A method and apparatus to eliminate contaminants in a lithography process for fabrication of integrated circuit devices. The method includes depositing a photoresist material on surface of a semiconductor substrate. A purge gas flow is provided proximate to an optical element to prevent a vapor from the exposed photoresist material from coming into contact with the optical element. In one embodiment, the purge gas flows into a perforated and open ended enclosure in which the optical element is provided in the form of a lens. One open end of the enclosure is coupled to the lens and the other open end is positioned above the surface of the semiconductor substrate. Perforation of the enclosure facilitates movement of purge gas thereto, eliminating contact with the vapor from the developed resist and unwanted deposition of a solid contamination on the lens.

The present invention is directed to integrated circuits and their processing for the manufacture of semiconductor devices. More particularly, the invention provides a method and an apparatus for lithography process for the manufacture of integrated circuits. But it would be recognized that the invention has a much broader range of applicability. For example, the invention can be applied to a variety of devices such as dynamic random access memory devices, static random access memory devices (SRAM), application specific integrated circuit devices (ASIC), microprocessors and microcontrollers, Flash memory devices, and others.
Integrated circuits or "ICs" have evolved from a handful of interconnected devices fabricated on a single chip of silicon to millions of devices. Current ICs provide performance and complexity far beyond what was originally imagined. In order to achieve improvements in complexity and circuit density (i.e., the number of devices capable of being packed onto a given chip area), the size of the smallest device feature, also known as the device "geometry", has become smaller with each generation of ICs. Semiconductor devices are now being fabricated with features less than a quarter of a micron across.
Increasing circuit density has not only improved the complexity and performance of ICs but has also provided lower cost parts to the consumer. An IC fabrication facility can cost hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars. Each fabrication facility will have a certain throughput of wafers, and each wafer will have a certain number of ICs on it. Therefore, by making the individual devices of an IC smaller, more devices may be fabricated on each wafer, thus increasing the output of the fabrication facility. Making devices smaller is very challenging, as each process used in IC fabrication has a limit. That is to say, a given process typically only works down to a certain feature size, and then either the process or the device layout needs to be changed.
An example of a semiconductor process that is important to make smaller and smaller devices is lithography process for the manufacture of integrated circuits. Lithography process includes steps of depositing a photoresist material, patterning and developing the photoresist material.
Certain conventional ways in lithography process have become difficult to perform in an efficient and accurate manner. For example, critical optical components or parts may become contaminated during development steps, incurring error and inconsistency.
From the above, it is seen that an improved technique for processing semiconductor devices is desired.

Method and apparatus to prevent contamination of optical element by resist processing

Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Shanghai) Corporation


The packaging comprises a first bottle (1) open at the base to form a skirt (3), and fitted at the top with a distributor fitting (7); an intermediate component (8) affixed to the base of the first bottle with a central duct (9) admitting a separable plug (10); a second bottle (2) with a neck (24) admitted in the aforesaid central duct (9), the neck being fitted with a cap (25) for storage purposes. Linking means (L) are provided between the neck (24) and the cap (25). The packaging comprises between the neck ()24) and the central duct (25) connecting elements (J) differing from the aforesaid linking elements (L), with a part (28) on the neck (24) and on the central duct (9) an associated part (29) arranged so as not to interfere with the part (26) of the aforesaid linking means (L) located on the neck (24).

U.S. Pat. No. A 4 823 946 shows packaging of this type in which two plastic material bottles are envisaged. In the storage position the second bottle is closed by a cap screwed on to its neck. When using and mixing the contents of the two bottles, the cap on the second bottle is unscrewed and the second bottle is placed in the central duct of the intermediate component with a thread able to associate with the thread on the neck of the second bottle receiving the screw cap.
In dual packaging of this type, it is practically imperative for its acceptance by customers, that the insertion of the second bottle into the intermediate component to eject the plug, be carried out by rotation with a limited number of turns and preferably less than one turn.
Since according to U.S. Pat. No. A 4 823 946 the thread on the neck of the second bottle serves both to receive the screw cap during storage, and to associate with the intermediate component, the thread must be of a relatively large pitch so that in use, extensive axial displacement of the neck related to the intermediate component is obtained with a small angle of rotation.
The need for a large pitch thread on the neck of the second bottle effectively imposes the use of plastic material for the second bottle, since with a glass bottle it is practically impossible to produce a thread with a large pitch simultaneously giving a satisfactory seal, owing to the particular manufacturing conditions for such glass bottles.
The two bottle packaging defined above is used for products, some of which keep unsatisfactorily in a plastic material bottle.
This is the case particularly when packaging on the one hand a color solution intended for hair-tinting, and on the other hand, the oxydizer required when using the coloring solution; in order to color the hair with "oxydizing colors", it is necessary to ensure development of the color on the hair by the addition of an oxydizer such as hydrogen peroxide, on the color at the time of its use on the hair. The dual bottle presentation is consequently important owing to the extent of the market for hair coloring materials.
The color solution generally placed in the second bottle, stores poorly inside a polyethylene or polypropylene plastic material bottle, since the oxygen passes through the wall and oxydizes the color before application to the hair.

Two bottle packaging allowing separate storage and mixing for use of two products, particularly liquids


A node apparatus and method are described to prevent overflow of a pending interest table (PIT) in a name based network system. The node apparatus and method increases a number of PITs to correspond to a number of interface units so that the PITs match the interface units, respectively, and stores a request message flowing in per interface unit in the matching PITs. In addition, when a capacity used at each of the PITs exceeds a threshold, the node apparatus and method transmits a traffic control message for traffic control through respectively matching interface units to prevent overflow of the PITs.

1. Field
The following description relates to a technology for routing in a node device of a name based network system.
2. Description of Related Art
In a network routing technology, such as a content centric network/named data network (CCN/NDN), it is necessary to know of a target place to retransmit a response message, which respond to a request message when the response message is returned to be processed. In a name based networking, such as CCN/NDN, the request message may also be referred to as a request, an interest, or a data request. Also, the response message may be called a response or data.
A pending interest table (PIT) refers to a table that stores a list of received request messages. That is, when a request message is received, a corresponding node device records a traffic path along with information on the request message in the PIT. Upon return of a corresponding response message, the corresponding node device retransmits the corresponding response message to the traffic path of the request message stored in the PIT.
However, the PIT may be a target of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. That is, when a quantity of request messages received exceeds the capacity of the PIT of the node device, the node device has to delete part of the recorded information or discard newly received request messages. Regardless of whether to delete recorded information or discarding newly received request messages, the DDoS attack will eventually be successful because the node device is hindered from normally processing the request messages.
A general Internet protocol (IP) router does not require management of a traffic history. Therefore, a DDos attack scenario, as described above, is not applicable to the IP router. However, in networks, such as the CCN/NDN, where devices are not identified, the PIT functions as essential information for the networking. Thus, the node device corresponding to the router in the name based network system is vulnerable to the DDos attack.

Apparatus and method preventing overflow of pending interest table in name based network system


The present invention relates to methods and apparatuses for the detection of positional freedom of particles used in biological, biochemical, physical, biophysical, and chemical analyses. In particular, the present invention relates to methods and apparatuses which can detect and characterize a population of particles/cells based upon their detected mobility. In one embodiment consistent with the invention, detection of certain cells is based on differences detected in populations of cells that bind to a substrate and those that exhibit weaker binding forces. Initially, cells are settled on the substrate, and in the presence of gravitational, natural thermodynamic pressure fluctuations, and other random or applied forces, some of the particles may exhibit translational movement. Particle movement is detected, and measurements are computed, according to the methods and apparatuses of the present invention, to determine the binding of specific analytes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and apparatuses for the detection of positional freedom of particles used in biological, biochemical, biophysical, physical, and chemical analyses. Major applications of the present invention include immunodiagnostics, such as blood typing and infectious disease screening.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of arrayed molecules in formats such as microplates and biochips allows for an ever increasing amount of information to be retrieved about the natural world. Although many variants are known, use of such arrays typically involves immobilizing probes or analytes on a substrate and using a variety of techniques to measure the interaction of the immobilized molecules with other solution-phase molecules. Specific examples of such array techniques include immunoassays (e.g., enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs)) that are performed in microplates, commercial nucleic acid biochips and protein microarrays or biochips. Biochips most commonly use glass substrates, while microplates for ELISA are often constructed from gamma-irradiated polystyrene. Although arrays are typically "ordered", in the sense that patches of immobilized molecules are placed at defined locations with respect to each other or to reference features, so-called "solution-phase arrays" have also been commercialized. The solution-phase assay technology measures the binding of analytes to a suspension of beads. The suspension is created by mixing batches of particles that are co-labeled with binding probes and corresponding mixtures of two fluorescent identifier molecules in varying ratios. A flow cytometer detects bound fluorescently labeled analyte along with the identifier ratios.
In addition to the detection of individual molecules, particles (including biological cells) have been analyzed using array techniques. For example, it is known in the art to detect cell surface antigens through ELISA or flow cytometry. U.S. Pat. No. 6,251,615 to Oberhardt discloses testing cells using microscopy to detect cells bound to one of a plurality of capture surface regions with coupled antibody receptors.
However, a major limitation of conventional arrays is that long incubation times are usually required to reach a degree of binding that is sufficiently close to equilibrium to achieve the desired sensitivity. This may entail allowing samples or reagents to incubate in an ELISA microplate or biochip for many hours, and in some cases, longer than a typical business day of eight hours. Such delays can cause added expense, preclude use in emergency situations, and reduce data quality due to degradation of reagents and increases in non-specific (background) signal during the protracted incubation times. Other limitations of conventional approaches include the need for analyte labeling steps and stringent washing steps, which introduce additional costs in terms of labor and equipment, and may impact data quality. Further, microplate based approaches use relatively large volumes of test samples and reagents.
One application for conventional arrays is in immunodiagnostics, such as to determine blood type. Blood typing entails determining the presence or absence of key surface antigens on human red blood cell (RBC) surfaces and/or determining the presence or absence of clinically relevant antibodies specific to RBC surface antigens. Conventional assays perform blood typing by detecting the agglutination of red blood cells (RBCs) upon the addition of the corresponding antibodies (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,894,347 to Hillyard et al.). Agglutination of a blood sample indicates a positive result for the antigen tested. Thus, blood typing methods are conducted in bulk to determine agglutination/adhesion, and indirectly measure the binding of the RBCs. Some methods for blood typing, referred to as "solid phase" methods, involve the immobilization of certain proteins or cells expressing certain proteins on a surface. These methods are generally done in bulk format. For example, a camera may detect whether most RBCs are on the walls of a well or at the bottom of a well by taking a single low-resolution image to see if the red color is at the central bottom portion of the well or along the edges. For strong signals and systems which are close to equilibrium, most cells may be found in similar states (most at the bottom, or most on the walls) giving rise to a reliable result for sufficient signal strength and incubation time.
Ensuring that blood typing is performed accurately is extremely important because RBCs from different individuals may have different antigens on their surfaces, and transfusion of whole blood or certain blood components from a donor having certain RBC antigens to a patient that lacks those antigens may cause an adverse transfusion reaction in the patient. This generally occurs if the patient has a natural immunization to the given antigens, which may occur with a non-matched ABO blood group, or if the patient has been immunized to blood antigens by prior exposure (e.g., Kell or Duffy group antigens). Thus, the potential for spurious results can occur due to possible immunization against blood cell antigens that is undetectable due to limits on measurement sensitivity or diminishing antibody concentration (titer) within an immunized patient's blood over time, or may also occur due to a possible variation in antibody titer and reactivity from person to person, or a potential variability in reagent specificity.
Present techniques for determining blood type are limited in their sensitivity, speed, and ability to test a sample for a large number of analytes. For example, the fact that conventional blood typing methods require agglutination or bulk surface binding, where most RBCs have to bind (and in many cases must bind strongly by forming multivalent attachments), limits the speed and sensitivity of the testing. Further, current technologies require a relatively large amount of blood (e.g., about 3 mL) for testing. The ability to type blood while utilizing a smaller volume would be of great utility, especially when dealing with newborns. The ability to reliably measure weaker binding levels, which have fewer bound cells and fewer attachments for each bound cell, would enable increased sensitivity (i.e., testing for lower titers with higher confidence), testing at much shorter times, or both benefits together.
With increased sensitivity, patient and donor blood can be more confidently matched. With increased speed, patients who have an urgent need for blood can be safely transfused with matched blood much more quickly. With increased capability for testing a large number of analytes, test costs can be reduced, additional tests can be adopted, and problems with specificity can be mitigated by testing against multiple related antibodies or reagent cells from multiple individuals. Expanding the test panel to include more tests of antigen variants or antibodies to these variants, can be valuable since variability is quite common due to genetic mutations and other variants, which is seen frequently in comparing populations with different ethnic backgrounds (and thus, genetic make-up), for example. If these advances can be made, the benefits could be extended to numerous other applications other than blood typing, including surface antigen characterization of stem cells, platelets, and cancer cells.

Methods and apparatuses for detection of positional freedom of particles in biological and chemical analyses and applications in immunodiagnostics


Mechanism of interactively sharing, synchronization and control of information among users with different electronic contact types, using internet network based communication between a client application on the mobile electronic device and a server device, are described. As an example, a host can send invitation for a calendar event to other users whose contact type may be email address, phone number, a social media account with a single client application on the mobile device. Mechanism for the synchronization also allow for calendar event information on different client devices to be automatically synchronized. Identifiers may be automatically used by a synchronization mechanism implemented by a service. Identifiers may include user identifier, event identifier, information context identifier, device identifier or other identifiers. Messages, data structures and protocols between client devices and server to create, update, delete and respond to information data more specifically related to a calendar event are described. A mechanism to establish a direct communication link for exchanging instant messages among participants of an information context related to a calendar event using client device, server service and identifiers is also described.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to system and methods for managing the information using a network-connected electronic device. More specifically it relates to managing the shared information using context based network communication in mobile electronic devices.
2. Background Art
Mobile electronic devices, for example, smartphones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA's), music players, tablets and smartwatches are becoming more sophisticated and technologically advanced with each passing day. The various other features of the mobile electronic device include, but are not limited to, GPS (Global Positioning System), Camera, Audio/Video player, FM radio, Music player, heart-rate monitor, and short range wireless communication. Mobile devices can also connect to a network and can be uniquely identified using, for example, MAC (Media Access Control) address, IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Station Identity) number and/or operating system specific identifiers for a given mobile device. With an increase in on-device computational and storage capabilities, new electronic devices are capable of executing complex tasks. Nowadays, the mobile electronic devices are enabled typically with a plurality of applications. For example, smartphones along with enabling wireless communication also provide various other applications.
Hence, the use of mobile devices has increased significantly in day-to-day life because of the presence of the plurality of new applications, sometimes referred to as "apps". Today, the mobile devices are also enabled with enhanced applications. For example, the mobile phones enable users to edit and modify audio/video data and multimedia data present in the mobile phones using audio/video applications. The users of electronic mobile devices today have multiple types of electronic communication addresses such as email address for email exchange, wireless phone number for SMS (Short Messaging Service) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), social media accounts all accessible on the mobile electronic device. The users can also create an event using existing calendar application and send that event invitation to other users.
However, one limitation of existing information sharing applications is that the sharing of information is limited to one electronic communication contact address type. So email application is required to contact a user using email address contact type, a messaging application is required to contact a user with phone number contact type et cetera. These limitations are apparent even more in existing calendar applications that allow users to send and share information related to a calendar event. Existing calendar applications have a limitation that the event invitation can be sent to other users using only their email address as the contact type. Whereas, electronic device users today have multiple contact types, for example, email address, phone number and user accounts for social media websites such as Facebook™ and Twitter™. Existing calendar applications do not allow users to send invitations simultaneously to multiple users from the contact list using heterogeneous contact types, for example, email address, phone number and Facebook™ account. Furthermore, existing calendar applications do not intelligently customize the invitation message and the method of communication based on the contact type. For example, invitation message cannot automatically be delivered using email for the invitees with contact type of an email address, using SMS (Short Message Service) for the invitees with a contact type of phone number and using instant message service for the invitees with a Facebook™ account contact type et cetera.
Another limitation of exiting calendar applications is that they do not provide any mechanism to establish a secure and private communication link among the users associated with an event, for example, sending and receiving event invitations and event responses, updating event information and sharing instant messages within the context of a given event. Any replies and updates sent by event host and invitees are sent as email or in some limited cases as SMS messages to other parties of the event. Where the receiving party has to manually open the email or SMS to check for the updates. This process creates the possibility of some invitees and/or host ignoring some important updates related to the calendar event.
Still another limitation of existing calendar applications is that they require the event host to know the contact information of the invitees beforehand to send an invitation for the event. Therefore, users of existing calendar applications on mobile device cannot create an open event or appointment where another user can join the calendar event without the host knowing the contact information of such user beforehand. Further, existing calendar applications do not provide a mechanism to set and verify the conditions for credentials or attributes of other users allowed to join an open event, for example, only users belonging to a specific graduation year from an educational institute, only users residing in a community et cetera.
Another limitation of existing calendar applications is that they rely on sending email messages with attachments if the user wants to share a file such as a document, video, voice, picture and/or other types of data with other guests of the event. However, if the host later wants to share an updated version of the file or another type of data itself, then another event update email is sent to the guests. So guests receive two emails with two different attachments for the same event. This method of information sharing is not optimal in mobile device environment where data transfer over the network is expensive and limited in bandwidth. So for example, if a host user sent an invitation with a video message attached in the invitation email then the host user cannot directly modify that video message at a later time. If the user wants invitees to see a newer video message for the event invitation then the user will have to send another invitation email with the new video message to all the invitees. So, in this case invitees will receive two emails from the user with two different video messages. Thus invitee users have to manually decide as to which video message should be treated as the most up to date video message from the host user. And invitees' manual decision-making process might dependent on the order in which they received email updates from the calendar user. The order of email delivery may not always be guaranteed to be the same for all invitees due to varying network speeds and latency of email service itself.
Still another limitation of existing calendar applications is that they do not provide any mechanism for the users to directly control how much and what information related to a calendar event is displayed to the other user associated with an event. For example, if a user wants only some guests to see the video message and other guests to not see the video message then current calendar applications do not provide any such control mechanism for the files attached to a calendar event.
Still another limitation of the existing calendar applications in mobile devices is that they require user to know the exact address of the event location. Existing calendar applications do not provide any functionality to the user to search for event address based on a text search criterion, for example, searching for "Restaurant", "Pub", "Bar", "Coffee shop" et cetera. So a user has to first search for such places using a mapping application on the mobile device or through another mechanism, find the address and then enter that address in the event location field of the calendar application of the mobile device.
Still another limitation of the existing calendar applications in mobile devices is that there is no provision for a user to update the event information remotely for other users in such manner as to minimize the network traffic. So for example, if the host user changes the location of the event then event information at the guest should update only the event location. However, existing calendar applications require the host to send a new email message to all guests with the updated event information that requires guests to download all the information related to the event again.
Hence there exists a need in the art for a method and system that efficiently and effectively manages the sharing, synchronization and control of shared information within a context among mobile device users who may have multiple contact addresses capable of electronic communication. Furthermore, there exists a need in the art for a method and system that manages sharing, synchronization and control of shared information specifically within the context of planning a calendar event; automatically keeps event information synchronized for all participants and allows event participants to have a direct communication link to exchange data in the context of the calendar event on a mobile communication device.

System and method for sharing and synchronization of information within a specified information context among users with a mobile electronic device


The present invention relates to a pulse driving apparatus for minimising an asymmetric image between long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) in a hardware neural network, and a method therefor; and can minimise asymmetry between the LTP process and the LTD process, thereby improving a match rate of actual results by separately performing a first operation that performs on the LTP process, and a second operation that performs the LTP process and the LTD process.

In general, asymmetric behaviors between LTP and LTD in hardware neural networks have always been issues. According to several conventional studies on the issues, the conductance of phase-change material (PCM) element gradually increases in an LTP process, but rapidly decreases in an LTD process.
For example, when each training pattern including LTP noise and LTD noise is provided, the effect of the LTP noise is removed after a plurality of learning epochs, but there is a limitation that it is difficult to remove the effect of the LTD noise.
Furthermore, in general, the synapse is connected with the LTP process for a single pattern but is connected with the LTD process for other patterns. As synapses of intermediate weighting values experience the same number of LTP processes and the same number of LTD processes, the synapses may favorably maintain the weighting values. However, in practice, there is a limitation that the weight is greatly reduced due to the asymmetry between an LTP process and an LTD process.
Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2015-0034900, which is a conventional patent, is a technology related to "SYNAPTIC CIRCUIT CONNECTING NEURON CIRCUITS, AND UNIT CELL CONSTITUTING NEUROMORPHIC CIRCUIT, AND NEUROMORPHIC CIRCUIT" and discloses a technology including a first memristor performing LTP and a second memristor performing LTD to improve symmetry.
However, Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2015-0034900 discloses a configuration that drives different processes of the LTP process and LTD process in each of the two memristors connected to each other in parallel, and thus there is a limitation to minimizing the probability of LTD noise.

Pulse driving apparatus for minimising asymmetry with respect to weight in synapse element, and method therefor


Methods and systems are disclosed for debugging a computer program code by using a debugging software. Software means may be provided for causing the debugging software to stop at a breakpoint set in the computer program code. In one embodiment, a method is provided that comprises making the debugging software stop at a breakpoint based on one or more predefinable conditions.

When developing a computer software program, debugging of the program code is often difficult and time consuming. Debugging is often performed in the following manner: finding a program part which causes problems, finding relevant lines of the program code, setting breakpoints in places in the program code which are of interest regarding the status of certain variables, and executing the program code with a debugging software ("debugger"). When executing the debugger, a run-time environment of the program developing environment starts executing the program code, stops its execution at the first breakpoint in the order of the execution, and usually displays the content of the variables for analysis. In order to run the debugger, a failure in the program code (bug) does not need to be present. Also, the debugger may be used to only show the content of certain variables.
The aforementioned procedure has certain disadvantages. The performance of the first three steps mentioned above may require a considerable amount of work if the debugging has to be frequently repeated. Program developers and coworkers, who have to maintain the program, need a good understanding of the total program code, although only part of the code might be interesting for the debugging purpose. Another disadvantage is that the breakpoints are automatically deleted when closing the program. Therefore, when starting the debugging software in a new session, the breakpoints have to be set again.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for debugging methods and/or systems that provide a more efficient solution to one or more of the problems described above.

Dynamic breakpoints for computer software


An apparatus and method is provided for transporting, installing, retrieving, and replacing a sensor array of individual sensor pods at a geographically remote location, such as on the sea floor. The apparatus consists of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), a carousel attached to the ROV, a pod ejector mechanism attached to the carousel, and a manipulator with a manipulator end effector attached to the ROV. The carousel contains a plurality of sensor pod holders, where each sensor pod holder is capable of holding a sensor pod. The pod ejector mechanism is capable of discharging a fresh sensor pod, while the manipulator end effector is capable of lifting a depleted sensor pod and placing the depleted sensor pod in an empty sensor pod holder in the carousel.

The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for installing and servicing an array of individual sensor pods used, for example, for seismic measurement of a hydrocarbon field.
The value of seismic surveying to the exploration and discovery of oil and gas formations is well known in the petroleum industry. Developments in computing power have enabled the further development and use of seismic surveying including three dimensional (3-D) seismic surveys. In many cases, the processing of the measured seismic data can be a critical factor in the value of a seismic survey. The final interpretation of a seismic image is only as good as the quality of the seismic data.
Today, 3-D subsea seismic exploration is typically accomplished with a seismic survey ship equipped with an energy source and a plurality of receivers attached to one or more streamers that are towed behind the ship at a very precise speed. The energy source is designed to produce compressional waves that propagate through the water and into the underwater land formation. As the compressional waves propagate through the land formation, they strike interfaces between the formations, commonly referred to as strata, and reflect back through the earth and water to the receiver. The receivers typically function to convert the reflected waves into electrical signals that are then processed into an image that provides information about the structure of the subterranean formation.
It has been discovered that a subsea array of individual sensor pods resting on the sea floor more accurately measures the 3-D seismic data obtained for a hydrocarbon field. To form such an array, individual sensor pods must typically be located in a grid on the sea floor at precise locations, typically about 200–500 meters apart. Sensor pod locations may be measured with a long base line acoustic array and transponders. Each sensor pod contains a data collection computer and an internal battery. After the array is in place, a surface ship is used to provide the acoustic source and the sensor pods record the subsequent reflections. At regular intervals the sensor pods must be retrieved and replaced with fresh pods. On the surface, the data stored in each recovered sensor pod must be downloaded and the battery recharged before it can be reused. Installing and replacing the sensor pod array is a significant part of the seismic survey because the survey cannot start or resume until all sensor pods are in place. In water depths of 3,000 meters, for example, travel time between the surface and the sea floor is significant, so an efficient method for placing and retrieving sensor pods is critical to an economically successful subsea seismic survey.
What is needed is a method and apparatus for transporting, installing, and retrieving a sensor array of individual sensor pods at a geographically remote location, such as on the sea floor.

Method and apparatus for installing a sensor array


A big game field-dressing kit that permits field-dressing a game animal on the ground and transporting the animal includes several pointed stakes that can be driven into the ground near the animal's head and rear legs. Each of the stakes has a flexible tie such as a rope or cable, and each flexible tie has a loop at the end distal from the stake. One or more of the stakes has notches that can receive the flexible tie after it is passed around the animal's neck, so that the stake acts as a handle for dragging the animal along the ground.

Field dressing is the procedure performed by hunters proximate the time of taking a game animal to prevent the contamination and spoiling of the game meat. Typically, field dressing is performed to immediately remove the entrails and the feed from the animal before transporting the meat to a site for final cleaning, refrigeration or cooking.
Field dressing big game such as deer or elk presents greater problems than field dressing small game such as birds. With small game, the carcass can typically be held open by one hand as a knife is used to cut the carcass. However, with big game, it is necessary either to have two persons, one of whom holds open the carcass while the other cuts it; or to provide some way of tensioning the carcass open.
In addition, big game must typically be dragged from the area of the kill to an adjacent area where a vehicle is parked.
There is a need for a big game field dressing kit that addresses the above problems.


A device control system provided herein includes: a reservation unit that receives inputs of location identification information, a use date/time, and user identification information and makes a reservation so that a user can use a location and a device disposed at the location at the use date/time; a determination unit that acquires user position information and location position information and determines whether or not a predetermined relationship is established between the position of the user and position of the location within a first time period before start of the use date/time; a control information generation unit that acquires device information including at least device identification information for identifying the device on a network and uses the acquired device information to generate control information for controlling operation of the device; and a device control unit that controls operation of the device using the control information when the predetermined relationship is established.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device control system, a device controller, and a device control method.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known technology that performs control, when a reservation starts (a reservation time comes), to make a conference terminal provided in a reserved conference room and another conference terminal provided in another conference room communicable with each other, based on conference reservation information indicating a reservation date/time and a reserved conference room (refer to, e.g., Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2003-324533).
In the above conventional technology, device control is performed in accordance with the start of the reservation; however, a user does not always reach a reserved location at the reservation start time. Therefore, the device control is not always performed at a timing at which the device control is actually required.
Thus, execution of the device control in accordance with the start of the reservation may cause unnecessary energy consumption and deterioration in safety and user convenience.
In view of the above-described conventional problems, there is a need to provide a device control system, a device controller, and a device control method and a program that are capable of executing device control for controlling energy consumption and improving security and user convenience.

Device control system, device controller, and device control method


Provided are a bending structure and a flexible tube for a medical manipulator, which comprise a main body that is composed of the wave washers stacked in an axial direction and kept a stacked state, the main body being bendable according to the expansion and contraction in the axial direction. Accordingly, linearity of load characteristics based on load and a bending angle is made high to make it possible to obtain the flexible tube having superior load bearing and bendability while conducting size reduction.

In recent medical treatment, a medical manipulator such as robot forceps for a surgical robot and manual forceps becomes broadly widened in order to enable to lighten burdens on both a patient and a doctor at the time of a surgery.
The medical manipulator such as the robot forceps and manual forceps allows a doctor to insert an arm as well as an endoscope camera through a small wound of a patient and perform a surgery with feeling as if forceps are actually manipulated while capturing a surgical field with eyes through a 3D monitor.
As such a medical manipulator, there is one which provides an arm with a joint function by means of a bendable part to secure a high degree of freedom and allow more fine surgical operation like Patent document 1.
In the medical manipulator, a coiled spring is used for the bendable part of the arm so that the coiled spring is bent by drawing drive wires passing through an inside thereof.
The arm of the medical manipulator is desired to be reduced in size in order to make a wound of a patient smaller and lighten mental and physical burdens. Accordingly, the bendable part used in the arm is also desired to be reduced in size.
In the technique of Patent document 1, however, the bendable part is composed of the coiled spring and therefore is limited on the seize reduction for necessity of securing load bearing and bendability.
Such a problem is existed in not only the above-mentioned medical manipulator such as the robot forceps and the manual forceps but also other types of medical manipulators such as an endoscope camera.

Bending structure and flexible tube for medical manipulator


A method of testing the electrical capacity of a plurality of secondary batteries connected to a load. The battery testing method reduces the time during which the entire electrical capacity of the secondary batteries remains low. In the case of secondary batteries which are made up of a nickel cadmium battery cell, the testing method prevents a memory effect from arising in the batteries. Using the battery testing method, the secondary battery is forcibly discharged, whereby the characteristics of the battery resulting from the discharge are tested. During the test, the secondary battery to be tested is discharged when the other secondary batteries are charged to saturation. In the case of the nickel cadmium secondary batteries, the batteries are fully discharged. The electrical capacity of the secondary battery is checked by measuring the time that elapses before the secondary battery has completely discharged.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of testing a secondary battery, particularly a secondary battery such as a lead storage battery or a nickel cadmium battery cell.
2. Description of the Related Art
Equipment, such as communications equipment, which is required to operate during a power outage, is provided with an UPS (uninterruptible power supply). As a result, the operation of the equipment is ensured even in the event of a power failure.
The UPS uses a lead storage battery or a nickel cadmium battery cell as a secondary battery. The lead storage battery has superior economy and energy efficiency when it is charged and discharged, and it is also easy to handle. Because of these advantages, it is widely used. Particularly, the lead storage battery is used in an UFS having large capacity. On the other hand, the nickel cadmium battery cell has long life and superior overcharge and overdischarge characteristics. Further, it is easy to maintain such a battery cell. For these reasons, it is widely used in compact equipment.
Particularly in the case of business equipment, it is commonly practiced to periodically replace the battery with a new one so as to ensure predetermined electrical capacity, because the secondary battery has an indefinite life span.
The electrical capacity of a plurality of lead storage batteries attached to the UPS is tested by discharging the batteries in parallel and by measuring resultant discharge characteristics. Unless predetermined electrical capacity is obtained, the batteries will be replaced with new ones. This test is intended to ensure continuous use of the batteries by checking them in a Predetermined manrer. Because the lead storage battery has unstable characteristics, due to the fact that it utilizes a chemical reaction, it is difficult to continuously assure the initial performance of the battery.
The battery test is carried out in the following manner:
Specifically, one of the plurality of lead storage batteries connected in parallel to a load is discharged, and that battery is then recharged. The discharging of each of the batteries is started at a slightly different time, and the thus discharged batteries are respectively recharged. The electrical capacity of the battery is checked by means of the discharge characteristics of each battery obtained as a result of the test. More specifically, as shown in FIGS. 1a-1c, given that a lead storage battery X and a lead storage battery Y are connected together, the lead storage battery X is discharged between a point in time "a" and a point in time "b". Then, the charging of the lead storage battery X is started from the point in time "b" and is completed at a point in time "d". On the other hand, the discharging of the lead storage battery Y is started at the point in time "b" and is finished at the point in time "c". The recharging of the lead storage battery Y is then started at the point in time "c" and is finished at a point in time "e".
The periodic replacement of the secondary battery may result in the waste of a usable battery and the unnecessary replacement of the battery. Therefore, it is desired that the battery judged as still being usable by a predetermined test continue to be used.
According to the above described conventional method, a lead storage battery is charged after having been discharged. However, in this method, the discharging of another battery is started before the charging of the current lead storage battery has been fully completed. As can be seen from total electrical capacity shown in FIG. 1c, the electrical capacity of the lead storage battery continues to drop over a long period of time, which makes it difficult to ensure predetermined electrical capacity.
In the case of a battery using a nickel electrode such as a nickel cadmium battery cell or a nickel hydrogen battery cell, a so-called memory effect, which produces a two-stage discharge curve, occurs when the battery is rapidly discharged after having been repetitively charged and discharged by only small amounts. If the above described lead storage battery testing method is applied to a battery such as a nickel cadmium battery using a nickel electrode, predetermined electrical capacity of the battery might not be obtained as a result of the memory effect.

Battery testing method for individually testing secondary batteries by charging and discharging the batteries


An enclosure for reducing noise of the data storage read-write device is disclosed. The enclosure preferably contains the hard disk drive. The enclosure includes a flat box type housing 40 having at least one opening and a slit 42 formed along the side faces of the housing 40. Each slit 42 has a predetermined length extending inwardly from the opening and being aligned to face each other. Fitted in the housing 40 is a sound absorption layer 30 surrounding the hard disk drive. This sound absorption layer 30 is formed into a open flat box having a slit 34 formed along the side faces of the sound absorption layer and being aligned with the slit 42 of housing 40. At front periphery of the layer 30 a step portion 36 and a guide groove 38 are formed. A supporting plate 50 is provided for mounting a hard disk drive. The supporting plate 50 is made of a metal sheet and has a bending portion 54 extending from each side thereof. At the bending portion 54 a plurality of mounting holes are provided for mounting the hard disk drive assembly to a bracket or a drive bay of the computer housing. The supporting plate 50 of the invention constitutes a heat conductive path from the hard disk drive 12 to the exterior of the sound absorption layer 30. Furthermore, a cap type front cover 60 is provided to fit in the opening of housing 40. In this arrangement, hard disk drive 12 is first mounted on the supporting plate 50 and then inserted into the sound absorption layer 30 while being inserted through opening 32 and the slits 34. The width of the supporting plate 50 is much larger than that of the opening 32 of the sound absorption layer 30 so that a part of the bottom portion 52 of the supporting plate 52 may extend outwardly from the hard disk drive 12 through the slits 34.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to noise reduction in computer systems and more particularly, to enclosures for reducing the level of noise emitted by a computer component such as a hard disk drive or other data storage disk drive device.
2. Background of the Invention
As personal computers have proliferated in the work place and home, concern has increased about their effect on the work and home environments. One subject of concern is the effect of noise generated while the computer is in operation. The fans, the disk drives, and the power supply all produce noise during operation. Hard disk drives, in particular, operate at relatively high rotation speeds and produce most of this noise. In addition, current disk drive designs use higher spindle speeds and head actuator speeds to provide faster access times. Such improvements, while enhancing storage capacities and reducing data access times, have resulted in increased acoustic noise. This noise unnecessarily pollutes the office environment. Noise has been associated with increased levels of stress and other physiological effects.
Attempts to reduce acoustic noise generated by hard disk drives have generally followed one of two approaches. An example of the first approach is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,100, issued to Tacklind et al. In the disclosed system a generally flat, box-shaped hard disk drive module has two exterior major surfaces which are acoustically decoupled from the noise generating components of the disk drive device by resilient gaskets. This arrangement somewhat reduces propagation of acoustic noise generated within the module when combined with an insulating film applied to the enclosure surfaces. However, conventional resilient materials for gaskets do not sufficiently attenuate vibrations to provide the full acoustic decoupling needed for a highly effective sound-reducing enclosure.
The second approach uses a sound absorbing material surrounding the drive module to insulate the external environment from the noise generated by the disk drive device. An example of this arrangement appears in U.S. Pat. No. 5,510,954, issued to Wyler. A sound absorbing layer surrounds the disk drive module, and an air-tight enclosure may further surround the sound absorbing layer. This approach utilizes the high sound attenuation properties of various modern insulating materials effectively to prevent disk drive noise from propagating away from the enclosure.
The Wyler device recognizes a substantial problem that arises from enclosing the disk drive in an insulating material, which is that sound insulating materials generally provide heat insulation as well. Heat retention within the disk drive module risks producing a worse problem than noise, because elevated operating temperatures can cause the performance of a disk drive to degrade seriously. To solve this problem, the Wyler device includes a heat sink on an exterior face of the enclosure and a heat conductive path from the heat sink through the sound absorbing layer to the disk drive device. The proximal end of the heat path connects to a metal bracket that partially surrounds the drive module and thereby acts as both an additional layer of sound insulation and as a cold plate.
The Wyler arrangement effectively reduces the noise emitted from the disk drive enclosure, but it also has several limitations. First, the heat sink must be separately mounted externally relative to the sound absorbing layer. Also, the device works best when the heat conducting path consists of copper braiding or another metal with relatively high thermal conductivity. This requirement arises from the fact that the heat conducting path joins both the heat sink and the "cold plate" metal bracket, respectively, in relatively small areas. Sufficiently rapid heat transfer therefore requires that the heat conducting path consist of a conductivity-optimized material, such as pure copper.
For greatest effectiveness, the heat conducting path must also join the heat sink and the metal bracket with metal-to-metal contact, such as by bolting or soldering. The joints therefore require separate attachment operations during manufacture of the device, and these operations must comply with high quality control standards to ensure that a faulty heat channel does not cause the disk drive to overheat. Such requirements do not diminish the value of the device once fabricated, but they do increase the cost of fabrication. Manufacture of the Wyler enclosure may also be complicated by its modular construction from discrete insulating panels, which increases the costs of assembly even further.
Another serious limitation of the Wyler device arises from the fact that it structurally isolates the disk drive module from system chassis to which the enclosure is attached. The module has no positive attachment to the chassis, but instead is supported on all sides by resilient insulating material. Such isolation enhances the enclosure's noise-confining performance, but it does so at the risk of allowing the drive module to become mobile within the insulating layer. If any part of the layer becomes compressed, due to forces from the module itself in response to shocks, for example, then the module will freely float in a cavity. The cavity will likely enlarge rapidly as the module progressively develops more and more momentum in response to shocks to the enclosure. The reliable lifespan of the enclosure is therefore uncertain at best, and the first indication of its failure will likely be a catastrophic failure of the disk drive device.
I have noticed, therefore, that a continuing and unmet need exists for a noise reducing disk drive enclosure that effectively combines the advantages of acoustically decoupled systems and sound absorption systems. Such an enclosure should provide both the positive structural support of acoustically decoupled systems and the effective noise attenuation of sound absorption systems. It should also address the heat build-up problem inherent in the use of insulating materials. Preferably, such a system would conform to existing disk drive configurations. Ideally, it would utilize conventional materials available at low cost and could be implemented with simple manufacturing operations.

Noise-reducing enclosure for a data storage disk drive


The invention provides a cell control product for use with a cytoenzymology assay to confirm enzymatic activity in devices employing electronic and/or optical means. The cell control product comprises a lyophilized mammalian cell which is capable of being rehydrated in water to exhibit cellular structure and cellular enzymatic activity so that said lyophilized cells can function effectively as a cytoenzymology cell control in an enzymatic analysis. The cellular structure of the cell control is capable of being authenticated by light scatter or microscopy analysis and the cellular enzymatic activity is capable of being authenticated by fluorescence analysis. The cell control exhibits a real time stability when stored at between 2 and 8.degree. C. for at least a two month period of time. Preferably the mammalian cell is an abnormal cell selected from Molt 4, CCRF-CEM and HL-60 cell lines.

Cytoenzymology is the study of cellular enzyme function. Historically, the study of enzymatic activity of cells was pursued using cytosols. However, new reagents have been developed which are used to study enzymatic activity inside metabolically active whole cells. These new reagents have enabled cytoenzymology to advance to the stage where functional cell assays are possible to diagnose diseases and monitor therapeutic progress of such diseases by cytological examination under a microscope or by a flow cytometer. The new reagents that have been developed are synthetic fluorogenic substrate reagents that are available to measure enzyme activity inside the cellular structure. Examples of such fluorogenic substrate reagents are CELLPROBE reagents sold by Coulter Corporation, Miami, Fla. A further description of these new reagents are described in co-pending U.S. Pat. No. 5,776,720.
To determine the efficacy of a fluorogenic substrate reagent in the measurement of specific cellular enzyme activity, it is necessary to establish the efficacy of the reagent by an independent biological control material. The biological control material, also known as a cell control, is essential for determining the accuracy and precision of clinical and cytoenzymology assays. The cell control is needed to insure reliability and accuracy of test results and methods, and to insure reproducibility through time and from laboratory to laboratory. In addition, some state and federal regulations, which govern such assays, often require the use of a cell control in order to demonstrate that equipment is performing properly. The cell control should be stable and similar in nature to the sample under investigation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,518 discloses a cell control, CYTO-TROL.RTM. made by Coulter Corporation, which consists of normal human cells that have been lyophilized in a hypertonic, trehalose containing media. The product is used as an antigen control in flow cytometry. The product is made from a depleted preparation of leukocytes wherein the lymphocytes are the only remaining white blood cells. However, this product does not retain enzymatic activity characteristic of normal human cells.

Cell control used to confirm enzymatic activity


A scanning microscope for high resolution current imaging by direct magnetic field sensing of a sample maintained in an ambient environment. The scanning microscope uses a magnetic sensor such as a SQUID and a fiber probe magnetically coupled between the SQUID sensor and the sample under study. The fiber probe has a sharply defined tip for high resolution probing and for reaching minute cavities on the surface of the sample. The coupling between the tip of the fiber probe and the sample is controlled by a distance control mechanism, in the range of 1-100 nm. The material of the fiber probe with high permeability and low magnetic noise is chosen to optimize flux transmission to the magnetic sensor. Magnetic coupling to the sensor is maximized by keeping the distance between the end of the fiber probe and the sensor to approximately 0-100 μm. The fiber probe is integrated into the fiber holder for easy replacement of the fiber probe.

Magnetic sensors provide a promising route to realize nanoscale current imaging in the next generation integrated circuits. The semiconductor industry has been consistently reducing the size of transistors, reducing the size and adding more interconnect metallization, and using a variety of packaging technologies to accommodate the increased circuit density with the resultant heat dissipation without compromising signal delay times.
The increased level of metal interconnect required for the increasing number of transistors, limits thermal and optical techniques commonly used today for fault isolation. Complex devices being developed have six levels of metal, and many companies manufacture electronic devices with 8-10 levels of metal.
Optical and thermal techniques commonly used for fault isolation in the integrated circuits are ineffective beyond three levels of the metal layerization. Further complicating die level analysis are current trends in packaging technology. Flip-chip packaging requires that non-destructive measurements be made through the silicon substrate. Stacked die packaging may require that measurement be made through multiple die and packaging layers having a variety of materials. The package substrates for the new integrated circuits are also becoming more complex with finer line dimension approaching 10 nm and many layers of metallization (as high as ten layers), often having several ground and power planes that complicate non-destructive analysis.
Any non-destructive analysis technique must be able to look or be operative through many layers of metallization and packaging materials in order to sense defects in the deeper layers. In the extreme case of stacked die packaging, means of imaging at depths in the range of millimeters is required. These trends have produced a clear need for failure analysis that would enable the localization of buried nanoscale and non-visual defects with a resolution below 500 nm and sensitivity to detect currents as low as 50 nA. Hence, novel probes with extreme current sensitivity and spatial resolution that can image buried layers are needed. Without this capability, the development of new circuits and analysis of failures in semiconductor devices will be greatly hampered, limiting the semiconductor industry in its ability to bring advanced devices quickly to commercialization.
Scanning SQUID (Superconducting Quantum Interference Device) microscopy has proven that magnetic field sensitive probes can be powerful tools for imaging current flow in electronic devices. Through its extraordinary sensitivity to magnetic fields, SQUID sensors are able to detect small currents even if they are buried hundreds of microns below a sample surface. Scanning SQUID microscopy has become a mainstream tool for package-level fault isolation and an effective tool for die-level fault isolation. This technology has been driven by the need for tools to non-destructively isolate defects through complex packaging-like flip-chip multichip modules and stacked die packaging through ever-increasing numbers of metal layers in state-of-the-art die.
As more semiconductor manufacturing companies have begun to use SQUID microscopy, advancing technological development is required in two areas. In the packaging domain, SQUID microscopy has been very successful at localizing electrical shorts and high resistance defects. In the die domain, the ever-shrinking geometries of the micro-structures require development of higher resolution capability. The spatial resolution of the scanning SQUID microscope, however, has historically been limited to lengths greater than several microns, since it is difficult to fabricate functioning SQUIDs with dimensions smaller than the necessary scale.
Magnetic sensors, even in micron scale are generally fabricated on macroscopic substrates, at least hundreds of microns on a side, not allowing these magnetic probes to reach within a few microns of current lines in most powered and packaged devices. In front side scanning this large probe size does not permit the scanning of lines near powering probes or wire bonds. In back side scanning it does not permit fitting within etched cavities made to expose buried layers as illustrated in FIG. 1. The physical limitations of current magnetic sensors in applications to non-destructive failure analysis in the semiconductor devices is that the spatial resolution is roughly limited to sizes larger than one-fifth of the separation between the sensor and the current source. Present day magnetic sensors cannot be located near enough to many structures in powered and packaged devices to image nanoscale, microAmp-level currents. Since SQUIDs smaller than 1 μm on a side have not been successfully fabricated, the direct nanoscale imaging using these sensors is not likely, since the spatial resolution is also roughly limited to sizes larger than the sensor size.
Another limitation in the application of the magnetic sensors to destructive failure analysis is that the spatial separation between the SQUID, which must be maintained in a cryogenic environment, and the sample, which is in air at room temperature, must be at least 10 μm to relieve the thermal gradient and contain the SQUID in its environment (generally vacuum or liquid nitrogen), making direct nanoscale imaging using the standard SQUID sensors an unlikely prospect.
It is therefore desirable to provide a non-destructive failure analysis tool using the existing highly sensitive magnetic sensors where the important resolution limitations associated with the present day magnetic sensors is overcome to achieve high sensitivity nanoscale current imaging of a large range of packaged microelectronic devices.

Hybrid squid microscope with magnetic flux-guide for high resolution magnetic and current imaging by direct magnetic field sensing


A brushless DC motor is controlled by determining a speed of the motor and a line voltage supplying drivers of the motor. Based upon these determined values and predetermined motor performance data, a maximum PWM on-time is determined for drive signals supplied to windings of the motor. This maximum PWM on-time thereby limits motor torque output to a predetermined maximum. Stopping the motor is performed in sequential phases including a loaded generator phase, an active braking phase and a holding phase. During holding, the amount of energy supplied to the motor is reduced to the point just before slippage such that holding energy is minimized. Upon power failure, the motor is driven toward a spring return home position overcoming static friction that may prevent the spring return mechanism from functioning properly. These techniques are applied to a motor in an actuator.

Brushless DC motors represent an attractive motor technology for many applications such as, for example, actuators. Advantageously, they have high operating efficiencies and high power densities. However, controlling these brushless DC motors is relatively complex, requiring dedicated controllers and multiple high-power semiconductor drivers.
One aspect of brushless DC motor control is regulating output torque. This is conventionally performed using motor current sensing. To summarize this technique, one or more current sensing resistors are placed in series with one or more of the motor windings. The voltage drop across the current sensing resistor(s) is measured, and indicates motor torque. Unfortunately, the use of current sensing resistors adds expense in terms of parts count, space required, cooling requirements, and energy efficiency.
A further complication of using brushless DC motors relates to starting and stopping them, particularly when under load. One previously used motor stopping technique involved maintaining high power on a particular winding combination to `lock` the motor in position. However, this consumes large amounts of power, generates excess heat, and is often ineffective if slippage occurs.
The above-described problems are multiplied when a brushless DC motor is included in another device such as, for example, an actuator. Static and dynamic loads resulting from the actuator application are imparted on the motor further complicating control thereof.
The present invention is directed toward solutions to the above-identified problems.

Systems and methods for actuator power failure response


The LED or-and Laser light string has more than one light performance functions has LED or-and Laser light bulb which has built-in LED or Laser or both to offer one or more LED or-and Laser light performance or functions select from (I) illumination, (2) projection, (3) party light, (4) lighted patterns, (5) light beams, (6) lighted image, (7) flood light, (8) color changing light (9) garden torch light, (10) garden landscape light string or other light string and all these functions has circuitry and controller built-in only light string or each of light-unit to make LED or-and laser light source(s) to turn on and turn-off or fade-in and fade-in or sequential or flashing or market available light performance which controller is one or more of the following parts including all parts & accessories selected from (i) sensor or photo sensor, motion sensor, (ii) detector or moving detectors, (iii) wireless or remote or IR or RF controller, (iv) switch, manual switch, automatically or timer switch (v) each light source or only light-string has built-in wireless receiver to match the wireless transmitter electric signals; those circuitry and controller is one of (a) built-in the light strings, or (b) built-in one master-control light-unit or each of light-unit, or (c) outside of the light string, or (d) outside the LED or-and laser light-unit housing, or (d) built-in power source, or (e) built-in the said light string or light-unit or LED or-and laser bulb circuity or controller.

The current invention offer a light string has built-in or injected or added-on LED or-and laser bulb or other light-unit(s) which has more than one or more functions for the said light string which selected from
(1) illumination, (2) projection, (3) party or garden or patio light string,
(4) present moving lighted patterns, lighted image, light beams light string,
(5) outdoor plants or tree or fence or garden light string for all purpose
(6) light-string has project remote areas or supply near-by illumination or both locations lighted image, (7) flood or torch or accent light, (8) seasonal or holiday light string, (9) garden or outdoor or backyard landscape light string, (10) other functions light string;for desired LED or-and Laser light performance including;                (i) color changing light,        (ii) Selected color,        (iii) laser light patterns in array or dot-matrix, contour shape image, hologram image, grating film image,        (iv) LED light-beam, LED lighted patterns, LED lighted image,        (v) combine the LED and Laser light all kind of light-beam, lighted patterns, lighted image or desired combination for these light-beam, lighted patterns, lighted image.        (vi) Other LED or-and Laser light performance from market place.
By the circuit and control kits which is built-in or injected-out or added-on or outside the said LED or-and laser light bulb or other light-unit(s), or built-in light string, or outside the said LED bulb or other light-unit(s), or outside the said light string; those including one or more controller may selected from
(a) All kind of sensor, photos sensor, motion sensor, moving detectors
(b) detector or moving detectors,
(c) wireless or remote or IR or RF controller,
(d) switch, manual switch, automatically switch
(e) each light source has built-in wireless receiver to match the wireless transmitter electric signals
(f) All kind of blue tooth, or z-way, or Zigbii, or wife with download APP software or other wireless receiver and transformer, internet with 3/4/5G or future wireless communication.
To make the said LED or-and laser light source(s) inside the said light-unit(s) or LED or-and laser bulb which is assembled or injected type to has one or more desired light performance selected from;
(1) Color changing or color selected or color pre-determined.
(2) Brightness adjustable or dimmer able or hi-low brightness
(3) Function selection between
                (3-1) illumination,        (3-2) projection,        (3-3) flood light,        (3-4) accent light,        (3-5) seasonal light,        (3-6) holiday light,        (3-7) Commercial light,        (3-8) torch light,        (3-9) 1 or 2 or more light source(s) install or assembled or injected or added-on Plurality of light-unit(s) light strings . . . . To make at least or more than one functions or light effects as below:                    (3-9-1) turn on/off,            (3-9-2) fade-in/out,            (3-9-3) sequential at different time/duty/cycle/period of time, or in one time,            (3-9-4) sound activated the each or all light-unit(s)            (3-9-5) trigger with timer (day/week/month) setting and programs.

Light-unit(s) of LED or-and laser light-string's has more one sections has different light performance(s)


A method and an alarm processing system for deciding what alarm, out of a number of alarms generated in an industrial plant or process, to present to a system operator. The method includes creating hiding rules, associating each hiding rule with a real-world object, storing these rules in a storage means, receiving an alarm related to a real-world object, determining if a hiding rule is associated with the real-world object evaluating the hiding rule, deciding from the hiding rule whether to present or hide the alarm, selectively and actively hide such alarms that are decided to be hidden and not presenting the alarm to the system operator. The invention also includes an alarm processing system and a computer program for carrying out the method.

An industrial plant or process such as e.g. chemical plants, oil refineries, pulp and paper mills, steel mills etc includes many items or units of "real-world objects", which in many cases are controlled by a computer based control system. Control systems usually generate alarms when problems, related to these real-world objects, occur in order to alert either the system operator or other personnel involved in servicing the plant or process, so that the problem can be resolved as soon as possible.
Real-world objects in this context means physical entities/units such as sensors, valves, pumps, tanks, motors, conveyors, robots, computers, power supplies, network equipment etc. But a real-world object may also be an abstract entity that represents some physical equipment that is grouped together. Some examples of this type of collected physical equipment are production cells, production lines, production plants etc. A real-world object may also be an abstract entity that represents a software function, such as a calculation or a process model.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a typical computer based control system. It consists of controllers, servers and workstations connected to a local area network. Servers are computers that include software that provides various forms of system functionality. Workstations are computers that include software that provides various forms of user interaction. Controllers are computers that include software that performs the actual control functions. To the controllers, sensors and actuators are connected for measuring and affecting various forms of process variables, such as temperature, flow, pressure, level, position, on/off position etc. Variations of this basic structure are of course possible. For example, server and workstation functionality may reside in the same computer, or server and control functionality, or any other combination.
Besides functions for controlling a process, control systems normally also include monitoring or supervisory functions, including functions for generating alarms on various conditions related to the controlled and supervised real-world objects. A monitoring function is typically set to generate an alarm when a monitored object in some sense is outside its normal operating condition/range, for example a flow is too low or a temperature is too high or a level is below the minimum allowed or there is a failure in a power supply or in some network equipment etc.
Other sources of alarms include software applications such as applications for condition monitoring, optimization, calculations etc. A condition monitoring application may for example generate an alarm when a certain piece of equipment is in need of repair or maintenance. An optimisation application may generate an alarm when it is unable to maintain the controlled process within certain predetermined boundary conditions, such as maximum allowed energy consumption or product quality parameters etc. A calculation may for example generate an alarm when the result of a calculation is outside certain predetermined limits.
Control systems normally include software to collect, evaluate, store, and display alarm information. Such software is here referred to as an alarm processing system.
In a large plant there may be very large numbers of such sources of alarms, ranging from hundreds to hundreds of thousands, depending on the size of the plant. In many cases alarms may be generated without any real problem being present. This may for example be the case during start-up or shut down of a plant or a section of a plant, or during a shift from the production of one product or quality to another, or while a section of the plant is being serviced. Alarms generated under these conditions are not only confusing, they steal/occupy the operator's attention from more important information, and they make the operator's work stressful.
Other examples where alarms are not important or relevant are when they are generated because of secondary faults. For example, if a pump fails the corresponding flow and pressure will soon be too low. An alarm on the pump failure is enough to raise the operators attention to the problem, the following or consequential alarms caused by the flow and the pressure being too low are not needed for the operator determining the real cause of the problem.
Traditional ways of dealing with this problem involves suppressing the alarm signals at the alarm source, i.e. functionality is added in the controllers and software applications where alarms are generated, to prevent the alarms from being generated under specific conditions. Besides the fact that it requires programming and can only be done by experts, this approach means that it is not possible to view the suppressed alarms at all, since they are never generated or transferred. Since the suppressing is done through programming, operator oriented documentation and overview of what alarms are suppressed under what conditions must be created and maintained manually, adding to the workload and complexity.
A better approach would be to make the alarm system configurable, such that a process engineer or a skilled operator can decide to temporarily hide alarms from certain objects under certain conditions. In this approach the alarms are still generated and may be stored/saved in the control system, and can later be viewed if necessary, but they are not presented to the operator as long as they are hidden.
WO01/02953 describes a method for integration of many and various types of applications in a computerized system. This method is based on a concept where real world objects are represented as composite. Different facets of a real world object, such as its physical location, the current stage in a process, a control function, an operator interaction etc., are described as different aspects of the composite object. In this application, composite objects as defined by WO01/02953 are referred to as aspect objects.
A feature of the method described in WO01/02953 is that aspect objects can be organized in structures. A structure of aspect objects is a hierarchy of object instances. It may be based on any type of relations between aspect object instances. An aspect object can be placed in several structures at the same time, where the different structures represent different relations, e.g. functional and physical containment (functional structure and location structure).
EP 1442413 describes a method and system for a client application to request a data item from a data source in a computer controlled control system, via an access server. The control system includes software objects and a plurality of access servers. The software objects represent various entities that have a defined functional meaning in the control system. Each access server, such as an OPC (Object linking & embedding for Processor Control) server, may provide access to one or more real-time data, historical data, and alarm and event data items. EP 1442413 describes means, by which information held by said objects is used to find out which access server handles a particular data item and to access the data item, transparently to the client application.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,242 describe an automatic alarm display processing system in which derivative alarms are suppressed when a failure arises in a plant. The described system uses table look-up to find a causal relation between an alarm and an event and device monitor information in a table that contains alarm suppression reasons for a plurality of alarms. The table is used to decide whether an alarm is to be displayed without use of any inference function, thus avoiding long processing times.

Method and system for automatically deciding what alarm, generated in an industrial plant, to hide or to present to an operator


In interactive advertisement offering method and system, a server wirelessly receives from a user terminal an input signal, which is associated with a target TV advertisement viewed by a user of the user terminal. Upon identifying one TV advertisement to be the target TV advertisement based on the input signal, the server determines one of pre-stored Internet advertisements as a reference advertisement based on key terms representative of the target TV advertisement, and then transmits to the user terminal a reference advertisement menu generated thereby along with pre-stored Internet advertisement content corresponding to the reference advertisement for display of the reference advertisement menu on the user terminal.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to advertisement offering method and system, and more particularly to interactive advertisement offering method and system based on a viewed television (TV) advertisement.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditionally, TV advertisements can provide promoted goods information for TV viewers. When a TV viewer, who wants to buy a desired product, views a TV advertisement of a similar product and finds it uninteresting due to, for example, its brand or price, it is desirable to offer the TV viewer one or more other advertisements associated with products similar to the desired product.

Interactive advertisment offering method and system based on a viewed television advertisment


A cross-brace for a pair of joists has inclined brace members extending in vertical X-shaped array and a horizontal member rigidly connecting outer ends of two of the brace members and forming a horizontal strut between the outer ends. The cross-brace has flat lateral extremities, with flat vertical laterally outermost surfaces, for surface-to-surface abutment with opposed sides of the joists, the flat lateral extremities allowing the cross-brace to be entirely accommodated between the opposed sides of the joists.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cross-braces for connection to a pair of parallel joists or beams, and to structural assemblies comprising joists or beams interconnected by cross-braces.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional building construction, floor joists are often provided with braces connecting the joists to resist lateral bending of the joists. Also, it is well known to form such braces as cross-braces, connected between the joists with the brace members extending at an inclination to opposed side faces of the joists.
It is also well known to construct joists as I-beams, comprising an assembly of a pair of chords interconnected by a web member having opposite longitudinal edge portions connected to opposed sides of the chords.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,612, issued Aug. 14, 1990 to John W. R. Taylor et al., there is disclosed a cross-brace comprising elongate brace members assembled to form an X-shaped array, with vertical reinforcement members extending between outer ends of the brace members, as described in greater detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.


A dual wall storage container assembly is provided for storing liquids. The container includes a one-piece, molded inner tank which can be installed and removed from a molded outer tank. Notches are provided adjacent the bottom of the outer tank to align the inner tank within the outer tank. A horizontal shelf surrounds the mouth of the outer tank, with a horizontal shoulder on the top of the inner tank overlying the shelf. A seal is provided between the shelf and the shoulder to inhibit moisture migration. A drip edge is provided on the top outer perimeter of the inner tank to further inhibit moisture migration between the shelf and the shoulder. A tab on the shoulder is received in a notch in the shelf to preclude rotation between the nested tanks. Lifting flanges on the outer tank allow both tanks to be lifted simultaneously while nested together.

Various types of storage containers are well-known for containing liquids, including agricultural chemicals. Some storage containers include double walls which precludes spillage or leakage of the liquid if the outer wall is damaged, such as a puncture, without damage to the interior wall of the container. If there is a leak in the inner tank, the liquid is captured by the outer tank. Some double walled containers are fabricated as a single unit in which the inner and outer walls cannot be separated. Other double wall containers include separate inner and outer tanks which nest together. However, the structure and manufacture of all these double wall containers is relatively complex, and thus costly.
In designing and manufacturing plastic molded tanks, it is important to maintain the integrity of the tank, including maximum strength and minimal stresses. Molded plastic tanks with continuous, non-interrupted sidewalls have greater strength and less stress points than tanks having depressions or other formations in the sidewall. Such depressions increase the circumferential or hoop stress of the tank sidewall, and thus weaken the sidewall strength. As the level or volume of liquid or particulate material contained in a tank increases or raises, the forces generated by such contents increases. Thus, maintaining maximum sidewall strength and minimizing hoop stress becomes more important along the height of a cylindrical tank. Interruptions in the cylindrical hoop created by depressions in the sidewall may cause the sidewall to bulge, and eventually fail, under the force of the tank contents.
Accordingly, a primary objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved storage container for liquids having separate inner and outer tanks.
Another objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved storage container for liquids which has a double walled construction.
A further objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved storage container for liquids having an inner tank which can be removably nested within an outer tank.
Still another objective of the present invention is the provision of a dual tank assembly having notches in the outer tank to engage, support and align the inner tank when the nested tanks are in a horizontal shipping position.
Another objective of the present invention is the provision of nesting inner and outer tanks wherein the outer tank has lifting eyes for receiving hooks to lift the nested tanks together.
A further objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved double tank assembly wherein the outer tank has short alignment notches adjacent the bottom which substantially maintain the hoop strength of the cylindrical tank sidewall substantially along the height of the sidewall.
Still another objective of the present invention is the provision of a dual tank assembly for storing liquids wherein the sidewall of the outer tank has a cylindrical hoop extending uninterrupted substantially from the top of the tank to the bottom of the tank.
Yet another objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved storage container for liquids wherein an inner tank has a top rim which overhangs an upper shelf or shoulder on the lower tank.
Another objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved storage container having separable nesting inner and outer tanks with means to preclude rotation of the tanks relative to one another when assembled together.
A further objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved storage container for liquids having dual inner and outer tanks which are molded plastic.
Another objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved storage container for liquids wherein an inner tank has a bottom, a sidewall and a top molded as one piece and an outer molded tank having a bottom, a sidewall, and an upper open mouth for receiving the inner tank.
A further objective of the present invention is the provision of an improved storage container for liquids which is economical to manufacture and durable and safe in use.
These and other objectives will become apparent from the following description of the invention.

Double tank assembly with shipping notches and lifting eyes


An information processing apparatus, method and computer program product cooperate to provide graphical trends of posts regarding a posting subject and additional information. The apparatus includes a collector that collects posts regarding a posting subject that proceeds over time. A counting unit is included that counts a number of collected posts for each of different classes of posts. A display controller causes graphs to be displayed along a time-axis illustrating time-wise trends in the posts for each class together with additional information. The additional information is information that includes at least one of posts at respective times and information regarding the posting subject.

Previously, there has been proposed technology called live chat, which is designed such that viewers communicate with each other while viewing a broadcast program by posting their impressions, opinions, or other response to the program into an interface such as a message board or chat window. (see PTL 1, for example).

Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and computer program product