Modular cartridges which may be inserted into and removed from a well or receptacle on the bottom of a pod. The cartridges may be configured to include various types and combinations of valves, filters, and/or conditioning agents. A standalone cartridge replacement station may be provided for inserting and removing various cartridges from one or more of the receptacles on the bottom of a pod while wafers are seated within the pod. The standalone replacement unit may decouple an existing cartridge from the pod by rotating the cartridge from a locked to an unlocked position and then lowering the cartridge out of the pod. Thereafter, the replacement station may insert a new cartridge up into the appropriate receptacle and rotate the cartridge into a locked position in the pod.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to SMIF pods, and more particularly to a system including modular cartridges having breather filters, adsorbent media, and/or check valves, which cartridges may be removably inserted into a well in a bottom surface of a SMIF pod.
2. Description of Related Art
A SMIF system proposed by the Hewlett-Packard Company is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,532,970 and 4,534,389. The purpose of a SMIF system is to reduce particle fluxes onto semiconductor wafers during storage and transport of the wafers through the semiconductor fabrication process. This purpose is accomplished, in part, by mechanically ensuring that during storage and transport, the gaseous media (such as air or nitrogen) Surrounding the wafers is essentially stationary relative to the wafers, and by ensuring that particles from the ambient environment do not enter the immediate wafer environment.
A SMIF system has three main components: (1) minimum volume, sealed pods used for storing and transporting wafers and/or wafer cassettes; (2) an input/output (I/O) minienvironment located on a semiconductor processing tool to provide a miniature clean space (upon being filled with clean air) in which exposed wafers and/or wafer cassettes may be transferred to and from the interior of the processing tool; and (3) an interface for transferring the wafers and/or wafer cassettes between the SMIF pods and the SMIF minienvironment without exposure of the wafers or cassettes to particulates. Further details of one proposed SMIF system are described in the paper entitled "SMIF: A TECHNOLOGY FOR WAFER CASSETTE TRANSFER IN VLSI MANUFACTURING" by Mihir Parikh and Ulrich Kaempf, Solid State Technology, Jul. 1984, pp. 111-115.
Systems of the above type are concerned with particle sizes which range from below 0.02 microns (μm) to above 200 μm. Particles with these sizes can be very damaging in semiconductor processing because of the small geometries employed in fabricating semiconductor devices. Typical advanced semiconductor processes today employ geometries which are one-half μm and under. Unwanted contamination particles which have geometries measuring greater than 0.1 μm substantially interfere with 1 μm geometry semiconductor devices. The trend, of course, is to have smaller and smaller semiconductor processing geometries which today in research and development labs approach 0.1 μm and below. In the future, geometries will become smaller and smaller and hence smaller and smaller contamination particles become of interest.
In practice, a SMIF pod is set down on various support surfaces within a wafer fab, such as for example at a load port to a minienvironment, whereupon interface mechanisms in the load port open the pod door to allow access to the wafers within the pod. Additionally, a pod may be supported at a storage location while awaiting processing at a particular tool. Such storage locations may comprise a local tool buffer in the case of metrology or high throughput tools, or may alternatively comprise a stocker for storing large numbers of pods within a tool bay.
Whether a tool load port, local tool buffer, stocker or stand alone purge station, the support surfaces typically include registration or kinematic pins protruding upward from the support surface. In 200 mm pods, the support surface includes registration pins, and guide rails which guide the pod into the proper rotational and translational position onto the pins. In 300 mm pods, a bottom surface of the pods includes radially extending grooves for receiving the pins. Once the pod is positioned so that the grooves are mounted over their respective kinematic pins, the grooves settle over the pins to establish six points of contact between the pod and support platform (at the grooves and pins) to kinematically couple the pod to the support platform with fixed and repeatable accuracy. Such a kinematic coupling is for example disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,118, entitled "Kinematic Coupling Fluid Couplings and Method", to Slocum, which patent is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. The size and location of the kinematic pins are standardized so that the pods of various suppliers are compatible with each other. The industry standard for the location and dimensions of the kinematic coupling pins are set by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International ("SEMI").
Occasionally, it is advantageous to purge a pod of contaminants and/or particulates by creating a current flow through a pod to carry away the contaminants and/or particulates. It may also be beneficial to fill a pod with a non-reactive gas for longer term storage and certain processes. Additionally it may be advantageous on occasion to provide the pod with a pressure higher or lower than ambient. In order to accomplish such purging, it is known to provide one or more valves within a pod which allow fluid flow to and/or from the interior of the pod. Inlet valves to the pod may be connected to a pressurized gas source to fill the pod with a desired gas, and outlet valves may be connected to a vacuum source to remove gas from the pod. The inlet and outlet valves may be used to purge the pod, including filling the pod with a desired gas, or raising/lowering the pressure within the pod. Such a system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,874, entitled "Sealable Transportable Container Having a Particle Filtering System", to Parikh et al., which patent is assigned to the owner of the present application, and which patent is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Relative to systems which require opening of the pod for purging valve systems require less components and space, and in general operate more efficiently.
In conventional purging systems, the gas flow lines terminate at the support surface at hollow pins that protrude above the support surface, which pins are received in the valves when the pod is placed on the support surface. An interface seal in the form of an elastic member is typically provided between the flow pin and valve to ensure a tight fit of the flow pin with respect to the valve. It is important that such interface seals provide a tight fit, and be durable to ensure that the tight fit does not deteriorate with use.
As gas flowing into a pod will be in contact with the exposed wafers, such gas is typically filtered before entry into a pod. For example, it is known to provide breather filters, such as for example high efficiency submicron particle filtering TEFLON® membranes for filtering gas injected or diffusing into a pod to remove particulates from the gas flow stream. Moreover, as the components and/or wafers within the SMIF pod may generate contaminants through outgassing, it is further known to provide adsorbent filters, such as for example those containing activated carbon, within the pod to absorb contaminants diffusing around the interior of the pod. Examples of various filters are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,346,518 entitled "Vapor Drain System", to Baseman et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,874 entitled "Sealable Transportable Container Having a Particle Filtering System", to Parikh et al., which patents are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. It is further known to provide a conditioning agent within a pod, such as for example those which emit vapors that reduce corrosion and/or electrostatic charges within the pod.
SMIF pods may carry a variety of different substrates at different times, and may transport the substrates to a variety of different process stations. It may be advantageous to condition the gas within the pod, both with respect to composition and pressure, differently for the various substrates and/or processes. For example, certain processes may be more sensitive to certain particulates and contaminants. For such processes, a particular type of breather filter, adsorbent filter and/or a conditioning agent may be preferred. Additionally, it may be necessary to utilize a particular type of valve for a particular process or for a particular type of gas flow/removal system in the support surface. For example, some valves must be actuated by a pin in the port before gas is allowed to pass therethrough. Still others are self-actuating. Different types of valves are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,129,145 to Wynn, entitled "Check Valve Assembly", which reference is incorporated herein in its entirety. An additional type of valve is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,988,233, previously incorporated by reference. There may additionally be processes for which it is necessary to completely block off one or more of the inlet or outlet positions in a pod. Further complicating the problem is that it may be necessary to utilize a particular type of valve with a particular type of filter, and/or with a particular type of conditioning agent.
Cost and space considerations have to this point prevented wafer fabs from stocking SMIF pods with all combinations of valves, filters and/or conditioning agents. Aside from the vast expense of providing the necessary number of pods having each such combination, the majority of such pods would sit idle and would take up valuable storage space in a cleanroom environment.
While it is conceivable that an individual pod may be altered to include the desired valves, filters, and/or conditioning agents, such a process at present would require each of the wafers within a pod to be removed from the pod while the necessary pod configuration is manually assembled. Moreover, filters used in pods become ineffective when clogged with particulates and/or contaminants. Again, these filters may be removed and replaced by new ones. At present, such processes for removing and replacing components are time consuming, labor intensive, and require hardware for transferring and storing the wafers while the components are being changed.

Modular SMIF pod breather, adsorbent, and purge cartridges


A disc player for playing back a disc that includes a plurality of folders, each folder including music files, includes a folder specifying unit for selecting a folder playback mode and specifying one folder and a playback unit for reading the music files in the specified folder from the disc to sequentially play back the read music files in the folder playback mode. The playback unit reads and plays back the music files from the disc in an order determined by a playback order determining unit in a folder random playback mode. The playback unit repeatedly plays back at least one music file in the specified folder in a folder repeat playback mode. The playback unit scans and plays back the first few seconds of each music file in the folder in a folder scan playback mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to disc players that play back discs, each including music files in a plurality of folders and managing the music files for every folder, and, more particularly, to a disc player capable of playing back all music files in each folder.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data is recorded on a CD-R/RW medium in a disc-at-once mode, a session-at-once mode, a track-at-once mode, or the like.
In the disc-at-once mode, the lead-in, data, and the lead-out are written as one continuous portion on a disc, without any interruptions, until the entire data set is transferred to the disc and additional data cannot be written on the disc. Compact disc digital audio (CD-DA) adopts this mode.
In the session-at-once mode, the lead-in, data, and the lead-out of a session are written as one continuous portion on a disc and additional data can be written on the disc. The area between the lead-in and the lead-out, inclusively, is referred to as the session.
In the track-at-once mode, a session is written in a number of tracks and additional data can be written on the disc. After the data is written on all tracks, the lead-in and the lead-out of the corresponding session are written. When the data is written on a disc in the track-at-once mode, the lead-in LI, data (program area) P, and the lead-out LO respectively have a seam at the head thereof and a seam at the trail thereof, as shown in FIG. 4. The head seam is referred to as a run-in and the trail seam is referred to as a run-out.
Writing data in sessions in the track-at-once mode produces a multi-session disc. FIG. 5 shows the structure of a multi-session disc. In the multi-session disc, each time a session is appended to the disc, the lead-in areas LI1 to LI3 are respectively provided at the heads of the program areas P1, P2, and P3 and the lead-out areas LO1 to LO3 are respectively provided at the trails thereof Volume descriptors, path tables, and so on (described below) of the sessions additionally written and of the sessions already recorded are written in the lead-in areas LI1 to LI3. Accordingly, reading the lead-in area of the last session reveals the file structure of the entire disc volume. Compressed music data of, for example, MP3 (MPEG-1 audio layer 3) and WMA (Windows media audio) can be written in the sessions of the discs shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 in a CD-ROM (compact disc read only) format.
FIG. 6 shows the structure of a sector in a CD-ROM mode 1. In the CD-ROM mode 1, a sector has a size of 2,352 (=24×98) bytes. One sector contains 98 frames (one frame has a size of 24 bytes) and includes the following:
(1) synchronization (synchronization signal) data SKD of 12 bytes
(2) a header HDD of four bytes
(3) user data USD of 2,048 bytes
(4) ancillary data EDCC of 288 bytes for error correction and detection.
Of the four bytes of the header HDD, three bytes (MIN/SEC/SECTOR) contain address information and the remaining one byte contains mode information indicating the type of data. The address information basically includes the same data as a sub-code Q channel and is represented as minute/second/sector format, like the sub-code of the CD-DA. Also, the synchronization signal, the sub-code, and an error correcting code (CIRC) are appended to each frame, as in the signal unit format in the CD-DA.
When the data is written on the CD-ROM, the data is divided into sectors and the sub-code and the CIRC are appended, as in the CD-DA. After the data is modulated by EFM (eight-to-fourteen modulation), it is written on the CD-ROM. The data is read out from the CD-ROM for every sector with the sub-code (the absolute address of the Q channel).
As described above, the data on the CD-ROM is divided into logical sectors, each having a size of 2,048 bytes and containing 2n logical blocks (it is often the case that n=0). A volume has a system area that uses the first 16 sectors (logical sector numbers from 0 to 15) and a data area. In the case of a volume conforming to the ISO9660 standards, the data area has a volume descriptor BDC, a path table PTH, directories DRT, and data DT, as shown in FIG. 7A. Volume descriptors include a primary volume descriptor, a supplementary volume descriptor, a volume partition descriptor, and so on.
The primary volume descriptor contains information such as a volume identifier A0, logical block size A1, path table size A2 for determining a file structure (FIG. 8), and path table location A3, as shown in FIG. 7B.
The path table contains information such as a directory identifier (folder name) B1, a parent directory number B2, and record location (extent location) B3 of a directory (for example, a file) included in a folder (directory), as shown in FIG. 7C. A plurality of path tables of directories that has a root directory as the parent directory is continuously written on the CD-ROM.
The directory contains information such as a file identifier C1, starting address of file (extent location) C2, file flag C3, and data size of file C4, as shown in FIG. 7D. Directory records of a plurality of files in a directory (folder) are continuously written on the CD-ROM.
FIG. 8 shows an exemplary file structure. The root directory has a plurality of directories (folders: R&B, ROCK, JAZZ, POPS, . . . ), the folder ROCK has subfolders ROCKMAN and ROCKWOMAN, and the folder R&B has a plurality of MP3 files (MP3 music file) RB-1, RB-2, . . . . Similarly, other folders have some MP3 music files. This file structure can be determined by analysis of the primary volume descriptor BDC, the path table PTH, and the directories DRT that are described above.
Heretofore, the playback of discs has been controlled for every disc. However, such playback control has disadvantages in the playback of the disc that has folders including music files for the following reason.
A maximum of 255 music files can be written on a CD-R/RW medium in the CD-ROM format with a compression technique such as the MP3. However, more than 255 music files can be written depending on the capacity of a recording medium or the specifications of writing software. As described above, in the CD-ROM format, the recording structure of music data on a disc can be described with a primary volume descriptor, a path table, and directories. For example, when a user prepares a music disc, a folder is created for every category (R&B, ROCK, JAZZ, POPS, . . . ), as shown in FIG. 8, and music files corresponding to each category are added to each folder. This file structure is described with the primary volume descriptor, the path table, and the directories. However, when the music discs are played back with the conventional disc-based playback mode, it is not possible to just play back the music files from one category, for example, ROCK or JAZZ.

Disc player and method of playing back disc


Techniques are provided to classify patterns in isogenous pattern sources. Techniques are provided to determine a computationally inexpensive upperbound on the true score or joint probability of the field label and field features over all field labels. Candidate field labels associated with promising upperbound scores are dynamically queued. True scores are computed for a subset of the candidates fields resulting in reduced computations to determine a field label. Techniques are also provided to determine optimal variables for any system with shared constraints.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to techniques for style conscious field classification of isogenous patterns.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional recognition systems have difficulty correctly classifying less than optimal patterns of text images. In attempts to improve classification using these conventional systems, some researchers have attempted to exploit style consistency information. Sarkar et al, in "Classification of Style Constrained Pattern Fields" in Proceedings of the Fifteenth ICPR, pp. 859–862, Barcelona 2000, IEEE Computer Society Press, and in "Style Consistency in Isogenous Patterns" in Proceedings of the Sixth ICDAR, pp. 1169–1174, Seattle, September 2001, each incorporated by reference in their entirety, discuss attempts to improve classification of patterns by determining the joint probabilities of the field label and field-features over all field labels. Due to dependencies among patterns in the field, these conventional systems require optimization of a field score over all possible field labels. However, the determination of joint probabilities of the field label and field-features over all field labels is computationally expensive. Moreover, the number of computations necessary to determine a field label increases exponentially with increasing field-length. This limits the application of these conventional systems for longer fields and larger texts.

Systems and methods for style conscious field classification


A content-addressable memory stores a plurality of words, each word with intrinsic capability: Global bus-1 selects a set of bits in each word. Global bus-2 selects a disjoint set of bits in each word. Circuits approximately adiabatic in each word, toggle bus-2 bits if and only if all bus-1 bits are true. Toggling selectively, as above, will copy selected bits to new locations, and will calculate a given Boolean function on a given subset of bits. Each word, in parallel with other words, can thus accomplish any task that can be composed of bit-copying and Boolean operations. Every word systematically undergoes modification during each processing step without reading or writing to a global bus. This avoids an increase in processing time and loss of efficiency for global bus operations. Self-analyzing memory words support a programmable computer, massively parallel, logically reversible and approximately adiabatic.

Self-analyzing memory words are a type of CAM or Content-addressable memory (US Patent Classification 365/49, Associative memories), and 711/108, Content addressable memory (CAM). Self-analyzing memory words can be constructed using a combination of CMOS pass transistor logic (326/113, Transmission gate logic) and CMOS logic (326/121, CMOS). Circuits are of the charge recovery type, that is, approximately adiabatic; they use pulsating power supplies with differing phases (326/96, Two or more clocks). Self-analyzing memory words are intended for massively parallel processing (708/507, Electrical digital calculating computer, parallel).
Content-addressable memory is well suited to the quick look up of an item in an unstructured table but it is poorly suited as a general purpose computer. Prior CAM depends on a global bus, so it suffers a major slowdown when there are multiple items to be read, modified, and re-written. Prior CAM art includes Lattibeaudiere, U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,535, 1995. Here each selected item must be prioritized, and then be read out using a global bus for this purpose. Unfortunately, bus usage is slow and dissipative of power, particularly when there are a very large number of selections. Thus it is impractical to perform parallel processing in which every word in memory is modified for every step of a given task.
Self-analyzing memory words use approximately adiabatic, logically reversible circuits. Prior art in logically reversible, approximately adiabatic logic applies, for example, to a fill adder, which is quite different from a CAM. Prior art includes switching between a forward and a reverse logic circuit, also quite different from the toggle-on/toggle-off memory cell approach of this disclosure.


A mounting clip is provided for enabling a snap fit attachment of an ACM fascia to an existing building fascia. The mounting clip includes at least one flexible arm integrally attached to a base portion so as to allow the flexible arm to move away from one of the fascia. At least one locking finger is integrally attached to the flexible arm by a hinge structure biasing the locking finger into snap fit attachment into a groove on one of the fascia.

The present invention generally relates to a method and apparatus for attaching a sheet of ACM (aluminum clad material) new or replacement material to an existing building fascia. More specifically, the present invention relates to the method and apparatus of installing a new fascia over an existing fascia, particularly along buildings such as gas stations.
It is one object of the present invention to provide a mounting clip which permits relatively uncomplicated and effective snap fit attachment of a new fascia material over an existing fascia material.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a mounting clip which is used to modify the appearance of porticos, columns and awnings.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a mounting clip for holding together L-shaped adjacent members.
In one object of the invention, a mounting clip is provided for enabling a snap fit attachment of a first member to a second member. The clip includes a base portion, and at least one flexible arm integrally attached to the base portion so as to allow the flexible arm to move away from one of the first and second members. At least one locking finger is integrally joined to the flexible arm by a hinge structure biasing the locking finger into snap fit attachment with a groove on one of the first and second members.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the base portion includes a vertical leg interposed between the first member and the second member. The flexible arm is attached to the vertical leg by a first hinge portion. Fasteners are passed through the flexible arm and the vertical leg and threaded into the first member. The locking finger is joined to the flexible arm by a second hinge portion bearing against one portion of the second member and biasing the locking finger into snap attachment with the groove in another portion of the second member. The flexible arm extends downwardly and away from the other portion of the second member. The locking finger extends upwardly and towards the other portion of the second member. A bottom lip is integrally attached to the vertical leg and extends away from the flexible arm. The bottom lip underlies the first member. The bottom lip and the one portion of the second member are substantially coplanar.
In alternative embodiments of the invention, each of the first and second members have a first leg disposed generally perpendicularly to a second leg, the first legs being positioned in back to back relationship with one another. The at least one flexible arm includes a pair of side support walls, each extending to one side of a first leg from one of the opposed ends on the base portion, each of the side support walls having the locking finger.
In another aspect of the invention, a mounting clip enables a snap fit attachment of a first member to a second member. Each of the first and second members have a first leg disposed generally perpendicularly to a second leg. The first legs are positioned in back to back relationship with one another. The clip includes a connecting wall having opposed ends and a pair of side support walls, each extending to one side of a first leg from one of the opposed ends of the connecting wall. At least one of the side support walls includes a locking finger which is deflectable about a hinge to engage a groove formed in at least one of the first legs.
In another aspect of the invention, a mounting clip is fastened to a first member for enabling a snap fit attachment of a second member to the first member. The clip includes a vertical leg interposed between the first member and the second member. A flexible arm is integrally attached to the vertical leg by a first hinge portion allowing the flexible arm to move outwardly away from the second member. A locking finger is integrally joined to the flexible arm by a second hinge portion bearing against one portion of the second member and biasing the locking finger into snap fit attachment with a groove on another portion of the second member. The first member takes the form of an existing building fascia and the second member is defined by a ACM fascia. The ACM fascia includes a vertical front face, a horizontal bottom edge and a locking lip. The locking lip is secured between the locking finger and the vertical leg.
In yet another aspect of the invention, a mounting clip is provided for enabling a snap fit attachment of a first member to a second member. Each of the first and second members have a first leg disposed generally perpendicularly to a second leg, the first legs being positioned in back to back relationship with one another. The clip includes a linear connecting wall having opposed ends, and a pair of flexible side support walls each extending to one side of a first leg from one of the imposed ends of the connecting wall. Each of the support walls include a locking finger which is deflectable about a hinge bearing against the second leg and biasing the locking finger into snap fit attachment in a groove on the first leg.
In yet another aspect of the invention, a mounting clip is provided for enabling a snap fit attachment of a first member to a second member. Each of the first and second members have a first leg disposed generally perpendicularly to a second leg, the first legs being positioned in back to back relationship with one another. The clip includes a curved connecting wall having opposed ends and a pair of flexible side support walls, each extending to one side of a first leg from one of the opposed ends of the connecting wall. Each of the support legs include a locking finger which is deflectable about a hinge bearing against the second leg and biasing the locking finger into snap fit attachment in a groove on the first leg.
In a further aspect of the invention, a mounting clip is provided for enabling a snap fit attachment of a first member to a second member. The clip includes a linear connecting wall having opposed ends and a pair of rigid side support webs, each extending to one side of a first leg from one of the ends of the connecting wall. Each of the support webs has a locking finger engageable with a groove on one of the first legs. One of the locking fingers is biased into a snap fit attachment in the groove.
Various other features, objects and advantages of the invention will be made apparent from the following description taken together with the drawings.


Methods and systems for calibrating media indexing errors in a printing device are provided. In one embodiment, the method comprises feeding a calibration media through a printing device, sensing the position of the media as it moves through the printing device, sensing positions of a media indexing component as the media moves through the printing device, determining media indexing position errors based upon the sensed positions, and calculating a compensation factor to be applied based upon the errors. In some embodiments, parameters of a line and/or other function are determined from the error data and the parameters are utilized to calculate a compensation factor. Moreover, in some embodiments, it is determined what range the data fits within, and a predetermined compensation factor is determined based upon the range.

In printing devices, a media indexing system advances or indexes the media through the print zone during the printing process. Such systems can include motors, gears, rollers, sensors, and other components that work in conjunction to move the media incrementally. During each incremental movement of the media, a printing element, such as a print head, causes text and/or images to be applied to the media in rows or swaths.
However, manufacturing tolerances, assembly variations, and other imperfections in such indexing components can cause discrepancies between the desired or expected position of the media and the actual position which is realized. For example, one typical component in a media indexing system is a feedroll or feedroller which contacts the media and forces the media through the printing device. Manufacturing tolerances can cause the feedroller diameter to deviate from its ideal diameter and can also cause the feedroller circumference to deviate from its ideal circular shape. The deviation of the actual feedroller diameter from the ideal feedroller diameter can produce a cumulative feedrate error which corresponds to the average deviation in the desired media position during the movement. For example if the diameter is smaller than ideal, "runout" (feedrate) errors will occur causing the media to be underfed. In addition, a deviation of the actual feedroller shape from the ideal circular shape and/or a deviation of the axis of rotation from center, can produce irregular rotation and a substantially sinusoidal "once-per-revolution" (eccentricity) errors in the indexing of the media.
Other similar deviations in other indexing components can also introduce such errors in the indexing of the print receiving media. For example, eccentricity in the encoder wheel used to sense the feedroller position as well as various forces on the media being moved can cause the media to be advanced too little or too much. Such errors can vary within a printing device based upon the media type, environmental factors (such as temperature and humidity), and mechanism wear.
These media positioning errors can result in an undesirable appearance of the printed image. For example, indexing the media too far (i.e., overfeeding the media) might result in a gap or blank band between print swaths, while indexing the media too little (i.e., underfeeding the media) might result in overlapping print swaths that could create dark horizontal bands in the resulting image. Such swath misplacements can be particularly noticeable during particular printing modes or resolutions.
To compensate for such errors, media indexing calibration and compensation control systems and methods can be utilized. Such systems and methods can measure the system error and provide corresponding compensation to media indexing system components, to attempt to increase media positioning accuracy.
However, some media indexing calibration methods and systems can require expensive sensors and calibration sheets, as well as complicated calibration routines and lengthy correction tables, and therefore may only be suitable for use with expensive printing devices. Additionally, some such methods can require time-consuming and complicated calibration steps, such as those which require the acquisition of large amounts of data or the visual comparison of test patterns. Still other media indexing calibration techniques can suffer from accuracy problems.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide improved media indexing calibration and error compensation methods and systems. In addition, it is desirable to provide improved systems and techniques for media indexing calibration that increase media indexing accuracy with greater efficiency and without high cost. Moreover, it is desirable to provide improved indexing calibration methods and systems that can accommodate error conditions.

Methods and systems to calibrate media indexing errors in a printing device


A support structure may include a metallic tube having two opposing ends. The first end may have a first length, a first wall thickness, and a first outer diameter. The second end may have a second length, a second wall thickness, and a second outer diameter. A transition area may be disposed between the first length and the second length. The first wall thickness may be greater than the second wall thickness thereby providing variable thickness.

Structural supports, such as steel pipes, are hollow tubes that are used for a variety of applications, including vehicle frames and chassis, heating and plumbing systems, flagpoles, building frames and infrastructure, to name a few. Structural supports may be produced by two distinct processes that may result in either a seamless or welded support. Raw metal, such as steel, is first cast into a workable starting form, and then is made into a support (e.g., a pipe) by stretching the steel out into a seamless tube or forcing the edges together and sealing them with a weld. The result is a structural support with uniform diameter and wall thickness.
However, modern production processes for metal supports typically results in sacrificing mass savings for support strength, or vice versa.
Overcoming these concerns would be desirable and could save the industry substantial resources.

Tubular support structure with variable wall thickness


The present invention includes a graphics software program that automatically generates a color scheme for graphics. In embodiments of the present invention, the graphics software program receives a selection of a color transformation and a semantic model describing a graphic. The graphics software program interpolates color values for different portions of the graphic according to the color transformation and semantic model. In other embodiments, a data structure is provided for a color transformation definition created to assign the color values to portions of the graphic.

Visual aids help people understand information. Conveying information to or among groups of people almost necessarily requires creating visual presentations. These visual presentations generally provide graphical content to the user's choice of media, e.g. text or audio. Computer programs, such as the Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation application, have helped automate the task of creating such graphical content. Such graphics programs generally allow users to convey information more efficiently and effectively by putting that information in easily understandable formats and contexts.
Graphical content contains information that can have both textual and graphical characteristics. Textual characteristics generally refer to the written matter within the graphical content. Graphical characteristics generally refer to the pictorial or other visual features or formatting of the graphical content. Depending on the information and the audience, the user generally determines a visual diagram that will best teach or convey the underlying information. Then, the user tries to create the diagram that the user has decided to use.
Adding formatting, such as color, to the graphical content further enhances the visual appeal of the presentation. However, users generally have a great amount of trouble coloring portions of the graphic. More specifically, users generally can color only single portions of the graphic at one time. Assigning complementary colors to other portions of the graphic requires the user to adjust manually, in some manner, the color settings for each portion of the graphic. If the user desires a more integrated and professional look for their colored graphics, the user generally has to continually adjust the colors of the different portions of the graphic until the colors match or complement. It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been made.

Semantically applying formatting to a presentation model


A mounting apparatus includes a cradle, a stand, a cradle attachment member, and a rotation member. The cradle includes an electronic display attachment member which is configured to removably attach an electronic display to the cradle. The cradle attachment member is configured to removably attach the cradle to the stand. The rotation member is configured to allow rotation of the electronic display when it is attached to the electronic display attachment member.

Aircraft such as the Boeing 777 have cockpits with instrument panels holding controls in efficient spacing arrangements effectively utilizing the space. It is difficult to removably or rotateably mount a portable electronic display, such as a tablet, an IPad, an electronic flight bag device, or a hand-held computer, in the instrument panel without interfering with the pilot's view-lines of the controls of the instrument panel. Other non-aircraft structures utilizing efficient spacing may also have this same issue.
An apparatus and method is needed to resolve one or more issues of one or more of the existing apparatus and methods for removably mounting a portable electronic display to a structure.


A method for managing a processor includes: obtaining an online request of a processor of a computer system; collecting lock contention information of the computer system if a lock contention status flag indicates a non-lock thrashing status; determining whether the computer system is in a lock thrashing status according to the lock contention information; and accepting the online request if it is determined that the computer system is in a non-lock thrashing status. By using the management method according to embodiments of the present application, processor performance degradation and a waste of idle processor resources that are caused by the case that the computer system is in a lock thrashing status are prevented, thereby improving utilization efficiency of processor resources and promoting overall performance of the computer system.

In the field of high-performance computing, a computer system usually includes multiple processors, and each processor may be integrated with two or more complete computing engines (namely, cores), thereby significantly improving the performance of the computer system.
However, in a multiprocessor and multicore application scenario, an expansion effect of an operating system of a computer system is not satisfactory. Especially, with the constant growth of the number of processors or cores of the computer system, maximum processing capability of the computer system fails to increase linearly, and even declines. Among many factors which result in degradation of the computer system performance, a lock is the most important factor. At present, lock bottlenecks may be solved by lock refinement, lock free (Lock Free) or other manners. However, a lot of locks exist in the operating system, a lock optimization solution to the lock bottleneck problem is not applicable to each lock, and furthermore, it is impossible to optimize all locks in the computer system.
A proper solution is required to manage processors of the computer system to improve the performance of the computer system.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for managing a processor, lock contention management apparatus, and computer system


A system for permitting a participant to transact a purchase using awarded points with a vendor system which transacts purchases in currency. A loyalty program awards points to the participant. The awarded points are maintained in a point account for the participant. An application programming interface (API) interfaces with the vendor system. A program account for use in currency transactions provides the basis for the purchase with the vendor system. A graphical user interface (GUI) provides an interface between the participant and the API and for communicating with the loyalty program.

Customer incentive programs, such as loyalty programs, issue points to customers (i.e., participants) as a reward for certain activities such as the purchase of certain products or services or performing a certain action. These points create a loyalty or affinity with the customer and encourage the customer to continue a desired behavior. The customer is motivated through some type of reward offering which allows the customer to redeem the points for rewards. Frequently, such loyalty programs provide the customer with a limited listing of rewards from selected redemption vendors in the form of merchandise, certificates, or other products or services (henceforth referred to as rewards) and the number of points needed to obtain one of the rewards from the list. In general, the selected redemption vendors are a limited number which have some type of relationship, contractual or otherwise, with the loyalty program. The customer selects a reward for purchase with the points and indicates to the loyalty program that the particular product or service has been selected. The loyalty program obtains the product or service on behalf of the customer from one of the limited number of selective redemption vendors and provides it to the customer. Some rewards are of a nature that human intervention is needed to redeem/fulfill a reward. For example, if the customer selects a roundtrip airline ticket, the loyalty program on behalf of the customer or the customer directly would purchase the ticket through a selected travel agent or a selected airline employee and provide the ticket (or have it sent) to the customer. The points needed to obtain the reward (e.g., the ticket) are deducted from the customer's point account by the agent or employee.
As such, when a customer wants to redeem points for "high-touch" rewards, the customer has to work through a third-party organization. There is an opportunity to eliminate the human intervention to redeem such rewards by allowing the customer to systematically redeem their points for rewards using redemption vendors that otherwise deal in currency.

System and method for transacting purchases with a cash vendor using points


A transmission and reception system includes a transmission apparatus 1 and reception apparatuses 21 and 22. The transmission apparatus 1 transmits a storage identifier for identifying a storage medium and data. The reception apparatuses 21 and 22 each include a receiving section for receiving the storage identifier for identifying the storage medium and the data, and a storage control section for storing the data received by the receiving section on the storage medium identified by the storage identifier received by the receiving section. Hence, automatic storage of data conforming to personal taste and simultaneous automatic storage of data for plural persons are realized.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network system, a broadcasting system, etc. for carrying out the management of data transmission and reception and data storage (or data accumulation).
2. Description of the Related Arts
Transmitting means by broadcasting and wired networks are available as means for delivering data to an indefinite number of users. In recent years, digital broadcasting via satellite waves has been put to practical use, and the transmission of video and audio contents, data and the like through multiple channels has been realized. In addition, digital broadcasting via terrestrial waves has become active for practical use. Furthermore, contents can be received through receiving apparatuses, such as television sets, home video systems or personal computers. Still further, media for accumulating (or writing) data are increasing in capacity and diversity.
Various proposals have been made for data storage (or accumulation) methods by utilizing the characteristics of the above-mentioned broadcasting systems, receiving apparatuses and storage (or accumulation) media. Furthermore, various proposals have also been made for storage (or accumulation) methods for data transmitted through digital wired networks.
For example, a proposal has been made wherein data provided from public telephone lines is received and accumulated, and unnecessary data is deleted on the judgment on the taste of the user of a storage medium (Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. Hei 10-91686). Furthermore, a proposal has been made wherein, from a substitute apparatus for accumulating all broadcast data, data is captured automatically on the basis of the judgment on the taste of a person on a storage medium used by the person. When data is transferred or copied from a receiving apparatus with stored data to a receiving apparatus having a storage medium on which data transmitted via a broadcasting systems or a digital wired network is not accumulated, the data is transferred from the receiving apparatus through a removable storage medium or via a network.
When storing data transmitted by a transmitting apparatus by using automatic storage means on the basis of judgment on the personal taste of a user, judgment wherein a standard based on fixed personal attributes not subjected to time-series changes is used as a standard for judgment on the personal taste of a user depending on daily living environments is made. Hence, in the case of the above-mentioned data storage, the personal taste cannot always be judged properly, whereby data not conforming to the personal taste at a certain time was accumulated automatically in some cases.
Furthermore, in the case of automatic storage of data on the basis of the judgment on the personal taste, the judgment on the taste of plural persons was not carried out, and data was not able to be accumulated or shared automatically and simultaneously among plural persons. Hence, just as in the case of data transfer and copying among plural receiving apparatuses, in order to share data among plural persons, data desired to be shared was stored on storage media removable from receiving apparatuses, and data to be shared was sent by exchanging storage media among plural persons or via a network.

Transmitting and receiving system, transmitting apparatus and receiving apparatus

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) includes: a battery, a hybrid starter generator (HSG) starting an engine, and a controller that identifies a state of charge (SOC) of the battery upon when a reverse gear input is detected, determines whether to charge the battery by the HSG based on the identified SOC of the battery. In particular, the controller controls battery charging in a charging control mode based on a SOC level of the battery when it is determined that the HSG needs to charge the battery.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
A HEV refers to a vehicle using two or more types of different driving sources, and generally means a vehicle driven by an engine generating driving power through burning fuel and a motor generating driving power using electric energy of a battery. Many new technologies are applied to the HEV to increase fuel efficiency and transmission efficiency while a vehicle weight is reduced. Nowadays, technologies that increase transmission efficiency and fuel economy, and reduce weight and cost, are attracting attention, by removing the reverse gear of the transmission mounted on the HEV.
When parts associated with a reverse gear is removed to improve the efficiency and to reduce the cost and weight of the HEV, a motor is reversely driven after the first gear is engaged upon inputting the reverse gear. At this time, the motor receives power from a high voltage battery and then is reversely driven. When the state of charge (SOC) of a battery is sufficient, the motor is reversed sufficiently using the energy of the battery in a situation where an engine is stopped (OFF). On the other hand, when the SOC of the battery is low, the engine is operated (ON) to supply charging energy to the battery through the regeneration operation of a hybrid starter generator (HSG), and then the charged energy is supplied to the motor; accordingly, it is possible to reverse a vehicle.
In a situation where the battery SOC is determined to be low SOC, the battery charging technology uses the conventional HSG in a single mode to charge the high voltage battery. When a user reverses the vehicle under various environmental conditions, the HSG charging control technology in the single mode not only prevents smoothly reverse driving, but also has poor charging efficiency.

Hybrid electric vehicle and charge control method therefor


A switching converter for power factor correction which has-input terminals, an inductive storage element coupled to the input terminals, a rectifier arrangement, a control arrangement, and a damping circuit. The rectifier arrangement is connected to the inductive storage element and has output terminals for providing an output voltage. The control arrangement is configured to control a current drawn by the inductive storage element. The control arrangement is also configured to magnetize the inductive storage element during an actuation period for a magnetization time, demagnetize it for a demagnetization time, and wait a waiting time before a subsequent magnetization time. The damping circuit is coupled to the inductive storage element, and is configured to be activated and deactivated dependent at least in part on a magnetization state of the inductive storage element.

A power factor correction circuit is usually of a boost converter and comprises an inductive storage element, a rectifier arrangement connected to the inductive storage element, for providing an output voltage, and a switch connected to the inductive storage element. The switch controls the current drawn by the inductive storage element on the basis of the output voltage and is connected up such that the storage element absorbs energy via input terminals, and is magnetized as a result, when the switch is closed, and outputs the absorbed energy to the rectifier arrangement, and is demagnetized as a result, when the switch is subsequently opened.
A switching converter of this kind can be operated with continuous current draw or with discontinuous current draw (Discontinuous Current Mode, DCM). The mode of operation with continuous current draw is also called non-intermittent operation, whereas the mode of operation with discontinuous current draw is also called intermittent operation. In the case of non-intermittent operation, the switch is switched on again, during a demagnetization phase of the inductive storage element, when the storage element is fully demagnetized. In the case of intermittent operation, a waiting time is waited after complete demagnetization before the switch is switched on again.
A power factor correction circuit operating in intermittent mode is described in DE 103 55 670 B4.
During the waiting time after complete demagnetization of the inductive storage element and before the switch is switched on again, oscillations may occur which are caused by an LC resonant circuit which comprises the inductive storage element and parasitic capacitances, particularly a parasitic capacitance of the switch. These oscillations decay more slowly the higher the quality of the inductive storage element used.
These oscillations can result in distortions in the average current draw, which is intended to be proportional to an applied input voltage in the case of a power factor correction circuit. Depending on the phase angle of the oscillation at which the switch is switched on again, the energy absorbed by the inductive storage element may vary from actuation period to actuation period, even at a constant input voltage, which results in distortion of the current draw.

Switching converter having an activatable and deactivatable damping circuit


A racket including a pair of frames each having a head portion and a handle portion formed integral with each other, an annular space formed between the head portions, and an envelope engaged on a ring which is engaged in the annular space formed by the head portions of the frames, whereby, the envelope and the ring can be easily engaged in the head portions. The envelope forms a ball striking surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a racket, and more particularly to a racket for play and sports.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One type of tennis racket is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,634 to Berluti, filed Nov. 29, 1979, entitled "TENNIS RACKETS". In this racket, the counter frame 6 and the outer rigid frame 4 are fixed to the annular support 2 by four or more screws 7. The frames 2, 4, 6 should be drilled with holes such that the screws 7 can be threadedly engaged. The strength of the frames will therefore decreased.
Another type of racket is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,734,499 to Goldstein, filed Dec. 28, 1971, entitled "RACKET WITH RESILIENT SURFACE". In this racket, in order to support the membrane 15, the rods 23, 24, 25, 26 should be assembled in the head portion 12 individually. The assembling operation thereof is complicated.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages of the conventional racket frames.

Tung Yang Li, Feng Yuan City, Taichung Hsien


A method for low-temperature plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition of a silicon-nitrogen-containing film on a substrate. The method includes providing a substrate in a process chamber, exciting a reactant gas in a remote plasma source, thereafter mixing the excited reactant gas with a silazane precursor gas, and depositing a silicon-nitrogen-containing film on the substrate from the excited gas mixture in a chemical vapor deposition process. In one embodiment of the invention, the reactant gas can contain a nitrogen-containing gas to deposit a SiCNH film. In another embodiment of the invention, the reactant gas can contain an oxygen-containing gas to deposit a SiCNOH film.

Silicon-containing films are used for a wide variety of applications in the semiconductor industry. Silicon-containing films include silicon films such as polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) and epitaxial silicon, silicon germanium (SiGe), silicon germanium carbide (SiGeC), silicon carbide (SiC), silicon nitride (SiN), silicon carbonitride (SiCN), and silicon carboxide (SiCO). Various physical and/or chemical deposition techniques are routinely employed for silicon-containing film deposition, and often more than one technique may be used to deposit a particular film. The preferred deposition method is determined by considering the desired film properties, physical and/or chemical constraints imposed by the device being fabricated, and economic factors associated with the manufacturing process. The selected process is often the one that provides an acceptable trade-off to address the pertinent technical and economic concerns.
Thermally excited chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a common technique used to deposit materials for integrated circuit fabrication. In a typical embodiment, a substrate (wafer) is placed in a low-pressure process chamber and maintained at a controlled temperature. The substrate is exposed to gaseous ambient of one or more precursors that contain the chemical elements to be incorporated in the film. The gaseous precursors are transported to the substrate surface and combine via one or more chemical reactions to form a solid film. The conditions of the reactor chamber, substrate, and precursor are typically chosen to favor chemical reactions that produce films with the desired physical, chemical, and electrical properties.
A plasma can be employed to alter or enhance the film deposition mechanism. A deposition process that employs a plasma is generally referred to as a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). In general, a plasma is formed in a vacuum reactor by exposing a gas mixture to a RF signal and exciting electrons to energies sufficient to sustain ionizing collisions with a supplied process gas. Moreover, the excited electrons can have energy sufficient to sustain dissociative collisions and, therefore, a specific set of gases under predetermined conditions (e.g., chamber pressure, gas flow rate, etc.) are chosen to produce a population of charged species and chemically reactive species suitable to the particular process being performed within the chamber.
Plasma excitation generally allows film-forming reactions to proceed at temperatures that are significantly lower than those typically required to produce a similar film by thermally excited CVD. In addition, plasma excitation may activate film-forming chemical reactions that are not energetically or kinetically favored in thermal CVD. The chemical and physical properties of PECVD films may thus be varied over a relatively wide range by adjusting process parameters.
SiN has been widely used in semiconductor devices as a passivation film, a diffusion barrier, and an etch-stop film. Device quality SiN films have been deposited by PECVD using silane (SiH4) and ammonia (NH3) or thermal CVD using dichlorosilane (SiH2Cl2) and NH3. However, the explosive behavior of SiH4 and corrosive behavior of SiH2Cl2 requires strict control over processing conditions and careful handling of the process effluent. Furthermore, deposition of SiN films from SiH2Cl2 require high deposition temperatures that are incompatible with advanced device processing requiring a low thermal budget. New low-thermal CVD processes have been developed for depositing SiN films using bis-(tert-butylamino)silane (BTBAS) and hexachlorodisilane (HCD) but alternative deposition methods are required that can provide improved device performance, lower thermal budget, and reduced maintenance of the processing system.

Low-temperature plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition of silicon-nitrogen-containing films


A general purpose microprocessor architecture enabling more efficient computations of a type in which Boolean operations and arithmetic operations conditioned on the results of the Boolean operations are interleaved. The microprocessor is provided with a plurality of general purpose registers ("GPRs" 102) and an arithmetic logic unit ("ALU" 104), capable of performing arithmetic operations and comparison operations. The ALU has a first input (108) and a second input (110), and an output (112), the first and second inputs receiving values stored in the GPRs. The output stores the results of the arithmetic logic unit operations in the GPRs. At least one of the GPRs is capable of receiving directly from the ALU a result of a Boolean operation. In one embodiment, at least one of the GPRs (PN) capable of receiving directly from the ALU a result of a Boolean operation is configured so as to cause the conditioning of an arithmetic operation of the ALU based on the value stored in the GPR.

Microprocessors, such as general purpose microprocessors, digital signal processors, and the like, typically include an arithmetic logic unit ("ALU") and a set of registers, sometimes referred to as general purpose registers ("GPRs"), where the operands to be operated on by the ALU can be accessed by the ALU, either immediately or one or more cycles later, in an ALU operation, and where the results of ALU operations can be immediately stored in an ALU operation.
In addition to the operations of addition and subtraction, ALUs may also have the capability of performing Boolean operations, such as compare, logical OR, bitwise OR, AND, or the like. The results of such operations, Boolean values, are typically stored in a register separate from the GPRs, for example in a status register. However, the Boolean values thus stored are not as accessible to the ALU as values stored in a GPR. In other words, more processor cycles are needed to, for example, to present such Boolean values to the ALU as an input, should it be desired to do so, as compared with presenting a GPR value as an input to the ALU, which is typically done in the same clock cycle in which the ALU operation is performed.
Nonetheless, it has been discovered that in some operations executed in microprocessors processing efficiencies can be realized by the exploitation of certain inventive advances applied to the microprocessor architecture, as disclosed hereinbelow.
One such operation arises in the execution of code implementing convolutional coding. Convolutional coding is a technique that has been used for a number of years, particularly in the form of Viterbi coding, in the area of transmission and reception of digital data. See, for example, The Principles of Digital Communication and Coding, by Andrew J. Viterbi and Jim K. Omura, published by McGraw-Hill in 1979, and "The Viterbi Algorithm," by G. David Forney, Jr., Proc. IEEE, V. 61, No. 3, pp. 268-278, March 1973. The Viterbi coding technique is widely used as a forward error correction technique for removing noise from digital radio signals.
Basically, convolutional codes are codes generated from a stream of digital data wherein the data is convoluted by being operated on by generator polynomials, the operations being performed modulo 2. Encoding can be regarded as being performed with respect to a finite number of internal states specific to the encoder. These states and the transitions between them can be represented in the form of a trellis. A path within such trellis represents an encoded sequence, analogous to a code word. Encoding a digital bit stream therefore involves crossing the trellis along one possible path, each new bit of the stream of information determining a branch in the path an causing the simultaneous transmission of code bits relating to the path followed.
The code bits are transmitted through a transmission medium to a receiver and an associated decoder. The transmission medium will, in general, have properties such as noise, interference, jamming, etc., that prevent the receiver from receiving the code bits error free. Decoding at the receiving end, therefore, involves taking the received stream of code bits and reconstructing the trellis path taken by the encoder at the transmitting end in generating the code bits, so as to thereby recover the sequence of information bits that caused such path to be selected in the encoding process. This, in turn, involves, first, reconstruction of the trellis, second determination of the lengths of the shortest path to each possible end state in the trellis, third selection of the end state having the shortest such path and, finally, recreating the original data stream from the selected shortest path by the application of a decoding algorithm. The determination of these shortest paths through the trellis is computationally intensive, typically involving the accumulation of possible shortest paths by comparison of lengths of subsets of all paths, and further comparisons of possible shortest paths to narrow down the selection to the final, shortest path.
A number of designs of encoders and decoders based on convolutional codes such as the Viterbi algorithm, that attempt to reduce the computation time have been proposed and implemented. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,257,263, entitled "Circuit for Decoding Convolutional Codes for Executing the Survivor Path Storage and Reverse Scanning Stage of a Viterbi Algorithm," which issued on Oct. 26, 1993 to Bazet, et al., and which was assigned to Alcatel Transmission Par Faisceaux Hertziens, as well as U.S. Pat. No. 5,331,665, entitled "Decoder Device for Decoding Convolutionally Encoded Message," which issued on Jul. 19, 1994 to Busschaert, et al., and which was assigned to Alcatel N.V.
One disadvantage of such designs is that they typically involve the use of specialized hardware, for example to optimize the shortest path determinations, which is costly. It would be desirable to use, for example, a general purpose microprocessor or digital signal processor, to perform such determinations in Viterbi encoding and/or decoding. On the other hand, it is desirable to perform such determinations without sacrifice of speed, as compared with specialized hardware. attempt to provide a scheme by which a generalized signal processor might be used to process the Viterbi algorithm is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,331,664, entitled "Device for Processing the Viterbi Algorithm Comprising a Processor and a Dedicated Operator," which issued on Jul. 19, 1994 to Desperben, et al., and which was assigned to Alcatel Radiotelephone. The scheme disclosed in this patent uses a processor and dedicated operator to perform a Viterbi forward pass. It computes and compares the accumulated distances. The bit result of the comparison is then fed into a shift register. However, it has control modules and registers that are separate from the processor. In addition, a bit is shifted in on each compare. For an n-way Viterbi implementation, n-1 compares are necessary. Thus, n-1 bits are produced, which are more bits than it is desired to be generated.
Therefore, it is desired to have a method and apparatus that allows the performance of the Viterbi algorithm on a general purpose digital signal processor that do not suffer from the aforementioned limitations.
Further, it is desired to have a microprocessor architecture that increases the efficiency of the execution of certain operations found, for example, in Viterbi algorithms, involving manipulation of Boolean values.
The present invention provides these benefits.

Manipulation of boolean values and conditional operation in a microprocessor


The present invention relates to novel compounds derived from indazoles or indoles of formula (1) or formula (2), to methods for treating tumors or cancerous cells with compounds of formula (1) or formula (2) and to pharmacaetutical compositions comprising a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier and a compound of formula (1) or formula (2)

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to novel chemical compounds derived from indazoles or indoles, and to their use in human medicine and more particularly in oncology.
2. Description of the Art
The compounds of the present invention act more particularly as agents that bind to tubulin and possibly inhibit the vascularization of tumours. The microtubules of eukaryotic cells constitute a dynamic assembly and disassembly system in which tubulin dimers polymerize to form microtubules. In cancerous cells, the agents that inhibit the polymerization of the microtubules similarly inhibit mitosis and consequently the proliferation of cells and thus allow the death of the cell.
Numerous agents that inhibit microtubule polymerization are currently marketed. Mention may be made of vinca alkaloids, colchicine and its derivatives, and combretastatins.
Novel antitubulin agents are constantly being sought, making it possible to act on cells that are resistant to the treatments currently available on the market or treatments that show lower toxicity or higher selectivity for any given type of cancer. A product for inhibiting tumour vascularization is also being sought.

Indazole or indole derivatives, and use thereof in human medicine and more particularly in oncology


Systems, methods, and computer media for determining the angle of a target object with respect to a device are provided herein. Target object information captured at approximately the same time by at least two cameras can be received. The target object information can comprise images or distances from the target object to the corresponding camera. An angle between the target object and the device can be determined based on the target object information. When the target object information includes images, the angle can be determined based on a correlation between two images. When the target object information includes distances from the target object to the corresponding camera, the angle can be calculated geometrically.

Computing device capabilities have advanced dramatically in recent years. Mobile devices in particular have experienced tremendous gains in processing power, enabling, among other things, advanced audio and video recording capabilities. Many capabilities, including audio and video recording capabilities, can benefit from identification of a target. The target may be a source of desired audio, a desired video subject, or be otherwise of interest to a user.
Mobile devices and other consumer devices are often used in noisy environments with a variety of audio sources, background noises, and objects in the visual display. Separating extraneous information from information related to the target can provide higher quality information to the user. For example, in audio noise reduction, source separation algorithms have been developed to distinguish the portion of received audio that originates from a target from other sources. Audio and video recording capabilities that attempt to distinguish target information from other sources typically assume that the target is directly in front of and perpendicular to the device. Practically, however, both targets and devices acquiring information about targets often move during acquisition, shifting the actual focus away from the intended target.

Target object angle determination using multiple cameras


The method and apparatus for generating and employing a run-time generated stub to reference an object in an object oriented system. This method and apparatus represents in a first virtual machine a remote object implemented in a second virtual machine by employing a stub class. An object reference is sent by the second virtual machine and received by the first virtual machine. The object reference includes an interface descriptor that identifies the interface(s) of the remote object and an object handle that identifies the remote object. At run-time, the information associated with the remote object is transformed into a stub class that represents the remote object and implements only those interfaces identified by the interface descriptor and also defined by the first virtual machine. After the stub class is created, an instance of that stub class is generated and provided to the first virtual machine. In an alternative embodiment, an interface specific stub is created for each interface that is identified by the interface descriptor and defined by the first virtual machine. The interface specific stub is created at compile time. A delegator stub class is created at run-time that delegates to the interface specific stub(s).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the fields of distributed computer systems, client-server computing, and object oriented programming. Specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for clients on different machines to communicate references to remote objects such that the receiving machine has as much information as wanted, neither more nor less, of the type of the remote object.
2. Background
In client-server computing, typically there is a set of computers that can communicate with one another through a network connecting the computers. A first computer in the network that is referred to as a client sends a request to a second computer in the network that is referred to as a server. In response to the request, the server takes action and generally provides data representing the results of the action to the client. The client-server model also generalizes to the case where distinct processes, running on the same computer, are communicating with one another through some protected mechanism and are acting as server and clients.
For examples of client-server systems see: (i) J. K. Ousterhout et al, "Medusa: An Experiment in Distributed Operating System Structure", Communications of the ACM 23(2),1980; (ii) R. M. Needham and A. J. Herbert, "The Cambridge Distributed Computing System", Addison-Wesley, 1982; and (iii) J. K. Ousterhout et al "The Sprite Distributed Operating System", IEEE Computer, 1988.
Object-oriented programs have proven very useful in the design and implementation of computer systems. Object oriented systems are known, but are described briefly here for completeness. In an object-oriented environment, computer instructions represent objects which have a state and a behavior. Components of the state of an object and the behavior of the object are defined by a class to which the object belongs. A class defines a number of attributes and member functions of the object which belong to the class. An attribute is a component of the state of an object and the value of an attribute can vary from one object of a class to another object of the class. For example, a class of tables can define a color attribute. Each object of the class of tables has a color attribute, but the value of the color attribute of one table can specify the color red while the value of the color attribute of another table can specify the color green. A member function is a collection of computer instructions and data which collectively define a task which can be performed by an object. For example, a table can be asked to bear a weight, and the behavior of the table in bearing the weight is defined by the member function provided by the table class for bearing a weight. In addition, the member function provided by the table class is performed in the context of the state of the particular table which is bearing the weight. For example, the state of a table can include various dimensions of the table, the materials from which the table is made, and the amount of weight already supported by the table. The specific behavior of the table in bearing the weight can include, for example, changes in the state of the table including adding the weight to the amount of weight already supported by the table or breaking under the additional weight.
A particularly helpful feature of object-oriented environments is generally referred to as inheritance. Inheritance refers to inheritance of attributes and member functions of one class from another class according to a class hierarchy. Each class can have one or more subclasses, each of which can add attributes and/or member functions and can redefine member functions. For example, a desk class is a subclass of the table class and defines an additional attribute which specifies the number of drawers of the desk. Thus, in addition to an attribute which defines the number of drawers of the desk, a desk inherits from the table class the color attribute and the attributes specifying various dimensions of the desk. Furthermore, a desk can perform the weight bearing member function described above and the behavior of the desk in performing the weight bearing member function is defined by the table class. The desk class can define additional member functions not defined by the table class, e.g., an open drawer member function, a place object in drawer member function, a remove object from drawer member function, and a close drawer member function. As described above, a subclass can also redefine an inherited member function, thereby superseding the inherited definition of the member function. For example, the table class can have a subclass which is a folding table class. The weight bearing member function described above can be redefined by the folding table class such that a folding table asked to bear a weight is verified to be in an unfolded, upright position prior to bearing any weight.
A member function defined by a class is performed by directing an object of the class to perform the member function. The particular member function performed is selected according to the class to which the object belongs. If the class to which the object belongs does not define such a member function, the member function is selected from the superclass which defines the member function and for which no subclass defines the member function. A first class is a superclass of a second class if the second class is a subclass of the first class. The member function is performed in the context of the state of the object directed to perform the member function. As described above, the particular behavior of a table which is directed to perform the weight bearing member function described above depends on the state of the table, including the particular dimensions of the table, the materials from which the table is made, and the amount of weight already supported by the table. For further description of object-oriented design and programming techniques, see B. Meyer, "Object-Oriented Software Construction", (Prentice-Hall, 1988).
In a distributed object-oriented computer system, clients are typically given object handles to reference remote objects. A remote object is an object whose class is implemented on a process that is different from the process where the object handle resides. Often, a remote object is implemented on a machine (hereinafter known as a remote machine) that is remote from the machine (hereinafter known as the local machine) where the object handle resides. The object handle identifies a remote object and enables invocation of the member functions of the remote object by the client. If a given client has an object handle referencing a particular remote object, then that client can pass a copy of that object handle to another client. The second client can then use the object handle to access the remote object and to invoke member functions of the remote object. Stub objects are typically employed in a local machine to reference a remote object whose class is implemented on a machine that is remote from the local machine.
For further description of object-oriented distributed systems, see (i) E. D. Lazowska et al "The Eden System: A Technical Review", IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering SE-11(1), January 1985; (ii) Jul et al "Fine Grained Mobility in the Emerald System", ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, 6(1), 1988; and (iii) B Liskov, "Distributed Programming in Argus", Communications of the ACM, 31(3), 1988.
Another helpful feature of object-oriented environments is referred to as interfaces. An interface is a collection of member function definitions without implementation. A programmer can employ interfaces to specify the member functions an object can perform. An interface defines the inputs, outputs, attributes, and exceptions of the member functions without the implementation. Implementations of a member function are the computer instructions that are executed by the computer to perform the member functions. While an interface specifies the inputs, outputs, attributes and exceptions of a member function, the interface does not include any computer instructions (i.e., the implementation of the member function). An object can have one or more interfaces. A class that specifies an interface typically includes implementation to perform all the member functions of the interface.
When the remote object includes multiple interfaces, a problem arises as to what extent the stub object on the local machine describes the interfaces of the remote object. Prior art systems address this problem using one of the following approaches.
In a first approach, the stub class in the local machine defines only the interface of the remote object that is explicitly requested prior to invoking a member function of that particular interface on the local machine. At any given time, the stub class (hereinafter referred to as the interface-specific stub class) only implements one of the interfaces of the remote object denoted by the stub. One disadvantage of this first approach is that any object instantiated from this stub class inaccurately responds to queries as to interface type on interface different to the one specifically requested.
A software language construct can be employed to query an object as to the object's interfaces (also referred to as interface type). For example, in JAVA the command instanceof (obj) yields a true or false to indicate whether the object includes the specified interface. Since, in this approach, the stub object does not accurately define all the interfaces of the remote object, these interface type queries cannot be used with confidence. For example, the stub object on the local machine can indicate that a particular interface is not included in a remote object where, in fact, the remote object includes that interface.
In a second approach, the stub class, associated with the remote object, defines and implements all the interfaces of the remote object. Although an object instantiated from this stub class will respond correctly to inquiries as to interface type, this approach requires the exporting of interfaces from the remote machine to the local machine, even for interfaces that are never used in the local machine. Moreover, this approach is inefficient and also opens security issues that need to be addressed.
For example, let us consider a remote object including three interfaces (interface A, interface B, and interface C). Interface A defines member functions X, Y and Z; interface C defines member functions Q, R and S, and interface B defines member function P. If any one of the member functions X, Y, Z, Q, R, S, or P are to be invoked on the local machine, a stub class is created that implements interfaces A, B and C regardless of whether member functions of those interfaces are ever invoked on the local machine.
An important and heretofore unsolved problem in distributed object oriented systems described using a language with a strong type system, is how to represent an object handle of a remote object so as to take advantage of the strong type system in the client machine and so as to ensure the object handle correctly identifies all interfaces of a remote object that are supported by the virtual machine on which the client application resides without having to export unnecessary implementation of interfaces not used by the local machine.

Method and apparatus for generating and employing a run-time generated stub to reference an object in object oriented systems


Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for determining when to search a native application corpus for native applications and insert native application search results into a set of general web search results in response to receiving a query.

This specification describes technologies relating to triggering the searching of and the ranking of native application content relative to web page resources.
The Internet provides access to a wide variety of information. For example, digital image files, video and/or audio files, as well as web page resources for particular subjects or particular news articles, are accessible over the Internet. With respect to web page resources, many of these resources are designed to facilitate the performing of particular functions, such as banking, booking hotel reservations, shopping, etc., or to provide structured information, such as on-line encyclopedias, movie databases, etc. With the advent of tablet computers and smart phones, native applications that facilitate the performance of the same functions facilitated by the use of web page resources are now being provided in large numbers.
Additionally, native applications that do not have websites with synchronous content, such as games, are also very popular on tablet computers and smart phones. Many of these latter types of native applications also have web pages that are descriptive of the native application, such as a product page that can be browsed using a web browser. The product page may include screen shots of the native application, user ratings, and the like.
Search engines now also facilitate searching of these native applications. A user's informational need may thus be satisfied by providing search results that identify either one (or both) of a particular web page resource that describes a native application, and a search results for the native application itself.

Triggering and ranking of native applications


A maximum power point tracking (MPPT) device is provided that includes a converter, having a switched mode topology, where the switched mode topology includes a boost topology that establishes a variable transfer ratio between a variable input voltage and a variable output voltage of the converter, where the switched mode topology changes according to a power load on a power generator. The MPPT device further includes a control section, where the control section maximizes an output power of the power generator by controlling the variable transfer ratio, where the MPPT device optimizes an electrical operating point of the power generator.

PV arrays are generally built by arranging multiple individual PV cells into a larger panel. These cells can either be connected in series or in parallel or a combination of both. Larger arrays may also include multiple panels. One single PV cell has only one unambiguous optimum operating point for a given rate of insolation and temperature. If all cells in a PV array are identical and subjected to equal insolation and temperature conditions, the array as a whole will also have only one single optimum operating point. The total output power at this point will be the sum of the power optima of all individual cells. If however the individual cells do not have completely identical properties due to production tolerances or aging, or if not all cells experience equal insolation due to fouling, damage or partial shading, the total output power will be less than the sum of the individual optima. The maximum achievable output power of such an array will be sub-optimal. It may even have multiple local maxima in its power curve, which makes finding the true optimum difficult.
When connecting panels in parallel the voltage across their terminals will be equal by definition. If the panels are not identical or if they experience different insolation or temperature conditions, the panels will have different voltages where their maximum power points occur. This implies that it will be impossible to find a load that will cause each panel to work at its optimum operating point. Analogues, when connecting panels in series their current will be forced equal. This also prevents each panel to work at its maximum power point (MPP) if they are not completely identical or subjected to different conditions. A maximum power point tracker (MPPT) connected to a PV array having multiple panels can at best reach an average optimum point of operation, where none of the individual panels may work at their MPP.
Up to now finding the peak in the power curve only of PV panels has been considered. For small PV panels this locking to the nearest peak in the power curve from the current point of operation is adequate since these typically exhibit one single maximum power point. Large PV arrays however, may show multiple power peaks and valleys if the individual PV cells are ill matched or exposed to unequal lighting conditions or temperature. Without further measures a MPPT will lock to one of these peaks, which may or may not be the peak with the highest magnitude.
In other applications, a single MPPT is used for the entire PV array. These MPPTs need an elaborate way of control in order to handle the potential presence of multiple peaks in the power curve.
To address the needs in the art, maximum power point tracking performed locally for each panel is provided. The output power of these individual MPPTs can then be summed and fed to the load.

Photo-voltaic maximum power point trackers


Disclosed are undercoat layers comprising a metal oxide, a polymer, and a citrate of Formula (I):

Disclosed herein, in various embodiments, are undercoat layers useful in various imaging members and the imaging members themselves. Among other things, the undercoat layers can be readily removed, allowing the substrate to be more easily recycled.
Electrophotographic imaging members, i.e. photoreceptors, typically include a photoconductive layer formed on an electrically conductive substrate. The photoconductive layer is an insulator in the dark so that electric charges can be retained on its surface. Upon exposure to light, the charge is dissipated.
An electrostatic latent image is formed on the photoreceptor by first uniformly depositing an electric charge over the surface of the photoconductive layer by one of the many known means in the art. The photoconductive layer functions as a charge storage capacitor with charge on its free surface and an equal charge of opposite polarity on the conductive substrate. A light image is then projected onto the photoconductive layer. The portions of the layer that are not exposed to light retain their surface charge. After development of the latent image with toner particles to form a toner image, the toner image is usually transferred to a receiving substrate, such as paper.
A photoconductive imaging member may comprise a supporting substrate, an optional electrically conductive layer, an optional adhesive layer, a charge generating layer, a charge transport layer, and an optional protective or overcoat layer. One or more of these layers may also be combined or added to other layers to form the imaging member.
Conventional electrophotographic imaging members may also comprise an undercoat layer located between the substrate and charge generating layer. Some examples of conventional undercoat layers can be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,265,990, 4,921,769, 5,958,638, 6,132,912, 6,287,737, and 6,444,386, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. In particular, such undercoat layers may be applied directly on the substrate.
Undercoat layers are desirable because they extend the functional lifetime for photoreceptors and enable the use of less expensive substrates. They may also assist in the adhesion of the photosensitive layers to the substrate. Undercoat layers also prevent foreign materials such as carbon fiber penetration into photoreceptors thus preventing "color spots."
It may be desirable to recycle the substrate at the end of an imaging member's service life. However, the various layers deposited on the substrate of the imaging member must be removed before the substrate can be reused or sold. The process for removing these layers, known as substrate reclamation, is an expensive and somewhat time-consuming process. An example of a substrate reclamation process which includes lathing and cleaning photoreceptor substrates is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,346,556.
It would be desirable to develop an undercoat layer that allows for easy removal of the coating layers on the substrate without sacrificing performance of the electrophotographic imaging member.

Undercoat layer and imaging members comprising same

Abstract: wherein R1 is H, alkyl, or COR′; wherein R′ is alkyl; and wherein R2, R3, and R4 are independently alkyl. The undercoat layers are useful in imaging members because they are easily separated from the substrate. This reduces the number of steps necessary to reclaim the substrate.