Appropriate torque is transmitted via a clutch that does not spend too much time on its engaging operation. A clutch controller controls a degree of engagement of the clutch by actuating a clutch actuator based on a difference between actual transmission torque that is transmitted from a drive-side member of a clutch to a driven-side member of the clutch, and target transmission torque that is supposed to be transmitted from the drive-side member to the driven-side member. The clutch controller also determines whether or not a difference in rotational speed between the drive-side member and the driven-side member of the clutch is reduced at an appropriate rate, and depending on the determination result, corrects the target transmission torque.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for controlling the degree of engagement of a clutch with an actuator.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional semi-automatic vehicles that actuate an actuator to engage or disengage a clutch control relative positions of drive-side and driven-side members of the clutch (the degree of engagement of the clutch) based on a difference in rotational speed between these members during engaging operation of the clutch (see, for example, JP-A-2001-146930).
The degree of engagement is controlled based on the difference in rotational speed between the drive-side and driven-side members. However, this can prevent appropriate torque from being constantly transmitted via the clutch, and thus can impair riding comfort during engaging operation of the clutch. For example, torque transmitted from the drive-side member to the driven-side member may sharply increase. Maintenance of a half-clutch state until the difference in rotational speed is almost zero has also been proposed. However, such control results in excessively low torque being continuously transmitted via the clutch for a long time period. Thus, the rider may perceive excessive deceleration of the vehicle.

Clutch controller, straddle-type vehicle, and method for controlling clutch


A crash helmet assembly is provided including a lightweight shell or lattice of sufficiently rigid material and geometric design to surround but not contact the user's head. The helmet is affixed to a rigid vest-like garment by interconnecting rigid straps and braces such that the resulting combination deflects compression impact forces away from the head and neck and onto the user's shoulders and upper torso.

Ten percent of all spinal injuries occur during sports; primarily during the sports of diving, surfing and football. Traditional close-fitting motorcycle or bicycle-style protective helmets are used amongst only nine percent of surfers.
Even though traditional crash helmets are at least 50 percent effective in reducing head and neck injuries among motorcyclists, including injuries that result in paralysis or death, motorcyclists do not uniformly choose to wear traditional crash helmets in states that do not have mandatory helmet laws. Some motorcyclists in states with mandatory helmet laws attempt to effect repeal of helmet laws due to the perceived restrictiveness of the use of such helmets.


LMR and LTE transceivers are disposed within a portable radio housing. The LTE transceiver is configured to utilize two separate antennas. An embedded antenna disposed within the portable radio housing is coupled to the LTE transceiver. An RF signal routing network provided in the portable radio housing is coupled to the LMR transceiver, the LTE transceiver, and an external antenna. A control system controls the RF signal routing network to selectively connect at least one the LMR transceiver or the LTE transceiver to the external antenna in accordance with at least one operating condition.

1. Statement of the Technical Field
The inventive arrangements relate to land mobile radio (LMR) equipment, and more particularly to LMR equipment with improved integration of secondary communications capabilities.
2. Description of the Related Art
The land mobile radio service (LMRS or LMR) is a regulated system for radio communications between land-based mobile and fixed stations. The service is commonly utilized by emergency first responder organizations, public works organizations and other organizations with numerous mobile field staff. In a conventional LMR system, a base station or repeater transmits and receives signals from a number of mobile or portable radio units, which are sometimes called subscriber units. In a conventional LMR trunked radio system, a relatively small number of radio channels are commonly used to facilitate voice and data communications between the base station and many LMR subscriber radios. LMR is primarily designed to meet the critical narrowband voice communications needs of first responders and others.
Long-Term Evolution (or LTE as it is commonly known), is a telecommunication standard for wireless communication. More particularly, the LTE standard is a cellular radio technology which represents an evolution of the cellular GSM/UMTS standards. LTE was designed to increase the capacity and data speeds of commercial wireless data networks and is commonly used in many commercial smart phones for communicating broadband data and video.

Hybrid LMR transceiver with LTE and dynamic antenna control


A method for estimating master cylinder pressure during brake apply of a brake system of a vehicle, wherein the brake system includes a brake pedal. A first master cylinder pressure is estimated from brake pedal position during brake apply. A second master cylinder pressure is estimated from vehicle deceleration during brake apply. The master cylinder pressure is estimated during brake apply to be equal to the first master cylinder pressure when the vehicle deceleration is below a predetermined deceleration value. The master cylinder pressure is estimated during brake apply to be equal to a value which is less than the first master cylinder pressure and greater than or equal to the second master cylinder pressure when the vehicle deceleration is at or above the predetermined deceleration value. At least the estimated master cylinder pressure during brake apply is used to control the vehicle.

Conventional vehicle braking systems include those having a brake pedal operatively connected (with or without a booster) to a brake apply master cylinder. Vehicles are known which employ a master cylinder pressure sensor to measure master cylinder pressure. In some vehicles, the measured master cylinder pressure is used by the vehicle's electronic control unit (ECU) as an input to an electronic stability control (ESC) system of the vehicle. Vehicles are known which employ a brake pedal travel sensor to measure brake pedal travel. In some vehicles, the measured brake pedal travel is used by the ECU as an input to an anti-lock braking system (ABS) of the vehicle.
What is needed is an improved method for estimating master cylinder pressure during brake apply of a brake system of a vehicle.

Method for estimating master cylinder pressure during brake apply


A new cultivar of hybrid Clematis, ‘Zo09045’ that is characterized by its mostly upright facing flowers with upright facing tepals, its abundance of flowers, its purple flowers that retain their color with very little fading, its sterility, and its cold hardiness to at least U.S.D.A. Zone 5.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Clematis of hybrid origin (Diversifolia Group) and will be referred to hereafter by its cultivar name 'Zo09045'. Clematis 'Zo09045' is grown as an herbaceous perennial for landscape use, as a flowering potted plant for the terrace and as a cut flower.
Clematis 'Zo09045' derived from an ongoing breeding program by the Inventor at his nursery in Boskoop, The Netherlands. The goal of the selection was to select a hardy herbaceous perennial with uniquely colored flowers that is easy to grow and propagate and that could be grown for different purposes. Clematis 'Zo09045' was selected in 2009 and arose from a controlled cross made in 2006 between unnamed and unpatented plants from his breeding program; the female parent designated as No. 20040222 and the male parent designated as No. 20030033.
Asexual propagation of the new cultivar was first accomplished by internodial stem cuttings under the direction of the Inventor in Boskoop, The Netherlands in 2009. Asexual propagation by internodial stem cutting has determined that the characteristics of the new cultivar are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.


The ink of the invention comprises (a) a vehicle comprising (1) about 1 to 50 wt % of at least one organic solvent as humectants, and (2) about 0.01 to 20 wt % of at least one water-soluble surfactant or amphiphilic polymer (cationic, anionic, or non-ionic); (b) about 1 to 20 wt % of at least one partial chemically-modified, water-soluble colorant, the colorant having sufficient functional groups associated therewith to be substantially waterfast in deionized water while being sufficiently stable in the ink to avoid flocculation; and (c) the balance water. The use of a partial chemically-modified, water-soluble colorant (macromolecular chromophore) results in an ink that is both waterfast and non-flocculating.

Thermal ink-jet printers offer a low cost, high quality, and comparatively noisefree option to other types of printers commonly used with computers. Such printers employ a resistor element in a chamber provided with an egress for ink that entered from a plenum. The plenum is connected to a reservoir for storing the ink. A plurality of such resistor elements are arranged in a particular pattern, called a primitive, in a printhead. Each resistor element is associated with a nozzle in a nozzle plate, through which ink is expelled toward a print medium. The entire assembly of printhead and reservoir comprise an ink-jet pen.
In operation, each resistor element is connected through a conductive trace to a microprocessor where current-carrying signals cause one or more selected elements to heat up. The heating creates a bubble of ink in the chamber which is expelled through the nozzle toward the print medium. In this way, firing a plurality of such resistor elements in a particular order in a given primitive forms alphanumeric characters, performs area-fills, and provides other print capabilities on the medium.
Ink-jet inks used in thermal ink-jet printing typically comprise a colorant and a vehicle, with the vehicle often containing water and other relatively low surface tension liquids.
The tight tolerances of the nozzles, typically 50 .mu.m diameter, require that the ink not clog the nozzles. Further, repeated firings of the resistor elements, which must withstand about 10 million firings over the life of the ink cartridge, can result in fouling of the resistor element. Finally, the ink composition must be capable of interacting with the print medium, especially paper, to penetrate the paper without undue spreading, and the ink composition should be smear- and water-resistant on the paper.
Inks are known which possess one or more of the foregoing properties. However, few ink compositions are known that posses all of those properties, since an improvement in one property often results in the degradation of another. Thus, inks used commercially represent a compromise in an attempt to achieve an ink evidencing at least an adequate performance in each of the aforementioned properties.
In a related application, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,749,952 PD10960255!, a new class of colorants for ink-jet inks, namely, macromolecular chromophores (MMCs) are defined. These materials are commercially available from colorant vendors, such as Cabot Corporation and Orient Chemical. As disclosed therein, the macromolecular chromophores comprise pigments which have been chemically modified to impart water solubility to the otherwise water-insoluble pigments by introducing carboxylate and/or sulfonate functionalities onto the pigment surface (to generate anionic chromophores) or by introducing ammonium or phosphonium functionalities onto the pigment surface (to generate cationic chromophores).
In another related application, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,830,265 PD 10960257!, the chemistries involved for exchanging counterions associated with the functional groups on the MMCs to impart improved properties to the inks using these MMCs. Any of the common ion exchange processes may be used to exchange one counterion for another.
Investigations continue into developing ink formulations that have improved properties such as high edge acuity, high optical density, fast drying times, good waterfastness, and good smearfastness without sacrificing performance in other necessary properties.

Mediation of waterfastness in ink-jet ink compositions by using partial chemically-treated macromolecular chromophores (MMCs)


The communication processing method is used in a network gateway device, wherein the network gateway device is coupled to a wireless terminal through a first wireless network and to a base station through a second wireless network different from the first wireless network. The method maintains a first TCP link between the network gateway device and the wireless terminal through the first wireless network; maintains a second TCP link between the network gateway device and a service providing server through the second wireless network; and performs a TCP transmission optimization on the first TCP link or the second TCP link to be optimized by a corresponding optimization method so as to improve a transmission performance between the wireless terminal and the service providing server. The optimization may be performed more specifically and a transmission performance between the wireless terminal and the service providing server may be improved.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a wireless communication field, and particularly to a communication processing method, an apparatus and a gateway device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Currently, TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is a connection oriented (connection directed) and reliable transport layer communication protocol based on a byte flow, which is defined by RFC 793 of IETF. The TCP is widely applied in data transmission in Internet for users.
According to the TCP, an end-to-end connection between a wireless terminal and a remote server may be established. At two ends of the TCP, respective protocols run in order to ensure that the user data can be transmitted sequentially and correctly.
At the same time, the congestion control mechanism included in the TCP may dynamically adjust a size of the transmission window at the transmitting side so as to prevent the transmitting side from transmitting data without limit, which may result in the network congestion. According to the congestion control mechanism of TCP, whether a packet is lost has been taken as an indicator of whether the network congestion occurs. According to the TCP, when an ACK packet having a same sequence number may be received continuously for several times (for example, 3 times), the size of the transmission window will be reduced by a half so as to reduce the transmission rate and to prevent the congestion.
However, at the beginning of designing the TCP, the main application environment is supposed to be for a wired network and the properties for wireless environment are less concerned. In the wired network, data packet loss due to transmission itself seldom happens (for example, the packet loss rate is less than 10−6). Therefore, according to the congestion control mechanism of the TCP, it is reasonable to assume that the data packet loss is due to congestion and accordingly the transmission rate is reduced to prevent such congestion. However, in the wireless environment, the data packet loss due to the wireless transmission itself cannot be ignored, such as the wireless signal loss, channel fading and various interference shields. According to the congestion control mechanism of the TCP, the packet loss due to the wireless transmission will be wrongly regarded as the packet loss due to the congestion and the transmission rate will be unnecessarily reduced, which may result in the reduction of the transmission rate.
On the other hand, the transmission delay of the wired network is comparatively short and does not fluctuate a lot, while the transmission delay of the wireless network (for example, cellular network) is comparatively long and fluctuates a lot, which disadvantageously influences the performance of the TCP.
According to conventional optimization solutions for using the TCP in the wireless network, it is assumed that the wireless terminal is coupled to the wired network through certain wireless network (for example cellular network or WLAN) and then is coupled to the server in the Internet. The two ends of the TCP are established on the wireless terminal and the server in the Internet respectively. Since the TCP connection is realized through the wireless network, the high data packet loss and delay characteristics of the wireless network may influence the performance of the TCP connection adversely.
As described above, according to the conventional solution, it is assumed that the TCP connection accesses the wired network and Internet through a wireless network. However, with the development of the technologies, the wireless terminal may access Internet through the heterogeneous network and the conventional TCP optimization solutions cannot be adapted to the heterogeneous network.

Communication processing method, apparatus and gateway device


A geared motor (1) for a motor-vehicle wiping system including an electric motor (2) is disclosed. The geared motor has a rotor (20) including magnetic elements, a stator (21) having the electromagnetic excitation windings, a rotary shaft (22) rigidly connected to the rotor, a reduction gear (3) linking the rotary shaft (22) and an output shaft of the geared motor, and a casing (4) forming a protective envelope for said reduction gear or the electric motor (2). The reduction gear (3) includes a worm screw and worm wheel gear, the worm screw (30) being rigidly connected to the rotary shaft of the rotor (22), the worm wheel (31) rigidly connected to an output shaft (8) of the geared motor, bearing means (23, 24) for guiding the rotary shaft of the rotor (22) in rotation in relation to the casing (4), and a determination device for determining the angular position of the rotor including a multi-pole magnet (5) that is rigidly connected to the rotary shaft (22) of the rotor (20).

Geared motors essentially comprise an electric motor coupled to a reduction gear used to gear down the speed to obtain a significant rotational transmission torque.
Different types of electric motors can be used in a geared motor, notably direct-current brushless electric motors, which have numerous advantages such as a long service life, small size, low power consumption and low noise levels.
Such geared motors are in particular used in motor-vehicle wiping systems including one or more wiper blades, a linkage mechanism for driving the wiper blade or blades in a to-and-fro movement, said output shaft of the geared motor driving the linkage mechanism of the wiping system.
The reduction gear is often a worm gear, the worm screw typically being made of metal and being rigidly connected to the rotary shaft of the rotor, the worm wheel being rigidly connected to the output shaft of the geared motor, which is typically made of plastic.
Two or three bearings, such as ball bearings, are typically used to guide the rotary shaft in rotation, each ball bearing having an inner ring and an outer ring, and the balls being designed to roll in a raceway of the inner ring and in a raceway of the outer ring.
It should also be noted that a reduction gear comprising a worm gear has a low power transmission efficiency, approximately 65%, with the lost power (i.e. 35%) being dissipated in the form of heat in the worm screw and the metal rotary shaft. In the opinion of the inventor, the cooling for the geared motors known in the prior art could be significantly improved.

Gearmotor for automotive vehicle wiper system


A liquid discharge recording head includes a substrate having a liquid supply opening facilitating supplying liquid and heating resistors for generating energy for discharging the liquid, a flow path member having discharge openings and flow paths including first and second flow paths that are adjacent each other, the second flow path being longer than the first flow path, and a first resister corresponding to the first flow path and a second resistor corresponding to the second flow path, each of the first and second resistors being disposed at an area of the flow path member which is situated in correspondence with the liquid supply opening, wherein an amount of protrusion of the first resister at a side of the first flow path is greater than an amount of protrusion of the second resister at a side of the second flow path.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid discharge recording head for performing a recording operation by discharging a liquid, such as ink, and a liquid discharge recording head cartridge including the recording head.
2. Description of the Related Art
A related liquid discharge recording head discharges liquid drops, such as ink drops, from a plurality of discharge openings by generating and making use of mechanical or thermal energy. In such a liquid discharge recording head, flow path resistances to the flow of liquid between a liquid supply opening and the discharge openings are adjusted by the shapes of the nozzles to thereby determine characteristics, such as liquid discharge amount and refill frequency. More specifically, the adjustment of the flow path resistances by the shapes of the nozzles is performed by adjusting the width and the length of the flow paths. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-137293 discloses a method of forming nozzles having different flow path resistances by changing the widths of the flow paths according to the nozzles.
In recent years, a liquid discharge recording head which can perform high-speed and high-quality recording as a result of disposing its nozzles close to each other at a high density has been proposed. As the nozzles are disposed closer together at a higher density, the space for disposing one nozzle becomes narrow, thereby tending to place constraints on the manufacturing of the nozzles. Therefore, in a liquid discharge recording head whose nozzles are disposed at a density of at least 90 dpi, it is necessary to dispose the nozzles and heating resistors (heaters) in what is called a staggered arrangement in order to dispose adjacent nozzles so that the distances from discharge openings to a liquid supply opening differ.
When the nozzles and the heaters are disposed in a staggered arrangement, in order to make the liquid discharge amounts from all of the nozzles the same, the discharge characteristics of the nozzles having large distances from the discharge openings to the liquid supply opening and the distance characteristics of the nozzles having small distances from the discharge openings to the liquid supply opening must be about the same. This is generally achieved by making the flow path resistances of the long nozzles small and the flow path resistances of the short nozzles large. In order to make the flow path resistances of the long nozzles small, it is necessary to increase the widths of the flow paths. However, when the nozzles are disposed at a high density of at least 900 dpi, it is difficult to increase the widths of the flow paths due to, as mentioned above, the narrow space for disposing the nozzles and manufacturing constraints.
In addition, in order to increase refill frequency after discharging liquid, it is necessary to reduce the lengths of the flow paths by bringing the discharge openings and the liquid supply opening closer to each other at all of the nozzles. However, for the nozzles having relatively small distances from the discharge openings to the liquid supply opening, there is a limit as to how close these discharge openings can be brought close to the liquid supply opening due to nozzle disposing space and manufacturing constraints. Therefore, it is difficult to provide the short nozzles with the proper flow path resistances in accordance with those of the long nozzles. Consequently, the refill frequency cannot be sufficiently increased.
Accordingly, when the nozzles and the heaters are disposed in a staggered arrangement at a high density, it is very difficult to adjust the flow path resistances by changing the widths and lengths of the flow paths in accordance with the lengths of the nozzles due to nozzle disposing space and manufacturing constraints. In addition, in order to make the space between the liquid supply opening and the flow paths as small as possible, it may be desirable not to dispose a nozzle filter between the flow paths and the liquid supply opening in a related liquid discharge recording head.

Liquid discharge recording head and liquid discharge recording head cartridge including the same


A tubing assembly includes a signal generating apparatus for a catheter placement system. The tubing assembly includes a catheter and a signal generating apparatus. The catheter includes an elongate shaft having a wall surrounding a lumen. The signal generating apparatus includes at least one electromagnetic coil and at least one electrically conductive polymer that is configured to electrically connect the at least one electromagnetic coil to a monitor unit.

Physicians and other health care providers frequently use catheters to treat patients. The known catheters include a tube which is inserted into the human body. Certain catheters are inserted through the patient's nose or mouth for treating the gastrointestinal tract. These catheters, sometimes known as enteral catheters, typically include feeding tubes. The feeding tube lies in the stomach or intestines, and a feeding bag or pump delivers liquid nutrient, liquid medicine or a combination of the two to the patient.
Other types of catheters are inserted into the patient's veins or arteries for treating the cardiovascular system. These intravascular catheters include, among others, the central venous catheter, peripheral venous catheter and the peripherally inserted central catheter. These catheters include a relatively small tube that passes through the patient's veins or arteries. Depending on the application, the health care providers can use these intravascular catheters to remove blood vessel blockages, place inserts into blood vessels and to provide patients with injections of medications, drugs, fluids, nutrients, or blood products over a period of time, sometimes several weeks or more.
When using these known enteral and intravascular catheters, it is important to place the end of the catheter at the proper placement within the human body. Erroneous placement of the catheter tip may injure or harm the patient. For example, if the health care provider erroneously places an enteral catheter into the patient's lungs, liquid may be introduced into the lungs with harmful results.
If the health care provider erroneously places an intravascular catheter into the wrong blood vessel of the cardiovascular system, the patient may experience infection, injury, or a harmful blockage.
It is also prudent to check that the exit aperture of the feeding tube (typically located at the distal end/tip of the tube) remains in its desired location over the period of treatment, e.g., feeding. Protocols that address this requirement in enteral feeding tubes include frequent monitoring for the appropriate pH of fluids extracted from the feeding tube when not carrying nutritional liquids and careful patient monitoring to ensure nutritional uptake is as expected.
One existing catheter means to locate a catheter involves using an electromagnetic coil positioned inside the catheter and an electromagnetic coil locating receiver outside of the patient's body to approximate and display the catheter position. However, these systems also have several disadvantages. For example, the electromagnetic coil is included as part of a wire assembly that must be inserted coaxially within the catheter, such as a stylet or a guide wire, and is separate from the catheter itself. Thus, the wire assembly must be re-inserted into the catheter each time the placement of the catheter is checked. Additionally, insertion of the wire assembly into the catheter may risk rupturing the catheter tube, which can then cause physiological damage to the internal organs of the patient.
Consequently, there is a need for a system for locating a catheter that only includes a single component being inserted into the patient. In particular, a catheter having an electromagnetic coil and a conductive polymer embedded therein would also be useful.

Two-in-one catheter and signal generating apparatus


An air purifier comprise a gas filter between an upstream air flow and a downstream air flow and a concentration sensor comprising a first electrode and a second electrode, the first electrode being exposed to the upstream air flow and the second electrode exposed to the downstream air flow, the concentration sensor providing an output signal based on the difference in concentrations of a target gas at the first and second electrodes. The output signal is processed to determine information relating to the condition of the gas filter.

Particle filters and gas filters are usually incorporated into an air purifier for filtering out airborne pollutants.
The lifetime of particle filters can be derived by checking the pressure drop caused. The pressure drop across the particle filter can be easily monitored in-situ and in real time using a differential pressure gauge. If the pressure drop increases beyond a pre-set threshold, the filter has been overloaded with particles surpassing its capacity, which means the filter has reached the end of its useful lifetime. This way of detecting the particle filter lifetime is in consistent with professional detection methods in laboratory and industry.
However, for detection of a gas filter lifetime, there is no such simple and reliable solution, which can satisfy the requirement of continuous in-situ monitoring at a low cost.
The gas filter has to be sent to a laboratory to follow the tedious procedures of a CADR (clear air delivery rate) degradation check. Alternatively, expensive professional instruments have to be leveraged twice to measure the gaseous pollutant level before and after the gas filter respectively. Employment of two independent sensors at both sides of the filter to check the pollutant concentration difference may not be reliable due to large sensor-to-sensor variation.
In-situ filter lifetime indication in known home air purifiers is based on airflow accumulation in different operating modes. In this way, a total volume of air flow through the filter is set for different operating modes, and this air flow volume is monitored and compared to a preset threshold. There is thus no feedback concerning the actual state of the filter.
This is an inaccurate estimation method and it does not reflect real filter conditions. It may either be risky to expose consumers to air pollution by running an ineffective filter, or not ecologically friendly due to replacement of an unexhausted filter.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a low-cost and in-situ solution for consumer applications which is able to reliably detect the filter condition and truly reflect the real lifetime.
Reliable methods to detect the filter lifetime for particle filters exist but unfortunately currently there are no suitable methods for gas filters.

Air purifier and air purification method


A system is disclosed that includes components and features for enabling enterprise users to securely access enterprise resources (documents, data, application servers, etc.) using their mobile devices. An enterprise can use some or all components of the system to, for example, securely but flexibly implement a BYOD (bring your own device) policy in which users can run both personal applications and secure enterprise applications on their mobile devices. The system may, for example, implement policies for controlling mobile device accesses to enterprise resources based on device attributes (e.g., what mobile applications are installed), user attributes (e.g., the user's position or department), behavioral attributes, and other criteria. Client-side code installed on the mobile devices may further enhance security by, for example, creating a secure container for locally storing enterprise data, creating a secure execution environment for running enterprise applications, and/or creating secure application tunnels for communicating with the enterprise system.

1. Field
The present application relates generally to mobile computing devices (smartphones, tablets, PDAs, etc.) and associated application programs, and to systems for automated or semi-automated management of devices used for accessing managed resources of an enterprise.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many enterprises (e.g., corporations, partnerships, academic institutions, etc.) maintain enterprise computer networks that allow enterprise users to access enterprise resources, such as hardware and software applications for email, customer relationship management (CRM), document management, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and the like. Also, many enterprises allow users to access the enterprise network via mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablet computers, and the like. In some cases, software applications running on the mobile devices exchange data with the enterprise network, some of which can become saved on the memory hardware (e.g., hard drives, SD cards) of the mobile devices.
A growing trend among businesses is to allow employees to use their personally owned mobile devices both to access company resources and the use and access their personal applications and data. This trend, known as BYOD (bring your own device) or BYOT (bring your own technology), significantly complicates the task of protecting enterprise resources, including confidential and/or sensitive information.
Reference numerals used in this specification are generally based on the first figure (in the above listing) in which the numeral appears. A reference numeral with a value between 100-199 first appears in FIG. 1, a reference numeral with a value between 200-299 first appears in FIG. 2, and so on.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that while certain figures of the present disclosure illustrate numerous items, these figures illustrate certain embodiments, and other embodiments may involve more or less than the items shown.

Modifying pre-existing mobile applications to implement enterprise security policies


A margin decoding communications system includes a circuit receiving a message encoded by an iterative code and processing the message into scores. A normalization process module receives the scores and iteratively approximates log-map normalization factors of the scores to generate approximation normalization factors. An element receives the message and the approximation normalization factors and decodes the received message based on the approximation normalization factors.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Underlying the success of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes and its acceptance into emerging digital video broadcasting (DVB-S2) and wireless standards (802.11, 802.12, 802.20) has been its fast and hardware realizable decoding process. Conventional LDPC decoders are either based on sum-product processes or use suboptimal min-sum (MS) processes. Both decoding processes are soft-decision processes that operate in either probability or log-likelihood ratio (LLR) domains and are amenable to parallel analog and digital hardware implementations. In particular, analog decoders are attractive over their digital counterparts because of their potential to achieve superior energy efficiency at fixed decoding speeds. Popular topology for analog LDPC decoders has been based on trans-linear circuits using either bipolar transistors or MOS transistors biased in weak inversion. Alternate analog topology based on min-sum approximation of sum-product process has been reported and has been mapped onto optical networks for high-speed decoding.
The LDPC decoding process can be expressed by equations in terms of a log-MAP formulation. LDPC codes are a class of binary linear block codes whose parity check matrix contains only a few 1's in comparison to the amount of 0s. An example of a parity check matrix H and its tanner or factor graph are shown in FIG. 1. A factor graph consists of variable nodes vk,k=1, . . . ,Nc which are connected to check nodes ci,i=1 . . . ,M using edges. The number of edges associated with each node (also known as degree of the node) is represented by dc for check nodes and as dv for variable nodes. The parity check matrix for LDPC code is represented by H(dv,dc).
For detailed treatment and analysis of LDPC decoding based on sum-product process, reference may be had to J. Hagenauer, E. Offer, and L. Papke, "Iterative decoding of block and convolutional codes," IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory, vol. IT-42, no. 3, pp. 429445, March 1996, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for any purpose. More briefly, let Vi denote a set of check nodes connected to the variable node vi and Vi˜j represent the set of check nodes other than cj that are connected to variable node vi. Similarly let Cj denote a set of variable nodes connected to the check node cj and Cj˜i represent the set of variable nodes other than the node vi connected to cj.
In a message passing process, each check node cj receives messages from its set of neighbors Cj (denoted by L(vi→cj)) and computes messages to be sent to the variable nodes viεCj (denoted by L(cj→vi)) according to
                                          L                                      (                                                c                  j                                →                                  v                  i                                            )                                =                      2                                                      tanh                                  -                  1                                                                          [                                                      ∏                                                                  v                        k                                            ∈                                              C                                                  j                          ~                          1                                                                                tanh                                                              (                                                                        L                          (                                                                                v                              k                                                        →                                                          c                              j                                                                                2                                            )                                                                      ]                                                                                (        1        )            where tan h(χ)=(exp(χ)−exp(−χ))/(exp(χ)+exp(−χ)). In subsequent iterations, the variable nodes vi receive messages from its check nodes cjεVi and re-computes messages (denoted by L(vi→cj)) that will be sent to the check node cj according to
                              L                                (                                          c                j                            →                              v                i                                      )                          =                              L                                      (                              v                i                            )                                +                                    ∑                                                c                  k                                ∈                                  V                                      j                    ~                    1                                                                                L                                                  (                                                            c                      k                                        →                                          v                      i                                                        )                                            .                                                          (        2        )            Messages are propagated back and forth between the variable and check nodes for a pre-determined number of iterations before a decision on the received bits is performed.
In LDPC decoding, the computationally intensive core is equation (1) which requires evaluations of hyperbolic function. Several approximations have been proposed in literature that approximate floating point computation of hyperbolic functions, some of which include the use of finite resolution look tables for digital implementations or a min-sum approximation for analog implementations. Equation (1) can be computed recursively according to the following process:                1) Initialize L(vi→cj)=−∞.        2) Repeat the following recursion for each element vjεCj˜i
                              L                                (                                          v                i                            →                              c                j                                      )                          ←                              log                                      [                                                1                  +                                      ⅇ                                                                  L                                                                          (                                                                                v                              i                                                        →                                                          c                              j                                                                                )                                                                    +                                              L                                                                          (                                                                                c                              j                                                        →                                                          v                              i                                                                                )                                                                                ⅇ                                          L                                                                    (                                                                              v                            i                                                    →                                                      c                            j                                                                          )                                                                              +                                      ⅇ                                          L                                                                    (                                                                              c                            j                                                    →                                                      v                            i                                                                          )                                                                                ]                                .                                    (        3        )
The update equation (3) is the fundamental operation for implementing LLR based LDPC decoders. For the sake of brevity, the operation (3) can be compactly represented as x←log(1+eχ+y)−log(ex+ey) where the arbitrary variables x, y represent the likelihoods. Before we introduce the log-MAP formulation and subsequently margin propagation, we will first decompose variables x and y into differential representations as x=x+−x− and y=y+−y− with x+,x−,y+,y−≧0. Such a decomposition is desirable for analog circuit implementation because a fully differential architecture is robust to common-mode interference. Equation (3) can be represented as the following differential updates:x+←log└ex++y++ex−+y−┘  (4)x−←log└ex++y−+ex−+y+┘  (5)Each of the updates (4), (5) are in the form of a "log-MAP" normalization which are popular in Bayesian network literature.

Board of Trustees of Michigan State University


A robot system includes: a robot including an end effector connected to an arm thereof; a vision sensor mounted to the robot; and a controller configured to output an operation signal that enables the robot to operate when an input is generated through a touch screen. Each of an object and a target to which the object is placed is inputted through the touch screen. The touch screen displays a recommendation region of the target in a distinguished manner.

The present disclosure relates to a robot system and a control method of the same.
Robots are machines that automatically process given tasks or operate with their own capabilities. The application fields of robots are generally classified into industrial robots, medical robots, aerospace robots, and underwater robots. Recently, communication robots that can communicate with humans by voices or gestures have been increasing.
For example, the robot may include an end effector capable of gripping an object and at least one arm capable of three-dimensionally moving or rotating the end effector. The end effector may pick an object, and then load the picked object on a target such as a table or a working table.
The robot may be operated by an operation tool such as a robot teaching pendent, and a worker may operate the operation tool such as the robot teaching pendent to adjust a position or an angle of the end effector.

Robot system and control method of the same


A sequence of multiple subimages is captured by an imaging sensor organized in multiple subsets of pixels. Each of the subsets of pixels is assigned to capturing a corresponding one of the subimages. For each of the subsets of pixels, a noise level of an output of the pixels of the subset is measured. Depending on the measured noise level, an exposure time for capturing the corresponding subimage is controlled.

Various kinds of electronic devices, e.g., smartphones, tablet computers, or digital cameras, may be equipped with increasingly sophisticated imaging functionalities. Such imaging functionalities for example include capturing of high dynamic range (HDR) still images or videos. Here, the term "HDR" means that a dynamic range concerning an ability to resolve features in regions of low luminosity and high luminosity of an imaged scene is increased as compared to conventionally captured images. This means that a certain contrast level allowing for resolving image details may be attained both in image regions of low luminosity and image regions of high luminosity, avoiding contrast limiting effects of under exposure or over exposure.
A typical way of capturing HDR images is to utilize an imaging sensor for capturing multiple (typically two or three) full resolution images in a row, using different exposure times, and then combine these images to the HDR image. However, due to the time offset between capturing the different images, the combined HDR image may suffer from blurring or ghosting of moving objects in the imaged scene and/or from overall blurring due to movement of the imaging sensor while capturing the different images. While such undesirable effects may in principle be reduced by decreasing the time offset between capturing the different images, such decrease of the time offset may often be limited by the utilized imaging sensor and associated image processing electronics. For example, detecting the outputs of all pixels of the imaging sensor and processing these outputs to obtain the desired image data may limit the time offset. In typical devices, the minimum supported time offset may be in the range 20 to 50 ms.
Accordingly, there is a need for techniques which allow for efficiently capturing high dynamic range images.

Noise level based exposure time control for sequential subimages


A valuable file identification method includes step 1: selecting a characteristic area of the valuable file, and extracting a valuable file characteristic for last classification; step 2: an input valuable file is fast classified according to the extracted valuable file characteristic in step 1 to gain the banknote kind, denomination, direction and image quality information of the valuable file, and the banknote with better image quality and bad image quality are selected; step 3: an image restoration technique is utilized based on a partial differential equation to restore the old banknote image; step 4: the new banknote is directly identified and the old banknote is identified via the restored image to judge the authenticity of the current banknote; step 5: a result is output. The method enables eliminating restoration treatment for images comprising good quality and uninterested area, and saving time and improving system processing efficiency. A valuable file identification system and a valuable file identification device are also disclosed.

With the rapid economic growth, circulation amount of the paper money become larger and larger, and therefore the traditional way of manual handling in the bank could hardly meet the requirements of handling large amount of paper money. To improve the efficiency of paper money handling and reduce labor costs, there is an urgent need to put a large amount of usable and reliable financial self-service equipments into market. However, a high proportion of the paper money in circulation are old paper money, and the image of most old paper money are degraded by handwriting, scratches, stain, folds, which make paper money identification more difficult. Since the present, the financial self-service equipments produced by the domestic and foreign manufacturers have poor adaptability for the damaged paper money and the old paper money, the financial self-service equipments put into the market present high paper money refusal rate and poor usability, and therefore impairing the popularization of the financial self-service equipments. If the image quality of the old paper money could be restored to that of the new paper money, it is possible to solve the problem that the financial self-service equipments have the high paper money refusal rate for the old paper money. At present, the image restoration technique based on the partial differential equation has get some progress, and can get well restoring performance when it is used to handle the degradation like scratches, handwriting, stain and folds. The studying contents of the image restoration based on the partial differential equation and image restoration of the old paper money are consistent. Therefore, it is possible to achieve well restoration performance by applying image restoration technique based on the partial differential equation to the image restoration of the bank note.
FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing the traditional bank note image identification processing. As shown, at first, the whole image is processed for image restoration to extract its features, then the bank note is classified according to the standards such as bank note type, denomination and new or old degree, and finally the bank note is identified.
T is designated as the identifying time for each bank note, ta is designated as the time for image processing, tb is designated as the time for feature extracting, ta is designated as the time for classifying, td is designated as the time for identifying, Tmax is designated as the time range for the real-time response of the system. When and only when the identifying system satisfies equation (1), the requirements for the practical application could be reached:T=ta+tb+tc+td T≦Tmax  (1)
For the old bank note which is degraded by handwriting, scratches, stain, folds, the degradation of the bank note will reduce the identification accuracy of the system. Under such circumstance, the system is firstly required to process the "whole image" of the bank note for image restoration, which will cost a lot of time, such that the image processing time ta become far greater than the classifying time tc, i.e. ta>>tc.
However, when applying bank note identifying system to financial self-service equipments, high real-time performance is required in which identification for each bank note has to be finished in limited time period. In the bank note identifying system of prior art, the "whole image" of the bank note is firstly processed for image restoration in identification procedure, which cost a large amount of time; furthermore, the bank note having good image quality is also processed for image restoration in prior art, which wastes the system resources. The identifying time for each bank note is increased sharply, such that the bank note identifying system could hardly meet the requirements of real-time Tmax, as specifically shown in equation (2):
                                                                                T                    ↑                                    =                                                                                t                        a                                            ↑                                              +                                                  t                          b                                                                                +                                          t                      c                                        +                                          t                      d                                                                                t                    a                                    >                                                            T                      max                                        -                                          (                                                                        t                          b                                                +                                                  t                          c                                                +                                                  t                          d                                                                    )                                                                                }                ⇒                  T          >                      T            max                                              (        2        )
Therefore, existing bank note identifying system refuse to process the old bank note, i.e. refuse to identify the old bank note, in order to improve the real-time responding speed, such that a large amount of old bank notes are rejected and the bank note refusal rate of the bank note identifying system is high, which affect the usability of the bank note identifying system as well as the popularity of the financial self-service equipments adversely.

Valuable file identification method and identification system, device thereof


The present invention relates to a system and method for providing power management to sensing nodes in a sensor network. A system may include a plurality of sensing nodes, each sensing node connected through a power management device to an external power source, such as a powered node of another network, for managing power from the external power source to the sensing node. Beneficially, a plurality of power management devices allow for a sensor network of fixed or mobile wireless sensing nodes or sensor gateways to make use of power from an external source such as an another network e.g. an existing emergency lighting system or other similar powered building system. Thus for example, a sensor or group of sensing nodes and their associated power management devices may be integral with or co-located in proximity to powered nodes of these other networks. An intelligent power management device connected to at least one of the sensing nodes may provide for power policy management to sensing nodes based on monitoring power conditions such as available power, power level status, and information obtained from the sensing nodes indicative of network conditions, detecting a change therein, and regulating power to the sensing node depending on the change.

Power management is a critical issue for sensing nodes in a sensor network. Since many sensing nodes are powered by batteries, it is apparent that for every function they perform their energy supply decreases. With potentially hundreds to tens of thousands of sensing nodes in a sensor network changing batteries of sensing nodes or refreshing rechargeable batteries can pose a difficult challenge. As such, sensing nodes typically use one or more techniques to mitigate this problem.
One such technique is to connect sensing nodes to regular electrical outlets using power plugs However, it is often impractical for sensor networks with a large number of sensors to be plugged into regular electrical outlets. Not only does it restrict sensor placement, it limits use of existing outlets by other equipment. Furthermore, dedicated wiring adds significant cost and may simply be impractical or undesirably expensive for retrofitting extensive sensor networks in existing buildings.
Another technique is the use of low power sensors and sophisticated power management processes to limit use of battery power, in which sensing nodes are configured to utilize very little power during their off duty cycles. Similar power management techniques try to keep the power draw as low as possible, such that the sensing nodes are sensing for only a small fraction of the time. However for sensing nodes that must run for the majority of the time or for high performance sensing nodes, this technique does not help because the battery power of a sensing node may only last for a matter of hours before it runs out. Furthermore, sensing nodes are used at less than full capabilities solely because of power limitations
Another technique is energy scavenging, which may include e.g. RF induction or the use of solar power. Although the addition of solar energy puts less strain on batteries of sensing nodes, there must be sufficient light to enable the device to be powered device at all times when required. This limitation puts restrictions on the placement of the sensing node, which could potentially affect sensor network performance.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method that can allow for more effective power management of sensing nodes in a sensor network.

System and method for providing power management in a sensor network


A running string for a subsea completion comprises an upper section (70) which may be a coiled tubing (CT) injector unit as shown, or a wireline lubricator (FIG. 8). A lower section (60) provides wireline/CT access to production/annulus bores of a tubing hanger (not shown) attached to tubing hanger running tool (62). A flow package (64) in the lower section (60), together with BOP pipe rams (86) and annular seal (88), directs production and annulus fluid flows/pressures to the BOP choke/kill lines (78/76). The upper and lower sections allow installation and pressure/circulation testing of, and wireline/CT access to, a subsea completion, without the use of a high pressure riser.

Typically tubing hanger installation for either a conventional or horizontal subsea Christmas tree system utilises a riser as a method of lowering the tubing hanger to the wellhead/Christmas tree and as a means of transporting fluids to and from the wellbore. The riser also acts as a means of transporting wireline and coiled tubing from the surface to the desired location. The typical arrangement of installation equipment is as shown in FIGS. 1a–1d, with FIG. 1a showing a "conventional" completion and FIG. 1b a horizontal completion. In FIG. 1a, a BOP 10 is landed on and sealed to a wellhead 12. A marine riser 14 extends from the BOP 10 to a drilling vessel (not shown). The completion landing string comprising a tubing hanger (TH) 16 and associated tubing (not shown), tubing hanger running tool (THRT) 18 and tubing hanger orientation joint (THOJ) 20 is lowered into the marine riser 14 on a dual bore high pressure riser 22. A controls umbilical 24 is secured to the riser 22 and extends from the drilling vessel to the THOJ and THRT. A surface tree 26 is secured to the riser 22 for control of well fluids. The corresponding FIG. 1b arrangement for a horizontal tree 28 comprises a BOP 32 secured to the tree 28, and a landing string comprising a THRT 30 for TH 34, a subsea test tree (SSTT) 36, an emergency disconnect package (EDP) 38, a retainer valve 40, a monobore riser 42 and a controls umbilical 44; all run through a marine riser 46. A surface tree 48 is secured to the monobore riser 42. If required, fluid communication with the tubing annulus may be established via the BOP choke and kill lines 45, 47, or via a separate external connection (not shown).
For wireline operations, a lubricator 50 is attached to either surface tree 26 or 48, as shown in FIG. 1c. Similarly, a tubing injector 52, comprising a tractor unit 54 and stuffing box 56, may be attached to the surface trees 26, 48 for coiled tubing (CT) operations.
The high pressure riser system represents a sigificant proportion of the installation equipment total cost and can, in the case of small projects, significantly affect the profitability of individual wells. Historically the riser systems, which are usually purpose designed pipe-pipe coupling equipment, are regarded as non-reusable and have long lead times to design and produce for each project. In the case of deepwater wells the time to run equipment can significantly affect the overall installed cost of a well. Furthermore, although some investigations into riserless drilling of the well have been carried out, completion equipment currently in use requires a high pressure riser for instaltion of the tubing hanger. This negates some of the cost savings available from riserless drilling. Therefore elimination of the riser system will significantly reduce project costs and lead times.
For deep water applications, a dynamically positioned installation vessel is typically used and emergencies concerning vessel station keeping are more likely to arise. This is of partcular concern during extended well flow testing. It is desirable to improve speed and reliability of emergency disconnection of the riser system from the BOP.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,310 (Cunningham) discloses a monobore completion/intervention riser system, providing a conduit for communicating fluids and wireline tools between a surface vessel and a subsea well. A ram spool is provided, engageable by BOP pipe rams, to establish fluid communication between an annulus bore and a choke and kill conduit in the BOP.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,130 (Laky) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,953 (Wong) disclose open water, subsea CT injectors and wireline lubricators, but do not suggest the use of such equipment in subsea completion operations, which normally utilise a BOP and marine riser attached to the wellhead.

Device for installation and flow test of subsea completions


There is provided a demodulator system comprising a first input to receive a first analog signal at a first rate; a second input to receive a second analog signal at the first rate; a MUX coupled to the first input and the second input to receive the first analog signal and the second analog signal, and to multiplex the first analog signal and the second analog signal to generate a multiplexed analog output; an ADC to receive the multiplexed analog output and generate a multiplexed digital output, the ADC operating at a second rate, the second rate substantially equal to the first rate multiplied by a total number of input analog signals; a DEMUX to receive the multiplexed digital output and generate a first digital output having a first bitstream and a second digital output having a second bitstream corresponding to the first analog signal and the second analog signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunication receivers. More particularly, the present invention relates to analog-to-digital converters in demodulators.
2. Background Art
In telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying a periodic waveform, i.e., a tone, in order to use that signal to convey a message, in a similar fashion as a musician may modulate the tone from a musical instrument by varying its volume, timing and pitch. Typically, a high-frequency sinusoid waveform is used as carrier signal. The three key parameters of a sinusoidal or sine wave are its amplitude ("volume"), phase ("timing") and its frequency ("pitch"), all of which can be modified in accordance with a low frequency information signal to obtain the modulated signal.
A device that performs modulation is known as a modulator and a device that performs the inverse operation of modulation is known as a demodulator. In digital modulation, an analog carrier signal is modulated by a digital bit stream. Digital modulation methods can be considered as digital-to-analog conversion, and the corresponding demodulation or detection as analog-to-digital conversion. The changes in the carrier signal are chosen from a finite number of alternative symbols. The most fundamental digital modulation techniques are: phase-shift keying (PSK), frequency-shift keying (FSK), amplitude-shift keying (ASK), and Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM).
Among these digital modulation schemes, PSK is a common digital modulation that conveys data by changing, or modulating, the phase of a reference signal or the carrier wave. PSK uses a finite number of phases, each assigned a unique pattern of binary bits. Usually, each phase encodes an equal number of bits. Each pattern of bits forms the symbol that is represented by the particular phase. The demodulator, which is designed specifically for the symbol-set used by the modulator, determines the phase of the received signal and maps it back to the symbol it represents, thus recovering the original data. This requires the receiver to be able to compare the phase of the received signal to a reference signal. Alternatively, instead of using the bit patterns to set the phase of the wave, it can instead be used to change it by a specified amount. The demodulator then determines the changes in the phase of the received signal rather than the phase itself. Since this scheme depends on the difference between successive phases, it is termed differential phase-shift keying (DPSK).
A convenient way to represent PSK schemes is on a constellation diagram. This shows the points in the Argand plane where, in this context, the real and imaginary axes are termed the in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) axes, respectively, due to their 90° separation. Such a representation on perpendicular axes lends itself to straightforward implementation. The amplitude of each point along the in-phase axis is used to modulate a cosine (or sine) wave and the amplitude along the quadrature-phase axis is used to modulate a sine (or cosine) wave. In PSK, the constellation points chosen are usually positioned with uniform angular spacing around a circle. This gives maximum phase-separation between adjacent points and thus the best immunity to corruption. The constellation points are positioned on a circle so that they can all be transmitted with the same energy. In this way, the moduli of the complex numbers they represent will be the same and thus so will the amplitudes needed for the cosine and sine waves. Two common examples are "binary phase-shift keying" (BPSK) which uses two phases, and "quadrature phase-shift keying" (QPSK), which uses four phases, although any number of phases may be used.
Now, FIG. 1 illustrates conventional QPSK receiver 100, which includes tuner 150 and demodulator 160. As shown in FIG. 1, tuner 150 receives analog signal 104, which is a composite signal with magnitude and phase (or I and Q) information. Tuner 150 includes oscillator 108 for generating a local oscillator signal at the carrier frequency, which is provided to phase modifier 110 for generating the carrier frequency at 90° and 0° phase shifts. Decomposer 106 of tuner 150 utilizes the carrier frequency at the 0° phase shift to extract the in-phase or I component of composite signal 104 that can be further processed by amplifiers and filters 112 to provide I signal 116 to demodulator 160. Also, decomposer 107 of tuner 150 utilizes the carrier frequency at the 90° phase shift to extract the quadrature or Q component of composite signal 104 that can be further processed by amplifiers and filters 114 to provide Q signal 118 to demodulator 160.
As further shown in FIG. 1, demodulator 160 includes first analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 120 and second ADC 122, which receive I signal 116 and Q signal 118, respectively, from tuner 150. First ADC 120 converts I signal 116 to I bitstream 124 and, similarly, second ADC 122 converts Q signal 118 to Q bitstream 126. Demodulator 160 also includes processor 128, which receives I bitstream 124 and Q bitstream 126 for data processing.
The conventional implementation shown by FIG. 1 has several drawbacks. One significant disadvantage of QPSK receiver 100 is that it requires two ADCs, first ADC 120 for I signal 116, and second ADC 122 for Q signal 118. Due to variabilities in the manufacturing process utilized to produce first ADC 120 and second ADC 122, they cannot be expected to be exactly the same, nor to perform identically. Consequently, operational parameters of the individual ADCs typically will be different. For example, the offset voltages VosI and VosQ, and the converter gains AvI and AvQ of respective first and second ADCs 120 and 122, shown in FIG. 1, may differ. Resultant mismatches between the performance of first ADC 120 and second ADC 122 can affect the performance of demodulator 160, and in some cases may prevent demodulator 160 from performing to its operational specifications. That, in turn, may lead to lower manufacturing yield, or require further expenditures of resources flowing from the need to include additional circuitry to compensate for the variabilities.
Additional significant drawbacks to the conventional implementation shown in FIG. 1 is that ADC circuits are among the largest circuits in terms of circuit area, and among the most voracious in terms of power consumption. This is particularly true for ADC circuits used in high-speed applications. While these latter disadvantages, by themselves, are sufficient to make circuits requiring multiple ADCs quite undesirable, when taken together with the drawbacks resulting from manufacturing variability discussed previously, they make the conventional implementation shown by FIG. 1 impractical for high-speed applications.
One conventional approach to avoiding use of two ADC circuits to perform demodulation in a QPSK receiver is shown in FIG. 2. Demodulator 260, in FIG. 2 may be seen to correspond to demodulator 160, in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 shows demodulator 260 receiving I signal 216 and Q signal 218 from a tuner, not shown in FIG. 2. For the sake of simplicity, analogues to tuner 150 and its constituent elements shown in FIG. 1 are not reprised in FIG. 2. Demodulator 260 includes first sample-and-hold circuit 230 and second sample and hold circuit 232, which receive I signal 216 and Q signal 218, respectively. Demodulator 260 also includes single ADC 220 and processor 228, corresponding respectively to one of ADCs 120 or 122, and processor 128, of demodulator 160 in FIG. 1.
First and second sample-and-hold circuits 230 and 232 allow I signal 216 and Q signal 218 to have their respective values captured and delivered sequentially to ADC 220. ADC 220, which is shown to be operating at twice the frequency of first and second sample-and-hold circuits 230 and 232, then converts I signal 216 to corresponding bitstream data, and Q signal 218 to corresponding bitstream data. Processor 228 receives I and Q bitstream 224 for data processing.
The apparent advantage of the conventional solution to eliminating one ADC from a demodulator used in a QPSK receiver, shown in FIG. 2, is the absence of a second ADC. This apparent advantage is significantly qualified, however, by drawbacks introduced by the requirement that two sample-and-hold circuits be provided to mediate delivery of I signal 216 and Q signal 218 to ADC 220. Those drawbacks include offsets to the circuit area and power consumption savings achieved through elimination of one ADC, by the additional circuit area and power consumption required for implementation of the two new sample-and-hold circuits. Furthermore, while signal mismatch due to performance variations between two different ADCs is now eliminated, signal mismatch due to performance variations between two separate sample-and-hold circuits is introduced. Moreover, due to resolution losses associated with operation of ADC 220 at high frequencies in the conventional art, the requirement in demodulator 260 that ADC 220 operate at twice the frequency of first and second sample-and-hold circuits 230 and 232, limits that implementation to low to moderate frequency applications.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by providing a demodulator for high speed applications.

System and method providing channel multiplexing for analog-to-digital conversion


A wall stone plate fixing attachment for fixing stone plates securely on a wall, comprising a position base fixed on a wall surface, a position head of a perferably hexagonal shape having a female-thread to engage a male-thread of the position base and an outer end surface bored with position holes, and a securing nail having a vertical wall to fit in a groove of a stone plate and a post with a distal portion and an intermediate small-diameter portion cut with a central slot so that the distal end can recover its original condition after compressed to pass through the holes in the position head to secure the securing nail with the position head so as to secure the stone plate with the securing nail.

Common stone plates for adorning a wall are 3 cm. thick, and secured on the surface of a wall by means of a wet process using mixture of mortar and seaweed powder. This method takes time and has a problem of insufficient binding force to keep stone plates in place.
Another method, a dry process shown in FIG. 7 utilizes bolts and hooks in securing stone plates, but between stone plates and a wall surface should have to reserve a cavity space with thickness of more than 10 cm, for mounting bolts. Consequently, this method necessitates a wall to be made thicker than an ordinary size, forcing a room space reduced a little, and a small room is not suitable for using such stone plates, but has to use plywood printed with stone grain design instead. An U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/753,087 titled "Adorning Stone Plate" is known, wherein stone plates are adhered together with support plates of plates of aluminum, and the support plates are fixed on a wall by means of bolts, bolt holes and notches.


The method for the active or automated control of the reservoir uses a reservoir model with available data such as seismic, log, and core data as inputs, and uses the reservoir model in conjunction with a reservoir simulation tool in order to determine a production strategy which will maximize certain criteria, e.g., profits. The production strategy may include fixed elements which are not easily altered once the wells go into production, and variable elements which can be adjusted without serious effort during production. The production strategy is implemented by drilling wells, etc., and fluids are then controllably produced from the reservoir according to the variable production strategy; i.e., fluid flow rates are monitored by sensors, and, by adjusting control valves, are kept to desired values (which may change over time) set according to the variable production strategy. According to another aspect of the invention, information gleaned as a result of the adjustments to the control means is used to update the reservoir model. As a result, the variable and fixed production strategies can be updated and implemented.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates broadly to the production of oil from subsurface geological formations. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods and apparatus for real time control of oil exploitation through active intervention in the process of the oil reservoir exploitation.
2. State of the Art
It is well recognized in the art that the monitoring of fluid movement in subsurface formations is essential in improving oil recovery techniques. Only by monitoring the reservoir is it possible to intervene in the recovery process in order to maximize recovery.
For many years, monitoring was carried out via the periodic logging of cased wells. More recently, monitoring has evolved into the continuous monitoring of pressure, temperature, and flow rates within the wellbore (See, e.g., Baker et al., "Permanent Monitoring," Oilfield Review, 7(4) 32-46 (1995)). Such continuous acquisition of data, when properly analyzed, has had the benefit of reducing production loss, because the analysis of the data has led to occasional intervention in the recovery process.
For example, decisions regarding oil production are presently most often based on decline curve analysis. (See, A. Satter and G. Thakur, Integrated Petroleum Reservoir Management, A Team Approach, Pennwell Publishing Company, Chapter 6 (1994). A detailed analysis is often carried out using standard reservoir simulators where factors such as optimal production/injection well placement are studied. Using history matching technique, an update to the reservoir model is carried out. Reservoir simulation is then complemented with results from data obtained from the well. As a result, determinations are made as whether to intervene in the recovery process (e.g., in order to increase production) such as by using an acid treatment, a fracture job, infill drilling, or the drilling of new wells to produce unswept oil. (See, Integrated Petroleum Reservoir Management, id.)
While the present techniques of monitoring and occasional intervention in the production process are useful in increasing production and reducing costs, these techniques are not ideal because they do not control the reservoir production in the shortest time scale of practical relevance ("real time"), but rather are reactive in nature to conditions that may have changed over a long period of time.

Real time monitoring and control of downhole reservoirs


A variable rack stroke system includes a rack housing in which a rack bar is slidably disposed, a casing attached to the rack housing, an annular rotary member, an annular stationary member, and a switch. The annular rotary member includes grooves on an inner periphery thereof that face each other, and first protrusions protruding from the rotary member in an axial direction that have different thicknesses. The rotational phase of the rotary member is adjusted by the motor. The annular stationary member includes protruding parts on an outer periphery thereof that face each other, configured to be inserted into the grooves, and second protrusions protruding from the stationary member in the axial direction, that have different thicknesses and face the first protrusions. The stationary member is coupled with a ball joint to be coupled with the rack bar. The switch adjusts the rotational phase of the motor.

In general, a variable rack stroke system adjusts the turning radius of a vehicle. In particular, when a steering wheel is fully turned, such as during a U-turn, the variable rack stroke system allows the vehicle to turn with a smaller turning radius by controlling the stroke of the rack bar.
The variable rack stroke system considers whether a snow chain is provided on a tire such that the space taken up by the snow chain between the wheelhouse and the tire can be used or not be used depending on whether the snow chain is provided on the tire. However, the space taken up by the snow chain is preset and does not take into account snow chains having various thicknesses.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.


In one aspect, an apparatus for reciprocating an infant support comprises a frame and a receiving member supported above the frame for substantially vertical reciprocating movement. The receiving member is configured to receive the infant support and, in one embodiment, is coupled to the frame by a reciprocating assembly configured to constrain the receiving member for movement in a substantially vertical translation motion. A motive device coupled to the receiving member reciprocates the receiving member relative to the frame. The apparatus may also include a counterbalance mechanism configured to offset the load of the infant and the infant support on the motive device. In another aspect, an apparatus for reciprocating a person comprises a base and a support surface for supporting the person thereon. The support surface is movable relative to the base for reciprocation in a substantially vertical motion. A motive device coupled to the support surface reciprocates the support surface relative to the base.

It is well known that agitated or crying infants, including infants which have been identified as exhibiting colicky symptoms, can often be soothed by rocking or bouncing. To alleviate the need for rocking and bouncing of an infant in the arms of a parent or other caretaker, many devices have been proposed to automatically bounce or rock infants to thereby sooth the infants and/or assist them in falling asleep. In general, these prior devices have been configured to provide rocking motion, or a combination of rocking and vertical bouncing motion.
While these prior devices have been beneficial, they have not always proved effective in soothing some infants. There is thus a need for an improved apparatus and method of soothing agitated infants which overcomes drawbacks of the prior art such as those discussed above.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Apparatus and method for reciprocating a person


A vertical Hall Effect element includes a low voltage P-well region disposed at a position between pickups of a vertical Hall Effect element to result in an improved sensitivity of the vertical Hall Effect element. A method results in the vertical Hall Effect element having the improved sensitivity.

Hall Effect elements that can sense a magnetic field are known. There is a variety of different types of Hall Effect elements, for example, a planar Hall element, a vertical Hall Effect element, and a circular vertical Hall (CVH) element.
As is known, some of the above-described Hall Effect elements tend to have an axis of maximum sensitivity parallel to a substrate that supports the magnetic field sensing element, and others of the above-described Hall Effect elements tend to have an axis of maximum sensitivity perpendicular to a substrate that supports the magnetic field sensing element. In particular, planar Hall elements tend to have axes of sensitivity perpendicular to a substrate, while vertical Hall Effect elements and CVH sensing elements tend to have axes of sensitivity parallel to a substrate.
Sensitivity is one parameter that can be used to characterize each one of the above types of Hall Effect elements. Sensitivity can be expressed, for example, in units of micro volts per Gauss per volt, i.e., μV/G/V, for which the micro volts per Gauss refers to an output voltage of the Hall Effect element per Gauss experienced by the Hall Effect element, and for which the volts refers to a DC voltage applied to drive the Hall Effect element.
In general, a high sensitivity is desirable, since the high sensitivity provides a good signal-to-noise ratio for an output signal generated by the Hall Effect element.

Vertical Hall Effect element with improved sensitivity


Universal linkers, their facile processes of manufacture and methods of using the same are provided.

Oligonucleotides have been used in various biological and biochemical applications. They have been used as primers and probes for the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), as antisense agents used in target validation, drug discovery and development, as ribozymes, as aptamers, and as general stimulators of the immune system. As the popularity of oligonucleotides has increased, the need for producing greater sized batches, and greater numbers of small-sized batches, has increased at pace. Additionally, there has been an increasing emphasis on reducing the costs of oligonucleotide synthesis, and on improving the purity and increasing the yield of oligonucleotide products.
A number of innovations have been introduced to the art of oligonucleotide synthesis. Amongst these innovations have been the development of excellent orthogonal protecting groups, activators, reagents, and synthetic conditions. The oligonucleotides themselves have been subject to a variety of modifications and improvements. Amongst these are chemistries that improve the affinity of an oligonucleotide for a specific target, that improve the stability of an oligonucleotide in vivo, that enhance the pharmacokinetic (PK) and toxicological (Tox) properties of an oligonucleotide, etc. These novel chemistries generally involve a chemical modification to one or more of the constituent parts of the oligonucleotide.
The term "oligonucleotide" thus embraces a class of compounds that include naturally-occurring, as well as modified, oligonucleotides. Both naturally-occurring and modified oligonucleotides have proven useful in a variety of settings, and both may be made by similar processes, with appropriate modifications made to account for the specific modifications adopted. A naturally occurring oligonucleotide, i.e. a short strand of DNA or RNA may be envisioned as being a member of the following generic formulas, denominated oligo-RNA and oligo-DNA, respectively, below:
wherein m is an integer of from 1 to about 100, and Bx is one of the naturally occurring nucleobases.
Physiologic pH, an oligonucleotide occurs as the anion, as the phosphate easily dissociates at neutral pH, and an oligonucleotide will generally occur in solid phase, whether amorphous or crystalline, as a salt. Thus, unless otherwise modified, the term "oligonucleotide" encompasses each of the anionic, salt and free acid forms above.
In essence, a naturally occurring oligonucleotide may be thought of as being an oligomer of m monomeric subunits represented by the following nucleotides:
wherein each Bx is a nucleobase, wherein the last residue is a nucleoside (i.e. a nucleotide without the 3′-phosphate group).
As mentioned above, various chemistry modifications have been made to oligonucleotides, in order to improve their affinity, stability, PK, Tox, and other properties. In general, the term oligonucleotide, as now used in the art, encompasses inter alia compounds of the formula:
wherein m is an integer from 1 to about 100, each G1a is O or S, each G2 is OH or SH, each G3 is O, S, CH2, or NH, each G5 is a divalent moiety such as O, S, CH2, CFH, CF2, —CH═CH—, etc., each R2′ is H, OH, O-rg, wherein rg is a removable protecting group, a 2′-substituent, or together with R4′ forms a bridge, each R3′ is H, a substituent, or together with R4′ forms a bridge, each R4′ is H, a substituent, together with R2′ forms a bridge, together with R3, forms a bridge, or together with R5′ forms a bridge, each q is 0 or 1, each R5′ is H, a substituent, or together with R4′ forms a bridge, each G6 is O, S, CH2 or NH, and each G7 is H, PO3H2, or a conjugate group, and each Bx is a nucleobase, as described herein (i.e. naturally occurring or modified).
The standard synthetic methods for oligonucleotides include the solid phase methods first described by Caruthers et al. (See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,750,666, incorporated herein by reference, especially columns 3-58, wherein starting materials and general methods of making oligonucleotides, and especially phosphorothioate oligonucleotides, are disclosed, which parts are specifically incorporated herein by reference.) These methods were later improved upon by Köster et al. (See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. RE 34,069, which is incorporated herein by reference, especially columns, wherein are disclosed, which parts are specifically incorporated herein by reference.) These methods have further been improved upon by various inventors, as discussed in more detail below. Methods of synthesizing RNA are disclosed in, inter alia, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,111,086, 6,008,400, and 5,889,136, each of which is incorporated herein in its entirety. Especially relevant are columns 7-20 of U.S. Pat. No. 6,008,400, which are expressly incorporated herein by reference.
The general process for manufacture of an oligonucleotide by the Köster et al. method may be described as follows:
First, a synthesis primer is prepared by covalently linking a suitable nucleoside to a solid support medium (SS) through a linker. Such a synthesis primer is as follows:
wherein SS is the solid support medium, LL is a linking group that links the nucleoside to the solid support medium via G3. The linking group is generally a di-functional group, covalently binds the ultimate 3′-nucleoside (and thus the nascent oligonucleotide) to the solid support medium during synthesis, but which is cleaved under conditions orthogonal to the conditions under which the 5′-protecting group, and if applicable any 2′-protecting group, are removed. T′ is a removable protecting group, and the remaining variables have already been defined, and are described in more detail herein. Suitable synthesis primers may be acquired from Amersham Biosciences under the brand name Primer Support 200™. The support medium having the synthesis primer bound thereto may then be swelled in a suitable solvent, e.g. acetonitrile, and introduced into a column of a suitable solid phase synthesis instrument, such as one of the synthesizers available form Amersham Biosciences, such as an ÄKTA Oligopilot™, or OligoProcess™ brand DNA/RNA synthesizer.
Synthesis is carried out from 3′- to 5′-end of the oligomer. In each cycle, the following steps are carried out: (1) removal of T′, (2) coupling, (3) oxidation, (4) capping. Each of the steps (1)-(4) may be, and generally is, followed by one or more wash steps, whereby a clean solvent is introduced to the column to wash soluble materials from the column, push reagents and/or activators through the column, or both. The steps (1)-(4) are depicted below:

In general, T′ is selected to be removable under conditions orthogonal to those used to cleave the oligonucleotide from the solid support medium at the end of synthesis, as well as those used to remove other protecting groups used during synthesis. An art-recognized protecting group for oligonucleotide synthesis is DMT (4,4′-dimethoxytrityl). The DMT group is especially useful as it is removable under weakly acid conditions. Thus, an acceptable removal reagent is 3% DCA in a suitable solvent, such as acetonitrile. The wash solvent, if used, may conveniently be acetonitrile.
The solid support medium may be controlled pore glass or a polymeric bead support medium. Some polymeric supports are disclosed in the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 6,016,895; U.S. Pat. No. 6,043,353; U.S. Pat. No. 5,391,667 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,300,486, each of which is specifically incorporated herein by reference.
wherein pg is a phosphorus protecting group, such as a cyanoethyl group. See, Köster et al., supra, for information on manufacturing of the amidite:
wherein NRN1RN2 is an amine leaving group, such as diisopropyl amino, and for teaching of suitable activator (e.g. tetrazole). Other suitable amidites, and methods of manufacturing amidites, are set forth in the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 6,133,438; U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,265; U.S. Pat. No. 6,124,450; U.S. Pat. No. 5,847,106; U.S. Pat. No. 6,001,982; U.S. Pat. No. 5,705,621; U.S. Pat. No. 5,955,600; U.S. Pat. No. 6,160,152; U.S. Pat. No. 6,335,439; U.S. Pat. No. 6,274,725; U.S. Pat. No. 6,329,519, each of which is specifically incorporated herein by reference, especially as they relate to manufacture of amidites. Suitable activators are set forth in the Caruther et al. patent and in the Köster et al. patent. Especially suitable activators are set forth in the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 6,031,092 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,476,216, each of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference.
The next step of the synthesis cycle is oxidation, which indicates that the P(III) species is oxidized to a P(V) oxidation state with a suitable oxidant:
wherein G1 is O or S.
The oxidant is an oxidizing agent suitable for introducing G1. In the case where G1 is oxygen, a suitable oxidant is set forth in the Caruthers et al. patent, above. In cases where G2 is sulfur, the oxidant may also be referred to as a thiation agent or a sulfur-transfer reagent. Suitable thiation agents include the so-called Beaucage reagent, 3H-1,2-benzothiol, phenylacetyl disulfide (also referred to as PADS; see, for example the patents: U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,114,519 and 6,242,591, each of which is incorporated herein by reference) and thiouram disulfides (e.g. N,N,N′,N′-tetramethylthiouram disulfide, disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,387). The wash may be a suitable solvent, such as acetonitrile.
The oxidation step is followed by a capping step, which although not illustrated herein, is an important step for synthesis, as it causes free 5′-OH groups, which did not undergo coupling in step 1, to be blocked from being coupled in subsequent synthetic cycles. Suitable capping reagents are set forth in Caruthers et al., Köster et al., and other patents described herein. Suitable capping reagents include a combination of acetic anhydride and N-methylimidazole.
Synthetic cycle steps (1)-(4) are repeated (if so desired) n−1 times to produce a solid support-bound oligonucleotide:
wherein each of the variables is as herein defined.
In general, the protecting group pg may be removed by a method as described by Caruthers et al. or Köster et al., supra. Where pg is a cyanoethyl group, the methodology of Köster et al., e.g. reaction with a basic solution, is generally suitable for removal of the phosphorus protecting group. In some cases it is desirable to avoid formation of adducts such as the N1-cyanoethyl thymidine group. In these cases, it is desirable to include in the reagent a tertiary amine, such as triethylamine (TEA) as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,465,628, which is expressly incorporated herein by reference. In general, where the nucleobases are protected, they are deprotected under basic conditions. The deprotected oligonucleotide is cleaved from the solid support medium to give the following 5′-protected oligonucleotide:
which may then be purified by reverse phase liquid chromatography, deprotected at the 5′-end in acetic acid, desalted, lyophilized or otherwise dried, and stored in an inert atmosphere until needed. Optionally, the G3H group may be derivatized with a conjugate group. The resulting oligonucleotide may be visualized as having the formula:

While many improvements have been made in the quality and costs of oligonucleotide synthesis, there still remain a number of improvements to be made. For example, impurities often arise in the synthesis of oligonucleotides. While the quantities of these impurities are generally small, it is desirable, where possible, to eliminate even trace amounts of impurities, especially when the oligonucleotides are intended for pharmaceutical use, including pharmaceutical testing and therapeutic use.
Standard methods of preparing succinyl-linked solid synthesis supports require relatively complex processes that are protected as proprietary knowledge by vendors of synthetic supports. The logistics of ordering and supply dictate that synthesis supports must generally be ordered months in advance of the time when they will be used, and may sit unused for days, weeks or even months after they are synthesized but before they are used. It has been discovered that certain synthesis supports can, on standing for periods of time, degrade, e.g. by losing protecting groups from protected nucleobases. It has been shown that loss of these protecting groups can give rise to high molecular weight species, e.g. branchmers, which occur when an oligonucleotide building block couples to an exocyclic OH or NH2 of a nucleobase, thereby giving rise to a branched species that can itself be extended. For example, it has been shown that the standard benzoyl protecting group for 5-methyl-2′-O-methoxyethyl cytosine (5-MeMOE C) is relatively rapidly lost from solid support medium-bound 5-MeMOE C, thereby providing an exocyclic primary nitrogen as a potential branching point during the following synthesis.
Universal building blocks and support media for oligonucleotide synthesis are disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2004/0152905 A1, published Aug. 5, 2004, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
There is thus a need for a synthesis support suitable for oligomer synthesis that could be used in conjunction with a variety of support media. There is further a need for a synthesis support that will be traceless to the synthetic product, i.e., no atoms are imparted form the linker to the synthetic product upon cleavage therefrom. This invention is directed to these, as well as other, important ends.