account and department codes. ABC modeling is used to allocate general ledger and payroll costs to cost objects that are organized by facets of the revenue classification system. By matching costs with associated revenue in each revenue classification, profitability analysis by revenue classifications can be performed.
ABC systems reorganize costs by allocating costs to activities and activities to cost objects. Traditional ABC systems are configured using formulas to specify relationships between activity costs and cost drivers. These ABC systems employ user-interfaces for entering formulas and use interpreters to solve these formulas. Establishing a set of formulas for each activity-to-cost-driver relationship is a time consuming process and is difficult for some users to manage conceptually.
Traditional ABC systems use data structures that are coded into the ABC program such that the classification system for cost objects is fixed in the code. Since ABC analysis is often an iterative process in which classification systems and allocation formulas are frequently changed. Changing the classification system often requires revising the ABC program and recompiling it. Furthermore, changing the classification of cost objects changes the organization of the cost driver information, often requiring that the formulas be modified. Management decision making based on ABC analysis would benefit by a flexible system in which classifications and allocation schemes can be easily set, modified, and updated.
Traditional ABC systems generate management reports that present cost objects in classifications that do not distinguish between specific cost elements in the general ledger. It would be useful to be able to trace costs back to the general ledger, so that each cost object could be broken down by the cost elements of the general ledger. An analysis of cost objects by general ledger classifications can provide useful information for strategic and operational decision-making. Additionally, the absence of the ability to reconcile to the general ledger, reduces the credibility of the results of the traditional ABC system.


A communication system receives information from a first communication link. The communication system transfers a free-space optical signal carrying the information and transfers a high-GHz wireless signal carrying the information. The communication system receives the free-space optical signal carrying the information and receives the high-GHz wireless signal carrying the information. The communication system assesses communication performance for the free-space optical signal and the high-GHz wireless signal, and based on the communication performance, selects between the free-space optical signal and the high-GHz wireless signal to provide the information. The communication system transfers the information to a second communication link based on the selection.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to the field of wireless communications, and in particular, to a high bandwidth, dual-band system that assesses communication performance to provide high availability.
2. Statement of the Problem
Wireless communication systems use various frequency spectra to transfer wireless communication signals. Microwave systems use spectrum between one gigahertz (GHz) and 30 GHz where one GHz equals one billion cycles per second. Free-space optical systems use spectrum above 10 THz where one THz equals one trillion cycles per second.
Weather events adversely affect wireless systems transmitting above 10 GHz. To address the weather problem, free-space optical systems have been combined with weather-resilient microwave systems transmitting at 2.4 GHz. Upon failure of the free-space optical system due to a weather event, the microwave system is used to transfer traffic formerly carried by the free-space optical system. Since the microwave system does not have the capacity to transfer all of this traffic, the traffic must be prioritized, so the higher priority traffic can be transferred while the lower priority traffic is stored for subsequent transmission. Thus, the transfer of the lower priority traffic is delayed, and if there is not enough storage, portions of the lower priority traffic may be lost altogether.

Dual band wireless communication having high availability and high bandwidth


A method of recovering overpayment of long-term disability benefits after the receipt of Social Security disability insurance payment, providing post-award services and savings to claimants, and providing financial assistance to disabled claimants. The overpayment recovery service is seamless and provides for automatic recovery of overpayments from the claimant account and increases the percentage collected and reduces collection time over conventional methods. The methods of overpayment recovery post-award services and savings and the financial assistance may be utilized as integrated services.

The invention relates generally to methods of securing disability insurance benefits and, more specifically, to novel methods, generally configured with computer and software technology, of securing Social Security disability insurance benefits, recovering overpayments of disability insurance benefits made to a disabled individual, providing additional services to the disabled individual after securing Social Security disability insurance benefits, and providing financial assistance for the disabled individual during the pendency of their disability insurance claim with the Social Security Administration.
The inventor's core business consists of representing individual claimants before the Social Security Administration (SSA) for purposes of obtaining Social Security disability insurance benefits (SSDI). Traditionally, the inventor's primary customers (clients) are insurance carriers that write long-term disability (LTD) policies and self-insured employers who desire to reduce their long-term disability expense by obtaining SSDI for their policy holders or their individual employees. In connection with the provision of services to his clients, the inventor has developed new business methods to provide such services utilizing sophisticated computer programs, databases and electronic fund retrieval methods.
On average, it takes SSA thirteen months to process a claim for SSDI. Once SSDI is awarded, generally there is a retroactive benefit representing disability payments that should have been paid by the SSA beginning with the sixth full month an individual is off work due to disability. LTD plans are designed to offset the LTD benefit upon the disabled individual's receipt of SSDI. In other words, once SSDI is obtained for a claimant, the LTD is reduced. However, full LTD benefits are paid until the SSDI is awarded. Generally, the disabled employee signs an agreement to repay any overpayment created by the award of retroactive SSDI. A portion of the retroactive SSDI, therefore, is due to the LTD plan as repayment of this overpayment.
For example, a disabled individual is receiving $1,400 per month in LTD. After 18 months, SSA awards disability benefits of $1,000 per month. SSA issues a retroactive check for 12 months of benefits (SSA does not pay during the 5-month waiting period) or $12,000. Based on the plan design the disabled employee's LTD benefit will be reduced by $900 per month, for a net LTD benefit of $500. Since the disabled individual was paid $1,400, he or she would owe the plan $900×12 months, or $10,800.
Additionally, the disabled individual receives a number of financial advantages upon receipt of SSDI:
Increased Monthly Income
Although the initial SSDI may be offset by other disability or retirement benefits the disabled individual already is receiving, the SSDI cost-of-living increases may not. Thus, the combined benefits may increase each year when SSDI cost-of-living increases are paid.
Increased Retirement and Survivors' Benefits
Social Security disability entitlement "freezes" the Social Security earnings record. Social Security regulations stipulate that any years "wholly or partially within a period of disability" will be excluded from the computation of future benefits. Thus, the amount of eventual Social Security retirement benefits, dependents' benefits, or even a subsequent disability or survivors' benefits, may be higher because these lost years of earnings will not be considered in future computations.
Medicare Coverage
After the individual has received SSDI for twenty-four months, regardless of age, he or she also becomes eligible for Medicare benefits. This includes Part A hospital benefits and Part B medical benefits.
Surviving on lower income with mortgages, car payments and other debts is frightening to disabled individuals. When they receive a large check for retroactive benefits, it is difficult to resist the temptation or necessity to use the money to improve their situation. LTD plans were experiencing difficulty collecting this overpayment. The plans were using a variety of collection scenarios:                1. Hope for a lump sum payment by the disabled individual;        2. Recover the overpayment from future benefits ($10,800÷$500=21.6 months); or        3. Refer the individual to a collection agency.
Scenario 1 generally yields a collection rate of 45% to 65% depending on the dollar value of the overpayment. Overpayments of under $10,000 were paid more readily than amounts over $10,000. Scenario 2 only worked if the individual remained on claim long enough to collect the total amount owed. Too often the individual went off claim due to age or death. Additionally, the LTD plan fiduciary lost the time value of money. Worst case is scenario 3, which yields only $0.50 to $0.60 on the dollar. Scenarios 2 and 3 did not promote a positive relationship with the disabled individual. Hence, the inventor recognized the need for assistance in, and a method for, the enhanced recovery of the overpayment.
Furthermore, businesses today are accelerating efforts to reduce direct and indirect costs associated with disability, as well as the related health and legal expenses. Too often that means loss of health insurance and prescription drug coverage to the disabled individual. Additionally, the disabled individual has many financial concerns upon disability. The inventor recognized the need for someone to interact with disabled individuals in the delivery of services and additional assistance after it has completed its standard Social Security and Medicare services. These individuals require a variety of services that are not currently offered as a package of benefits in the industry or through their previous employer. Through surveys with the disabled individuals and their employer clients, the inventor has recognized a need for a package of services to assist the disabled individual after award of SSDI.
The inventor has recognized that qualifying for SSDI is just one step in coping with the practical and financial challenges of disability. The individual still has to consider other life and financial issues. These issues include the following:                Social Security Review—Upon receipt of SSDI, SSA establishes a diary for review of an individual's medical condition.        Social Security Related Tax Decisions—Payment of premiums for LTD has an impact on taxation of the LTD benefit. Once the disabled individual begins to receive SSDI it changes that tax structure.        Disability Related 401(k) Decisions—Plan designs will determine if the disabled individual can leave their 401(k) assets with their employer or if they must move the funds to a self-directed IRA or other investments. Additionally, the disabled individual may need to make withdrawals.        LTD or Workers' Compensation Settlement Assistance—Receipt of SSDI may lessen the dependency on other benefit plans. The disabled individual may desire settlement of other benefits in order to receive a lump sum of money for investments, revisions needed to their home or education for themselves or their dependents.        COBRA Extension—Often the disabled individual is only offered COBRA through their previous employer. Once the SSDI is awarded, the individual may qualify for COBRA extension. This affords them health insurance protection until Medicare entitlement begins.        Medicare and Health Insurance—For employers who do extend group health insurance throughout the disability, utilization of dual health plans is very confusing to the disabled individual. Often, they will continue to use the employer health plan due to familiarity, even though a better benefit would be available by using Medicare as primary and their employer group health plan as the secondary payer.        Expensive Prescription Drugs—Medicare does not cover prescription drugs except in very limited circumstances. Even some employers who do extend health insurance, do not extend prescription drug coverage to disabled employees.        Return to Work Information—If the disabled individual wants to return to work there is a fear of losing benefit coverage.
Finally, in the course of representing uninsured disabled individuals, the inventor recognized that a disabling event affects the disabled individual's life both physically and mentally and leaves him or her with the sense that his or her life is out of control. Although the individual may be entitled to SSDI, on average it takes thirteen months to process a SSDI claim. The likelihood of an uninsured, disabled individual being able to obtain credit or funds from other third-party sources is questionable. Without a sufficient alternative means of support, the individual is presented with immediate financial concerns. The inventor has recognized the need to alleviate the financial concerns of the disabled individual to the extent reasonably possible and to provide a means by which such individual may continue to meet his or her basic needs.
Based upon the foregoing, therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a method of obtaining SSDI, recovering any overpayments of LTD benefits for a client insurance carrier or employer, providing post-award services and savings for the disabled person or client company, and providing financial assistance for disabled individuals during the pendency of their claims.

Long term disability overpayment recovery service with post award service and savings program and financial assistance