A method for processing semi-structured data. The method includes receiving semi-structured data into a first format from a real business process. Preferably, the semi-structured data are machine generated. The method includes tokenizing the semi-structured data into a second format and storing the semi-structured data in the second format into one or more memories and clustering the tokenized data to form a plurality of clusters. The method also includes identifying a selected low frequency term in each of the clusters, and processing at least two of the clusters and the associated selected low frequency terms to form a single template for the at least two of the clusters. In a preferred embodiment, the method replaces the selected low frequency term with a wild card character.

The present invention relates generally to supporting business decisions through data analysis by way of enriching data through data mining, text mining, and automatic classification. More particularly, the invention provides a method and system for 1) automatic detection of change in the business processes to be analyzed; 2) accurate measurement of the performance of automatic classification of business process data; 3) automatic handling of semi-structured text in business process analysis; and 4) efficient and maintainable scripting of the data enrichment process. Business decisions generally require knowledge about properties of business entities related to the decision. Such properties can be inferred by an automatic classifier that processes data associated with the entity. Parts of the data may be human-generated or free form text. Other parts of the data may be machine-generated or semi-structured. It is beneficial to analyze both free form text and semi-structured text data for business process analysis. While the enrichment process can be programmed in a number of existing programming languages and data base query languages, it is advantageous to provide a specialized language for increased maintainability and faster development of the enrichment process. By way of example for the enabling features of such a language, we describe SQXML, a language developed by Enkata Technologies, Inc. for this purpose. The business decision can relate to marketing, sales, procurement, operations, or any other business area that generates and captures real data in electronic form. Merely by way of example, the invention is applied to processing data from a call center of a large wireless telecommunication service provider. But it would be recognized that the invention has a much wider range of applicability. For example, the invention can be applied to other operational and non-operational business areas such as manufacturing, financial services, insurance services, high technology, retail, consumer products, and the like.
Common goals of almost every business are to increase profits and improve operations. Profits are generally derived from revenues less costs. Operations include manufacturing, sales, service, and other features of the business. Companies invest considerable time and effort to control costs to improve profits and operations. Many such companies rely upon feedback from a customer or detailed analysis of company finances and/or operations. Most particularly, companies collect all types of information in the form of data. Such information includes customer feedback, financial data, reliability information, product performance data, employee performance data, and customer data.
With the proliferation of computers and databases, companies have seen an explosion in the amount of information or data collected. Using telephone call centers as an example, there are literally over one hundred million customer calls received each day in the United States. Such calls are often categorized and then stored for analysis. Large quantities of data are often collected. Unfortunately, conventional techniques for analyzing such information are often time consuming and not efficient. That is, such techniques are often manual and require much effort.
Accordingly, companies are often unable to identify certain business improvement opportunities. Much of the raw data including voice and free-form text data are in unstructured form thereby rendering the data almost unusable to traditional analytical software tools. Moreover, companies must often manually build and apply relevancy scoring models to identify improvement opportunities and associate raw data with financial models of the business to quantify size of these opportunities. An identification of granular improvement opportunities would often require the identification of complex multi-dimensional patterns in the raw data that is difficult to do manually.
Examples of these techniques include statistical modeling, support vector machines, and others. These modeling techniques have had some success. Unfortunately, certain limitations still exist. That is, statistical classifiers must often be established to carry out these techniques. Such statistical classifiers often become inaccurate over time and must be reformed. Conventional techniques for reforming statistical classifiers are often cumbersome and difficult to perform. Although these techniques have had certain success, there are many limitations.
From the above, it is seen that techniques for processing information are highly desired.

System and method for processing semi-structured business data using selected template designs


Circuits and methods to shut down any charge pump having any number of stages have been achieved. The invention is especially relevant to charge pumps, which have a supply that is incapable of sinking significant current, such as a supply derived from an LDO. The shutdown can be done either until all stages have zero voltage or until all stages have the input voltage level. The shutdown is performed in a staged manner, from the output backwards to the input, so there is reduced charge sharing between the capacitors so that no voltage exceeds its normal operating range. An additional advantage of the present invention is that the charge pump can be switched back on, before the shutdown sequence is complete, with all internal and external nodes of the charge pump staying within their normal operating range.

(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to voltage converter circuits using charge pumps and relates more particularly to the usage of an active circuitry to discharge all capacitors employed by such a charge pump.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Charge pumps are circuits that generate a voltage larger than the supply voltage from which they operate. Charge pumps are a form of DC-DC converters that rely on capacitors instead of inductors for energy storage and transfer. The absence of inductors makes them attractive in situations requiring a low-power auxiliary supply. They use less circuit-board area, offer minimal component height, and are easy to use.
Charge pumps are switching capacitors circuits. The basic circuit is made from switches and capacitors. Charge pumps work as fixed multipliers, positive or negative, of the supply voltage. In order to generate twice the supply voltage two capacitors are required. One capacitor is a "flying" capacitor actually doing the pumping and one capacitor is acting as a reservoir, holding the generated voltage.
In order to generate three times the supply voltage two flying capacitors are required and one reservoir capacitor, in order to generate four times the supply voltage three flying capacitors are required and one reservoir capacitor, etc. for five times the supply voltage.
Charge pumps can have regulated or unregulated outputs. An unregulated charge pump either doubles or inverts the voltage that powers it and the output voltage is a function of the supply voltage. A regulated charge pump either boosts or inverts the supply voltage. Its output voltage is independent of the supply voltage.
Active discharge circuits in voltage charge pumps are normally used to shut down the circuit or reduce the output voltage to an initial value.
Especially for charge pumps having multiple stages it is important to control the discharge process to avoid excessive voltage on the capacitors during a shutdown of the charge pump.
There are patents known dealing with the control of the discharge of capacitors:
U.S. Pat. No. (6,392,904 to Bayer et al.) describes a DC/DC converter including a charge pump circuit comprising one or more capacitors and a plurality of controllable switches connected thereto, the controllable switches being controllable by a control circuit so that the capacitors is/are alternatingly switched in a charging and discharge phase; a first current source set to a predetermined base current located either in the discharge or charging path of the charge pump circuit and a second current source connected in parallel thereto; and a regulator circuit for generating a first control signal representing the difference between a voltage characterizing the output voltage and a first reference voltage and controlling the second current source when the charge pump circuit is active so that the controllable current is reduced or increased with an increase and reduction respectively in the difference to track the voltage characterizing the output voltage in accordance with the first reference voltage; and for generating a second control signal guided to the control circuit, this signal assuming a first status when the voltage characterizing the output voltage exceeds a second reference voltage at a predetermined level above the first reference voltage, upon which the control circuit deactivates the charge pump circuit, and assumes a second status when the voltage characterizing the output voltage drops below the second reference voltage, upon which the control circuit activates the charge pump circuit.
U.S. Pat. No. (6,483,282 to Bayer) discloses a charge pump-type DC/DC converter comprising n elementary stages, each consisting of a charge pump capacitor and several controllable switches connected thereto, whereby the input voltage of the DC/DC converter is applied to the input of the first stage, both electrodes of the charge pump capacitor of the k.sup.th stage are each connectable to one of the controllable switches with the output of the (k−1).sup.th stage, k=2, . . . , n and the output of the n.sup.th stage forms the output of the DC/DC converter. The DC/DC converter in accordance with the invention is characterized in that it in addition enables one or more further controllable switches to be connected, via which the electrode of the charge pump capacitor of the n.sup.th stage which in the discharge phase is not connected to the output of the converter, to one or more outputs of the 1.sup.th stage (1=(n−2), . . . 1) and/or of the input voltage, and comprises a control circuit which in the discharge phase of the charge pump cycle signals ON, as a function of the input voltage of the DC/DC converter, that switch of the array consisting of the one controllable switch via which the electrode of the charge pump capacitor of the n.sup.th stage can be connected to the output of the (n−1).sup.th stage and the further controllable switches and connects the voltage applied thereto to the cited electrode of the charge pump capacitor of the n.sup.th stage at which the efficiency of the DC/DC converter is a maximum.
U.S. Pat. No. (6,597,156 to Gogolla) discloses an arrangement and a method for generating high voltage from a low-voltage supply source using a charge reservoir chargeable and rechargeable to the desired high voltage or higher via a charge pump. A first switching device regulates the supply of electric charge from the precharged charge reservoir to a separate storage capacitor. As a result, a high voltage signal that is extensively noise-free is available during certain operating phases, such as a measurement process. A second switching device ensures a regulated discharge from the storage capacitor when the capacitor is overcharged, for example, for the readjustment of the high voltage to be generated. A capacitive voltage divider, which reduces the high voltage without losses, is provided to determine the actual value of the high voltage. At very small currents, the desired high voltage can be maintained by using the capacitive voltage divider for a substantially longer time than by using an ohmic voltage divider.

Controlled active shutdown of charge pump


A method and apparatus for stretching a pulse, shaping a stretched pulse, and modeling a stretched and/or shaped pulse are disclosed. An etalon has a port, a partially reflective surface, and a fully reflective surface. A base pulse is introduced into the etalon, and a plurality of portions of the base pulse propagating from the etalon are collected. The collected portions are then combined to generate a stretched pulse whose width is proportional to the width of the base pulse. This can be modeled by assigning a transmission factor value to each one of a plurality of tags and a reflection factor value to each one of the taps, excepting only one tap. A transport delay for is assigned to each tap to which a reflection factor value was assigned, wherein the transport delay is proportional to the width of a base pulse.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to optical pulse stretchers, and, more particularly, to an optical pulse stretcher etalon.
2. Description of the Related Art
The increasing power and speed of many types of electronic systems has focused attention on optical technologies. Optical technologies are attractive for a variety of reasons that may vary depending on the type of technology. However, desirable characteristics typically include generally faster transmission and higher bandwidth of optical signals relative to electrical signals. Information is typically conveyed in optical signals in a series of light pulses, or "optical pulse trains." Frequently, although not always, the optical pulses convey information digitally in 0's and 1's just as electrical pulses in electrical signals do.
Optical technologies are nevertheless not without their own problems. One problem arises from the fleeting nature of the light pulses. Demanding applications employ light pulses of very short duration, e.g., 1 ns or 1 ps, and future increases in capabilities are expected to push pulse widths even lower. Although the signals in optical systems are light pulses, the optical systems themselves employ opto-electronic components that are partly optical and partly electronic. Pulse widths of the magnitudes contemplated herein are difficult for the electronic side of the opto-electronic components to process in a timely fashion.
One solution to this dilemma is to "stretch" the light pulses. One common type of pulse stretcher is the "etalon." An etalon is basically a cavity bounded by two reflective surfaces. One surface is essentially completely reflective, e.g., a mirror. The other surface is partially reflective, i.e., part of the optical signal will reflect off the surface while a portion of the optical signal propagates through the surface. Thus, an optical signal is introduced into the cavity and impinges upon the partially reflective surface first. A portion of the optical signal propagates through the partially reflective surface. A portion also reflects off the partially reflective surface to the fully reflective surface, which then again reflects from the fully reflective portion. The twice reflected portion then impinges upon the partially reflective surface, whereupon the process repeats. The pulse portions propagating through the partially reflective surface are then collected and combined to create a "composite" pulse.
This "composite" pulse is "stretched," i.e., of longer duration than the "base" pulse that was originally directed into the etalon. This technique admirably produces wider, i.e., longer duration, pulses. The stretched pulses are easier for the electrical part of the opto-electronic components to handle and process. However, several drawbacks accompany these pulse stretching techniques.
One significant problem is information loss. For instance, the width of the pulse might carry certain information that can be useful. The spacing of the reflective surfaces in conventional etalons, however, is driven by considerations such as volume and size, as opposed to any characteristic of the light pulses. The characteristics of the resultant stretched pulse bear no relationship to the characteristics of the base pulse from which such information can be retrieved. Thus, meaningful information that may be conveyed by the width of the base pulse is lost.
Another significant problem impacts the detector that processes that stretched pulses. The stretched pulse typically presents abrupt changes in intensity levels, e.g. from "off" to "on," with very short transition periods. These abrupt transitions can generate a phenomenon known as "ringing" in the detector's electronics. The detector's electronics consequently must be designed to deal with this phenomenon, which complicates the electronics and can increase the space needed for the electronics within the optical system. Complexity is generally proportional to the rate of failure. In some high performance applications, space is at a premium. The need to compensate for ringing can therefore be highly undesirable in some applications.
The present invention is directed to resolving, or at least reducing, one or all of the problems mentioned above.

Method and apparatus for stretching an optical pulse


A method and apparatus for wire bonding bond pads formed on semiconductor dice to the lead fingers of a semiconductor leadframe are provided. Using an automated wire bonding apparatus two (or more) adjacent dice attached to the leadframe are wire bonded using a single indexing step for the leadframe. The wire bonding apparatus includes a heat block for heating the two adjacent dice, and a clamp for clamping the two adjacent dice to the heat block for wire bonding. A bonding tool of the wire bonding apparatus is moved to successively wire bond the two adjacent dice. The method of the invention is suitable for DIP, ZIP, SOJ, TSOP, PLCC, SOIC, PQFP, or IDF semiconductor packages.

In semiconductor manufacture, a single semiconductor die is typically mounted within a sealed package. Semiconductor packages (or chips) come in a variety of different designs. Among the different package designs are dual inline packages DIP, zig-zag inline packages ZIP, small outline J-bends SOJ, thin small outline packages TSOP, plastic leaded chip carriers PLCC, small outline integrated circuit SOIC, plastic quad flat pack PQFP, and interdigitated leadframe IDF.
In general, all package designs incorporate several common elements. These common elements include a sealed package enclosure, a die-attachment area, bonding wires for making electrical contact between the bond pads on the die and the leads of the package, and the inner and outer lead fingers of the metal lead system for the package.
Typically, the initial component in the packaging process is a leadframe or leadframe strip. A leadframe strip is a metal frame which is several inches long. The leadframe strip supports each semiconductor die for packaging and provides the leads for the final semiconductor package. A typical leadframe strip is produced from metal sheet stock (e.g. a copper alloy) and is adapted to mount several (e.g. eight) semiconductor packages. During the manufacturing process each leadframe strip is moved and indexed through the various manufacturing stages as a unit.
In a conventional semiconductor packaging process, the dice are initially attached to mounting paddles of a leadframe strip. During a wire bonding process, the bond pads formed on the face of each die are connected to the lead fingers of the leadframe strip using fine bond wires. The semiconductor dice are then encapsulated and a trim and form operation is used to separate the resultant interconnected packages and to bend the leads of each semiconductor package into the proper configuration.
The present invention is directed to the wire bonding process. Apparatus for wire bonding semiconductor dice are well known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 3,894,671 to Kulicke Jr. et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,173 to Fujimoro et al, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,082,165 to Ishizuka, disclose representative wire bonding apparatus. Earlier versions of wire bonding apparatus were manually operated by an operator viewing the semiconductor die through a microscope. More recently, automated wire bonding apparatus include vision systems for automatically sensing the locations of the bond pads on the dice and lead fingers of the leadframe to perform the wire bonding process.
During the wire bonding process a single die attached to a leadframe is held between a wire bonding clamp and a wire bonding heat block of the wire bonding apparatus. The heat block heats the semiconductor die and the leadframe to a temperature of about 150.degree. C. to 350.degree. C. A bonding tool then mechanically presses a fine bond wire to a bond pad of the die and then to a bonding site on an appropriate lead finger.
The bond wire is typically a fine gold or copper wire that is threaded through the bonding tool. The end of the wire is heated by an electrical discharge or a hydrogen torch to a molten state. This forms a ball of molten metal on the end of the bond wire. For bonding a selected bond pad of the heated die, the molten ball is pressed by the bonding tool against the bond pad. This mechanically bonds the bond pad and bond wire to one another. The bonding tool is then moved over a bonding site on the lead finger and the heated bond wire is pressed against the bond site. This mechanically bonds the bond wire and the lead finger to one another. The bond wire is then tensioned and sheared. This process is repeated for each bond pad on the die.
A critical step of the wire bonding operation is the initial indexing of a leadframe strip. Prior to the wire bonding step, an indexing assembly of the wire bond apparatus precisely moves the leadframe strips to place the dice one at a time between the wire bonding clamp and the wire bonding heat block. This indexing step must be performed for each die on a leadframe. Misplacement of the leadfree or die during the wire bonding process may cause the wire bond apparatus to jam and the wire bonds to be misplaced. Moreover, an indexing step for each die on a leadframe is relatively time consuming and adds to the complexity of the wire bonding process. The present invention recognizes that the wire bonding process can be simplified and improved if two or more dice are wire bonded with a single index of a leadframe strip. At the same time, the speed and throughput of the wire bonding process can be improved.
Accordingly it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for wire bonding bond pads on semiconductor dice to the leadfingers of a semiconductor leadframe. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for wire bonding multiple semiconductor dice on a leadframe with a single indexing strip of the leadframe. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for wire bonding bond pads on a semiconductor die to the lead fingers of a leadframe that is fast, efficient and adaptable to large scale semiconductor manufacture.

Method and apparatus for wire bonding semiconductor dice to a leadframe


A semiconductor device includes memory cells; an operation circuit suitable for performing a read operation on the memory cells; and a check circuit suitable for comparing the number of memory cells of which threshold voltages are divided by the read operation, wherein the operation circuit changes a read voltage to be applied to the memory cells in the read operation, based on a result of the comparison.

1. Field
Various embodiments of the present invention relate to a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a semiconductor device including memory cells.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A read operation is performed to read data stored in memory cells of a semiconductor device. When the threshold voltage distribution of the memory cells changes, the number of error bits included in the data read from the memory cells increases. Therefore, the read voltage applied to the memory cells during read operations needs to be changed.

Semiconductor device to improve reliability of read operation for memory cells


The present invention provides for a method for characterization of pulse-width limiter outputs. A known clock signal is received. A pulse width of the received known clock signal is limited through a first pulse-width limiter to generate a first intermediate signal. The first intermediate signal is delayed by a known amount to generate a first delayed signal. The first intermediate signal is inverted to generate a first inverted signal. A pulse width of the first inverted signal is limited through a second pulse-width limiter to generate a second intermediate signal. The second intermediate signal is delayed by a known amount to generate a second delayed signal. A logic OR operation is performed on the first delayed signal and the second delayed signal to generate a clock out signal.

In many modern computer program applications, especially those dealing with large arrays, the maximum pulse width of clock signals operating on these arrays needs to be limited. If the pulse width is too wide, for example, it can cause pre-charged array nodes to lose their logic value and result in array failure. Thus, it is common for a clock source to be pulse-width limited before being asserted onto array grids. One example of a novel technique is described in the invention entitled A SIMPLIFIED METHOD FOR LIMITING CLOCK PULSE WIDTH, Ser. No. 10/692,416, which proposes a circuit that limits the maximum pulse width of a clock source.
One important issue that needs to be addressed is the off-chip characterization of such pulse-width limiter circuits in a typical bandwidth-limited laboratory setup. For example, a pulse-width limiter with a maximum allowable pulse width of 100 picoseconds (ps) will have significant power at around 1/100 ps (10 GHz). However, typical laboratory setups that can guarantee signal integrity at such frequencies are often cost-prohibitive. Therefore, a methodology is required that is capable of quantifying the maximum pulse width from a pulse-width limiter circuit in an ordinary bandwidth-limited laboratory environment.
One possible solution is on-chip characterization of the pulse-width limiter output. This can be accomplished, for example, by sampling the pulse-width limiter output with various phases of a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) input. However, this approach relies on the discrete phases available from the VCO and, therefore, this discreteness limits the resolution. Moreover, unless the VCO is locked, by, for example, a phase locked loop (PLL), the VCO input can be compromised by large jitter at each of its phases, thereby increasing the measurement uncertainty.
An alternative approach to bypassing the measurement bandwidth constraint employs pulse stretcher circuitry. Pulse stretchers, for example, can extend or stretch the output of the pulse-width limiter, thereby reducing the bandwidth requirement of the laboratory measurement setup. This approach, however, is also subject to limitations. In particular, the precise magnitude of the pulse extension caused by the pulse stretchers has to be known, which thereby requires characterization of the pulse stretchers' performance itself. Thus, while one can employ the pulse stretchers to bring the test output within the bandwidth requirement of the measurement setup, the desired measurement remains unknown without an often-complicated additional characterization of the pulse stretchers.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and/or method for on/off-chip characterization of pulse-width limiter outputs that addresses at least some of the problems and disadvantages associated with conventional systems and methods.

System and method for on/off-chip characterization of pulse-width limiter outputs

International Business Machines Corporation


A motor includes a sleeve, a sleeve holder, a rotor hub and an inner body. The sleeve has a flange portion on an outer circumference portion thereof. The sleeve holder holds the sleeve. The rotor hub has an annular wall portion. The inner body is fixed in an inside of the annular wall portion so as to surround the sleeve and the sleeve holder. The inner body has an annular protrusion portion which is sandwiched between the flange portion and one end portion of the sleeve holder on an inner circumference portion of thereof. A first thrust bearing portion in which a lubrication agent is filled is formed between the annular protrusion portion and the flange portion. A second thrust bearing portion in which the lubrication agent is filled is formed between the annular protrusion portion and the one end portion of the sleeve holder.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motor employed in a disc drive such as a hard disc drive (HDD), as a drive source of the disc drive for driving a disc such as a compact disc (CD), a compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM) or a digital versatile disc (DVD).
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, there is a spindle motor with a fluid dynamic bearing in a dynamic pressure type as a rotary drive source for a disc which is an information record medium. The spindle motor is configured to firmly attach a sleeve on a motor base which forms a stator and to fill lubrication oil in a gap between the sleeve and a rotary shaft. The spindle motor has the following advantageous features: (1) the load facility is large; and (2) the high-speed capability is excellent.
A bearing structure of the spindle motor is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-328926. In the bearing structure, a thrust bearing portion where a dynamic pressure is to be generated is provided between the sleeve and a rotor hub, and a retaining mechanism for a rotor is provided by forming a flange portion on an outer circumference of the sleeve. However, even if the thrust load is supported at the thrust bearing portion, there is a problem that the bearing structure is weak with respect to thrust force acting in a direction in which the rotor comes out of the spindle motor because force acting against the direction in which the rotor comes out of the spindle motor is only magnetic force of a magnet.
In order to resolve the above problem, another bearing structure is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-183734. In the bearing structure, two thrust bearing portions are provided to support thrust load which is generated by a dynamic pressure at the two thrust bearing portions and acts in two directions along an axial direction.
As shown in FIG. 1, a rotor hub Rh is formed in a cupped shape. The rotor hub Rh has an annular wall portion W at an outer periphery portion thereof and a center portion Rs1 at a center portion thereof. A rotor spindle Rs is composed of the center portion Rs1 and an outer cylinder portion Rs2. The center portion Rs1 is integrally formed in the rotor hub Rh. The outer cylinder portion Rs2 is fitted to an outer periphery portion of the center portion Rs1. A sleeve S supports the rotor spindle Rs and has a flange portion f at one end side of an outer periphery portion thereof. A seal ring Sr is fixed at the other end side of the outer periphery portion of the sleeve S. A thrust ring Tr is inserted between the flange portion f and the seal ring Sr. The thrust ring Tr is fixed in the annular wall portion W and abuts on a step portion of the annular wall portion W at an outer periphery portion thereof. In the rotor hub Rh, lubrication oil is filled in gaps between the flange portion f and the annular wall portion W, between the flange portion f and the thrust ring Tr, between the sleeve S and the thrust ring Tr, between the thrust ring Tr and the seal ring Sr, and between the seal ring Sr and the annular wall portion W. A taper seal portion Ts is formed at a gap between the seal ring Sr and the annular wall portion W to prevent the lubrication oil from leaking outside. Thrust bearing portions TB and TB each where a dynamic pressure of the lubrication oil is to be generated are formed between the flange portion f and the thrust ring Tr and between the seal ring Sr and the thrust ring Tr, respectively.
In the above-described bearing structure, it is preferred that the taper seal portion Ts is located in the vicinity of a center area of the bearing structure. In this configuration, even if the lubrication oil spreads outside due to centrifugal force, it is not likely that the spreading lubrication oil arrives at an outside of the rotor hub Rh. This provides a large space for motor drive members such as a field magnet Mg and a drive coil C to be disposed in the outside of the rotor hub Rh, in the bearing structure.
However, in reality, it is impossible to locate the taper seal portion Ts in the vicinity of the center area of the bearing structure because the taper seal portion Ts should be disposed in an outside of the flange portion f due to the bearing structure. In a case where an engineer wants to force the taper seal portion Ts to be located in the vicinity of the center area of the bearing structure, lengths of the thrust bearing portions TB and TB should be reduced as sacrificing characters of the thrust bearing portions TB and TB.
The above-described bearing structure also requires high impact resistance. However, the thrust ring Tr is flattened in shape and pressure-inserted into a part of the annular wall portion W to be held only at the outer periphery portion thereof. This can not provide the bearing structure sufficient pressure-insertion intensity. If external force acts against the rotor spindle Rs in a direction (upper direction in FIG. 1) where the rotor spindle Rs moves away from the sleeve S, it is likely that the external force misaligns a relative position between the rotor hub Rh and the thrust ring Tr.
When the above-described bearing structure is assembled, the sleeve S is loosely fitted to an inner hole of the thrust ring Tr and then pressure-inserted into an inner hole of the seal ring Sr. Then, this assembled bearing unit is pressure-inserted into the annular wall portion W. At this time, the assembled bearing unit is pressure-inserted by pressing the seal ring Sr against the annular wall portion W. In this process, it is likely that each thrust bearing portion TB is flattened out. If the thrust bearing portion TB is flattened out, the bearing structure can not obtain dynamic pressure requirement.
In a case where the field magnet Mg is fixed to the bearing structure and the drive coil C is disposed at a stator side which is an outside of the field magnet Mg, one or more members located in an inner hole of the field magnet Mg needs to be made of a magnetic material in order to form a magnetic circuit in the inner hole. In the above-described bearing structure, the whole of rotor hub Rh is made of a magnetic material because the annular wall portion W is located in the inner hole of the field magnet Mg. This reduces drive torque to be generated in the drive coil C because a part of magnetic fluxes is introduced into a rotor spindle Rs side to reduce magnetic flux acting at a drive coil C side.


A pharmaceutical preparation containing Tolperison or a salt thereof as an active ingredient in the form of a racemic mixture which can be a 50/50/-racemat or a racemat with the perponderant content of the (xe2x88x92) -isomer of Tolperison. The pharmaceutical preparation is formulated as a solid or liquid medicament for oral administration. The active ingredient Tolperison that is present as 50/50-racemat or as racemat with a preponderant content of the (xe2x88x92)-isomer or the (+)-isomer is liberated from the preparation in the human body in a delayed manner and preferably in the intestinal canal.

The invention relates to a pharmaceutical preparation for oral administration which contains Tolperison or a salt thereof.
Tolperison-containing drugs are known in various preparation forms. Thus EP 0 295 411 B describes a pharmaceutical preparation for percutaneous administration of Tolperison or a salt thereof.
Other forms of administration of Tolperison-containing drugs are also known. Thus JP 51091315 A describes a stable syrup of Tolperison which is intended for oral administrations.
Tolperison is the international generic name for the muscle relaxant (RS)-2,4xe2x80x2-dimethyl-3-piperidonopropriophenone) with the empirical formula C16H23NO.
Tolperison and its salts are known as an agent for improving not only different symptoms with respect to spastic paralysis, but also muscle tone which originates from diseases such as cervical syndrome, inflammation of the joints and back pain.
The disadvantage in oral administration of Tolperison or a salt thereof is that the action quickly diminishes so that Tolperison-containing preparations must be taken several times daily and that the gastrointestinal tract of the patient can be damaged.
The disadvantage of percutaneous use, as is known from EP 0 295 411 B, is the only inadequate percutaneous absorption of the pharmaceutical active ingredient, Tolperison.
The active ingredient Tolperison is present as a 50/50 racemate. Studies have shown that up to 90% of the (xe2x88x92) isomer and up to only 10% of the (+) isomer of Tolperison are present in the blood. For a long time it had not been conclusively clarified whether the 90/10 racemate present in the blood (of humans) is formed by re-racemization or by intensified resorption of the (xe2x88x92) isomer.
The object of the invention is to make available a preparation which contains Tolperison or a salt thereof which can be orally administered without the disadvantages of the known orally administered preparations of Tolperison occurring.
This object is achieved as claimed in the invention with a preparation which is characterized in claim 1.
Preferred and advantageous embodiments of the preparation as claimed in the invention are the subject matter of the dependent claims.
The preparation as claimed in the invention replaces the action which rapidly fades in the known oral preparations of Tolperison or its salts by a long lasting action since the preparation is produced such that the active ingredient Tolperison or the salt thereof is released only on a delayed basis. In particular, in the preparation as claimed in the invention it can be advantageous that the delay of the release of the active ingredient Tolperison is set such that the Tolperison is resorbed predominantly in the intestine.
The advantages of controlled release of pharmaceutical active ingredients are well known in the area of pharmaceuticals and consist among others in that the desired content of the active ingredient in the blood can be maintained over a comparatively long time interval so that the patient is no longer compelled to take a drug several times daily.
The preparations as claimed in the invention with delayed release of Tolperison or salts thereof can be present for example in combination with various hydrogels which can be of synthetic, semisynthetic or natural origin.
Oral preparations with delayed release of the active ingredientxe2x80x94here Tolperison or a salt thereofxe2x80x94should be adjustable such that the release rates and profiles can be set according to the physiological and chronotherapeutic requirements. This is allowed by the preparation as claimed in the invention. Studies have shown that the (xe2x88x92) isomer and the (+) isomer of Tolperison are almost identically effective. Therefore racemic mixtures of the isomers of Tolperison are also essentially identically active as one or the other isomer alone.
Tolperison can be present in the preparations as claimed in the invention as a 50/50 racemate or as a racemic mixture which differs from the 50/50 racemate. Racemates in which the content of the (xe2x88x92) isomer is higher than that of the (+) isomer are likewise used. Racemates with a predominant proportion of the (xe2x88x92) isomer of Tolperison (2,4xe2x80x2-dimethyl-3-piperidonopropriophenone) can be present as 90/10 racemates.
Examples of pharmaceutical preparations as claimed in this invention are given below.

Tolperison-containing, pharmaceutical preparation for oral administration


A system and method provide for installation and setup of a set-top box (STB) in a Digital TV network includes a mobile device running a mobile application, an operator application, and a display configured to display video from the STB. A status of the STB is determined and encoded into an optically scannable graphic displayed by the display. The optically scannable graphic is scanned with an optical device in communication with the mobile device and the status of the STB is decoded. The status of the STB is transmitted to the operator application compared with an acceptance criteria.

Digital television (DTV) refers to the transmission of television signals, including the sound channel, using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology, in which the video and audio are carried by analog signals. DTV is an innovative advance that represents the first significant evolution in television technology since color television in the 1950s. Digital TV transmits in an image format called high definition television (HDTV), with greater resolution than analog TV, in a widescreen aspect ratio similar to recent movies in contrast to the narrower screen of analog TV.
Digital TV delivers a signal via terrestrial transmitters ("signal sources") using an antenna, digital cable or digital satellites. DTV viewers typically include paying customers ("subscribers") for a provider ("TV operator"). The digital TV signal is broadcast, meaning that the same signal is transmitted unidirectionally to all the subscribers from the TV operator. A receiver ("set-top box" (STB)), is loaned, leased, or sold to the subscriber.
The STB is connected to a TV or a digital video recorder and an external signal source. The STB allows the subscriber to select a channel to view and plays the channel on the TV. When a new subscriber hires the service, or when a subscriber moves to a new home, the TV operator connects the STB to the DTV network so the STB can start receiving the DTV signal and (the TV operator) makes an assessment as part of a setup and activation assessment procedure. The TV operator decides whether to activate the service for this subscriber or not depending on this assessment. In particular, after the service is activated, the STB receives cryptographic credentials via a central authentication system (CAS) that allow the STB to decrypt the (encrypted) content it receives, including, but not limited to all the channels the subscriber has subscribed to with his subscription.
Typical STB installation and setup processes attempt to somehow report signal and/or performance quality metrics from the installation site to the TV operator by having a technician at the installation site with the STB call the TV operator, or a representative acting on behalf of the TV operator, or even a computer-guided interactive voice response (IVR) system, to rely information from the STB via the technician and so the technician may receive guidance to achieve pre-established quality standards.
A cable connects the STB to an external source of a signal, for example but not limited to an antenna, a satellite dish or a digital cable network. The cable connects the STB to the DTV network. The quality of the signal received by the STB may not initially be good. For example, when installing an antenna or satellite dish, the electronic equipment may be faulty and/or the antenna or satellite dish may be aimed in the wrong direction. In general, a technician acting on behalf of the TV operator sets up the external source of a signal and the STB, and makes an assessment before activation.
The TV operator designs a setup and activation process, including the assessment process, as a written (text) specification which details steps to be carried out by the technician and criteria for passing the assessment. The written specification may include, but is not limited to, the technician writing down the address where the STB is installed, using tools to measure the quality of the signal and ensuring that these values match the TV operator's standards (e.g., a parameter falls in a predefined interval), asking the subscriber to sign a consent form. Moreover, the written specification may instruct the technician to make adjustments (e.g., in the installation of the antenna or cable terminals) to pass the assessment.
After the STB and external source of a signal have been set up, the standard procedure is for the technician to communicate over the telephone with another TV-operator representative (hereafter representative), this representative being online with the TV-operator's infrastructure.
Optionally, technician and representative may go over a validation procedure, if the TV operator has defined this, to make sure some conditions are met before activating the subscription. These conditions may be analogous to those defined in the above written description. The technician shares information with the representative, including, for example, subscriber ID, address, details of the setup, and also quality metrics which may include signal level and signal quality parameters (e.g., the quality of the picture and sound received). The representative may then use software or guidelines to decide if validation is passed.
If the validation is not passed, the technician interacts with the representative to diagnose the problem. If the representative is not able to guide the technician into solving the problem, the technician may escalate the problem to a supervisor. The technician and supervisor may then repeat the process of information sharing, making adjustments and measurements, and passing the answers over the phone.
Sometimes the TV setup and activation procedure, which includes the assessment (sub)-process, involves verbal confirmation (consent) from the subscriber via telephone. This makes the setup and activation process long, and involves the technician, representative and subscriber coordinating over the phone. This procedure involves a sizeable amount of time and carries likewise sizeable costs for the TV operator. Even when the representative is replaced by an interactive voice response (IVR) system, the process remains expensive and time consuming. Further, in both cases the verbal communication of parameters is prone to error, which in turn, may lead the representative to draw false conclusions, retard the installation, or make the installation go wrong. Moreover, there may be problems associated with additional billing as explained herein.
Finally, the TV operator activates the subscription at his infrastructure, at which point, the STB receives cryptographic credentials and can access the content associated to the subscription. Also, at this point, the operator may start billing for the subscription. However, in this setting, the TV operator cannot confirm that the subscriber can view any TV channel after the subscription has been activated. Even verbal confirmation from the subscriber could not be trustworthy, for example, because the subscriber did not cheek one or more problematic TV channels. Such undetected problems may prompt additional complaints from the subscriber due to incorrect billing and hence additional costs for the TV operator. Therefore, there is a need for an STB installation and setup process that provides an increased effectivity without the shortcomings of the known processes.

System and method for interactive set top box setup


A fishing line float is disclosed. The float may be mounted securely to a fixed point along the line or in a manner whereby the float may travel along the line. The float includes a buoyant body having a recess therein. A line guide head is mounted on the end of a stem extending through the recess. A plunger is movably mounted on the stem between the head and body. The plunger includes a recessed area for acceptance of the head, the plunger spring-biased against the head. The plunger and head include a slot and a grove respectively which, when aligned, form an enclosed straight-line passage through them for mounting the float in movable fashion on a fishing line. The head Includes a notch through which the line may extend before wrapping around the head between the head and plunger. A tab on the plunger extends partially into the notch to prevent the line from pulling from its locked position.

Fishing line floats or "bobbers" are buoyant, normally brightly colored elements located on a fishing line between the rod and hook. The fishing line float normally consists of a sealed hollow member or other buoyant member having an attachment for a fishing line.
The fishing line float is utilized to set the depth of the hook in the water and/or utilized as a visual indicator that a fish has hit the hook. When used as a depth controller, the fishing line float is positioned a desired distance along the line from the hook. The fishing line float floats on the surface of the water, support the remaining line and hook therebelow.
When used as a fish hit indicator the fishing line float is mounted on the line so that when a fish bites the hook, it moves the float or pulls it under the water for at least a short period of time. The bright color of the float makes it easy for a fisherman to notice the movement of the float, thereby giving him notice that a fish has hit the hook and must be snagged and reeled in.
In some instances, for example where a fisherman is fishing off of the side of a boat, the fisherman desires to fix the fishing line float at a particular point along the line. In this instance, the fishing line float must be securely attached to the line so as not to move with respect to the line.
In other instances, such as when a fisherman is fishing from the bank and must cast outward therefrom, the fisherman may desire that the fishing line float move with respect to the line. When the fishing line float is fixed, some trailer portion of the line and the hook extend beyond the float. When casting, this trailer portion of the line may become tangled with the remainder of the line and the like. It is therefore often desirable when casting to have the float positioned near the hook. On the other hand, once the line is cast, it is desirable for the line to move with respect to the float so that the hook is positioned in the water some distance below the float.
A fishing line float which a fisherman may attach securely to a line or in free fashion so as to move with respect to the line is desired.


An improved CMOS current source circuit capable of constantly generating a certain reference voltage irrespective of an analog supplying voltage, a substrate temperature, and a temperature variation, which includes a start unit for driving the CMOS current source circuit in accordance with a start signal; a bias current generating unit driven by the start unit for generating a bias current in accordance with an analog voltage, a substrate voltage, and a temperature variation; a current input unit for inputting a bias current; and a current compensation unit for receiving a bias current through the current input unit and for compensating the bias current in accordance with an analog voltage, a substrate voltage, and a temperature variation and for generating a reference current.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a CMOS current source circuit, and particularly to an improved CMOS current source circuit capable of constantly generating a certain reference voltage irrespective of an analog supplying voltage, a substrate temperature, and a temperature variation.
2. Description of the Conventional Art
Generally, in a high speed memory construction, an analog circuit such as a DLL (delay-locked loop) is adopted in order to reduce an access time of the memory. Here, DLL is subjected to a temperature T or a supplying voltage Vdd. Therefore, a current source circuit capable of constantly generating a certain reference current Iref irrespective of the above-mentioned factors is necessary.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional current source circuit, which includes PMOS transistors MP1, MP4, and MP5, PMOS transistors MP2 and MP3, and NMOS transistors MN3 and MN4, each of which is formed with a current mirror.
To begin with, an analog voltage Vdda is supplied to the current source circuit as shown in FIG. 1. In this state, a temperature T is increased, the current I1 can be obtained in accordance with the following expression, when a resistance R1 is applied to the base-emitter Vbe2. EQU I1=Vbe2/R1 formula 1
Here, the current I1 of the formula 1 is in inverse proportion to temperature because the same is decreased by -2 mV/.degree. C.
In addition, the current I2 is caused when the difference between the base-emitter voltage Vbe2 of the bipolar transistor Q2 and the base-emitter voltage Vbe1 of the bipolar transistor Q1 are applied to the resistance R2. That is, the current I2 is obtained as follows. EQU I2=(Vbe2-Vbe1)/R2=nT/R2 formula 2
where n denotes a constant irrespective of temperature.
Therefore, the current I2 is in proportion to the temperature increase, and when the NMOS transistor MN4 has the same ratio of "width(w)/length(l)" as the NMOS transistor MN3, the current I3 is the same as the current I2.
In addition, since the PMOS transistors MP1, MP4, and MP5 is formed with a current mirror, the current I3 flows through the PMOS transistor MP1. In addition, since the PMOS transistors MP2 and MP3 are formed with a current mirror, the current I1 flows through the PMOS transistor MP2.
Here, the bias current Ibias is obtained by adding the current I1 and the current I3. That is, it is obtained by the following expression. EQU Ibias=I1+I3=Vbe2/R1+nT/R2 formula 3
Therefore, when temperature T is increased, since the bias current Ibias is the sum between the current I1 which is decreased in accordance with the increase of the temperature T and the current I2 which is increased in accordance with the decrease of the temperature T, the bias current is constant.
However, since the conventional current source circuit adopts the bipolar transistor which has the emitter of the P.sup.+ diffusion layer, the base of n-well, and the collector of the P.sup.- substrate in a n-well formation process in order to generate a constant bias current Ibias, substrate currents are generated.
Therefore, this substrate currents cause variation of substrate voltage in accordance with an internal resistance component, and the substrate voltage varies the threshold voltage Vt, so that the bipolar transistor characteristics are varied, and analog devices which require a constant substrate voltage may be affected by the above-mentioned variations.


A device for aligning the optical axis of a camera is disclosed. The optical alignment device comprises a bracket attaching the device to a frame, the frame incorporating a camera system therein, the camera system having an optical axis projecting substantially horizontally from the camera system, a housing comprising a first part fixed to a first side of the bracket; and a second part comprising a prism refracting the optical axis of the camera system based on a power of the prism and a rotation of the prism with respect to the optical axis and a hinge between the first part and the second part, the hinge rotating the second part with respect to the first part.

GLASS, Google's head mounted device, represents a type of wearable technology that incorporates a digital camera into a head mounted device, such as a pair of glasses, which allows a user to perform task in a hands-free format. GLASS is a registered Trademark of Google, Inc., 160 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, Ca. The Google GLASS also has an integrated wide angle camera, which allows the wearer to take both video and images of scenes that are within the optical field of the wide angle camera. Utilizing the features of head mounted display and integrated camera, Google GLASS allows the wearer to capture events in real-time.
Generally, the optical axis of the Google GLASS is oriented substantially perpendicular to the mounting of GLASS to the frame. Such a configuration inhibits the optical axis from being independently directed. However, if the wearer is looking in a direction other than substantially perpendicular to the frame, the camera will not record what the wearer is looking at. Rather the camera will record what is substantially perpendicular to the frame. For example, if the user is looking in a downward direction in a task oriented position, e.g., cooking, writing, maintenance work, etc., the camera may or may not record what the wearer is looking at. As a result, users may not be able to orient the optical axis of the camera to intersect a user's viewing axis at a desired distance from the user.
Hence, there is a need in the industry for a method and system for orienting the optical axis of a camera system (e.g., Google GLASS camera) to intersect a user's viewing axis at a desired distance from the user.


A method for modifying a mapping from at least one application path of a data system to a conceptual path of an ontology system, wherein the application path addresses a part of the structure of the data system and the conceptual path addresses a part of the structure of the ontology system. The method includes steps of detecting a change to a part of the structure of the ontology system one or more of the conceptual paths is addressing and updating the mappings to reflect the change to the part of the structure of the ontology system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to ontology engineering. More particularly, the present invention relates to ontology evolution and maintenance of changes within ontology systems.
2. The Relevant Technology
Internet and other open connectivity environments create a strong demand for sharing the semantics of data. Ontology systems are becoming increasingly essential for nearly all computer applications. Organizations are looking towards them as vital machine-processable semantic resources for many application areas. An ontology is an agreed understanding (i.e. semantics) of a certain domain, axiomatized and represented formally as logical theory in the form of a computer-based resource. By sharing an ontology, autonomous and distributed applications can meaningfully communicate to exchange data and thus make transactions interoperate independently of their internal technologies.
Ontologies capture domain knowledge of a particular part of the real-world, e.g., knowledge about product delivery. Ontologies can be seen as a formal representation of the knowledge by a set of concepts and the relationships between those concepts within a domain. Ontologies must capture this knowledge independently of application requirements (e.g. customer product delivery application vs. deliverer product delivery application). Application-independence is the main disparity between an ontology and a classical data schema (e.g., EER, ORM, UML) although each captures knowledge at the conceptual level. For example, many researchers have confused ontologies with data schemes, knowledge bases, or even logic programs. Unlike a conceptual data schema or a "classical" knowledge base that captures semantics for a given enterprise application, the main and fundamental advantage of an ontology is that it captures domain knowledge highly independent of any particular application or task. A consensus on ontological content is the main requirement in ontology engineering, and this is what mainly distinguishes it from conceptual data modelling.
The research area of ontology engineering seems to have reached a certain level of maturity, considering the vast amount of contemporary methods and tools for formalising and applying knowledge representation models. However, there is still little understanding of, and support for, the evolutionary aspects of ontologies. This is particularly crucial in distributed and collaborative settings where ontologies naturally co-evolve with their communities of use. For managing the evolution of single ontologies, established techniques from data schema evolution have been successfully adopted, and consensus on a general ontology evolution process model seems to emerge.
Much less explored, however, is the problem of evolution of interorganisational ontologies. In this "complex" and dynamic setting, a collaborative change process model requires more powerful engineering, argumentation and negotiation methodologies, complemented by support for context dependency management. It turns out that much can be learned from other domains where formal artefacts are being collaboratively engineered. In particular, the field of system engineering offers a wealth of techniques and tools for versioning, merging and evolving software artefacts, and many of these techniques can be reused in an ontology engineering setting. The key remaining challenge is to construct a single framework, based on these mechanisms, which can be tailored for the needs of a particular version environment.
Ontologies often reuse and extend (parts of) other ontologies. Many different types of dependencies exist within and between ontological artefacts of various levels of granularity, ranging from individual concepts of definitions to full ontologies. Other dependent artefacts include instances, as well as application programs committing to the ontology. Hence, a change on request in one artefact might imply a cascade of changes in response to all its dependent artefacts. A viable method is needed to log all implications to the ontology and its dependent artefacts.
EP1970844 describes a method for metamodeling using dynamic ontology objects. So called "ontology objects", i.e. sets of software interfaces and implementations, are updated based on changes in a metamodel: when a change has been made to the metamodel, the ontology objects are updated by generating new source code. A problem herewith is that the change is made on the level of the ontology objects. There is no mapping between ontology model and metamodel. It remains difficult for a participating application to detect and apply corresponding changes to the interface between application and ontology objects.
The same problem occurs in US20071162409, where a command is received from a requestor to modify a table including domain concepts and semantic primitives related to a domain. The table is updated in response to the command. The updated table is then stored as an ontology.
In the paper "Dogma-Mess: A Meaning Evolution Support System for Interorganizational Ontology Engineering" (A. De Moor et al., Conceptual Structures: Inspiration and Application Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 4068, 1 Jan. 2006, pp. 189-202) a model for interorganisational ontology engineering is introduced. The paper is limited to describing the evolution of an ontology system based on a set of specialisations on this ontology, the latter called organisational ontologies. It does not describe evolution operators in great detail. More importantly, it does not consider applications mapped on the ontology system. In other words it does not describe how to evolve the mappings between application paths in an arbitrary data system to conceptual paths in an ontology system based on the changes applied to that ontology system. The paper mentions versioning and change operations, but does not describe this in a formal and detailed way.
"Data Modelling versus Ontology engineering" (P. Spyns et al., ACM Sigmod Record, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 12-17, 31 Dec. 2002) describes the difference between a data model and an ontology as perceived by the authors, and introduces the DOGMA ontology approach. It does not describe evolution of ontologies, nor does it describe how to evolve the mappings between application paths in an arbitrary data system to conceptual paths in an ontology system based on the changes applied to that ontology system.
In "Object Role Modelling for Ontology Engineering in the DOGMA Framework" (P.Spyns et al., On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems 2005, OTM Workshop Lecture Notes, vol. 3762, pp. 710-719, 1 Jan. 2005). This paper is limited to a description of some basic issues to be taken into account when using the ORM methodology for ontology engineering from the DOGMA ontology framework point of view. First it discusses the difference between a data model and ontology. Further it discusses natural and formal semantics. Finally, the paper discusses some basic steps to be taken when constructing ontologies. The paper does not touch upon the topics of evolution or versioning.
There is a need to maintain and apply changes to an ontology system at the level of the interface between application and ontology system. This is especially needed when multiple applications are linked to the same ontology system. Adapting for changes may otherwise be a very elaborate job.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and device for ontology evolution


A golf swing training system consists of a line having first and second ends, and a line support connected to each end of the line. A first line support positions the line closely adjacent a supporting surface, such as the floor or the ground, and a second line support positions the opposite of the line above the supporting surface. A ball is slidably mounted to the line. A golf club includes a head having a vertical slot extending upwardly from the lower surface of the head. The ball is positioned on the portion of the line adjacent the supporting surface, and a user then swings the club toward the line such that the line is received within the slot formed in the golf club head, to strike the ball and to propel the ball along the line. A spring is mounted to the line adjacent the second line support, and the ball engages the spring as it approaches the second line support to propel the ball back along the line toward the user. When the club is swung properly, the line is received within the slot formed in the golf club head, and there is little interference between the line and the golf club head. When the golf club is swung improperly, the portions of the club head adjacent the slot engage the line to set up oscillations within the line, and as a result the ball does not travel smoothly along the line, to provide immediate feedback to the user as to the quality of the swing.

This invention pertains to sporting and recreational equipment, and more particularly to a line-type apparatus and method for use in recreation and training.
Line-type recreational systems and training are known, and typically include a line extending between a pair of spaced stationary objects, and a ball or other object slidably mounted to the line. A player stands adjacent one end of the line, and the ball is propelled toward the player. The player holds a striking implement and swings the implement toward the line as the ball approaches the player, for striking the ball as it moves on the line and propelling the ball in the opposite direction on the line.
One system of this type is disclosed in Zentner U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,513. This patent discloses the line being strung between stationary objects such as upright posts or trees, and discloses the striking implement as a pronged bat or racket.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved line-type recreational and training apparatus and method for practicing and improving a person's golf swing. It is a further object of the invention to provide a golf swing training apparatus and method which is capable of closely replicating golfing conditions. Yet another object of the invention is to provide a golf swing training apparatus and method adapted to be played alone and providing rapid repeatability, and which can be played either indoors or outdoors. A still further object of the invention is to provide a means for determining the velocity of the ball as it travels on the line.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a golf swing training system includes a line defining a first end and a second end, and first and second line supports connected to the first and second ends of the line, respectively. The first and second line supports are mounted to a supporting surface, and are arranged such that a first portion of the line adjacent the first line support is located closely adjacent the supporting surface and a second portion of the line adjacent the second line support is spaced above the supporting surface. A ball is slidably mounted to the line. The system further includes a golf club defining a shaft and a head having a slot formed therein. The slot extends upwardly from a lower surface defined by the head A user stands adjacent the first portion of the line, grasps the golf club shaft, and swings the golf club toward the line such that the line is received within the slot extending upwardly from the lower surface of the golf club head. In this manner, the golf club head strikes the ball and propels the ball on the line upwardly on the second portion of the line toward the second line support.
When the golf swing training apparatus is in outdoor use, the first line support is in the form of a ground-penetrating stake for connection to the first end of the line. The second line support consists of a base and an upright member extending upwardly from the base. The base is placed on the ground and anchored thereto by use of weighted members placed on the base. For indoor use, the first line support is in the form of a suction cup assembly connected to the first end of the line and removably engageable with the floor, to support the first portion of the line adjacent the floor. An artificial turf member is removably mounted to the floor below the first portion of the line, and the ball is placed over the artificial turf member to simulate outdoor conditions. A removable connection arrangement is provided for removably mounting the artificial turf member to the floor. The second line support consists of a base and an upright member mounted to and extending upwardly from the base, and one or more suction cups mounted to the base for removably mounting the second line support to the floor.
A spring is mounted to the second end of the line, which is connected to the upright member. The spring functions to engage the ball as it travels toward the upright member, and propels the ball away from the upright member back toward the user.
The invention further contemplates a golf swing training method, substantially in accordance with the foregoing summary.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a velocity measuring device is mounted adjacent the line to measure the velocity of the ball as the ball is propelled on the line in response to striking of the ball with the golf club head. The velocity measuring device may be in the form of a tubular member defining an internal passage through which the line extends, and first and second detectors for detecting the ball as it passes on the line through the internal passage of the tubular member. A velocity determining device is responsive to the first and second detectors for determining the velocity of the ball. In one form of the invention, the velocity of the ball is converted by a distance computing device to a value representative of the distance which would have been traveled by an actual golf ball, corresponding to the measured velocity of the ball on the line. A readout of the distance which would have been traveled by an actual golf ball is provided. In another form of the invention, the velocity measuring device and the distance computing device are interconnected with a video monitor. A golf game simulating program is provided for simulating a golf game on the video monitor device. With this arrangement, a user can simulate playing a golf game.
The invention further contemplates a line game method substantially in accordance with the foregoing summary.
Various other features, objects and advantages of the invention will be made apparent from the following description taken together with the drawings.


Examples relate to apparatuses, methods and computer programs for a microscope system, more specifically, but not exclusively, to the use of two optical imaging modules to obtain image data having a first and a second field of view. The apparatus comprises an interface. The interface is suitable for obtaining first image data of a sample from a first optical imaging module. The first image data has a first field of view. The interface is suitable for obtaining second image data of the sample from a second optical imaging module. The second image data has a second field of view. The first field of view comprises the second field of view. The apparatus comprises a processing module. The processing module is configured to generate an image output signal for a display of the microscope system. In some embodiments, the processing module is configured to process the first image data to detect an abnormality outside the second field of view. In this case, information on the abnormality is overlaid over the second image data within the image output signal. Additionally or alternatively, an overview of the first image data is overlaid over the second image data within the image output signal. The processing module is configured to provide the image output signal to the display.

In general, a microscope is an optical instrument that is suitable for examining objects that are too small to be examined by the human eye (alone). For example, a microscope may provide an optical magnification of an object, such as a sample of organic tissue. Observation through the microscope eyepiece may thus provide a high magnification image of a very narrow field of view. For example, in surgical microscopes, the narrow field of view may lead to reduction of awareness over the broader surgical cavity, and the patient overall. The surgeon might be temporarily unaware of events, such as bleeding. To mitigate such situations, the surgeon may remove the eyes from the eyepiece and look with the naked eye. However, this may lead to a loss of focus, and might not be performed as often as desired.
In JP 2017 038285 A, a medical treatment observation device is shown, which uses a first and a second imaging section for imaging a first and a second visual field. Images of the first and second visual field can be shown alternatingly on the same display device, using different display devices, or using different regions of the same display device.

Apparatuses, methods, and computer programs for a microscope system for obtaining image data with two fields of view


According to one embodiment, a memory system is connectable to a host including a first volatile memory and includes a non-volatile memory and a controller. The controller may use a first area of the first volatile memory as a temporary storage memory of data stored in the non-volatile memory and controls the non-volatile memory. The controller generates a first parity by using first data stored in the non-volatile memory and a key value to store the first data and the generated first parity in the first area. In the case of reading the first data stored in the first area, the controller reads the first data and the first parity to verify the read first data using the read first parity and the key value.

In recent years, memory systems including non-volatile memories are widely used.
As one of such memory systems, a solid-state drive (SSD) including a NAND flash memory is known. SSDs are used as main storage for various computing devices.
SSDs may support a host memory buffer (HMB) function for using a part of a random-access memory (RAM) provided in a host as a temporary storage area. The area of RAM in the host, which is used as a temporary storage area, is also called HMB. Not only the RAM provided in the SSD but also the HMB is used as a temporary storage area, thereby speeding up the processing of the SSD.
An example of related art includes US-A-2016/0231803.


Image quality deterioration due to a drop in resolution or lowering of S/N ratio while reducing the amount of data stored during a 3D data acquisition process, and shortening the time from the start of an examination to the end of imaging. The method and apparatus of this invention perform, in parallel with the 3D data acquisition process, addition of sinograms, reading of subsets of the sinograms having been added, and image reconstruction. Consequently, the amount of data stored is reduced, and the time from the start of an examination to the end of imaging is shortened. At the same time, since 3D iterative reconstruction is not accompanied by conversion from 3D data to 2D data, a drop in resolution due to errors occurring with the conversion from 3D data to 2D data is avoided. The 3D iterative reconstruction can directly incorporate processes such as an attenuation correction process. It is thus possible to avoid also a lowering of S/N ratio resulting from an indirect incorporation of such processes.

(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a 3D image reconstructing method for a positron CT apparatus (hereinafter referred to as "PET apparatus" as appropriate) and to a positron CT apparatus for acquiring sinograms for each combination of ring pairs by detecting coincidence counting data of the ring pairs in each moving position, while moving a multi-ring detector having ring type detectors arranged in an axial direction and a bed having an object under examination placed thereon, relative to each other axially of the multi-ring detector, and performing 3D image reconstruction for RI distribution image reconstruction based on these sinograms. Especially, the invention relates to a technique for improving the quality of RI distribution images.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a PET apparatus that performs an image reconstruction process for RI distribution images based on sinograms acquired through 3D data acquisition moves a multi-ring detector having ring type detectors arranged in an axial direction and a bed having an object under examination placed thereon, axially of the multi-ring detector, for example, relative to each other intermittently at intervals of the ring type detectors. The apparatus detects coincidence counting data of ring pairs in each moving position to collect sinograms for each combination of ring pairs, and performs an image reconstruction process for RI distribution images based on these sinograms.
The conventional PET apparatus usually performs 3D iterative reconstruction for imaging after acquiring all sinograms through 3D data acquisition. However, the sinograms acquired through 3D data acquisition constitute an immense amount of data. Besides, 3D image reconstruction accompanied by 3D projection and back projection processes is started after completion of the sinogram acquisition. The amount of data stored is inevitably huge, and a long time is taken from the start of an examination to the end of imaging.
A different conventional PET apparatus acquires 3D data while adding sinograms to sinograms obtained in an immediately preceding position as sinograms of each ring pair acquired from the same site of the object, and reads successively sinograms having been added, in parallel with the 3D data acquisition process. After the 3D data is converted into 2D data, 2D iterative reconstruction is performed in parallel with the 3D data acquisition process (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-61113 (pages 4-8, FIGS. 1-4)).
This prior apparatus, which has been proposed by Inventor herein, performs addition and reading of sinograms and an image reconstruction process in parallel with the 3D data acquisition process. Thus, the apparatus can reduce the amount of data stored and shorten the time taken from the start of an examination to the end of imaging.
However, the above PET apparatus tends to cause image quality deterioration due to a drop in resolution and lowering of S/N ratio. Since this conventional positron apparatus converts 3D data into 2D data, it is difficult to avoid a drop in resolution due to errors occurring with the conversion from 3D data to 2D data. Further, since images are reconstructed from the 2D data, the apparatus cannot directly use 3D data physical models such as detector response, attenuation correction and statistical property in time of image reconstruction. The apparatus has limitations for improvement in the S/N ratio of reconstructed images.

3D image reconstructing method for a positron CT apparatus, and positron CT apparatus


A system and method obtain a database stored on a storage device containing information on multiple assets, the information including measurements taken from devices monitoring each asset, and context information corresponding to the environment the items are subjected to. The system and method groups assets via a computer system into a homogenous group as a function of selected context information and performs analytics via the computer system on the grouped assets to manage the assets.

Asset management is an important focus area for companies, such as large enterprises with multiple geographically distributed industrial plants and facilities. Such enterprises most typically include oil and gas field production and processing, refineries and petrochemical plants. A common type of problem in such organizations is the performance monitoring of assets, such as heat exchangers, heaters or pumps, which are usually used in quite large numbers.
The companies usually have some basic asset monitoring functions deployed as part of a general management capabilities or dedicated asset monitoring solutions. The most typical approach involves regular calculation of equipment-specific performance measures (e.g. heat transfer coefficient of a heat exchanger, or efficiency of a heater) and then monitoring of these calculated measures for all assets of the same type. This typically leads to the identification of a list of top ten "worst actors", and consequently, responding to potential problems associated with these worst performing assets in a reactive manner.
One prior method for automatically monitoring the performance of a single piece of equipment includes compiling current operating conditions associated with current performance measure conditions (PMc). A historical database including a plurality of stored operating conditions and associated stored performance measure (PM*) is searched, each stored operating condition including at least one stored sensor reading, wherein at least one similar operating condition is identified in the search using distances between the current operating conditions and the stored operating conditions. The performance measure (PM*) associated with the similar operating condition is fit to generate a regression model. The regression model is applied to the current operating condition to generate an estimate for the performance measure for the current operating condition (PMe). A difference between PMc and PMe is computed. The first difference is compared to a predetermined threshold and a warning is automatically generated if the first difference has a value greater than the predetermined threshold.

System and method for performance monitoring of a population of equipment


The present invention provides assays and kits for diagnosing idiopathic congenital central hypoventilation syndrome. The present assays and kits focus on the second polyalanine repeat of the PHOX2b gene or gene product, which is normally 20 residues in length. A polyalanine repeat 25 to 33 residues in length is strongly correlated with idiopathic congenital central hypoventilation syndrome.

Idiopathic congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS, also known as central hypoventilation syndrome, Haddad syndrome and the literary misnomer "Ondine's curse"; MIM number: 209880, date last edited Jun. 14, 2004) is an unique disorder of respiratory control [Guilleminault et al., 1982; Haddad et al., 1978; Mellins et al., 1970; Paton et al., 1989; Shannon et al., 1976; Weese-Mayer et al., 1992; Weese-Mayer et al., 1999], occurring in association with Hirschsprung disease (HSCR) [Bower et al., 1980; Commare et al., 1993; Haddad et al., 1978; Hamilton et al., 1989; Guilleminault et al., 1982; Minutillo et al., 1989; O'Dell et al., 1987; Stern et al., 1980; Verloes et al., 1993; Weese-Mayer et al., 1992], tumors of neural crest origin [Bower et al., 1980; Commare et al., 1993; Haddad et al., 1978; Swaminathan et al., 1989; Weese-Mayer et al., 1992] (neuroblastoma, ganglioneuroblastoma, ganglioneuroma), and symptoms of diffuse autonomic nervous system dysfunction (ANSD) [Weese-Mayer et al., 2001] including decreased heart rate variability [Ogawa et al., 1993; Silvestri et al., 2000; Woo et al., 1992], an attenuated heart rate response to exercise [Silvestri et al., 1995], severe constipation [Weese-Mayer et al., 1992], esophageal dysmotility/dysphagia [Faure et al., 2002], decreased perception of discomfort, pupillary abnormalities [Goldberg et al., 1996; Weese-Mayer et al., 1992], decreased perception of anxiety [Pine et al., 1994], sporadic profuse sweating, and decreased basal body temperature among others. Subsequently, symptoms of ANSD have been identified in nuclear family members of the probands with CCHS, though the relatives of the CCHS cases tend to manifest a milder spectrum of ANSD, with fewer symptoms and/or fewer systems than the cases [Weese-Mayer et al., 2001].
CCHS is thought to be genetic in origin based upon familial recurrence data, and genetic segregation analyses. Familial recurrence data include one report each of affected monozygotic female twins [Khalifa et al., 1988], sisters [Haddad et al., 1978], male-female sibs [Weese-Mayer et al., 1993], and male-female half sibs [Hamilton et al., 1989] with CCHS. More recently, a total of five women diagnosed with CCHS in their own childhoods have given birth to infants including two with definite CCHS, one with likely CCHS confounded by severe immaturity and bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and one with later onset CCHS [Silvestri et al., 2002; McQuitty personal communication; Sritippayawan et al., 2002]. A recent report of a child with CCHS born to a woman who had neuroblastoma as an infant [Devriendt et al., 2000] provides additional evidence for a transmitted genetic component in the phenotypic spectrum of ANSD and CCHS. Further, ANSD has been studied in a case-control family design, including families ascertained through a CCHS-affected child and families of matched controls. Segregation analysis of a quantitative ANSD trait in such families found that the best-fitting model for ANSD was codominant Mendelian inheritance of a major gene [Marazita et al., 2001]. These results support the prior hypothesis that CCHS is the most severe manifestation of a general ANS dysfunction. [Weese-Mayer et al., 1993].
Pursuit of the genetic basis for CCHS by molecular genetic analysis has been limited due to the rarity of the disease (likely fewer than 400 cases worldwide). To date, most studies have also been limited to the study of genes known to be related to Hirschsprung disease. Thus far, three discrete variants which alter a single amino acid in RET, a cell surface tyrosine kinase receptor, have been reported in three unrelated CCHS patients [Amiel et al., 1998; Sakai et al., 1998; 2001]. These alterations were also present in one or both parents for two cases. A mutation in glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) was reported in another patient and his unaffected mother [Amiel et al., 1998]; a mutation in endothelin-3 was reported in a fifth patient [Bolk et al., 1996]; and a mutation in brain-derived neurotrophic factor [Weese-Mayer et al., 2002] was reported in a sixth patient with symptoms of ANSD in his father. Three other reports indicate an absence of RET mutations [Bolk et al., 1996] and RNX mutations [Amiel et al., 2002; Matera et al., 2002].
Unfortunately, the success of studies that have focused on genes known to be related to Hirschsprung disease has been limited. Although, there has been a report of heterozygous expansion mutations in a polyalanine tract within PHOX2b in 18 of 29 children with CCHS in France [Amiel et al., 2003]. The expansion mutations were determined by direct sequencing of the PHOX2b gene. As is well known in the art, direct sequencing is an arduous and time intensive task.
Accordingly there remains a need for a simple, efficient assay for helping to diagnose CCHS.

Methods and primers for diagnosing idiopathic congenital central hypoventilation syndrome


An aircraft turbomachine, including a fan that is able to rotate inside a casing, and an electric machine including a rotor secured to the fan and a stator secured to the casing, wherein the rotor of the electric machine includes a ring that is able to rotate inside the stator, which is linked by arms to a cone mounted upstream from the fan.

A conventional turbojet engine intended to power a commercial aircraft is generally a double-body or triple-body turbojet engine which comprises a high-pressure body comprising a high-pressure compressor and a high-pressure turbine, a low-pressure body comprising a low-pressure compressor and a low-pressure turbine and driving the fan, and possibly an intermediate-pressure body comprising an intermediate-pressure compressor and an intermediate-pressure turbine, housed in a nacelle of the turbojet engine.
The power supplied by such a turbojet engine is generally intended to ensure the propulsion of the aircraft, but also to ensure the production of electrical current intended to ensure various on-board functions of the aircraft such as, in a non-exhaustive manner, the supply of power to the flight controls, the anti-icing of the wings, the supply of power to the cabin air-conditioning system, the supply of power to the flight controls, the anti-icing of the wings, the supply of power to the cabin air-conditioning system the cabin lighting, or the supply of power to the flight deck.
Conventionally, a turbojet engine comprises a gearbox or AGB (Accessory Gear Box) which is arranged outside the turbojet engine, which is mechanically linked by a radial secondary shaft to the high-pressure body, and which comprises a generator used to transform part of the mechanical power delivered by the turbojet engine into electrical power, and a starter for starting the turbomachine.
The current trend is to increase the proportion of on-board electrical equipment, which is considered to be more flexible in terms of use in the aircraft, for example for driving compressors intended to ensure the pressurisation of the aircraft cabin. The electrical power requirements that can be supplied by the turbojet engine are therefore increasing and can no longer be provided by conventional electric generators without leading to an overall increase in the weight of the turbojet engine and a deterioration in its overall performance.
There is therefore a real interest in electric machines that can perform additional generator functions to provide additional electrical power. Reversible electric machines perform this function of generator, but also of starter, and in this respect such machines provide an obvious weight saving.
According to an embodiment known from the international application WO-2007/036202, such an electric machine, operating in a reversible manner and therefore combining the functions of generator and starter, can be arranged inside the turbojet engine itself, and more precisely in the high-pressure body.
In this document, when the turbojet engine is started, the high-pressure body is first set in rotation, using the electric generator as an electric motor. The high-pressure compressor then supplies the combustion chamber with pressurised air, allowing combustion to take place and the high-pressure stage of the turbojet engine to start. The low-pressure turbine is then rotated by the outgoing primary airflow, driving the low-pressure body and fan. The turbojet engine is then started, and power is cut to the electric starter, which stops working as a drive motor for the high-pressure compressor.
The main advantage of the arrangement of the electric generator in the high-pressure body is that on the one hand, this generator can be used as an electric motor for starting the turbojet engine, and on the other hand it can also be used as an electric generator to supply power to the rest of the aircraft.
This electric machine replaces the previously known generator and starter in the prior art, but does not provide any significant gain in electrical power.
In addition, this arrangement has the disadvantage of presenting a poor overall efficiency of the conversion of mechanical power into electrical power. Indeed, the excess fuel consumption required to supply a given electrical power is greater when the electric generator draws power from the high-pressure body than when it draws power from the low-pressure body. In addition, the arrangement of an electric generator in the high-pressure body poses numerous problems of space and accessibility. Finally, the installation of an electric generator drawing its power from the high-pressure body may pose an operability problem for the turbojet engine, as too much mechanical power draw is likely to cause the HP compressor to surge, particularly when the engine is operating at low speed.
In addition, this design does not allow for purely electrical assistance or drive of the fan by the electric machine.
In order to overcome these disadvantages, the documents EP-2.048.329 and DE-10.2015.214255-A1 propose a turbojet engine comprising a high-pressure body and a low-pressure body driving a fan arranged in a stationary casing, and an electric generator arranged in the fan and drawing power from it, the generator comprising a rotor integrated into the fan, and a stator integrated into the fan casing. In these documents, the rotor comprises permanent magnets which are integrated into the ends of the fan vanes.
This solution provides a large space for the electric machine. The fan casing, which is attached to the nacelle, is large enough to house the windings for the generation of electrical current and electrical harnesses for the delivery of this current to a pylon supporting the turbojet engine. The installation and the maintenance of the electric generator are therefore not or only slightly disturbed by space problems.
In addition, the area of the fan, the area bounded by the fan casing and the surrounding cowls of the nacelle, is a cold area, relative to the other parts of the turbomachine, with a temperature typically below 70° C. This positioning allows some cooling constraints to be avoided.
For example, the permanent magnets of the electric machine do not require additional cooling means because the temperature within the fan never reaches the Curie temperature, above which they would lose their magnetic properties.
Similarly, as the stator windings of the electric machine are placed in the same cold area of the turbojet engine, they do not require additional cooling means such as liquid cooling systems.
They can therefore have a reduced size and mass.
Furthermore, due to the large dimension of the fan, it is possible to have a relatively high-powered electric machine, capable of simultaneously supplying power to different electrical equipment on the aircraft on which the turbojet engine is mounted.
This possibility is all the more important in view of the increasing number of on-board electrical equipment on aircraft.
Such a turbomachine enables, in particular, to avoid the pumping phenomena and therefore the problems of instability and operability of the turbojet engine at low speed, by avoiding drawing excessive power from the high-pressure body.
In this design and until now, the permanent magnets have been directly integrated into the vanes or attached in the form of studs attached to the end of the vanes.
In both of these known designs, a mass is added to the end of each vane, and as a result the vanes are subjected to a greater centrifugal force than a conventional vane. This centrifugal force can lead to radial elongation of the vanes and be incompatible with the maintaining of an adequate clearance between the vanes of the fan and its casing at all speeds.
In addition, the overall increase in mass of each vane, compared to a conventional vane, implies, as has been seen, an increase in the centrifugal forces acting on the vanes, and these vanes require a larger fan centre disc to hold them in the fan.
Finally, if such a vane is lost, the kinetic energy released by this vane is greater than that released by a conventional vane in the same case. It follows that the use of such a vane requires a more massive fan casing, capable of withstanding the ejection of such a vane without the risk of being penetrated by the latter. Such a dimensional constraint largely penalises the mass of the turbomachine.
To remedy this disadvantage, it is possible to decouple the rotor of the electric machine from the fan by proposing a turbomachine using a rotor of an electric machine separate from the fan, the arms of which carry permanent magnets at their ends, as disclosed in the document US 2014/246864-A1 and, in the hydraulic or wind energy field, in the document WO 2011/109659-A1.
This design, while solving the problem of subjecting the fan blades to increased centrifugal forces, only shifts the problem because the arms of the fan rotor are also subject to centrifugal forces and these centrifugal forces can lead to radial elongation phenomena of the arms, and be incompatible with maintaining at all rotational speeds an adequate air gap between the stator and the rotor of the electric machine.
In addition, as with the previous solution, such arms, with their high mass, require the use of a large central disc to hold them in the fan.
Finally, in the event of a breakage of such an arm followed by an ejection of this arm, the kinetic energy released by this arm is very high. It follows that the use of such an arm also requires a fan casing that is more massive than a conventional casing, capable of resisting the ejection of such an arm without the risk of being traversed by the latter, which also greatly penalises the mass of the turbomachine.

Turbomachine with electric machine comprising a rotor ring attached to the fan