The present invention relates to sports gear and in particular to sports gear that is capable of being manufactured to achieve specific performance criteria. As an example, a baseball bat is described herein. However, other sports gear where “bat-ball” type of collision is expected is also within the scope of the present invention. The sports gear can be made of a long thin-walled structure. The wall itself has long discontinuous fibers. A three dimensional (3D) structure is therefore provided. The sports gear is designed to achieve specified performance criteria.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sports gear and in particular to sports gear that is capable of being manufactured to achieve specific performance criteria. The concepts of the present invention can be used for situations where "bat-ball" collisions are expected. For example, tennis rackets, baseball bats, hockey sticks and cricket bats may all benefit from the concepts of the present invention.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditionally, sports gear of the above-type has been made of wood and/or metal. Some composite materials have also been used. For example:
United States Published Application 20090011877 to Iwata et al. is titled Bat for Baseball or Softball. It illustrates a bat having a core member with a depression at a portion to be a ball-hitting portion, and an elastic body attached to the depression and forming the ball-hitting portion. The elastic body is formed of urethane elastomeric foam having specific gravity of at least 0.45 and at most 0.60, JIS C hardness of at least 54 and at most 82, and modulus of elasticity in 300% elongation of at least 3.85 MPa and at most 5.6 MPa.
United States Published Application 20080287228 to Giannetti is titled Single Wall Ball Bat Including E-Glass Structural Fiber. The Giannetti application shows a single-wall ball bat with a series of layers or plies of unidirectional, two-dimensional, structural fibers. The plies are optionally layered upon each other in a lamina structure in which the fibers in one ply are oriented at opposing angles to the fibers in one or more neighboring plies. Low tensile modulus, two-dimensional E-glass fibers, oriented to provide desired durability, may be used to construct a substantial portion of the barrel or other regions of the ball bat.
United States Published Application 20040198539 to Sutherland et al. is titled Polymer Composite Bat. The Sutherland application describes a bat having of an elongated cylindrical handle portion for gripping, a cylindrical barrel portion for striking and a tapered cylindrical mid-section connecting the handle portion and the barrel portion, wherein at least the barrel portion is tubular and is constructed solely of a polymer composite material with a three-dimensional fiber reinforcement architecture Also disclosed are polymer composite baseball bats where the polymer composite material includes between 85% and 100% fiberglass reinforcement fibers, and/or where the central cavity is filled with a damping material such as polymeric foam or a low-density granular material, and/or where the bats are constructed of multiple layers of intertwined tubular braid forms using a precision molding process.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,575,527 to Davis et al. is titled Composite Bat Having a Single, Hollow Primary Tube Structure. It illustrates a bat formed of a single, hollow tube of composite material, wherein tubular "ports" extend through the hollow tube. The ends of the ports are bonded to the walls of the hollow tube. The ports improve the stiffness, strength, aerodynamics and comfort of the bat. In column 4, lines 34+ it is described how the tube is made of long fiber reinforced prepreg type material.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,634,969 to Forsythe et al. is titled Method of Tuning a Bat and a Tuned Bat. It teaches a method of tuning a bat that includes estimating a ball-bat interaction time, Ti, of an impact between a ball and the bat and tuning at least one desired mode of vibration in the bat produced by the impact. The desired mode of vibration is tuned by selecting properties of the bat so that the desired mode of vibration has a period approximately equal to 4/3 Ti. When a mode of vibration is so tuned, the energy the vibration transfers to a batted ball is optimized. A tuned bat has one or more of the desired modes that is approximately equal to 4/3 Ti, giving the bat a desirable bat performance factor and a desirable level of durability. Typically, the first hoop mode of vibration is given first priority during tuning of the bat. However, other modes of vibration, such as an axial bending mode of vibration may also be tuned to have a period approximately equal to 4/3 Ti. This is particularly true in composite bats where selecting the fiber angles can yield a different modulus of elasticity, for example, in the hoop direction than in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the bat, thereby tuning a hoop mode of vibration and an axial bending mode of vibration.
While the preceding published applications and patents may describe products that work well for their intended purposes, none teach the unique aspects of the present invention.
Two dimensional ("2D") structures or laminates of fibers in thermoset polymeric matrices tend to be labor intensive and have high variability in performance. Shifts in material behavior in use can lead to difficulty in achieving a specific performance, difficulty in monitoring specifications and can be prone to tampering in an attempt to increase performance. Given the lack of performance measurements, the sports equipment made of these 2D methods tend to be quantified by feel or vibrational characteristics as opposed to more objective criteria. Further, inherent in a 2D structure is the lack of fibers oriented in a third dimension.
None of the preceding published applications or patents shows sports equipment with long discontinuous fibers in a long thin walled structure, or Long Fiber Thermoplastics (LFT).
One problem with sports equipment is termed a trampoline effect. In essence, the trampoline effect is caused by oscillations of the hollow cylindrical barrel of metal and composite bats. None of the preceding published applications or patents shows sports equipment designed to eliminate a trampoline effect. Laminated or layered bat structures often hide internal cracks that develop with time and that lead to softening and the trampoline effect. Quite often, laminated bats can initially pass the BBCOR (Ball Bat Coefficient of Restitution) test, but often flout this specification with bat use.
None of the preceding published applications or patents shows a method of making sports equipment designed to achieve selected objective performance characteristics.
A further disadvantage of using a two-dimensional hand-layup method of manufacture is the inconsistency and imprecision apparent in the manufactured product.
Bat rolling is a procedure that some can use to increase the trampoline effect of traditional thermoset/fiber laminates. This process is undesirable as it allows the user's to manipulate the bat in an unintended way.
Thus there exists a need for sports gear that solves these and other problems.

Sports gear achieving specified performance criteria and the corresponding methods of making


A barbecue grill accessory that includes an inverted V-shaped burner cover having drip channels formed along opposed side edges thereof that are each formed to channel drippings toward a first end of the burner cover. A method of using the barbecue grill accessory is also provided.

The present invention relates to barbecue grills and more particularly to a barbecue grill accessory and barbecue method wherein the barbecue accessory includes an inverted V-shaped burner cover having drip channels formed along opposed side edges thereof that are each formed to channel drippings toward a first end of the burner cover and the barbecue method includes the steps of 1) providing a barbecue grill having a food support grill and a heat source positioned beneath the food support grill; 2) positioning the the burner cover between the heat source and the food support grill of the barbecue grill; and 3) positioning items to be cooked on the food support grill, the items to be cooked dripping fluids onto the burner cover generating smoke and being channeled away from the heat source such that flame flare ups of heat source are minimized.
Many individuals do not barbecue because they are afraid they will be injured when a flame flare up occurs as the result of grease dripping from cooking food items onto the barbecue heat source, such as a gas burner or a charcoal fire. In addition, these flame flare ups can generate excessive heat which results in burning of the food items and/or generating undesirable flavors in the food. It would be a benefit to have a barbecue accessory and/or a method of barbecuing food items that would reduce or eliminate flame flare ups as described.
It is thus an object of the invention to provide a barbecue grill accessory for barbecue grill assemblies that have a heat source and a food support grill supported above the heat source at various heights by a number of groups of vertically spaced inwardly projecting tabs; the barbecue accessory including an inverted V-shaped burner cover having drip channels formed along opposed side edges thereof that are each formed to channel drippings toward a first end of the burner cover; the burner cover being sized such that the opposed side edges may be supported by the inwardly projecting tabs such that the burner cover is positioned between the heat source and the food support grill. The phrase xe2x80x9cinwardly projectingxe2x80x9d is used herein to mean away from an attached inner wall into the direction of an area over the heat source.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a barbecuing method that includes the steps of 1) providing a barbecue grill having a heat source and a food support grill supported above the heat source at various heights by a number of groups of vertically spaced inwardly projecting tabs; 2) providing a barbecue grill accessory including an inverted V-shaped burner cover having drip channels formed along opposed side edges thereof that are each formed to channel drippings toward a first end of the burner cover; the burner cover being sized such that the opposed side edges may be supported by the inwardly projecting tabs of the provided barbecue grill such that the burner cover is positionable between the heat source and the food support grill; 3) positioning the burner cover between the heat source and the food support grill of the barbecue grill; and 4) positioning items to be cooked on the food support grill, the items to be cooked dripping fluids onto the burner cover generating smoke and being channeled away from the heat source such that flame flare ups of heat source are minimized.
Accordingly, a barbecue grill accessory is provided. The a barbecue grill accessory for barbecue grill assemblies that have a heat source and a food support grill supported above the heat source at various heights by a number of groups of vertically spaced inwardly projecting tabs; the barbecue accessory including an inverted V-shaped burner cover having drip channels formed along opposed side edges thereof that are each formed to channel drippings toward a first end of the burner cover; the burner cover being sized such that the opposed side edges may be supported by the inwardly projecting tabs such that the burner cover is positioned between the heat source and the food support grill.


The present invention relates to a pulse generation circuit and drive scheme for row selection pulses in a symmetric control scheme of AC-excited thin-film electroluminescent (ACTFEL) displays. The circuit comprises a supply voltage source for feeding the circuit with the supply voltages, a circuit ground to establish the ground potential, two control inputs for controlling the pulse-generating circuit, an output for routing the row selection pulses to the display acting as the load, and an essentially symmetric circuit with respect to the circuit ground for generating the opposite-polarity row selection pulses.

The display structure to be driven is characterized by
high capacitance of the display, typically of the order of 100 pF/mm.sup.2 ; PA1 a matrix structure comprised of row and column lines, and PA1 sequential row-at-a-time writing in the selected rows, whereby the currently selected row is driven by a row selection pulse formed alternately from a positive or a negative DC voltage (Vwrp or Vwrn). Unselected rows are left floating. During the validity time of the row selection pulse, all column lines are simultaneously driven by column modulation pulses having their amplitudes in the range 0 . . . Vm according to the desired luminance level of the addressed pixel on the selected row. The write sequence is continued by selecting the next row with a row selection pulse of opposite polarity to that employed on the preceding row, and then writing all pixels in the above manner. After all rows are written, that is, a full field has been written, the next field will be written in a similar fashion starting from the first row but now using row selection pulses of opposite polarity with respect to those of the preceding field. PA1 FI patent publication 62447 (ref. no. 1) PA1 Japan Display 86, S. Harada, T. Ohba, Y. Kanatani, H. Uede (ref. no. 2) PA1 Linear and Interface Circuit Applications 1986, Texas Instruments (ref. no. 3) PA1 A Low-Power Drive Scheme for AC TFEL Displays, Marvin L. Higgins, SID 85 DIGEST (ref. no. 4) PA1 Energy Recovery Sustain Circuit for the AC Plasma Display, Larry F. Weber and Mark B. Wood, SID 87 DIGEST (ref. no. 5).
For the sake of clarity, the following description elucidates the generation sequence of drive voltages for the on/off addressing of pixels on a display. If the row selection pulse has negative polarity, a column line to drive a pixel to the "ON" state receives the modulation voltage Vm, while a column line to drive a pixel to the "OFF" state is connected to the ground potential. For the next row driven by a positive-polarity row selection pulse, the column lines to drive a pixel to the "ON" state are correspondingly connected to the ground potential and the column lines to drive a pixel to the "OFF" state are raised to the modulation voltage Vm. Thus, for a row selection pulse of positive polarity, the "ON"-state pixel is excited by the voltage Vwrp and the "OFF"-state pixel by the voltage Vwrp-Vm. For a row selection pulse of negative polarity, these excitation voltages are Vm-Vwrn and Vwrn, respectively.
The current state of the art is illustrated in the following reference publications:
The principles of symmetric drive schemes are to be found in, e.g., reference no. 1. A block diagram of the electronics circuits for a display is shown in FIG. 1.
For the symmetric drive scheme, circuits for row line pulsers are not conventionally known. It can be inferred, however, from the description and illustrations of the symmetric drive scheme disclosed in ref. no. 2 that the row pulser has here been implemented using a switch in which a series resistance is employed for limiting the voltage rate-of-rise during the rise phase of the row selection pulse. The discharging phase of the row selection pulse is evidently implemented with the help of a row driver circuit.
For the refresh drive scheme, row pulsers are generally implemented either using switches in which the voltage rate-of-rise and rate-of-fall are limited by a series resistance (ref. no. 3) or by means of constant-current switches (ref. no. 4).
When generating a pulse to a capacitive load, power consumption can be reduced by using an inductor in the pulser circuit. In circuits disclosed in the art, an inductor has been employed in the column pulser (ref. no. 4) and in the sustain pulser of a plasma display (ref. no. 5), but not in row pulsers.
Disclosed in ref. no. 4 is a resonant-type column pulser in which the inductor is connected in series with the load to be driven, complemented with four switches S1 . . . S4 and four clamp diodes. Switch S1 is employed for charging the line load via the inductor, switch S2 serves for discharging the energy of the line load, and switch S3 routes the full amplitude sustain voltage from the supply voltage to the junction of the inductor and the load as well as aids to inhibit a possible backward oscillation. Switch S4 is placed from the junction of the inductor and the load to the ground so that it can activated to inhibit further oscillation after the discharging phase and to connect all columns to the ground potential for the duration of the refresh pulse. Both ends of the inductor are connected by diodes D1 . . . D4 to the ground and the supply voltage so as to limit the oscillation between the supply voltage and the ground potential.
Disclosed in ref. no. 5 are the methods with which optimized timing of the switches can be utilized for improving the efficiency of the circuit configuration given in ref. no. 4 and simultaneously decreasing the peak value of the current pulse. In order to circumvent a complicated drive scheme of the switches, the authors of ref. no. 5 present an alternative circuit configuration which employs the commonly known characteristic of an LC circuit that the voltage over the capacitance in a series circuit of a capacitance and inductor rises to a two-fold value of the input step function amplitude. Thus, by complementing the drive circuit by a second supply voltage of half the required drive pulse amplitude and replacing switches S1 and S2 employed in the circuit of ref. no. 4 by unidirectional switches between the inductor and said extra voltage supply, the precise timing requirement of switch control signals is relaxed.
The prior-art techniques are hampered by several disadvantages.
In addition to the repetition rate of the row selection pulse, its duration is a factor that controls the luminance of the ACTFEL display. When the display matrix is large, comprising 400 pixel rows or more, the row selection pulse would become unnecessarily narrow in the drive concept according to ref. no. 2 due to the multiphase charging scheme; so the drive concept dealt with in the preambulatory part of this description and reference no. 1 is more appropriate for practical purposes. Herein, however, the use of a simple row pulser disclosed in ref. no. 2 is not possible, but instead, separate row pulser circuits must be employed for the positive and negative pulser, respectively.
Use of a resistive element for limiting the voltage rate-of-rise of the row selection pulse (ref. no. 3) is a poor solution in terms of the display luminance, because the pulse width is thereby narrowed, particularly above the luminance threshold voltage of the selected pixel. Here, as well as in the constant-current circuit of ref. no. 4, high power consumption is another disadvantage. The high power consumption results from higher line capacitance of the symmetric drive scheme with respect to that of refresh-type circuitry. The push-pull-type driver circuits required in the symmetric row drive scheme further contribute to the capacitive load by their own output capacitance.
Thus, the row pulser of the symmetric drive scheme is loaded by the combined capacitance of a single selected row and the capacitance of the row drive circuits. For instance, in a 480-row display the row line capacitance is 3.5 nF and the row driver circuits add 4.2 nF capacitance to this. Assuming a typical 180 V amplitude for the row selection pulse, power demand from the pulser without power recovery circuits would be EQU 480*(3.5 nF+4.2 nF)*180.sup.2 V.sup.2 *60 Hz=7.2 W.
Use of constant-current switches, for example, would impose a fourth of these power losses, that is, 1.8 W on a single switch, which in practice would exclude surface-mount switch component.
Implementations based on the use of a series inductance according to reference nos. 4 and 5 have two serious drawbacks.
Firstly, a functionally important drawback is that no practical circuit is devised for discharging the row line energy.
With the positive-voltage pulser there is a limitation that the row line cannot be discharged below the potential of unselected floating row lines down to ground potential without causing excessively high power losses. The reason is that, depending on the pixel data, the voltage of said floating row lines varies in the range 0 . . . Vm, and this voltage would be dumped via the upper clamp diode of push-pull-type row driver circuits, thus bringing a significant increase to power losses, because in the worst case the entire panel capacitance would act as the load for the driver.
In the negative-voltage row pulsers as well, the implementation of the discharging phase is problematic. Use of a commercially available row driver circuit assumes that the unselected row lines are taken to the LOW state of the driver circuit for the duration of the positive-voltage row selection pulse. Resultingly, the negative-voltage row selection pulse output must be allowed to float in the voltage range 0 . . . Vm during the positive-voltage row selection pulse in order to avoid undue increase in power consumption.
Another important drawback in the circuit implementations according to reference nos. 4 and 5 is their lack of protective measures for start and fault situations. When an optimized design for cost and packaging is desired, it is of primary importance that there is no need for overdimensioning the pulser switch elements for said situations.
Further handicaps on the way of developing the column driver concept disclosed in ref. no. 4 into a positive-voltage pulser circuit are set by poor efficiency as well as high peak current at the end of the charging and discharging phases of row line driving, which is detrimental to the life of the row electrode connector and limitation of EMI emissions.
An additional disadvantage hampering the applications of the sustain pulser according to ref. no. 5 is caused by its need for auxiliary supply voltages. The auxiliary voltage supplies can be replaced by mere capacitors, but this alternative dictates overdimensioning of switch elements for start situations, and in addition to the extra space consumption and cost of capacitors, brings along an abnormally steep pulse which sets stresses on the driver circuits and row electrode contacts at the start situation. Provided that these two serious drawbacks can be avoided, it is, however, possible to achieve easier integration of circuits, which in future applications may bring the nuisance of extra costs from the auxiliary power supplies to a tolerable level.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the disadvantages of the prior-art technology and to achieve a novel circuit for generation of row selection pulses and a method for generating said pulses.

Pulse generation circuit for row selection pulses and method for generating said pulses


Various apparatuses and methods are disclosed for processing texture data compressed with a first compression algorithm and texture data compressed with a second compression algorithm. A processing system may be used to determine whether the compressed texture data is compressed with the first or second compression algorithm, and process the compressed texture data using a decompression algorithm corresponding to the compression algorithm used to compress the texture date.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to graphics processors, and more particularly, to texture decompression for graphics processors.
2. Introduction
Graphics processors are commonly used to generate three dimensional (3D) graphic images for a variety of multimedia devices. These processors often include dedicated circuitry configured to process graphics data stored in memory to create 3D images in a frame buffer for presentation to a display. The 3D images created by the graphics processor generally comprise a geometric object or polygon with a texture applied to the surface. The graphics processor may also perform other functions such as translation and rotation of vertices into different coordinate systems and shading to produce the appropriate levels of light and colors within an image.
Today, there is an ever increasing demand for more textures with higher resolution to improve the aesthetics of graphic imagery. This demand has grown in step with advancements in processor technology. However, memory technology has grown at a slower rate. As a result, graphic designers are constantly challenged to provide enough memory bandwidth to exploit the full processing capabilities of modern processors.
Texture compression techniques are widely used by graphics processors to meet these challenges. Texture compression involves the storing texture data in a compressed format in memory. Decompression of the texture data is done by a processor before the texture is applied to the surface of an object. Today, there are various compression formats that are supported by graphics processors for texture compression. Block compression is one such technique. There are seven standard block compression algorithms for 3D graphics, which are referred to as BC1 through BC7. Currently, different hardware configurations are required to support different compression algorithms. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a single hardware solution capable of decompressing texture compressed with different algorithms.

Texture decompression for graphics processors


The present invention comprises a novel system for managing changes to a graph of data bearing objects. In one embodiment, an object graph manager object referred to as an editing context is used to identify changes made to data bearing enterprise objects and to notify other interested objects when changes occur. As a result, data bearing objects need not themselves contain code necessary for monitoring changes. In another embodiment of the invention, the editing context is used to provide event-based “undo” capabilities. In another embodiment of the invention, each enterprise object has a primary key that is used to maintain the identification between an enterprise object instance and a corresponding database row. In another embodiment of the invention, multiple levels of editing contexts are used to provide multiple isolated object graphs, each of which allows independent manipulation of the underlying data bearing objects.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of object oriented application programming environments, particularly for applications accessing databases.
2. Background Art
Object oriented programming languages are non-procedural programming languages in which program elements are viewed as objects that can pass messages to each other. An object includes its own data and programming code and is internally self-reliant. The programming code of an object includes procedures or methods. The methods of an object are invoked by messages received from another object. Each object is an instance of an object class. The properties of the objects in a class are defined by a class definition. A class definition may utilize a hierarchical class structure in which objects in the class inherit properties of a parent class in addition to properties explicitly defined for the class. This inheritance property allows code for object classes to be customized for reuse in different applications, facilitating the sharing of programming code between different programs.
To write an application program in an object oriented programming language, a programmer identifies the real-world objects of a problem, the data and processing requirements of those objects, and the communications needed between the objects, and encapsulates these in class definitions. This process is simplified by taking advantage of the inheritance property of object classes by basing the class definitions to the extent possible on preexisting object classes.
Objects are assembled in a modular fashion to create applications. Objects call on other objects to perform operations or procedures by sending appropriate messages. An appropriate message is a message to which the receiving object can respond. The sending object must therefore know the type of functions that a receiving object can perform and be able to generate the corresponding message that will invoke the desired operation. The sending object must also be prepared to accept and process any resulting response.
Although objects are generally internally self-reliant, and can therefore be viewed as modules that can be assembled with other objects into a variety of application programs, the simple assembling of objects does not create a functional program. The objects must also be able to properly interact and intercommunicate with each other. Although objects represent reusable code, additional code must be written to provide for the generation of appropriate outgoing messages and for processing and responding to incoming messages.
One type of application program that is commonly used in business is a database application program. A database application program is a program that manipulates data stored in a database. The database is often managed by a separate program, called a database management program, which has the ability to respond to requests to store, retrieve, search for, extract and update data in the database. In order to access data in the database, the database application program must generate appropriate database requests to the database management program.
There are many types of database structures and many kinds of database management programs. In order to be able to access a particular database, a database application program must know the structure of the database and the syntax used by the database management program. As these can vary from one database to another, a single database application program cannot generally be used with different databases. Instead, separate versions of a database application program are needed to deal with different databases and different database management programs.
Two types of database structures are flat file databases and relational databases.
A flat file database can be viewed as a single large table having a number of rows and a number of columns. Each row ("record") corresponds to a particular entity, and each column of that row ("field") corresponds to a particular attribute of that entity. For example, an employee database may contain information about employees, including name, address, social security number, salary, department, etc. Each row would correspond to a particular employee. Separate columns would correspond to name, address, social security number, salary, department, etc., respectively. One of the columns contains an entry that uniquely identifies each row. This entry is often called the "primary key". For the employee database example, the primary key might be the employee's name, the social security number, or an index number generated by the database management program. To find the salary for Jane Doe in the employee database, for example, one would look in the row corresponding to Jane Doe, and read off the salary in the salary column. In a flat file, the only data available about an entity is the information contained in the row corresponding to the entity, that is, only the information for which there is a column, or "field", in the table.
In a relational database, information in one table may be related to information in other tables. For example, a company database may include an employee name and address table that contains a row for each employee, with fields for the name and address of each employee in each row. The database may also contain a departmental table that contains a row for each department, with each row containing a department ID field as well as fields for the names of all employees in the department. The departmental table may be linked to the employee-name and address table by including a field for the department ID in the employee name and address table. This department ID, called a "foreign key", may be viewed as a pointer from the employee name and address table to the departmental table, indicating where additional related data may be found.
An example of a database application program that might use the relational database described in the preceding paragraph is an application that compiles the names and addresses of all employees of a particular department. This application might operate as follows. First, the application program requests the database management program to extract the names of all employees in the department in question from the departmental table. To do so, the application program needs to know the structure of the departmental table, and needs to formulate the request in the specific syntax of the database management program. Then, for each employee name obtained, the application program requests the corresponding address from the employee name and address table. Again, the application program must know the structure of the name and address table and needs to formulate the request, or in this case the series of requests, one for each employee name, in the correct syntax. The application program then needs to assemble the received data into a coherent form and display it to a user. The application program for even this simple function is complicated: the program must know about the structure of the tables in the database, must be able to generate a variety of database requests in the particular syntax of the database management program, must be able to process the data received, and must be able to assemble the data and display it on a user interface.
Database application program writing may be simplified by using object oriented-programming techniques. Objects can be constructed that perform input and output functions such as requesting data from a database manager program or displaying data on a user interface. An application program therefore need not be provided with code for handling these lower level functions. The application program can let appropriate objects take care of these and other requirements. Writing the application program is simplified.
Object oriented programming environments provide tools to programmers such as predefined object classes that can simplify the building of applications.
One prior art set of tools and resources for an object oriented programming environment that can be used to build database applications is Enterprise Objects Framework 1x (™), a set of tools and resources for the NEXTSTEP (™) object oriented programming environment from NeXT Computer, Inc.
The architecture and data flow of an Enterprise Objects Framework 1x application is shown in FIG. 1. In the application shown in FIG. 1, data flows from a relational database 100 to a user interface 160, and vice versa, via a number of intervening modules and levels. Each of the blocks shown in FIG. 1 constitutes a portion of the overall application program and may be made up of one or more objects.
The flow of data from the relational database 100 to user interface 160 proceeds as follows. Data in the form of rows of data from relational database 100 are retrieved from relational database 100 to an adaptor level 110, using well-known relational database access techniques. At adaptor level 110, the raw data received from relational database 100 is packaged into "dictionary objects." Dictionary objects contain key-value pairs: each key typically represents the name of a database column, and the key's value corresponds to the data for the column of the particular row that was read from relational database 300. As shown in FIG. 1, data in the form of these dictionary objects is passed from adaptor level 110 to database level 120.
Database level 120 creates "enterprise objects" from the dictionary objects. Enterprise objects are like other objects used in object oriented programming languages in that they couple data with methods for operating on that data. However, under Enterprise Objects Framework 1x , an enterprise object has certain characteristics that distinguish it from other object classes. An enterprise object has properties that map to stored data, and an instance of an enterprise object typically corresponds to a single row or record in a database. Further, an enterprise object knows how to interact with other parts of the Enterprise Object Framework to give and receive values for its properties. The ingredients that make up an enterprise object are its class definition and the data values for the row or record to which it corresponds. The enterprise object also contains pointers to other enterprise objects created from rows of related database tables. These other enterprise objects typically contain yet other pointers to other related objects. The entire set of enterprise objects used by an application program thus forms an interconnected graph of data bearing enterprise objects. This graph constitutes a particular view of the underlying database.
The enterprise objects created at database level 120 are passed from database level 120 to data source 130. Data source 130 is an object that has the ability to fetch, insert, update and delete enterprise objects. As such it is both a source and a sink for enterprise objects. Changes made by data source 130 to an enterprise object are passed down via database level 120 and adaptor level 110 to relational database 100 so that a corresponding change is made to the database for a change made to an enterprise object. The data source 130 does not know the structure of the underlying database. Those details are taken care of by adaptor level 110. Accordingly, as long as the appropriate adaptor 110 is used, the same data source 130 can be used for a variety of different databases.
Data source 130 supplies enterprise objects created at database level 120 to controller 140. As shown in FIG. 1, controller 140 transports data in the form of values from the enterprise objects to user interface 160 via association objects 150. Controller 140 coordinates the values displayed in the user interface with the corresponding enterprise object values. When enterprise objects are modified in the user interface, controller 140 tells data source 130, which is responsible for propagating changes to relational database 100.
In Enterprise Objects Framework 1x, changes to enterprise objects must be made by editing values in the user interface or by using the controller method "setValues:for Object:." Because enterprise objects typically include the business logic needed for the application, it would-be useful if enterprise objects could be worked on by an application program in the same way most objects are worked on: i.e. by sending an enterprise object an appropriate message. However, because the integrity of the underlying database must be maintained, certain procedures performed on enterprise objects, such as procedures that make changes to the data in an enterprise object, must be specially handled. For example, changes made directly by sending a message to an enterprise object in Enterprise Objects Framework 1x bypass controller 140. Accordingly, as controller 140 controls messages to the user interface 160 and the database level 120, these changes are not updated in the user interface and are not saved in the database. In order for these changes to propagate to the user interface and the database, the enterprise object itself must keep track of changes and must explicitly notify controller 140 when changes occur. This requirement requires additional code in each enterprise object, making the building of enterprise objects, and applications using enterprise objects, more complicated and time consuming than other kinds of object oriented programming.
Another limitation of EnterpriseObjects Framework 1x is that because controller 140 is tightly coupled to user interface 160, controller 140 is not usable for database server and other non-user interface applications. Accordingly, buffering and undo functions that are implemented in controller 140 in Enterprise Objects Framework 1x are not available for applications written for server platforms.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Object graph editing context and methods of use


A data reception apparatus obtains an integrated number of bits by integrating the numbers of bits of a bit string, obtains an integrated number of samples by integrating the number of samples obtained by oversampling each bit, obtains an approximated line that indicates correspondence between the integrated number of bits and the integrated number of samples, determines, based on the approximated line, a bit length of a bit string corresponding to a segment in which identical values continue in oversampling data after the integrated number of samples. Even when a receive-side clock source has a degree of clock frequency error against a transmit-side clock source, how many samples one bit of the bit string corresponds to is obtained with an accuracy higher than a period of oversampling (inverse of the number of samples).

A technology of clock data recovery (CDR) in data communications is required to provide a short lock time when the data are intermittently transmitted (when starts and stops of transmission are repeated). For example, PCI Express adopts CDR with phase interpolator, in order to realize a short lock time (refer to Nonpatent Literature 1). In the CDR with phase interpolator, a receiver generates a plurality of clocks having different phases and selects one of the clocks that has a phase closest to that of the received data. This CDR with phase interpolator has a function to select a clock but no function to adjust a clock frequency. This requires a clock frequency error (offset) to be small between a clock source of a data transmission side and a clock source of a data reception side. For instance, Nonpatent Literature 1 uses an identical clock source in both the data transmission side and the data reception side so as not to produce a clock frequency error.
Moreover, Serial ATA requires a clock source in a data transmission side to have a clock frequency error of ±350 [ppm] whereas requiring a clock source in a data reception side to have a clock frequency error similar to that of the data transmission side. Thereby, the clock frequency error can be small between the clock sources in the data transmission side and the data reception side, so that a short lock time is achieved (refer to Nonpatent Literature 2).
Furthermore, USB specifies that a synchronous pattern having a small bit length is used to lock on the premise that the clock frequency error is small enough in between the clock sources of the data transmission side and the data reception side. To be specific, the clock frequency error needs to be 0.25%, i.e., 0.0025=(0.21 [nsec]/( 1/12 [Mbps]) (refer to Nonpantent Literature 3).
Further, the transmission of video signals uses data communications that transmit data continuously. In such communications, data can be transmitted continuously once the lock is fulfilled. Thus, even if a lock time is long, CDR with phase synchronization is adopted (refer to Nonpatent Literature 4). The characteristic of CDR with phase synchronization is like that in Nonpatent Literature 4. Suppose that the phase comparison needs 500 cycles, for instance. The phase comparison requires the change points of bits while the presence probability of the change points of bits is about 50%. The lock thus needs about 1000 bits. In particular, the clock frequency error as well as the phase error arises at the time when the power is turned on. The lock further needs additional bits so that the necessary number of bits becomes 10,000 bits, for instance. This requires the lock time in CDR with phase synchronization to be shorter as much as possible. For instance, another technology is disclosed which oversamples a bit string of data and conducts signal processing with a digital circuit (refer to Nonpatent Literature 5 and Patent Literature 1).

Data reception apparatus oversampling received bits and data communication system oversampling received bits


A system and method detect symbols of a modulated signal received via a plurality of channels of a wireless communications system. A symbol transmitted via the channels is initially estimated based on the channel estimate from either pilot symbol or previously estimated symbol, and then channel estimate is updated. The next estimate of the symbol is computed by using updated channel information and maximizing the expectation of the log likelihood function. The next estimate is then quantized according to the signal constellation. The quantized estimate of the symbol is compared with the previous estimate of the symbol to determine if the previous estimate of the symbol and the quantized next estimate of the symbol have converged. Otherwise, the quantized next estimate of the symbol is made as the input for the next iteration, and the updating, optimizing, quantizing, and comparing are repeated until the estimate converges.

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a signal modulation technique in which a transmitter divides a signal, and then transmits the divided signal over several subcarriers. The subcarriers are located on a frequency axis at regular intervals. With the OFDM technique, in contrast with conventional serial communication techniques, the transmitted signal is divided into N streams, and the N stream are then transmitted in parallel over N subcarriers, each having a separate carrier frequency. The OFDM technique transmits the signal reliably and efficiently at a high data rate.
The subcarriers are made "orthogonal" by appropriately selecting the spacing of the frequencies in the frequency band. Therefore, spectral overlapping among subcarriers is allowed because the orthogonality ensures that the receiver can separate the OFDM subcarriers. With OFDM, a better spectral efficiency is achieved than by using a simple frequency division multiplexing technique. OFDM is more robust to data loss due to multipath fading when compared with a single carrier because OFDM has an increased symbol period for the same aggregate data rate.
In addition, inter-symbol interference (ISI) in OFDM transmissions can be prevented by inserting a guard interval before each transmitted block of symbols. Moreover, OFDM is robust to frequency selective fading because each sub-channel occupies a relatively narrow frequency band, where the characteristic of the channel frequency is relatively flat. Thus, OFDM is used by many communication systems, including digital audio and video broadcasting (DAB, DVB), and high-speed digital subscriber line (DSL) modems over a twisted pair of wires. OFDM can also be used in wireless local area networks (WLANs), and fixed broadband wireless communication networks.
However, it is not possible to make reliable data decisions in OFDM systems unless a good channel estimate is available. Thus, an efficient and accurate channel estimation method is necessary to coherently demodulate received data. Although differential detection could be used to detect the transmitted signals in the absence of channel information, this would result in about a 3 dB loss in SNR compared to coherent detection.
A number of channel estimation techniques are known in the prior art. In most of those, the channel estimates are continuously updated by transmitting pilot symbols using specified time-frequency lattices. One class of such pilot assisted estimation processes adopt an interpolation technique with fixed one or two-dimensional parameters to estimate the frequency domain channel impulse response (CIR). Channel estimates are obtained at lattices assigned to the pilot tones, see Jae Kyoung Moon and Song In Choi, "Performance of channel estimation methods for OFDM systems in multipath fading channels," IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, Vol. 46, No. 1, February 2000, pp. 161–170, P. Hoeher, S. Kaiser, and P. Robertson, "Two-dimensional pilot-symbol-sided channel estimation by Wiener filtering," Proceedings of 1997 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, ICASSP-97, vol. 3, pp. 1845–1848, and F. Said and A. H. Aghvami, "Linear two dimensional pilot assisted channel estimation for OFDM systems," 6th IEEE Conference on Telecommunications, 1998, pp. 32–36. Linear, spline and Gaussian filters can all be used with these methods.
Another class of methods adopt known channel statistics and channel estimates at pilot symbols to estimate the CIR in the sense of minimum mean square error (MMSE), see Ye Li, Leonard J. Cimini, Jr., and Nelson R. Sollenberger, "Robust channel estimation for OFDM systems with rapid dispersive fading channels," IEEE Transactions on Communication, Vol. 46, No. 7, July 1998, pp. 902–915, J.-J. van de Beek, O. Edfors, M. Sandell, S. K. Wilson, and P. O. Borjesson, "On channel estimation in OFDM systems," IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference, 1995, Vol. 2, pp. 815–819, and O. Edfors, M. Sandell, S. K. Wilson, J.-J. van de Beek, and P. O. Borjesson, "OFDM channel estimation by singular value decomposition," IEEE Transactions on Communications, Vol. 46 No. 7, July 1998, pp. 931–939. Shortcomings of those processes include a large error floor that may be incurred by a mismatch between the estimated and real CIRs, and difficulty in obtaining the correlation function of the channel impulse response.
Therefore, there is a need for an efficient method for estimating channels so that received symbols can be coherently detected and demodulated.

Expectation-maximization-based channel estimation and signal detection for wireless communications systems

Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.


Duration sensitive scheduling in a computing environment, the computing environment including a computer configured to support a virtual machine, including: identifying, by a duration sensitive scheduler, a processing job to be executed by the virtual machine, wherein the virtual machine includes an entitlement specification that identifies physical resources of the computer that are designated for exclusive use by the virtual machine; determining, by the duration sensitive scheduler, a duration required to complete the processing job; identifying, by the duration sensitive scheduler, a time slot at which the physical resources of the computer that are identified in the entitlement specification are available for use by the virtual machine; scheduling, by the duration sensitive scheduler, the processing job for execution on the virtual machine during the time slot at which the physical resources of the computer that are identified in the entitlement specification are available for use by the virtual machine.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods, apparatus, and products for duration sensitive scheduling in a computing environment.
2. Description of Related Art
Modern computing systems can include physical resources such as computer processors, computer memory, and so on. Modern computing systems can also include virtual resources such as virtual machines that execute on the physical resources of the computing system. Virtual machines are frequently deployed on physical servers in a manner that does not take into account the operations to be performed by the virtual machine, leading to an inefficient use of system resources.

Lenova Enterprise Solutions (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


"A vehicle and the ballistic shock isolator therefor including a turret, a sensor assembly and a shock isolator isolating the turret from the sensor switch and including upper and lower annular members, a plurality of leaves secured at opposing ends thereof to the annular members, each of the leaves having a corrugated bellows shaped portion in the form of an even number of similarly shaped portions, alternate ones of the similarly shaped portions having an open end in opposing directions, each of the leaves varying in thickness and width in a direction from the upper annular member to the lower annular member. The variation in width of the portion is alternately from wide to narrow and then from narrow to wide in a direction from the upper annular member to the lower annular member. Each of the leaves is composed of a metal having a yield strength which will not be exceeded by the maximum contemplated shock conditions and at least 150 KSI, the metal returning to its original shape after being subjected to shock. The metal is preferably 4000 series stainless steel. By use of the above described ballistic shock isolator, a tank may be subjected to a severe shock due to collision with a non-penetrating projectile with the CITV sensor assembly being capable of rapid repositioning to substantially identically return to its original position relative to the tank, thereby providing reliable boresight for use in connection with further tank deployment.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a shock isolator for isolating a device from surrounding shock in general and, more specifically, to a shock isolator for maintaining the integrity of boresight of a viewer for a tank and the like after the tank has been subjected to a severe shock by isolation of the viewer from the sources of adjacent shock waves.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
The Commander's Independent Thermal Viewer (CITV) used in a tank is required to survive the ballistic shock resulting from a non-penetrating round striking the tank turret, such survival being defined as retention of boresight after the shock as well as meeting stringent line-of-sight (LOS) jitter requirements before and after the ballistic shock. This requires that the viewer return almost identically to its original position shortly after the shock and that the isolator have a memory whereby the original position and shape thereof can be rapidly restored.
State of the art design techniques and hardware can satisfy either the survival or the boresight retention requirements or the LOS jitter requirements for a thermal viewer, however the prior art has been incapable of satisfying all three requirements simultaneously with sufficient precision whereby the equipment continues to operate under the required survival, boresight retention and LOS jitter specifications.
In the past and with past requirements, the designs of forward looking infrared (FLIR) sights have been capable of meeting their stabilization requirements in their operational vibration environments and to survive the shock levels (handling, gunfire, etc.) encountered during their usage with state of the art technology. Typically, the structurally induced LOS jitter of a thermal viewer is reduced to acceptable levels by stiffening the FLIR structure, including its mounting structure, so that the vibration environment produces little structural flexure. Depending upon the shock, devices can be protected in one of two ways.
One approach is to stiffen the device structure enough to eliminate any amplification of the shock by the structure. This approach is not feasible for CITV because the high frequency content of the ballistic shock would severely damage the sight assembly.
Another approach to protect a device from shock is to isolate it with an elastomeric or wire rope structure possessing resonant frequencies lower than the resonant frequencies of the device itself. These types of isolators typically have resonant frequencies in the 15 to 30 Hz range. Large sways are associated with shock isolated devices, however such sways are not acceptable for devices requiring precise alignment. For optical devices that require precise alignment and boresight retention, this type of isolation is unacceptable. Typically, FLIR devices involved in targeting systems are not shock mounted for this reason. However, the specifications for stabilized electro optical sights, such as CITVs, are continually being made more stringent and have now reached the point wherein the prior art techniques are presently incapable of providing the required specifications.


A sewing machine, with independently driven main shaft and loop taker, stores a table containing preset speed correction values for negating rotational speed variations in the loop taker drive shaft caused by torque variations on the same; sets speed correction amounts based on speed correction values read from the speed correction value table; and outputs correction drive signals indicative of those speed correction values to the loop taker drive motor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sewing machine for synchronously controlling a main shaft and a loop taker with separate motors.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional ordinary sewing machine mainly includes a bed portion, a column portion, an arm portion, and a head portion. In the head portion, a needle bar, a sewing needle, and a needle thread take up lever are vertically driven by a driving force of a main shaft. In the bed portion, a loop taker is driven by a lower shaft to cooperate with the sewing needle to form thread loops with a sewing thread. According to a sewing machine of an ordinary type, the lower shaft is driven also by the main shaft because the loop taker has to be moved synchronously with the sewing needle.
There has been proposed sewing machines of another type that employs a special loop taker drive motor for driving the loop taker independently from the main shaft. In this type of sewing machines, the loop taker can be moved synchronously with the main shaft. Minute-by-minute rotational states of the loop taker can be precisely controlled according to a sewing condition.
For example, Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication (Kokoku) No. SHO-60-21750 proposes a sewing machine provided with a needle drive motor for driving a sewing needle and a loop taker drive motor for driving a loop taker. The sewing machine drives the two motors synchronously with each other so that the sewing needle and the loop taker operate synchronously to each other to sew a perfect seam.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. SHO-61-15816 proposes another sewing machine that controls synchronization between the needle drive motor and the loop taker drive motor, thereby preventing skipped stitches and improving the tightness of the stitches.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publications (Kokai) Nos. HEI-3-234291 and HEI-3-234293 provide other sewing machines that maintain interlocking operations between the sewing needle and the loop taker. In each of these sewing machines, a sewing motor is provided to drive the sewing needle via the main shaft. A loop taker driving motor is provided separately and independently from the sewing motor. The loop taker driving motor is for driving the loop taker. A rotary encoder is provided to the main shaft for detecting the rotational amount of the main shaft. When the main shaft is rotated manually, the loop taker drive motor is automatically rotated exactly the amount the main shaft has been rotated. Accordingly, the interlocking relationship between the loop taker and the sewing needle is maintained.
The above-described sewing machines with independently driven main shaft and loop taker is designed so as to detect the origin of the main shaft, the rotational angle of the sewing motor, the origin of the loop taker, and the rotational angle of the loop taker drive motor. Detection signals indicative of the detected results are used to control the sewing motor and the loop taker drive motor to rotate them synchronously with each other.

Sewing machine with a speed correcting unit and an independently driven main shaft and loop taker


The invention provides compositions, formulations, and methods for treatment of malignancies via activation of an inflammatory response in the subject. Such compositions, formulations, and methods for are preferably used in conjunction with other therapies for the treatment and/or management of malignancies, e.g., chemotherapy and/or radiation. The invention also provides methods of monitoring immune activation in subjects with malignancies.

In the following discussion certain articles and methods will be described for background and introductory purposes. Nothing contained herein is to be construed as an "admission" of prior art. Applicant expressly reserves the right to demonstrate, where appropriate, that the articles and methods referenced herein do not constitute prior art under the applicable statutory provisions.
Malignant cells are normally targeted for elimination by the immune system because of molecular markers that allow the cells to be identified and eliminated by the immune surveillance system. The ability of malignant cells to generate immunosuppression is fundamental to development of advanced stages of many malignancies. In fact, evading tumor elimination from cytotoxic immune cells is essential for development of malignant tumors and subsequent metastasis. Local and systemic immunosuppression tolerates the growth and spread of lethal cancer cells.
Clinical studies suggest that chronic inflammation predisposes individuals to various types of cancers. See, e.g., Balkwill F and Mantovani A (2001) Lancet 357(9255): 539-45; Landskron G et al. (2014) J Immunol Res 2014:149185. Chronic inflammation can act locally or distantly through soluble factors including histamine, adenosine, prostanoids and interleukins (IL), which have important roles in the development of host immunosuppression by malignant cells.
Clinical management of malignancies remains an area of significant unmet clinical need. The therapies currently used for various disorders, including conventional chemotherapeutic and/or radiation therapy regimes, often are not successful due to the immunosuppression associated with the tumor. Thus, there remains a pressing need for improved and effective treatments of modulating the immune system in a subject with a malignancy to improve the clinical outcome of various combination therapies, and ways to monitor immune activity in a subject. The present invention addresses this need.

Compositions and formulations for treatment of malignancies


The present invention relates to a retrieval method for searching a first character element string obtained by subjecting a character string to character recognition for a second character element string. The first character element string includes a first character element and the second character element string includes a second character element. A distance relevant to a similarity between the first character element and the second character element is predetermined between the first character element and the second character element. The retrieval method comprises the steps of comparing the distance with a predetermined reference distance, and determining whether the second character element matches the first character element based on a result of the comparison of the distance with the predetermined reference distance.

Japanese Laid-open Publication No. 7-152774, entitled "DOCUMENT SEARCHING METHOD AND DEVICE", discloses a conventional technique which is known as a technique for searching document data, which is obtained by subjecting a document to character recognition, for data relevant to a designated character string.
FIG. 23 shows a relationship between an original document and a result of character recognition in the original document. A result of character recognition is also referred to as a recognition result. In general, character recognition is adversely affected by the faintness, angle, style, size, and the like of characters printed on paper.
FIG. 23 shows an example in which a character "" in the original document is incorrectly recognized as another character "". Further, a character "" in the original document is incorrectly recognized as another character "".
Hereinafter, a process of searching the recognition result (FIG. 23) for a character string "" will be described based on the technique described in the above Japanese Laid-open Publication No. 7-152774.
This retrieval process uses a table (Table 1) indicating misrecognized characters. The table indicating misrecognized characters is a table which lists certain characters which tend to be incorrectly recognized by character recognition. Table 1 shows that a character "" tends to be incorrectly recognized as "", "", "", or "" and that a character "□" tends to be incorrectly recognized as "□ (symbolic quadrangle)", "", "", or "".
TABLE 1Subject CharacterMisrecognized characters
When searching the recognition result of FIG. 23 for a character string "", character strings "", "", "", and "" are produced based on the character string "" using the table (Table 1) indicating misrecognized characters. In addition to the designated character string "", the character strings "", "", "", and "" are searched for. Therefore, "" for which "" has been incorrectly recognized can be retrieved.
However, in the retrieval process described in the above Japanese Laid-open Publication No. 7-152774, a list of characters which tend to be incorrectly recognized is prepared in advance. Therefore, when searching data having few errors, an excessive amount of searching may be executed using excessive character candidates. Conversely, when searching document data having many errors, misrecognized characters other than those on the list may not be retrieved.
For example, in the example shown in FIG. 23, when the recognition result is searched for a character string "", the character strings "" (symbolic quadrangle)", "", "", and "" are produced using a table (Table 1) indicating misrecognized characters. Each of the character strings are searched for. However, when an error (e.g., "" is incorrectly recognized as "" which is not listed in the table (Table 1) indicating misrecognized characters) occurs, it is not possible to retrieve "".
Further, when searching document data, which has been obtained by recognizing characters in a general document having a certain layout, for a character string, the layout might be incorrectly recognized (e.g., vertical writing is incorrectly recognized as horizontal writing or vice versa; a subsequent line to be concatenated after line feed is incorrectly recognized; the concatenation between such paragraph is incorrectly recognized; and the like). The recognition error of layouts cannot be addressed by the retrieval method described in the above Japanese Laid-open Publication No. 7-152774.
For example, a case where an original document having a layout shown in FIG. 24 is subjected to character recognition will be now discussed. In FIG. 24, the proper order of the paragraphs is an upper right paragraph, an upper left paragraph, a lower right paragraph, and a lower left paragraph. However, in the process of character recognition, the order of the paragraphs may be incorrectly recognized, so that the lower right paragraph is incorrectly concatenated with the upper right paragraph, for example.
In this case, when the recognition result is searched for a character string "", it is possible to search for individual characters using a table indicating misrecognized characters, or the like. However, when the concatenation of paragraphs is incorrect, the recognition results in " . . .  . . . " as shown in FIG. 25, for example. Therefore, the character string "" cannot be retrieved.
The present invention is provided to resolve the above-described problems. The objectives of the present invention are:
(1) to provide a retrieval method in which a search can be performed while dynamically changing a tolerance level to recognition error depending on a recognition result, and a retrieval device and a recording medium; and
(2) to provide a retrieval method in which a character string can be correctly retrieved from a recognition result even when the layout of a document is incorrectly recognized, and a retrieval device and a recording medium.

Searching method, searching device, and recorded medium

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


The present invention relates to an vitro device for the removal of ionized substances from a membrane sample without mechanical penetration, which device comprises:. (a) a positive electrode; PA1 (b) a negative electrode, and PA1 (c) electrical insulation between subpart (a) and (b), wherein the positive electrode, and the negative electrode, and electrical insulation are positioned on the same side of the membrane sample.. The present invention also relates to a device for the removal of or delivery of ionized substances to a mammal through intact skin or mucosal membrane without mechanical penetration, which device comprises: (a) a positive electrode, (b) a negative electrode, and (c) an electrically insulating material between subpart (a) and (b), wherein the positive electrode, negative electrode and insulating material are physically positioned so that each present a common surface of the device for contact with the same surface of the skin or mucosal membrane of the mammal.. The present invention also relates to the use of iontophoresis to determine the level of a charged molecule in a living mammal, and with the use of a feedback mechanism, administer appropriate levels of therapeutic substances.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device and to an in vitro method for modeling the iontophoretic sampling or delivery of substances through a membrane, such as the excised skin of a mammal. In another aspect, the present invention relates to a device and to a method for the iontophoretic delivery or sampling of substances through the intact skin of a living mammal. Specifically, the apparatus is a device which placed on the same side of intact skin has a positive electrode, a negative electrode and an electrically insulating material separating the electrodes. In still another aspect the present invention relates to an iontophoretic method of continuously monitoring the levels of bioactive materials in a subject and using a feedback mechanism to maintain effective levels.
2. Description of Related Art

Device for iontophoretic non-invasive sampling or delivery of substances

The Regents of The University of California


A card-edge board connector is provided which does not require a relay board, does not make connection of the card-edge board fixed at a certain position or does not cause a difference in propagation time of a signal even if connecting terminals of the card-edge board are disposed in two rows. The card-edge board connector includes a first connector on which a card-edge board is mounted, a second connector on which a board is mounted, a hinge for holding the first and the second connectors capable of rotational movement, and a flexible connecting board connected to between the first and the second connectors, for electrically connecting the card-edge board and the board to each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card-edge board connector and particularly to a card-edge board connector for electrically connecting a card-edge board to another board.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In electronic equipment, a technology is known to mount an edge-connector type card such as a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)-standard card or a memory card (hereinafter also referred to as card-edge board) onto a mother card (hereinafter referred only as board).
FIGS. 3 and 4 are perspective views showing an example of a conventional card edge connector. Referring to FIG. 3, the example of the conventional card edge connector is comprised by a relay board 13, a connector 14 and a board 12. The board 12 is a mother card as an example. The connector 14 is mounted on the board 12.
A sub-board 15 is connected to the relay board 13, and a recess portion 16 in which this sub-board 15 can be fitted is provided on the connector 14. Also, a recess portion 17 in which a board 11, which is a card-edge board, is fitted is provided on the relay board 13 on the surface opposing the mounting surface of the sub-board 15. This board 11 is inserted into the recess portion 17 of the relay board 13. And the sub-board 15 of the relay board 13 is inserted into the recess portion 16 of the connector 14. By this, a connecting terminal of the board 11, not shown, is electrically connected to the board 12 via the relay board 13 and the connector 14.
FIG. 4 is an example when the board 11 is mounted on the board 12. As shown in this FIG., in order to mount and connect the board 11 having the card-edge connecting terminal at the position parallel with the board 12, the angle of the board 11 is changed using the relay board 13.
On the other hand, an invention is disclosed as an example of this type of connector that a pair of detachable connectors is provided and one of the connectors is made capable of rotational movement with a hinge. Different print boards are connected to the both connectors (See Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 60-142481, p. 7, 11. 9 to 17, FIG. 4)
Also, as another example, an invention is disclosed that a pair of plug and socket is provided and the plug is inserted into the socket and rotated by 90 degrees. The socket is provided on the board and the plug is provided at the tip end of a lead wire (see Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 62-135382, p. 11, 1. 7 to p. 12, 1. 7, FIGS. 10 and 11)
Also, as another example, a connection structure is disclosed in which one printed board attached with a male connector and the other print board with a female connector are angularly changed within a range of 90 degrees from the state where they are connected on the same plane in the parallel direction and the state where they are connected perpendicularly (See Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 63-152187, p. 2, 11. 5 to 11, FIG. 4)
Also, as another example, a connector for flat conductor is disclosed that a housing and an operating member are held capable of rotational movement and the flat conductor is made capable of insertion into the operating member. The rotation angle of the housing and the operating member is 90 degrees. (See Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-230005, paragraphs 0011 to 0012, FIGS. 1 and 2)
Also, as another example, a connector is disclosed that a main housing and a sub housing are axially bonded together capable of rotation. A multi-polar flat wire is inserted into the main housing (See Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 09-259992, paragraph 0005, FIGS. 1, 2, 5 and 9)
Conventionally, when mounting a card-edge type card, a structure was adopted that the card-edge type card is held in parallel with a mother card in order to lower the mounting height. That is, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the relay board 13 is used to change the angle of the board 11 by 90 degrees.
However, the conventional technique using the relay board 13 has the following problems. The first problem is that the necessity of the relay board 13 increases the number of components.
The second problem is that, since the position of the board 11 is fixed when it is connected to the relay board 13, a signal waveform of a portion covered by the board 11 in the circuit of the board 12 can not be observed.
The third problem is that, though the card-edge type card can have its connecting terminals disposed in two rows on the front and back of the card, a conductor in contact with the connecting terminal is folded by 90 degrees in the relay board 13 when the relay board 13 is used. Then, a difference is caused in the conductor length between the inside and the outside, which results in a difference in propagation time of a signal and leads to a malfunction.
On the other hand, the prior arts disclosed in the patent documents 1 to 5 are totally different from the present invention in the point that none of them relates to a card-edge board connector. Also, the constitution of the connector when the connecting terminals are provided in two rows as well as the constitution that the rotational angle of a pair of connectors is set to 90 degrees clockwise and counterclockwise are not disclosed in these patent documents 1 to 5.
An object of the present invention is to provide a card-edge board connector which does not need a relay board, does not make connection of a card-edge board fixed to a certain position or does not cause a difference in propagation time of a signal even if the connecting terminals of the card-edge board are disposed in two rows.

Card-edge board connector that electrically connects two boards


An animal feed mechanism includes a manually operated slide valve interposed between a set of upper agitators and a set of lower screw conveyors. In some examples, two upper agitators are installed within a plastic funnel, and two lower screw conveyors are disposed within a metal auger housing. Each screw conveyor includes an auger driven by its own separate motor. Thus, there are two motors for rotating the two augers. The two motors can be energized individually to selectively rotate either auger or to rotate them concurrently. In some examples, a transmission coupling the two augers to the two agitators conveys power to rotate both agitators regardless of whether either one or both motor driven augers are operating.

Historically, many livestock breeds were fed grain or blended grains. Over time, additives in the form of nutritional or pharmaceutical materials were added to and mixed in with the blended grains. Oftentimes, grains were ground or otherwise reduced in size to create a more uniform and flowable mixture. The mixtures were stored in a bin or other container, and scooped into feeding devices for access by the animals to be fed.
As time went on, animals went from providing meat and other products to their owners, to provision of products for sale by their owners and, eventually, animals were produced and then sold to other entities for a variety of uses or to be made into a number of products. As the number of animals managed by a single producer increased, means for storing and feeding were developed. Among early developments were those that included a storage portion positioned above feeding stations wherein the feed in the storage portion moved via combination of gravity and open space as the animals consumed feed from the feeding stations. This same general arrangement is still used. However, as the number of animals managed by a single producer increased, so did the array and variety of equipment related to feeding those animals.
Animal production now includes producers that manage hundreds of animals housed in a variety of structures. It has become a science; administering, monitoring and tracking the type, rate, and amount of feed consumed along with any specific nutritional or pharmaceutical additives by each of hundreds or even thousands of animals is becoming more and more commonplace. For some types of livestock and/or breeding stock, such meticulous recordkeeping is required by regulation; for nearly all animal production, having this kind of information allows the producer to carefully monitor resources and increase the efficiency of production.
As mentioned, tracking this kind of data requires specialized equipment. Some of this equipment is geared to centralization of certain tasks either for uniformity and record keeping purposes, or for the purpose of reducing and standardizing the human efforts required; or for the purpose of increasing efficiencies in the process. To that end, a number of feeding related mechanisms have been devised. Specifically, for large confinements or structures in which a large number of animals are housed, mechanisms for delivery of feed to feeders in the individual or group enclosures within the building or structure have been created and implemented with varying levels of success. Many include augers enclosed in housings and some of these housing/auger combinations must be capable of moving feed through curves and inclines. A number of these operate by employing a central feed storage area such as a bin or bins along with means to convey the feed to the feeders. In some arrangements the bin(s) may be positioned centrally to a number of different structures to deliver feed to the feeders within those structures; in other arrangements the bin may be adjacent to or located in a structure in fluid communication with the feeders in that structure only. Permutations of these arrangements abound.
The feed which is provided to animals has changed over time as well. These changes are in response to new information and data as well as market demands. Grinding is still the most common method of feed processing for swine and certain other production. Particle size reduction of grains is known to increase the surface area of the grain, allowing for greater interaction with digestive enzymes, and improving feed efficiency. Smaller particles also improve the ease of handling and mixing characteristics. But, as with everything, there can be too much of a good thing: fine grinding will increase the energy costs of feed processing and may result in the feed bridging in feeders and bulk bins. increased dustiness, and the potential for gastric ulcers. Therefore, the increased costs of fine processing must be offset by the resulting improved feed conversion.
Moisture levels in feed, temperature, fat content and other factors can also effect the flowability of feed. As an example, in recent years, in an effort to increase feed efficiency without negatively offsetting its costs, some producers have begun using additives such as dried distiller's grains which are a byproduct of ethanol production and high in desirable content. However, these additives are "sticky" with moisture and/or fat content and under certain conditions or mixed in certain ratios, can increase bridging of feed in storage bins when it is being outloaded.
Currently, hoppers and powered screw conveyors are used for delivering feed to animals from the feed storage bin or container to the feeder mechanisms located in the animal enclosures. Such feed systems, however, have been known for being problematic and requiring periodic maintenance and attention in order to keep the feed flowing and the systems operating. These problems result in time for maintenance and repairs that, in turn, cause the animals to be without feed until the problem is cured. The industry is so highly dependent on feed regime that even a few hours can make a difference. Flowability both within the storage bin or container and of the feed as it exits the bin continues to be problematic despite several developments meant to address the issue. By way of example, products such as the Flow Hammer by Automated Production Systems attaches to the outside of a feed storage bin and delivers low frequency, high impact strikes to the bin in an effort to reduce or eliminate bridging. Other products vibrate the bin at much higher frequency. Further, at the lower end of most bins is positioned a hopper which is typically generally shaped like an inverted cone; below the hopper is a boot through which the grain flows and drops into the augering system to be moved to the feeding devices in the animal enclosures. Many feeding systems are automatically triggered by sensors related to levels of feed in the feeders at the enclosures, or may be activated by a timed schedule, or some combination of the above. In any case, the idea is to have a system that is as automated and dependable as possible to provide uniform feeding without unplanned disruptions, and with as little human intervention as possible. These features create an efficient system both from the standpoint of feed supply to the animals and from a cost savings standpoint related to moving the animals to finish and from reducing human intervention needs.
What was needed was a device to increase the dependability of feed flow to the animal enclosures and that does so by destroying lumps or balls of feed formed due to humidity, temperature, or feed content in the storage or other bin or during the outloading process as well as reduce feed bridging within the bin during the outloading process.
It is a first objective of the present invention to increase efficiency and dependability in feed outloading from storage bins;
It is a second objective of the present invention to reduce the negative effects of the formation of feed lumps or balls that disrupt feed flow from the bin;
It is a third objective of the present invention to reduce feed bridging in the storage bin during the outloading process.
Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will be readily appreciated from the following description. The description makes reference to the accompanying drawings, which are provided for illustration of the preferred embodiment. However, such embodiment does not represent the full scope of the invention. The subject matter which the inventor does regard as his invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of this specification.


The present invention relates to an apparatus for grass collectors and the like that allows the trailer boxes of such collectors to be easily emptied. The invention includes a liner disposed within the trailer box of a collector cart. The liner is pulled out of the trailer box to remove the material accumulated in the collector. The preferred apparatus is easily manufactured as it includes only a rod and cloth including clips. The rod is attached near the rear of the trailer box and the liner is rotatably attached to it. The opposite end of the liner is suspended to a frame in the front of the collector by clips. In between, the liner lies in the bottom of the trailer box and the grass clippings, leaves, etc. are allowed to fall on it during operation of the collector.

1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for grass collectors and the like that allows the trailer boxes of such collectors to be easily emptied. Specifically, the present invention includes a flexible liner in the trailer box which allows grass clippings or leaves to be easily removed from the trailer box.
2. Description of the Related Art
Grass and leaf collectors for towing behind riding lawn mowers and garden tractors with mower decks are well-known in the prior art. Unloading these collectors of their accumulated grass clippings, leaves, or other material has, however, been a consistent problem.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,699,393 to Schweigert, discloses one such type of collector cart having a trailer box and attached cover. The cover is folded upwards and the front of the trailer box itself is rotated upwards to dump the contents of the trailer box onto the ground. Many other grass collectors have a similar design.
That unloading system has a number of disadvantages. The mechanism that allows rotation of the trailer box adds complexity and cost to the collector. The trailer box must be unlatched from the frame and lifted in order to start the removal process. In many cases that requires the operator to lift the load contained in the trailer box. That load can be substantial when it includes wet grass clippings or leaves or other materials. An alternative to requiring the operator to lift the trailer box is the use of a mechanism which automatically raises the trailer box. Such a mechanism adds considerably to the cost and complexity of the collector.
To fully clear the trailer box of materials, the tractor or riding mower must be moved forward while the box is in its upright position. That requires the operator to do a number of additional operations, including remounting the tractor if the trailer box was tipped upright by hand. In the alternative, the trailer box must be cleared by hand which presents an additional set of problems for the operator.
Other types of collectors include the use of bins which may be located in a trailer box as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,687, also to Schweigert. In that patent, bins are used to collect material blown into the collector. When the bins are full, they must be removed and dumped individually. That requires the operator to perform heavy lifting, which can cause a number of injuries. In the alternative, the operator must empty the collector before it reaches full capacity to keep the weight of the bins at a manageable level. That practice is, however, inefficient and adds to the time and fuel required to mow an area. In addition, the bins add additional expense to the manufacturing of the collector.