A system and method for efficiently powering down banks in a cache memory for reducing power consumption. A computing system includes a cache array and a corresponding cache controller. The cache array includes multiple banks, each comprising multiple cache sets. In response to a request to power down a first bank of the multiple banks in the cache array, the cache controller selects a cache line of a given type in the first bank and determines whether a respective locality of reference for the selected cache line exceeds a threshold. If the threshold is exceeded, then the selected cache line is migrated to a second bank in the cache array. If the threshold is not exceeded, then the selected cache line is written back to lower-level memory.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computing systems, and more particularly, to efficiently powering down banks in a cache memory for reducing power consumption.
2. Background
A microprocessor may be coupled to one or more levels of a cache hierarchy in order to reduce the latency of the microprocessor's request of data in memory for a read or a write operation. Generally, a cache may store one or more blocks, each of which is a copy of data stored at a corresponding address in the system memory. Since caches have finite sizes, the total number of cache blocks is inherently bounded. Additionally, there may be a limit on the number of blocks that map to a given set in a set-associative cache. However, there may be conditions that benefit from a finer limit on a number of cache blocks associated with a given cache property than a limit offered by the cache capacity or the cache associativity. Examples of the cache property may include one or more of a coherence state, a dirty state, a source ownership state, a remote state that may be used in a non-uniform memory access (NUMA) computing system, and so forth.
Providing the finer limit on the number of cache blocks associated with the given cache property may reduce latencies for searching for the number of cache blocks and moving the number of cache blocks prior to setting the cache in a different state. The different state may be a low-power mode. Alternatively, the different state may be a power-up mode for a given portion in the cache memory. Additionally, the finer limit may reduce a number of conflict misses for a set-associative or a direct-mapped cache for both cache blocks with and without the cache property.
Further, the latency for the cache to transition to a given state, such as a low-power mode, may be reduced with the finer limit. For example, to manage power consumption, chip-level and system-level power management systems typically disable portions of the chip or system when experiencing no utilization for a given time period. However, transitioning portions of the cache to a low-power mode and later returning to an active mode may be delayed until the number of cache blocks associated with the cache property are each migrated to another portion or evicted and written back to lower-level memory. Without the finer limit, the transition latency may be too large. The large latency may reduce both the benefits of the power management system and the number of times the transition actually occurs despite the power management system notifications.
In view of the above, efficient methods and systems for efficiently powering down banks in a cache memory for reducing power consumption are desired.


An integrated circuit comprising a first output stage circuit and a second output stage circuit that share common input terminals and an output terminal of the first and second output stage circuits being selectably coupled between the input terminals and the output terminal in preference to the other.

A fibre-optic transceiver module typically comprises an output stage circuit for an interface between the transceiver module and a circuit board for receiving the transceiver module. The output stage circuit is usually manufactured as part of an integrated circuit for connection to the circuit board, the integrated circuit often being capable of generating a number of output signals respectively at different output terminals or pads. The output signals generated have respective different logic levels associated therewith, each confirming to known logic families, for example, PECL, CML and/or TTL.
A disadvantage of providing different output signals at respectively different output terminals is that selection of one of the number of output signals requires a switch external to the integrated circuit to switch a desired output signal onto the circuit board, or hardwiring of an output terminal, corresponding to the desired logic family, to the circuit board. Unfortunately, the need for the external switch is accompanied by component costs, board space penalties and research and development set-up time costs. The option of hardwiring the integrated circuit is at the cost of a reducing in flexibility.
Another known solution is to design the circuit board to accommodate two similarly configured integrated circuits in a same location on the circuit board. During manufacture of the transceiver module, one of the two integrated circuits is simply selected, depending upon the output stage required. However, the topology of the output stage cannot be changed easily without remanufacture, constituting a flexibility penalty.

Integrated circuit and method of improving signal integrity

Avago Technologies Fiber IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


Structure and method for forming a switchable shunt for a suspension assembly having conductive, insulating and metal base layers. The shunt includes a bridge in the conductive layer with either a continuous connection or small gap between ends of the bridge. The continuous connection of the bridge is severed either by temporarily moving the lands out of their original plane by stretching and rupturing the bridge or by shearing the continuous connection of the bridge. For the sheared or gapped bridge, at least one end of the bridge is moved out of plane, compressed and elongated. When released, the separated ends of the bridge overlap and contact each other to form a normally-closed switch. To subsequently open the switchable shunt, at least one of the lands is moved out of plane to physically and electrically open the connection between the separated and overlapped ends of the bridge.

Integrated lead suspensions and components (such as flexures) for supporting read and/or write heads in disk drives are well known and in widespread use. So-called "subtractive" type integrated lead suspensions and associated methods for manufacturing the suspensions from multilayer sheets of material are disclosed, for example, in the Bennin et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,598,307 and 5,844,751. However, it is to be understood that "additive" processes are well known, and are equally adaptable to the present invention, and are within the scope of the claims.
Magneto restrictive (MR) and giant magneto restrictive (GMR) heads are commonly mounted to the suspensions. Heads of these types are very sensitive to damage due to "blown fuse" syndrome and electrostatic discharges (ESD). To minimize this damage, the leads of the heads themselves and/or the integrated leads on the suspensions can be electrically shunted (i.e., interconnected or shorted) during manufacturing operations. The stainless steel (i.e., spring metal) layer of the suspension or flexure also is sometimes electrically interconnected to one of the integrated leads to couple the stainless steel layer to ground potential.
It is sometimes necessary to conduct tests of the integrated leads and/or the heads. Any shunts on the leads must typically be removed before the tests can be performed. The leads and heads must be reshunted following the tests if it is again desired to protect the heads from damage. A number of approaches for shunting and reshunting MR and GMR heads, or otherwise electrically coupling the leads to the stainless steel layer during the various stages of the head suspension assembly manufacturing operations are known and disclosed, for example, in the following references.
InventorDocument No.Bajorek et al.U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,186Arya et al.U.S. Pat. No. 5,710,682Johansen et al.U.S. Pat. No. 5,877,933KandaU.S. Pat. No. 5,991,121Zarouri et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,034,851Albrecht et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,052,258Hiraoka et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,075,676Yim et al.U.K. 2,343,304
There remains a continuing need for improved shunts. To be commercially viable, the shunts should be efficient to manufacture and use. Shunts which can be conveniently reused would be especially desirable.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Elongated bridge shunt formed by stretching and rupturing a conducting bridge


A die carrier is disclosed which is specifically designed for use in a TSOP socket. More specifically, the die carrier has a carrier substrate with carrier contacts thereon that are dimensioned specifically to match the positioning of the upper and lower socket contacts. The carrier substrate, being 145 microns thick, can also fit between the upper and lower socket contacts. A carrier base support component is located below a portion only of the carrier substrate, and does not impair insertion of the carrier substrate into the relatively small spacing between the upper and lower socket contacts. Damage to the carrier substrate is avoided by clamping edges of the carrier substrate from opposing sides between the upper and lower socket contacts. There are no screws or nuts within the carrier base support component that may increase its size and prevent it from being inserted into the socket.

1). Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a die carrier of the kind used for temporarily holding a microelectronic die for purposes of burn-in and other testing of the die. The invention also relates to a microelectronic die connection assembly, including a socket which can be connected to a circuit board, and a die carrier that is designed for the socket.
2). Discussion of Related Art
Integrated circuits are usually manufactured in and on semiconductor wafers. Such a semiconductor wafer is subsequently cut into individual dice, each die carrying a respective integrated circuit. Cutting of a wafer into individual dice is commonly referred to as "dicing" or "singulation".
Once the individual dice are cut from the wafer, it is often advantageous to test the integrated circuit in each die before the packaging of the die. The added expense of packaging of the die can be avoided by first identifying defects in the die. Identification of defects is particularly important for multiple-die assemblies, where one defective die can compromise the value of the entire assembly.
One way of testing a singulated unpackaged die is to temporarily insert the die into a retaining formation in a carrier body of a die carrier. A plurality of die contacts in the retaining formation make contact with respective ones of a plurality of terminals on the die. External carrier contacts are electrically connected to the die contacts, and provide surfaces to which electric contact can be made for purposes of providing signals between the carrier contacts and the terminals on the die.
The die carrier is then inserted into a socket. The socket has a plurality of electrically conductive pins which connects to a circuit board. The socket also has a plurality of socket contacts that are electrically connected to the pins and make contact with the carrier contacts. Electric current can thus conduct through the circuit board through the circuit board connectors and the socket contacts to the carrier contacts. An electric path is thereby established between the circuit board and the unpackaged die, and can be used for testing the integrated circuit in the die.
A few types of sockets exist that are used for testing thin small-outline package (TSOP) electronic assemblies. A TSOP is a package having a microelectronic die that is inserted within a mold and having a plurality of 145 micron thin electric leads extending from opposing sides thereof. No die carrier has been designed for use within a TSOP-type socket.


The present invention relates to inhibitors of COX-2, compositions which contain such compounds and methods of use. The compounds are represented by formula I: ##STR1## and include pharmaceutically acceptable salts and esters thereof.

Cyclooxygenase (COX), also known as prostaglandin H synthase, is an enzyme implicated in the mediation of pain, fever and inflammation. It catalyzes the oxidative conversion of arachidonic acid into prostaglandin H.sub.2, a key intermediate in the biosynthetic pathway of prostaglandins, prostacyclins and thromboxanes, which in turn mediate a variety of physiological effects both beneficial and pathological. Recently it was discovered that two COX isoforms exist: COX-1, expressed constitutively in many tissues, and COX-2, an induced isoform having elevated levels of expression in inflamed tissues. COX-1 is thought to be involved in ongoing "housekeeping" functions, for example gastric cytoprotection, while COX-2 is implicated in the pathological effects mentioned above.
Current cyclooxygenase inhibitors such as aspirin, ibuprofen and indomethacin, used as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), inhibit both COX-1 and COX-2 and have associated side effects, such as gastrotoxicity, which may be manifested as ulcer formation. COX-2 selective inhibitors act as effective NSAIDs without substantial gastrotoxic side effects.
The first published COX X-ray crystal structure was of sheep COX-1 complexed with flurbiprofen, a non-selective NSAID. Subsequently, the crystal structure of human COX-2 complexed with an indomethacin analog was discovered. Other COX-2 crystal structures have recently been determined.

Bisaryl COX-2 inhibiting compounds, compositions and methods of use


The method of detecting pathogenic bacteria, which includes providing a moisture receiver, onto which moisture containing an amine or amines is receivable, the amine or amines associated with the presence of pathogenic bacteria; providing a reactant which changes color upon contact with the amine or amines, and contacting the reactant with moisture at the receiver, whereby a change in color at the receiver indicates the presence of pathogenic bacteria in moisture.

This invention relates generally to detection of bacteria in moisture that contains an amine or amines, and more particularly to method and apparatus for easily and quickly, by color change, testing for the presence of bacteria in moisture samples as from the vagina, or from other sources.
There is need for simple, easily used apparatus, and easily performed methods, for reliably and quickly obtaining indications of bacteria, as for example pathogenic bacteria, in moisture samples, for example which contain an amine or amines, such as certain diamine or diamines. There is also need for simple, effective methods which visually provide such indications. Prior apparatus and techniques were cumbersome, difficult to interpret, and lacked the unusual advantages disclosed herein.

Amine detection by color change, in human body moisture


An apparatus includes a number of first RF chains configured to be able to be coupled to a plurality of first antennas from an antenna array and a number of second RF chains configured to be able to be coupled to a plurality of second antennas from the antenna array. The first and second antennas are different. The first and second RF chains are configured to create RF signals from baseband signals. The first RF chains have a certain functionality, and the second RF chains have a reduced functionality relative to the certain functionality. The apparatus may include the antenna array. The first and second antennas may have the same or different characteristics. A base station may include the apparatus. Sets of antennas for the second RF chains may be use to create signals used for over-the-air signal combining at a receiver. Methods and program products are also described.

This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention disclosed below. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived, implemented or described. Therefore, unless otherwise explicitly indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section. Acronyms used in this application or the drawings are defined below, prior to the claims.
As an overview, activities in the EU-funded project METIS as well as in many other research groups promise large potential gains for systems deploying massive MIMO. The main objective of the METIS project is to lay the foundation of 5G, the next generation mobile and wireless communications systems. MIMO uses multiple antennas to communicate with UEs. Massive MIMO for 5G is currently under the assumption of 100 or more antenna elements, and spectral efficiencies of several tens of bit/s/Hz/cell (e.g., bit or bits per Hertz per cell) have been reported under ideal conditions compared to about 3 bit/s/Hz/cell for a 4×2 MIMO case 1 system in 3GPP (see 3GPP TR 36.819 V11.0.0 (2011-09), table 22.214.171.124-5). Achievable gains in real world conditions are for further study, but it is obvious that having low cost massive MIMO arrays will be of great benefit.
In more detail, the above-mentioned large performance gains are the result of strong multi-user MIMO (MU MIMO) transmission, i.e., the spatial multiplexing of, e.g., ten or more users simultaneously in one time-frequency resource block combined with strong beamforming gains. Beamforming gains are achieved by providing over-provisioning of antenna elements. In the case of a factor of ten times more antennas than served users and greater than ten served UEs, the overall number of antenna elements will be in the order of 100 or more.
Today's LTE systems have as baseline two antenna ports being extendable up to 8×8 MIMO, which is rarely deployed. So there are so far only few RF frontends needed per sector. These RF frontends are currently complex and bulky devices, which contribute a significant part to the overall costs of an eNB.
Straight-forward implementation of large arrays based on one RF frontend per antenna element will lead to exploding costs, power consumption and size of the overall system. See for example the current status of active antennas, where RF frontends per active antenna element are so far in the order of 0.2×0.2×0.1 m3.
For active antennas, there are currently projects running to reduce the size to about 0.1×0.1×0.05 m3, which is still far from the ideally intended size of future massive MIMO antenna arrays. For example, the space for the RF frontends for a 256 element antenna array would be in the order of [0.1×0.1 m2]×256=2.45 m2 leading to an overall volume of 2.45*0.05 m3=0.1225 m3. In terms of feet, this is about 14.1 ft3.
The typical ideal vision for a future massive MIMO array is for example a flat panel placed at walls with an array of 16×16=256 antennas and a single low cost active device or chip per antenna element containing the full RE chain including the power amplifier (PA) as well as filters and the like. Part of the problem is the relatively high number of complex components per RF chain such as broadband high resolution analog digital converters (ADC and DACs), highly linear power amplifiers plus their control circuits for linearization with large headroom, bulky filters with strong out of band suppression (for example ceramic filters), and the like.
It would be beneficial to reduce the costs for the implementation of massive MIMO arrays, which is a real challenge taking the high number of antenna elements into account.

Low effort massive MIMO antenna arrays and their use


The non-linear amplifier performs a gamma correction to the analog video signal inputted from outside along with the non-linear correction for eliminating the effect of the dependency of the dielectric constant of the liquid crystal on the pixel potential Vp. The analog video signal corrected by the non-linear amplifier is then applied to a pair of amplifiers and that output a pair of signals with the polarity inverted against the potential Vcom of the common electrode. A switching circuit switches and outputs the output from the pair of the amplifiers according to the inverted signal.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to an active matrix display device.
2. Description of Related Art
The deterioration of liquid crystal is prevented by the common AC driving that gives AC potential to a common electrode and a supplemental capacitance. Low energy consumption is achieved by lowering both electric current and voltage of a drain driver through the minimization of the potential difference between the positive and negative polarities of the video signal inputted to the drain driver in the active matrix display device, in which a video signal is supplied to an independent pixel electrode through a switching element such as a thin film transistor (TFT).
However, the load and the energy consumption of the capacitance in the common electrode and all the supplemental capacitance lines are still large because the voltage polarity of the common electrode and the supplemental capacitance lines are inverted at each horizontal period with the horizontal inversion common AC driving that inverts the polarity of the video signal given to the drain line at each horizontal period.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 12-81606 discloses a driving method that can significantly lower the energy consumption by stabilizing the common electrode voltage and by inverting the polarity of the supplemental capacitance voltage and that can simultaneously lower both electric current and voltage of the drain driver through minimization of the potential difference between the positive and negative polarities of the video signal (referred to as "SC driving", hereinafter).
Also, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-150127 discloses the dot inversion driving system, in which the voltage with opposite polarity is applied to the pixels in such way that any pair of the adjacent pixels have opposite polarity from each other by supplying the voltage with opposite polarity to the pixel electrodes next to each other in gate line direction, as shown in FIG. 11. The dot inversion driving system can prevent capacitance coupling and the irregularity of the image due to the capacitance coupling that takes place in the SC driving.
However, the dielectric constant of liquid crystal changes according to the change in an applied voltage in the SC driving and the dot inversion driving. Therefore, the potential of the pixel electrode depends on the liquid crystal capacitance and changes non-linearly against the inputted video signal. The potential of the pixel electrode adequate for the inputted video signal voltage cannot be obtained, leading to the deterioration of the gradation characteristics.

Active matrix liquid crystal display device


A gear wrench allowing easy force application, having: a head, formed with a receiving compartment thereon for receiving a gear ring, the head extending along a first plane; a tail, extending along a second plane; and a neck, provided between and integrally formed with the head and the tail; characterized in that: the first plane is parallel to the second plane, and the neck obliquely extends from the head towards the tail to form a height difference between thee head and the tail. As such, the vertical component of force may be eliminated or minimized so as to effectively reduce occupational hazards; the horizontal component of force may also be increased such that the operator only requires a lower force to effectively tighten or loosen up a fastener.

FIGS. 6A to 6C illustrate a conventional gear wrench with an angle formed between its head and tail, such that its tail inclines upwards with respect to its head. The purpose for providing the inclination is to form a height difference between its tail and open wrenching end to allow easy gripping by an operator. However, such a design fails to meet ergonomics because the operator's hand would need to incline for a certain degree along with the inclined tail.
In addition, due to the inclination of the wrench, when the operator applies a force to cause its head to rotate a fastener (such as bolt), the operator's hand tends to turn the force of application in a horizontal direction so as to result in a vertical component of force Fh and a horizontal component of force Fv. The horizontal component of force Fh will generate a torque along with the wrench to be transmitted to the fastener for tightening or loosening purpose, and is an effective component of force.
However, the vertical component of force Fh is an ineffective component of force and is somewhat hazardous because it may cause the wrench to be lifted up (FIG. 6B) or pressed down (see FIG. 6C). At the same time, in application of the force by the operator, the inclination of the wrench may easily cause change in orientation of vertical component of force. In case the force is not applied to a central axis of the wrench, the vertical component may also cause flipping of the wrench (see FIGS. 6D and 6E). The above phenomena may all cause separation of the gear wrench from the bolt, thereby causing accidents and occupational hazards.

Gear wrench allowing easy force application


There are provided 1-(substituted)thioalkylpyrrole compounds of formula I ##STR1## the use thereof for the control of insect, acarid and mollusk pests and methods and compositions for the protection of crops from the ravages of said pests.

Pyrrole compounds useful as insecticides, acaricides and molluscicides are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,098 and copending applications Ser. No. 430,601 filed on Nov. 6, 1989, Ser. No. 447,726 filed on Dec. 8, 1989, Ser. No. 522,299 filed on May 11, 1990, Ser. No. 600,054 filed on Oct. 18, 1990 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,204,332. However, none of these references disclose pyrrole compounds having a (substituted)thioalkyl moiety on the pyrrole ring nitrogen atom. Patent applications Ser. Nos. 803,289 and 803,294 filed concurrently herewith describe certain trifluoromethylsulfonylpyrroles useful as insecticidal and fungicidal agents, respectively. However, the pyrrole compounds of the present invention are not described therein. Copending patent application Ser. No. 803,295, filed concurrently herewith describes the fungicidal use of 1-(substituted)thioalkylpyrrole compounds.

Insecticidal, acaricidal and molluscicidal 1-(substituted)thioalkylpyrroles


An assembly of a receiver and a microphone, such as for positioning in an ear canal of a person. The receiver and microphone are provided in an overlapping relationship to take up less space while being able to emit sound in one direction and receive sound from that direction. When the assembly if for use deep inside the ear canal of a person, the microphone may be very small, as it is exposed to very high sound levels.

Relevant solutions may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 7,747,032, U.S. 2015237429, U.S. Pat. No. 7,995,782, EP3073765, U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,106,999 and 9,654,854.
In a first aspect, the invention relates to an assembly comprising a receiver and a sensor, wherein:                the receiver comprises:                    a receiver housing,            a receiver diaphragm defining, with an inner surface of the receiver housing, a first chamber in the receiver housing having a sound output, and a second chamber in the receiver housing,                        the sensor comprises a sensor housing being at least partially inside the second chamber, and        the sensor housing or its portion inside the second chamber, having a volume not exceeding 20% of a volume of the second chamber.
The features of this aspect may be combined with any features of the aspects of the invention may be combined. Thus, the receiver, housing, diaphragm, chambers and the like are defined further below.
In one embodiment, the sensor is a microphone.
In a second aspect, the invention relates to an assembly comprising a sensor and a receiver, wherein:                the receiver comprises:                    a receiver housing with a receiver housing wall part comprising a sound output,            a receiver diaphragm defining, with an inner surface of the receiver housing, a first chamber in the receiver housing,                        the sensor comprises a sensor housing,        the receiver housing wall part and the microphone housing wall part are at least substantially parallel,        the receiver housing and microphone housing overlap at least partly when projected on to a first plane, and        the receiver housing and microphone housing overlap at least partly when projected on to a second plane perpendicular to the first plane.
In this context, an assembly of a sensor and a receiver may, in addition to the sensor and receiver, comprise also other elements such as amplifiers, processors, battery or the like. The sensor and receiver may be attached to each other or not. In one situation, the sensor is provided inside the receiver.


The present disclosure provides a UAV video aesthetic quality evaluation method based on multi-modal deep learning, which establishes a UAV video aesthetic evaluation data set, analyzes the UAV video through a multi-modal neural network, extracts high-dimensional features, and concatenates the extracted features, thereby achieving aesthetic quality evaluation of the UAV video. There are four steps, step one to: establish a UAV video aesthetic evaluation data set, which is divided into positive samples and negative samples according to the video shooting quality; step two to: use SLAM technology to restore the UAV's flight trajectory and to reconstruct a sparse 3D structure of the scene; step three to: through a multi-modal neural network, extract features of the input UAV video on the image branch, motion branch, and structure branch respectively; and step four to: concatenate the features on multiple branches to obtain the final video aesthetic label and video scene type.

With the rapid popularization of cameras and smartphones, visual content perception and understanding have become the research direction of such fields as computer vision and computer photography. Image and video aesthetic quality evaluation is a branch in the direction of visual content perception and understanding. Image and video aesthetic quality evaluation aims to use computers to simulate human perception and cognition of beauty, and automatically evaluate the beauty of images and videos. In recent years, some researchers have conducted a research on related technologies. People analyze images in terms of composition, color, light and shadow, depth of field, etc. For videos, in addition to considering the aesthetic factors of each frame of image, further studies are conducted on video-related characteristics such as camera motion and picture continuity.
In 2004, Microsoft Research Asia and the Department of Automation of Tsinghua University jointly proposed a technique that can automatically distinguish photos taken by professional photographers and amateur users. Thereafter, most aesthetic quality evaluations lie in that by designing various aesthetic features, the results of human evaluation of aesthetic quality are fit to automatically classify and numerically evaluate images and videos.
However, these studies did not consider that different contents have different aesthetic features, thus having a significant influence on the effect of classification and scoring. Since 2014, image aesthetic classification and scoring have entered the era of deep learning. Researchers have used convolutional neural networks to conduct aesthetic classification and scoring of images, and the accuracy of their classification has been greatly improved compared with manually designed features. As for video aesthetic classification and scoring, because there are fewer data sets, related work has not involved much deep learning yet.
However, these methods are all aimed at traditional videos and images. For videos like aerial photography, relevant features are not fully utilized. UAVs are now used in various fields, and one very important application is photography. With the development and popularization of consumer-grade UAVs, aerial photography no longer requires professional and expensive equipment as before. However, aerial photography still requires the operator to have certain professional knowledge and experience, so it is still not easy for amateurs to shoot high-quality aerial photography works. In order to make the UAVs more intelligent and the aerial photography works more beautiful, the aesthetic quality evaluation of UAV video has also become one of the hotspots of people's attention. It can be applied to the UAV intelligent shooting, automatic rating of aerial video websites, aerial video automatic editing and other aspects.
In 2016, Liang Ziqiang of China Cable TV Network Co., Ltd. published an article about the video creativity and aesthetic exploration of UAV aerial photography and documentary on TV Research, discussing the innovation brought by the application of UAV aerial photography to documentary creation. In 2017, Xiong Xiaoliang of Peking University and others proposed a patent for a UAV videography method and system based on aesthetic evaluation, which calculates the aesthetic score of UAV photographed images based on an aesthetic evaluation algorithm. This method only grades the image aesthetically, and cannot evaluate the aesthetic quality of the video taken by the UAV.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.


A monolithically integrated microwave amplifier device, comprises an input for receiving a microwave signal, a first power amplifier stage (11; 32) having an input coupled to receive the microwave signal, an impedance matching network (16; 39) coupled to an output of the first power amplifier stage, a second power amplifier stage (12; 33) having an input coupled to the impedance matching network, and an output for outputting the microwave signal after having been amplified by the first and second power amplifier stages, wherein the first power amplifier stage is optimized to be supplied with a first supply voltage (13; 35), which is essentially lower than a second supply voltage (14; 36), with which the second power amplifier stage is optimized to be supplied. Preferably, the second stage is an end stage based on an LDMOS transistor, and the first stage is a driver stage based on a bipolar transistor.

As the wireless communication business continues to grow, there are great demands in further cost reduction, and to use semiconductor manufacturing processes and component techniques that can handle very high-volumes during the short product cycles of many of the new devices. The ever-increasing market for microwave power amplifiers in PCS, CDMA and WCDMA systems requires low-cost ease-of-use technology, which can provide high-power and good linearity performance.
LDMOS started replacing bipolar devices in base station applications 3–4 years ago and has for multiple reasons become the leading technology for base station power amplifier applications. It has high gain and shows excellent back-off linearity. For the output power amplifier however, discrete devices are still dominating.
Integrated power amplifiers in LDMOS silicon technology, moderately integrated as MMIC's (microwave monolithic integrated circuits), have only recently found its way from the research and development laboratories, see e.g. G. Bouisse, "Latest Advances in High Power Si MMIC", IEEE Eumw, GaAs symposium 2001, and G. Bouisse, "0.2 db gain ripple-20W-WCDMA Si MMIC", IEEE EuMC-ECWT symposium 2001.
The integration of LDMOS transistors into RF BiCMOS processes without affecting other devices is described in the published U.S. patent application No. 20020055220 A1, and in O. Bengtsson, A. Litwin, and J. Olsson: "Small-Signal and Power Evaluation of Novel BiCMOS-Compatible Short Channel LDMOS Technology", IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vo. 51, No. 3, March 2003. This opens a way to low cost and more efficient linear integrated radio frequency power amplifiers with multiple amplification steps on the very same die.

Monolithically integrated power amplifier device


A combination birdhouse and bird feeder configured for rotation from a bird feeding mode to a bird housing/nesting mode. The device having the ability to be locked in the bird feeding position as well as being locked in the bird housing position.

Bird lovers, bird watchers and ornithologists frequently erect birdhouses for housing birds when they are nesting as well as bird feeders for feeding birds. Birdhouses tend to be used only part of the year, typically during "nesting" season. Bird feeders, likewise, tend to be used more heavily in cold, snowy portions of the year when natural feed sources are scarce. Thus, it is not uncommon for a birdhouse to be used only a small portion of the year, and for a bird feeder to only be heavily used for a different portion of a year.
To wit, prior inventors have sought to create combination birdhouses/bird feeders. For instance, the Carpenter patent (U.S. Pat. No. Des. 421,509), the Hyde patent (U.S. Pat. No. 2,392,532), the Spencer, et al., patent (U.S. Pat. No. 3,742,914), the Spencer patent (U.S. Pat. No. 3,505,975), the Petrides, et al., patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,156), the Brown patent (U.S. Pat. No. 3,295,498), the Noll patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,167,917) and the Missry application (U.S. Published Patent Application No. US 2004/0020444).
All of these prior art patents trying to create a single device that is able to convert from a bird shelter into a bird feeder. The present invention solves this same need.

Combination birdhouse and bird feeder device


The invention is a device for adapting a computer to enable identification of those subsets of a stream of signal values which form patterns when contraction mapped to an approximation of the attractor of a fractal. The machine currently employs an approximation of the attractor of an affine Sierpinski gasket. In principle, the fractal could be a Sierpinski carpet, Menger sponge, the Mandelbrot Set, or fractals constructed in polar or spherical coordinates. The stream of signal values and subsets of the stream can be displayed, segregated, or otherwise processed automatically by computer by reference to the mapped locations of the signal values. Selection sets can be employed manually to confine a visualized pattern as displayed on the map. Signal values which contribute to the confined pattern then are automatically identified. Some selection sets can be pre-set to automatically confine mapped signal values which fall within certain pre-determined patterns without visual inspection and manual confinement. The subsets of signal values identified by the selection sets are then available for further processing, including display of segregated subsets. The device enables display of segregated subsets of signal values in other display and analysis modes, such as the graphic phase space portraits of U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,530.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is analysis of a stream of signal values by pattern detection and selection, and in particular, the display and analysis of electroencephalic signal values by mapping, pattern identification, and pattern confinement.
2. Description of Related Art
A great body of evidence suggests that electromagnetic signals recorded from the human head reflect brain function and other physiologic processes. Recording and analysis of such signals have been conducted by computer because of the high speed of brain events, the electromagnetic character of the values measured, and the great volume of signal values. It is essential to segregate the signal values detected by electrodes on the human scalp into subsets because a wide variety of sources contribute to the signal values, including multiple sources from within the brain, as well as signals from muscles such as those in the head and neck. In addition, there may also be contributions to the signals from external sources such as the computer itself, other electric appliances, and electric wiring.
Typically in current practice, a variety of electronic filters and mathematical averaging methods have been employed to pre-process the computer-recorded stream of signal values to eliminate "noise" and "artifact". Signal values which fell too far outside rather arbitrary limits were rejected as "artifacts", which were viewed as "distorting" the signal. The "noise" was viewed as impossible to analyze and thus assumed to have no meaning for the simple reason that no means of interpreting it was known. Thus, an initial subset of signal values was obtained by "filtering out" and discarding "noise" and "artifact", leaving for analysis those values which were presumed to represent the "true" signal.
The pre-processing done in current practice imposes a conceptual paradigm upon the stream of signal values which then shapes all subsequent analysis of the signal values. A wave function is the dominant historic conceptual paradigm according to which electromagnetic signals recorded from the brain have been "transformed" or "inverted". The resulting analytic display of the transformed stream of signal values is referred to in common parlance as "brain waves". Typically the analytic wave function of choice was the sine wave employed in a Fourier Transform and implemented on a digital computer as a Fast Fourier Transform or FFT, though sometimes a Mellin or "double" Fourier Transform was used. Due to well-recognized limitations of the Fourier Transform and "wave" paradigms, new conceptual paradigms have been sought to analytically transform computer-recorded streams of signal values which can be presented as meaningfully segregated subsets. More recently, wavelet transforms have been employed with a wide variety of signals, including electrophysiologic signals as well as sound and other vibrational signal forms.
Ideally, a conceptual paradigm should enable mathematically-reversible transformations which index a stream of signal values into meaningful subsets from which one can infer a causal relation to body function or to external stimuli, and thus decompose the stream of signal values into subsets, or component signal 'events', for which a causal relationship can be empirically sought. The difficulty of indexing a raw stream of signal values into meaningful subsets is referred to as the "inverse problem".
Applicants' U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,530 applies modern mathematics of chaos, non-linear dynamics and phase space portraits to display a stream of raw signal values from scalp electrodes for the purpose of visually detecting patterns in the stream of signal values. It then employs computer-implemented selection sets to segregate the subsets of signal values which contribute to the visually identified pattern. Some examples of implementation of "selection setst" within drawings displayed on a computer monitor is exemplified by AutoCAD Reference Manual, July 1986, copyright Autodesk, Inc., Sec. 2.10, pp. 45-49. AutoCAD is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc.
The instant invention employs the 'chaos game' for contraction mapping of streams of signal values to deterministic fractals which are defined as the attractors of Iterated Function Systems. In principle, the method could also be adapted to probabilistic Iterated Function Systems, though the present implementation does not do so. The mapped signal values then are searched for patterns. When a pattern is detected is confined, or encompassed, by an exclusive "selection set". The confined subset of signal values then automatically is segregated from the stream of signal values by computer.
Some background of art related to the 'chaos game' and to contraction mapping to deterministic fractals with Iterated Function Systems follows.
Modern mathematics of topology and fractals are explained in Fractals for the Classroom, by Heinz-Otto Peitgen, Hartmut Jurgens, and Dietmar Saupe, published by Springer-Verlag, New York, 1992, ISBN 0-387-97041-X. Deterministic fractals called the Sierpinski gasket and the Sierpinski carpet are defined, id., at chapter 2.2, pp. 91-95, and methods of indexing them with addresses are defined id., at chapter 2.7, pp. 128-127; chapter 2.10, pp. 148-150; chapter 6.2, pp. 330-338. The Menger sponge deterministic fractal is defined, id., at p. 124 and 131-132. More detailed application of the "chaos game" and use of probabilities in its implementation in computer programming, are discussed in Peitgen, H.-O.; Jurgens, H.; and Saupe, D; Chaos and Fractals, New Frontiers of Science, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1992, Chap. 6, pp. 297-352.
The terms "deterministic fractal" and "Iterated Function System" sometimes are used nearly interchangeably. It should be understood, however, that an Iterated Function System is a process, usually though not always implemented on a computer, to approximate a mathematically precise object called a deterministic fractal. The deterministic fractal is the theoretical limit object resulting from an infinite number of iterations of the Iterated-Function System. The "deterministic fractal" therefore is called the "attractor" of the iterative process called the "Iterated Function System".
An algorithm called the 'chaos game' for generating the Sierpinski gasket with random numbers is defined, id., at chapter 1.3 at pp. 41-43. More general use of the 'chaos game', using random numbers to map a variety of fractal forms as attractors of Iterated Function Systems ("IFS"), is explained, id., at chapter 6.2, p. 339-344. Methods of defining and generating Iterated Function Systems are described, id., at Chapter 5, pp. 255-318. The "contraction mapping principle" is explained, id. at Chapter 5.5, pp. 284-293, and especially at p. 287. Deterministic fractals such as the Sierpinski gasket, Sierpinski carpet and Menger sponge can be viewed as attractors of Iterated Function Systems. In addition, these attractors are universal indices for certain topologic classes of objects. Id., at Chapter 2.7, pp. 128-137. This means, in a topologic sense, that these attractors contain, or index, within themselves an enormous collection of mathematically distinct, but less complex, attractors. Id. That is, the attractors of these deterministic fractals are themselves constructed of less-complex attractors.
The Mandelbrot set, M, may be viewed as an attractor of an Iterated Function System. The Mandelbrot set also may be viewed as a universal index of topologic entities within the mathematical class called Julia Sets. Julia sets are defined, id., at Chapter 2.8, pp. 138-141. The Mandelbrot set, and methods of generating it by computer iteration, are defined in The Science of Fractal Images, by Heinz-Otto Peitgen and Dietmar Saupe, eds., Springer-Verlag, New York, 1988, ISBN 0-387-96608-0 and ISBN 3-540-96608-0, at chapter 4.2.1, pp. 177-179.
Analytical addressing of points mapped to the attractor of an Iterated Function System using the chaos game is described in Peitgen, H.-O.; Jurgens, H.; Saupe, D., Chaos and Fractals, New Frontiers of Science, Springer-Verlag, 1992, Chap. 6, p. 297, et seq. See also, Barnsley, M. F., Fractal Modelling of Real World Images, in Peitgen, H.-O; Saupe, D. The Science of Fractal Images, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1988.
A notable difference between the Sierpinski and Menger fractal objects, on the one hand, is that they are self-similar by linear contraction mapping, whereas Julia sets and the Mandelbrot set, on the other hand, are self-similar by nonlinear contraction mapping. Fractals for the Classroom, Chapter 2.8, p. 141.
Contraction mapping using Iterated Function Systems has been employed for image compression. Barnsley, U.S. Pat. No. 5,065,447. See also Barnsley, Michael F.; Hurd, Lyman P., Fractal Image Compression, A K Peters, LTD, Wellesley, Mass., 1993; Barnsley, Michael P., Fractals Everywhere, 2nd. Ed., Academic Press Professional, Boston, 1993 (also first ed. 1988). The mathematics of incomplete images, or the addresses of missing pieces, of the mapped fractal are discussed in Fractals Everywhere, pp. 122-125, and FIG. IV.100.
It is known that if the numbers employed in the 'chaos game' are not random then incomplete forms of the deterministic fractals will be generated by the 'chaos game' as explained in Fractals for the Classroom, Chapters 6.3 and 6.4, pp. 345-364.
Both deterministic and probabilistic Iterated Function Systems can be implemented on neural networks to generate more quickly images of fractal objects. Stark, Jaroslav; "Iterated Function Systems as Neural Networks", Neural Networks, Vol. 4., pp. 679-690, 1991 (received 26 Jan. 1990; revised and accepted 20 Feb. 1991).

Brain signal selection by contraction mapping with iterated function systems


According to one embodiment, a system LSI verification system that verifies a processor module included in a system LSI, the system comprising: a circuit description storage that stores description data that describes a design of the processor module; a verification task generator that generates a verification task file based on the description data and a verification environment specification file in which specifications of a verification environment are described; a test program storage that stores a test program including an environment command function for starting the verification task; and a logical simulator that performs a logical simulation according to the test program.

One embodiment of the invention relates to a system LSI verification system and a system LSI verification program that verifies a processor module contained in a system LSI.
On account of the recent progress of digital equipments, the system LSI (Large Scale Integration) capable of implementing the functions that are required of respective digital equipments is needed. In contrast, with the diversification of the functions of the digital equipments, the functions that are required of the system LSI are also diverse. In order to deal with this diversification, in some cases the multi-processor construction having an extended function customized based on a common processor core to meet the process is employed.
In some cases this extended function is implemented by the configurable processor in which instructions, memory structures, and the like can be selected. Also, the provider of the configurable processor provides the system that outputs the hardware description that can be logically synthesized by pointing the configuration. According to such processor and system, the processor having the configuration that is most suitable for the application can be developed in a short term by pointing the optional instruction and the memory size.
Meanwhile, when the instruction set, and the like are changed in the system LSI, the software development tools such as complier, simulator, etc. must also be changed. Therefore, the new hardware description and the software development tools that deal with the new hardware must be generated by pointing the configuration.
In order to develop effectively the system LSI having such multi-processor construction, there is the system LSI development environment generating method set forth in JP-A-2003-323463. When the configuration pointing file in which the instruction operations of the processor are described is input by the method set forth in JP-A-2003-323463, RTL (Register Transfer Language), compiler, assembler, simulator, verification vector, and debugger are automatically constructed.
According to the method set forth in above Patent Literature 1, functions can be verified in unit of processor core in the processor module of the system LSI. However, such a problem lies that functions cannot be verified in unit of processor module that is contained in plural in the system LSI.
For this reason, the processor module verification environment must be generated every system LSI development that is associated with the application. Therefore, there are such a problem that, when a change of design specifications of the hardware and the firmware is caused, it takes much time to change the verification environment and the test program.
In addition, there exits such a problem that, when there are the portions whose verification environment is different mutually among a plurality of processor modules contained in one system LSI, change and management of the verification environment become more complicated.
Therefore, in order to increase a verification precision and reduce a term and a cost required for the verification, the method of reusing effectively the verification environment and the test program is requested.
Meanwhile, since the design proceeds along with the hierarchy of the architecture in the hardware development, the function verification is carried out separately at several stages every circuit scale or function, or is carried out in parallel with the hardware development. The verification environment containing the function that does the RTL simulation by compiling the test program applied to verify these hardwares is carried out by the method that is independent of respective verification steps. Accordingly, even when the test program is described in high-level language such as the C language, or the like, a change must be made in the test program to meet the individual verification environment. As a result, such a problem arises that the test program becomes complicated and also a huge cost is required to change the test program as the number of programs is increased.

System LSI verification system and system LSI verification method


In a tissue irrigating solution of the type containing the combination of glutathione, bicarbonate, and Ringer solution (GBR), the bicarbonate and glutathione are freeze-dried, packaged and separately stored in lyophilized powder form until just preceding the operation, at which time the lyophilized powder containing the bicarbonate and glutathione is dissolved directly into a conventional I.V. solution.

During surgical procedures, it is important to minimize disturbance of the environment of tissue and cells as much as possible. A traumatic change in the environment surrounding internal cells may, for example, lead to the destruction of such cells or the destruction of the function of such cells. The destruction of cell function may even lead to destruction of other cells which are dependent upon a proper functioning of the destroyed cells. Therefore, during surgical procedures such as, for example, intraocular surgery, it is very important that the exposed tissue be continuously irrigated with solutions which approximate natural body fluids. Such solutions are called "tissue irrigating solutions". One of the earliest tissue irrigating solutions for ophthalmic procedures was an isotonic saline. However, it was quickly recognized that the isotonic saline was not adequate as an ophthalmic irrigating solution because it resulted in endothelial cell swelling, cell damage, and consequent corneal clouding.
Alternatively, various electrolyte solutions have been proposed as tissue irrigating solutions, particularly in ophthalmic procedures, because such solutions more closely resemble the aqueous humor of the eye. The earliest electrolyte solution was known as Ringer's solution, which was a combination of sodium, calcium and potassium ions along with sodium lactate. Another solution intended for tissue irrigation is known as a balanced salt solution (referred to as "BSS") which contains the essential sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium salt ions along with an acetate-citrate buffer system. It was successful and was used almost exclusively until several years ago. Within the last 10-15 years, there has developed a tissue irrigating solution which is a combination of the Ringer solution along with glutathione and sodium bicarbonate. This is sometimes referred to GBR, and in recent years has become a recognized tissue irrigating solution, especially for ophthalmic procedures. When dextrose, sodium hydrogen phosphate (Na.sub.2 HPO.sub.4), and sometimes adenosine are added to GBR, there results a fortified or enhanced balanced salt solution (sometimes referred to as "BSS Plus"), which has heretofore proven to be very effective for intraocular surgery.
The problem with GBR solutions and particularly the fortified or enhanced balanced salt solution is that they do not exhibit long term stability. Because they must be mixed essentially at the operative site, it is difficult to control and maintain sterility. There are various reasons why GBR type solutions are not stable. First, bicarbonate and phosphate tend to precipitate in the presence of the magnesium and calcium ions. Therefore, once mixed, the sodium bicarbonate quickly loses its ability to act as a pumping agent for causing the endothelium to perform its fluid transport function of maintaining an outward fluid transport to the stromal layer, which results in damage to the cornea. Stated otherwise, the purpose of the bicarbonate is to act as a pump and, when mixed with the magnesium or calcium ions, it quickly loses its pumping action. A second reason why the GBR solutions are not stable is that bicarbonate decomposes at a pH of less than about 8 and becomes carbon dioxide which again causes the bicarbonate to fail to act as a chemical pump during the surgical procedure. Finally, the glutathione is unstable at a pH greater than about 5. Therefore, the glutathione cannot exist in a basic solution and the bicarbonate cannot exist for extended periods in an acid solution.
A solution to this problem has been offered in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,443,432 and 4,550,022, both issued to Garabedian et al. According to these two patents, initially two solutions are prepared, a first, basic solution providing the bicarbonate and sodium phosphate, and a second, acidic solution which provides the calcium and magnesium ions, as well as the dextrose and glutathione. The solutions are packaged and stored separately and mixed within 24 hours of use.
While the resulting irrigating product as described the Garabedian et al technique has achieved some degree of acceptance and success, there are some limitations as a result thereof. First, the long-term stability and maintenance of acceptable pH values is difficult to achieve in accordance with the method and techniques described in the Garabedian et al patents. Second, in order to steam sterilize the first, basic solution, it is necessary to place the glutathione in the second, acidic package, because glutathione cannot stand steam sterilizing. Third, since the sodium bicarbonate is in the first package, the package must be glass which is subject to breakage, because it is difficult to maintain the stability of sodium bicarbonate in solution in a polymeric container. This occurs because sodium bicarbonate will not remain stable in a polypropylene bottle as a result of the transmission of vapors through the wall of the bottle.


A light sensing device for sensing the light output of a bulb in a lamp comprises a fiber-optic light guide having first and second ends and a photodetector. The first end is optically coupled to a projection of a bulb in the lamp and is adapted to pick up light transmitted through the projection from within the bulb. The second is optically coupled to the photodetector such that light exiting from the second end impinges on the photodetector to generate an output indicative of the light output of the bulb.

An electrodeless discharge lamp is well known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 3,872,349, discloses a typical electrodeless lamp powered by a microwave energy to generate plasma within the bulb and thereby generate visible and invisible light.
A standard electrodeless lamp uses a photocell that picks up visible light coming from the bulb and is part of the control circuit to indicate whether the bulb during starting has started or if the bulb has stopped running. For safety reasons, it is essential that the microwave energy source be turned off if the bulb stops working or if the bulb fails to start. The photocell is generally disposed outside of the microwave cavity and is directed through one of the ventilating holes such that the light radially emitted from the bulb enters the photocell, effecting the state of the photocell which can be sensed by the associated electronic circuitry.
The standard electrodeless lamps are typically used in concert with other lamps in a number of geometries, such as side by side, in rows or in a configuration where the lamps face each other. An improperly operating lamp, e.g., a lamp that fails to start or fails during operation, may not be detected by its own photocell because of stray light coming from the other lamps operating nearby. The resulting cross-interferences between the lamps prevents the prior art photocell configuration from discriminating between light coming from its own bulb and light that is coming in from another lamp.
There is, therefore, a need for a light sensing device for sensing the light output of a bulb that obviates the shortcomings of prior art devices.

Light sensing device for sensing the light output of a bulb


A dual chipset architecture, a method of operating a scheduler for a dual chipset architecture, and a computer program product for operating a scheduler for a dual chipset architecture. In an embodiment, the dual chipset architecture comprises a high performance processor, a low performance processor, and a scheduler for the processors. The scheduler is provided for determining an expected data traffic flow to the chipset, and for selectively enabling the high and low performance processors, based on this expected data flow, ahead of this expected data flow reaching the chipset. In one embodiment, a specified data traffic indicator is associated with the expected data traffic flow, and the scheduler uses this specified data traffic indicator to determine the expected data traffic flow. In an embodiment, this specified data traffic indicator is a value for a defined window size for the expected data flow.

The present invention relates to data processing, and more specifically, to methods, apparatus, and products for data streaming scheduling for dual chipset architectures that includes a high performance chipset and a low performance chipset.
Dual chipset architectures, sometimes referred to as big.LITTLE architectures, have both a high performance chipset and a low performance chipset. These architectures provide both high performance combined with extreme power efficiency to minimize energy consumption. The architecture comprehends the use of a powerful processor for the high peak use with a minimalist processor for times having low levels of data processing.
For example, modern computing systems utilize communications adapters, in the form of an expansion card or an on-board adapter, to communicate with other computers via a data communications network. Such communications adapters may be capable of sending and receiving data at extremely high rates. Such communications adapters can also consume significant amounts of power to support high data exchange rates, even when the communications adapters are sending and receiving data at rates that are well below their capabilities.

Data streaming scheduler for dual chipset architectures that includes a high performance chipset and a low performance chipset

International Business Machines Corporation


An electric motor comprises a stator, rotor and powering circuit. A first stator pole is operable to attract a first rotor pole to rotate the rotor when the first stator pole is energized, and a second stator pole is operable to attract a second rotor pole when energized. The circuit comprises a plurality of charge storage devices including a first subset and a second subset which in a first mode of operation is operable to discharge the first subset to both energize the first stator pole and charge the second subset, with the first subset connected in series and the second subset connected in parallel, and in a second mode of operation, the circuit is operable to discharge the second subset to both energize the second stator pole and charge the first subset, with the second subset connected in series and the first subset connected in parallel.

Electric motors operate to convert electrical energy to mechanical energy, whereby electrical energy that may be provided from a power source, such as a battery, is used to drive a load. In a reluctance motor, for example, the electrical energy is converted to a magnetic field that induces non-permanent magnetic poles on a rotor to generate torque. To ensure that an electric motor is energy-efficient it is important to minimize energy loss during the conversion. For example, certain rotor and stator designs have been demonstrated to be energy-efficient by minimizing energy that is lost during the operation of the motor. Furthermore, the energy efficiency of motors may be improved by configuring other aspects of motor design.


Methods and apparatus for vertical or short takeoff and landing. In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises two or more counter driven rings with one or more airfoils attached. In one variant, there is an upper ring and a lower ring, each with multiple airfoils attached. In one variant, lift is generated largely via ambient air currents, allowing for long term on-station operation of the device.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to the fields of aviation and aerospace engineering. More particularly, in one exemplary aspect, the present disclosure is directed to methods and apparatus for vertical short takeoff and landing.
2. Description of Related Technology
A wide range of aviation related applications require flexibility in aircraft movement. Common requirements are vertical or short takeoff, hovering capabilities, and frequent changes in flight vector, etc. Additionally, unmanned aircraft are in high demand for defense or other applications (such as drug surveillance or interdiction) in which deploying personnel is either too dangerous or impractical given the task requirements.
It is impossible to design aircraft that meet the needs of every aviation application. Therefore, having a wide variety aircraft designs utilizing a wide variety of flight systems (e.g. propulsion, takeoff, landing etc) is necessary to match the requirements of a multitude of tasks. However, given monetary constraints, there is a practical limit to the number of aircraft that can be manufactured and dedicated to any specific purpose or group. Therefore, it is important that selected designs offer the broadest task flexibility possible, while not overlapping unduly with aircraft already in widespread use.
Existing solutions for vertical short takeoff and landing (VSTOL) generally either comprise: (i) those driven by a main rotor stabilized via a tail rotor (e.g., helicopter), (ii) more traditional airplane driven by engines or turbines the can be placed in multiple orientations (e.g., V-22 Osprey or Harrier jets), or (iii) small craft dependent on one or more turbines (Multipurpose Security and Surveillance Mission Platform or SoloTrek Exo-Skeletor Flying Vehicle). While the more traditional plane designs offer high-top speeds, and increase mission range/duration via gliding capabilities, these systems are limited in the speed at which they can accommodate a significant change in flight vector. Thus, these vehicles would be inappropriate for e.g., low-altitude applications in an urban environment. Conversely, helicopters and smaller turbine based craft lack the capability to remain aloft without expending significant power or fuel resources to keep their turbines running. Moreover, all of these vehicles have a preferred orientation such that if they become inverted, the craft will have to be righted before lift capability can be restored.
Unfortunately, modern applications often require both flight through confined areas and long on-station dwell or long-range deployment of the aircraft. Moreover, vehicles used in such applications may often experience violent disruptions or turbulence in their immediate airspace. Thus, losing lift capability as a result of environmental conditions or an unexpected inversion is a significant operational limitation.
Accordingly, improved solutions are required for VSTOL. Such improved solutions should ideally be flexible enough for urban or other confined area navigation, be able to generate lift in multiple orientations, and have suitable on-station dwell and range operational capacity.

Vertical short takeoff and landing apparatus


A method of removing furnace deposit in a non-ferrous smelting furnace, comprising the steps of inserting a lance 2 provided with a spray nozzle 4 at the tip thereof from a furnace ceiling into a furnace; spraying a reducing agent from the spray nozzle 4 at the tip of the lance toward a molten deposit mainly comprising oxides adhering to a furnace wall surface of a non-ferrous smelting furnace by turning the lance within a prescribed angular range and vertically moving the lance within a prescribed range; reducing the molten deposit into a low-melting-point slag; causing the slag to flow; and discharging the slag together with furnace slag to outside the furnace.

The present invention relates to a method of removing a molten deposit mainly comprising oxides generated near a waste gas exit of a non-ferrous smelting furnace, and an apparatus therefor, particularly adapted for use in a copper flash-smelting furnace.
FIG. 8 illustrates a schematic construction of a copper flash-smelting furnace 100. The flash-smelting furnace 100 comprises a reaction shaft 101, a settler 102, and an uptake103. Copper concentrate in the form of a dried fine powder and an oxygen-enriched air or a high-temperature blast are blown at a time into the reaction shaft 101. The copper concentrate and the oxygen-enriched air or hot blast are instantaneously subjected to an oxidation reaction. The copper concentrate melts under the effect of the reaction heat thereof, and in the settler 102, is separated into a mate 104 containing about 60% Cu and a slag (not shown) having a Cu grade of under 1%. The mate is further refined in a converter and a subsequent process into blister copper. The slag is sent to an electric furnace annexed to the flash-smelting furnace, in which, after recovery of part of Cu contained in the slag, the slag is granulated by means of sea water, and used as a material for cement.
Waste gas from the flash-smelting furnace having a temperature of about 1,300.degree. C. and an SO.sub.2 concentration within a range of from 10 to 40% is fed from an exit opening 105 of the uptake 103 to a waste-heat boiler 200 to cool waste gas and the sensible heat is recovered in the form of a high-pressure steam. Then, after dust is removed by an electrostatic dust precipitator, waste gas is sent to a sulfuric acid plant to recover SO.sub.2 as sulfuric acid.
The flash-smelting furnace 100, in which oxidation reaction heat of concentrate can be effectively utilized, has a lower fuel consumption ratio as compared with the other processes, and permits supply of high-concentration SO.sub.2 to the sulfuric acid plant, resulting in such advantages as a high recovery ratio of SO.sub.2 and favorable merits in the aspect of environmental protection.
In the flash-smelting furnace, however, generation of peroxides is inevitable because fine powdery concentrate is oxidized during a very short residence time in the reaction shaft 101, and produced peroxides flow, as dust together with waste gas flow, from the settler 102 through the uptake 103 into the waste-heat boiler 200. Since peroxide have generally a high melting point, part thereof adheres to the settler 102 side walls or portions around the uptake 103 where temperature is relatively low as shown in FIG. 9, thus becoming a molten dust deposit commonly known as a wall accretion 106. If left unremoved, this molten dust deposit gradually grows and causes a clogging trouble in the uptake 103. Because dust is in semi-molten state, the molten dust deposit may flow on the wall surface and drops into the settler 102, thus causing operational troubles such as reduction of the furnace volume and slag hole clogging.
With a view to removing this molten dust deposit 106 which mainly comprises magnetite (Fe.sub.3 O.sub.4), a high-grade Fe oxide, the present inventors found it effective to achieve a low-melting-point slag by the addition of a reducing agent, and developed a method of preventing molten dust deposit from growing by injecting granular coke as a reducing agent into the uptake section 103 by pneumatic transportation, and bringing the same into contact with the molten dust deposit on a waste gas flow. This method has already been in actual use (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H01-87,728).
The granular coke blowing apparatus now in use is however dependent upon dispersion of a reducing agent (glanular coke) by waste gas flow in the furnace and contact thereof with molten dust deposit, and it is difficult to spray coke serving as the reducing agent over a wide range and certainly to a growing portion of the molten dust deposit. It is therefore impossible to prevent local growth of the molten dust deposit at the uptake ceiling or the top side wall, failing to achieve a complete resolution of the problems.
The present invention has therefore an object to provide a method and an apparatus for removing furnace deposit of a non-ferrous smelting furnace, which permits effective removal of a molten dust deposit over a wide range for an overall growing portion of molten dust deposit.

Method and apparatus for removing deposit in non-ferrous smelting furnace


A natural viscous liquid shampoo including a composition formulated with buchu extract and a preparation method thereof that would be harmless to the hair and scalp. The natural shampoo was created without sulphates and/or harmful chemicals and still cleanse your scalp but also balance your natural oils and promote healthier hair growth.

The purpose of the instant application is to formulate a natural shampoo with the inclusion of buchu leaf, because the benefits of the buchu plant (Agathosma betulina) which has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties. The buchu plant is indigenous to South Africa and is grown in the remote, dry mountainous regions of the Western Cape. The leaves have round oil glands found scattered across the leaf, which release an aromatic golden oil. The oil is said to have anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties, that was perfect for this formulation and used along with Hyssop which is also an anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory and is used as a cleansing agent. These two base ingredients were exactly what the inventor was searching for to implement into natural shampoo.
Through research the inventor has realized that shampoos are made with sulphates, parabens and other harmful chemicals along with chemical compounds that are unidentifiable to the lay person and that are in most common shampoos that cause dryness to the hair and scalp which leads to irritation, frizz and hair loss. Because of these problems the inventor first thought to target the scalp with shampoos containing sulphates to create a nice thick lather that gives u a false sense of cleanliness, but there are fall backs to using sulphates because it is a detergent that strips natural oils from scalp, it can also cause hair to be dry, brittle and hair color to fade. Another potentially harmful chemical is parabens they are used in shampoos to prevent bacteria and as a preservative. But parabens can mimic the hormone estrogen and have been linked to increased growth of breast cancer cells, which makes them harmful. Discovering how these chemicals can be harmful the inventor wanted to invent a shampoo that not only cleaned the hair and scalp without stripping the natural oils but was also safe from harmful chemicals.


A system for charging one or more batteries of a vehicle may include a charging box mounted to a vehicle to facilitate connection to a charge coupler from under the vehicle. The charge coupler may be configured to provide an electrical connection between an electrical power source and the charging box. A vehicle including the charging box may maneuver to a position above the charge coupler, after which electrical contacts of the charging box and the charge coupler may be brought into contact with one another. The charge coupler and/or the charging box may be configured to provide electrical communication between the electrical power source and the one or more batteries, so that the electrical power source may charge one or more of the batteries. Thereafter, the electrical contacts may be separated from one another, and the vehicle may maneuver away from the charge coupler.

Electric vehicles often rely on rechargeable batteries to supply electrical power to various components, such as electric motors. Recharging the battery may present a number of technical considerations. For example, the convenience, the duration, and the safety associated with the charging process may be important factors. For example, due to the relatively limited range of some electric vehicles, providing recharging devices at numerous and convenient locations may be a consideration. In addition, reducing the time necessary for recharging the battery may be important for some uses of electric vehicles.
In some conventional-charging devices where electrical connectors having pin-type connectors are used, the connectors may be insufficiently durable for frequent use. This may result in such electrical connectors being unsuitable for uses that might include thousands of connections and disconnections, such as, for example, a fleet of electric vehicles that operate in a substantially constant manner, requiring frequent charging cycles.


In one embodiment, a method includes receiving control transitioned from a virtual machine (VM) due to a privileged event pertaining to a translation-lookaside buffer (TLB), and determining which entries in a guest translation data structure were modified by the VM. The determination is made based on metadata extracted from a shadow translation data structure maintained by a virtual machine monitor (VMM) and attributes associated with entries in the shadow translation data structure. The method further includes synchronizing entries in the shadow translation data structure that correspond to the modified entries in the guest translation data structure with the modified entries in the guest translation data structure.

A conventional virtual-machine monitor (VMM) typically runs on a computer and presents to other software the abstraction of one or more virtual machines. Each virtual machine may function as a self-contained platform, running its own "guest operating system" (i.e., an operating system (OS) hosted by the VMM) and other software, collectively referred to as guest software. The guest software expects to operate as if it were running on a dedicated computer rather than a virtual machine. That is, the guest software expects to control various events and have access to hardware resources such as physical memory and memory-mapped input/output (I/O) devices. For example, the guest software expects to maintain control over address-translation operations and have the ability to allocate physical memory, provide protection from and between guest applications, use a variety of paging techniques, etc. However, in a virtual-machine environment, the VMM should be able to have ultimate control over the computer's resources to provide protection from and between virtual machines.

Method and apparatus for supporting address translation in a virtual machine environment


An embodiment provides a device for assisting fluid distribution that includes a ring having an inner surface disposed over an emitter tube and an engagement portion to secure the ring to the emitter tube. Another embodiment provides a flow-control system that includes an emitter tube having spaced orifices therein, emitters positioned within the emitter tube adjacent the spaced orifices, and spaced clips positioned on the emitter tube, the clips having an inner surface disposed over the emitter tube and an engagement portion to secure the ring to the emitter tube. Another embodiment provides a method for assisting fluid distribution that includes the following steps: selecting an emitter tube; installing emitters within the emitter tube; and mounting, to the emitter tube, rings, each having an inner surface disposed over the emitter tube and an engagement portion to secure each ring to the emitter tube.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in the present disclosure and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
The present invention is usable in mining, agriculture, and landscape industries. Drip or flow-rate controlled leaching systems have various mining applications. Drip irrigation systems or flow-rate controlled irrigation systems have many uses in agriculture or landscape applications. In each setting, it is desirable to control the amount of fluid, such as chemistries used in heap leach treatments or water used in irrigation, that flows through a system over a given period of time. In this regard, various flow-rate control systems may be employed.
Flow-rate control systems typically include an emitter tube and inline emitters evenly spaced along the emitter tube. In the typical scenario, a portion of fluid flowing through an emitter tube in a flow-rate control system flows through an in-line emitter and exits the emitter tube through an orifice in the tube. Because inline emitters are evenly spaced along the emitter tube, the flow-rate control system is able to achieve controlled and even fluid distribution. Sometimes, however, the portion of fluid that exits the inline emitter continues traveling along the outside length of the emitter tube and drops off at a distant location where the emitter tube comes into contact with the ground or where it is at its lowest point, rather than proximate the inline emitter. Where there is uneven elevation of even a few degrees, fluid deposited from an inline emitter may run along the length of an emitter tube in the direction of low elevation, resulting in uneven fluid distribution, with concentrations in areas of low elevation.
Emitter clips that have been designed to solve the problem of uneven fluid distribution in flow-rate systems suffer from design features that render them ineffective and/or expensive to use and maintain. First, conventional clips are prone to fluid circumventing the clip and continuing along the length of the tube, particularly in wet or high humidity climates. Second, conventional clips often include splits that facilitate mounting to the emitter tube by prying each clip open at the split to fit over the tube. Because the clips remain open at the split after assembly and are not otherwise secured to the emitter tube, however, they are susceptible to dislodgement when the emitter tube is dragged or pulled onto a field or ore heap. The loss of even a small percentage of emitter clips in this manner increases maintenance costs and diminishes the overall effectiveness of the flow-rate control system.


The present invention provides a process for producing a wort with reduced content of a stale flavor-causing substance for the production of fermented malt beverages such as beer and the like in which generation of a stale flavor is suppressed, and it also provides fermented malt beverages in which generation of a stale flavor is suppressed such as beer and the like, that are produced by using wort with low content of a stale flavor-causing substance obtained by this process for producing. The second wort with reduced content of a stale flavor-causing substance is obtained with trans-2-nonenal potential (NP) as an indicator in the wort separation of a prepared wort in the production of fermented malt beverages. Fermented malt beverages with suppressed generation of a stale flavor-causing substance is produced by using wort in which NP in the whole wort is reduced by at least 1 ppb in terms of sugar content 11° p.

In fermented malt beverages such as beer and the like with malt as a raw material, chemical reactions such as oxidation and the like are accelerated due to the passage of time, the rise in temperature, and so on, thereby deterioration of the products is progressed. Products once deteriorated suffer damage to their original taste and flavor contained in fermented malt beverages and their quality is deteriorated. In order to prevent such quality deterioration in fermented malt beverages, various attempts have been made as shown below.
The publication of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No.1993-137555 describes a process referring to the use of malt wherein lipid is removed in advance from the beer malt by sub-critical or super-critical carbon dioxide, as a process for producing beer with the use of malt from which lipid, which damages quality, has been selectively and efficiently removed without affecting enzymes in the malt, in beer or in the beer production steps. According to the description, the filtering efficiency, foam-lastingness and flavor stability will improve, yet this process requires a step of treating raw materials with super-critical carbon dioxide, which leads to the increase in the production cost.
The publication of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No.2000-4867 describes as a production process for malt alcoholic beverages with high flavor lastingness and a management method for controlling the generation of a substance which indicates the flavor lastingness in an intermediate sample in the production process for malt alcoholic beverages including the steps of: selection of raw materials including malt; wort production; fermentation; maturation; filtration; and container filling. The description continues that 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) or its precursor is selected as an indicator for flavor lastingness and malt alcoholic beverages with high flavor lastingness can be produced by successfully suppressing this indicator substance in the course of production. It further discloses specific examples including a method of suppressing 5-HMF generation by adding an amino acid which has a thiol group and a method of giving the anti-oxidation property to the wort by the addition of catechin. But in order to raise the effectiveness of suppressing 5-HMF generation, multiple execution of the treatment process will be required and the steps are anticipated to become complicated.
The following mechanisms have been presented with regard to the generation of a beer stale flavor which deteriorates the taste of fermented malt beverages such as beer and the like. They are: Maillard reaction and Strecker degradation of amino acids; autoxidation of fatty acids and enzymatic oxidation of lipids; oxidative degradation of a bitter substance in the hop, oxidation of higher alcohols by melanoidines, oxidation of the unsaturated hydroxyfatty acid or alcohols catalyzed with a metal ion (Cu, in particular); and oxidation of a higher alcohol. These or some among these are thought to be involved in the generation of a stale flavor (Hideo MIYAJI, "Beer Brewing Technology", Shokuhin Sangyo Shimbunsha, Co., Ltd., published on Dec. 28, 1998; pp. 418–424).
On the other hand, a stale flavor itself has been studied. Trans-2-nonenal is exemplified as one of the substances causing a stale flavor. One of the generation pathways for this substance is as follows: a trans-2-nonenal precursor (a hydroxide derivative), derived from lipid or the fatty acid in the raw material, is generated upon both enzymatic and non-enzymatic oxidations in the course of wort preparation, which further leads to the generation of trans-2-nonenal through the oxidative degradation. It is argued that, even though the above-mentioned precursor is removed to a high degree in the courses of fermentation and maturation, the precursor transfers on to the finished beer and then, by the later oxidation, trans-2-nonenal generates in the beer and the like. It is, however, rather thought that trans-2-nonenal produced in the wort forms Schiff bases with primary amines, such as amino acids, in the wort and that some of the Schiff bases are passed on to the beer and the like, where trans-2-nonenal is freed from Schiff bases depending on the temperature- or pH-condition, although many of them are removed in the courses of fermentation and maturation (Lermusieau et al., J. Am. Soc. Brew. Chem. 57, 1999, p29–33).
The subject of the present invention is to provide a process for producing wort with reduced content of a stale flavor-causing substance for the purpose of producing fermented malt beverages such as beer and the like in which a stale flavor generation is suppressed, and to provide fermented malt beverages such as beer and the like in which a stale flavor generation is suppressed, that are produced by using wort with low content of a stale flavor-causing substance obtained by this production process.
In the course of studying the suppression of the generation of a stale flavor in beer, the present inventor focused on trans-2-nonenal among various substances causing a stale flavor and analyzed in details the behavior of a trans-2-nonenal precursor in the beer production steps. The present inventor then found out that in order to estimate the levels of trans-2-nonenal in the beer products generated during storage, it is important to grasp prosperity and decay of a trans-2-nonenal precursor in the wort, and that the trans-2-nonenal level, in the wort adjusted to a certain pH and boiled for a certain time, namely trans-2-nonenal potential (hereinafter NP), serves as an effective indicator for a stale flavor generated in the beer products. In addition, the present inventor found out that sugar content in the sparged wort decreases gradually since the last extract is washed out of the spent grains, whereas NP content holds a high level without correlating to the decrease in sugar content during sparging. The present invention has come to the completion based on these findings.

Process for producing wort for fermented malt drinks


An orthodontic appliance for assisting in properly positioning teeth within the mouth of an individual which is capable of fitting various mouth and tooth sizes. The appliance includes a labial-buccal flange, a lingual flange spaced from the labial-buccal flange, both of which define a generally U-shaped configuration in the occlusal view, and an isthmus interconnecting the two flanges. At least one tooth trough is defined between the labial-buccal flange and the lingual flange for receiving either an upper or a lower row of the individual's teeth. The appliance includes no individual tooth sockets but instead utilizes pressure applied by the labial-buccal flange, the lingual flange, and the relative angles and material thicknesses to properly position the teeth. The appliance is capable of fitting mouths and teeth of various sizes because it includes no individual tooth sockets. The appliance is also useful as a device for preventing sleep apnea, snoring and bruxism as well as an athletic mouth guard.

There are many tooth malocclusion conditions which are correctable through orthodontic treatment. Some of these conditions include incisal spacing, overjet, overbite, incisal crowding, tooth rotation and improper jaw relations. Metal bands and wires are often used in the permanent dentition stage to provide the desired correction. Thermoplastic removable positioners or appliances are also available such as those disclosed in my prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,139,944; 4,919,612; 3,848,335; and 3,939,598.
These removable appliances are typically provided with tooth sockets each for receiving therein one of the individual's teeth for guiding and directing the tooth into a proper occlusal position. Such appliances are therefore selected by measuring the individual's mouth and teeth and matching the appropriate sized appliance having the appropriate tooth socket sizes and spacing.
It would be an improvement in the art if a removable appliance were provided capable of fitting a variety of mouth and tooth sizes and which could therefore be used to initially guide and direct the erupting permanent incisors and other teeth into an individual's mouth to a desirable occlusal condition. In some cases, after an individual's teeth have erupted, it would also be an improvement in the art if an appliance were provided to correct problems with the permanent teeth and to retain these teeth in proper condition.
Custom made devices for preventing sleep apnea, snoring, bruxism and for use as athletic mouthguards require custom modification and are extremely expensive. A device which would perform these functions, accommodate many mouth and tooth sizes and yet still fit an individual properly would be a significant improvement in the art.

Appliance adapted to fit many mouth and tooth sizes for orthodontic correction and other uses


A device to press a rotatably supported shaft of a rotor of a spindle motor for a hard disk drive into a shaft receiving portion of an associated stator housing by means of a first pressing tool acting on the rotor and a second pressing tool acting on the stator housing. A first aligning apparatus for the rotor and a second aligning apparatus for the stator housing are provided. The first and second aligning apparatuses are formed in such a way that they guide the rotor by means of a rotor carrier and the stator housing by means of a stator carrier. The rotor carrier and the stator carrier are exactly aligned with respect to each other during the pressfitting process. The first pressing tool has a first pressing element acting on the shaft of the rotor that is independent of the first aligning apparatus and the second pressing tool has a second pressing element acting on the stator housing that is independent of the second aligning apparatus. The first and second pressing elements abut against the shaft or the stator housing respectively, at the latest at the start of the pressfitting process.

The invention relates to a device to press a rotatably supported shaft of a rotor of a spindle motor for a hard disk drive into a shaft receiving portion of an associated stator housing by means of a first pressing tool acting on the rotor and a second pressing tool acting on the stator housing.
In the devices known to date, the force to press the shaft into the shaft receiving portion via the rotor and the stator housing is introduced in such a way that process tolerances are created on the one hand, and damage to the bearing system can also not be excluded on the other hand.
The object of the invention is therefore to improve a device to press the shaft of the rotor into the shaft receiving portion inasmuch as high manufacturing precision, with low process tolerances in particular, can be achieved.

Device to press the shaft of a rotor into a stator housing