The present invention provides an adenovirus serotype 30 (Ad30) fiber amino acid sequence. The present invention also provides polynucleotides and expression vectors encoding an Ad30 fiber and viral particles and cells containing such expression vectors. The present invention further provides methods of treating genetic diseases or cancers in a mammal using the polynucleotides, polypeptides, expression vectors, viral particles and cells of the present invention.

Gene transfer for the correction of inborn errors of metabolism and neurodegenerative diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), and for the treatment of cancer has been accomplished with recombinant adenoviral vectors. High particle doses, however, are required for efficacy in mice and rats, and for the infection of large numbers of cells in monkeys. The delivery of such high particle loads has the negative side effect of inducing an immune response in vivo. Thus, gene transfer to brain tissues with adenovirus type 2 (Ad2) or Ad5 vectors is inefficient, which is also true for endothelia, smooth muscle, and differentiated airway epithelia. Methods that improve the efficiency of adenovirus-mediated gene transfer to cells of the CNS, or other target cells such as tumor cells, could reduce the particle load required to achieve sufficient levels of transduction. Improved efficiency could then reduce toxicity and increase the therapeutic index.
There is a continuing need for vehicles and methods for efficient adenovirus-mediated gene transfer of nucleic acids or proteins to cells, such as cells of the CNS or tumor cells.


An air-conditioning apparatus directly detects leakage of a plurality of types of refrigerant by computing refrigerant concentrations, and ensure safety. On the basis of calibration curve information, a computing device computes the concentration of heat source side refrigerant in a heat medium relay unit from detected information received from a concentration detecting device.

Hitherto, in an air-conditioning apparatus such as a multi-air-conditioning system for a building, a refrigerant radiates or absorbs heat as a result of the refrigerant being circulated between an outdoor unit, or in other words heat source, disposed outside the building, and an indoor unit disposed inside the building. The air-conditioned space is thus cooled or heated by the heated or cooled air. In such a multi-air-conditioning system for a building, multiple indoor units are connected, and there is often a mixture of stopped indoor units and running indoor units. The refrigerant pipes that connect the outdoor units to the indoor units may also reach up to a maximum of 100 m. As the refrigerant pipes become longer, large quantities of refrigerant fill the refrigeration cycle.
The indoor units of such a multi-air-conditioning system for a building are typically disposed and used in indoor spaces where people are present (such as office spaces, rooms, or stores). At this point, if for some reason the refrigerant leaks out from an indoor unit disposed in an indoor space, the refrigerant poses a major problem from the perspective of its influence on the human body and safety, as a refrigerant may be combustible or toxic depending on type. In addition, even assuming that the refrigerant is not harmful to the human body, the refrigerant leakage is expected to lower the oxygen concentration in the indoor space and exert an adverse influence on the human body. Thus, technology configured to stop the system (stop compressor operation) when the refrigerant leaks out from the refrigeration cycle has been disclosed (see Patent Literature 1, for example).


A method for fitting a hearing device comprises: receiving an audio signal in the hearing device; providing a user interface for inputting at least one modifier value into the fitting device, the modifier value indicating, how a sound property of the audio signal should be modified by the hearing device; processing the audio signal with a sound processor of the hearing device in dependence of the at least one modifier value, thus providing a processed audio signal; outputting the processed audio signal to a user of the hearing device; determining an modifier effectiveness value based on the audio signal, the modifier effectiveness value indicating how much a change of the at least one modifier value results in a perceptible change of the processed audio signal output to the user; and restricting the inputting of the at least modifier value in dependence of the modifier effectiveness value.

Hearing devices are generally small and complex devices. Hearing devices can include a processor, microphone, speaker, memory, housing, and other electronical and mechanical components. Some example hearing devices are Behind-The-Ear (BTE), Receiver-In-Canal (RIC), In-The-Ear (ITE), Completely-In-Canal (CIC), and Invisible-In-The-Canal (IIC) devices. A user can prefer one of these hearing devices compared to another device based on hearing loss, aesthetic preferences, lifestyle needs, and budget.
Before a hearing device and in particular hearing aids are used, these devices may be fitted to the needs of the user. In general, fitting is the adaptation of a hearing device to the long-term properties, hearing and/or usage preferences and/or situation specific hearing activities to the user of the hearing device. Fitting may be performed by a user of the hearing device and/or a hearing care specialist.
Fitting with real-life sounds or artificial sounds, such as favorite music, which are known by the user and unknown by the fitting system, may have a high potential in individualization of the hearing device towards specific hearing activities, comfort of this sounds.
However, fitting with sounds which are unknown by the fitting system may have disadvantages, since wrong parts and/or wrong parameters of the hearing device may be adjusted. This may result in the situation that a user may perceive no audible differences. If the user of the hearing device makes this experience, he/she may lose confidence and may never use the corresponding control anymore. If a hearing care specialist fits the wrong part of the hearing device and/or wrong parameters, the changes will not be audible by the user in real life and may lead to negative changes for other situations.
In EP 2 023 668 A2 a hearing aid is shown, which is also able to analyze or classify the current hearing situation. The hearing aid can send reference data to a remote control with regard to one or more psychoacoustic dimensions, so that a display can be scaled specifically for the hearing situation. The reference data also can be used to give the user hints to the range in which the respective acoustic variable can actually be changed in the hearing situation.
EP 1 601 232 B1 describes a hearing aid, which offers the user a large number of manual setting options. For this purpose, different setting functions are automatically assigned to the operating elements as a function of the acoustic environment in which the hearing aid is currently located. By programming the hearing aid device, it can be determined which setting functions are assigned to an operating element in the respective hearing situation.
In US 2004 071304 A1 fitting of a hearing device is described, which includes adjusting a plurality of sliders on a display, where each slider represents a different parameter for fitting the hearing device. Limits or constraints used in a graphical interfaces are controlled by the system providing the display of these graphical interfaces. The limits or constraints are effectively set by an authorized user, such as an administrator, using the graphical interfaces provided by the application program.
The reference symbols used in the drawings, and their meanings, are listed in summary form in the list of reference symbols. In principle, identical parts are provided with the same reference symbols in the figures.

Restricting hearing device adjustments based on modifier effectiveness


A method of treating or preventing vascular calcification in a patient by administering L-ascorbic acid or ascorbate to the patient and a pharmaceutical composition containing at least one statin and L-ascorbic acid or ascorbate in a dosage form that allows for the concomitant administering of the at least one statin and L-ascorbic acid or ascorbate to a patient.

Statins are also known as HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors and are a class of lipid-lowering compounds.
Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) carriers of cholesterol play an important role in the development of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease via the mechanisms described by the lipid hypothesis. Statins are effective in lowering the LDL cholesterol and so are widely used for primary prevention in people having a high risk of cardiovascular disease, as well as in secondary prevention for those who have developed cardiovascular disease.
Upon treatment with statins, patients exhibit side effects including muscle pain, increased risk of diabetes mellitus, and abnormal blood levels of liver enzymes.
In some patients, for example lovastatin leads to myopathy and asymptomatic, but marked and persistent increases in liver transaminases. The transaminase increase produced by lovastatin and other HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors is a direct consequence of the inhibition of the mevalonate synthesis. To counteract the increased transaminase levels observed in a small number of patients, U.S. Pat. No. 4,929,437 teaches the adjunct administration of an effective amount of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor and an effective amount of coenzyme Q10 in order to counter-act HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor-associated liver damage.
It has furthermore been known that statins increase vascular calcifications, which are a recognized risk factor for heart disease (Ikegami Y, Inoue I, Inoue K, Shinoda Y3, lida S1, Goto S4, Nakano T5, Shimada A1, Noda M1. The annual rate of coronary artery calcification with combination therapy with a PCSK9 inhibitor and a statin is lower than that with statin monotherapy. NPJ Aging Mech Dis 2018; 4:7).
In the recent analysis of 8 prospective randomized trials using serial coronary intravascular ultrasound, Puri et al. (Puri R, Nicholls S J, Shao M, Kataoka Y, Uno K, Kapadia S R, Tuzcu E M, Nissen S E. Impact of statins on serial coronary calcification during atheroma progression and regression. J Am Coll Cardiol 2015; 65:1273-1282) concluded that independent of their plaque-regressive effects, statins promote coronary atheroma calcification.
Still there is a controversy between arterial calcification being a well-established marker and prognoses index for cardiovascular disease development, statins stimulating effects on arterial calcification and apparent beneficial effects of statin supplementation on clinical events in CVD patients. Some researchers are providing a tending plausible explanation of these conflicting evidences to be a "special" mechanism of arterial calcification under statin treatments which results in greater lesion stability defined as fewer VH-thin-cap fibroatheromas and plaque ruptures and more calcified thick-cap fibroatheromas (Kadohira T1, Mintz G S, Souza C F, Witzenbichler B, Metzger D C, Rinaldi M J, Mazzaferri E L Jr, Duffy P L, Weisz G, Stuckey T D, Brodie B R, Crowley A, Kirtane A J Stone G W, Maehara A. Impact of chronic statin therapy on clinical presentation and underlying lesion morphology in patients undergoing percutaneous intervention: an ADAPT-DES IVUS substudy. Coron Artery Dis 2017; 28:218-224).
Vascular calcification is a relevant pathophysiological process that is associated with coronary atherosclerosis, and is a prognostic marker of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
Vascular smooth muscle cells (SMC) have an extraordinary capacity to undergo osteoblastic phenotypical differentiation. Calcification of the intimal and/or medial vascular cell layer leads to differentiation of osteoblasts whether from a smooth muscle cell, a mesenchymal cell, or vascular pericyte, characterized, among others, by increased alkaline phosphatase activity, osteocalcin production and bone matrix secretion. Biochemical mechanisms associated with the conversion of SMC into osteoblastic cells have been elaborated, however the decisive mechanisms of what triggers and/or regulates this process have remained largely elusive.
Recent studies showed that plaque calcification is a dynamic process and related to the degree of vascular inflammation. Several inflammatory factors produced during the different phases of atherosclerosis can induce the expression and activation of osteoblastic cells located within the arterial wall, which, in turn, promote deposition of calcium.
The presence of regulatory proteins along with dedifferentiated osteoblast-like cells was demonstrated to originate from vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) that were designated calcifying vascular cells. These cells are implicated in the synthesis/reabsorption of bone in atherosclerotic plaques, especially around calcification. Thus, it has been proposed that bone cell function in the vascular wall is, in some aspects, similar to that in bones. However, in vitro studies provided evidence that regulation of bone synthesis in the vascular wall and in the skeleton are different. When stimulated by oxidative stress or with oxidized LDL, osteoblasts of the skeleton and CVCs (a population of vascular cells with osteoblastic characteristics) showed opposing response, a decrease and increase of bone formation, respectively.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Ascorbate in the prevention of statin induced vascular calcification


A new and improved portable, immersible heat exchanger apparatus is provided for immersion into a quantity of material that is to cooled or heated. The apparatus includes a continuous copper tube assembly which is comprised of a straight, horizontal handle portion, a helically coiled immersion portion, and a vertically oriented, hook-shaped hanger portion. The top end of the immersion portion is connected to the handle portion; and the bottom end of the immersion portion is connected to the hanger portion. In use, the immersion portion is immersed in the material that is to undergo heat exchange. Tap water from a faucet is passed through the tube assembly to serve as a medium for heat exchange. The water enters the tube assembly at the handle portion, runs through the handle portion, the immersion portion, and the hanger portion, and exits from the end of the hanger portion. A flexible hose connects the handle portion to the water faucet. A first hose connector connects the flexible hose to the handle portion of the tube assembly, and a second hose connector connects the flexible hose to the water faucet. The portable, immersible heat exchanger apparatus may also include a movable thermometer support connected to the handle portion, and may also include a water-powered stirrer assembly, connected to the handle portion, for stirring the material.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to heat exchangers and more particularly, to a portable, immersible heat exchanger apparatus especially adapted to effect cooling of material placed in a container.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heat exchangers are well known in the art. Sometimes the heat exchanger is used for heating material. At other times the heat exchanger is used for cooling material.
In home brewing operations, a processing step requires cooling of a wort mixture. The wort mixture to be cooled can be located anywhere in the house. In this respect, it would be desirable to have a portable cooling apparatus that can readily be used at home for cooling wort anywhere in the house.
For convenience, it would be desirable to use tap water, such as from a garden hose or from a faucet in a sink or bathtub, to provide cooling water to cool the wort. In this respect, it would desirable if a portable cooling apparatus would be provided that can readily be carried to a source of tap water and readily connected to the source.
During the cooling operation, it would be desirable if temperature can be monitored so that when a desired temperature is obtained, the cooling operation can be stopped. In this respect, it would be desirable if a portable cooling apparatus would be provided with a mounting assembly for a thermometer.
Often, to improve efficiency in a cooling operation, it is desired that the material undergoing cooling is stirred as it is cooled. Stirrers are often driven by electric motors, and a potential electric shock hazard exists when water and electricity are both being used close together. In this respect, it would be desirable if a stirrer would be provided that is powered by the flow of the cooling water, rather than by electricity.
With respect to cooling apparatus, the following U.S. patents have been uncovered and may be of interest: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,511,165 of Schwaiger; 4,633,678 of Lea et al; 4,802,344 of Livingston et al; 4,835,985 of Ilvento; and Des. 269,148 of Trkla et al. More specifically, Schwaiger discloses a complex evaporator and cooler used in the brewing industry. Lea et al disclose a keg cooler that uses a quantity of crushed ice as a cooling medium. Livingston et al disclose a thermally insulated jacket for enclosing a precooled keg of beverage. Ilvento discloses a sleeve for accommodating kegs that employs crushed ice as the cooling medium. Trkla et al disclose a design for a beer keg cooler.
Thus, while the foregoing body of prior art indicates it to be well known to use portable coolers, the provision of a more simple and cost effective device is not contemplated. Nor does the prior art described above teach or suggest a portable cooling apparatus that can readily be used at home for cooling wort anywhere in the house. Also, the prior art does not provide a portable cooling apparatus that can readily be carried to a source of tap water and can be readily connected to the source. The prior art does not provide a portable cooling device that includes a mounting assembly for a thermometer. In addition, the prior art does not provide a stirrer that is powered by the flow of cooling water, rather than by electricity. The foregoing disadvantages are overcome by the unique portable, immersible heat exchanger apparatus of the present invention as will be made apparent from the following description thereof. Other advantages of the present invention over the prior art also will be rendered evident.

Portable, immersible heat exchanger apparatus


The present invention relates to novel plant expression constructs. More specifically the present invention provides DNA constructs comprising 5′ regulatory sequences for modulating the expression of operably linked genes in plants.

One of the goals of plant genetic engineering is to produce plants with agronomically important characteristics or traits. Recent advances in genetic engineering have provided the requisite tools to produce transgenic plants that contain and express foreign genes (Kahl et al., World J. of Microbiol. Biotech. 11:449–460, 1995). Particularly desirable traits or qualities of interest for plant genetic engineering would include but are not limited to resistance to insects, fungal diseases, and other pests and disease-causing agents, tolerances to herbicides, enhanced stability or shelf-life, yield, environmental tolerances, and nutritional enhancements. The technological advances in plant transformation and regeneration have enabled researchers to take exogenous DNA, such as a gene or genes from a heterologous or a native source, and incorporate the exogenous DNA into the plant's genome. In one approach, expression of a novel gene that is not normally expressed in a particular plant or plant tissue may confer a desired phenotypic effect. In another approach, transcription of a gene or part of a gene in an antisense orientation may produce a desirable effect by preventing or inhibiting expression of an endogenous gene.
In order to produce a transgenic plant, a construct that includes a heterologous gene sequence that confers a desired phenotype when expressed in the plant is introduced into a plant cell. The construct also includes a plant promoter that is operably linked to the heterologous gene sequence, often a promoter not normally associated with the heterologous gene. The construct is then introduced into a plant cell to produce a transformed plant cell, and the transformed plant cell is regenerated into a transgenic plant. The promoter controls expression of the introduced DNA sequence to which the promoter is operably linked and thus affects the desired characteristic conferred by the DNA sequence.
It would be advantageous to have a variety of promoters to tailor gene expression such that a gene or gene(s) is transcribed efficiently at the right time during plant growth and development, in the optimal location in the plant, and in the amount necessary to produce the desired effect. For example, constitutive expression of a gene product may be beneficial in one location of the plant but less beneficial in another part of the plant. In other cases, it may be beneficial to have a gene product produced at a certain developmental stage of the plant or in response to certain environmental or chemical stimuli. The commercial development of genetically improved germplasm has also advanced to the stage of introducing multiple traits into crop plants, often referred to as a gene stacking approach. In this approach, multiple genes conferring different characteristics of interest can be introduced into a plant. It is important when introducing multiple genes into a plant that each gene is modulated or controlled for optimal expression and that the regulatory elements are diverse in order to reduce the potential of gene silencing. In light of these and other considerations, it is apparent that optimal control of gene expression and regulatory element diversity are important in plant biotechnology.

Glyphosate resistant plants using hybrid promoter constructs


A laminated, optically transparent, ballistic resistant structure is described as having a first transparent layer, a second transparent layer of ceramic tiles spread across the first layer, and a third transparent layer. The first and third layers are bonded to opposite sides of the second layer, respectively, by transparent adhesive. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

All law enforcement, peacekeeping and military communities are often faced with the need to observe potentially hostile environments through protective shielding of some configuration. Transport vehicles such as aircraft, vehicles or vessels often suffer in adequate protection from ballistic and fragmentation threats through the windshields and surrounding windows and/or view ports. Protection of all vehicles in the combat theater has become a seriously realized requirement over the past few years due to urban deployments where typical ballistic stand-off distances are no longer afforded, and improvised explosive devices are becoming more prevalent. Some of the personal protection applications of transparent armor would be protective visors, guard shack glazings, transport vehicle, vessel and aircraft applications, currency transport vehicles, medical, communications and scientific research and development transparency applications.
The current existing transparent armor systems are typically comprised of several layers of either of the following materials: glass, polycarbonate or acrylic, adhered together by polyvinyl butylral (PVB) or urethane adhesive interlayers. The resulting armor structure can have multiple layers of the same material, or it may use a combination of any of the three depending upon the primary and any other secondary threat considerations. The four most utilized transparent ballistic and fragmentation resistant armor materials are as follows.
Bullet resistive glass laminates are relatively heavy and thick, and are manufactured with multiple layers of annealed glass, and polyvinyl butylral (PVB) interlayers from 0.015 inches to 0.120 inches thick. They can pass ballistic and fragmentation ratings and are generically not required to eliminate spall. Anti-spalling components have to be added to the existing already thick glazing, on the rear or protected side. Once attacked, the glass unit will become cracked and partial glass loss to either side will be noticed depending upon whether no spalling or low spalling is specified. Spalling is the exit of glass toward the protected or safe side during an attack, regardless of projectile penetration/access. Typical no-spalling materials utilized are polycarbonate sheet attached to the safe side of the transparent armor system, or a two part film composite manufactured from a 7 to 10 mil thick polyethylene terephthalate (PET) facing film with a 15 or 30 mil (thousandths of an inch) thick polyvinyl butylral (PVB) primary adhesive attached to the safe side of the transparent armor system.
Acrylics are lightweight synthetic materials with excellent optical clarity and a high degree of break resistance. They do offer limited ballistic resistance. However, acrylic glazing materials are highly combustible thermoplastics, and as such, support flames and emit toxic fumes when burned. They are also extremely susceptible to a loss of clarity through scratching, gouging and ultraviolet (UV) exposure. Acrylics once attacked exhibit large cracking and loss of the acrylic material especially during ballistic and heavy fragmentation attacks.
Polycarbonates are lightweight synthetic materials with many times the break resistance of equal thicknesses of plate glass with excellent optical clarity. Similar to acrylics, polycarbonates are susceptible to a lesser degree to scratching, gouging and yellowing from ultraviolet exposure. They too are not fire resistant and emit toxic fumes when burned, but are much more difficult to ignite, and generally have the capability to self-extinguish once flame is removed. Polycarbonates once attacked may show signs of slight delamination between layers directly surrounding a ballistic/fragmentation attack, and will encapsulate the bullet, depending upon composition and speed.
Glass-clad polycarbonates are composite glazings made by sandwiching a polycarbonate sheet between laminations of glass and PVB or urethanes; or by laminating a polycarbonate sheet to the backside of laminated glass as an anti-spall shield.
More recently, transparent ceramics (also referred to in some circles as glass-ceramics) have been showing significant ballistic performance capabilities at substantially reduced weights and overall thicknesses over the conventional glass/plastic systems. Polymeric material advancements, such as improvements in the optical properties of polyurethanes, have shown promise in their combined use with ceramics for further reductions in the overall weight of the finished transparent systems.
Both current and future requirements of military and peacekeeping organizations will involve regular combat actions in urban hostile environments, where single vehicles or supply convoys are at much at risk as organized troop formations. This brings with it the realization that all military and security personnel are at risk. There is also a need for reduced logistical burden in the theatre of operation, such that there is a continued strive for transportation systems that possess reduced weight and operational costs, with increased maneuverability and payload capability. This can be made possible by reducing the weight burden of the armor components. Preferably, such armor components should also not be overly thick, and should have the capability to withstand multiple repeat hits.

American Development Group International, LLC


A method and an apparatus for multimedia data management are disclosed. The method provides an indexing and retrieval scheme for digital photos with speech annotations based on image-like patterns transformed from the recognized syllable candidates. For annotated spoken content, the recognized n-best syllable candidates are transformed into a sequence of syllable-transformed patterns. Eigen-image analysis is further adopted to extract the significant information to reduce the dimensionality. Vector quantization is applied to quantize the syllable-transformed patterns into feature vectors for indexing. The invention of indexing scheme reduces the dimensionality and noise of data, and achieves better performance of 16.26% for speech annotated photo retrieval.

The rapid growth of Internet and the popularity of digital image capture devices, such as digital video camera, digital camera, and digital video recorder, provide more channels for the user to easily obtain multimedia data. As the user acquires more multimedia data, the difficulty of multimedia data management also increases.
Although there exist several multimedia data management methods and systems, most of the existent methods and systems use text or language-to-text to describe, index and retrieve the multimedia data. The current multimedia data annotation and search technologies can be categorized as four types: text-based annotation and search, speech-to-text-based annotation and search, graphical analysis search, and speech annotation and search.
The text-based annotation and search method is simple, but has the disadvantages of requiring long text input and being constrained by the system keywords in the annotation and search process. U.S. Pat. No. 6,833,865 disclosed an embedded metadata engine in digital capture devices. By adding the image content analysis function to the digital image capture device, the extra information related to the contents can be automatically generated through the image content analysis function, and stored with the original image data. However, this patent is only suitable for dynamically generating annotation for the image, but did not disclose any method for searching images.
The speech-to-text-based method requires speech recognition device, which leads to the language-related constraints. U.S. Pat. No. 6,397,181 disclosed a method and apparatus for voice annotation and retrieval of multimedia data. The speech input is used in annotation, and a speech recognition technique is used to transform the speech into text. The text annotation is used to generate a reverse index table. The search also uses speech input, which is used to generate a search keyword through speech recognition technique. The reverse index table is then used to find the matching multimedia data.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,499,016 disclosed a method for automatically storing and presenting digital images using a speech-based command language. The speech-to-text approach is used in annotation, and the text is used in search. The user can use the speech to annotate the picture in real-time when using a digital camera. With a plurality of commands, statement speech input, the annotation, such as time and place, can be sent to the server with the image. The server uses speech recognition to transform the speech to the text for storage. Based on the text annotation, the user can use a keyword to dynamically generate a photo album for viewing.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,813,618 disclosed a system and method for acquisition of related graphical material in a digital graphics album. The patent uses text search to achieve the object of finding a graphic with another graphic. The user can search the network to find the related images.
To use the graphical analysis in search, the system requires the capability of graphical analysis. Although the user does not need to annotate each picture, the user can only search for graphics, and the user must first find the graphic to use for the basis for the search; therefore, it is difficult to precisely analyze the graphical contents. The article "An active Learning Framework for Content-Based Information Retrieval" in Multimedia, IEEE Transactions on Vol. 4, Issue 2, June 2002, pp. 260-268, disclosed a content-based information retrieval technique to construct an attribute tree for marking the images.
There are several methods using voice search, including direct comparison between the search condition and the annotated original voice data, or using voice recognition to transform the voice into N-gram combination to construct an index vector, and then performing voice indexing. The former requires a large amount of time in comparison when the data volume is large, and the latter is restricted by the language-dependent characteristics.
Although all the above four types of multimedia data annotation and retrieval technologies are used, all these technologies have their respective issues as stated above, and are language-dependent, therefore, the user is restricted to the use of certain languages or voices.
It is, therefore, imperative to provide a simplified data management method, a fast mechanism to search for multimedia data, and a voice and language independent indexing and searching method.

Multimedia data management by speech recognizer annotation

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A system for displaying luminescence comprises a crystalline structure comprising a compound having the formula: EQU .alpha.-CuAlX.sub.4. wherein the compound has lattice parameters a=b ranging from 5.430(1) .ANG. to 5.751(3) .ANG.; c ranging from 10.069(1) .ANG. to 10.570(4) .ANG.; and X is selected from the group consisting of chlorine, bromine, and a mixture thereof. The crystalline structure may also include a compound of the formula: EQU .beta.-CUAlCl.sub.4. wherein the compound has lattice parameters a=7.635(2) .ANG., b=12.842(2) .ANG., and c=6.127(1) .ANG.. The system also includes an excitation source which transmits energy to the crystalline structure such that the crystalline structure displays luminescence. The crystalline structure is also useful in a gas sensor application since the luminescence of the crystalline structure is capable of being quenched in the presence of gaseous material.

Separation of potentially harmful environmental pollutants, specifically gases, is increasingly important. As an example, carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas produced as a by-product during the combustion of fossil fuels. With the growth of fossil fuel consumption, there remains an ever increasing need for carbon monoxide separation.
Recent efforts have focused on the preparation of materials which adsorb or complex with carbon monoxide to clean the gas stream containing that compound. For example, Japanese Patent No. 84-69206; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,984 to Christianson et al. proposes various metal halide materials which complex or adsorb with CO. Nonetheless, in spite of these efforts, there remains a need to monitor the actual adsorption or complexing of the carbon monoxide.
Monitoring of CO has traditionally been difficult due to the odorless and colorless nature of the gas. It would be especially desirable to signal when potentially dangerous levels of the gas are present. Moreover, in gas separation applications, monitoring the system so as to signal when the separation of the gas is near end to allow for regeneration of the adsorbing materials for subsequent use would be advantageous.

Luminescent copper aluminum halide materials


The present invention provides a control circuit having a multi-function terminal. The control circuit comprises a switching circuit, a sample-and-hold circuit, a detection circuit, and a comparator. The sample-and-hold circuit is coupled to the multi-function terminal for generating a sample voltage by sampling the feedback signal during a first period. The detection circuit is coupled to the multi-function terminal during a second period for generating a detection voltage. The comparator compares the detection voltage and the sample voltage for generating an over-temperature signal, wherein the over-temperature signal is couple to disable the switching signal.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a power converter, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a control circuit having a multi-function terminal of power converter.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 1 shows prior art of a power converter. The power converter comprises a boost converter 30, a controller (CNTR) 50, a thermal device 40 and a voltage divider developed by resistors 41 and 42. The boost converter 30 includes an inductor 10, a transistor 15, a rectifier 20 and a capacitor 25. One terminal of the inductor 10 receives an input voltage VIN. The other terminal of the inductor 10 is connected to an anode of the rectifier 20 and a drain of the transistor 15. A source of the transistor 15 is connected to a ground. A gate of transistor 15 is coupled to a switching terminal SW (not shown) of the controller 50 and controlled by a switching signal SW. A cathode of the rectifier 20 is connected to one terminal of the capacitor 25. The other terminal of the capacitor 25 is connected to the ground. An output voltage VO is generated across the capacitor 25 and is the same as an output of the boost converter 30. The output of the boost converter 30 is also an output of the power converter.
The controller 50 generates the switching signal SW to switch the transistor 15 for producing the output voltage VO of the power converter. A feedback signal VFB is generated at a joint of the resistors 41 and 42 of the voltage divider in response to the output voltage VO. The feedback signal VFB is applied to a feedback terminal FB (not shown) of the controller 50 for generating the switching signal SW and regulating the output voltage VO. An over-temperature signal SOT is generated from the thermal device 40 coupled to the controller 50 for over-temperature protection. That is to say, the controller 50 performs over-temperature protection in accordance with the over-temperature signal SOT generated by the thermal device 40.

Multi-function terminal of power supply controller for feedback signal input and over-temperature protection


A polymer electrolyte has improved leakage resistance and a lithium battery uses the polymer electrolyte. The polymer electrolyte includes a polymerization product of a polymer electrolyte forming composition that includes a multi-functional acrylate based compound, at least one selected from the group consisting of polyalkylene glycol di(meth)acrylates and polyalkylene glycol (meth)acrylates, and an electrolytic solution containing a lithium salt and an organic solvent.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a polymer electrolyte and a lithium battery using the same, and more particularly, to a polymer electrolyte having effective leakage resistance, and a lithium battery using the polymer electrolyte.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lithium secondary batteries using liquid electrolytic solutions use an organic solvent having a low boiling point to enhance low-temperature performance. However, the use of a low-boiling point organic solvent may give rise to swelling of an electrode assembly or the case of a pouch battery that is allowed to stand at high temperature, resulting in deterioration of reliability and safety of the battery under a high temperature condition.
To overcome these problems, a method of using solid polymer electrolytes has been proposed. Using solid polymer electrolytes reduces the danger of leakage of an electrolytic solution, thus increasing improved safety of a battery, unlike in the case of using liquid electrolytes.
However, using solid polymer electrolytic solutions decreases ionic conductivity compared to the case of using liquid electrolytes. Thus, in order to practically use solid polymer electrolytes in lithium secondary batteries, research must focus on solid polymer electrolytes having high ionic conductivity and effective electrochemical stability.
Linear polymers or crosslinkable polymers of homopolymers or copolymers basically having ethylene oxide are generally used as monomers of ionically conductive polymers for forming the solid polymer electrolytes.
However, the polymers formed from such monomers are susceptible to crystallization, so that the characteristics at low temperature are less effective. Also, since ethylene oxide has a strong affinity to an electrolytic solution, the polymers may move with the electrolytic solution by interaction between the electrolytic solution and the polymer chains decreasing the mobility of lithium ions.
To overcome the above-described problem, a multi-functional acrylate base compound is used in the manufacture of a polymer electrolyte.
However, such a multi-functional acrylate based compound has low polarity so that it exhibits low compatibility with a liquid electrolytic solution, forming a non-homogenous gel. Low compatibility between a monomer and an electrolytic solution reduces leakage resistance. A lithium battery using the polymer electrolyte with low leakage resistance has considerably reduced reliability.

Polymer electrolyte with effective leakage resistance and lithium battery using the same


An ink builder to build an ink for a hard copy device. The ink has at least one property that deteriorates in storage. The ink builder comprises an ink tank and apparatus for building ink in the ink tank from a plurality of components and/or an ink maintaining apparatus arranged to inhibit deterioration of the at least one property of the ink in the ink tank. The ink builder may be used in cooperation with a separate hard copy device to which the ink tank can be transferred. Methods of producing hard copies using such a hard copy device are also disclosed.

In some printers and other hard copy devices, the composition of the ink used is continually monitored and adjusted and/or replenished in use. For example, in a liquid-ink electrostatic printer, the ink solution may consist of a blend of ink concentrate and conductivity agent in an oil. In use of such an electrostatic printer, the ink solution is replenished by a solution often consisting of fresh oil, ink concentrate, and conductivity agent as needed. The solution is constantly mixed, for example, by being circulated by a pump, to produce a uniform composition.
If the level of ink concentrate or conductivity agent becomes too high, or if the ink solution becomes contaminated, or if it is desired to substitute a different ink solution, it has in the past been generally necessary to drain the relevant ink tank on the printer, clean the ink tank and pipe-work, refill the ink tank with clean oil, and build up the ink solution to a usable concentration of ink concentrate and conductivity agent. Both the cleaning and the rebuilding of the ink solution take considerable time, during which the printer is unable to print. Because the ink solution generally requires continual mixing, if the printer is powered down for an extended length of time the ink concentrate and oil content separates, and must be cleaned out either at shutdown or at startup, and the ink solution must be rebuilt before the printer can be brought back into operation.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


An oxidized and maleated fatty acid composition, especially an oxidized and maleated tall oil fatty acid-containing product useful in formulating corrosion inhibitors and for use as an emulsifier, especially for petroleum-related applications.

Catalytic (thermal) polymerization of tall oil fatty acids produces a product known as dimer/trimer acid which the oil industry has traditionally employed as an oil-soluble corrosion inhibitor for reducing corrosion in oil well piping and related recovery equipment. The thermal polymerization causes the C18 tall oil fatty acids (containing one or two double bonds, e.g. oleic and linoleic acids, respectively), in the presence of a suitable catalyst, to give varying amounts of C36 (dimerized) and C54 (trimerized) fatty acids. These dimer and/or trimer fatty acids may be neutralized with an appropriate amine, such as diethylenetriamine, to produce a corrosion inhibitor. The dimer/trimer acid-based product is said to inhibit corrosion by coating metal surfaces with a thin film, thereby excluding the water necessary for corrosion processes to occur.
Over the years, the corrosion inhibition art has looked for alternatives to the dimer/trimer acid-based product. Of particular interest in this regard is the class of fatty acid-based products which have been functionalized with maleic anhydride and/or fumaric acid.
Thus, according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,927,669, tall oil fatty acid (TOFA) is functionalized using maleic anhydride, or fumaric acid, in the presence of a catalyst such as iodine, clay or silica. The fatty acids are reacted in a first step to promote a Diels-Alder reaction with linoleic acid, the product then being distilled to remove unreacted fatty acid. In a second step, non-conjugated acid, e.g., oleic/elaidic acids, are treated under more vigorous conditions to form an ene adduct. Residual unreacted fatty acid is removed. The product is said to contain 75 to 95% maleinized fatty acids, 15 to 20% thermal dimer and trimer and unreacted fatty acid and is useful as a corrosion inhibitor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,292,480 condenses the maleic anhydride-functionalized TOFA of U.S. Pat. No. 4,927,669 with a polyalcohol, such as ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol, polyethylene glycol, glycerin, pentaerythritol, trimethylolpentane, and sorbitol to form an acid-anhydride ester corrosion inhibitor, which in turn may be neutralized with an amine, with a metal oxide, or with a hydroxide before use. U.S. Pat. No. 5,385,616 is similar in describing the reaction product of the maleic anhydride-functionalized TOFA of U.S. Pat. No. 4,927,669 and an alcohol (ROH).
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,582,792, the maleic anhydride-functionalized TOFA is esterified (as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,385,616 and then is reacted with an ethoxylated amine, such as an ethoxylated fatty amine. The composition is useful for corrosion inhibition.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,759,485 describes a class of water soluble corrosion inhibitors in which the maleic anhydride-functionalized TOFA (specifically the Diels-Alder reaction adduct with linoleic acid) is neutralized with aminoethylethanolamine and also with one of imidazoline, amidoamine or a combination thereof. Canadian Pat. 2,299,857 describes a similar corrosion inhibitor made by reacting (neutralizing) maleated TOFA with alkanolamines.
As evidenced by the foregoing prior art attempts to develop corrosion inhibitors based on maleated TOFA, those skilled in the art continue to explore new techniques and compositions for using tall oil-related raw materials in manufacturing new corrosion inhibitors and other products.


A two-stage optical fiber amplifier requiring substantially reduced power comprises a pre-amplifier first-stage operating in the linear region within the small signal limits, and a post-amplifier second-stage operating in a saturated regime providing significant gain compression. The pump power for the pre-amp stage is minimized, and all of the gain compression occurs in the second stage. Minimum pump power and the corresponding amplifier fiber length needed to achieve a predetermined optimum amount of small signal gain required in a given amplifier application may be achieved in variations of the design.

Optically amplified transmission systems offer important advantages over current optical fiber transmission systems using electrooptic regenerators which include higher bit rate capability and multichannel transmission via wavelength division multiplexing. The optical fiber amplifiers previously have been configured in two stages for the purpose of achieving both high gain and high signal output power. An example of a single-stage optical amplifier is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,949, issued Sep. 24, 1991, and assigned to Applicants' assignee. An example of a prior art two-stage optical fiber amplifier design is disclosed in the article "High Gain Two-Stage Amplification with Erbimum-doped Fibre Amplification" by Masuda and Takada in Electronics Lett. 26, 661 (1990).
In these prior art teachings, minimizing the pump power of the optical fiber amplifier typically is not of concern because of the availability of continuous and adequate power. Minimizing pump power and at the same time maintaining sufficiently high gain and signal output is critical, however, to several important applications of optical fiber amplifiers. Battery-powered short-haul underwater telecommunications systems and data communications systems internal to automotive vehicles are two such instances.
In attempting to adapt a conventional two-stage optical fiber amplifier to a system with a low power requirement, simply lowering the pump power substantially sacrifices performance. Thus, prior art two-stage optical fiber amplifiers and single-stage amplifiers as well do not suffice where a substantially reduced pump power requirement must be met.


The present disclosure discloses an image processing method and apparatus. The image processing method comprises: obtaining a two-dimensional image; determining a target area on the two-dimensional image, wherein the two-dimensional image includes a background area and a target area, and the background area is an area outside of the target area; detecting a location of the target area on the two-dimensional image; selecting, according to the location of the target area on the two-dimensional image, a default processing manner used to perform blurring processing on pixels of the background area; and performing the blurring processing on the pixels of the background area according to the default processing manner. The present disclosure solves a problem that in the prior art, the blurring processing manner cannot be adjusted accordingly depending on different target areas on the an image. Therefore, for different target areas, corresponding blurring processing manners thereof are adopted.

Depth of field refers to a range behind and in front of a focus point that appear sharp. Depth of field can decide whether to blur a background to highlight a photographed object or display a sharp background. For a two-dimensional image, a depth of field effect may be simulated by performing some processing, so as to achieve the objective of highlighting an object on an image.
An existing depth of field effect simulation solution usually adopts a pinhole imaging model based filtering solution. In the solution, a depth value z of each pixel is calculated according to a standard pinhole camera model; a circle of confusion (a circle of confusion: on an imaging plane in front of, or behind, or near a focal plane, light rays from a point light source do not focus on a point, so that the image becomes a circle of confusion) for each sampling point is calculated according to the depth value z, aperture, focus length, and the like; a final value of each pixel is determined by a weighted average of all circles of confusion covering the pixel thereof. In the solution, in a simulation calculation process based on a pinhole imaging model or a lens model, the focus length and aperture parameters of a camera needs to be know in advance; however, in actual application, it is difficult to obtain camera photographing parameters of any two-dimensional image with accuracy, so that application scenarios of the solution are restricted, and the depth of field effect simulation cannot be performed on any two-dimensional image. In addition, because the calculation process of the solution needs to depend on parameters of a camera, the calculation process is complex and the calculation amount is huge.
In addition, a solution of blurring a background layer by layer around a human face area is adopted. The solution is blurring the background layer by layer around the human face area based on a human face recognition technology. The disadvantages thereof lie in that the human face recognition technology only applies to portrait scenarios; and in this solution, depth of field is simulated by adopting a manner of performing gradient blurring around a center, and parameters for blurring processing are fixed, so that the blurring processing manner cannot be adjusted accordingly depending on different target areas on the an image and a single depth of field effect is appeared; therefore, the impact of pixel depth information on the blurring degree thereof cannot be effectively reflected. However, the depth of field effect photographed by an actual camera varies depending on focus length, aperture, and object distance, which results a feature of one-way or two-way gradient blurring. A target area is an area where a highlighted object is located.

TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY LIMITED


An optical transmission system including an optical transmission device and an optical reception device that receives, via an optical transmission line, a signal transmitted from the optical transmission device, the optical transmission system including a transmission-mode selection unit that selects transmission mode information in descending order of priority out of transmission mode information, which is combinations of a plurality of parameters concerning transmission performance, the transmission mode information being a plurality of kinds of the transmission mode information common to the transmission performance of the optical transmission device and the optical reception device, a signal transmission unit that transmits, to the optical reception device, a signal modulated based on the selected transmission mode information, and a signal reception unit that receives the signal and modulates the received signal based on the transmission mode information selected by the transmission-mode selection unit.

Along with the improvement of functions of digital signal processing (hereinafter referred to as "DSP") for optical transmission, in addition to modulation schemes, various parameters concerning transmission performance such as baud rates, types of error correction codes such as FEC (Forward Error Correction), and the number of carriers have increased, and transmission modes have been diversified. For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a method of selecting an optimum modulation scheme based on a training signal.

Optical transmission system and transmission mode selecting method

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation


An optical scanner having a weighted adaptive threshold value determination for generating a one-bit representation of a scanned original. The optical scanner comprises an optical detecting unit which provides a discrete signal representing pixels in a scanned region and first device for generating a first weighted discrete signal which is a weighted version of the discrete signal representing pixels in a scanned region. The optical scanner further comprises second device for providing a filtered signal which is a filtered version of the weighted discrete signal and third device for generating a second weighted signal, being a weighted version of the filtered signal. A comparison device produces a binary output as a function of the discrete signal representing pixels in a scanned region and the second weighted signal.

In general, when optical scanners scan, they generate an electronic signal representing grey tone values for points along lines across the scanned document. The grey tone values are typically represented as a digital multi-bit signal.
On documents, like e.g. technical drawings, to be scanned by an optical scanning system, it is possible to define three terms: foreground, background, and information content. The background represents the color or tone of the document, e.g. white or colored paper. The information content is typically in form of lines or characters, whereas the foreground represents the appearance of the information content in black or dark grey tones.
On a document both the background and the foreground may fluctuate across the document. This may be due to the fact that the original is dirty or multi-colored. Further characters and lines are often smeared or smudged, and are sometimes written with either very light strokes that are difficult to detect, or very heavy strokes that tend to broaden and run together when imaged. When originals with these real-life characteristics are scanned and converted into a one-bit image, a simple global threshold value is not appropriate.
Many types of histogram methods have been proposed for thresholding, but they have the drawback that either they must set a global threshold value for the document, or they must be based on sections of the document in order to be computationally feasible. These methods are characterized by trying to estimate the histogram minimal position that best discriminates the information content from the background. If the threshold value determination is based on histograms for sections of the document, it is difficult to select a global contrast or `dark/light` setting.
In order to obtain a better suppression of unwanted background patterns, that is e.g. the dirt and multicolor, and to overcome problems of an altering foreground, adaptive or dynamic threshold value determination is used. U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,020 discloses a method of providing local threshold values for zones on a original based on statistically determining the local threshold values in response to the frequency distribution of grey level values belonging to points from line segments in a zone.
These prior art adaptive threshold value determination methods, however, do not overcome a particular problem: for a typical drawing, the background constitutes the major part of the entire document area. In such a case the pixel values from the scanned document are a bad statistical material for adaptive threshold value determination because the goal is to discriminate the information content from the unwanted background patterns.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,314 discloses a method which, to some extent, overcomes this problem by incorporating an equalizing function in front of a 2D spatial moving average filter which provides a threshold value for a one-bit comparison. Due to the fact that the threshold comparison operates on an equalized (and filtered) set of pixel values which do not preserve the mean value in the scanned original, the equalizing function has to be selected quite close to a linear function. For a typical real-life document this method is limited because it does not provide a sufficient threshold value accuracy.

Optical scanner using weighted adaptive threshold


A cutting machine includes a suction duct that is movable with a cutting head of the cutting machine, using a common drive. The suction duct is disposed beneath the workpiece support and coupled to the motion unit supporting the cutting head so that it moves with the motion unit while an opening of the suction duct remains positioned below the cutting head during a cutting operation. The suction duct removes cutting debris and dust, and protects underlying machine components from beam damage.

During cutting of workpieces, such as metal sheets, with a beam (e.g., laser beam, flame or the like) it is generally necessary to remove debris and dust from the cutting area. This is often done using suction, typically using stationary, large volume suction chambers that are disposed beneath the workpiece support.
It has been proposed, in JP10137943, to provide a cutting system having a dust collecting device that is located under the workpiece support and that follows the cutting head using a separate drive.


Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for sharing data. The technique includes receiving data in a central system from one or more client systems, performing a matching process on objects of data in the central system to determine if there are similar objects in the central system, mapping object identifications of similar objects to each other if there are similar objects in the central module, and providing the object mapping information to a process.

The present invention relates to data processing and to data management systems.
Information technology ("IT") environments can consist of many different systems performing processes, such as business processes, on common master data. The different systems can be part of the same entity or can be part of different entities, such as vendors or contractors. The master data used for the processes can be stored in a number of different locations, systems, and/or incompatible formats. Branch offices of a company can work largely independently, adopted companies can introduce new software solutions to a group of affiliated companies, systems from different vendors can be linked. Different master data models can make it difficult to integrate business processes in these scenarios.
Master data can become trapped and siloed in different systems. Master data that is not aligned across an IT environment can lead to data redundancies and irrelevant or incorrect information. For example, if two local branches of the an international company each have the same local branch of a second international company as a business partner, each international business partner can be maintained twice, with no correlation between the two "business partner" master data objects. This can result in high costs for redundant multiple content maintenance. Further, business analytics performed with redundant or obsolete information can result in poor business decisions. In the above example, a company-wide analytic process can fail to detect the correlation between the "two" partners, and business value that could be leveraged out of recognizing these business partners as international business partners with two local branches would be lost.

Collaborative master data management system for identifying similar objects including identical and non-identical attributes


Compositions and methods of use thereof are disclosed. One exemplary composition, among others, includes a polymer resin and a photoacid generator. In particular, the composition includes a polymer resin, wherein the polymer resin does not substantially absorb about 1 to 450 nanometer (nm) wavelength energy; and a photoacid generator, wherein the photoacid generator does substantially absorb about 1 to 450 nanometer (nm) wavelength energy.

Future microlithography methods that will replace current 248 nm wavelength exposure processes may include processes based on 193 nm, 157 nm, or Extreme-Ultraviolet (EUV, ˜13 nm) wavelengths. At these extremely low wavelengths, the design of transparent polymers, and thus photoresists based on such polymers, is a difficult problem due to the tendency for a wide variety of organic groups to absorb strongly in this ultraviolet wavelength range. Alternative functional groups, polymer backbone architectures, photoresist additives, and photoresist design and formulation strategies will be required to meet this challenge of developing new photoresists for these lower wavelength lithographic methods.


The invention relates to water-based prolamin (e.g., zein) compositions and to methods of making water-based prolamin compositions. The compositions may be used in paints, printing inks, varnishes, adhesives, glues, binders (e.g., for paper), food coatings, and the like.

Prolamins are a class of plant proteins (e.g., zein from corn) that are high in prolamin and glutamine but are deficient in polar amino acids. Because of this deficiency, prolamins are difficult to maintain in an aqueous environment. Typically, prolamins (e.g., zein) are soluble in aqueous alcohol and/or ketone solutions, for example, about 40% to about 95% weight alcohol and/or ketone at room temperature.
The use of zein as the solid in coating compositions has been limited by its solubility properties. Zein is soluble in aqueous alcohol and/or ketone solutions, for example, about 40% to about 95% weight alcohol and/or ketone at room temperature. The use of organic solvents in the preparation of polymer coating formulations is viewed as a disadvantage as the formulations may have problems with flammability, carcinogenicity, and safety in use. Additionally, the use of organic solvents may not be favored due to environmental concerns. In view of the foregoing, what is desired is a method for preparing a flowable liquid composition for delivering a prolamin (e.g., zein), where the liquid portion of the flowable composition comprises primarily water, and does not include an appreciable amount of an organic solvent.

Water-based prolamin compositions, methods of making water-based prolamin compositions, and applications thereof


Embodiments are directed to managing data in a file system that includes a plurality of storage nodes and a plurality of storage volumes in a cloud computing environment. Metrics associated with each storage volume may be monitored. In response to the metrics exceeding a threshold value, performing further actions, including: determining storage volumes that are unhealthy based on the metrics that exceed the threshold value; updating metadata associated with the storage volumes to indicate that the storage volumes are unhealthy; decoupling the unhealthy storage volumes from storage nodes coupled to the unhealthy storage volumes; determining replacement storage volumes based on the metadata associated with the unhealthy storage volumes; updating other metadata associated with the replacement storage volumes to indicate that the replacement storage volumes are healthy storage volumes; and coupling the healthy storage volumes with the storage nodes that were coupled to the unhealthy storage volumes.

Modern computing often requires the collection, processing, or storage of very Large data sets or file systems. Accordingly, to accommodate the capacity requirements as well as other requirements, such as, high availability, redundancy, latency/access considerations, or the like, modern file systems may be very large or distributed across multiple hosts, networks, or data centers, and so on. File systems may include many storage volumes that may be subject to failure.
In some cases, file systems may be hosted or implemented in cloud computing environments. Accordingly, similar to conventional file systems, one or more virtualized components of file systems in cloud environments may experience various types of failures associated with one or more virtualized component, including storage volumes. Failures in cloud environments may introduce complications or considerations that may be different than those experienced in conventional file system operating in non-cloud environments. Thus, it is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.

Managing cloud storage for distributed file systems


A system includes processor hardware and memory hardware that stores instructions. The instructions include, in response to receiving a request, determining a request type of the request, retrieving a first set of collected information, and selecting a first set of instructions corresponding to the request type. The instructions include constructing a first result by executing each instruction of the first set of instructions to create the first entry as a nested entry within the first result including data of the first set of collected information identified in the first set of instructions as nested or retrieve first data of the first set of collected information identified by the first instruction and add the first data to the first entry of the first result. The instructions include transforming a display of the operator device to complete a set of fields displayed on the display with corresponding entries of the first result.

Digitization of handwritten forms often results in the content of the forms being extracted into a single type of data structure. For example, a third party can perform such data collection and provide the extracted data in a database available to an entity requesting the data collection. For the entity to access and read the extracted data, data analysis must be done individually on each type of form and a developer with technical knowledge needs to create a custom solution for each form. These custom solutions then fetch the extracted data for a given form, find the important fields, and inject these fields into a process performed by the entity.
This data transformation is cumbersome and overwhelming for developers because completing all the forms would require substantial time away from other tasks. Moreover, debugging and troubleshooting is difficult as each form might use a different solution created by a different developer. The sheer number of forms, all with different teams and different developers, would result in multiple custom solutions that would all fix the same problem. Maintenance of these solutions would also require highly skilled developers.
The background description provided here is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.

Systems and methods for configurable ordered transformation of database content


A method and system allow a hand-held digital camera to access and store large volumes of digital image data utilizing a wireless communications link between a host computer and the camera. In an embodiment of the invention, imaging optics and a photosensor array capture image data that represents an image of a subject. A transceiver integrated into the hand-held digital camera then transmits the image data to a host computer via a wireless communications link. The host computer stores the image data, or a copy of the image data, and retransmits related image data or, alternatively, the same image data back to the hand-held digital camera via the wireless communications link. Once the image data is received by the hand-held digital camera, an electronic image is formed by a display device that is integrated into the camera. The host computer may process the digital image data into enhanced digital image, thereby enabling the camera to display an enhanced electronic image of a subject. The communications link between the hand-held digital camera and the host computer can transfer data at a sufficiently high bandwidth to provide virtually real-time feedback to a computer operator.

A digital camera captures an image of a particular subject using an imaging system that includes an optical lens and a photosensor array, such as a charged coupled device (CCD). The imaging system "captures" a set, or frame, of digital image data that represents a particular subject at the time that the frame is captured. Each frame of digital image data can be stored in a memory for subsequent viewing on a display, printing onto paper, or downloading to a computer system. Because of the inherent space limitations of a hand-held digital camera, memory capacity for storing frames of digital image data within the camera is limited.
In addition to having storage capability, hand-held digital cameras are able to process digital image data to enhance the resolution and overall quality of an image that is presented to a viewer. In order to perform increasingly complex image enhancements, additional processing capability is required on-board a hand-held digital camera, but because of the inherent space limitations of hand-held digital cameras, processing capability is limited.
Hand-held digital cameras are available in which a still image of a subject can be viewed from a display device located within the hand-held digital camera. In hand-held digital cameras with image display capability, the problems of memory and processing limitations are magnified.
One technique used to overcome the memory limitations of hand-held digital cameras is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,921, entitled "CCD Digital Camera System With Selectable Memories," issued to Sawanobori. In the Sawanobori patent, a detachable memory card is inserted into a hand-held digital camera and digital image data is transferred to the memory card. When the storage capacity of the memory card is reached, the memory card can be removed from the camera and replaced with a new memory card. A concern with the Sawanobori technique is that the memory cards themselves have limited storage capacity. A second concern is that the memory cards must be manually replaced when memory capacity is reached, creating a delay and a distraction to the operator of a hand-held digital camera.
Another technique that is employed to address the memory limitations of hand-held digital cameras is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,170 entitled "Hand-Manipulated Electronic Camera Tethered To A Personal Computer," issued to Parulski et al. (hereinafter '170). In the '170 patent, an electronic camera is linked to a computer by a cable and an interface protocol is utilized to allow the camera to transmit image data over the cable and into a memory device of the computer. Disadvantages of the technique are that the hand-held digital camera must be "tethered" to the computer by a cable in order to accomplish data storage and that the technique only allows data transfer in one direction, from the camera to the computer, eliminating the possibility of viewing previously stored images on the display device of the hand-held digital camera.
A technique for overcoming the memory limitations involving the wireless transmission of electronic image data from an electronic hand-held camera is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,159, entitled "Electronic Camera System With Programable Transmission Capability," issued to Parulski (hereinafter '159). In the '159 patent, an electronic camera is detachably coupled to a portable computer that has a display module and a radio-frequency transmitter module. The system is able to transmit electronic image data to a selected base unit using standard wireless communications techniques. While the technique is intended to be used to send facsimile images of a subject to a fax machine, the technique can be adapted to allow corresponding facsimile image data to be stored in a properly equipped computer. A disadvantage of the technique is that image data is transferred in only one direction, from the camera/computer combination to a base unit. Another example of a wireless transmission technique used to transmit electronic image data is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,441, entitled "Electronic Camera With Memory Card Interface To A Computer," issued to Parulski et al (hereinafter '441). In the '441 patent, electronic image data is transmitted from an electronic hand-held camera with no display capability to a computer via a wireless transmission link. The computer that receives the data is relied upon to perform image processing, image data storage, and image display. While the '441 patent provides a high speed interface for transferring image data from a hand-held camera to a computer, a disadvantage of the '441 patent is that the hand-held camera does not have image display capability and the interface does not allow image data that is stored on the computer to be transmitted back to the hand-held camera for viewing.
What is needed is a hand-held digital camera system that has a built-in image display device and high capacity image data storage. In addition, what is need is a hand-held digital camera system that can display high quality images for viewing immediately after an image is captured.


Fluorescent tubes are arranged such that their arrangement spaces gradually become wider in central area than in edge areas, fluorescent tubes located in the vicinity of the central area of an arrangement direction are bent into chevron-shapes such that the central parts of the longitudinal directions of the fluorescent tubes become crests which provide access to a diffusion plate, respective two adjacent fluorescent tubes which are straight tubes are connected to one another, thereby constituting pseudo U-shaped tubes, and an AC power is supplied through terminals lined up along one side of a direct-type backlight device. A reflector plate is bent so as to match with the curvature of the bent fluorescent tubes, and is formed with a protrusion which allows the fluorescent tubes located in the vicinity of the central area of the arrangement direction to be raised so as to protrude toward a diffusion plate.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a direct-type backlight device and a liquid crystal television apparatus and, more particularly, to a liquid crystal television apparatus employing the direct-type backlight device.
(2) Description of Related Art
Generally, in a display apparatus which is to be viewed away from a screen of the display apparatus, particularly, in a television apparatus or the like, a viewer's attention is prone to be concentrated on a central part of the screen. The viewer is prone to feel that image quality is excellent in a case where the central part of the screen is brighter than a peripheral part of the screen. In the light of this actual situation, the television apparatus is designed such that the peripheral part of the screen becomes dark about 30% as compared to the central part of the screen. Of course, this tendency also applies to a liquid crystal display apparatus and a liquid crystal television apparatus. Therefore, in a liquid crystal display apparatus or a liquid crystal television apparatus which employs a direct-type backlight device, if a backlight in which straight tubes are merely lined up is employed, the viewer is likely to be discontented with image quality.
In order to dissolve the discontent of the viewer, the idea that U-shaped tubes are arranged in face-to-face relationship with one another and raised at central parts thereof, whereby brightness in the central part of the screen is enhanced is previously employed. Moreover, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-327165 discloses a light emitting device in which fluorescent tubes formed into W-shapes, fluorescent tubes, the number of bending of which is increased, or the like as well as U-shaped tubes are employed, thereby to allow an area in the vicinity of a central part of a light emitting surface of the light emitting device to become bright. Also, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-347062 discloses a backlight device and a liquid crystal display device in which fluorescent tubes are arranged such that their arrangement spaces in the vicinity of a central area corresponding to a central part of a display screen become narrower than their arrangement spaces in a peripheral area corresponding to a peripheral part of the display screen, or fluorescent tubes in the vicinity of the central part of the display screen are arranged so as to come closer to a diffusion plate as compared with fluorescent tubes arranged at an area positionally corresponding to the peripheral part of the display screen, or a reflector plate having a chevron shape in cross-section which extends along longitudinal directions of the fluorescent tubes is arranged, whereby luminance in an area in the vicinity of the central part of the display screen is enhanced.
In the conventional art, an inverter drive method is realized by employing an inverter for each of the fluorescent tubes or by employing an inverter per two fluorescent tubes connected to each other, thereby constituting a pseudo W-shaped tube, according to the number of the fluorescent tubes to be used. When an inverter is employed for each of the fluorescent tubes, inverter substrates are required on the left and right and the number of inverters to be required is increased. On the other hand, when a pseudo W-shaped tube constituted by two U-shaped tubes is employed, there is a possibility that brightness unevenness is easy to occur in a central part and both ends of the W-shaped tube.
Moreover, in the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-327165, the shape of the fluorescent tube is special, so that an increase in cost is not avoided. Also, in the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-347062, attention is given to the longitudinal direction of the fluorescent tube but consideration of brightness unevenness in a width direction of the fluorescent tube is not taken.

Direct-type backlight device and liquid crystal television apparatus


An add-on adapter 110 enables a single charging port 102 of an electric vehicle charging station 100 to simultaneously charge two electric vehicles. An adapter controller 120 determines the available charging rate offered by the charging station. Electric vehicle charging handles 150A, 150B are determined to be connected to the electric vehicles. A charge sharing control circuit 300 in the adapter controller, determines modified available charging rates to be offered for simultaneously charging the electric vehicles. The modified available charging rates are based on the connection states of the electric vehicles and the available charging rate offered by the charging station. The adapter controller controls two contactors 130A, 130B to switchably connect a charging station power socket to the electric vehicle charging handles, to provide shared power at the determined modified available charging rate to the electric vehicles, for simultaneous charging.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention disclosed relates to electric vehicle supply equipment.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Plug-in electric vehicles (EVs), including all-electric cars, neighborhood electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, are becoming a popular mode for personal transportation, in part because they are less expensive to operate and have a reduced carbon footprint. To support the increased number of EVs, more charging stations with more charging capacity must be made available. A typical commercial or residential electric vehicle charging station, also called an Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE), has a single charging port to which may be connected a charging cable. The charging cable has a charging handle at its other end, whose connectors are inserted into a vehicle inlet for delivering electric power from the premises wiring to the electric vehicle. Only a single electric vehicle may be connected at a time to the charging port of the typical EVSE. The EVSE charging capacity is limited by circuit breakers and branch circuits of the installed infrastructure upstream of the EVSE, as well as the capacity rating of the EVSE itself.
A system is needed to allow increasing the number of available charging ports of an EVSE installation, without requiring an increased system capacity, and without requiring modification of the installed infrastructure upstream of the EVSE, such as rewiring the user's residence. Attempts have been made in the past to address this need by providing an EVSE add-on adapter with multiple charging ports that are sequentially powered. However, such a solution imposes a wait time for those EVs that are not first in line to be charged. Other attempts have required separate branch circuits to power each charging port of a multi-port EVSE.


An error correction coding method and apparatus which can correct errors generated during the transmission or the storage, or the receiving or the reproducing of a digital image. The error correction coding method according to the present invention comprises the steps of: dividing one image into blocks to prevent the deterioration of the quality of a screen by preventing the generation of burst errors in a header during the transmitting or storing of the image information in the form of digital signals; compressing and coding each divided block into a block code having a header and video information; separating and arranging the compressed and coded header and video information so that successive headers do not overlap; and adding parity data into the separated and arranged header and video information. The apparatus for carrying out the error correction coding method of the present invention comprises an image divider, a data compressor, a parity data insert portion, and a data interleave portion. The data interleave portion comprises a demultiplexer, first and second memories, first and second counters, and first and second multiplexers.

Coding techniques are generally used when a large amount of image information is first compressed and then coded to be transmitted or stored. One method of compressing the information involves dividing the whole image into small blocks. In this case, the compressed information consists of information generated in the unit of a pixel (hereinafter, referred to as video information) and information generated in the unit of a block (hereinafter, referred to as header information). Deterioration of the quality of the picture generated by an error in the header information is more severe than that generated by an error in the video information.
There are two types of errors, burst errors and random errors. Generally, random errors can be corrected by error correction coding systems, but burst errors cannot be corrected. Error correction coding systems therefore commonly use a method called shuffling to convert burst errors into random errors.
Generally in this shuffling coding method, all the image information is divided into small blocks (see FIG. 1). Each of these blocks is then compressed into a block code composed of header information and video information (see FIG. 2). These block codes are then coded to be transmitted or stored. If an error is generated when the digital image information is transmitted, stored, received, or reproduced, picture quality of the image deteriorates due to the generated error. Accordingly, an error correction coding technique has been developed to compensate for this problem with the above-described shuffling coding technique. In this error correction technique, in order to correct errors generated during transmitting or storing, or receiving or reproducing of the image information to obtain the original image, parity data is added to the image information before the information is coded. This conventional and known error correction coding method will be described below with reference to FIGS. 3, 4 and 5.
This conventional error correction coding method codes the image information into the form of a map such as the map shown in FIG. 3. As shown in FIG. 3, the compressed and coded block codes are arranged in a vertical direction. Parity data is added in the horizontal and vertical directions. With reference to detailed FIG. 4, the coded image information shown in FIG. 3 consists of header information Hij and video information Dik arranged in parallel in a vertical direction. Horizontal parity data HPil appears to the right side of the video information Dik. Vertical parity data VPm,n+1 is added in the portion below the header and video information Hij and Dik and below the horizontal parity data HPil.
When transmitted or stored, the coded image information shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 is transmitted or stored from up to down and from left to right as shown in FIG. 5 so that a group of header information and a group of video information is formed for transmission. If an error is generated during the process of transmitting or storing, or receiving or reproducing of a digital image, the error is corrected using the parity information HPil and VPm,n+1. Errors which exceed the error correction capability, however, cannot be corrected so they deteriorate the picture. In particular, errors in a header exceeding the error correction capability generally have worse effects on the picture than do errors generated in video information.
Thus, this conventional error correction coding method of FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 codes the information into a group of video information and a group of header information in such a way that burst errors may be generated between header information and also between video information. This conventional coding method therefore does not prevent the severe deterioration of picture quality caused by burst errors.

Error correction coding method and apparatus for digital image information


An electronic media distribution system which facilitates the distribution of media to consumers over a network, such as the Internet, while achieving commercial business objectives and protecting the intellectual property rights associated with the media being distributed. The system provides the infrastructure and support for various market participants to engage in buying, selling, finding and distributing music. The system provides an interface for consumers to locate, access and receive musical content over the Internet. The system facilitates continued control over the musical content sent to consumers by dynamically enforcing retailer agreements and restrictions governing the purchase, use, and distribution of the content. The system also provides a service to retailers and distributors in assisting with the management of sales and distribution of music over the Internet. Specifically, the system certifies and distributes retail offers for the content where the offers are dynamically updated by electronic contracts between the retailers and distributors of the music.

In the music industry, music has been sold to consumers by music retailers for years on various media. Today, music marketed to consumers is typically recorded on cassette tapes and compact discs (CD) and sold at retail stores. With the advent of the Internet, various consumer products, including recorded music, are marketed and sold over the Internet, where the financial transaction is handled electronically but the product is physically delivered by some other means such as the postal service or a private carrier. The consumer may purchase a CD from a retailer using a retailer's web site and receive the CD in the mail. Once the consumer receives the CD having purchased it, the consumer can listen to the music repeatedly by playing the CD in a separate device such as a CD player or the consumer can give the CD to someone else. The retailer and copyright owner have lost control over that product in that, for example, the music may be copied but no further payment or royalties are collectable.
Music is also available on the Internet for consumers to listen to without purchasing. As the music is transmitted over the Internet, it is played at the consumer's computer by a software application such as Real-Player but the music is at no time resident at the consumer's computer. The consumer does not own the music, cannot retain the music and cannot replay the music without accessing the source through the Internet. The source, presumably the music retailer, retains control over the music.
A disadvantage of conventional systems is that they fail to afford consumers and retailers flexibility in the methods for receiving and using music and the amount of control transferred from the music owner or retailer to the music purchaser. There is a need for a system that enables consumers to find, purchase and receive music completely over the Internet in a way comparable to conventional purchasing of music at a retail store. What is further needed is a system for delivering music that offers consumers alternatives to purchasing, such as renting music. The present invention satisfies these and other needs.
The development of the present invention has become possible in part due to the creation of suitable technologies upon which it can be built. These elements include a secure persistent container in which the content resides, the ability to have rules that persistently apply to that content coupled with a distributed rights system that can interpret and act upon these rules.

Electronic music/media distribution system


A method for manufacturing a metal oxide TFT device is provided. The method includes: selecting a substrate and forming a gate electrode on a first side of the substrate; sequentially depositing an insulating layer, a semiconductor layer, and a photoresist layer on the gate electrode; using the gate electrode as a photomask, exposing from a second side of the substrate and reserving the photoresist layer aligning to the gate electrode; depositing an electrode layer on the semiconductor layer and the reserved photoresist layer; stripping the reserved photoresist layer and lifting off the electrode layer stacked on the reserved photoresist layer; etching a part of the reserved electrode layer and the semiconductor layer, and forming a source electrode, a drain electrode, and a semiconductor island. The method realizes a self-alignment using the gate electrode as the photomask when forming the source, drain electrodes and the channel. Therefore, the manufacturing processes become simple and more accurate.

Metal oxide TFTs are components widely used in basic circuits of various electronic systems. The metal oxide TFTs have many advantages, such as high carrier mobility, low processing temperatures, high stability, high transparency, etc. FIG. 1 depicts a typical bottom-gate TFT device 1. In a conventional process of manufacturing the bottom-gate TFT device 1, in order to form a source electrode 102 and a drain electrode 103 of the bottom-gate TFT device 1, a conductive layer and a photoresist layer (not shown) are sequentially formed on a gate electrode 101 via a gate insulation layer 104 and a semiconductor layer 105. The photoresist layer is exposed via a photomask (not shown) disposed above the photoresist layer and then is developed to form a patterned photoresist layer. Further, a part of the conductive layer is etched according to the patterned photoresist layer. Accordingly, the rest of the conductive layer remained on the semi-conductive layer 105 are respectively used to form the source electrode 102 and the drain electrode 103.
However, due to the limited exposure accuracy in photolighography and a misalignment between the photomask and the bottom-gate TFT device 1 may occur, overlaps are generally formed between the gate electrode 101 and the source, drain electrodes 102, 103 resulting in generating a gate-source parasitic capacitance (Cgs) and a gate-drain parasitic capacitance (Cgd). The gate-source parasitic capacitance and the gate-drain parasitic capacitance have a poor influence (impact) to a work performance of a pixel circuit (not shown) including the bottom-gate TFT device 1. Accordingly, an electronic device employed the bottom-gate TFT device 1 may have a poor image quality, including image flicker and sticking.
What is needed, therefore, is a metal oxide TFT device, a method of manufacturing the metal oxide TFT device, a pixel circuit, and a method of manufacturing the pixel circuit which can overcome the described limitations.

Metal oxide TFT device and method for manufacturing the same


A rechargeable battery includes an electrode assembly having a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a separator positioned between the positive and negative electrodes, a case for housing the electrode assembly, and a spacer positioned between the electrode assembly and the case.

Unlike primary batteries, which cannot be recharged, rechargeable batteries can be repeatedly charged and discharged. Low capacity rechargeable batteries that use single battery cells may be used as power sources for various portable electronic devices such as cellular phones, notebook computers, and camcorders. High capacity rechargeable batteries that use tens of battery cells connected to each other in a battery pack may be used as power sources for driving motors such as in hybrid electric vehicles (HEV). Rechargeable batteries may be classified according to their external shape into cylinders, prisms, or pouches.
Rechargeable batteries generally include an electrode assembly which is formed by spirally winding positive and negative electrodes and a separator into a jelly-roll configuration. The separator is positioned between the positive and negative electrodes and serves as an insulator. The electrode assembly may alternatively be formed by stacking a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a separator. The electrode assembly is housed in a case, which is closed with a cap assembly having an external terminal.
The structure of an electrode assembly of a prismatic rechargeable battery is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2000-40501, and 2001-38475, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Compared to a cylindrical rechargeable battery, a prismatic rechargeable battery is likely to have unnecessary internal "dead space" between the case and an electrode assembly housed therein due to its structure.
The dead space results from the intrinsic shape of the electrode assembly. In the case of electrode assemblies that have a jelly-roll configuration, the electrode assembly has edges that are partially rounded. The rounded edges create gaps within the case, resulting in dead space when the electrode assembly is positioned in the internal space of a battery can.
The dead space may cause an excessive amount of electrolyte to be introduced during fabrication of a rechargeable battery due to the volume of the gap, resulting in wasted electrolyte and performance deterioration of the rechargeable battery.
Particularly, it is necessary for motor driving rechargeable batteries in hybrid electric automobiles to have a configuration adapted to achieve high power, and such problems may be more serious in the case of a large-sized battery than a small-sized battery.