In order to provide a polyester film having superior impact resistance and flex pinhole resistance, and further exhibiting superior gas barrier properties after a metal or metal oxide is deposited on the film, with the inherent characteristics of polyester film maintained, such as low hygroscopicity, dimensional stability, flatness, and transparency, the polyester film comprises a mixture of 70% to 97% by weight of polyester A mainly composed of a repeating unit comprising ethylene terephthalate and 3% to 30% by weight of polyester B mainly composed of a repeating unit comprising butylene terephthalate. The polyester film has a melting point in range of 245 to 270° C. The polyester film may comprise a polyester resin containing 90% to 60% by weight of an ethylene terephthalate component, 10% to 40% by weight of a butylene terephthalate component, and 0.1% to 5% by weight of a polyoxyalkylene glycol component. The polyester film is suitably used for packaging and other applications.

Biaxially oriented poly(ethylene terephthalate) film, which is a typical type of polyester film, is broadly used in various fields, such as industrial material, magnetic recording material, optical material, information material, and packaging material, because of its superior mechanical strength, thermal properties, humidity properties, and other outstanding characteristics.
For packaging material, which particularly requires impact resistance and pinhole resistance, however, biaxially oriented aliphatic polyamide film is often used. Poly(ethylene terephthalate) film is less used because of its hardness, which is reflected by its toughness. For example, in packaging applications particularly requiring gas barrier properties and moisture resistance, it is necessary to have impact resistance and flex pinhole resistance represented by Gelbo test and, in addition, to exhibit superior characteristics in these resistances at low temperature.
Unfortunately, aliphatic polyamide has high hygroscopicity, and consequently produces intrinsic disadvantages, such as deterioration of moisture dimensional stability and flatness. For example, it is difficult to deposit a metal compound for enhancing the gas barrier properties, or printing quality or adhesion with a laminated layer is negatively affected by moisture absorption.
In contrast, polyester has low hygroscopicity and accordingly it does not exhibit the foregoing disadvantages. However, the impact and pinhole resistances, which are required for packaging material, are undesirably inferior, as described above.
In order to enhance the impact resistance and pinhole resistance of polyester to overcome the above-described disadvantages, some approaches have been proposed. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-79776 discloses a flexible polyester film having a specific Young's modulus; Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 7-330926, a polyester film prepared by blending a poly(tetramethylene glycol) having a specific molecular weight to a polyester in a specific proportion and adding a specific amount of specific particles. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-11213 also discloses a flexible polyester film prepared by adding poly(ethylene terephthalate) to a modified poly(butylene terephthalate) containing a specific amount of poly(tetramethylene glycol). However, these approaches undesirably affect the mechanical characteristics and transparency of the resulting films, or the films onto which aluminium oxide or silicon oxide is deposited exhibit poor transparency. Furthermore, important characteristics, impact resistance and flex pinhole resistance, are insufficient.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a polyester film having the same characteristics as biaxially oriented polyamide film, such as impact resistance and flex pinhole resistance, and further exhibiting superior gas barrier properties after a metal or metal oxide is deposited on the film, with its inherent characteristics maintained, such as low hygroscopicity, dimensional stability, flatness, and transparency.

Polyester film and gas-barrier polyester film


A method for upgrading a heavy oil includes: disposing a catalyst comprising rhodium and a support in a heavy oil environment, the heavy oil environment including a heavy oil comprising an aromatic compound; introducing hydrogen; and hydrogenating the aromatic compound with the catalyst and hydrogen to upgrade the heavy oil to upgraded oil. A method for converting an asphaltene includes: disposing a supported catalyst in a composition comprising an asphaltene, the supported catalyst being a low temperature catalyst; introducing hydrogen; and hydrogenating the asphaltene to convert the asphaltene into a hydrogenated asphaltene.

Heavy oil contains a number of aromatic compounds that cause challenges in producing and refining heavy oil. Toxicity and environmental impact due to some of the aromatic compounds are considerations for heavy oil production and usage. Two prevalent aromatic compounds found in heavy oil are asphaltenes and resins.
Asphaltenes are a major component in crude oil, and there is general agreement as to the deleterious effects of asphaltenes in the reduction of oil extraction and processing in the petrochemical industry. Asphaltenes may deposit in the pores of formations, blocking the flow of fluids. Additionally, asphaltenes can precipitate from a stream of oil and coat boreholes, production tubing, and transport lines. Moreover, in a processing facility, asphaltenes can foul processing equipment and poison catalysts.
Asphaltene molecules have been widely reported as having a fused polyaromatic ring system and containing sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen heteroatoms. The heteroatoms may be part of the aromatic ring system or part of other carbocyclic rings, linking groups, or functional groups. Two structural motifs for asphaltene molecules are the so-called continental and archipelago structures. In the continental structure, alkyl chains connect to and branch from a central polyaromatic ring system, which is believed to contain several fused aromatic rings, e.g., 10 or more aromatic rings. In the archipelago structure, multiple polyaromatic ring systems are connected by alkyl chains that may contain a heteroatom, and additional alkyl chains extend freely from the polyaromatic rings. The number of fused aromatic rings in the continental structure can be greater than the number of fused aromatic rings in the archipelago structure.
In addition to the aromatic regions of the asphaltenes, heteroatoms provide the asphaltenes with polar regions, and the terminal alkyl chains provide hydrophobic regions. Consequently, it is believed that asphaltene molecules aggregate into various micellular structures in oil, with the alkyl chains interacting with the aliphatic oil components.
Resins are also polyaromatic hydrocarbon species and are smaller structures than asphaltenes. Resins typically have higher solubility in heavy oil than asphaltenes. Additionally, resins in heavy oil can insert between aromatic planes of neighboring asphaltene molecules in asphaltene aggregates, aiding in maintaining the micellular structure of asphaltene aggregates. Asphaltenes can precipitate from oil in structures such as where asphaltene molecules form stacked layers having aligned aromatic regions and aligned aliphatic regions. Asphaltene aggregates suspended in oil can deposit in pores of a formation and along walls of a borehole, casing, and production and transportation tubing, decreasing flow rate or stopping production of oil.
Materials and methods for upgrading heavy oil by converting aromatic compounds therein would be well received in the art.

In-situ hydrogenation of aromatic compounds for heavy oil upgrading


A system for enabling exchange of content over a communications network is disclosed having a first category of users comprising wireless carriers and a second category of users comprising content providers. A content gateway platform is provided having a database for storage of content. The content providers supply content to the database for use by the wireless carriers and the content is ultimately offered to end-user customers of the wireless carriers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a content gateway for use by generators and users of content. More specifically, the present invention relates to a content gateway for use in wireless communications that provides a market-place for service providers and content providers to do business and via which end users may access enhanced content on, e.g., wireless telephones.
2. Background of the Invention
In today's world of telecommunications, wireless service providers continue to add more and more content to their service offerings. The wireless communication industry, in its nascent stages, was merely about providing wireless voice communication between users. As the technology has advanced, today's phones and other wireless devices now offer, for example, games, customizable ring tones, text messaging services, the ability to capture and send images, advertising promotions, voting campaigns, internet service, graphics, video, and any number of new service offerings.
There are many wireless service providers or wireless carriers that provide these services via mobile communications devices to the public. The wireless carriers often provide their own content to be used by their customers, but there are also a growing number of independent content providers that develop and market content to be offered to the various wireless carriers. Because of the increasing number of entities in this market place, it is often difficult for independent content providers to identify, develop, and promote the most popular type of content. Also, because some content is device-specific, content providers may not have the kind of marketing information necessary to determine what technology they have already developed that may be worth translating for use on other devices or with other wireless carriers.
In addition to the marketing aspects, there are transactional costs associated with the current market place whereby individual wireless carriers must transact separately with each content provider to provide the content and determine how the providers will be compensated for the usage of the content. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide improved systems and methods to promote the enhanced content supplied by disparate providers.

Intermediary content gateway system and method


A vehicle speed control system for a vehicle is used, with a vehicle navigation system, for indicating a location of the vehicle on a road map as the vehicle travels and for providing information related to the road, including curves of the road. The vehicle speed control system receives information related to curves of a road on which the vehicle travels, such as the radius of curvature, when the vehicle navigation system indicates that the vehicle location is before the curve. The system calculates a limit vehicle speed, at which the vehicle can negotiate and pass safely through the curve, based on the vehicle speed and the radius of curvature of the curve. When the vehicle speed is higher than the limit vehicle speed, the vehicle speed control system provides a warning and/or automatically brakes the vehicle, or automatically closes a throttle of the vehicle, so as to lower cause the vehicle speed to fall below the limit vehicle speed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a navigation system for automotive vehicles and, more particularly, to an automotive vehicle navigation system which controls vehicle speed as the vehicle makes a turn.
In return years, various kinds of automatically controlled electronic driving systems have been developed which enable drivers to drive, safely and comfortably, independently of their particular feelings and driving techniques. For example, it is known to have vehicle distance control systems automatically decelerate an automotive vehicle, as well as provide an alarm, when the automotive vehicle is closer to a leading vehicle than a safe distance corresponding to a vehicle speed at which the automotive vehicle travels. Such a vehicle distance control system is known from, for instance, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 57(1982)-155,700. The vehicle distance control system in the publication mentioned above detects its own vehicle speed and the distance between a leading vehicle and compares the distance with what is considered a safe distance corresponding to the vehicle speed.
2. Description of the Related Art
For safe driving, vehicles must be controlled to be held at a safety speed which depend on road conditions as well as the distance between two vehicles. As an example, in negotiating a sharp turn, when a vehicle, traveling on a straightway at a relatively high speed, enters into a sharp turn, it should be brought down to a proper approaching speed, lower than the traveling speed, corresponding to a radius of the sharp turn before an approach point of the turn. If the vehicle enters into the sharp turn at a speed higher than the proper approaching speed, it possibly will swerve from the sharp turn, due to a centrifugal force which is proportional to the radius of the turn and varies inversely with the square of vehicle speed. However, if a turn in the vehicle path is not visible, it is difficult to estimate the radius of the turn. Moreover, although a turn in the path may be visible enough to estimate the radius of the turn, if the path is icy or wet, safe driving is assured only when a vehicle enters into the turn at a speed lower than a speed visually estimated corresponding to the radius of the turn. Such a radius and speed estimation is hard to make accurately and quickly during driving.


A punch press provided with a tool magazine in which a plurality of tool mounting gondolas are supported movably in a vertical loop by and between two endless chains arranged vertically around sprocket wheels. Each gondola is supported at its supporting points which differ from each other at least in height, whereby the gondola is moved around in the loop without overturn when the sprocket wheels are rotated by a motor. Each of the gondolas stays at a manually tool changing location of the magazine where a table is provided for changing a number of tool assemblies in the magazine. The table has at least one guide which is positioned at two different heights, and along the guide tool assemblies or an upper and a lower die holders are drawn out of the gondola horizontally and placed in desired positions for replacement.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a punch press, in particular to a punch press provided with an improved tool magazine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A conventional punch press has a tool magazine of horizontal type or vertical type for storing tool assemblies to be used. The tool assemblies are taken out for use of the magazine at its automatically tool changing location and then carried and attached to a tool attaching section of the punch press by an automatic tool changer which also takes out tool assemblies of the tool attaching section of the punch press and carries them to the tool magazine.
Punch presses provided with a tool magazine of horizontal type are, for example, described in Japanese patent (U) 62-127321 and West Germany Patent (A1) 3507220. A press described in the above Japanese Patent has a tool magazine within a frame of the press, and therefore the number of tool assemblies stored in the magazine is limited. A press described in the above West German Patent has a tool magazine outside a frame of the press and therefore occupies a large area for the magazine.
A tool magazine of vertical type is, for example, described in Japanese patent (A) 61-115630. In this tool magazine, tool assemblies will be upside down when the magazine is operated to select the tool assemblies. This troubles the operator for changing tool assemblies manually with ease.
When a number of tool assemblies in the magazine are replaced with other tool assemblies at the manually tool changing location opposite the automatically tool changing location of the magazine, it is carried out manually. Therefore, the operator is sometimes injured when changing or carrying the tool assemblies since the weight of a punching tool assemblies or an upper die holder is about 25 Kg (245N, 55 pounds). Japanese Patent (B2) 64-135 discloses a device whereby the operator can take out tool assemblies safely of a tool magazine. For this device, however, a pair of tool assemblies, that is, an upper and a lower die holders taken out are superimposed. This makes it difficult for the operator to handle the tool assemblies easily and therefore handle them safely.

Punch press and a tool magazine for the press


A hydraulic solenoid control valve, including a valve housing, a valve chamber, having a first valve seat bore as a connection to a first line, a second valve seat bore as a connection to a second line, and a free aperture to a third line, a solenoid, and a valve spindle movable by the solenoid and partially arranged in the valve chamber. The valve spindle includes, a first sealing surface facing the first valve seat bore and a second sealing surface facing the second valve seat bore. The first and the second valve seat bores can be closed. The valve spindle protrudes from the valve chamber through the second valve seat bore toward the solenoid. When the second valve seat bore is closed, the valve spindle is pulled into the second valve seat bore by a differential-area-ratio through the pressure in the second line.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a hydraulic solenoid control valve, in particular a hydraulic cartridge solenoid control valve, and a door closer including the hydraulic solenoid control valve.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the state of the art, a differentiation is made between door closers and door drives. In case of door closers, the door has to be opened manually by a person. During the opening process, energy is stored, e.g. in a closer spring, and the door closer is capable to close the door by using the stored energy. In contrast, the door drive is an assembly which automatically opens and closes the door by means of an additional auxiliary energy, e.g. by a motor or hydraulic means. In particular when considering the hydraulic circuits in door drives and door closers, significant differences can be found. In electro-mechanic door drives, a motor and a pump are always provided, which apply the required hydraulic pressure. The respective pressure chambers are thereby actively charged with hydraulic pressure, such that the opening of the door is effected. Thus, in the door drive, the pressure is generated by the internal components, i.e. motor and pump. In contrast, the pressure chambers in a door closer are filled by expansion of the chambers and by suctioning the hydraulic oil from other spaces of the door closer. Herein, the energy for the closer spring and for the pressure generation is supplied into the door closer by opening the door. Consequently, the force and moment characteristics as well as the occurring loads are mostly different for a door closer and a door drive.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Hydraulic directional solenoid valve and door closer having a hydraulic directional solenoid valve


A service processor computing arrangement is associated with a cellular multiprocessing cell. The arrangement includes a scan machine coupled to communicate with processing hardware of the cell and a service processor coupled to an external communications interface of the scan machine. The scan machine includes remote scan software that performs at least one of monitoring and configuration of the processing hardware, and a first remote install program that receives update data via the external communications interface and applies the update data to the remote scan software. The service processor includes a server control program that performs at least one of monitoring and configuring the cell via the remote scan machine, and a second remote install program that applies the update data to the scan machine via the first remote install program.

Cellular multiprocessing (CMP) is a computing architecture developed by Unisys Corporation that may use central processing units (CPUs) developed by Intel Corporation, CPUs that are compatible with those developed by Intel Corporation, proprietary Unisys CPUs, or other CPUs. Some currently available CMP systems may include up to 32 processors that are crossbar connected to up to 512 GB of memory, 512 MB of shared cache, and up to 40 I/O channels. A CMP system provides mainframe-like architecture, yet can support a number of commonly available commercial operating systems (OS), including some server version of Windows™ and some Unix-based and Unix-like operating systems.
A "processing" cell generally refers to a group of processors, memory, and I/O that can be used alone or combined with other cells to form a symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP) system. For example the Unisys ES7000/one server allows users to combine up to eight system cells, each with four Intel Itanium 2 or Xeon processors and 64 GB of main memory for a total of 32 processors and half a terabyte of memory. Each cell contains a CMP crossbar, which connects memory, processors and I/O within the cell. The architecture of Unisys CMP systems is such that cells are often delivered as cell-pairs.
A CMP can be arranged as one large SMP system, or may be partitioned into multiple systems each capable of running a different operating system. For example, a 32 processor CMP can be partitioned into two partitions of 16 processors each, or four partitions of four processors each. These partitions can each have an OS installed, with each OS viewing the partition as a separate machine.
Enterprise CMP servers are often deployed to handle mission-critical computing. As such, these systems include high availability features such as redundant configurations, multiple power domains, resilient I/O configurations, and hot-swappable hardware components. Such systems also employ automated monitoring systems that enable such to be self-monitoring and self-healing. These automated functions dramatically reduce the need for hands-on server management and increase the overall availability.
Generally, system monitoring is provided by a separate processor sometimes referred to as a service processor. This service processor may provide features such as status indicators for notification of system health, quick troubleshooting hardware/software alerts for all monitored servers, and real-time CPU and memory utilization information. The service processor may also apply out-of-band configurations of the target cell, such as by setting/modifying boot time environmental parameters, configuring/reassigning I/O resources, etc. The service processor itself may be considered a high reliability server, although one with a specific role related to maintaining the health of one or more CMP cells.
In order to increase the scalability of CMP machines, some of the service processor functionality has been broken out into a device sometimes referred to as a remote scan machine. A remote scan machine is generally a low-cost, embedded computer that contains the low-level hardware functions needed to directly interface with a CMP cell or cell pair. A service processor works in close cooperation with one or more remote scan machines, and different scan machines may be running different types and versions of the OS.
Because the service processor and remote scan machines are independent computing devices, they typically require periodic updates of software for purposes such as feature upgrades and bug fixes. In previous CMP machines, where the service processor and remote scan machine were one and the same, this meant updating only one machine. However, where such functionality has been segregated between two or more independent hardware components, the work involved in updating software increases by a factor of two or more times. Not only does the service processor itself need updating, but so do all remote scan machines with which the service processor operates.
Therefore, a way of automatically and contemporaneously updating distributed machines such as a service processor and remote scan machine is desirable. Further, this update mechanism should be usable in a heterogeneous computing environment that may utilize different operating systems and processor architectures.

Method and apparatus for service processor updates


A combined representation display method is provided in which a main display and a representation display are combined whereby various combination displays with enormous representation effects and great funs are made possible.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a combined representation display method which links a main display section with a production display section on a display screen.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among conventional game machines having an image display device employing virtual images, there is a target hitting game machine which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-323037.
The target hitting game machine shows a target image, which is shown on a CRT (Cathode-Ray Tube) display, to the player by superimposing a virtual image on a hitting stand with a mirror image of a hammer held by the player by means of a half mirror.
To play the game, the player proceeds the game while watching the screen of the image display device, swings down the hammer to hit the hitting stand in such a way that the mirror image hammer hits the target images.
When the player hits a target image, an impact sensor detects the hitting action and outputs a signal. According to the output signal, an image control device changes the target image on the CRT display to a hit effect image.
There are also a superimposed image display device, a game device and a bowling game device as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-114221.
The above superimposed image display device superimposes an actual ball and an image ball to show to an observer and has a CRT display for showing an image and a mirror for forming a reflected virtual image of the image.
To play the game, the real ball released by the player rolls along a moving surface to pass through the mirror to reach the back of it.
And, when the real ball passes through the half mirror section of the mirror, the image ball having the same external shape as the real ball appears. Thus, the real ball is replaced by the image ball.
Specifically, after the real ball disappears behind the mirror, the image ball continues moving as a reflected virtual image.
The amusement machine disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-104311 has a variable display device which is comprised of spinning drums which have special designs formed on their peripheries, drum lamps which can irradiate light to the special designs of the spinning drums, a half mirror which allows visible permeation of the special designs by lighting from the drum lamps, and a projection display mechanism which can project an image to be projected to show it on the half mirror. The projection display mechanism projects character designs to show them as projection images on the half mirror.
By configuring as described above, a mechanical variable display device which can display the character designs in addition to the display of the special designs is provided, and a decorative visual effect is improved.
As described above, the image display device of the target hitting game machine disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-323037 is a game which is played based on the virtual hammer image and its background image using the half mirror. It is a game showing as an image created on the basis of an actual mole hitting game machine which is generally seen here and there. It simply shows a virtual image and is not configured to make a combination display.
According to the superimposed image display device, the game device and the bowling game device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-114221, when the real ball released by the player disappears behind the mirror, the image ball as the reflected virtual image continues its movement. It has effects of decreasing a space occupied by the game machine and simplifying the device by separately disposing the spatially actual portion and the reflected virtual image portion but is poor in changes and variations of the display because it simply shows the virtual images.
In the amusement machine disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-104311, the player visually recognizes the special designs of the spinning drums through the half mirror. The projection image is projected onto and shown on the half mirror by superimposing on the special designs on the spinning drums, but the display to the player is mainly based on the special designs on the spinning drums. It is just an addition of the image expression of the virtual images to the peripheries of the special designs on the spinning drums. Thus, it is not particularly described about the combination display of the operations of the spinning drums with the image expression

Abstract: The combined representation display method according to the invention is a combined representation display method for a display screen 1G which has a main display section 25e1 and a representation display section 25e, and the representation display section 25e shows combined representation in combination with main displays 26an, 26bn, 26cn of the main display section 25e1.


A network of data processing nodes is configured for in-memory data processing. The data processing nodes are interconnected in an acyclic manner, and are connected at an input end to one or more input data sources, and at an output end to one or more output data nodes. Each data processing node is configured to perform one or more data processing operations which generate respective result data that is used as one or both of (i) an input for another data processing node in the network, and (ii) an output to be sent to one of the output data nodes. The result data for each data processing node is stored in a memory of the respective data processing node. Each data processing node includes a flag having a state that controls storage persistence of the result data in the memory of the respective data processing node.

Modern computing devices have become increasing powerful in terms of processing and memory storage, to the point where large datasets can be contained entirely in memory. This has caused the data processing industry to undergo a large shift away from disk-based processing of information to in-memory processing. For example, a payroll system consisting of several thousand employees in the past would have been stored in a traditional database system, and processing would traditionally occur by structured query language (SQL) statements or other means optimized for disk access. Nowadays, memory is large is enough to contain such data even for the largest of corporations and could perform all the necessary processing entirely within memory; the only I/O steps required may be simply gathering the inputs and saving the results.
In-memory processing often undergoes many steps of computations and transformations to get to a final result. This might include mathematical operations, joining data, adding or dropping columns, and the like. At each step, data must typically be present in memory so that it can be fed into the next process or processes. It can be said that such data is "materialized," where the results of such calculations and transformation are made real and accessible in memory.
Even so, modern databases have over decades of maturity and optimization often benefit from increased memory themselves, even though most of optimization techniques have been built around efficient use of I/O. So, even though much more data can fit into memory, it is even more important that innovative techniques be used to ensure that the relatively-limited resource of memory can be used efficiently when the largest of datasets are used and especially when processing involves many steps.
Essentially, most data processing procedures can be broken down into a series of interrelated and interconnected steps that form an abstract structure of processing nodes and connections to downstream processing nodes. Processing flows from input data to downstream nodes. For example, a JOIN processing operation would take input from two upstream nodes, which represent the left and right sides of the data. The result may then feed into calculation operation, and then a filter operation, until it reached a final output. Of course, when there are hundreds or even thousands of operations, or nodes, the processing algorithm must make sure all operations are run generally so that all dependent operations are completed before any given operation can proceed. Moreover, there cannot be any feedback loops, thus the acyclic general requirement for the processing graph.
Although a computer can process data in memory much faster than if had to constantly use I/O to access the data, in-memory storage is a much more limited resource than disk storage. Often, not all the intermediary results of a complex set of data processing operation can fit into memory. Thus, most in-memory processing systems must have a mechanism to clear such intermediary data as needed. Therefore, to see those intermediary results again, such as for displaying them in a user-interface for example, the data must be regenerated again for that intermediary step, or re-materialized.
When there are such large numbers of operations, a developer that is creating the data processing procedure must frequently be able to see the results of a given processing operation (or step or node.) Because of memory constraints, it can be often impossible to keep an in-memory representation of data in each processed node. However, the ability to see data at any given step is critical to aid in debugging. The challenge is with processing thousands of operations, the data node that the developer may want to examine could be deep within the graph. Thus, if the developer makes a change to an upstream process, the developer may have to wait until the entire graph is re-processed, or at least until the node in question is processed and its results are generated. The present invention seeks to address this issue by optimizing the materialization of those results that are important to user, even as memory is being cleared under pressure.

Optimization of in-memory processing of data represented by an acyclic graph so that the removal and re-materialization of data in selected nodes is minimized


A method and apparatus for automatically suggesting further applications to a user using an executed application in a computerized environment, comprising receiving metadata provided by the executed application; searching an index for suggested applications which receive as input the data provided by the executed application; assigning a priority for each of the suggested applications; sorting the suggested applications according to the priority; and displaying to the user a list comprising the applications that received the highest priorities.

A portal is a computerized framework integrating information, applications, utilities and other elements. A portal usually provides an access point, often in the form of a web-based user interface, and is designed to aggregate and optionally to personalize information through application-specific components, optionally referred to as portlets. A portal may be a publicly available portal, or an enterprise-portal, intended only for the enterprise employees and associates.
A common problem associated with maintaining a portal relates to the addition of new applications, and sometimes also to the enhancement of existing applications. The new or enhanced applications have to be made accessible from the existing graphic user interface (GUI), and should be connected to the relevant contents.
For example, if a Geographic Information System (GIS) is added to an existing system, it should be made available to all relevant applications, such as employee directory in order to present the address of a current employee, a store location page in order to show the store locations on a map, or the like.
Thus, some association has to be made between the new application and each of the relevant existing ones, including remotely relevant ones.
Further, the added application should be activated with the relevant information, such as the address of the employee, a relevant part number in a warehouse management application, or the like.
Another aspect of the problem is that often, the real-estate, i.e., the available display area or the relevant part thereof is already fully used, and the addition of a new control for activating the new application may necessitate the evacuation of another one. A similar situation may occur when the number of available applications outperforms the available display area. In yet another situation, the display area may be too loaded for a user to even notice the newly available application.
Thus, new and useful applications may go unnoticed by users, who are therefore not getting the benefits of the development efforts invested by the organization.
All the abovementioned problems increase the Total Cost of Development (TCD) and also the Total Cost of Ownership (TCD) of applications in a portal. Experience demonstrates that sometimes more significant resources are required for integrating a new application in an environment than those required for the development of the application.
There is thus a need in the art for a method and apparatus for integrating new or enhanced applications into complex environments such as portals. The method and apparatus should enable such integration at minimal manual work, both on the connectivity between the new application and the existing ones, and on the user interface of the integration.

Apparatus and method for integrating applications into a computerized environment


A telephone user who is at a first telephone station and is placed on hold at a second station is prevented from listening to an objectionable audio signal while a call is in process between the user and the second telephone station. The objectionable audio signal is detected while the call is in process and the user is prevented from hearing the objectionable audio signal while the objectionable audio signal is being detected. In response to detection of the end of the objectionable audio signal, the user is coupled to the second telephone station.

Frequently, a telephone user, particularly a caller to a business which provides goods or services, is placed on hold while in a queue waiting to be served, or for other reasons. The business placing the telephone user on hold frequently switches the user to an audio signal source, which the user finds objectionable. Such an objectionable audio signal source is music the user finds boring or offensive. In some instances, the user is switched to a radio program which the user also finds objectionable.
At the present time, telephone users who remain on hold under such circumstances have no recourse but to listen to the objectionable audio signal. Many telephone users who remain on hold under such circumstances would prefer to listen to an audio source other than the source transmitted by the business to the user or may wish not to hear any audio signal while waiting to be served.
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved telephony method and apparatus, wherein a telephone user who remains on hold is not forced to listen to an objectionable audio signal.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved telephony method and apparatus wherein a telephone user who remains on hold is automatically switched to an audio source of his/her choice, which can include silence, until the hold situation no longer exists.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved automatic apparatus for enabling telephone users who remain on hold to avoid listening to objectionable audio signals transmitted to him/her by a different telephone user who puts the user on hold.

Method of and apparatus wherein a telephone user on hold is not required to listen to an objectionable audio signal


A center conductor having an effective outer diameter; a dielectric material around the center conductor, a semi-conductive layer around the dielectric material, an outer conductor, or shield, around the dielectric material; the shield having an effective inner diameter; wherein the center conductor has a cross-sectional area of 3.141×10−4 in2 or less; wherein the cable has a capacitance of about 15 pF/ft or less; wherein the cable maintains electrical continuity under a tensile force of 25 lbf or greater; wherein the cable has a flex life of greater than about 30,000 cycles; and wherein the cable is a musical instrument cable.

Guitars and other stringed instruments are often amplified by attaching a passive magnetic pickup in close proximity to the vibrating metallic strings and connecting this pickup to an amplifier and speaker using a cable. The vibrating string changes the magnetic flux within the core of the pickup. This flux change induces a voltage change in the outer coils of the pickup, thus completing the translation of mechanical vibration to electrical signal. This signal is transmitted through the cable to the amplifier.
The cable connecting the pickup to the amplifier is typically between 5 and 30 feet in length to allow the musician adequate mobility while playing. For increased mobility, some musicians use wireless transmitters which allow substantially greater distances between the guitar and amplifier, however, the vast majority of musicians don't require the additional distance and prefer to use the less expensive cable connection.
In addition to the electrical requirements of a guitar cable, the guitar cable must have a combination of mechanical attributes. Guitar cables need to withstand tensile forces when extracting them from the jacks in guitars and amplifiers. Cables require adequate flexibility to not inhibit movement by the player and need to be robust enough to endure the random flexing exerted by players through constant movement. They also need to withstand the forces of coiling and uncoiling associated with storage when not in use.
Coaxial cable, where the signal is surrounded by a 360 degree metallic wire shield, is the most common connection between the electric guitar and the amplifier. The coaxial structure offers several advantages over other cable designs. The outer shield protects the low voltage signals traveling inside the cable's core from radio frequency interference (RFI) which is important since the guitar signal, along with any RFI noise, is significantly amplified prior to the speaker. The coax structure offers the minimum size for a shielded cable for a given capacitance. The round structure allows for maximum flexibility in all directions. This is important during use as well as when winding the cable up for storage.
Electrical models have been created for the circuit of a passive guitar pickup connected to an amplifier using a cable (see for example the Instruction Manual for the Lemme Pickup Analyzer). The circuit shown in FIG. 1 is modeled as a pickup, cable and amplifier. The cable, when used for audio frequencies at lengths up to 500 feet can be viewed as a series resistor, equivalent to the total resistance of the signal path, and a parallel capacitor, whose value equals the lumped capacitance of the signal path. The amplifier input circuit is very high impedance, typically 500,000 Ohms to 1,000,000 Ohms. Given the voltage divider circuit between the cable resistance and amplifier input resistance, the signal transmission of the circuit is relatively insensitive to cable resistance below 50-100 ohms. Instrument cables have resistance values well below this range.
The frequency response of the circuit is dependent on the interaction of the pickup inductance and cable capacitance. A resonant frequency is created where the reactance of the cable capacitance and pickup inductance are equivalent in amplitude. The resonant frequency of the circuit in FIG. 1 is calculated by:
      f    r    =      1          2                                      π                    LC            Where L is the fixed pickup inductance and C is the lumped cable capacitance, which is determined by the cable design and length. The resonant frequency is inversely proportional to cable capacitance. As cable capacitance is decreased the resonant frequency is increased.
Using a Lemme Pickup Analyzer the response of a 2005 Fender American Series Stratocaster bridge pickup was measured in series with various lengths of cable to achieve desired capacitance values (see FIG. 2). The response curves were also simulated using SPICE software.
The circuit simulation along with measurements in FIG. 2 also show that the amplitude of the resonant frequency is decreased as the cable capacitance is decreased creating a flatter response in the guitar's midrange frequencies. The −3 dB roll-off frequency of the circuit response is also proportional to the cable capacitance. For a given pickup inductance, as the cable capacitance decreases, the −3 dB roll-off frequency will increase. This allows a wider range of audio frequencies to be transmitted and heard.
Shifts towards a wider range of audio frequencies above −3 dB, and a less emphasized resonant frequency, are readily perceived by guitar players as tonal shifts towards increased clarity and brightness. For a guitarist that would like this effect using an instrument with a passive magnetic pickup, it is necessary to minimize cable capacitance.
The coaxial cable capacitance (C) in picofarads per foot (pF/ft) is given by:
      Equation                          1              :                                                                      Coaxial                          Cable                          Capacitance        C    =                  7.36                                                            ɛ          r                            log                          (                                    D              e                                      d              e                                )                                    Where:                    ∈r=Relative dielectric constant            De=Effective inner diameter of the outer shield            de=Effective outer diameter of the center conductor
The effective diameter is the electrical equivalent diameter of multiple conductor geometry. It takes into account the gaps between wires in specific constructions.
The effective diameters (De) of shields are calculated by:De=D, for a round tube or foil wrapDe=D+1.5dw, for a braided shieldDe=D+0.8dw, for a served shield                Where:        D=the geometrical outer diameter of an insulation component contacting the inner diameter of a shield construction        dw=geometrical diameter of shield component wire
The effective diameters (de) of concentric stranded center conductors are calculated using:de=d, for a single wirede=2.84d, for n=7de=3.99d, for n=12de=4.90d, for n=19de=6.86d, for n=37                Where:        d=geometrical diameter of a center conductor component wire        n=number of component wires
While there are several ways to reduce cable capacitance, each has a distinct disadvantage:                Reducing the relative dielectric constant of the material between the center conductor and shield: Several inexpensive materials, such as polyethylene, can have gas injected into them during processing to reduce the dielectric constant to approximately 1.5. To achieve dielectric constants below this requires more expensive processes and lower dielectric materials such as fluoropolymers.        Increasing the effective inner diameter of the outer shield: This option is bounded by the cost of adding material and the practical limits of the cable diameter that will fit into connector sizes.        Reducing the effective outer diameter of the center conductor: Typical commercially available cables use 18-22 AWG copper center conductors. This range of wire gage represents conductors with an outer diameter ranging from approximately 0.0500 to 0.0253 inches respectively. The conductor can be a solid conductor or multiple conductors to achieve the proper size. Some multiple conductor examples can be found down to 26 AWG copper, which has an outer diameter of approximately 0.0200 inches. Component wire diameters (d) in these multiple configurations can be found down to 0.002 inches. To reduce the effective diameter of the center conductor, the component wire (d) and number of strands should be decreased as shown under Equation 1. As the component wire diameter (d) and number of strands is decreased, the total cross-sectional area of the center conductor wires is decreased. A smaller cross-sectional area results in a lower tensile force at failure for a given material. This compromises both flex life and tensile strength of the cable.What is needed to improve signal fidelity of instrument cables is a cable that has low capacitance while maintaining strength, durability, connector compatibility, and cost effectiveness.


A method and system for measuring a urinary flow rate minimizes impact noise caused by urine to measure the urinary flow rate using a plurality of load cells when prostatic hypertrophy is diagnosed. The method includes measuring an amount of urine collected into a container using a plurality of load cells, extracting and averaging urinary flow rate signals from the measured results, and removing the impact noise from the urinary flow rate signals, converting the urinary flow rate signals into digital signals through an A/D converting circuit, and outputting the digital signals using a personal computer or a microprocessor analyzer which is interfaced with the A/D converting circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for measuring a urinary flow rate, and more particularly to a method and system for measuring a urinary flow rate, in which impact noise caused by urine is minimized to measure the urinary flow rate using a plurality of load cells.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Men discharge urine through the urethra encircled by the prostate gland located under the bladder. In detail, the prostate gland is found only in the male, and refers to a glandular reproductive organ that has chestnut-shaped soft tissue under the bladder with weight of about 20 g and encircles the urethra. The prostate gland is hypertrophied by, for instance, prostatitis, which is called prostatic hypertrophy. This disease is one of the representative chronic diseases of an aged society with which about 50% to 80% of adult men, particularly men in the fifties or more, are attacked. When this prostatic hypertrophy occurs, the urethra encircled by the prostate gland is compressed to cause abnormal urination as well as sexual dysfunction.
A method of determining whether or not the prostate gland is abnormal; namely whether or not prostatic hypertrophy exists, as described above, by employing uroflowmetry that continuously measures a urinary flow rate signal indicating an amount of urine per unit time during urination. This method is an indispensable biomedical test in the event of diagnosis of the prostatic hypertrophy.
The conventional uroflowmetry is typically based on measurement of the weight of urine. As schematically illustrated in FIG. 1, urine 13 is collected into a container 10 having a predetermined diameter, and a load cell device, i.e. a weight sensor, which is mounted under the container 10 and measures a weight of urine, is situated. A change in the weight (mass) of urine is measured during urination. This method is based on the principle that the weight W measured by the weight sensor 12 is proportional to a volume V of urine collected into the container 10. For example, assuming that the weight of urine represented by the weight sensor 12 be W, that the volume of urine collected into the container 10 be V, that a cross section of the container be A, that a density of urine be ρ, and that a height of urine collected into the container 10 be h, the weight W is expressed by the following equation.W=ρgAh.
Here, the product of the cross section A of the container and the height h of urine equal to the volume V of urine, the equation is as follows.W=ρgAh=ρgV
Here, the density ρ of urine is nearly equal to water, and thus is regarded as 1, and g is the gravitational constant. The equivalent equation can be expressed as follows.W=ρgAh=ρgV∝V
Accordingly, the change in the volume of urine can be found by measuring the change in the weight of urine collected during urination. However, a biological variable that is to be actually calculated in order to determine whether or not the prostate gland is abnormal is a urinary flow rate signal, and thus a method of calculating the change in the volume of urine into the urinary flow rate signal is used. In other words, since the urinary flow rate is defined as a rate of change in volume over time, a weight signal proportional to the volume is differentiated with respect to time, and thereby the urinary flow rate is yielded.
An example of carrying out the uroflowmetry using the conventional method is shown in the graph of FIG. 2.
In detail, FIG. 2 shows the results of the conventional uroflowmetry along with a volume signal obtained by measuring the weight of urine of a normal person, a urinary flow rate signal differentiating the volume signal, and various diagnosis parameters obtained by analysis. (Textbook of Voiding Dysfunction and Female Urology, Korean Continence Society, Il-Jo-Gak, 331 p, 2003).
In the conventional method and apparatus for the uroflowmetry as described above, the urinary flow rate is tested by continuously measuring a change in weight of urine using the weight sensor during collecting the urine into the container, and analyzing the volume signal based on the measurement, the urinary flow rate signal differentiating the volume signal, and so on.
However, in the conventional method and apparatus, when the urine 13 is collected into the container 10 during urination, a stream of urine (dotted line of FIG. 1) directly touches the bottom of the container 10, and thus the bottom of the container 10 gets an additional impact due to momentum (mass×velocity) of the stream of urine in addition to the weight of urine. Thus, in addition to the weight of urine, impulse of urine is transmitted to the weight sensor 12. An effect of the impact is randomly transmitted to the weight sensor 12 according to amount and velocity of the stream of urine, and thus acts as measurement noise. Further, since the urine is not contracted or expanded like gas, there is no damping action. As such, after the urine is collected at a predetermined amount, the impulse applied to a surface of the urine is transmitted intact to the weight sensor 12 under the bottom of the container 10. This leads to a decrease in reliability when the differentiation and the diagnosis parameters for obtaining the urinary flow rate are calculated.
FIG. 3 is a graph showing the results of test measurement based on a conventional method for uroflowmetry, in which the test is done by pouring water of 800 ml instead of the urine like urination, and measuring a weight of water to obtain a volume signal. It can be found that the measurement noise exists throughout the volume signal. In order to prevent this impact effect, the water is adapted to flow down along a wall of the container, thereby minimizing the impulse. To this end, a separate funnel is typically used. Thus, the separate funnel must be precisely designed and manufactured so as to be fitted to the collecting container, and then be inserted into the collecting container, which is troublesome.

Method and system for measuring urinary flow rate

Chungbuk National University Industry Academic Corporation Foundation


A light emitting device includes: a plurality of first electrodes; a plurality of second electrodes; and a plurality of light emitting films. Each of the plurality of light emitting films is disposed between one first electrode among the plurality of first electrodes and one second electrode among the plurality of second electrodes. The one first electrode is electrically connected to the second electrode that is adjacent to the one second electrode among the plurality of second electrodes.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a light emitting device such as an organic EL device, a method of manufacturing the same, and an electronic apparatus.
2. Related Art
Recently, as a self-emitting element, which does not require a backlight or the like, an organic EL device provided with an organic electro-luminescence (hereinafter, referred to as an organic EL) element has attracted attention. An organic EL element is constructed so as to be provided with an organic EL layer, that is, a light emitting element between a pair of electrodes opposite to each other, and an organic EL device performing full-color display is provided with a light emitting element having an emission wavelength band corresponding to respective colors of red (R), green (G), and blue (B). If a voltage is applied between the pair of electrodes opposite to each other, the injected electrons and holes are recombined within a light emitting film, so that the light emitting film emits light. The light emitting film formed in such an organic EL device is formed of a thin film having a thickness of less than 1 μm. Further, the organic EL device does not need a backlight which is used in a liquid crystal display device according to the related art, because the light emitting film itself emits light. Therefore, the organic EL device has an advantage in that the thickness thereof can be thinly reduced.
However, even though the organic EL device is required to be increased in size, the wiring length of the power line or the like increases as the organic EL device increases in size. As a result, a voltage drop becomes prominent. Therefore, as the organic EL device increases in size, the reduction I the luminance around the center of a light emitting region becomes more prominent. As a method for solving the problems, it is proposed in JP-A-2000-89691 that a plurality of adjacent light emitting elements which are connected in series are provided in one pixel. When a voltage V [V] is applied to one light emitting element, current I [A] flows in the light emitting element, so that light emission luminance L [cd/m2] is obtained. If n light emitting elements (n is an integer larger than two) are connected in series and a voltage of nV [V] is applied, the current of I/n [A] may be applied to the respective light emitting elements, in order to set the average light emission luminance of the respective light emitting elements to L [cd/m2]. Since the current is reduced from I [A] to I/n [A] so as to obtain the same light emission luminance, a voltage drop ΔV due to wiring resistance R is reduced by 1/n. As a result, the reduction in luminance around the center of the light emitting region can be suppressed.
As a method of manufacturing the organic EL device having such a construction, JP-A-2004-71570 discloses a method in which the formation of a light emitting film of the organic EL element and the formation of a cathode after the formation of the light emitting film are performed by using a mask. Further, JP-A-2002-313572 discloses a method in which a barrier having a reversed-tapered shape is formed and a light emitting film and cathode of the organic EL element are formed by evaporation.
Recently, however, the following method has attracted attention. Liquid material including a forming material of a light emitting film of an organic EL element is coated on a substrate by an inkjet method. Then, the liquid material is dried, thereby forming a light emitting film. The inkjet method is expected to be used when various microstructures as well as the light emitting film of the organic EL element are formed. When the inkjet method is used, an expensive mask is not needed, as compared with the case where a mask is used to form a microstructure. Therefore, there is an advantage in that the organic EL device can be reduced in cost. Further, the microstructure can be formed only by discharging the material only where it is required, which reduces the amount of resources being used.
The organic EL device having the structure disclosed in JP-A-2000-89691 can be manufactured, if the techniques disclosed in JP-A-2004-71570 and JP-A-2002-313572 are used. However, only substituting one manufacturing process (for example, a forming process of a light emitting film of an organic EL element) with the inkjet method does not allow an organic EL device to exercise the desired function to be manufactured.

Light emitting device, method of manufacturing the same, and electronic apparatus


A power conversion apparatus and control method thereof are provided. The power conversion apparatus includes an output capacitor, an AC-to-DC conversion circuit, a transformer-based auxiliary circuit, an inrush suppression component and a switching circuit. The AC-to-DC conversion circuit is configured to convert an AC power into a DC power. The auxiliary circuit provides a leakage inductance energy. The inrush suppression component provides a first conduction path, and the switching circuit provides a second conduction path. When the switching circuit cuts off the second conduction path in response to the leakage inductance energy, the AC-to-DC conversion circuit conducts the DC power to the output capacitor via the first conduction path. When the switching circuit turns on the second conduction path in response to the leakage inductance energy, the AC-to-DC conversion circuit conducts the DC power to the output capacitor via the second conduction path.

Field of the Invention
A power conversion technique is provided, and more particularly about a power conversion apparatus and a control method thereof which are able to suppress inrush current.
Description of Related Art
For an electronic apparatus (such as a desktop personal computer and a notebook personal computer) to operate normally, a power conversion apparatus is usually adopted to rectify and filter an AC power to provide a stable DC power for use by the electronic apparatus. An ordinary power conversion apparatus may be composed simply of a full-bridge rectifier and a capacitor having a large capacitance. Therein, the full-bridge rectifier is used for rectifying the received AC power and outputting a DC signal; in addition, the capacitor having the large capacitance is used for filtering the DC signal to provide a stable output voltage for use by a backend circuit or a backend electronic apparatus.
In the structure of the power conversion apparatus, generation of "inrush current" is an issue that has to be overcome. More specifically, at an initial operation of the power conversion apparatus, since the capacitor having the large capacitance has not been charged yet, it is very likely that inrush current will be generated at the moment when the circuit is turned on upon receipt of the AC power by the full-bridge rectifier. Once the energy of the inrush current is too high, serious electromagnetic interference (EMI) occurs and thereby leads to difficulty for the power conversion apparatus to satisfy the standards of safety requirements. It may also be possible that the EMI damages the backend circuit and backend electronic apparatus and/or internal components of the power conversion apparatus.
In view of the above, to suppress the inrush current effectively, a thermal resistor having a Negative Temperature Coefficient (NTC) is usually connected between the full-bridge rectifier and the capacitor having the large capacitance in current power conversion apparatus so as to suppress the inrush current. Therein, the selected thermal resistor needs a relatively higher equivalent high impedance value at a low temperature, so as to dissipate energy of the inrush current. However, power consumption of the power conversion apparatus will be too high with respect to such a solution, and the performance of the power conversion apparatus is thereby reduced.

Power conversion apparatus and control method thereof


There are provided a voltage level control circuit with a reduced power consumption and a method of controlling the same. When a signal “A” is in a “L” level and a signal PL entered from the outside of the voltage level control circuit becomes “H” level, a latch signal La outputted from a latch (11) becomes “H” level, whereby NFETs (14, 17, 24) turn ON. A voltage dividing circuit comprising resistances (12, 13) and current mirror differential amplifiers (20, 27) are placed in active states to output “H” as a signal A which controls a boost voltage Vbt (word line driving voltage. As the boost voltage Vbt is increased and reaches to a reference voltage Vref2, a voltage V2 becomes “H”, whereby the signal A becomes “L”. After the signal A become “L”, the latch (11) is made through. At this time, the signal PL is “L”, the latch signal La outputted from the latch (11) becomes “L”, whereby the NFETs (14, 7, 24) turn OFF. As described here, the NFETs (14, 7, 24) is kept OFF in the other time period than when needed, in order to reduce the power consumption.

Semiconductor circuits such as semiconductor memory devices have widely been used in various portable devices such as portable telephones. For the semiconductor circuits to be used for the portable devices, it is a great issue how to reduce the power consumption. Japanese laid-open patent publications Nos. 63-255897 and 11-16368 disclose prior arts for reducing the power consumption.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic structure of a semiconductor memory device (DRAM: dynamic RAM) disclosed in Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 63-255897. The semiconductor memory device has a .phi. WL generating circuit 152 for generating a word line driving signal .phi. WL. The .phi. L generating circuit 152 receives an external input of /RAS signal (/means a negative logic signal and RAS means a row address strobe), and generates the word line driving signal .phi. WL in accordance with the inputted /RAS signal. The semiconductor memory device also has a row decoder 155 which is connected to an output side of the .phi. WL generating circuit 152 and receives an input of the word line driving signal .phi. WL as outputted from the .phi. WL generating circuit 152. The semiconductor memory device also has a .phi. WL booster circuit 153 for boosting the word line driving signal .phi. WL as well as a .phi. WL comparator circuit 154. The .phi. WL comparator circuit 154 receives an external input of a reference voltage Vref and is connected to an output side of the .phi. WL generating circuit 152 for receiving the input of the word line driving signal .phi. WL as outputted from the .phi. WL generating circuit 152, whereby the .phi. WL comparator circuit 154 compares the word line driving signal .phi. WL and the reference voltage Vref and outputs a compared result signal S4 as a result of the comparison. Further, the .phi. WL booster circuit 153 receives an input of the /RAS signal and is connected to an output side of the .phi. WL comparator circuit 154 for receiving an input of the compared result signal S4, whereby the .phi. WL booster circuit 153 boosts the word line driving signal .phi. WL based on the /RAS signal and the compared result signal S4 from the .phi. WL comparator circuit 154. The row decoder 155 supplies the word line driving signal .phi. WL to a word line WL designated by the address signal.
Operations of the above circuit will be described based on the timing chart of FIG. 2. As the /RAS signal falls, the .phi. WL generating circuit 152 upon receipt of this /RAS signal makes the word line driving signal .phi. WL rise up to a power voltage level Vcc at a time "t1". At the same time, the .phi. WL booster circuit 153 upon receipt of this /RAS signal makes the word line driving signal .phi. WL boost up to a higher level than Vcc. At a time "t2" where the /RAS signal falls, the .phi. WL comparator circuit 154 compares a level VWL of the word line driving signal .phi. WL and the reference voltage Vref, and outputs the signal S4 which shows the comparison result, which is supplied to the .phi. WL booster circuit 153. If VWL<Vref, then the .phi. WL booster circuit 153 boosts the word line driving signal .phi. WL. If VWL>Vref, then the .phi. WL booster circuit 153 does not boost the word line driving signal .phi. WL.
As described above, the circuit of FIG. 1 performs a boosting operation at the end of active cycle automatically if necessary but does not perform if unnecessary to reduce the power consumption by the circuit.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a basic structure of a semiconductor memory device (SRAM: static RAM) disclosed in Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 11-16368. FIG. 4 is a timing chart describing operations of the semiconductor memory device. An ATD circuit 110 detects any transitions of address signals A0.about.An or a chip select signal CE to generate a pulse signal .phi. OS. An XE generator circuit 111 receives inputs of the pulse signal .phi. OS which represents the address transition detection from the ATD circuit 110 and the chip select signal CE, and outputs a word line activation signal XE. The XE generator circuit 111 is free from the control by a write control signal /WE, for which reason operations with the signal XE are the same between the write and read cycles, and a high level output will be continued until a reset by the next signal .phi. OS due to the address transition in the next cycle. The row decoder 102 receives an input of a row address signal and outputs a row selecting signal which selects a word line.
A boost signal generator circuit 114 receives inputs of the word line activation signal XE and the write control signal /WE, and generates a boost signal /.phi. BEN which instructs the boost. Namely, in the write cycle where the write control signal /WE is low level, this boost signal generator circuit 114 continues to output the low level except for a reset time period, where the word line activation signal XE is in the low level. In the read cycle where the write control signal /WE is high level, this boost signal generator circuit 114 outputs the low level in a predetermined time period and subsequently outputs the high level.
A boost potential generating circuit 115 operates, if the boost signal /.phi. BEN is in the low level, to generate a boost voltage VBST which is supplied to a word driver 104. The word driver 104 is powered by the boost voltage VBST and selects a word line based on inputs of the word line activation signal XE and the row selecting signal, whereby a potential of the selected word line is risen up to the boost voltage VBST, and a write operation to memory cells or a read operation from memory cells is accomplished.
A sense amplifier activation signal generating circuit 112 receives inputs of the word line activation signal XE and the write control signal /WE, and outputs a sense amplifier activation signal .phi. SE. The sense amplifier activation signal .phi. SE is generated only in the read cycle, and becomes high level with a time delay after the word line is risen. This high level will be continued to keep a sense amplifier 106 in active state until a reset by the signal .phi. OS due to the address transition in the next cycle. The sense amplifier 106 receives an input of a signal on complementary digit lines DG, DGB selected by a column selecting switch 105 based on an output from a column decoder 103. The sense amplifier 106 performs an amplification of data from memory cells during when the sense amplifier activation signal .phi. SE is high level.
As described above, the circuit shown in FIG. 3 makes the boost potential generating circuit 115 operable only in an initial time period of the read cycle, but inoperable in other time periods than the initial time period of the read cycle, in order to reduce the power consumption by the boost potential generating circuit 115.
The prior art is to reduce the power for driving the word lines but does not disclose any other power reduction method.
In recent years, the pseudo SRAM has been developed and practiced. As well known, this pseudo SRAM has an advantage in such a large capacity as DRAM and another advantage in such usefulness as SRAM as well as still another advantage of a reduced power consumption in stand-by-state, for which reason the pseudo SRAM has been used widely to the portable devices. For use of this pseudo SRAM to the portable devices, however, a further reduction of the power consumption is desired.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrative of a basic structure of a conventional pseudo SRAM. FIG. 6 is a timing chart describing operations of the pseudo SRAM. The pseudo SRAM has a voltage level control circuit 1, a memory cell array 2, a ring oscillator 3, a boost circuit 4, and a word decoder 5. Further, the pseudo SRAM has a row decoder 6, a refresh timing generator circuit 7 and a row enable generator circuit 8.
The voltage level control circuit 1 generates, based on reference voltages Vref1 and Vref2, an internal voltage level control signal A which controls a level of the boost voltage Vbt to be applied to a word line of the memory cell array 2. An input side of the ring oscillator 3 is connected to an output side of the voltage level control circuit 1, so that the internal voltage level control signal A is inputted into the ring oscillator 3. The ring oscillator 3 is an oscillating circuit and may comprise a series connection in ring-shape of odd number inverters. If the internal voltage level control signal A outputted from the voltage level control circuit 1 is "H" (high level), then the ring oscillator 3 is activated to output an oscillation output B.
An input side of the boost circuit 4 is connected to an output side of the ring oscillator 3 so that the oscillation output B is inputted into the boost circuit 4. The boost circuit 4 may comprise a charge pump circuit. The boost circuit 4 utilizes the output B from the ring oscillator 3 and boosts a power voltage VDD up by step-by-step and outputs a boost voltage Vbt which is to drive the word line. An output side of the boost circuit 4 is connected to the word decoder 5 so that the boost voltage Vbt is inputted into the word decoder 5. In this case, the boost voltage Vbt is higher than the power voltage VDD, for example, (VDD+1.5V) or (VDD+2V). The word decoder 5 is connected to an output side of the row decoder 6, so that the word decoder 5 supplies the boost voltage Vbt to a word line selected by an output from the row decoder 6. The memory cell array 2 is a memory cell array having the same structure as the memory cell array of DRAM.
The refresh timing generating circuit 7 generates, at a constant time interval, a refresh signal for refreshing memory cells in the memory cell array 2 and a refresh address for designating an address of the memory cell to be refreshed. An output side of the refresh timing generating circuit 7 is connected to the row enable generating circuit 8 so that the refresh signal is inputted into the row enable generating circuit 8 and also the refresh address is inputted into the row decoder 6.
The row enable generating circuit 8 receives inputs of a write enable signal WE, a chip select signal CS and a read/write address Add for the memory cell array 2. Upon change or transition of the address Add, the row enable generating circuit 8 generates a row enable signal LT. The row enable generating circuit 8 generates the signal LT at the time when the refresh timing generating circuit 7 outputs the refresh signal. An output of the row enable generating circuit 8 is connected to the row decoder 6 and the voltage level control circuit 1, so that the row enable signal LT is inputted into the voltage level control circuit 1 and the row decoder 6. Upon receipt of the input of the row enable signal LT, the row decoder 6 decodes the read/write address Add externally entered and supplies a decoded result to the word decoder 5.
FIG. 6 is a timing chart describing operations of the circuit shown in FIG. 5. After the write enable signal WE becomes "L" (low level) and the chip select signal CS becomes "H", then transition of the address Add causes that the row enable signal LT is outputted from the row enable generating circuit 8 and inputted into the voltage level control circuit 1. The voltage level control circuit 1 compares the boost voltage Vbt and the reference voltage Vref1. If the boost voltage Vbt is lower than the reference voltage Vref1, then the voltage level control circuit 1 makes the internal voltage level control signal A at "H" (high level) at the time. "t1". The high level "H" of the internal voltage level control signal A starts the oscillation of the ring oscillator 3 and the ring oscillator 3 outputs the oscillation output B. The oscillation output B is then inputted into the boost circuit 4. The boost circuit 4 uses the oscillation output B for boosting the boost voltage Vbt. As the boost voltage Vbt is risen and reaches the reference voltage Vref2, then the voltage level control circuit 1 makes the internal voltage level control signal A at "L" (low level) at the time "t2", whereby the oscillation of the ring oscillator 3 is discontinued and boosting operation by the boost circuit 4 is thus discontinued.
As described above, in accordance with the conventional pseudo SRAM, the voltage level control circuit 1 activates the ring oscillator 3 and the boost circuit 4 only in the necessary time period but inactivates them in the unnecessary time period in order to reduce the power consumption.
The conventional semiconductor memory device, however, is designed for a power reduction of the circuit for generating a voltage to be applied to the memory cell array but does never for any power reduction of the voltage level control circuit 1 which controls the voltage to be applied to the memory cell array.
In accordance with the normal DRAM, the refresh timing is controlled by a system, and the device is needed to keep or hold always the boosted voltage level, for which reason it is unnecessary to reduce the power of the circuit for controlling the voltage to be applied to the memory cell array. There is no strict restriction to the power in the stand-by-state.
In contrast, the pseudo SRAM is needed for such a power reduction as many as SRAM. The pseudo SRAM is needed for a possible reduction of the power to be supplied to the voltage level control circuit. Namely, the pseudo SRAM is designed so that the refresh operation is invisible from an exterior of the device, wherein a refresh current is not considered in accordance with the regulation of the power consumption, for which reason the pseudo SRAM needs more strict regulations than the normal DRAM.

Internal voltage level control circuit and semiconductor memory device as well as method of controlling the same


The information pattern signal, detected of the product, is compared with the standard information pattern signal and the OK determination is made in the event that the information pattern signal coincides with the standard information pattern signal within the tolerated time deviation width, but the NG determination is made in the event that the information pattern signal does not coincide with the standard information pattern signal. Accordingly, any time deviation occurring in the information pattern signal as a result of movement of the product or the sensor can be accommodated. Thus, the OK/NG determination of the product can be accurately accomplished in a simplified manner and in a short length of time.

1. (Field of the Invention)
The present invention relates to an information pattern discriminating apparatus for determining a product based on a signal indicative of the information pattern, which is detected by a sensor with respect to such product while one of the product and the sensor is moved relative to the other of the product and the sensor. Particularly, the present invention relates to the information pattern discriminating apparatus capable of accommodating a time deviation attributable to the movement of one of the product and the sensor relative to the other of the product and the sensor.
2. (Description of the Prior Art)
In the conveyor line for sorting products, the information pattern discriminating apparatus has hitherto been used for determining the products one by one based on results of detection performed by a sensor with respect to the by a sensor with respect to theach of those products. With this conventional information pattern discriminating apparatus, while the products are successively transported from one processing station towards another processing station, the sensor detects the information pattern specific to each of the products, such as an information pattern regarding the shape of each product or an information pattern uniquely applied to each product, so that each of the products can be identified on the basis of the result of detection performed by the sensor.
More specifically, by way of example, the conventional information pattern discriminating apparatus includes a photosensor for detecting an information pattern, for example, a black-and-white grid pattern, made up of an array of black areas and an array of white areas alternating with the black areas as shown in FIG. 9A. The black-and-white grid pattern is printed on a label applied to each of the products to be identified. When in operation, the photodetector outputs an ON signal when it detects the white areas of the information pattern, but an OFF signal when it detects the black areas of the information pattern, to eventually provide an ON-OFF pattern signal for each of the products. This ON-OFF pattern signal is subsequently compared with a standard ON-OFF pattern signal indicative of an acceptable sound product and, if the ON-OFF pattern signal detected by the photodetector coincides with the standard ON-OFF pattern signal, an OK determination is made (i.e., the product detected is determined as acceptable), but if the ON-OFF pattern signal detected by the photodetector does not coincide with the standard ON-OFF pattern signal, an NG determination is made (i.e., the product detected is determined as unacceptable).
In such case, in the conventional information pattern discriminating apparatus, as shown in FIG. 9B, using a plurality of, for example, two, photosensors 1A and 1B capable of detecting such an information pattern as shown in FIG. 9A, an internal counter is counted up in dependence on change of ON and OFF to manage the state, and the ON-OFF pattern signal (information pattern signal) is obtained by adding the length of time required for the count of the internal counter to change and the ON-OFF state of the photosensor 1B when the ON-OFF state of the photosensor 1A changes. Since the ON-OFF pattern signal given by the standard product (acceptable sound product) is used as the standard ON-OFF pattern signal with which the ON-OFF pattern signal given by the product being detected is determined, the apparatus must store it and, with the use of, for example, a programmable logic controller (PLC), it is necessary to convert it into a program before it is inputted.
Since where the PLC is used, the ON-OFF pattern differs from one product class to another, the ON-OFF pattern that differs from one product class being manufactured to another must be converted into a program, requiring cumbersome and time-consuming procedures. For this reason, a data processing apparatus has been suggested in, for example, the Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 9-273923, in which an acceptable sound product is transported by a conveyor and is detected by a photodetector to provide a standard signal waveform indicative of the acceptable sound product, so that even if the product class change, an input signal waveform given by a product can be compared with the standard signal waveform to thereby determine the produce so detected.
With this data processing apparatus, since no accurate discrimination is possible in the event that an object being transported by the conveyor deviates in position by an undulated movement of the conveyor and the position of the object changes for each measurement, the deviation in position of an analog input signal waveform relative to the standard signal waveform must be determined so that a process can be executed to move the input signal waveform by a quantity corresponding to the deviation in position.
However, since the above mentioned data processing apparatus merely move the position of the input signal waveform in a quantity corresponding to the deviation in position relative to the standard signal waveform, the data processing apparatus is incapable of accommodating instantaneous change of the speed of the conveyor, such as caused by a vibration such as occurring upon jerky movement of the conveyor itself and/or abrupt placement of a product on the conveyor, or deviation in time attributable to movement of the product such as in the case of temporary change of the speed of the conveyor under the influence of, for example, a load imposed on the conveyor or for the convenience of the production, resulting in a problem associated with incapability of discrimination or reduction of the discriminating accuracy. Also, where the information pattern of the products that are placed on respective tables are to be detected while the sensor is moved relative to the products, similar problems occurs when the time deviation occur as a result of the movement of the sensor.

Information pattern discriminating apparatus


A method and apparatus for improving packet processing employing a network flow control mechanism are disclosed. A network process, in one embodiment, suspends distribution of incoming packet(s) to one or more, packet processing engines (“PEs”) upon detecting a stalling request. After identifying currently executing operations initiated by one or more kicking circuits before the issuance of stalling request, the process allows the currently executing operations to complete despite the activation of the stalling request.

A high-speed network environment typically includes network devices such as routers and switches that facilitate delivery of information packets from source devices to destination devices. Information pertaining to the transfer of information packet(s) through the network is usually embedded within one or more packets. Each information packet traveling through a network can typically be treated independently from other packets in a packet stream. For example, each router within a network processes incoming packets and determines where the packet(s) should be forwarded. For a modern computing network environment, in addition to 'deterministic' packet processing, the speed of packet processing can be critical in determining the performance of overall network system. TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) architectures are commonly used to guarantee deterministic packet processing within a network element.
To manage a network flow or control flow in a communications network element, a halt or stall of flow control can occur when one operation needs additional time to complete its task. When a processing component initiates a stalling request within a TDM architecture, various different processing elements may be at different stages of data processing. In addition, all processing elements typically need to be stalled gracefully thereby they can resume later at correct location and time.
A conventional approach to handle a stall in a communications network element is to stop all processing elements, including pipelines. All intermediary data and system controls are subsequently stored in a temporary memory thereby the processing can late be restored when the stalling request is deactivated.
A drawback associated with the conventional approach, however, is that storing and fetching intermediary data can consume time as well as memory space. Another drawback associated with the conventional approach is wasted executions time because some processing tasks are stopped in the middle of their execution in response to the stalling request.

Method and apparatus for a graceful flow control mechanism in a TDM-based packet processing architecture


An apparatus is provided which makes a border wire having a rectangular cross-section. The apparatus is adapted to receive a roll of wire having a circular cross-section, straighten the wire and change the cross-section of the wire to rectangular. The reconfigured wire is then accumulated, passed through another straightener, cut to size and then bent into a rectangular configuration. Opposed ends of the piece of wire having a rectangular cross-section are welded together to complete the border wire. The apparatus has an ejector which removes the completed border wire from the apparatus.

In the bedding industry, bedding foundations and spring cores used for mattresses have at least one border wire. The border wire may assume a rectangular shape, including a square.
The border wires of spring cores used for mattresses and sometimes furniture, including seating products, are usually made from wire having a circular cross-section. However, applicant's U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/821,754, published on Dec. 29, 2011 as Publication No. 2011/0314613, and fully incorporated by reference herein, discloses a spring core having a border wire having a rectangular cross-section.
In addition, a bedding foundation or box spring may have a rectangular border wire having a circular cross-section. However, applicant's U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,327,475 and 8,332,974, each being fully incorporated by reference herein, disclose a bedding foundation having a border wire having a rectangular cross-section.
Straightening wire having a rectangular cross-section requires a different apparatus than straightening wire having a circular cross-section. The apparatus used to straighten wire having a circular cross-section requires adjustment to the machinery be made manually. The apparatus used to straighten wire having a rectangular cross-section may use servo motors to manipulate the wire electronically. Applicant's U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/179,039, fully incorporated by reference herein, discloses an apparatus used to straighten wire having a rectangular cross-section. The use of servo motors enables wire having a rectangular cross-section to be straightened quickly and easily without manual mechanical adjustments. The set-up time is much less with the apparatus disclosed in applicant's U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/179,039.
Thus, a need exists in the art for an automated method of making a border wire made of wire having a rectangular cross-section.


A system is provided that trains a speech processing device to recognize any spoken language. The speech processing device is trained by receiving a group of speech frames (302). The group of speech frames is grouped into a group of segments (304). A model of each of the segments is created (306) and the segments are compared (308). The segments are grouped into clusters based on comparisons of the segments (310). A model for each of the clusters is built (312). The built cluster models enable the labeling of segments from speech in the language. Labeled segments (i.e., recognizer output) may be used to train topic classifiers. Speech topics may be classified on the basis of the generated labeled segments.

In order to extract information from speech there has been the need to build speech recognizers for a particular language by building models for the basic sound units of the language, phonemes, and also the words of the language. In the case of a phoneme recognition system, speech data that has been transcribed into phonemes is required. In order to construct a recognizer that produces words, speech needs to be transcribed into the words of the language. Along with the word transcriptions, a word recognizer requires a dictionary that spells words in terms of sequences of phonemes of the language in order to build the recognizer. In those cases where transcriptions and dictionaries are not available, it is not possible to employ conventional recognition methods for the purposes of information extraction.
Conventional recognition methods need not only speech transcriptions from the language in question but may also need transcriptions from the particular domain of interest (e.g., land-line, cell phone, broadcast, regional dialect). Also, use of conventional methods are not possible if the language in question does not have a written form.

Self-organizing speech recognition for information extraction