A communication system is provided that includes a mechanism for selectively addressing memory banks depending upon the configuration of that system. The communication system can therefore operate in accordance with two possible modes of operation. According to a first mode, the local CPU can access one set of memory banks concurrent with an external device accessing the other set of memory banks. According to a second mode of operation, either the local CPU can access the memory banks or an external device can access the memory banks, one exclusive of the other. In one version of the second mode of operation, address signals to the memory banks can be physically connected leaving signals free to be used as general purpose input/output signals. The mechanism by which memory banks can be addressed and data transferred to and from those banks readily lends itself to communication applications to which the present system may be attributed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a memory controller which might be implemented in various ways such as, for example, in communication system architecture. The memory controller can be selectively configured to allow concurrent DMA and CPU accesses to memory or non-concurrent CPU access only.
2. Description of the Related Art
A recent trend in the modern work place is for individuals to work at remote sites and periodically connect to an office or central data site. Those individuals are often termed "telecommuters", and are defined as workers or employees who work from a remote site within their home, that site being connected to the central, corporate office. Another recent trend in the workplace is that of remote small offices or branch offices, wherein a group of workers or employees are situated in a location remote from the corporate headquarters. Those individuals are also electronically connected to the corporate office/headquarters. This movement away from the corporate or central site, and the benefit gained by avoiding a physical commute appears to be a trend which is here to stay. In all likelihood, this trend will continue given the transient nature by which most modern workers operate.
Remotely situated workers require transparent connectivity not only to the corporate office but also to the office's local area network (LAN). As corporations move away from mainframe based systems to personal computer (PC) based systems linked together by LANs, the options for remote connectivity have improved. In general, PCs and LANs facilitate remote access to the computing resources of the corporate office or corporate headquarters. Remote connectivity is also made possible with the arrival of affordable, reliable, digital telecommunications services and inexpensive network hardware. Currently, a variety of digital telecommunications services now support remote connections to enterprise networks, among these being Frame Relay Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN), asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), digital data service and T1, among others.
Recent advances allow modern communication systems to handle increasingly large amounts of data. Those communications systems are many times required to accommodate integrated services, such as voice, data and video, on a single communication medium. Data provided through a communications system can either be isochronous or real-time. The communication system is correspondingly required to maintain a desired level of throughput or data transfer in order to guarantee real-time delivery of, for example, audio and/or video.
As with computer systems, communication systems generally comprise various logic components connected by one or more system busses. Those busses provide a transfer path for control and data information between each of the various logic components. In many systems, the system bus becomes a bottleneck for the transfer of data between the various logic components. Therefore, an improved system and method is desired which provides more efficient bus utilization for increased data throughput. That throughput is highly desirable in communication systems which must transfer large amounts of data in, for example, real time.
An important aspect of throughput is control of data to and from a memory media. For example, it may be desirable to utilize a communications system having a dynamic random access memory (DRAM). It would be further desirous to transfer data to and from the memory from various bus masters, i.e., bus masters being those which obtain mastership of the system bus. For example, a modern communications system may call upon data transfer from a remote site as well as data transfer from the local PC's CPU. That data transfer occurs to and from the DRAM with rapidity. It would therefore be desirable to employ a memory controller within the communications system which can provide more efficient data transfer between the local DRAM and both the local CPU as well as a local bus master controller linked, for example, to a computer located remote from the local CPU.
Accordingly, an improvement must be made by which concurrent or non-concurrent data transfers can take place between the local DRAM and the local CPU and/or a remote computer. Those data transfers must be performed in such a way that a bottleneck on the system bus and/or DRAM interface bus is substantially avoided.

Communication system which in a first mode supports concurrent memory acceses of a partitioned memory array and in a second mode supports non-concurrent memory accesses to the entire memory array


A motor starter system comprises solid state switches for connection to an AC line for controlling application of AC power to the motor. A fault contactor has contacts. A motor wiring circuit operatively connects the solid state switches and fault contactor contacts with motor winding terminals. A voltage sensor senses AC line voltage and motor terminal voltage. A control circuit controls operation of the solid state switches and the fault contactor, including de-energizing the fault contactor in an off mode where AC line power is not supplied to the motor winding terminals. The control circuit detects AC line voltage and motor terminal voltage in the off mode and detect an error condition responsive to sensed AC line voltage being substantially different from motor terminal voltage in the off mode.

Solid state starters/controllers have found widespread use for controlling application of power to an AC induction motor. The conventional starter/controller, referred to hereinafter as simply a starter or a controller, uses solid state switches for controlling application of AC line voltage to the motor. The switches may be thyristors such as silicon controlled rectifiers (SCRs) or triacs.
One application for a motor controller is as an elevator starter. The elevator starter may be used to drive a pump for an hydraulic elevator. Each time movement of an elevator car is commanded, then the starter must start the motor until it reaches operating speed and then operate in a run mode. Such a starter may only be used for the up direction as gravity may be used for the down direction.
One type of elevator starter, referred to as a soft starter, changes the on time of the solid state switches to control voltage and to ramp up motor current with a fixed connection. The soft starter may use a fault contactor to open the path for current to flow to the motor in instances where the soft starter might fail, such as a shorted SCR condition. However, there may be instances where the fault contactor control coil is not wired properly, which could result in a condition where the fault contactor does not open in a fault condition. This could result in a damaged motor. Another condition that may cause the contactor to remain in the on state could be welded contacts in the fault contactor or in the elevator control system.
The present invention is directed to solving one or more of the problems discussed above, in a novel and simple manner.

System and method for fault contactor detection


The invention discloses a cap of spray mineral water bottle, including cap body, spray means and water locking means. This cap of spray mineral water is used with resilient mineral water bottle body to form a multifunctional spray mineral water bottle, which can ensure normal drinking of mineral water as well as carry out spray drinking of water by means of squeezing the bottle body to transform bottle body and increase the pressure inside the bottle, thus making water to enter inlet from the outlet of water locking means on the cap, and to enter the atomizing channel through the water channel, finally to be sprayed from the spray aperture. Furthermore, in the open air or in the dusty and hot environment, you can place the mineral water bottle upside down, put the nozzle to face your body or surrounding, and squeeze the bottle body to spray, thus reducing surrounding temperature, as well as subsiding dust by combining dust and spray to make you feel cool, fresh and comfortable.

The common cap of mineral water bottle includes the cap body which is screwed with the mineral water bottleneck, and the cap body is matched with mineral water bottleneck by means of liquid-tight fit. When you want to drink the mineral water in the bottle, you remove the cap and directly drink the water. This type of cap is used for sealing the mineral water inside the bottle body, and anti-fake function as well. This type of cap has simple functions so that the mineral water bottle matched with the cap has simple functions as well, which cannot satisfy the demands of daily life of people.
Presently the mineral water, which is taken outside the home, is mainly used for drinking. When it is extremely hot or when you watch football in a stadium in the summer heat, you may want to spray the mineral water directly to your face or head to reduce temperature. However, if pouring mineral water, you may waste too much water and it cannot satisfy your demands due to insufficient water. In addition, temperature reduction effect is limited by this type of method and surrounding air cannot be improved if it is dusty. Therefore the conventional cap needs to be modified and perfected.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Cap of spray mineral water bottle and multifunctional spray mineral water bottle


A computer network has a number of nodes which interact with one another via messages using a network protocol, and a node may access various network resources such a remote disk drives by the network. A disk drive is mirrored so that it may be accessed via one node when the drive is actually located at another node. This mirroring is transparent to the node which originates a disk request. A high speed communications path is provided between the node which actually has the disk resource and the node from which the disk drive is mirrored; this path is usually separate from the primary network path. On the communications path between the two nodes, a packet protocol is used which conveys a minimum but adequate amount of information needed to satisfy the requirements for disk I/O to take place between matching remote disk mirror drivers on the two nodes. The packet structure minimizes the need for creating new storage objects and saving them in implementing the mirroring functions. This packet identifies the remote drive and the function to be performed, has a field for status of a request packet, defines the length of the data field, and conveys the data, if any. The same packet is used for requests and returns. It contains values used to facilitate data flow instead of pointers and structures to queues. In a preferred embodiment, the packet is optimized for use with Windows NT structures, minimizing data copies.

This invention relates to computer networks having mirrored or phantom disk resources, and more particularly to a mechanism for allowing disk I/O to take place between matching remote disk mirror drivers on a computer network.
The Windows NT operating system is described in detail in a set of five volumes entitled xe2x80x9cMicrosoft Windows NT Resource Kitxe2x80x94for Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server Version 3.51, Technical Reference Setxe2x80x9d published by Microsoft Press, 1994. The five volumes include xe2x80x9cWindows NT Messages,xe2x80x9d Windows NT Networking Guide,xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cWindows NT Resource Guide.xe2x80x9d Reference is also made to M. Minasi et al., xe2x80x9cMastering Windows NT Server 3.51,xe2x80x9d 2nd Ed., published by Network Press, copyright by Sybex, Inc., 1996, and K. Siyan, xe2x80x9cWindows NT Serverxe2x80x94Professional Reference,xe2x80x9d New Riders Publishing, 1995. All of these publications are incorporated herein by reference. This Windows NT operating system includes facility for supporting a computer network in which resources on various nodes of a network can be accessed from any other node. For example, a disk storage resource on a first node can be accessed, as if it were local, by another node which may be far removed from the first node.
A function that is needed in some systems is that of disk mirroring or phantom disk access. Mirroring usually means that the contents of one disk are duplicated on another disk, i.e., every write to disk is mirrored on another disk, so redundancy is provided. In case of failure of one of the disks, the system can continue operating without hesitation. A degree of fault tolerance is thus provided. In the context of this application, mirroring can mean also that a disk resource physically located on a first node may be accessed transparently by another node, just as if the access was through the first node. This may also be referred to as phantom disk operation, or as xe2x80x9cclusteringxe2x80x9d of disks. In any event, a function such as mirroring or phantom disk access as described here is not facilitated by the Windows NT operating system.
It has been the practice to configure a network operating system such as Windows NT in such a manner that servers can share disk drives over a local area network. However, there is no arrangement whereby disk drives on one machine can be made to appear as if they were physically located on another machine. The disk I/O requests available in Windows NT are made up or defined by so-called Major Function Code routines, and it is these routines which must be used in any efficient and compatible functionality of disk mirroring.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide an improved method of mirroring network resources such as disk drives on a computer network.
A further object of the invention is to provide a mechanism for allowing disk drives on one machine to appear as if they were physically located on another machine, particularly in a Windows NT network environment, and using standard Windows NT Major Function Code routines.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved mechanism for disk I/O to take place between matching remote disk mirror drivers.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for accessing a remote disk through nodes on a network which mirror the disk, employing packet communication between the access node and remote node which is compatible with operating systems such as Windows NT or the like.
The above as well as additional objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed written description.
According to one embodiment of the invention, a mechanism is provided where disk I/O can take place between matching remote disk mirror drivers on a network (e.g., a LAN or local area network). A computer network has a number of nodes which interact with one another via messages using a network protocol, and a node may access various network resources such a remote disk drives as if they were local. A disk drive is mirrored so that it may be accessed via one node when the drive is actually located at another node. This mirroring is transparent to the node which originates a disk request. A high-speed communications path is provided between the node which actually has the disk resource and the node from which the disk drive is mirrored. This communications path is usually separate from the primary or xe2x80x9cpublicxe2x80x9d network path (i.e., the LAN). On the communications path between the two nodes, a packet protocol is used which conveys a minimum but adequate amount of information needed to satisfy the requirements for disk I/O to take place between matching remote disk mirror drivers on the two nodes. The packet structure minimizes the need for creating new storage objects and saving them in implementing the mirroring functions. This packet identifies the remote drive and the function to be performed, has a field for status of a request packet, defines the length of the data field, and conveys the data, if any. The same packet is used for requests and returns. It contains values used to facilitate data flow instead of pointers and structures to queues. In a preferred embodiment, the packet is optimized for use with Windows NT structures, minimizing data copies.

Local access of a remotely mirrored disk in a computer network

Compaq Information Technologies Group, L.P.


A spray pump dispenser is described with a lever operated spray actuator mechanism, the lever being contouringly formed in a cap of the mechanism. A pair of guide posts on a plunger of the pump maintain proper orientation of the plunger during downward movement through cooperation with a pair of elongated ribs on an inner side wall of the cap. The aforementioned features prevent rotation of the plunger and control the spray direction as spray exits through a window in the cap.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a lever activated spray pump dispenser, especially for cosmetic products such as antiperspirants/deodorants and haircare treatments.
2. The Related Art
Spray pumps can be fatiguing to use because of the small size of the actuator and the frictional movement of the product through the pump. In commercial pumps it is not unusual for the actuator to rotate during operation. Rotation emits spray in unintended directions.
Levered caps have been disclosed in the art as a mechanism for achieving easier depression of the pump actuator. Advantage arises from the mechanical force multiplier of the lever. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,855 (Edman et al.), describes a pump actuating lever pivotally mounted on a bottle supporting handle assembly. The assembly is removably securable about a threaded portion of the bottle. Fatigue is said to be eliminated through use of the handle assembly. A set of actuating fins on the lever engage the pump valve and maintain the pump's nozzle orientation.
EP 0 402 636 (Wella AG) discloses an aerosol can with liquid container and actuating button operated through a single-arm lever. The spray head pump is positioned inside a cap to which the lever is pivotally attached. Downward pressure on the lever actuates the spray head causing spray to exit the cap through an aligned window within the cap.
Canadian Patent Application 2,064,666 (L'Oreal) describes a still further type of lever operated spray system. The dispensing head and lever (part of a cap) are coordinated to move together to dispense product through a window in a wall of the cap. A series of grooves in the dispensing head cooperate with a set of fins projecting from an underside of the lever. When pressure is applied, the fins move downward onto the respective grooves, rotation of the head becomes restricted and spray is actuated through the window.
While the aforementioned technology has provided certain solutions to the fatigue and orientation problems, there still is a need for improved systems.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a spray pump dispenser which can be indirectly actuated with a minimum of force.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a spray pump dispenser which avoids rotation of the pump head and thereby assists in properly orienting the spray direction.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a spray pump dispenser that can provide in an improved manner cosmetic compositions to the body, especially antiperspirants/deodorants and haircare treatments.

Chesebrough-Pond's USA Co., Division of Conopco, Inc.


The invention generally relates to a method for pulmonary delivery of therapeutic, prophylactic and diagnostic agents to a patient wherein the agent is released in a sustained fashion, and to particles suitable for use in the method. In particular, the invention relates to a method for the pulmonary delivery of a therapeutic, prophylactic or diagnostic agent comprising administering to the respiratory tract of a patient in need of treatment, prophylaxis or diagnosis an effective amount of particles comprising a multivalent metal cation which is complexed with a therapeutic, prophylactic or diagnostic agent or any combination thereof having a charge capable of complexing with the cation upon association with the agent, a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier and optionally, a multivalent metal cation-containing component wherein the total amount of multivalent metal cation present in the particles is more than 1% weight/weight of the total weight of the agent (% w/w). Release of the agent from the administered particles occurs in a sustained fashion.

Pulmonary delivery of bioactive agents, for example, therapeutic, diagnostic and and prophylactic agents provides an attractive alternative to, for example, oral, transdermal and parenteral administration. That is, pulmonary administration can typically be completed without the need for medical intervention (e.g., it can be self-administered), the pain often associated with injection therapy is avoided, and the amount of enzymatic and pH mediated degradation of the bioactive agent, frequently encountered with oral therapies, can be significantly reduced. In addition, the lungs provide a large mucosal surface for drug absorption and there is no first-pass liver effect of absorbed drugs. Further, it has been shown that high bioavailability of many molecules, for example, macromolecules, can be achieved via pulmonary delivery or inhalation. Typically, the deep lung, or alveoli, is the primary target of inhaled bioactive agents, particularly for agents requiring systemic delivery.
The release kinetics or release profile of a bioactive agent into the local and/or systemic circulation is a key consideration in most therapies, including those employing pulmonary delivery. That is, many illnesses or conditions require administration of a constant or sustained levels of a bioactive agent to provide an effective therapy. Typically, this can be accomplished through a multiple dosing regimen or by employing a system that releases the medicament in a sustained fashion.
However, delivery of bioactive agents to the pulmonary system typically results in rapid release of the agent following administration. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,848 to Patton et al. describes the rapid absorption of insulin following administration of a dry powder formulation via pulmonary delivery. The peak insulin level was reached in about 30 minutes for primates and in about 20 minutes for human subjects. Further, Heinemann, Traut and Heise teach in Diabetic Medicine 14:63-72 (1997) that the onset of action, assessed by glucose infusion rate, in healthy volunteers after inhalation was rapid with the half-maximal action reached in about 30 minutes.
As such, a need exists for formulations suitable for inhalation comprising bioactive agents and wherein the bioactive agent of the formulation is released in a sustained fashion into the systemic and/or local circulation.

Particles for inhalation having sustained release properties


A system and method for facilitating collecting information pertaining to operation of a software application. An example method includes employing a first user interface display screen of the software application to present a layer indicating one or more steps to be implemented via the software application as part of a test case; and selectively recording context information associated with implementation of the one or more steps. In a more specific embodiment, selectively recording includes automatically recording the context information, which includes information characterizing one or more user interactions with the software application and information characterizing a computing environment in which the software application runs.

The present application relates to computing, and more specifically to software, User Interfaces (UIs), methods, and accompanying systems for facilitating characterizing and/or analyzing the operation of software applications, or otherwise selectively conveying information relating to the operation thereof.
Systems and methods for facilitating conveying software application behavior information are employed in various demanding applications, including Quality Assurance (QA) testing of mobile applications, software training and tutorials, software diagnostics applications, software development environments, and so on. Such applications often demand efficient mechanisms for enabling rapid and accurate testing and analysis of software application behavior and transfer of resulting descriptive information to sources that can leverage the information.
Efficient mechanisms for facilitating testing of software applications can be particularly important in mobile application testing environments, where relatively small mobile device screens can complicate switching between different applications and displays involved in conventional testing processes.
Conventionally, an administrator may define and assign test cases to quality assurance personnel (called testers). Testers may then view test cases (and associated steps) and enter test results via a different application than the one being tested. In a mobile testing environment, the tester may employ a mobile device to implement a sequence of steps for a given test case, and may employ a desktop computer to interact with a test management application, e.g., to view test cases and associated steps; to document test case results, and so on.
However, this can require testers to periodically manually update the test management application interface after or during testing a mobile application. This results in repeated context switching, where the tester must reorient themselves when switching between different displays and application windows. This can yield errors and/or omission of information relevant to the test. Furthermore, repeated context switching involving a tester periodically switching between the context of a test management User Interface (UI) display screen and a mobile application UI display screen can be costly and time consuming.
In an example scenario, a tester testing a mobile shopping application may first access a desktop test management application to view test cases involving sequences of interactions with the application, e.g., conducting a product search, selecting an item, adding the item to a cart, applying a promotion code during checkout, etc. The user then switches context to the mobile device an accompanying mobile shopping application and begins implementing steps of a particular test case.
If a problem is encountered during testing, the tester may take a screen shot of the application; view a photo library; select the photo from the photo library; attach the photo to an email; write a description of the problem in the email; email the photo to themselves; then switch context back to the desktop test management application to manually enter the description and any photo or other documentation, and then associate the documentation with the applicable test case. This can be a lengthy, convoluted, error-prone, and costly process involving use of multiple disparate systems and software applications.
Accordingly, employing such conventional systems and methods to test software applications, e.g., mobile applications, can be problematic, especially when associated costly error-prone steps are multiplied over many testers that must access many different software applications and contexts to perform tests.

Embedded test management for mobile applications


A device for forming a pattern in a sheet of material is provided. The device includes a base having a detent portion and a locating portion that provides a first position, a platform moveably coupled to the base, and a punch supported by the platform and configured to move between a reset position and a depressed position. The platform includes a detent element configured to engage the detent portion when the platform is proximate the first position and a locating element configured to provide fine location of the platform in the first position relative to the base by engaging the locating portion. The punch forms a pattern in a sheet of material when the punch moves from the reset position to the depressed position and a sheet of material is present proximate the depressed position.

The present invention relates generally to the field of devices for forming patterns in a sheet of material. The present disclosure relates more specifically to devices for forming a pattern in a sheet of material in a predetermined shape along a straight line or predetermined path at one or more regular intervals as determined by the device.
In scrapbooking and paper craft arts, hobbyists form patterns along the border of sheet materials, such as craft paper, mat for picture framing, etc. Currently, a hobbyist often uses scissors to cut or a die to punch various border patterns. Forming the pattern along the border of the sheet material typically involves repeating the cutting or punching process at regular intervals to form a repeating pattern. Conventional systems and methods require the hobbyist to realign the die and the sheet material for each punching process, which can result in misalignment with the previously formed pattern due to human error.

Device for forming a pattern in a sheet material


A method and apparatus for transporting and dispersing microstructures on a substrate by fluidic self-assembly. The apparatus has an assembly vessel that is tilted and rotated to apply uncaptured microstructures back onto the substrate as the assembly vessel rotates. The assembly vessel has ramp structures that collect the microstructures that have not been captured by the substrate at the lower edge of the assembly vessel, carry the microstructures as the assembly vessel rotates, and release the microstructures back on to the substrate at the upper edge of the assembly vessel. Vibrational energy may also be applied to the assembly vessel to assist in the dispersal and location of the microstructures on the substrate.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for assembly of device, integrated circuit, and/or passive components on a substrate to provide hybrid electronic, optoelectronic, or other types of integrated systems. For example, the present disclosure describes a method and apparatus for transporting and dispersal of microstructures by fluidic self-assembly onto a substrate wafer.
2. Description of Related Art
Increasingly complex integrated electronic and optoelectronic systems require larger numbers of integrated circuits and devices to implement increasingly complex system functions. However, to achieve cost and weight goals, it is preferred that these integrated systems be implemented with as few separate device structures as possible. One approach is to fabricate all of the integrated circuits and devices on a single wafer or portion of a wafer, which provides the structural base for the system and minimizes the interconnect distances between circuits and devices. Such fabrication may be referred to as "wafer-scale" integration.
Many complex integrated electronic and optoelectronic systems require the use of integrated circuits and devices that utilize different semiconductor technologies. One approach known in the art for wafer-scale integration of different semiconductor technologies is heteroepitaxy. The heteroepitaxy approach may limit the number of different devices and material systems that can be successfully integrated. Moreover, growth and fabrication procedures optimized for a single device technology often must be compromised to accommodate dissimilar material systems. Finally, testing of individual portions of the integrated system may be made difficult by the fabrication techniques used to accommodate dissimilar material systems on a single wafer.
Since it may be difficult to fabricate high performance systems with multiple types of devices using heteroepitaxy approaches, it may be preferable to fabricate separate arrays of devices or circuit modules and couple these separately fabricated components to a host wafer. This approach allows each individual component to have state-of-the-art performance and high yield (due to pre-testing). Each component may use proven device and circuit architectures, while optimum epitaxial growth and/or device processing sequences are employed to fabricate each component.
The separate components may be individually integrated with the host wafer using any one of several established methods for chip-level integration. These methods generally rely upon surface-mounting techniques for attaching complete die assemblies using solder bumps or wire bonding. The most advanced of these methods is the "flip-chip" technique that can support integration of a wide variety of device technologies and fully utilizes the costly, high-performance device wafer real estate. However, flip-chip is generally limited to relatively large size components, typically greater than 1 square millimeter, and is inefficient for the placement of large numbers of components due to its serial nature.
Pick-and-place assembly techniques for positioning components with sizes less than a millimeter on a substrate are known in the art. See, for example, Saitou et al., "Externally Resonated Linear Microvibromotor for Microassembly," J. Microelectromech. Syst., vol. 9, pp. 336–346, September 2000. However, these techniques are known to suffer limitations due to the surface adhesion forces based on the extremely small size of the components. Further, these techniques are also inefficient for the placement of large numbers of components, again due to the serial nature of the techniques.
At the wafer-scale level, self-assembly methods generally provide the best capability to allow integration of arbitrary configurations and densities of components. The most advanced of the self-assembly methods use a fluid medium to transport components to a host substrate or wafer for assembly. Two different fluidic self-assembly methods are known in the art, which differ in the underlying mechanism used to locate, position, and connect the components on the host substrate or wafer.
The first method of fluidic self-assembly uses gravitational forces and geometrical constraints to integrate components with a host substrate. The components are fabricated with specific shapes and complementary shaped receptacles are formed on the substrate for receiving the shaped components. The components are typically formed using semiconductor fabrication techniques and the receptacles are formed by using wet or dry etching techniques. A solvent such as water or ethanol is used to transport the individual components to the host substrate with the receptacles. The receptacles trap the components, which come to rest in predictable orientations due to their specific shapes. The driving potential is primarily gravitational in origin, but the fluid and surface forces may also play a role in the assembly process.
The second method of fluidic self-assembly utilizes chemically-based driving forces to govern the assembly process, where the attraction, positioning, orientation, and ordering of components is controlled by molecular interactions at the surfaces of the components and the host substrate. Molecular-based self-assembly techniques generally use surface coatings that consist of chemically-bonded films which are either hydrophobic or hydrophilic by nature. Thermodynamic driving forces control the assembly of complex arrays of components by minimizing the surface energies of the components and host substrate.
Both methods may be used together to provide for integration of electronic and opto-electronic devices into hybrid electronic systems. See, for example, A. Terfort, et al., "Self-Assembly of an Operating Electrical Circuit Based on Shape Complementarity and the Hydrophobic Effect," Adv. Material, 10, No. 6, 1998, pp. 470–473. See also A. Terfort, et al., "Three-dimensional Self-Assembly of Millimeter-scale Components," Nature, Vol. 386, Mar. 13, 1997, pp. 162–164.
Various apparatus and methods are known in the art for assembling microstructures onto a substrate through fluid transport. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,904,545, issued on May 18, 1999, to Smith et al. describes an apparatus used for fabricating electronic systems using fluidic self-assembly methods. A schematic of the apparatus is depicted in FIG. 1.
The Smith apparatus, as shown in FIG. 1, consists of a vessel that contains the substrate that is to receive the microstructures, a fluid medium with the microstructures therein, and a pumping system. The pumping system uses gas bubbles to circulate the fluid and microstructures throughout the system. A funnel shaped drain collects and concentrates the microstructures that have not been assembled onto the substrate, and directs them for re-circulation to a column where bubbles are injected. The bubbles push the fluid and microstructures up the return line and the fluid containing the microstructures is then re-dispersed over the substrate through the spout. Changing the gas flow into the return line controls the pump rates.
However, problems associated with assembling microstructures using the Smith apparatus are reported in the Ph.D. thesis of Mark Hadley (University of California—Berkeley, 1994). In that thesis, it is disclosed that tests were performed using large (1.2 mm×1.0 mm×0.235 mm) and small (150 micron×150 micron×35 micron) microstructures with substrates having complementary shaped receptacle holes. Assembly tests were performed with the Smith apparatus using 500 large Si blocks with a substrate having 191 receptacles. Tests were also performed with 30,000 small Si blocks with a substrate having ˜4096 receptacles. When using water as the transport fluid, bubbles were found to attach to the Si blocks causing them to float. For the larger blocks, the addition of a surfactant, which altered the surface properties of the microstructures, was found to stop the attachment of the bubbles. However, smaller microstructures could not escape the forces at the water/air interface. Assembly of small microstructures required non-aqueous media such as ethanol or methanol. The results disclosed in the Hadley thesis were based on the use of a gravity-based process that employed shape matching between the microstructure blocks and the substrate receptacles.
As briefly mentioned above, other procedures for assembling microstructures do not rely on gravity to aid the placement of the microstructures on the substrate. Some procedures employ selective surface coatings (i.e., rendering surfaces hydrophobic or hydrophilic) on the microstructures and/or the substrate to guide the placement. See, for example, Gracias, et al., "Forming Electrical Networks in Three Dimensions by Self-Assembly," Science, Vol. 289, Aug. 18, 2000, pp. 1170–1172. Other procedures employ long-range forces, such as electro-static attraction, for placement. Generally, these procedures require water as the transport medium and cannot tolerate air/water interfaces (i.e., no bubbles). These interfaces are extremely high-energy surfaces that strongly attract microstructures, which leads to clumping or trapping of the coated microstructures. This behavior decreases the efficiency of the location process.
Another procedure for assembling microstructures on a substrate involves applying the microstructures in a fluid medium through the use of a pipette. See, for example, Srinivasan, et al., "Microstructure to Substrate Self-Assembly Using Capillary Forces," J. Microelectromech. Syst., vol. 10, pp. 17–24, March 2001. Those skilled in the art will understand that this procedure does not lend itself to a manufacturing environment in which large numbers of microstructures are to be assembled on multiple substrate wafers.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art for a method and apparatus that facilitates the transport and dispersal of microstructures onto a substrate for fluidic self-assembly. There exists a further need for a method and apparatus that allows for the microstructures to be repeatedly and at least somewhat uniformly dispersed over a substrate wafer. There exists a further need for a method and apparatus that eliminates or, at least, minimizes air/fluid interfaces to avoid the attractive forces between such interfaces and small-sized microstructures. Finally, there exists a need for a method and apparatus for fluidic assembly that may support the assembly of large numbers of microstructures on multiple substrates in a manufacturing environment.


A system and a method for face recognition are disclosed. The system also includes an image capturing subsystem configured to capture one or more images of faces. The system also includes a feature extraction subsystem configured to extract one or more features from the one or more images of faces. The system also includes a feature comparison subsystem configured to compare the one or more extracted features in a local database. The system also includes a feature transmission subsystem configured to transmit the one or more images and one or more extracted features to a remote server. The feature transmission subsystem is also configured to compare the one or more transmitted features to the one or more features pre-stored in the remote server. The system also includes a feature regeneration subsystem configured to regenerate the one or more matched features in the local database from the remote server.

Many public places usually have surveillance cameras for video capturing and these cameras have their significant value for security purposes. It is widely acknowledged that the face recognition has played an important role in surveillance system. The actual advantages of face-based identification over other biometrics are uniqueness, acceptance and a touchless system. As human face is a dynamic object having a high degree of variability in its appearance, that makes face recognition a difficult problem in computer vision. Various face recognition systems are available to recognize the face of the user.
In a conventional approach, the system, which is available for face recognition, detects the face of the user by calling a cloud application programming interface (API) several times. However, such conventional approach costs a lot of money based on the cloud API call. Also, such approach incurs a network delay due to long network transmission latency. In another approach, the system uses deep learning for face recognition, where the features are extracted from the one or more images by using a deep learning technique. However, such approach suffers from lower accuracy as the edge computing resources are less powerful as compared to the cloud resources. Also, the local processing hardware system based on artificial intelligence technology is expensive.
Hence, there is a need for an improved system and a method for face recognition in order to address the aforementioned issues.


A flame simulating device includes a substantially translucent shell having a hollow interior, a plurality of colored light sources, positioned within the hollow interior of said shell and a light source driving device for selectively activating each of said plurality of light sources. Each of the light sources are alternately and individually activated to have active periods and such that the surface of said shell is illuminated to produce an animated flame effect. In one example implementation, yellow, orange and red LEDs are positioned at varying heights within the flame-shaped shell and activated on and off in a sequence that follows a set of color transition rules in order to provide a close simulation of the flickering of a flame. During their active periods, LEDs are blinked on and off to conserve power.

Conventional flame sources require lighting with matches or the like, and when lit, represent a serious fire hazard, especially when unattended as is the case in commercial settings (e.g. restaurants, stores etc.) Furthermore, real flame sources (e.g. candles) present other personal injury and collateral damage challenges (e.g. dripping wax on people and/or upholstery etc.) Finally, real flame sources are easily extinguished (e.g. by air currents etc.) and accordingly cannot be easily setup and maintained without constant monitoring.
There are a variety of flame imitation novelty products that utilize various methods to simulate a real flame for display purposes such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,454,425 and 4,550,363. Specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 6,454,425 discloses a candle flame simulating device that includes a blowing device for generating an air and for directing the air toward a flame-like flexible member, in order to blow and to oscillate or to vibrate the flame-like flexible member and to simulate a candle. U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,363 discloses an electric-light bulb fitted with a light permeable and light-scatting lamp casing. However, such attempts result in flame displays that are relatively poor imitations of a real flame. In addition, such devices require substantial energy and require frequent battery replacement.


We describe a method of expressing a recombinant protein comprising mannose-terminated N-glycans from a host cell, the method comprising: (a) introducing a nucleic acid encoding a recombinant protein into a Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell comprising a mutation in the GnT 1 gene (GenBank Accession Number AF343963) leading to loss of GnT 1 function; and (c) expressing the recombinant protein from the host cell, in which the expressed recombinant protein comprises a mannose-terminated glycan structure, and in which the method does not include a step of introducing functional GnT-1 into the host cell. The method may be used for producing recombinant glucocerebrosidase with a mannose-terminated glycan structure, suitable for treatment or prevention of Gaucher's Disease.

Gaucher's disease is an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disease which results from a deficiency in the lysosomal enzyme, glucocerebrosidase. This causes the accumulation of glucoceramide within peripheral macrophages, resulting in cellular enlargements. Gaucher's disease causes spleen, liver and bone marrow to malfunction and deteriorate.
Ceredase is the commercial name for glucocerebrosidase derived from human placenta. The intravenous infusion of Ceredase was shown to be clinically useful and has been approved for the treatment of Gaucher's disease in a study published in 1991 (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 1990, 1913-1916). In order for the enzyme to be taken up by the target cell type, the enzyme is first deglycosylated, resulting in a mannose-terminated glycan structure so that it is taken up into the macrophage via its lectin receptors. This placental derived glucocerebrosidase treatment was approved by the Federal Drug Administration in April, 1991. However, due to the anticipated demand for this new replacement enzyme therapy, ways to produce this protein through means of recombinant expression have been sought.
Cerezyme is a recombinant form of glucocerebrosidase produced in CHO cells. The expressed protein is treated with exoglucosidases to produce the mannose sugars on the terminus of the existing polysaccharide chain, leading to a selective uptake of the enzyme by macrophages that are present in liver, spleen and skeleton. The drug works as well as the naturally occurring protein does by catalyzing the hydrolysis of the glycolipid glucocerebroside to glucose and ceramide as part of the normal degradation pathway for membrane lipids. However, the method of production of Cerezyme involves extensive treatment with exoglucosidases to trim the glycan structures to terminal mannose structures. This process is difficult to control and adds to the cost of production.
Major antigen presenting cells, such as dendritic cells and macrophages, express mannose-biding C-type lectins on their surface. Recombinant glycoproteins with mannose-terminated N-glycans are capable of specifically binding to and targeting such dendritic cells and macrophages via the mannose-binding C-type lectin on macrophages. Accordingly, it is desired for recombinant proteins which are intended for use as vaccines to comprise mannose-terminated N-glycans. The same problems as described above for production of Cerezyme exist in relation to methods of production of other recombinant glycoproteins with mannose-terminated N-glycans for use, e.g., in vaccines.
There therefore exists a need in the art for a method of production of glucocerebrosidase and other recombinant glycoproteins with mannose-terminated N-glycans which avoids such post-expression processing.
One possibility is to make use of CHO cells which have mutations in the post-translational glycosylation pathway. Van Patten et al. (2007, Glycobiology, 17, 467-478) describes a study carried out to examine the use of alternative expression systems to produce Cerezyme (recombinant glucocerebrosidase) that would circumvent the need to use exoglucosidases to trim the glycan structures to terminal mannose structures. The alternative expression systems tested included non-mammalian expression systems, CHO cells cultured in kifunensine and a CHO glycosylation mutant, Lec 1.
The study showed that these different expression systems could indeed produce glucocerebrosidase containing terminal mannose residues. Glucocerebrosidase produced by Lec 1 cells was in particular found to function just as well as the commercially available Cerezyme. However, the study also identified a number of significant issues with each alternative.
With regard to use of Lec 1 cells, Van Patten et al. (2007, Glycobiology, 17, 467-478) found that both this expression system was characterised by low productivity. Given this, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to scale up expression to industrial production levels.
Furthermore, Lec 1 cells are not amenable to large scale culture. Lec 1 cells were originally isolated from a proline auxotroph for genetic studies and do not survive very well in normal large scale cell culture conditions or in chemically defined media and cultured in suspension. Furthermore, the media has to supplemented with proline and even then the cells die easily. Thus this cell line is not robust and therefore not suitable for use in the production of recombinant proteins as their expected growth characteristics and productivity is inferior to existing industrial cell lines.
There therefore exists a need in the art for a scalable method of production of glucocerebrosidase and other recombinant glycoproteins with mannose-terminated N-glycans that avoid that avoids these problems of the prior art.

Method of producing recombinant proteins with mannose-terminated N-glycans

Agency for Science, Technology and Research


Materials which have been prepared by a method which includes the steps of (1) impregnating alumina with a sulfate of at least one metal selected from the group consisting of copper, iron, cobalt, nickel, manganese, zinc and magnesium, (2) calcining the thus-obtained impregnated alumina materials, and (3) heating the calcined materials with AlCl.sub.3 and at least one chlorinated hydrocarbon (preferably CCl.sub.4) at a temperature of about 40.degree.-90.degree. C. are employed as catalysts in the isomerization of C.sub.5 -C.sub.10 cycloalkanes (preferably methylcyclopentane). A select group of the thus-prepared materials are employed as catalysts in the isomerization of C.sub.4 -C.sub.10 alkanes (preferably n-pentane and 2-methylbutane). Preferably, the catalyst preparation method also includes a step of treating the calcined impregnated alumina materials with gaseous hydrogen chloride before they are heated with AlCl.sub.3 and the chlorinated hydrocarbon(s).

In one aspect, this invention relates to the preparation of materials which are active as alkane/cycloalkane isomerization catalysts. In another aspect, this invention relates to the use of materials prepared by methods of this invention as catalysts for isomerizing cycloalkanes. In a further aspect, this invention relates to the use of materials prepared by methods of this invention as catalysts for isomerizing alkanes.
The use of combinations of aluminum chloride and certain metal sulfates and chlorides (in particular CuSO.sub.4 and CuCl.sub.2) for alkane isomerization is known and has been described in various scientific articles. The present invention is directed to the preparation of catalyst materials from aluminum chloride, certain metal sulfates and/or chlorides, and a specific inorganic support material. These novel catalyst compositions can be used as solid isomerization catalysts, e.g., in fixed catalyst bed operations for isomerizing cycloalkanes and/or alkanes.

Preparation and use of isomerization catalysts


In a network of computer systems having a group of users subscribing to a service comprising restricted channels, a user applies for an action to be performed by an automated software agent. The agent initiates a poll of a predetermined group of subscribers soliciting votes for approving the action. When the poll is complete, the votes are tallied by the agent and compared with predetermined authorization rules. If the votes pass the rules test, the action is approved and performed by a software agent. The user in one embodiment is an automated software agent.

FIG. 1 depicts the elements that make up a typical computer for use in presenting and maintaining an application. The computer 100 consists of a Base Computer 101 which comprises a processor 106, storage media such as a magnetic disk 107 and a high speed volatile main memory 105. An operating system and application programs 111 reside on the storage media 107 and are paged into main memory 105 as needed for computations performed by the processor 106. The Base computer may include optional peripheral devices including a video display 102, a printer or scanner 110, a keyboard 104, a pointing device (mouse) 103 and a connection 108 to a network 109. In a client environment, a user will interact with a (Graphical User Interface) GUI by use of a keyboard 104 and mouse 103 in conjunction with the display of information on the display 102 under control of an application program (application 1) 112. The client application program 112 will then interact with remote users by way of the network 109.
In FIG. 2 an example Internet system is shown. A user at client 1 201 uses applications on his system. This user (user 1 210) at client 1 201 can interact with clients 2-4 202-204 by way of a client server computer 206. Applications 112 may be provided by each client 201-205 and or the client server 206 or some remote server 208 by way of the network 207. The user at client 1 201 can interact with a remote user (user 5 211) at client 5 205 by way of the Internet 207.
Recently, peer to peer (P2P) interconnection has become an interesting alternative. FIG. 3 shows an example P2P network 300 wherein Peer 1 301 can communicate with other peers directly. Each peer essentially includes client and server function. Thus, Peer 1 301 acts as a client in sending messages to Peer 2 302. Peer 2 performs some function as a result of receiving the message and may return a message to peer 1. Thus, peer 2 302 acts as a server for peer 1 301. P2P grids provide networked computers that cooperate to perform distributed computing.
Within any computing environment, authorization requests are often made for actions that could be easily determined by a group vote or poll. These requests are normally made to a 'known' authorization authority, usually a 'real' person. These requests are usually made in some defined workflow process, and are not 'real-time'. Real-time is defined as any process which has an immediate request, processing and response workflow.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/207,685 "INTERACTIVE ONE TO MANY COMMUNICATION IN A COOPERATING COMMUNITY OF USERS" Filed Jul. 26, 2002 assigned to IBM and incorporated herein by reference; provide a GUI interface at a user's terminal for interacting with a Pub/Sub service. In one embodiment, a user is permitted to publish instant messages to subscribers subscribing to a channel of the pub/Sub service. A channel is essentially a topic of interest to a sub group of subscribers. A channel might be set up for "Owners of MGB motor cars" for example while another channel might be set up for "Type 1 Diabetes medications". In the prior art, each channel must be created manually. There has to be a need recognized for the new channel as well as other criteria including security, ownership and maintenance in order for a channel to be added or deleted. Once it is added it is available to be displayed at the user's GUI. Such a process is time consuming and relatively unstructured.
In certain situations, providing permission is a dynamic situation. For instance, an electronic group meeting might be convened (Chat room for instance) that requires different membership based on activity. The user not authorized to join the group might be invited the group but how might the group provide a temporary authorization since the not authorized user may be acceptable to some members but not to others. A method is needed to handle such cases.
For another example, creation of an electronic news forum is often discussed in a central discussion location, and if all (or a portion thereof) of the people involved agree on the name, then the information is passed to a third party for creation of the forum, the third party is a 'real' person with the authority to do so.
There is a need to automate and hasten this process to allow a group to come to a consensus on the name of the forum and provide the authorization prerequisites to an automated service capable of servicing the request. This service would have the security rights necessary to perform the specified request. There is an additional need to process these requests faster than is currently possible with email, web-based, or other asynchronous processes.

Real-time voting based authorization in an autonomic workflow process using an electronic messaging system

International Business Machines Corporation


An image capture apparatus is placed on a desk and an object to be captured is presented above the apparatus. An illumination device can emit light of a plurality of wavelengths, and a camera captures an image of an object to be captured using different wavelengths. By processing an image using different wavelengths, the material of the object to be captured can be obtained. The captured image is compared with a recorded image stored in the image capture apparatus and used in image determination.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for capturing an object using a plurality of wavelengths without contact.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows the difference in reflectance of light depending on the type of substance. The reflection of light depends on the specific property of a substance to which the light is applied. FIG. 1 shows an example. In FIG. 1, each portion of a substance A and a substance B is picked up to show the properties to light. The horizontal axis indicates the wavelength of light applied to a target object. The vertical axis indicates the reflectance of light when the light is applied to each substance. The substances A and B are different in reflectance property to the wavelength of light. Therefore, for example, the wavelengths of A, B, C, and D shown in FIG. 1 are selected, and the values of the reflectances are compared, thereby determining the substances A and B.
An invention for determining a substance without contact has been disclosed by the patent document 1, etc. In this technology, light having a wavelength easily absorbed by water content or light having a wavelength hardly absorbed by water content is applied from a light source, and captured by a camera, thereby determining the water content.
A conventional image capture apparatus for reading a slip, etc. without contact is disclosed by the patent documents 2, 3, etc.
FIG. 2 shows the outline of a conventional image capture apparatus.
First, a base 10 on which a document 13 to be read is set is mounted. The base 10 is provided with a column 11, a column 11 is mounted at the upper portion of the column 11. The column 11 contains a read device. An image captured by the read device is transmitted to a PC 14, etc., and a process of reading a slip, a check, etc. is performed.
[Patent Document 1]
    Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 9-61351[Patent Document 2]    Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.2002-342752[Patent Document 3]    Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No.2000-148887A conventional image capture apparatus which processes a plurality of wavelengths has the structure of fixing a target object and capturing an image of the target object. However, there is the problem that the entire apparatus is large because it requires a base, etc. in the above-mentioned structure, and is hard to operate it. Additionally, since an image is captured after setting a target object on the base, it takes a long time to capture an image, and is not suitable for use in which a quick shooting is requested.
Furthermore, since a conventional read device for reading a slip, etc. also has a structure in which a document is fixed on a base, etc. as in the case above, it also has the same problem. There is another problem with the device that it has no unit for determining whether or not a slip, etc. being read has been authenticated.


In accordance with a specific implementation of the disclosure, a stream of audio frames is received and compressed using psycho-acoustical processing. The signal-to-mask ratio table generated by the psycho-acoustical algorithm is updated using only a portion of the received audio frames.

Widespread use of digital formats has increased the use of digital audio, such as Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) audio, in the multimedia and music industry alike. One method of compressing audio is performed by analyzing audio frames of an audio stream using a psycho-acoustical model to generate a signal-to-mask ratio table that is subsequently used by a compression algorithm to allocate data bits to various frequency bands. Typically, the psycho-acoustical model is implemented in a batch (non-real time) mode. However, with the steady increase in processing capability of data processors, instant real-time updating of the signal-to-mask ratio table has also been used, whereby each frame of the audio stream is analyzed and used to update the SMR table. However, real-time applications require costly high performance processing, such as the use of specialized digital signal processors, to process the audio stream in its entirety. Regardless of the ability to process audio in real-time to implement psycho-acoustical based compression, doing so is a computationally intensive process. Therefore, a system and or method of reducing the processing bandwidth, and hence the cost, used to implement psycho-acoustical audio compression in real-time would be useful.

System and method for processing audio frames


An indoor smoker includes a cabinet including an exhaust duct, a smoking chamber, a firebox, and a bypass duct extending between the firebox and the exhaust duct. A damper is movable between a first position for closing the smoking chamber when a firebox temperature is outside a desired range and a second position for blocking the bypass duct when the firebox temperature is within the desired range. The damper thus regulates the flow of smoke such that only good smoke is directed into the smoking chamber, while bad smoke is routed directly to the exhaust duct.

Conventional smokers include a smoking chamber and a firebox positioned within or fluidly coupled to the smoking chamber. The firebox is filled with a combustible material, such as wood or wood byproducts that are ignited or otherwise heated to generate smoke and/or heat. The heat and smoke are routed into the smoking chamber to impart flavor on and cook food items positioned within the smoking chamber. One or more heating elements may be positioned within the smoking chamber and the firebox to maintain the temperatures necessary both for cooking the food and for generating the desired amount of smoke.
In conventional smokers, the firebox is fluidly coupled to the smoking chamber such that all smoke generated within the firebox is directed into the smoking chamber. Notably, the quality of smoke produced is heavily dependent on the temperature at which the wood is burned. For example, the ideal temperature for producing the best smoke flavor is between about 650° F. and 750° F. Smoke produced outside these temperatures can add acrid flavors to the smoked food.
Accordingly, a smoker that has features for improved smoke regulation would be useful. More specifically, an indoor smoker that regulates the flow of smoke such that only desired smoke is provided into the smoking chamber would be particularly beneficial.

System and method for regulating the flow of smoke in an indoor smoker


Methods and devices for generating a TFI are described. In some embodiments an extended TFI with more bits than a legacy TFI is provided and the bits of the extended TFI are added in a RLC/MAC data block or in a PAN addressing field.

So far, the traffic generated in mobile networks such as e.g. GERAN, UTMS Radio Access Network (UTRAN) has mostly been dominated by services that require human interaction, such as e.g. regular speech calls, web-surfing, sending Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), doing video-chats etc. The same traffic pattern is also anticipated for Evolved UTMS Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN). As a natural consequence, these networks are designed and optimized primarily for these "Human Type Communication" (HTC) services.
There is however an ever-increasing market segment of Machine Type Communication (MTC) services, which does not necessarily need human interaction. MTC devices support a very diverse flora of applications such as e.g. vehicle applications (automatic emergency calls, remote diagnostics and telematics, vehicle tracking etc.), gas- and power-meter applications as well as network surveillance and camera applications. The requirements these services puts on the serving network will thus without any doubt significantly differ from what is provided by today's HTC-optimized mobile networks, as outlined in Third Generation Partnership Program (3GPP) Technical Specification TS 22.368. The amount of these MTC and HTC devices could reach a total of near 50 billion in the year 2020. Thus, for mobile networks such as GERAN to be competitive for these mass market MTC applications and devices, it is important to optimize their support for machine-type communications.
At the same time the market penetration by the so called smartphones is very aggressively increasing. One typical smart phone characteristics is to issue small data transfers e.g. to keep the firewall protecting the 3GPP network opened. These short transactions consume many identifiers while requiring low bandwidth. This may easily result in "identifier depletion" as well as "under-utilization" of the actual radio resources. To overcome this problem more identifiers are needed so that a larger number of such transactions can be multiplexed on shared radio resources.
Currently for GERAN, each Temporary Block Flow (TBF) is assigned a Temporary Flow Identity (TFI) value by the network. This value is unique among concurrent TBFs in the same direction (uplink or downlink) on all Packet Data Channels (PDCHs) used for the TBF. The same TFI value may be used concurrently for other TBFs on other Packet Data Channels (PDCHs) in the same direction and for TBFs in the opposite direction. Hence a TFI is a unique identifier on a given resource (PDCH). This limits the number of concurrent TBFs and thus limits the number of devices that may share the same radio resources to the number of existing TFIs.
The existing TFI itself is a 5-bit field encoded as binary number in the range 0 to 31, which is typically provided to the Mobile Station (MS) by the GERAN network upon assignment.
An Radio Link Control/Medium Access Control (RLC/MAC) block associated with a certain TBF is thus identified by the TFI together with, in case of a RLC data block, the direction (uplink or downlink) in which the RLC data block is sent; and in case of a RLC/MAC control message, the direction in which the RLC/MAC control message is sent and the message type. In case of Starting Sequence Number (SSN)-based Fast Ack/Nack Reporting (FANR) is used, then the TFI identifying the TBF being acknowledged is included in the Piggy-backed Ack/Nack (PAN) field.
This means that e.g. every time an MS receives a downlink data or control block, it will use the included TFI field to determine if this block belongs to any (there can be more than one) of the TBFs associated with that very MS. If so, the block is obviously intended for this MS whereupon the corresponding payload is decoded and delivered to upper layers, but otherwise discarded. In the uplink direction, the behavior is the same, i.e. network uses the TFI value to identify blocks that belong to the same TBF.
It can be noted that the TFI for the RLC data block(s) and the TFI for the PAN can be addressed to different TBFs and thus different MSs.
The existing TFI addressing space can be insufficient assuming the increase of MTC and smartphone driven transactions. As the Piggy Backed Ack/Nack (PAN) field that can be included in the RLC/MAC data block can be addressed to another receiver than the actual RLC/MAC data block, the overall challenge is twofold:                increase the TFI addressing space for addressing the RLC/MAC data block receiver.        increase the TFI addressing space for addressing the PAN receiver.


A cabin for spray coating objects with powdered material has flat filter surfaces and a cleaning device that moves relative thereto. The rear face of the filter is divided into a plurality of individual cell shaped sections sealed with respect to one another. A nozzle directs air from the rear face of the filter toward the interior of the cabin to dislodge powdery material from the filter's inner surface. The nozzle moves across the field of cell shaped sections supplying compressed air to at least one of the sections at a time during the cleaning cycle.

In contrast to conventional filter-cleaning constructions which worked with mechanical means (vibration) or pressure pulses (with stationary filter and stationary nozzle), and which are unsatisfactory with regard to their degree of cleaning, and particularly in which the mechanical stress on sensitive filters, above all, is too high, filter arrangements of the above type have been developed, in which either the cleaning device, normally in the form of nozzle, is moved and the filter is stationary (U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,118) or a movement of the filter occurs, with the nozzle being stationary. The main purpose of conventional filter-cleaning devices is to clean the filter during operation in such a way that it remains operational, that is to say to regenerate it. In the event of a color change, especially when there are pronounced differences in the color shades, the filters have to be exchanged completely.
Where the nozzles are concerned, there are generally two systems, namely one in which compressed air is blown through the filter from the clean-air side, that is to say from the rear side of the filter remote from the booth interior (German Offenlegungsschrift 3,318,043), and another in which the work is carried out with suction air from the booth interior, that is to say from the "dust" side (German Patent Specification 3,023,044).
Surface filters have the advantage over cartridge filters, which allow a higher degree of separation per se as a result of their larger filter area in relation to the constructional size, in that they can be produced relatively cheaply and permit a very rapid filter exchange in the event of a color change (for example, cling fastenings in needle-felt filters), thereby affording advantages especially when medium or relatively small batch sizes of parts are to be coated. For reasons of effectiveness and, above all, also of cost, different surf ace-filter structures have become known for different intended uses, namely, inter alia, paper, fabric, mineral, metal and also plastic filters.
A fundamental problem where paper filters and sensitive fabric filters are concerned is that there must be no mechanical contact between a cleaning-off nozzle and the filter surface, because otherwise destruction would occur. Consequently, with such filters, the nozzles have to move at a distance from the filter surface. A one hundred per cent cleaning of the filter surface, as required by a color change, therefore cannot be achieved during the passage of a nozzle over it. In addition, as a rule, the mechanical supporting structure for the filter impedes the nozzle cleaning. As a result, whenever a color change, which, as indicated, can become necessary relatively often, is required in the booth, such filters also have to be exchanged. In contrast, with normal fabric filters, contact between the nozzle surface and filter surface is possible, and this, although resulting in higher efficiencies, nevertheless also leads to easier contamination of the filter as result of mechanical clogging/choking. Furthermore, mechanical abrasion causes the formation of fluff, which has to be removed from the cleaned powder material, to be reused if possible, by means of an additional operation.
In order to overcome the disadvantages of these known paper and fabric filters, particularly the need for a filter exchange at each color change, plastic filters are being used to an increasing extent. However, these can be employed, in conjunction with the nozzle systems described, only for a limited time, because, on the one hand, a nozzle guided at a distance from the filter surface does not ensure the necessary sufficient cleaning, whilst a nozzle sliding on the filter surface leads in time to the clogging and especially wear of the plastic surface. These difficulties arise to an increased degree when, for static reasons, plastic filters are designed with a surface grooved on the booth side in order to increase their strength.
Such plastic filters are generally mounted as filter packages and cleaned by means of pressure pulses. Adjacent filter parts are thereby subjected to cleaned-off powder material, and therefore controlled cleaning, such as would be necessary for a color change, is impossible.

Cabin for spray-coating objects with powdered coating material

Farb-Tec Gesellschaft fur Beschichtungskabinen Systeme mbH


The dynamic response characteristics of an electro-hydraulic (EH) physical plant is represented by a model. The model includes a series of second order transfer functions, one for each operating point, of the EH physical plant. Command pressure, overshoot, rise time, damping coefficient, natural frequency and gain parameters are determined in developing each transfer function. The model can be used to advance the time in which the design and development of a control system for the EH physical plant can begin.

Electro-hydraulic systems are used in a variety of industrial and other applications, including the automotive industry. Electro-hydraulic systems may be defined as those involving electrical signals (e.g., an electrical input command signal) and components (e.g., solenoids) that also further involve controlled hydraulic fluid paths and/or pressures. One example may be a two-stage main pressure regulating assembly that may be used in an automatic speed change transmission, where the first stage is a pressure control solenoid (PCS) providing a pilot pressure in response to an input command (i.e., electrical signal) and where the second stage includes a spool valve configured to regulate a main fluid pressure in accordance with the pilot pressure. This is only one example and those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize a wide range of other examples of electro-hydraulic systems.
In order to design a control system for operating such an electro-hydraulic physical plant, a plant dynamics model is conventionally required. However, acquiring an accurate plant dynamics model is a very time consuming and resource intensive undertaking. In certain instances, such an undertaking is simply not possible given the real-world product development timing requirements. Conventional approaches for obtaining an accurate plant dynamics model require making a prototype of the physical part or plant. This requirement can effectively serialize the control system development process, viz. first, the physical part or plant must be made and its input/output dynamics characterized, and then second, only when accurate plant dynamics are known, can the control system design begin. This leads to slower development times.
It is known in some fields of technology to begin preliminary control algorithm development work, using computer simulations, prior to actually producing a prototype and characterizing the same, as seen by reference to Wang et al., Rapid Prototyping of ACC Algorithms with Virtual Human and Plant Models, SAE 2002 World Congress, SAE 2002-01-0516 ("Rapid Prototyping"). The Rapid Prototyping article discloses an approach for developing controls for an automotive automatic climate control (ACC) system without subjecting the vehicle to environmental tunnel testing for proper calibration of the control algorithms. While use of the approach in the Rapid Prototyping article can greatly expedite development, its reach is admittedly to only preliminary control algorithm work, and in any event does not provide any direct guidance as to applicability to electro-hydraulic systems. Moreover, electro-hydraulic systems typically include a multitude of non-linearities (e.g., variance in gain), making characterization anything but straightforward.
There is therefore a need for a method for generating a model of an electro-hydraulic system that minimizes or eliminates one or more of the problems set forth above.

Method for generating an electro-hydraulic model for control design


A method for operating a convertible top of a motor vehicle. The convertible top may be a soft top which may be opened and closed in an electric or hydraulic manner using, in a non-limiting embodiment, a mobile device after the mobile device receives data relating to the monitoring of an interior space and an exterior region of the motor vehicle.

Motor vehicles, particularly high value vehicles, having convertible soft tops are actuated and closed and opened in an electric or hydraulic manner. The closing and opening process is controlled by a switch in the interior of the vehicle.
There is, however, a specific requirement to control the process of closing or opening the convertible soft top by way of a remote control so that the driver can also close the convertible soft top from a distant location, such as, for example, it begins to rain.
For this purpose, such conventional motor vehicles include construction kits that render it possible for the driver to open and to close the convertible soft top by way of a radio key or a portable remote control that is connected to the vehicle via a Bluetooth® interface. The operation both by way of a radio key and a Bluetooth® interface is operated within visible range of the vehicle, and the driver can directly observe whether a danger for third parties occurs as a result of the movement of the convertible soft top.
There is also a need to close a convertible soft top from a location that is a greater distance away, in which in this case there is always the danger that people or objects become jammed in the convertible soft top.
It is a considerable problem to provide an automatic obstruction sensor for a cabriolet. As a result of the multitude of possible parameters, an automatic monitoring system by way of sensors, be they visual or movement sensors, is nearly impossible.

Method for closing a convertible soft top


A highly integrated data structure for synthesizing a waveform is provided for facilitating integrated handling of the data. The data structure for waveform synthesis data or use in generation of a target waveform comprises, at a macro level, a macro waveform value data field for storing a waveform value data section including source waveform value data for use in the generation of the target waveform, and a macro (first) header including control data for forming a macro waveform in the target waveform using the source waveform value data included in the data field. At a micro level, the data structure according to the present invention comprises a micro waveform value data field, and a micro (second) header for generating a micro waveform in the target waveform using the waveform value data included in the micro waveform value data field.

The present invention relates to the field of waveform synthesis or signal generation, and more particularly, to a data structure for use in waveform synthesis and a method and apparatus for synthesizing a waveform using this structure.
Conventionally, in the field of video processing and the like, a variety of signal generators are known for generating a test signal. For example, a video signal reproducing apparatus disclosed in Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. 6-121279 comprises a ROM for storing only level data of a sloping portion (a transient region and a neighboring portion therearound) of synchronization signals to be generated; and a timing control circuit for generating a variety of timing signals. The video signal reproducing apparatus is configured to generate a basic waveform for a synchronization signal using the level data and one timing signal, and modify the basic waveform using other timing signals to generate other synchronization signals having several waveforms. The video signal reproducing apparatus only needs a small capacity of storage because less data is required for waveforms. However, in the configuration described above, timing data other than level data is stored in the timing control circuit separate from the ROM for storing level data, so that the level data for generating waveforms is separated from the timing control data and stored independently of the timing control data.
A high vision video signal generator circuit disclosed in Laid-open Japanese Patent Application No. 5-30377 comprises ROM1-ROM5 for storing waveforms of synchronization signals in five types of horizontal periods; and ROM 6 for storing an order in which ROM1-ROM5 are selected in order to generate a synchronization signal for one frame. Like the aforementioned video signal reproducing apparatus, the high vision video signal generator circuit separately stores waveform value data and timing control data which are separated from each other.
Further, conventionally, when synchronization signal waveform data is processed at a high data rate, a plurality of memories having a reading speed lower than the data rate, if employed, is connected in parallel to achieve a memory reading speed corresponding to the data rate. Specifically, data from a plurality of memories connected in parallel are multiplexed to generate a waveform of a synchronization signal. For this configuration, a larger number of memories is required to generate a synchronization signal at a higher data rate.

Data structure for waveform synthesis data and method and apparatus for synthesizing waveform


A method and apparatus for enhancing an image for a display, first digitizes the image to produce a map of the image, this map containing pixels having 2.sup.n grey levels where n is the number of bits per pixel. The map of the image is then downsampled to produce a downsampled map of the image. Thresholding is then performed on the downsampled map of the image to reduce the number of bits per pixel from n bits to m bits to produce a thresholded downsampled map of the image, where m is less than n. The number of bits per pixel is restored from m bits to p bits, where p is greater than m, to produce a restored thresholded downsampled map of the image. The restored thresholded downsampled map of the image can be downsampled again to produce an image map suitable for display on a low to moderate cost display, such as a CRT, with grey scale capability. The displayed image has an enhanced appearance, since it is high fidelity with respect to the original.

The quality of digitally processed images of documents depends on the nature of the original document, the digitization process (including an image processing algorithm), noise introduced between digitization and display, and the quality of the display device. One of the most effective methods for assuring good image quality is to use a high sampling density during digitization and a high resolution display device. However, the costs for data storage, data processing, data transmission, and display hardware can be prohibitive. Accordingly, efforts have been made to produce satisfactory images at lower cost.
A considerable amount of work has been devoted to determining the minimum requirements for the display of bi-level (1 bit/pixel) digitized images of text. For example, it has been found that a minimum pixel frequency of 110 pixels per inch (ppi hereinafter) was required for 97.5% legibility of standard typewritten and printed materials. A pixel frequency of 125 ppi was found to be necessary for 99% correct recognition. (Arps et al., "Character Legibility Versus Resolution in Image Processing of Printed Matter", IEEE Transactions on Man-Machine Systems, volume 10, page 66-71 (1969)).
Both the legibility and the subjective appearance of digitized images of text can be improved by increasing input and output resolution. Creating levels of grey may have the same effect under certain circumstances. Grey levels may be created from bi-level (black and white) text documents by prefiltering during the initial digitization process or by post filtering.
It has been found that digitally processed images of handwritten and machine-printed characters are more legible when the number of grey levels was increased from two (1 bit/pixel) to eight (3 bits/pixel). The effect was most pronounced when the sampling density was relatively low (i.e., 80 samples/inch). Under these conditions, the error rate for character recognition was decreased from 26% to 19%. (Lee et al., "Digital Image Quality as a Function of Sampling Density and Grey Levels", Occupational Health and Safety, Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Meeting of the Human Factors Association of Canada (pages 9.1-9.5), 1979.) Similarly, it has been shown that the subjective quality of digitized images of text could be improved by using four or more grey levels (i.e., at least 2 bits/pixel). (Warnock, "The Display of Characters Using Grey Level Sample Arrays" Computer Graphics, Siggraph '80 Conference Proceedings (pages 302-307), (1980)).
There is a need for a method and apparatus for processing and displaying digital images of text and graphics for imaging applications involving electronic displays that have moderate spatial resolution and grey scale capability so that business documents can be displayed at lower cost than with high resolution bi-level black and white monitors that are typically used.

Enhancement of digital images for electronic displays


Embodiments provided herein describe a feedback system that alters the distribution of a sound in a vehicle from a default configuration indicating to the driver that his action is dangerous or inefficient. The feedback system monitors one or more forces or accelerations such as speeding up, slowing down, changing the vehicle's direction, etc. Moreover, the feedback system may have one or more thresholds associated with these accelerations. If the measured acceleration satisfies the threshold, the feedback system alters the distribution of sound to inform the driver that his driving decisions may be dangerous or inefficient (e.g., causing excessive wear and tear on the vehicle). Furthermore, the change in the sound distribution may mimic the effect of the force or acceleration on the driver or vehicle to provide a more subtle or intuitive sonification relative to outputting a distinct audio alert.

Providing a driver with feedback typically provides a verbal or audio indication. For example, when a driver opens a car door with the headlights still on or the keys still in the ignition, many cars provide an audio alert (e.g., a series of beeps) to inform the driver that he might have forgotten to perform an action. Other systems may provide feedback to the driver when the vehicle is moving. For instance, the driver may be rapidly approaching another vehicle or be attempting to change lanes when another vehicle is located in his blind spot. Again, some systems provide an audio alert to warn the driver of the danger. The system may use sonification, which is the use of non-speech audio to convey information or perceptualize data, to provide the audio alert.
The types of audio alerts typically used, however, usually add to the driver cognitive load. That is, the driver has to process the audio alert and remember what the audio alert signifies. As such, the audio alert may be more distracting that it is helpful. For instance, the alert may cause the driver to over correct and place the driver in another dangerous situation. For some driver feedback systems, a more subtle or intuitive technique may be desired.

Spatial sonification of accelerating objects


An object of the present invention is to provide an R—Fe—B based sintered magnet that exhibits excellent corrosion resistance and maintains excellent adhesion strength to an adherend even under severe conditions, and a method for producing the same. A corrosion-resistant magnet of the present invention as a means for achieving the object is characterized by comprising a chemical conversion film containing at least Zr, V, Al, fluorine, and oxygen as constituent elements and not containing phosphorus over a surface of an R—Fe—B based sintered magnet with a film made of Al or an alloy thereof therebetween.

Nowadays, R—Fe—B based sintered magnets represented by Nd—Fe—B based sintered magnets have been used in various fields for their high magnetic characteristics. However, an R—Fe—B based sintered magnet contains a highly reactive rare-earth metal: R, and thus is susceptible to oxidization and corrosion in air. Therefore, when such a magnet is used without a surface treatment, corrosion proceeds from the surface due to the presence of small amounts of acids, alkalis, water, etc., whereby rust occurs, causing deterioration or fluctuation in the magnetic characteristics. Further, when such a rusted magnet is incorporated into a device such as a magnetic circuit, the rust may be dispersed and contaminate peripheral parts.
Various methods are known for imparting corrosion resistance to an R—Fe—B based sintered magnet. One of them is a method in which a chemical conversion film containing at least one of Ti and Zr, phosphorus, oxygen, and fluorine as constituent elements is formed over a surface of the magnet with an Al film therebetween (Patent Document 1). This method is recognized by those skilled in the art as a method that allows a magnet to be provided with excellent corrosion resistance. However, with respect to magnets to be incorporated into automotive motors which are used in an environment with wide temperature swings and may also be exposed to chlorine ions contained in an anti-freezing agent spread on the road in a cold region or to seawater near the coast, such magnets are required to have higher corrosion resistance than magnets for domestic use. For this reason, there is a demand for the development of a method for imparting corrosion resistance to a magnet, which is superior to the method of Patent Document 1. Further, when a magnet is incorporated into a part using an adhesive, the magnet is expected to maintain excellent adhesion strength to the adherend even under severe conditions.    Patent Document 1: JP-A-2000-150216

Corrosion-resistant magnet and method for producing the same