A speech analysis system and method for analyzing speech. The system includes: a voice recognition system for converting inputted speech to text; an analytics system for generating feedback information by analyzing the inputted speech and text; and a feedback system for outputting the feedback information.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to speech analysis, and more specifically relates to a system and method for utilizing voice recognition and speech analytics to analyze and evaluate a speech.
2. Related Art
The ability to effectively communicate information using speech remains a challenge for many individuals. Common problems include adding utterances like "umm" into their sentences, speaking too fast or too slow, speaking at the wrong complexity level for the audience, etc. As more work is done remotely, e.g., via conference calls, on-line broadcasts, etc., the ability to effectively speak becomes even more important as visual body language cues are removed from the communication process. Instead, listeners must concentrate their focus on the speaker's voice, grammar, and audible style.
Current methods of teaching public speaking, teaching proper speaking or improving speech problems require humans to detect problems and provide all of the feedback. This training is often done in person and the speech is often not recorded or analyzed specifically to review later. Even if it is recorded or notes are taken, feedback must be obtained through a manual process, and the feedback is not typically linked directly with different portions of a speech. Real-time analysis is even more difficult to provide, as feedback is not available without interrupting the speaker.
Accordingly, a need exists for a speech analysis system that can provide automated feedback about a verbal communication being made by a speaker.

System and method using feedback speech analysis for improving speaking ability


An electric machine includes a stator, a rotor interacting magnetically with the stator, a housing surrounding the stator and rotor, and a hollow shaft provided for arrangement of the rotor and mounted on the housing. A radial fan is mounted rotationally fixed on the hollow shaft on the ventilation side. A section of a fan blade of the radial fan extends axially away from the housing to a greater extent than the hollow shaft. A guide element with radially extending plate is arranged in the hollow shaft, wherein the plate is arranged axially further away from the housing than the end side of the hollow shaft on the ventilation side. An inner coolant flow can thus be delivered from the section of the fan blade out of the hollow shaft through a passage between the end side of the hollow shaft on the ventilation side and the plate radially outwards.

The present invention relates to an electric machine having a stator, a rotor, which interacts magnetically with the stator, a housing, which surrounds the stator and the rotor, and a hollow shaft on which the rotor is arranged and which is supported on the housing.
A stator of an electric machine, which heats due to losses, can be relatively easily cooled directly by means of an air or water cooling system. The rotor of an electric machine can only be cooled directly if the motor housing is open. This requirement of an open motor housing nevertheless in some instances contravenes a special protection system of the electric machine. In particular, electric machines with explosion protection require the housing to be closed. In this case, a direct cooling of the rotor can then not be realized with previously known techniques.
The thermal energy produced due to losses in the rotor can also be output indirectly to the motor housing by transmission using air. This indirect cooling principle is however not as efficient as a direct cooling system. Furthermore, the stator is heated due to the rotor losses. A consequence of this heating-up of the electric machine is inter alia that the grease service life and thus the bearing service life is reduced.
Highly efficient cooling systems have to date been achieved for instance in open-circuit ventilated motors. On account of the open housing, only the protective system IP 23 can be retained here. With closed housings, an efficient cooling system can be achieved for instance by means of a so-called 'thermisiphon' in the rotor. This guides heat effectively outwards, without it being necessary to open the housing.
Furthermore, the publication U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,210 A describes a motor with an external rotor and a corresponding cooling system. The internal stator has a hollow shaft, through which coolant can flow. Furthermore, the coolant flows around the external rotor. A tube with a flange-type plate is placed in the hollow shaft of the stator. Cooling air then flows through the tube into the hollow shaft and back outwards between the tube and the inner wall of the hollow shaft. There the coolant is carried along by the main cooling flow, which flows past the plate to the external rotor.
A similar electric machine is described in the publication U.S. Pat. No. 3,445,696 A. There the coolant flows into the hollow shaft of a rotor, reverses inside the hollow shaft and is drawn by an injection nozzle radially outwards into the cooling flow which cools the external stator.

Electric machine with rotor interior ventilation


A compound transmission system compounds signals from a LAN communication device and other communication devices without multiplex them. A first LAN communication device is connected to a second LAN communication device through two line pairs (10, 20). A first signal transmission device such as an exchanger (111) is connected to center taps of windings of transformers (50, 51) on the side of the line pairs to superpose a communication signal from the first signal transmission device on the LAN signal and separate a telephone communication signal from the LAN signal at the center taps. The transformers (50, 51) constitute a first superpose/separate circuit. A second signal transmission device such as an exchanger terminal (112) is connected to center taps of windings of transformers (60, 61) on the side of the line pairs to superpose a communication signal from the second signal transmission device on the LAN signal and separate the communication signal from the LAN signal at the center taps. The transformers (60, 61) constitute a second superpose/separate circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for compounding a LAN (Local Area Network) communication channel and other communication channels and, particularly, to a compound transmission system for compounding and transmitting signals of a LAN communication channel and other telephone communication channels or other data communication channels without using a frame or time-division multiplex technique.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has been usual that a LAN communication channel and a communication channel of another communication system are provided separately from each other. Recently, however, a technology by which a LAN signal on a LAN communication channel and a signal on a communication channel of another communication system are frame-multiplexed by using a time-division multiplex technique and transmitted through a single transmission path is becoming popular. For example, IEEE802.9 defines a technology for compounding communication channels of a LAN communication system and a telephone exchanger by using a time-division frame-multiplex.
Signals to be multiplexed by a multiplex communication device according to the IEEE802.9 definition have 2B+D+P frame structures and a LAN signal is transmitted in the P frame after converted into packet data and an exchange signal used for a communication of the telephone exchanger is transmitted in the B frame. Therefore, the exchanger requires a trunk dedicated to the 2B+D+P frame structure and the LAN communication system requires a special device referred to as "access unit" as an interface for a communication path of the 2B+D+P frame signal.
In the conventional multiplex communication device mentioned above, frame transforming adapters, for multiplexing the LAN signal from the LAN communication system and a communication signal from the exchanger by using the dedicated 2B+D+P frame structures, are required at a transmitting side. Also, at the receiving side, the dedicated frames received by the LAN communication system and the exchanger on the other side are demultiplexed by frame transforming adapters to recover the LAN signal and the telephone communication system. Therefore, the conventional multiplex transmission system is very expensive and, since the 2B+D+P frames dedicated to the respective LAN communication system and the exchanger are used, a maintenance of the communication system is difficult and there may be considerable communication delay.

Compound transmission system for compounding LAN and other communication channels


A new and distinct variety of New Guinea Impatiens plant named `Duenika`, characterized by its bright purple petal color; numerous flowers per plant; compact growth habit; freely branching plant habit; and dark green, glossy and non-variegated foliage.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of New Guinea Impatiens plant, botanically known as Impatiens hawkeri, and hereinafter referred to by the name `Duenika`. The new variety is being marketed under the name Patriot Purple Lilac.
The new variety is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the inventor in Rheinberg, Germany. The objective of the breeding program is to develop New Guinea Impatiens that are freely branching; compact; early flowering; and that have desirable flower and leaf colors.
The new cultivar originated from a cross made by the inventor of two proprietary seedling selections of Impatiens hawkeri. `Duenika` was discovered and selected by the inventor as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross in a controlled environment in Rheinberg, Germany.
Asexual reproduction of the new variety by terminal cuttings taken at Rheinberg, Germany, has shown that the unique features of this new variety are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.


A multiple-in-one memory card insertion seat is used to improve the defects of the connection of an MS Duo memory card or an MS Pro Duo memory card and an adaptor card. A shift of the matched slot to a corresponding MS memory card is toward the first pin of the XD terminal group so that the GND pin of the XD memory card is unconnected. Besides, the grounding function of the iron casing is removed so as to avoid that the outer metal layer of the adaptor card is in contact with the first pin and the second pin of the XD memory card causing conductance at the same time due to mistake contacts and crash. Besides, the grounding function of SDIO memory card is not influenced by use of the iron casing arm passing through a contact detection sheet and resisting against the grounding terminal to discharge.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to multiple-in-one memory card insertion seats, and particularly to a multiple-in-one memory card insertion seat used in the connection of an MS Duo memory card or an MS Pro Duo memory card and an adaptor card. The multiple-in-one memory card insertion seat is capable of avoiding to conduct due to mistake contacts or crashes because of the connection of an outer metal layer and pins so as to assure the grounding of a SDIO memory card.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
A prior memory card insertion seat has a multi-common slot to provide the function of inserting various memory cards (such as: MSs, MS Pros, SDs, MMCs, MMC4.0s and XD memory cards). Alternatively a memory card, such as an MS Duo, an MS Pro Duo, a miniSD, a microSD (T-flash), an MMC Micro, an RSMMC and an RSMMC4.0, uses a selected adaptor card to connect correspondingly, and then inserts into a common slot so as to achieve the common use of a multiple-in-one memory card insertion seat and satisfy demands of users.
A prior art multiple-in-one memory card insertion seat comprises an iron casing, an insulation common terminal seat and multi-conductive terminals capable of matching contacts with various memory cards (such as: an MS terminal group, a SD terminal group, an MMC4.0 terminal group and an XD terminal group etc.). The common terminal seat includes prior contact detection sheet, a read and write proof detecting sheet, a grounding terminal or a welding sheet. After the iron casing is connected to conductive terminals, a layer-shape and wide-interlinked multi-common slot is formed so as to provide the function for inserting various memory cards.
Referring to FIG. 9, FIG. 10 and FIG. 11, because the above-mentioned prior MS Duo (or MS Pro Duo) memory card 4 belongs to a short card style, the MS Duo (or MS Pro Duo) memory card 4 is often connected to an adaptor card 40 for simulating as a MS long card style so as to insert an insertion seat (e.g. a card reader) suitable for the MS long card. However, the matched adaptor card 40 has an outer metal layer 401 (the cross-section of the outer metal layer 401 is approximate U-shape) and none-metal layer 402. Although the outer metal layer 401 has been painted with an insulation layer, the insulation painting is scraped so as to expose out the outer metal layer 401 after being used for a long time. Thus, the outer metal layer 401 is easily in contact with the first pin 331 and the second pin 332 (e.g. GND and CD pin) of the conductive terminals of the XD memory card so as to conduct signals due to mistake contacts and be incapable of reading normal data. Besides, based on experience, when the outer metal layer 401 of the adaptor card 40 is in contact with the 19th pin and 20th pin (e.g. VCC pin) of the conductive terminals of the XD memory card and the first terminal pin (or the second pin) at the same time, the multiple-in-one memory card insertion seat is easy to crash.
Since the MS Duo, the MS Pro Duo short memory cards and the matched adaptor cards are known in the prior arts, the memory card insertion seat must be limited in the given memory cards to improve thereof and then modify the situation of conducting signals due to mistake contacts.

Multiple-in-one memory card insertion seat


The embodiment of the present invention provides a semi-supervised automatic marking method for spartina alterniflora in a hyperspectral image. According to the semi-supervised automatic marking method for spartina alterniflora in a hyperspectral image provided by the present invention, based on the dimensionality reduction on 108-dimensional data of 18 wave bands, unsupervised clustering is performed by the fast clustering algorithm based on the local density, and then the clustering result is matched with a marked spartina alterniflora data set, so that completely automatic marking of the data is realized, and automatic marking for spartina alterniflora is realized. The embodiment of the present invention also provides a semi-supervised automatic marking device for spartina alterniflora in a hyperspectral image. Through the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the present invention, recognition and marking for spartina alterniflora can be realized accurately and effectively.

Images of an optical camera or hyperspectral imaging are recognized by human eyes for judgment after on-the-spot investigation of ground-object recognition and marking generally, and manual marking is carried out after manual recognition, the way is low in efficiency and high in cost, some areas cannot be investigated on the spot, and the requirement of regional wide-range ground-object recognition is difficult to meet. Therefore, a hot issue worthy of research is how to automatically recognize and mark ground-objects in hyperspectral images.
For high-dimensionality complex hyperspectral image data, the traditional research mainly adopts principal component analysis which is a basic linear dimensionality reduction method. An original sample is reconstructed by finding out a group of optimal linear combinations by linear transformation, which reduces the wave bands correlation of original hyperspectral image data, so the ground-object recognition and marking precision of hyperspectral image data are improved to a certain extent, but minor-target ground-objects in original hyperspectral images are easily ignored through the linear transformation, and a great deal of non-linear relationship data exists in the hyperspectral image data. Dimensionality reduction is carried out by some scholars on the hyperspectral image data by using a non-linear dimensionality reduction method based on local linear embedding, an internal manifold structure is disclosed by using the local geometric structure of a hyperspectral data set and discover the intrinsic main variables. While the manifold dimension reduction algorithm only processes the data from the geometry of the data itself, and does not take into account the physical characteristics of the hyperspectral image dataset.
Aiming at the classification problem of ground-objects in hyperspectral images, supervised classification methods such as decision trees and support vector machines are adopted in traditional classification ways, although the classification effect is good, the supervised classification methods need a great number of samples with marks, and collecting labeled samples is a matter of consuming an army of manpower, material resources and financial resources. Some scholars use the Transductive Support Vector Machine for classification, which is a decision-making boundary is trained via insignificant number of labeled samples, the boundary is adjusted by using unlabeled data, but the non-convexity of the loss function can lead to local optimization.
Aiming at the marking problem of ground-objects in hyperspectral images, some scholars use a ground-object recognition classification in combined with ground-object space geographic position and decision trees, a large number of marked ground-object samples are needed, in combination with a great deal of manual analysis, recognition and manual marking operation, thick line marks in related geographic regions do not reach the pixel level of ground-object accurate recognition on the hyperspectral images.
Aiming at the above problems, a t-SNE dimensionality reduction algorithm is adopted for the hyperspectral image data, all features of original hyperspectral image data are maintained, and the features of major variables in the hyperspectral image data also can be extracted. The unsupervised fast clustering algorithm based on local density is used to automatically cluster the unmarked data after the dimension reduction, which is a decision boundary is not needed, and reduces a lot of sample tag acquisition and analysis. The MATLAB matrix transformation operation is used to map the clustering results to the original hyperspectral image, which reduces a lot of manual work, realizes automatic pixel-level marking of ground-objects, and improves the accuracy of ground-objects marking.
Above all, based on the problems existing in the research, a semi-supervised automatic labeling method for hyperspectral image is provided for CHRIS satellite hyperspectral image data containing a small amount of marked data. After the dimensionality reduction feature fusion is carried out on original high-dimensionality complex hyperspectral image data by using the t-SNE dimensionality reduction algorithm, the unsupervised fast clustering algorithm based on local density is used to automatically cluster the unmarked data after the dimension reduction, and then the marked ground-object data is matched with each class of data, clustering parameters is adjusted so as to amend the accuracy of classification. The MATLAB matrix transformation operation is used to map the clustering results onto the original hyperspectral image, which reduces a lot of manual work, realizes automatic pixel-level marking of ground-objects, and improves the accuracy of ground-objects marking.

Semi-supervised automatic marking method and device for ground-object in hyperspectral image

CHINA UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM (EAST CHINA)


A pressure regulator valve adapted to be secured within a container housing a beverage to be dispensed through the aid of pressure within the headspace (11) above the beverage, the regulator valve includes a housing (16) containing a piston (26) having one surface exposed continuously to the pressure in the headspace and the other surface being engaged by a spring (44), a source of pressurized gas (14) such as carbon dioxide is secured to the housing and includes a valve (60) which is activated by the piston which moves responsive to a differential between the spring force and the headspace pressure to open the valve (60) when the headspace pressure falls below a predetermined level to insert the carbon dioxide into the headspace to maintain the headspace pressure sufficient to dispense the beverage.

Beverages which are to be dispensed in pressurized condition from a container will be pressurized in the container with the aid of a pressurized medium such as a pressure gas. The gas will traditionally be provided in the container at a relatively high excess pressure in the same compartment in which the beverage to be dispensed is included. The pressurized gas will accumulate in the headspace above the beverage to be dispensed. At the start of the use of such a container, a high dispensing pressure will prevail but this pressure will decrease as more and more beverage is dispensed from the container. This occurs because part of the pressurized gas will leave the container together with the beverage and in addition thereto the space occupied by the pressurized gas will become increasingly greater, thus causing the pressure in that space to decrease.
To compensate for this decrease in pressure of the gas in the headspace, it is well known in the art to provide a pressure control device which does insert additional pressurized gas into the headspace as such is required. One such device is shown in WO 99/47451 which includes a movable wall within a chamber which operates a valve mechanism to temporarily open it and allow pressurized gas to flow from the chamber into the headspace.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,377 discloses the use of a hand-operated air pump to pressurize a beer keg with air which makes them unsuitable for use because contact with the oxygen in the air ruins the beer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,211 teaches a portable electrically powered keg tapping device for use with regular beer kegs. The electrical pressure is a good replacement for a hand-pump, but it does not solve the problem of introducing air into the keg.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,609 teaches the use of a carbon dioxide bottle packaged in a backpack and connected by pressure tubes to a container of beer.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,131,560 discloses a lightweight beer dispensing system which utilizes a small carbon dioxide pressure bottle attached directly to an adjustable pressure regulator that can be set to avoid excess foaming and is attached directly to a keg tap having a delivery faucet.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,469,239 discloses a pressure control device for use with a beer keg which includes a piston seated within a cylinder for opening or closing a gas supply opening while a scavenger is accommodated in a pressure control chamber to scavenge carbon dioxide gas which enters that chamber.
Although there are many pressure control devices for utilization with containers for dispensing carbonated beverages such as beer or the like, they are quite complex and necessitate in many instances the utilization of a scavenger structure which adds to the cost and complexity of the device. There is thus a need for a pressure regulator valve which is automatically operable to maintain the pressure in the headspace of a container of carbonated beverage such as beer at the desired level for dispensing the beverage which is simple, effective and does not require the utilization of a scavenger.


The currency-value converter according to the present invention transmits amount-of-converted-currency data indicating the amount of basic currency identified based on the type of this currency, the amount of the currency and the exchange rate, to a controller installed in a gaming machine, when the type of currency accepted through a currency validator is not the basic currency. The exchange rate is a rate in which a correspondence relationship between an amount of the basic currency and an amount of another type of currency other than the basic currency is set for each type of currency other than the basic currency. Then, a game is played at the gaming machine based on the transmitted amount-of-converted currency.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a currency-value converter which allows a player to play a game using various currencies, a gaming system where a player can play a game using various currencies, an individual tracking apparatus, and an individual tracking system.
Discussion of the Background
Conventionally, there exists a gaming machine where a player can play a game by inserting money. A money validator such as a bill validator (i.e. BV) identifies the money inserted by the player, and the game progresses based on information indicating the identified amount of money and the like. As those money validators, a money validator provided in a gaming machine itself, and a one installed separately from the gaming machine are known, as disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,959, U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,685, U.S. Pat. No. 6,852,029, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,846,238.
The conventional money validators described above are typically capable of identifying only one type of currency. One of the reasons thereof is that, since the money paid out for winning of the game is a single currency, it has been convenient in that the paid out money can directly be the source of money if the money that can be inserted is the same currency as the single currency.
However, in the recent years, there have been new gaming machines that, when the game is won, pay out something other than money, such as a ticket on which a barcode as coded data of the number of credits and the like is printed, and a card storing the number of credits information. Therefore, the reason described above has become no longer appropriate as the reason for identifying only one type of currency.
Rather, there has been a problem in that, when the money that can be inserted by the player is set to a single currency (basic currency), the player feels extremely inconvenienced since the player needs to exchange another currency into the basic currency in a case of having exhausted the money in hand. Particularly when there exists no exchange machine used for exchanging money nearby, the player often quits the game in a case of having exhausted the basic currency in hand. Setting the money that can be inserted by the player to the single currency has thus been a factor preventing the player from playing the game for a long time.
On the other hand, another reason of setting the money that can be inserted by the player to the single currency is that it has been considered preferable in providing a gaming system that is capable of conducting a payout according to a progressive jackpot. In such a gaming system, a plurality of gaming machines are linked by a network. A part of an amount corresponding to the money inserted into each gaming machine is then pooled and the money corresponding to the pooled amount is paid out to the gaming machine having won a progressive jackpot. A player playing a game in the aforementioned gaming system is playing the game with a big purpose of acquiring the profit according to the progressive jackpot, and this kind of games are popular among the players in recent years.
In a case that the player can insert money corresponding to the several currencies in this kind of gaming system, it has been believed that a harmful effect is generated in pooling the amount because of the use of several currencies.
The present invention was made in view of the aforementioned problems and an object thereof is to provide a currency-value converter, use of which can prevent generation of a harmful effect in providing a gaming system capable of letting the player continue to play the game without feeling any inconvenience even in a case of exhausting his or her basic currency in hand and capable of conducting a payout according to a progressive jackpot.
The present invention was made in view of the aforementioned problems and an object thereof is to provide a gaming system capable of letting the player continue to play the game without feeling inconvenienced even in a case of exhausting his or her basic currency in hand, and capable of preventing generation of a harmful effect in conducting a payout according to a progressive jackpot.
In recent years, a face identification technology which identifies individuals by taking an image of the face of a person and comparing the image with an image for comparison preliminarily stored in a database has been increasingly used in various fields. This kind of technologies are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,944,319, U.S. Pat. No. 6,975,750, U.S. Pat. No. 7,095,879, U.S. Pat. No. 7,127,087, U.S. Pat. No. 7,142,697, U.S. Pat. No. 7,406,184. Moreover, an application of the face identification technology in the game field is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,094,149.
On the other hand, in casino operations, management of staff members in a casino may become an important factor. For example, in a casino where staff members are not thoroughly managed and the staff members habitually fail to put on the nameplates, there may be a problem that some people disguise themselves as a staff member in order to illegally cheat money. Moreover, if the staff members fail to put on the nameplates, guests cannot recognize the staff members, and thus sufficient services may not be provided to the guests.
Further, the inventor of the present invention have thought of the idea that, not only in casinos but in general, application of a system capable of detecting people who do not possess items that should be possessed in a facility could establish a highly convenient system in various fields.
The present invention has been devised to solve the aforementioned problems, and a purpose of the present invention is to provide an individual tracking system capable of identifying people who do not possess the items which should be possessed in the facility.
In recent years, a face identification technology which identifies individuals by taking an image of the face of a person and comparing the image with an image for comparison preliminarily stored in a database has been increasingly used in various fields. This kind of technologies are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,944,319, U.S. Pat. No. 6,975,750, U.S. Pat. No. 7,095,879, U.S. Pat. No. 7,127,087, U.S. Pat. No. 7,142,697, U.S. Pat. No. 7,406,184. Moreover, an application of the face identification technology in the game field is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,094,149.
Meanwhile, since people can get money when they win a casino game, the number of people who try to fraudulently earn money never seems to decline. Therefore, in order to easily identify a person who committed fraud, recently there are some casino parlors which have introduced an ID card to identify each player. However, in the case where the ID card is introduced, some players forget to collect the ID card after they finish playing games. Further, there are some cases where the uncollected ID card is misused. Further, since people receive money in a casino game, it is required that the player who has got a predetermined amount or more of money should be specified so that the player assuredly pays taxes.
Therefore, there have been attempts to solve the aforementioned problems by applying the aforementioned face identification technology to casino games. However, mare application of the aforementioned face identification technology to a gaming machine could cause the following problems.
Namely, there is a problem of timing when the image of the face is captured. For example, in the case where the image capturing starts after an uncollected card is detected based on the game not being played for a specific period of time, the player has already gone.
Moreover, in the case where the image of the face of a player who has obtained a fixed amount of money (player who has received a prize in the game) is captured at a timing when the prize is offered, the player may already be changed with other player.
As a method capable of solving the aforementioned problems, a method of always recording the image may be conceivable, instead of starting the image capturing by a camera at a certain timing. However, if the always-recording method is applied, the amount of image data to be stored in a memory is so large that maintenance, such as periodically taking out the image data and storing the data in another medium, is required. As a result, the convenience is deteriorated.
The present invention is devised in light of the aforementioned problems, and the purpose of the present invention is to provide an individual tracking apparatus and an individual tracking system, which enable an application of the technology for tracking individuals by use of face images to the game field without reducing the convenience.
The contents of U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,959, U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,685, U.S. Pat. No. 6,852,029, U.S. Pat. No. 6,846,238, U.S. Pat. No. 6,944,319, U.S. Pat. No. 6,975,750, U.S. Pat. No. 7,095,879, U.S. Pat. No. 7,127,087, U.S. Pat. No. 7,142,697, U.S. Pat. No. 7,406,184, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,094,149 are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Currency value changing apparatus enabling player to play game using various currencies, gaming system where player can play game using various currencies, individual tracking apparatus, and individual tracking system


A process and system for visually displaying to a user at a client computer alternative web pages to a desired web page. The invention locates these alternative web pages in search engines by searching for alternative cached copies of web pages and/or mirror sites. A user may view a hotlink to a desired web page on an accessed web page and either be provided with a table of alternative web pages for manually selecting the alternative web page or the invention may automatically, dynamically select the best alternative web page to the originally selected web page.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to search engines, and more particularly, to a method and system to automatically present the user with alternative web pages of requested web pages.
2. Description of Related Art
In the course of accessing information by means of a web browser from a network, such as the Internet or a company or office intra-net, a user often finds a web page at a particular URL (Uniform Resource Locator) address that contains information the user would like to access. The web page typically contains several links to a variety of other web pages on its serving equipment or on the serving equipment that presents these other web pages.
Often, a user desires to visit certain ones of these other web pages. In so doing, the user may manually move the cursor over and click on the desired link or URL displayed on the viewed web page. After the user has manually clicked on the link to the desired web page, the web browser then tries to retrieve the desired linked web page and visually display this desired web page to the user.
In the prior art, the retrieved results of this request by the user typically include the user being presented with the desired web page, a "page not found" message from the proxy server, or a long delay or wait period that indicates the web browser is not successfully retrieving the content which resides on the web server that the link refers to and that is to produce the desired web page. Wherein the web page is presented to the user, the presented page may have been changed or updated, or the presentation of such page be slow leading to time delays, which both decrease user productivity, increase user irritation and decrease user web experience. The access of pages that result in a "page not found" message may include those web pages that have been deleted or taken offline, also wasting user time and productivity and increasing user irritation.
Processes and systems for determining the success rate at which a user will be able to link to a desired web page have been developed in the art. Such processes and systems include those that use search requests, such as, searching content on web pages, validating stored bookmarks, and usage of historical data access through a proxy server. However, once it is determined that a desired web page is slow in access, not available, has been changed or taken off line, the user must then manually search for another similar web page and attempt to link thereto, potentially resulting in another changed web page or web page not found message. The process of manually searching for alternative web pages to a desired web page is tedious, time consuming, inefficient and still being dependent on manual input of the user for process initiation. Accordingly, a need exists in the art for a process and system that dynamically provides alternative web pages to desired web pages.
Bearing in mind the problems and deficiencies of the prior art, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a process and system that provides alternative web pages to a requested web page, of which the originally requested web page is slow, has been deleted, updated or taken offline, whereby these alternative web pages are dynamically presented to the user to allow the user to quickly and easily link thereto at least one of the alternative web pages.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a process and system of visually displaying alternative web pages of a desired web page to the user to allow the user to quickly and easily link thereto at least one of the alternative web pages.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a process and system that enables the user to manually select the best performing alternative web page from a list of alternative pages.
A further object of the invention is to provide a process and system that dynamically provides the user with the best performing alternative web page from a list of alternative pages.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a process and system that provides a user with alternative web pages resulting in reduced network congestion.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a process and system that provides a user with alternative web pages that is not dependent on manual searching for alternative web pages.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.

System and method for accessing content of a web page

International Business Machines Corporation


Disclosed is a semiconductor memory system and wear-leveling method thereof. The semiconductor memory system is comprised of a nonvolatile memory including a plurality of logic blocks each of which is divided into a plurality of entries, a file system detecting a type of data to be stored and allocating the logic block or the entry for storing the data in accordance with the data type, and a translation layer leveling wearing degrees over the logic blocks or the entries in accordance with the data type.

Semiconductor memory devices are configured to store data therein. Semiconductor memory devices are generally divided into volatile and nonvolatile types. Nonvolatile memory devices retain data stored therein even without power supply, while volatile memory devices lose their data when power supplies are interrupted or suspended.
With data retention capability in low power, nonvolatile memory devices are nowadays regarded as useful storage media for portable apparatuses. Nonvolatile memories include various kinds, e.g., flash memories, phase-change random access memories (PRAMs), ferroelectric RAMs (FeRAMs), magnetic RAMs (MRAMs), and so on.
Flash memories are suitable for high integration density, widely used over mobile systems on the merits of nonvolatiles. A flash memory is organized by including pluralities of memory blocks.
MRAMs, like hard disks, store data by means of magnetic properties. MRAMs employ ferromagnetic tunnel magneto resistance (TMR) devices for storing data.
PRAMs are operable by using thin film materials such as chalcogenide alloys (e.g., Ge2Sb2Te5; GST), which are used in CD-ROMs or DVD-RAMs. Resistance of such a chalcogenide alloy becomes larger in an amorphous state, but smaller in a crystalline state. Thus, data '1' or '0' is stored therein by sensing a level of resistance from the chalcogenide alloy film.
FeRAMs utilize ferroelectric materials for storing data. In a ferroelectric material, a polarization is directional by a voltage applied thereto. Therefore, data is distinguished with reference to a polarized orientation in a FeRAM.
In the meantime, there is a limit to change times of data stored in such a semiconductor memory device because it is gradually becomes worn out by repetitive writing and erasing operations. With an increase in wearing degree, it takes a longer time to change (e.g., write or erase) data, which raises the probability of malfunctions while changing data. Consequently, a unit cell of the semiconductor memory device could be deprived of its own data storage capability.
In a semiconductor memory device, wearability against the writing and erasing operations is typically represented as an index of endurance. Endurance of the semiconductor memory device is determined by operable (or usable) writing or erasing times without malfunctions. Endurance of the semiconductor memory device is usually rated up to tens of thousands to millions in usable times.
In order to lengthen a lifetime (or wearability) of a semiconductor memory device, it requires uniformity of data change events (e.g., writing or erasing). If operations for changing data states are concentrated on a specific area of a semiconductor memory device, it eventually causes a great deal of decadence to a lifetime thereof. But if data changing operations are conducted uniformly over cell areas of a semiconductor memory device, it may extend its lifetime significantly.
There have been proposed many ways of leveling or managing wearability of semiconductor memory devices such as flash memories. However, different from other kinds of memories, flash memories are inoperable in an overwriting mode. PRAMs, MRAM, or FeRAMs would be degraded in performance if the wear-leveling schemes used for the flash memories were applied thereto, because those memories are operable in the overwriting mode. Therefore, there is a need of providing a wear-leveling scheme for a semiconductor memory system that is operable in the overwriting mode.

Semiconductor memory system and wear-leveling method thereof


Regardless of whether specific products are individual products or element products, the specific products are managed by the same product code while element products are associated and handled as a group of products. A product selection server presents the element products by associating them with one another for each group of products. A user terminal allocates a unique purchase group number for each group of products to element products in purchase-requested product data. The product selection server receives the purchase-requested product data and indicates a price as a group of products based on the purchase group number. An order entry server searches an incorrect from the purchase-requested product data based on the purchase group number. A factory terminal and a distribution terminal issue business forms based on the purchase group number.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a product sales system, a product sales apparatus, a product selection server, an order entry server, a user terminal, a method of requesting selection of product, a method of performing order entry, a method of selecting a product and a computer program for implementing the methods and a recording medium thereof, in particular to a system, an apparatus, a method, a computer program or a recording medium suitable for a product sales system in which a desired product may be added to a virtual shopping basket. A product as mentioned in this specification shall be taken in order to widely cover not only a tangible product but also intangible matters such as services and the like.
2. Description of Related Art
In conventional technologies, when selling a product (hereinafter referred to as specific product) which may be sold as an independent single product (hereinafter referred to as individual product) or also as a product included in a group of products (hereinafter referred to as element product) composed of a plurality of products (hereinafter referred to as group of products), the individual product and the element product are managed by having allocated respectively different product codes. As an example of specific product, when a memory module sold as an individual product is sold as an element product of a computer set of a group of products, the product number for the element product is allocated independent from the product number for the individual product.


A system and method are provided for processing network requests by a programmable delivery network. The method includes receiving client code snippets that include identity information of origin servers and standard responses for network requests. The system configures and causes programmable content delivery nodes to execute the client code snippets to respond to the network requests. In response to receiving the network requests, the method includes buffering and sending the requests to origin servers. The method further includes, while buffering the requests, obtaining and outputting responses to the requests by causing the programmable content delivery nodes to process the requests. The method also includes receiving responses from the origin servers and reconfiguring the programmable content delivery nodes to execute the client code snippets to respond to the network requests based on the received responses.

Content delivery networks (CDNs) aim to serve content to end-users with high availability and high performance. In particular, CDNs deploy proxy servers in multiple, geographically diverse data centers (or edge nodes) to cache and serve the content. When the content is requested, the request is directed to the node that, for example, will require the fewest hops, or is the least number of network seconds away from the client requesting the content. Typically, this results in the selection of an edge node that is closest to the client. For example, a proxy server within a telecommunications service provider (TSP) network may cache and serve content to customers of the TSP to lessen demands on the network backbone, and to quickly and reliably deliver the content. Caching content in many locations to maximize the chances of having a proxy server close to any given client, however, can incur significant costs. Also, some content (e.g., dynamic content that needs constant refresh) may not be cacheable and the edge nodes processing the requests for such content will have to obtain the content from the origin servers hosting the content. Furthermore, in conventional CDNs, once the CDN is configured to respond to some network requests for an enterprise client, the CDN cannot be reconfigured to respond to other requests or adopt to dynamic network conditions.


A device and method that support and animate a plant disposed in an inner plant pot having an inner plant pot interior volume in such a way that the inner plant pot moves relative to an outer plant pot having an outer plant pot interior volume, and a gimbal mechanism disposed within the outer plant pot interior volume, controlling and instantiating, vertical longitudinal movement and rotational movement of the inner plant pot relative to the outer plant pot, programmable to provide physical response in the form of animation of the gimbal mechanism and the inner plant pot in response to receipt of predetermined data by the electronic processor control module from a plurality of sensors in communication with the electronic processor control module providing data collected by the plurality of sensors.

Human interest in plant care dates back to the earliest recorded times. The rationale for human interest in plants varies from the need to grow own food and herbs to the urge to create beauty and to satisfy an artistic interest. In recent times there has been a growing interest in tending to plants to satisfy a need to nurture and to take care of a living thing. Lately the increased focus on health and wellness is fueling an interest in indoor plant arraignments as they contribute towards cleaning the air and is widely believed to reduce stress and anxiety, boost mood and provide a sense of wellbeing.
Because plants, whether live or artificial, do not speak, at least not in a language perceptible by humans, it is easy for humans to forget to feed and water or otherwise nurture live plants in a way one would with a dog or cat. Growing strong healthy plants takes a certain amount of commitment.
It is apparent that a need exists for a mechanism and technique whereby plants are able to express their needs in ways that can be interpreted and perceived by humans as tangible feedback, similar to household pets. The present invention is directed toward providing such a mechanism and technique.


The present invention relates to a hair care composition comprising a terminal aminofunctional polysiloxane, which provides improved durable conditioning particularly when utilised in conjunction with a hair colouring composition.

The alteration of the colour of hair by the application of hair dyes is well known.
In order to provide the consumer with the hair colour and intensity of shade desired, a very complex chemical process is utilised. The hair dyeing molecules are typically produced from the reaction of at least one oxidative colouring agent with an oxidising agent which are formed in situ on the hair of consumers and typically in an aggressive environment at ca pH 10 and in the presence of an alkalising agent. Moreover, this process is repeated regularly by the consumer in order maintain the desired hair colour and intensity of the hair colour shade and ensure continual, even coverage of the hair including coverage of new hair growth.
The manufacturer of such products is also required to work within a large number of constraints. Since these products are being placed in direct contact with the consumers' skin and potentially accidental contact with the eye or ingestion (for example) can occur during the dyeing process, the formulation must meet rigorous safety requirements and not cause any allergic reaction. In addition to meeting these requirements, the products must also be optically and olfactory pleasing to the consumer. In particular, the products need to meet certain physical parameters in order to ensure that the product can be easily applied to the hair by the consumer to provide the desired effect, without unintentional staining of the consumers clothes, skin or other objects.
The chemistry involved in the hair dyeing process may result in some damage to the hair which is permanent. Damaging effects include tangling, brittleness and dryness. Consequently there is a need to provide the hair dye composition or hair dyeing kit with a conditioning component in order to combat this damage and improve at least the consumers' perception of the condition of the hair. This is required not only immediately after the hair dyeing process has taken place and during the subsequent blow drying and styling but is an on-going consumer need during the post dyeing washing cycle until the next hair dyeing cycle.
The use of conditioning compositions is well known in the art and they are incorporated as part of conventional shampoo and conditioning regimes as well as in so called two-in-one shampoo conditioners. Their use in hair dyeing kits is also well known. Typically conditioners are provided in a sachet for use in the final rinse, after dyeing is completed. These conditioners such as amino silicones as described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,563,347, EP 275 707 and WO99/49836 usually provide an acceptable immediate improved feel of the hair to the consumer such as improved lubrication resulting in an improved ease of combing and detangling. However, this conditioning benefit is not durable over a number of hair washing cycles such that the consumer becomes dissatisfied with the condition of the hair during the course of the post dyeing cycle until the next dyeing treatment and/or conditioning treatment.
Unfortunately durable conditioning cannot be achieved by simply increasing the levels of conditioning material in the composition. In fact, if excessive conditioner is applied, the initial feel of the hair becomes heavy and greasy resulting in a reduction of hair volume, stickiness and a lack of hair shine. Moreover increasing the amount of conditioner also results in increased costs. These negatives are all completely unacceptable to the consumer.
Moreover, if the nature or the amount of the conditioning material is such that it is sustained on the hair during the post dyeing wash cycle such that significant amounts are still present on the hair at the start of the next colouring cycle, the performance of the dyeing process cannot be predicted and may be detrimentally effected. Such a result is equally undesirable for the consumer.
Progress has however been made in the field of hair conditioning materials and in particular compounds such as amodimethicone have been identified as delivering improved conditioning benefits. In particular amino substituted silicones wherein the amino functional group is randomly positioned along the silicone chain backbone as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,529,586, U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,518, U.S. Pat. No. 5,439,677, U.S. Pat. No. 5,616,758, U.S. Pat. No. 5,856,544 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,856,544, have been described as providing improved conditioning properties.
Cationic silicone compounds have also been described in the art for improved bonding to cellulose and proteineous materials. For example silicone compounds having randomly positioned quaternary amino functional groups are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,616,758 which describes cationic amino silicone compounds suitable for use in amongst others hair conditioning applications. Similarly WO92/00303, U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,835, U.S. Pat. No. 532,817, U.S. Pat. No. 5,164,522, U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,518, U.S. Pat. No. 710,314, U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,656, U.S. Pat. No. 4,673,568 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,962 describe hair treatment compositions comprising such cationic silicones for improved conditioning WO99/32539 describes multicationic polymers which are water miscible and suitable for formulating in products based on solvents or carriers which have high polarity such as laundry and hair care products.
However, there is still a need to provide durable conditioning materials especially for use in hair dye compositions which have the required initial deposition without any greasy feel negatives after the initial application and have retention over time and which do not negatively affect the performance of the next hair dyeing cycle.
There is also a need to provide a hair dye composition which does not necessarily require a separate post hair dyeing conditioning step wherein the conditioning component is preferably incorporated within the hair dying composition.

Terminal aminofunctional polysiloxane hair conditioning compositions and their use in hair coloring compositions


A device fastens a plug of a power cord to a frame which is configured to support a power supply. The device includes a body configured to attach to an installation location of the frame and substantially hold the plug at the installation location of the frame when the power supply connects with and disconnects from the plug. The body includes a first end wall, a second end wall, and lateral walls which connect the first end wall and the second end wall together. When the body substantially holds the plug at the installation location of the frame and when the body is attached to the installation location of the frame, the walls operate to reliably hold the plug in place to enable robust blind mating of the plug with the power supply.

A data storage system stores and retrieves data on behalf of one or more external hosts. A typical data storage system includes a housing, storage processing circuitry and a power supply. The housing structurally supports both the storage processing circuitry and the power supply, as well as guards the storage processing circuitry and the power supply against damage (e.g., against dust, against inadvertent contact with an object moving in the vicinity, against tampering, etc.).
To setup the data storage system, a user connects a power cord between the power supply and an external power source. In particular, at the back of the system, the user plugs one end of the power cord into a corresponding plug on the back of the power supply, and another end of the power cord into the external power source, e.g., a common wall outlet, a battery backup device connected to a wall outlet, etc. At this point, the user turns the data storage system on and the data storage system is ready for operation.
During operation, the power supply provides power to the storage processing circuitry. Under such power, the storage processing circuitry performs a variety of data storage operations (e.g., load and store operations on an array of disk drives, etc.).

Data storage system with improved power supply installation mechanism


The dispensing pump for dispensing metered amounts of paste-like or liquid substances from paste containers (41) is provided with a bellows (3) acting as a pumping member, which bellows are sealing arranged between two coaxial housing parts (1, 2), which are made of a dimensionally stable plastic and are telescopingly movable relative to one another. Suction and discharge valves (4, 5), designed as one-way valves with axially movable valve closing members (19, 32), are arranged at its two ends. A suction pipe socket (29), which is concentric to the suction valve and is directed toward the paste container (41), is located at a suction-side radial wall (12) of one /f the housing parts (2). To place the dispensing pump on replaceable substance containers with follower plunger and fitting closure in a simple manner, the housing part (2) connected to the suction-side end of the bellows (3) is provided, in one piece, with an enveloping body (40), which is open on the front side, for accommodating a filled paste container (41) with follower plunger (44) in an enveloping manner, and with an axially projecting opener plunger (58) on the suction side of the suction valve (4). In addition, the paste container (41) has, at a front wall (51), a collar (52), which projects against the suction valve (4) on the front side, sealingly surrounds the suction pipe socket (29), and has a disk- or pot-shaped cutoff closure (56), 7hich is connected to it in one piece via a thin, annular cutoff web (55) and can be separated from it by the opener plunger (58).

In a prior-art dispensing pump with pump bellows (DE 35,09,178 A1), the housing part provided with the suction valve has a cylindrical screw cap provided with internal thread which can be screwed onto the threaded neck of a bottle, can, or the like. A connection piece for a suction pipe, through which the liquid medium is drawn in from the bottle, is made in one piece with a central, cylindrical guide socket, in which the axially movable closing member of the suction valve is guided.
Aside from the fact that this dispensing pump can be screwed only onto a bottle, whose neck is provided with the fitting thread, this bottle also must be provided with a closing cover, which can be screwed off, and is removed before the dispensing pump is screwed on, and is usually discarded into the trash.
This is also true of another prior-art, manually operated dispensing pump (West German Offenlegungsschrift No. DE-OS 28,24,073), which has, in addition, too complicated a design and too large a diameter to be able to be placed on bottles with narrow necks.
Dispensing pumps of this design are suitable only for dispensing liquid media, and they must be provided with ventilating devices, through which outside air is able to enter the interior of the bottle to prevent vacuum, which would impair the pump mechanism or the pumping processes, from building up in the bottle. These prior-art dispensing pumps cannot be used and are not intended for paste-like substances, which are usually contained in paste containers with a follower plunger.
Dispensing pumps for liquid substances and/or substances of low viscosity, i.e., paste-like substances, have been known (EP-0,304,567 A1), in which a substance container of cylindrical cross section provided with a follower plunger is made in one piece with the housing part provided with the suction valve, while another embodiment can be screwed onto the threaded neck of a bottle by means of a screw cap.
No provision for refilling is made in the embodiment provided with the substance container made in one piece, because refilling would be very complicated. For refilling, the follower plunger, moved into the upper end position, would have to be destroyed and removed from the container. Therefore, these paste dispensers are used only once and are then discarded into the trash together with the dispensing pump.

Dispensing pump for substances of low viscosity, especially paste-like substances


A method, and computer readable medium for the dynamic CPU (Central Processing Unit) usage and function call tracing on a target application. The setup of the tracing uses a -pg like solution, and is implemented using the DPCL (Dynamic Probe Class Library). The output is presented in a gmon.out format, which allows the use of popular analysis tools. The program being traced need not be recompiled or re-linked. This is particularly important if the source code is not available. The dynamic feature allows for different choices of profiling and the choice can even be changed once the target application is running.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to the field of system characterization, and more particularly to CPU (Central Processing Unit) profiling and function call tracing for a target application to enable the identification of program bottlenecks, which cause slow performance.
2. Description of the Related Art
In spite of very fast computer hardware, such as a PowerParallel™ enterprise, and mature operating systems, such as AIX, a given target application's execution performance can be less than optimal. Applying profiling software to the target application on a given enterprise provides clues to answer the question: How can the target application be made to execute faster?
Profiling software is used to identify which portions of the target application are executed most frequently or where most of the time is spent. Profilers are typically used after a basic tool, such as vmstat or iostat commands point out a CPU bottleneck, which is causing slow performance. Tools such as vmstat and iostat report CPU and I/O statistics for the entire system. Using a predetermined benchmark, the profiler analyzes the target application to determine the place or places of the bottlenecks, which result in slow execution. Typically once these bottlenecks of CPU usage or function calls are determined, programming or reprogramming can be employed to reduce the bottleneck or in some cases eliminate it from the target application. These profiling tools, although useful have certain shortcomings. One shortcoming is that profiling tools require the source code of the target application. Many times the source code may not be available to the person running the profiling tests. It is not uncommon for source code to be treated as confidential. The person or entity profiling the software may not be the same entity that wrote the software. Accordingly, a need exists to overcome this problem of requiring the target application source code for profiling.
FIG. 1 is flow diagram 100, which illustrates a trace study flow of currently available prior art profiling and performance management tools. The flow is entered at step 102 when a need is identified for a study of a target application. This entails looking for any bottlenecks, such as waiting for an I/O resource and or the identification of any hot spots such as using a particular subroutine in the application. Step 104 identifies the intended focus of the trace that will be run, such as questioning why there is so much I/O activity. The target application's source code is determined to be available at step 106. If the target application's source code is not available, the flow is exited at step 116 and the trace study is abandoned. Given that the source code for the target application is available, one or more source files is recompiled with the "-pg" option. The intention here is to focus in on an area of the target application and determine if the activity makes sense. This is shown as step 108. The application is relinked with the -pg flag, as shown in step 110. The target application is now run at step 112, typically with a standard setup and benchmark so that over several runs the resultant trace data can be used for comparison between the different runs. As the target executes, the -pg flagged information is put into a gmon.out file at step 114. This output file is studied both directly and with certain standard profiling tools, such as gprof or IBM's Xprofiler. If the study is considered to be complete, at step 116 the flow is exited at step 118. If the study is not complete at step 116 then the -pg flag is reassigned to different points on the target application's source code at step 108 and the recompiling, relinking, run trace 112 and analyze the results 114 loop is repeated until the multiple trace runs provides sufficient information for the study to be considered completed.
It is noted that without the source code the profiling study cannot be made. In addition each time a new -pg flag assignment is made the target application must be recompiled and relinked. This recompiling step is time consuming and inhibits the spontaneous "what-if" workflow. It is difficult to just trace part of the target application that is, just 10% of the functions. For example, just 10% of the functions, or 10% of the execution time in a target application. Accordingly, a need exists to overcome these shortcomings and to provide a set of improved profiling tools to run traces with certain diagnostic tools and software probes that allow for optimizing of target applications.
Another shortcoming with the prior art profiling tools is the requirement that any changes to the profiling benchmarks cannot be made once the target application has started. Many times application developers want to examine applications from several perspectives with out being required to re-start the program execution. Accordingly, a need exists to enable changes in the benchmarking tools after the target application has started execution.
Still another shortcoming of the performance and profiling tools available today is the requirement to recompile and/or relink the target application every time the performance and managing tool is used. Typically a -pg flag must be used in the Unix environment. The need to recompile and/or relink the source code with special debugging flags many times restricts the user from making timely or spontaneous changes to the application. Each time the -pg flag is changed the application must be recompiled and relinked. Accordingly, a need exists to provide a solution to overcome this shortcoming as well.
Yet another shortcoming with the prior art performance profiling tools is how the results of a function trace are reported. Today, each function in a file compiled with -pg will have a corresponding entry in the gmon.out file. Since the choice of what to profile can only be done at the file level, this could potentially leas to a lot of unwanted data.
The trace output file in format of a gmon.out file does have a set of tools that are used to further identify and understand the location of the bottlenecks. It is desirable for any new and improved trace characterization technique to output the results in the gmon.out file format, which is familiar to the user and allows for continued usage of the characterization tools.
Accordingly, a need exists for a trace characterization technique that will not only eliminate all of the shortcomings listed above but also maintain compatibility with existing output and analysis tool formats.

Dynamic CPU usage profiling and function call tracing


In an approach, a server computer receives a request from a client computer specifying particular content for a particular user, wherein the particular content is associated with an original audio language. In response to receiving the request, the server computer selects a preferred audio language and a preferred subtitle language for the particular content based on a particular record of a preference database. The server computer returns asset identifying data that the client computer uses to obtain a stream of the particular content using the preferred audio language and the preferred subtitle language from a content delivery network (CDN) or other asset location. The server computer receives a message from the client computer that identifies an presented audio language and a presented subtitle language that were presented to the particular user while the particular content streamed. In response to a determination that the presented audio language differs from the preferred audio language or that the presented subtitle language differs from the preferred subtitle language, the server computer updates the particular record in the preference database.

The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Over time content providers have been pressured to devise techniques to make their content accessible to an increasingly diverse viewing audience. For example, while English is still the predominant language in the United States, the population of Spanish speakers has risen over the years. Thus, if content providers want to reach a broader audience and attract additional customers, it is beneficial to also make their content available in Spanish as well as English. This same issue also applies across the globe as the trend in most areas has been for populations to become more heterogeneous over time. However, when a multimedia production is released, such as a film, the production is often originally produced in only one language, thus limiting the potential viewing audience.
Two techniques have been employed to expand the target audience for content, namely subtitling and dubbing. Subtitles are typically derived from a transcript or screenplay of the dialog or commentary in films, television programs, video games, and so forth, and are usually displayed at the bottom of the screen mirroring the content's audio track. The subtitles may be in the form of a written translation of a dialog in a foreign language or a written rendering of the dialog often used to assist the hearing impaired. Depending on the technique employed, the encoding method for subtitles may be pre-rendered with the video or separate as either graphics or text to be rendered and overlaid by the receiver. Dubbing is a post-production process in which recordings of the actors are replaced with recordings performed by the same or different actors speaking another language. Depending on the technique employed, the dubbed audio may be pre-rendered with the recording, or separate streams may be maintained for the video and audio tracks, allowing multiple audio tracks to be switched in for the same video.
Presently, techniques employed to determine which audio language and/or subtitles to display, for a given video and user, require a manual selection by the user or assumptions based on the primary language of the user's country of origin. However, in the context of an online program delivery service in which a particular user may watch many movies or other programs, the user is forced to manually and repeatedly select the audio track and subtitle settings for each video, which can be extremely tedious. Furthermore, due to the increasingly diverse viewing audiences, basing the selection on the user's country of origin becomes less accurate over time.
Another issue also arises when users have very specific preferences of audio language and/or subtitles based on the content selected for playback. For example, a bilingual user may prefer to watch French movies with English dubbing and subtitles, but will watch Spanish movies in the original language with no subtitles. Thus, the user may be forced to constantly update their audio language and/or subtitle settings to conform to their preferences. Current techniques are not able to conveniently or efficiently address user preferences for subtitles and dubbing.

Automatic detection of preferences for subtitles and dubbing


A new virus, Hepatitis C virus (HCV), which has proven to be the major etiologic agent of blood-borne NANBH, was discovered by Applicant. Reagents for isolating, amplifying, and detecting HCV polynucleotides are provided. These reagents are oligomers containing polynucleotide sequences which are capable of forming hybrid structures with HCV target polynucleotide sequences.

Non-A, Non-B hepatitis (NANBH) is a transmissible disease or family of diseases that are believed to be viral-induced, and that are distinguishable from other forms of viral-associated liver diseases, including that caused by the known hepatitis viruses, i.e., hepatitis A virus (HAV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and delta hepatitis virus (HDV), as well as the hepatitis induced by cytomegalovirus (CMV) or Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). NANBH was first identified in transfused individuals. Transmission from man to chimpanzee and serial passage in chimpanzees provided evidence that NANBH is due to a transmissible infectious agent or agents.
Epidemiologic evidence is suggestive that there may be three types of NANBH: the water-borne epidemic type; the blood or needle associated type; and the sporadically occurring (community acquired) type. However, the number of agents which may be the causative of NANBH are unknown.
There have been a number of candidate NANBV. See, for example the reviews by Prince (1983), Feinstone and Hoofnagle (1984), and Overby (1985, 1986, 1987) and the article by Iwarson (1987). However, there is no proof that any of these candidates represent the etiological agent of NANBH.
The demand for sensitive, specific methods for screening and identifying carriers of NANBV and NANBV contaminated blood or blood products is significant. Post-transfusion hepatitis (PTH) occurs in approximately 10% of transfused patients, and NANBH accounts for up to 90% of these cases. The major problem in this disease is the frequent progression to chronic liver damage (25-55%).
Patient care as well as the prevention of transmission of NANBH by blood and blood products or by close personal contact require reliable screening, diagnostic and prognostic tools to detect nucleic acids, antigens and antibodies related to NANBV.
Methods for detecting specific polynucleotides by hybridization assays are known in the art. See, for example, Matthews and Kricka (1988), Analytical Biochemistry 169:1; Landegren et al. (1988), Science 242:229, and Mittlin (1989), Clinical chem. 35:1819. U.S. Pat. No. 4,868,105, issued Sep. 9, 1989, and in EPO Publication No. 225,807 (published Jun. 16, 1987).

Methods for detecting hepatitis C virus using polynucleotides specific for same


A polymer composition comprising at least one liquid crystalline polymer and an ultrahigh molecular weight siloxane polymer in an amount from about 0.1 to about 20 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the liquid crystalline polymer is provided. The siloxane polymer has a number average molecular weight of about 100,000 grams per mole or more.

Electrical components often contain molded parts that are formed from a liquid crystalline, thermoplastic resin. Recent demands on the electronic industry have dictated a decreased size of such components to achieve the desired performance and space savings. One such component is an electrical connector, which can be external (e.g., used for power or communication) or internal (e.g., used in computer disk drives or servers, link printed wiring boards, wires, cables and other EEE components). Due to the manner in which they are employed, most electrical components are required to meet certain flammability standards that minimize the risk of the dripping and stringing of the part onto a heat source, e.g., an electric heating element or open flame. Unfortunately, the internal lubricants used in many conventional formulations to assist in the molding process can increase the risk of dripping as such materials have a tendency to migrate to the surface of the part. One solution for this problem has been to produce products with a relatively high level of an anti-dripping additive, such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). While such additives can improve the flammability properties of the composition, they often lead to other problems, such as poor mechanical and thermal properties (e.g., flowability or heat resistance) and sacrificed flowability.
As such, a need currently exists for a polymer composition that can possess good flammability properties, yet also maintain good mechanical and thermal properties and flowability.


A method and apparatus provides an analog mode of operation of a standard test access bus interface based on a standard boundary scan architecture which is limited to use of digital signals. Circuits are included in the interface which enable the sharing of control paths at separate time intervals defined under instruction control for processing analog and digital signals thereby providing a hybrid capability without any increase in the number of lines required by the interface.

1. Field of Use
The present invention relates to electronic integrated circuits (ICs) and, more particularly, to circuits which employ a standard boundary scan test access port.
2. Prior Art
A standard boundary scan test architecture was approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1990. Major revisions were approved in 1993 and 1994 as part of an ongoing evolutionary process. This architecture provides a means by which ICs may be designed in a standard fashion such that they or their external connections, or both, may be tested using a four or five wire interface.
The roots of boundary scan testing are found in the scan test methodology developed in the 1960s. An example of one implementation of this technology is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,582,902, granted Jun. 1, 1971. The basic scan concept is to join all storage elements (e.g., flip-flops) of a logic design in one or more serial strings. The serial, or shift register, interconnection is in addition to the normal functional interconnection, and is intended to be primarily used during testing. Although this hardly makes the testing of complex systems easy to accomplish, scanning reduces the overwhelming chore of simulating sequential systems to the more manageable chore of simulating combinatorial systems.
It is important to note that the addition of scan circuitry does not benefit the functional role of the logic system to which it is added. Test circuitry is deemed undesirable overhead which would not be included if there were other practical ways of eliminating faults. Therefore, test simplification is a powerful economic incentive.
The complexities which arise from the use of the basic scan concept were the motivation behind the development of the boundary scan test architecture. Developing a test for a design using the original scan concept required simulating large sections of a system, or an entire system. During diagnosis, failing tests often could not be readily correlated with actual faults. The reason was that any one error indication sensed at the test system could be the result of one or more of a large number of faulty devices or interconnects, even when it was assumed that the integrity of the scan string was intact (i.e., provided a fault free path).
In the boundary scan test architecture, a serial string is placed at the periphery of the IC, independent of storage element locations. A four or five wire interface between the various ICs of a system so designed to include the boundary scan test architecture in conjunction with a test system allows separate and isolated testing of the ICs and the connections between them. The end result provides a much simplified correlation between failing tests and physical faults.
Until recently, scan testing has been regarded as purely digital. While methods have been proposed to test analog devices in conjunction with digital scan testing, they often share the approach of converting analog signal levels to digital signal levels and vice-versa as part of the interface between the test system and the analog devices to be tested. Where such conversion must be avoided, separate interconnections from the digital serial string are made between the test system and the analog devices to be tested. In this case, the digital serial string serves merely as part of a routing control mechanism for the analog signals.
Although the ability to accomplish analog testing with the same overhead test circuitry as used for digital testing is most desirable, until now implementing such an arrangement has been generally viewed as impractical. For example, separate IEEE working groups are developing different digital and analog test bus standards. It is generally the view in the testing field that in-circuit testers will not be replaced regardless of strides made in boundary scan testing because analog device testing is beyond the reach of the standard boundary scan architecture. Position papers presented at the 1992 IEEE International Test Conference in conjunction with a panel on mixed signal testing (proceedings pp. 555-557) indicate separate package pins might be used in an analog test architecture for analog test purposes, in addition to the pins used in the boundary scan architecture. Presently, a standard founded in this architecture is being considered by the IEEE P1149.4 Working Group.
Significant benefit would be derived if were it possible to test analog devices utilizing the four or five package pin overhead test circuitry already largely found acceptable in the industry used to accomplish digital testing via boundary scan. This could often eliminate the need for in-circuit test stations in manufacturing. Also, this could often avoid the use of test points to accommodate such analog testing in printed circuit board designs involving optimum miniaturization. Furthermore, this could allow for analog testing at the internal IC device level.
Previously, U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,358 supported such analog testing but had the disadvantage of making connection to the analog points to be measured through other devices comprising the boundary scan chain in what might be termed an indirect connection method. The connections were made through a series of analog switches--one or more for each IC device between the end of the boundary scan chain and the point to which connection was desired. The resistance of the series of analog switches limits practical application of this technique. The method using extra pins has no such disadvantage.
Recently, another architecture has been proposed wherein the digital test mode select (TMS) input pin of the TAP serves as a mixed-signal pin and is used for stimulus during analog measurements and for logic input during control of the state transitions of the TAP's finite-state machine (TAP controller). The architecture is proposed for use in architectures having two analog buses AB1 and AB2 with identical switching networks for each I/O pin. When so used, this architecture requires one less test pin per IC by providing a common pin TMS/AB1 used for causing TAP controller state transitions and analog signals. To carry out such analog measurements with the architecture, it is required that the TAP test clock (TCK) input pin be stopped or frozen at zero.
While the above architecture reduces the number of input pins, it still requires an additional pin per each IC device for carrying out analog testing. Also, it requires that the test clock input pin be held in a single state. That is, proper operation of the architecture is dependent upon that pin. It cannot be used for other purposes, such as becoming another analog signal pin.
For a further more detailed discussion of the above architecture, reference may be made to paper 25.2 entitled, "Integration of EEEE Std. 1149.1 and Mixed-Signal Test Architectures" by David J. Cheek and R. Dandapani, published in the International Test Conference Proceedings, Copyrighted.COPYRGT. 1995.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for analog and digital signal processing by an interface generally compatible with a standard boundary scan architecture.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and means of testing analog components and devices utilizing such interface in conjunction with current digital scanning techniques.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide the method and means for an analog interface which has no significant detriment to the digital scanning techniques already in place.
It is an even still further object of the present invention to allow direct connection between an IC device within a series of IC devices of a boundary scan chain and analog measurement equipment external to the IC devices.

Boundary scan architecture analog extension with direct connections


A photoconductive phthalocyanine composition is disclosed, comprising (A) a photoconductive phthalocyanine composition comprising 100 parts by weight of an unsubstituted phthalocyanine derivative and from 0.001 to 5 parts by weight of a nitro- or halogen-substituted phthalocyanine derivative and (B) from 0.01 to 10 parts by weight, per 100 parts by weight of the photoconductive phthalocyanine composition (A), of a phthalocyanine derivative having at least 4 electron attracting groups. A photosensitive layer formed of the photoconductive phthalocyanine composition produces digital signals whether input light is digital or not. It is useful as not only a photoreceptor for digital recording system of electrophotography but a photoreceptor for analogue light input in conventional PPC to provide a high quality image with sharp edges.

Conventional electrophotographic photoreceptors include those which are close to a simple photoconductor, so-called Carlson's photoreceptors, those having an amorphous Se photosensitive layer, those having an amorphous Si layer, and ZnO-resin photoconductors which are similar to an amorphous Se layer. A photosensitive layer of separate function type using an organic semi-conductor has recently been put to practical use. Any of these electrophotographic techniques has been developed based on the conception of an analogue recording system in which a photoconductive material passing a photoelectric current in proportion to the amount of incident light is employed.
Electrophotographic techniques and computer communication techniques have recently been combined, and a printer or facsimile system has rapidly been introduced into an electrophotographic recording system. Accordingly, it has been demanded to displace the conventional analogue recording system for plain paper copiers (PPC) with a digital recording system in the field of electrophotography. For example, JP-A-1-169454 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,963,452) (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application") discloses the concept of a photoreceptor for digital light input. However, the publication affords no specific description about the materials of the photoreceptor for digital light input.


A new cultivar of Antirrhinum plant named ‘YACREY’ that is characterized by rose and yellow flowers, mounding habit, and green foliage. In combination these traits set ‘YACREY’ apart from all other existing varieties of Antirrhinums known to the inventor.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of snapdragon, known botanically as Antirrhinum majus and referred to hereinafter by the cultivar name 'YACREY'.
'YACREY' was selected by the inventor, in 2000, from a formal breeding program conducted in a cultivated area of Congleton, Cheshire, England. The breeding program was conducted by the inventor and established in 1990, the objective being to select cultivars of snapdragons that exhibit new flower colors along with new and improved growth habits. The inventor is also interested in producing varieties of snapdragon which do not set seed, since the seed setting on snapdragons is both unattractive and responsible for greatly reduced flowering.
'YACREY' is of hybrid origin and resulted from the induced cross-pollination of female and male parent seedlings. The female parent is a single plant which was raised from seed obtained from plants of the species Antirrhinum majus (unpatented) and the male parent is an unnamed seedling of Antirrhinum (unpatented) which the inventor held in his collection and which had arisen from previous open pollinations of Antirrhinum plants situated at the inventor's nursery. Whilst both parent plants exhibited a desirable semi-trailing habit, the inventor was hoping to find a hybrid with bright and unusual flower colors which would be sustained through the spring and early summer. 'YACREY' was selected for its combination of mounding habit and bright rose and yellow bicolored flowers that distinguish it from all other Antirrhinum known to the inventor. The closest comparison plants are the inventor's varieties of Antirrhinum known as 'Lemon Blush Chandelier' (unpatented) and 'Rose Pink Chandelier' (unpatented). 'YACREY' is distinguishable from the comparison plants by less trailing habit, and its rose and yellow flower colors.
The first asexual propagation of 'YACREY' was conducted in June 2000 by theinventor in Congleton, Cheshire, England. The method of propagation used was tip cuttings and the inventor has determined that 'YACREY' is stable and reproduces true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction. The inventor has also determined that 'YACREY' is sterile and does produce a continual display of flowers through the main selling season for snapdragons.


An apparatus and method for monitoring performance of a storage device. Preferably, the apparatus is embodied in computer readable program code. The apparatus and method may intercept communications between a computer system and the storage device, wherein the communications are compared to a threshold value and/or a predicted failure of the storage device. The apparatus and method may also respond to a decline in the performance of the storage device based on the analyzed communications, and preferably prior to the predicted failure thereof.

Computer systems are typically provided with access to one or more storage devices. The storage devices may be attached directly to the computer system itself. For example, a personal computer (PC) such as a laptop or desktop computer may include one or more attached storage devices such as a hard disk drive, a compact disk (CD), magnetic storage, etc. Alternately, or in addition to, the computer system may have access to remote storage devices, such as over a network. For example, a workstation may have remote access to a network storage device such as a fibre channel Storage Area Network (SAN), a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device, etc. Or for example, a workstation may have remote access to a shared hard disk drive or other storage device attached to a server or other workstation that is available over a network.
The performance of a storage device, whether attached or remote, depends on a number of factors, such as the extent of use, type of use, etc. Over time and with use, the performance of the storage device may decline or even fail altogether. Declining performance and/or complete failure of a storage device may result in lost data, time and money, not to mention frustration for anyone needing access to the data stored thereon. In addition, when a storage device fails altogether, the data on the failed device may be irretrievable.
One solution for optimizing the performance of a storage device is to defragment it. During a defragmenting operation, similar files and file segments may be grouped together on the storage device so that these files and file segments may be more readily accessed. However, defragmenting operations often take time to perform, and may be interrupted if the storage device is accessed during the defragmenting operation. In addition, defragmenting operations typically group all similar or like files with one another, without first assessing the need to do. As such, a time consuming defragmenting operation may not improve the performance of the storage device.
When a storage device fails altogether, data recovery may include an attempt to recover the data from the failed storage device itself. In some situations, the data may be recovered. However, such recovery may take considerable time before the data can be retrieved from the failed storage device and rewritten to another storage device. The data remains inaccessible during the recovery operation. In addition, this solution may be costly depending on the type of storage media and the extent of the failure. In some circumstances, the data may not even be recoverable.
Another, more common solution for data recovery, is to back-up data from one storage device to another storage device prior to a device failure. However, the user does not know when a storage device will fail, and hence the user does not know when to perform the back-up operation. Device failures often start out as what are called "recoverable" failures. That is, when an attempt to access data on the storage device fails, the storage device itself may retry or make another attempt to access the data thereon. Alternately, the storage device may report the failed attempt to the operating system, which may retry or make another call to the storage device to access the data thereon. In any event, when a retry is successful, nothing is reported to the user. As such, any potential problems with the storage device are "masked" to the user, and the user does not know of a potential failure of the storage device until it actually occurs.
Typically, the user must back-up data on the storage device to another storage device on a regular basis. However, even when data is backed-up on a regular basis, the user still does not know when the storage device will fail. As such, some data may still be lost when the storage device fails. That is, the data added or changed after the last back-up may not be recoverable when the storage device fails. Although more frequent back-ups may reduce the amount of lost data when the storage device fails, back-up operations take time to perform, and may slow other functions of the computer system while being performed. In addition, there may still be some data that is changed and/or added after the last back-up, and thus that data may be lost when the storage device fails.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A method of continuously rotating a subject object top over bottom over top on a display screen encompasses jumping to a view having a longitude that is 180 degrees from the previous and displaying the image in an up-side-down orientation. Upon pausing, or completing the rotation by releasing the mouse button, a higher resolution image loads and displays thereby improving the sharpness or allowing the user to zoom in on additional detail.

The present invention relates to software applications that display images of physical objects from a finite number of angles, and more particularly to a method for increasing the amount of rotation as well as sharpening the image displayed.
Internet multi-media viewers, such as Quicktime from Apple Computer, provide the experience of rotating a physical object by allowing a user to control which view, of a finite number of views taken from different angles, is to be displayed. Typically, the user will select the rotation mode then press and drag within the application.
Dragging horizontally displays a sequence of views of the object from angles where the value of the longitude coordinate varies. If there is enough data for 360 degree rotation then upon reaching one limit, the sequence continues from the opposite limit giving the appearance of continuous rotation around and around the object.
Dragging vertically displays a sequence of views of the object from angles where the value of the colatitude coordinate varies and stops rotation at an upper limit and a lower limit such that the object always appears right-side-up.
Dragging in a diagonal direction varies the values of both longitude and colatitude coordinates, as one would expect.
There remains a need to improve the user experience by providing both 360 degree rotation where the value of the longitude coordinate varies, and extended rotation where the value of the colatitude coordinate varies such that the object is able to be displayed up-side-down, right-side-up, as well as around and around at the same time.
There remains a second need to improve the user experience by sharpening the image of the object after the rotation is complete or the user performing an additional action.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Extended rotation and sharpening of an object viewed from a finite number of angles