The present invention relates generally to the storage and/or retrieval of information on magnetic storage media by using one or more novel approaches alone or in combination. These novel approaches are capable of using at least one code which may comprise more than two values (i.e., more than a “0” and a “1”). A series of approaches applies generally to existing electric and/or magnetic storage/retrieval systems (e.g., magnetic, magneto-optic, etc.) as well as other novel electrical/magnetic systems. Each series of approaches is capable of storing information in one or more codes, wherein such approaches permit, if desired, the use of at least one higher order code which is different from the traditional binary code of “0's” and “1's” currently utilized for the storage of digital information. Said at least one higher order code may comprise three or more optical and/or magnetic values or bits that are used to represent, for example, ASCII or Unicode characters that are currently represented predominately by the traditional binary code. This higher order code may also be an analog or analog-like code.

Data storage devices have been becoming smaller in size (as well as faster) due to, for example, the continued improvement in the ability to store more information in smaller spaces. For example, over the past twenty years the ability to place more data on magnetic storage media such as magnetized hard-disk drives and/or floppy disks, as well as on optical media (e.g., compact disks "CD's" and more recently, Digital Versatile Disk "DVD's") has been increasing at a phenomenal pace. The impressive increase in the ability to store more data in smaller areas has been one of the main driving forces for rendering computers, and other electronic devices with reasonably sized memories, accessible to a typical home or small business consumer. Further, the high operating speeds of microprocessors have required stored data in computers to be rapidly accessible (e.g., both the rate at which information is delivered to a microprocessor as well as the amount of time it takes between the time that a microprocessor requests a file and when the first piece of data begins to flow from the file to the microprocessor are important). Magnetic memory has undergone many recent improvements and has been utilized extensively in data storage/retrieval devices because magnetic memory currently provides the least expensive alternative for the fast writing and reading capabilities for data. However, the various currently utilized magnetic technologies face a variety of technical challenges and appear to be headed for a stopping point. Specifically, these various approaches for the storage and/or retrieval of information may no longer be capable of meeting the growing demands of the industry, without experiencing significant technical enhancements.
For applications where speed has historically been less important, various optical technologies have been growing in popularity. Many technical advances have been made in the recording and/or retrieval of information by optical means. In systems which use compact disks ("CD's"), compact disk read-only memory ("CD-ROM's") and/or Direct Video Disks ("DVD's"), the storage and/or retrieval of information has also been of great interest. For example, the first CD's manufactured were CD-ROM's that are currently capable of storing about 650 MB of data. This equates to about 74 minutes of play-time for music that has been recorded in a typical recording mode.
In particular, the standard current approach for utilizing CD-ROM's, includes the use of a solid state interrogating laser (or in some cases more than one laser) which has a wavelength of about 780 nanometers (0.78 μm). The standard CD-ROM is about 12 cm in total diameter and has a thickness of about 1.2 mm. The standard CD-ROM has information recorded on plateaus ("bumps") and valleys ("pits") that spiral from the inside of the disk toward the outside of the disk. The digital data stored in the tracks that comprise the spirals must be separated by enough space (e.g., tracks are typically separated radially by about 1.6 μm) so that when the data is read with an interrogating solid state laser, crosstalk from adjacent tracks does not occur (i.e., recorded information is received from only one track at a time). Accordingly, the placement of more information onto a typical CD has been limited by the required size (e.g., length and width) of the plateaus ("bumps") and valleys ("pits"). The size of the plateaus and valleys (e.g., typically not less than 830 nanometers in length) has been a function of various factors, including the wavelength of the laser utilized to read the information from the CD.
Various attempts have been made to increase the memory capacity of current CD's, including the stacking of a plurality of disks one on top of the other so as to provide more memory space, as well as other attempts to miniaturize the digitized information stored in the tracks.
The most recent significant improvements in this type of optical storage/retrieval technology have been the creation of the DVD, which is known as the "Direct Video Disk" or the "Digital Versatile Disk". The first commercial products of DVD's entered the marketplace in late 1997. The DVD technology is similar to the technology in CD's, except that, for example, the wavelength of lasers utilized to read information from DVD's is smaller than that used for CD's, namely, about 635 nanometers or 650 nanometers, compared to about 780 nanometers for CD's. The size of the plateaus ("bumps") that make up the DVD are about 320 nanometers wide, a minimum of about 400 nanometers long and about 120 nanometers thick. About 740 nanometers separate one track from the next, compared to the about 1600 nanometer separation of tracks in CD's. A standard DVD is physically about the same size as a CD, but has a memory capacity that is about seven times greater than that of CD's. In particular, the memory capacity of a one-sided, one-track, DVD is now about 4.7 GB. However, recent improvements in DVD have allowed digital information to be placed on both sides of a single track, as well as both sides of a double track. In this regard, a first interrogating laser reads the digitized data on a first side of a first track (i.e., in the form of bits arranged in a spiral track that begin in the innermost portion of the DVD and spirals outward). Then, information can be retrieved from the opposite side of the first track in a similar manner from a second laser; however, the spiral track of information typically begins on the outermost portion of the disk and spirals inward toward the center. Accordingly, when dual-track, dual-sided DVD disks are used, the current amount of memory that can be achieved is about 17 GB.
Another optical data storage technique which shows promise is known as holographic memory. The potential for high storage capacity and high storage retrieval rates using the holographic technique is tremendous. In particular, for example, recent work in a system known as Holographic Data Storage System ("HDSS"), has shown that data can be accessed in 100 microseconds or less, which is several orders of magnitude faster than the millisecond retrieval of data in typical magnetic-disk drives. Briefly, in this technology, an optical-interference pattern is created within a desired photosensitive material (e.g., a crystal or a polymer). The optical interference pattern is imprinted as a result of physical changes in such materials. The interference pattern is created by the interaction between an object beam and a reference beam, both of which typically originate from a single light source (e.g., a laser), but are split into two different pathways by a beam splitter. Specifically, the object beam is incident on a target object that contains data, and modifies the object beam, while the reference beam, taking a separate path which leaves it unmodified, interferes with the object beam at the holographic storage medium. When the two beams meet at the holographic storage means, the interference pattern which results from their interaction is stored on or in the holographic storage means. The holographic storage means is later interrogated by a reading or reference beam, which upon interacting with the holographically stored interference pattern, can then recreate the holographic image containing the data originally stored in the object beam.
While the holographic optical technique shows great promise for the future, current industrial emphasis is being placed primarily on improving existing digital optical and magnetic storage/retrieval systems so that more information can be stored in smaller spaces, and retrieval times can be decreased without significantly changing the basic methodology and hardware for the storing and retrieving of information.
With regard to placing more data onto magnetic recording media, effects such as the paramagnetic effect (e.g., magnetic crosstalk between magnetic domains comprising bits) are already beginning to cause problems. Experts have postulated that in coming years, magnetic storage technologies could reach a limit imposed by the superparamagnetic effect ("SPE"). The physical phenomenon known as SPE can occur in a magnetic data storage system when the magnetic spins of electrons in the domains which comprise a bit (e.g., in current technology typically either a "0" or a "1") become unstable due to, for example, the environmental thermal energy surrounding the bits. Instability of bits occurs when smaller and smaller numbers of domains or atoms are used to comprise a bit and the ability for the domains or atoms to maintain their given spin directions (e.g., corresponding to, for example, a "0" or a "1") becomes difficult. Non-maintenance of spin directions results in a "flipping" of spins back and forth and thus changing "0's" to "1's" and "1's" to "0's", etc. Such changing or flipping of spins will result in a corruption of the data or information that the "0's" and "1's" represent. Accordingly, in order for smaller numbers of atoms to be used to form a bit and in order for the bit to be viable, techniques and/or materials for preventing the superparamagnetic effect need to be developed to overcome the deficiencies of the prior art.
Another potential problem in recording information magnetically is that the write head which is used to align magnetic domains in the magnetic storage media may be limited in the ability to impart a required field strength over the entire domain area comprising a bit to cause the magnetic domains to behave as though they have been exposed to a substantially uniform field. In such cases, it is possible that differently oriented domains within a bit (e.g., differently oriented due to being subjected to different magnetic field strengths within a single writing head due to, for example, non-uniformity of the magnetic flux lines emanating from the write head and/or differently oriented because some domains require more energy than other domains to align due to, for example, their location within a bit) may have a higher tendency to become corrupted, as well as adding to signal/noise ratio problems.
One attempt for miniaturizing domains involves the use of so-called "hard" magnetic materials. The use of hard magnetic materials is desirable when compared to "soft" magnetic materials because hard magnetic materials are more likely to maintain their magnetic spin directions when domains comprising the hard magnetic materials are closely spaced. In this regard, various rare-earth and transition elements have been found to be magnetically stable and are thus termed "hard". Such magnetically stable materials are known to have a higher coercivity, which is typically represented by "Hc". Stated in an over simplified manner, the higher the Hc value, the greater the resistance of the material to outside influences, such as outside magnetic fields (e.g., the harder it is for material to lose its imprinted spin direction due to an increase in temperature and/or the influence of other magnetic fields, etc.). However, one drawback for utilizing "hard" magnetic materials is that hard magnetic materials are more difficult to magnetize than soft magnetic materials (e.g., in some cases, depending on the particular materials chosen, much more difficult to magnetize). This makes it more difficult to record data initially in hard magnetic materials. There are various known approaches for solving the problem of encoding data into hard magnetic materials which approaches utilize a laser in conjunction with an appropriate magnetic write head. These various approaches have been referred to generally as the "magneto-optical" approach. These magneto-optical approaches effectively reduce the Hc value of the magnetic domains by causing the domains to be locally heated just prior to being subjected to the magnetic write head. Thus, the coercivity (Hc) of the domains is effectively reduced and when such effective reduction in Hc has occurred, a somewhat standard write head, or in some cases a very different write head, can be used to alter favorably the magnetic domains. In other words, the use of a laser, which provides thermal energy to the domains of the hard magnetic material, causes the hard magnetic material to behave in a manner which is similar to a somewhat softer and thus easier to magnetize magnetic material.
Each of the known approaches for utilizing the magneto-optic techniques involves the use of at least one laser and/or at least one laser focusing system. However, one of the common problems facing these magneto-optical approaches is that the lasers that are utilized to soften the hard magnetic material prior to subjecting the hard magnetic material to a magnetic field is that the lasers typically generate excess amounts of heat that can flow to neighboring bits or tracks (e.g., thermal energy is caused to migrate to undesirable neighboring tracks or areas resulting in a potential corruption of stored information). Accordingly, various laser applications and/or storage solutions have been devised to minimize the transfer of heat from the laser to neighboring tracks, and thus minimize the loss of recorded information. However, to date this thermal transfer of laser energy still presents problems to varying degrees in all the prior art approaches.
One interesting technique for the reading of data in connection with one optical-magnetic system is the use of an effect known as the "Kerr effect", and more particularly, the "magneto-optical Kerr effect". Briefly, current uses of the magneto-optical Kerr effect involve incident polarized light being reflected from the surface of a magnetic domain in different ways, depending on the orientation of the magnetic domains (e.g., depending on electron spin directions). The changes in the reflected polarized light are made, by algorithms, to correspond to different digitized data. Specifically, when the incident polarized light encounters different magnetic field orientations (e.g., north or south domains comprising a bit which are ordered to represent either a "0" or a "1") the polarization state of the reflected light is changed.
Another approach to the digital storage of information that shows future promise is known as atomic resolution storage ("ARS"). This approach, similar to holographic techniques, is capable of storing tremendous amounts of information in a small amount of space. In this technique, generally, very small electron probes, which are used to generate electron beams, are formed into an array. The electron probes have tips that are roughly the size of atoms. The electron beams from the electron probes are made to be incident upon a storage medium so that the incident beams cause some sort of physical change in the storage medium (i.e., the medium comprising the computer memory). One example of such a storage medium is a material that is capable of containing at least two stable phases at ambient operating conditions so that an incident electron beam emitted from an electron probe changes the storage material from one phase to the other. In this technique, encoded bits of information are represented by the change in phase of the phase-change storage material. This technique, similar to the magneto-optical technique discussed above, also suffers from the problem of heat flowing between data spots created by the incident electron beams when the spots or bits are initially recorded. Accordingly, one of the challenges faced by this relatively new technology includes reducing the flow of heat between data spots which are created by the array of electron beam generators.
The retrieval of stored information is also a challenge. In this regard, as bits become smaller and include lesser numbers of magnetic domains per bit and/or the domains are oriented differently, (e.g., domains are aligned perpendicular to the substrate containing at least one magnetic surface thereon instead of being parallel to the substrate surface) such bits are capable of being packed more tightly together. Assuming that the bits are not corrupted by their tight packing and/or smaller numbers of magnetic domains and/or non-uniform alignment within a bit, then reading of these tighter packed domains comprising the bits also becomes a challenge which the prior art is still struggling to overcome. Historically, large numbers of magnetic domains were present in each bit which contained digital data. Thus, the resulting or induced magnetic fields were relatively large and various forms of known inductive reading techniques were sufficient to ascertain whether the hundreds or thousands of aligned domains in a bit corresponded to a "0" or a "1". However, as prior art miniaturization recording techniques progressed, the known inductive reading techniques were typically not sensitive enough to determine accurately the alignment of ever decreasing numbers of domains comprising a bit (e.g., signal to noise problems in the storage and/or retrieval of digital data bits were exacerbated).
The development of magnetoresistive heads, and the subsequent development of giant magnetoresistive heads, has enabled smaller numbers of domains comprising a digital bit to be read accurately. In both of magnetoresistive and giant magnetoresistive heads, the electrical resistance of one or more materials comprising the read head(s) is examined. In particular, both magnetoresistive and giant magnetoresistive heads are made from materials that exhibit small changes in their electrical resistance as a function of magnetic fields created by oriented domains to which such heads are exposed. Giant magnetoresistive heads are two or three times more sensitive than magnetoresistive heads due to their novel structure which includes layering of different materials stacked on top of each other. One problem that continues in these technologies is the presence of magnetization vortices in the recorded domains. Such vortices may result from the difficulty in achieving uniform domain alignment within a bit due to, for example, the difficulty in applying a required magnetic field (e.g., uniform field) to the domains during the recording or writing process.
While use of the magneto-optical Kerr effect and new read heads such as magnetoresistive heads and giant magnetoresistive heads have improved digital data retrieval techniques, further miniaturization is pushing the limits of these systems. Accordingly, additional improvements are necessary in the ability for hardware, combined with suitable programming, to detect even smaller numbers and/or smaller sizes of domains comprising digitized (or analog) data bits. Thus, additional innovations in the detection of stored data are required.
In addition to the storage of information digitally, the possibility or promise of storing information in an analog manner continues to intrigue various investigators. While certain improvements have been made in, for example, the processing of analog information (e.g., the advent of VLSI (Very Large Scale Interrogation) chips, the techniques for the storing of analog information need much improvement. Particularly, while analog computing has been known for several decades, an accurate and fast-paced system for the storage and retrieval of information has continued to elude researchers. In this regard, digital computing has received the greatest amount of attention because of it's relative dependability for the storing and retrieving of information in a "1" or a "0" digitized format. Briefly, digital approaches typically include storing a sampling of the analog information that is to be recorded. The number of samples taken (e.g., such sampling typically occurs in predetermined units of space or time) from the analog source will correspond to the accuracy between the original analog image or sound and the stored digital data (i.e., the more digital samples that are recorded of an original analog image or sound, the more accurate the reproduction of the original analog image or sound will be). These techniques of predetermined quantum amounts of sampling of analog images have been adequate for most digitized applications, however, as the need for more accurate recording and retrieval of information occurs (e.g., in, for example, the fields of computing or determining various engineering and scientific relationships in the following representative areas: gravitational; electrostatic; magnetic; thermal; stress; fluid flow field analysis; wave propagation; image processing; etc.), the availability of computing with more accurate data becomes important. However, the digitization of tighter and and/or smaller sampling amounts from an analog source can result in tremendous amounts of digitized data being stored to represent a small actual amount of analog information. This is one area where analog computing has a distinct advantage compared to digital computing. In particular, an analog computer will store only a single piece of information corresponding to a single sampling area, whereas a digital computer will need to store somewhere between, for example, 8 and 16 bits of data to represent the same single piece of information stored in an analog fashion. The large number of bits required to store digital information corresponds to the requirement to store information in an ASCII or Unicode format. However, in order to escape from the current ASCII or Unicode format, analog storage requires a very large number of different data bits (e.g., data corresponding to much greater numbers than merely "0's" and "1's") to be stored and retrieved. Current prior art techniques have great difficulty in storing and/or reading bits corresponding to anything other than "0's" and "1's", let alone the attendant problems of storing and/or reading, for example, a near infinite number of possibilities (e.g., 1, 2, 3 . . . n+1). However, when performing complex calculations, the digital process may result in very slow processing times as well as requiring very large memories. It is for this, as well as other reasons, that analog computing is still very attractive. Thus, while advances in the processing of analog information have been made, reliable techniques for the storage and retrieval of analog information are still being sought without any good solutions currently existing.
As stated above, with regard to digital computing, much of the recent technical emphasis in data storage and retrieval for both optical and magnetic memory enhancement has been on shrinking more information into smaller areas. The ability to place bits, which are the smallest elements of information used by current digital memory systems, into a binary code format, which is a combination of "0's" or "1's", into a smaller area on, for example, magnetic and/or optical disk storage media (e.g., a disk or a tape) may soon reach a limit. Thus, current technologies for writing and/or reading binary data onto and/or from current storage media will be pushed to the maximum limit. Computer designers are already facing a performance gap whereby processors can process information faster than the information can be retrieved from computer memory.
The majority of the currently proposed approaches for the digital storage of information, suffer from the same problem, namely, that the magnetic and/or optical information which is stored uses a binary code (i.e., a base-2 number system) which is a combination of "0's" and "1's". The predominance of the use of a "binary" code has been due to, for example, difficulty in distinguishing signals (e.g., a "0" or a "1") from background noise. In this regard, many techniques have been proposed which use various hardware, as well as algorithms, which attempt to read accurately the stored information as either a "0" or a "1".
However, certain prior art techniques have been postulated for utilizing codes other than binary. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 6,154,432, entitled "Optical Storage System" discloses a holographic system which records information in very small spots and postulates that 10 or more digits may be possible to record on a single bit. Accordingly, this holographic technique discloses codes higher order than binary.
Further, for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,363, entitled "Gray Coding for a Multi Level Cell Memory System" discloses the use of a so-called "gray code" approach (also known as "gray scale" by others) for data storage. This approach also uses a system which is higher order than binary. In particular, reference is made to the storage of multiple bits of information in a single memory cell thus creating a multi-level cell.
Still further, U.S. Pat. No. 6,061,005, entitled "Encoding of Data", discloses a method of encoding data on magnetic cards which uses symbology other than binary, such as trinary, quaternary or even higher symbology, for the recording of information.
However, while various techniques have been postulated for systems which use codes higher than binary, none of such codes have been commercially adopted due to, for example, signal to noise ratio problems, etc. In particular, reading errors can occur due to lack of contrast between data values. Such lack of contrast can be caused by random noise (e.g., vibrating inaccurate positioning of recording/reading heads, fidelity loss during recording, etc.) and determinate variations. Accordingly, a need exists for techniques which can be commercially viable which can use codes reliably that are higher order than traditional binary codes for the storage and/or retrieval of information.
A very particular combination of "0's" and "1's" is known as the American Standard Code for Information Exchange (i.e., the ASCII code) which assigns a unique code number between 0 and 127 to each of the 128, 7-bit, binary number characters. Table 1 below shows in table form the current ASCII characters arranged by Hexidecimal digits (i.e., 128 different encoding combinations of groups of seven bits). Reading within the Table from left to right and then down, the first 32 values are codes which correspond to various computer control functions such as line feed, carriage return, etc. The 33rd value corresponds to the "space" character. Values 34-48 correspond to symbols and punctuation marks. Values 49-58 correspond to digits, and so on, until reaching value 128, which corresponds to "delete". In addition, each of these values also has a corresponding hexidecimal character. For example, the hexidecimal digit corresponding to the "space" character is "20", while the hexidecimal digit corresponding to the letter "n" is "6E", and so on.
TABLE 1000102030405060708090A0B0C0D0E0F00NULSOHSTXETXEOTENQACKBELBSTABLFVTFFCRSOSI10DLEDC1DC2DC3DC4NAKSYNETBCANEMSUBESCFSGSRSUS20!"#$%&'()*+,−./300123456789:;<=>?40@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO50PQRSTUVWXYZ[\]{circumflex over ( )}—60{grave over ( )}abcdefghxjklmno70pqrstuvwxyz{|}~DEL
These 128 characters are enough characters for North American English to be stored and/or retrieved, but are not enough for many other languages (Note: In ASCII, the eighth bit is unused, and is thus normally set to "0"). To represent more than 128 characters, 8-bit (rather than 7-bit) binary numbers are utilized. For each digit in these eight bits there are two choices for the digit, either "0" or "1". This results in a possibility of an additional 128 characters or a total of 256 different combinations of "0's" and "1's" (i.e., 28). Accordingly, the current data storage approaches utilize these 256 combinations of "0's" and "1's". However, these 8-bit numbers still do not provide enough room for all characters that need to be used in the world (e.g., certain Asian languages have thousands of characters each). In addition, there is no universal agreement in the world on what all the characters should be, whether referring to the 128 characters, or the 256 characters, or any number of characters beyond these.
However, certain approaches for dealing with all the various languages in the world, which collectively contain many thousands of characters, are beginning to utilize something-referred to as the "Unicode", which uses a 16-bit character set. In order to adopt something similar to the Unicode, even greater strain will be placed on current memory techniques.
Whether using an 8-bit, 16-bit, or some other approach, all such approaches have been limited primarily to using a binary system of data storage. However, due to: (1) the impending size barrier for the storage of information on, for example, magnetic, magneto-optic and/or optical media; (2) the performance gap between how fast a processor can process information versus how fast a processor can access information; and (3) the goal for a universal adoption of a common set of characters throughout the world, a different approach for the storage of information, either by digital or analog approaches, is clearly needed. The present invention satisfies the current and future data storage needs by using different approaches for the storage and/or retrieval of data; and/or different codes that use a code higher than the current "base-2 code".

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Enhanced data storage and retrieval devices and systems and methods for utilizing same


A method for adaptive MV precision is disclosed. According to one embodiment, whether to use or not to use the adaptive MV precision for a current block is determined according to a prediction mode/partition type of the current block. If the adaptive MV precision is used, a current MV precision is determined for a current MV of the current block, and the current MV is encoded or decoded at the current MV precision. If the adaptive MV precision is not used, the current MV is encoded or decoded at a finer MV precision. In another embodiment, a value of a current adaptive MV precision flag is selected for a current block to indicate whether to use or not to use the adaptive MV precision for a current block according to a prediction mode/partition type of the current block.

High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is a new coding standard that has been developed in recent years. In the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) system, the fixed-size macroblock of H.264/AVC is replaced by a flexible block, named coding unit (CU). Pixels in the CU share the same coding parameters to improve coding efficiency. A CU may begin with a largest CU (LCU), which is also referred as coded tree unit (CTU) in HEVC. In addition to the concept of coding unit, the concept of prediction unit (PU) is also introduced in HEVC. Once the splitting of CU hierarchical tree is done, each leaf CU is further split into one or more prediction units (PUs) according to prediction type and PU partition.
Along with the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard development, the development of extensions of HEVC has also started. The HEVC extensions include range extensions (RExt) which target at non-4:2:0 color formats, such as 4:2:2 and 4:4:4, and higher bit-depths video such as 12, 14 and 16 bits per sample. One of the likely applications utilizing RExt is screen sharing, over wired- or wireless-connection. Due to specific characteristics of screen contents, coding tools have been developed and demonstrate significant gains in coding efficiency. Among them, the color index coding (a.k.a. major color based coding) techniques represent block of pixels using indices to the palette (major colors), and encode the palette and the indices by exploiting spatial redundancy. While the total number of possible color combinations is huge, the number of colors in an area of picture is usually very limited for typical screen contents. Therefore, the color index coding becomes very effective for screen content materials. For screen contents, Intra motion compensation has been found to be useful to improve coding performance since a patch or screen contents may find similar contents in other part of the screen. In this case, an Intra motion vector is used to locate the reference screen contents in the same frame.
In HEVC, the sub-pixel motion estimation/motion compensation (ME/MC) is applied. The motion vector (MV) precision is in quarter-pixel accuracy. Furthermore, advanced motion vector prediction has been developed for HEVC, where motion candidates can be derived from spatial and temporal neighboring blocks according to motion vector competition at both the encoder and decoder sides. If a current motion vector is the same as a motion candidate, the encoder may signal the case that the current motion vector can be "merged" with the motion candidate without transmitting the motion information and the corresponding motion vector coding mode is termed as Merge mode. The motion candidate may also be used as a predictor for the current motion vector. In this case, the motion vector difference (MVD) between the current motion vector and a selected motion candidate is coded and this method is terms as advanced motion vector prediction (AMVP). For Merge mode and AMVP mode coding, the MV predictors and MV differences are also in quarter-pixel accuracy. If the MV is in sub-pixel, i.e. half-pixel or quarter-pixel, the sub-pixel motion compensation (MC) is applied. According to HEVC, the sub-pixel MC is implemented using 8-tap DCTIF (discrete cosine transform (DCT) interpolation filter) for the luma component and 4-tap DCTIF for the chroma component.
A CU-level adaptive MV precision method has been disclosed by Li, et al. in JCTVC-Q0049 ("RCE1: Adaptive MV Precision," Document of Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding, JCTVC-Q0049, March 2014), where a CU-level flag is signaled to indicate whether all PUs in the CU use integer-precision MVs. If the flag is 1, the MV precision is in integer precision. In this case, the MV predictors for PUs are rounded to integer precision and MV differences are signaled in integer precision. If the flag is 0, the MV precision is in quarter-pixel precision. The MV coding is the same as HEVC version 1 and sub-pixel motion compensation is allowed. In HEVC Range Extensions Core Experiment 1 (RCE1) Test2, the adaptive MV precision is applied to all Inter CU. The context formation of the CU-level flag requires the information of the coded adaptive MV precision flag of the upper CU, which results in a requirement of a line buffer to store this flag.
It is desirable to develop methods for improving the coding efficiency of adaptive MV precision and/or eliminating the need for the line buffer associated with the CU-level flag for integer MV precision.

Method and apparatus for adaptive motion vector precision


A cable management attachment fitting for a ladder-type cable tray includes a rung attachment portion configured to attach to a lower flange of a rung of the ladder-type cable tray without the use of an additional fastener. A cable management attachment portion extends upward from the rung attachment portion and is configured to provide a structure to which a cable management device can be secured.

Ladder-type cable tray is used by industry to support electrical cable. A length or section of ladder cable tray comprises a pair of side rails connected by cable-supporting rungs extending between the rails at intervals along the tray. Cable tray sections are spliced together using splice plates to form a cable tray run.


A water target game played with a ball or projectile for use in places such as amusement parks or the home is disclosed. The preferred embodiment consists of a circular target supported by a pole which is placed between two pods with spray nozzles. A water supply hose connects to the base of the target. Inside the base are control valves which regulate the flow of water to the spray nozzles in the pods. A motion sensor is located in the circular target. Indicator lights prompt players when to throw a projectile through the target. A control unit connects to the motion sensor, indicator lights and control valves. A player(s) stands on each pod holding a projectile. An indicator light flashes on the pole prompting the player(s) on one pod to throw. If the player(s) successfully throws the projectile through the target, the motion sensor signals to the control unit to activate the valves whereby water is sprayed on the opposing player. If the player(s) misses the target, the control unit will signal another valve to activate and release water through the nozzles on the pod where the player(s) is standing, thereby penalizing him. The device can also be reprogrammed to change the rules of the game in other embodiments. The device can have modified embodiments to be used in conjunction with water slides, in swimming pools or can be electronically linked to several devices of the same to form a larger attraction.

This is a provisional appllication Ser. No. 60/047,459 filed May 22, 1997.
The present invention generally relates to amusement equipment, such as facilities for games and other competitive activities. More specifically, the invention relates to a water amusement target game in which participants are subject to being sprayed with water under certain game conditions.
In recent years, there has been an increase in the development and popularity of amusement parks which have as a major theme water rides and games. Such amusement parks frequently include wave pools, variously configured water slides, inner tube rides, games with water balloons, and floating rivers where individuals wearing bathing suits may participate in the water rides and games for a general admission price. As amusement parks having a water theme become more popular, there has become a need for more diverse and varied water rides or games which can be offered in order to attract individuals to the theme park. Particularly, this is true for water amusement games which have become a major attraction.
In addition to the large amusement parks, smaller parks, built on land less than an acre in size to a few acres, and consisting of a few attractions such as miniature golf, batting cages, Go-Kart tracks, and video arcades also have a need for new attractions to attract new customers and keep current customers coming back. These new attractions must take up little space and require low capital investment. These parks are open during the hot summer months. Often, during the hottest time of the day --the afternoon, these parks have low attendance as customers prefer to patronized their parks during the cooler evening hours. There is a need to offer an attraction at these parks which would entice people to attend during the hot, off peak hours such as a water amusement game.
An example of an amusement game utilizing water is, U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,913 to Kepler, called Basketball Game With Water Spray System. This game consists of a facility and equipment for playing a game similar to basketball. There is a sensor in the hoop or basket which detects when a ball has successfully passed through. A mechanism keeps score as to which team makes more baskets. When the game is over, the losing team is doused with a spray of water.
As taught by U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,161 to Galphin, discloses a Water Amusement Game where opposing players stationed in pads resembling submarines fire water cannons at a target. The target is moved by the force of the water fired from the canons. A sensor detects the movement of the target and causes water to be squirted at the players who are less successful at firing the water canon at the target. As the target is forced by the water from the canons closer to the losing players, a switch is tripped and the door of the submarine is locked and a drenching amount of water is dumped on the losing team and audible sounds are emitted giving the impression that the submarine is sinking.
Another example of a game utilizing water is U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,518 to Erlandson et al, which discloses a Water Balloon Game. In this game, players position themselves inside booths, each booth positioned at an opposite end inside an enclosed area, and launch water balloons via a sling shot at each other. A successful shot will cause the water balloon to strike an overhead protector with small openings on the opposing booth. The impact of the balloon on the protector causes the balloon to burst and douse the opposing player(s) within the enclosure with water which passes through the openings of the overhead protector.
From the above discussion, it can be appreciated that prior art does utilize water in games to increase the enjoyment of the activities and cause its participants to get wet. However, each game has inherent characteristics that limit its desirability to amusement park operators. The Basketball Game with Water Spray System can be dangerous when the playing surface gets wet and participants must run and dribble on wet surfaces. In addition, wet surfaces make it hard to dribble a ball. The Water Amusement Game is a very complex game where participants are enclosed in "submarines". If participants are claustrophobic or easily panicked then when the doors shut and the players are doused, participants could be caused undue psychological harm. These games are very complex with sophisticated mechanisms making the possibility of breakdowns more likely, increasing maintenance costs, and ultimately increase the overall purchase price of the games. The Water Balloon Game requires operators to fill hundreds of balloons at the beginning of each day by hand. This requires a lot of time during the short preparation time operators have before they open their parks. It also requires additional man-hours which add to the cost of the amusement park. Also, the players in this game are confined to the booths which severely limit their mobility. This gives participants an enclosed feeling and reduces the enjoyment of the game.
The present invention is a relatively inexpensive game for amusement operators to purchase. It has fewer parts than much of the prior art (U.S. Pat. Nos.5,390,913 and 5,011,161) which may result in less maintenance and down-time. It can be played on safe surfaces such as sand, gravel, non-skid soft synthetic surfaces. It requires less space. Compared to the Water Balloon Game, it requires no set-up time such as filling balloons with water and it is more open since participants do not have to play inside a booth. Prior art is also limited to narrow applications in well defined areas. It would be desirable if a game could be utilized in a number of settings of various sizes or appearances or combined with other attractions in an amusement park to enhance the enjoyment or reduce the boring experience of waiting in long lines.


A method of preparing a catalyst particularly useful in the reaction of ethylene, oxygen and acetic acid in the vapor phase to form vinyl acetate comprises impregnating a porous support with water soluble salts of palladium and gold, fixing the palladium and gold on the support as water insoluble compounds by contacting the salt-impregnated support with a reactive solution in two separate fixing stages wherein the treated support is dried and allowed to stand prior to treatment in the second stage to precipitate the insoluble compounds on the support and reducing the insoluble compounds to free palladium and gold. The catalysts prepared in this manner have been shown to provide improvement with respect to reduced selectivity to CO.sub.2 during the vinyl acetate forming reaction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel method of producing a catalyst useful in the reaction of ethylene, oxygen and acetic acid in the vapor phase to form vinyl acetate. In particular, the present invention is directed to a novel method of forming a catalyst useful in the catalytic formation of vinyl acetate in which said catalyst comprises metallic palladium and gold deposited on a suitable porous support.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known in the art that vinyl acetate can be produced by reacting ethylene, oxygen, and acetic acid in the gaseous phase and in the presence of a catalyst comprising palladium, gold and an alkali metal acetate supported on certain carrier materials such as silica. Generally, such catalyst system exhibits a high activity. Unfortunately, results utilizing such palladium and gold catalysts have been inconsistent. This inconsistency appears to be based somewhat on the distribution pattern or profile of the catalyst components which are deposited on and in relation to the support. For example, when use is made of the known vinyl acetate catalyst systems comprising a porous support with palladium and gold, the metal components deposited at or about the support interiors or central regions do not contribute significantly to the reaction mechanism, since the reactants are not readily able to diffuse into the central or inner regions of the porous network of the catalyst. Hence, the reaction occurs substantially only at the outermost or surface regions of the catalyst. The catalyst components in the interior regions of the support do not largely contribute to the reaction scheme, resulting in a reduction in catalytic efficiency per unit weight of the catalyst components. Furthermore, the use of a highly active catalyst at times gives rise to side reactions and, therefore, leads to a reduced selectivity to vinyl acetate.
Various patents have been granted based on the desire to more evenly distribute and anchor the gold and palladium catalytic components within a narrow band on the support surface to provide a vinyl acetate catalyst having high yield, good selectivity and long life. Examples of such patents include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,087,622; 4,048,096; 3,822,308; 3,775,342 and British Patent 1,521,652.
The basic method of forming the vinyl acetate catalyst containing palladium and gold deposited on a catalyst support comprises (1) impregnating the support with aqueous solutions of water-soluble palladium and gold compounds, (2) precipitating water-insoluble palladium and gold compounds on the catalyst support by contacting the impregnated catalyst support with a solution of compounds capable of reacting with the water-soluble palladium and gold compounds to form the insoluble precious metal compounds (3) washing the treated catalyst with water to remove anions which are freed from the initially impregnated palladium and gold compounds during precipitation and (4) converting the water-insoluble palladium and gold compounds to the free metal by treatment with a reducing agent. A final treatment usually involves (5) impregnating the reduced catalyst with an aqueous alkali metal acetate solution and (6) drying the final catalyst product.
Prior art attempts to provide a uniform distribution of the palladium and gold metals on the support has involved some manipulation of the above mentioned steps and/or by using support materials having various specified pore dimensions.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of preparing a vinyl acetate catalyst which contains palladium and gold on a porous support in which the fixing of the water soluble precious metal compounds as water insoluble compounds on the support can be achieved by contacting the impregnated support with sufficient reactive compound to insure complete precipitation and fixing of the precious metal compounds onto the support in multiple fixing steps.

Vinyl acetate catalyst preparation method


Technologies are presented for tracking of used resources and ensuring a similar level of computing resources to be provided at a new cloud-based service provider for a migrating application, even if the new service provider has a different mix of resources. Computing resources in use by the migrating application and a level of used computing power may be identified. Each of the computing resources may be assigned a score according to an associated service level. An overall score generated as a weighted combination of the individual scores according to their influence on application processing and networking status may be used for comparison of service levels between an existing service provider and the new service provider to ensure the migrating application receives a similar performance level. Additionally, the individual and overall scores may be employed by the new service provider to properly allocate its resources to provide similar performance level.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
With the advance of networking and data storage technologies, an increasingly large number of computing services are being provided to users or customers by cloud-based datacenters that can enable access to computing resources at various levels. Cloud-based service providers may provide individuals and organizations with a range of solutions for systems deployment and operation. Depending on customer needs, datacenter capabilities, and associated costs, services provided to customers may be defined by Service Level Agreements (SLAs) describing aspects such as server latency, storage limits or quotas, processing power, scalability factors, backup guarantees, uptime guarantees, resource usage reporting, and similar ones.
The success of cloud-based services means that more and more applications are being moved to the cloud. Customers (or tenants) typically prefer to have the option of moving applications from one service provider to another while maintaining service parameters like performance, cost, liability, and similar ones. Service providers may prefer to have the option of moving an application from one site to another while maintaining performance and service level of the application.
Core service parameters such as server processing, memory, and networking may be implemented in a wide variety of ways by different service providers. Indeed, it is unlikely that the computing environment of one service provider may be a copy of the environment of another service provider. While measurement of parameters such as the application response time at an original service provider may be a straight forward process, it does not provide any guidance to a new service provider on how to plan their system resource allocation for a migrating application.

Maintaining application performances upon transfer between cloud services


A fluid handling device includes a first channel, a second channel, and a valve disposed at a connection part between the first channel and the second channel. The valve include a partition wall disposed between the first channel and the second channel, and a diaphragm disposed so as to face the partition wall, a portion of the first channel, and a portion of the second channel. The diaphragm is configured in such a way that when no pressure is applied to the diaphragm, a gap, which serves as a third channel that allows the first channel and the second channel to communicate with each other, is formed between the diaphragm and the partition wall. In plan view, the length of the diaphragm in the extending direction of the third channel is longer than the length of the diaphragm in the direction orthogonal to the extending direction.

In recent years, a microchannel chip or the like is used to analyze trace amounts of substances such as proteins and nucleic acids with high precision and speed. Microchannel chips have the advantage of requiring only small amounts of reagents and samples for analysis, and are expected to be used in various applications such as clinical, food, and environmental testing.
For handling two or more types of fluids, the microchannel chip is preferably provided with a valve that can easily separate channels or allows the channels to communicate each other, and also, for example, can mix the fluids at a desired timing. As a valve capable of exerting such a function, a valve provided with a diaphragm that covers a partition wall disposed between two channels is known. For example, Patent Literature (hereinafter, referred to as PTL) 1 discloses a diaphragm valve including a dome part having a shape of a partial spherical shell (dome-shaped) and a flange continuously formed at the periphery of the dome part via a boundary part. The diaphragm of this diaphragm valve has a radius of curvature R of 0.6 mm or more at the boundary part. According to PTL 1, the diaphragm valve can reduce the deterioration of long-term use durability and increase the gas flow rate.

Fluid handling device and fluid handling system


A system and method for generating simulation-friendly compact physical models for passive structures is disclosed. The method includes generating an impedance map specifying impedances at a plurality of frequencies corresponding to one or more port-pairs of a circuit component using a processor to extract a plurality of impedance values between the one or more port-pairs based on a first value for each parameter of a plurality of parameters of the circuit component. The method includes generating a second circuit representation model based on updating the plurality of impedance values between the one or more port-pairs based on a second value for one or more parameters of the plurality of parameters of the circuit component, and updating the second circuit representation model by tuning the updated plurality of impedance values of the between the one or more port-pairs based on a predetermined use context of the circuit component in a circuit.

An extraction technology, e.g., electromagnetic extraction, can be used to generate physical and/or non-physical models for inductors, multi-tap coupled inductors including T-coils (three ports), and Q-coils (four ports), signal routes that require accurate radio frequency (RF) characterization, transmission lines, inductors adjacent to metal planes and lines, and other passive circuit structures using the layouts of such elements within a circuit, according to a first circuit representation model, for use in circuit simulation (e.g., Spice simulation) of the circuit. Such a model generated using an extraction technology may be hereinafter referred to as a source model. A source model is used to implement various simulations on circuits that includes these passive circuit structures. For example, the simulations may include transient simulation, alternating current (AC) simulations, and/or phase-noise simulations, etc.
However, a source model generated using such an extraction technology may be undesirable for simulation and may result in simulation failure (e.g., non-converging simulations, run-time crashes, and inaccurate simulation results), divergence and/or very long central processing unit (CPU) processing time because the source model has the following characteristics: (1) the source model is bulky due to full extraction, and, therefore, the source model is not suitable for long transient simulations; (2) the source model cannot be processed reliably by the simulator due to insufficient simulation points, non-physical impedance characteristics and frequency responses outside the frequency range used in the extraction; and (3) the source model has non-physical passive elements and/or ideal elements, negative capacitances, negative resistances and/or voltage-controlled-voltage-source (VCVS), and other controlled source elements.

Generating simulation-friendly compact physical models for passive structures


Techniques for machine learning (ML) model knowledge distillation and automatic retraining are described. A model adaptation controller obtains samples generated by an edge device and inference values generated based on the samples by a deployed ML model of the edge device. The model adaptation controller runs inference on the samples using a different ML model to generate inferences that can be used to determine whether the performance of the deployed ML model is lacking. If so, the model adaptation controller can retrain the deployed ML model using samples with ground truth values generated by the different ML model, resulting in a light-weight retrained model that can be provisioned to the edge device. This retraining process may be performed iteratively to automatically improve and adapt the ML model running at the edge device.

With recent advancements in machine learning (ML), a natural next step is to deploy models on "edge" devices in various environments, such as "smart" cameras, mobile devices, smart speakers, toys, within motor vehicles, etc. This configuration can have the potential to allow inferences to be generated quicker (e.g., on a same device that obtains the data upon which the inference is generated, instead of remotely—such as in a cloud network or other centralized location) and enable faster reactions to these inferences to occur.
However, the hardware available to generate inferences (e.g., processing units such as central processing units (CPUs), graphical processing units (GPUs), tensor processing units (TPUs), field programmable gate arrays (FGPAs), etc., the amounts and types of available memory, etc.) and the architectures of these hardware resources (e.g., instruction set architectures (ISAs) such as x86, ARM, MIPS, SPARC) vary significantly from one edge device to another. Particularly, in many cases the set of hardware resources offered by an edge device are severely constrained due to a need to be low-powered and/or inexpensive, which creates a difficulty in being able to run sophisticated or large ML models. Further, new ML models are continually being developed that often rely on new types of operations or libraries, even further reducing the ability of typical edge devices to make practical use of these models.

Knowledge distillation and automatic model retraining via edge device sample collection


A pressure-casting machine that contains a delivery system, which comprises: a molten metal pouring pipe made of a refractory, having a length of at least 4 m and an outside diameter of at least 350 mm, and arranged such that an upper end thereof is attached substantially vertically from below to an opening in a bottom wall of a mold for a pressure-casting machine, and a lower end thereof extends through a lid of a closed vessel arranged below the mold and is immersed into molten metal received in a ladle arranged in the closed vessel. The molten metal pouring pipe comprises at least two pipe sections connected to each other in series and in a liquid-tight manner by means of a threaded joint, tapered surfaces provided with screw threads of which have an inclination angle within a range of from 2.0.degree. to 15.0.degree. relative to the center axis of the molten metal pouring pipe.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a molten metal pouring pipe for a pressure-casting machine.
2. The Prior Art
A pressure-casting machine is known as an apparatus for casting molten metal.
A conventional pressure-casting machine 35 is described below with reference to FIG. 7.
FIG. 7 is a schematic vertical sectional view illustrating a conventional pressure-casting machine 35. As shown in FIG. 7, the conventional pressure-casting machine 35 comprises:
a mold 36 having an opening 36b in a bottom wall 36a thereof;
a closed vessel 37, arranged below said opening 36b of said mold 36, having a lid 37a and a compressed gas supply port 37b;
a ladle 38 arranged in said closed vessel 37;
a molten metal pouring pipe A made of a refractory, having a sufficient length such that an upper end thereof is attached substantially vertically from below to said opening 36b in said bottom wall 36a of said mold 36, and a lower end thereof runs through said lid 37a of said closed vessel 37 and is immersed into molten metal received in said ladle 38 arranged in said closed vessel 37; and
a compressed gas supply means (not shown) for supplying a compressed inert gas into said closed vessel 37 through said compressed gas supply port 37b of said closed vessel 37, so as to pour molten metal received in said ladle 37 into said mold 36 through said molten metal pouring pipe A.
According to the above-mentioned conventional pressure-casting machine 35, unlike the case of pouring molten metal into the mold from above, splash of molten metal never adheres onto an inner surface of the mold 36, and as a result, it is possible to manufacture a metal cast strand having a smooth surface. Since it is also possible to pour molten metal received in the ladle 38 into the mold 36 through the molten metal pouring pipe A without causing molten metal to be in contact with the open air, the oxidation of molten metal can substantially perfectly prevented, thus permitting the manufacture of a metal cast strand the chemical composition of which is very strictly controlled.
In the above-mentioned pressure-casting machine 35, there is a demand for a scaling up of the mold 36 and the ladle 38 with a view to improving the manufacturing efficiency, and along with this, it is inevitable to use a large-sized molten metal pouring pipe having a length of at least 4 m and an outside diameter of at least 350 mm.
A molten metal pouring pipe is used under very severe conditions. More specifically, not only the molten metal pouring pipe comes into contact with a high-temperature molten metal, but also molten metal having a very high pressure passes through a bore of the molten metal pouring pipe. The molten metal pouring pipe is therefore made of a refractory excellent in spalling resistance and having a high strength, for example, a refractory comprising aluminum oxide (Al.sub.2 O.sub.3), carbon (C) and/or silicon oxide (SiO.sub.2).
However because an article made of a refractory is limited in size, it is difficult to integrally form the above-mentioned large-sized molten metal pouring pipe with a refractory.
Under such circumstances, a large-sized molten metal pouring pipe for solving the above-mentioned problems is known (hereinafter referred to as the "prior art"). The molten metal pouring pipe B of the prior art for a pressure-casting machine is described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIG. 1 is a schematic front view illustrating a molten metal pouring pipe B of the prior art for a pressure-casting machine, and FIG. 2 is a schematic partial vertical sectional view illustrating the molten metal pouring pipe B of the prior art shown in FIG. 1.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the molten metal pouring pipe B of the prior art for the pressure-casting machine comprises:
two pipe sections 1 and 6 made of a refractory, connected to each other in series and in a liquid-tight manner by means of a threaded joint b, the threaded joint b comprising (i) a male screw 5 formed on a cylindrical outer surface of a lower end portion 3 of an upper pipe section 1 out of the two pipe sections 1 and 6, and (ii) a female screw 10, with which the male screw 5 of the upper pipe section 1 is to engage, formed on a cylindrical inner surface of an upper end portion 7 of a lower pipe section 6 out of the two pipe sections 1 and 6.
The upper pipe section 1 and the lower pipe section 6 are connected to each other in series and in a liquid-tight manner by causing the male screw 5 of the lower end portion 3 of the upper pipe section 1 to engage with the female screw 10 of the upper end portion 7 of the lower pipe section 6, whereby a bore 4 of the upper pipe section 1 and a bore 9 of the lower pipe section 6 communicate with each other. When causing the male screw 5 of the lower end portion 3 of the upper pipe section 1 to engage with the female screw 10 of the upper end portion 7 of the lower pipe section 6, it is possible to further improve liquid tightness at the junction between the upper pipe section 1 and the lower pipe section 6, i.e., at the threaded joint b, by applying a refractory mortar on the surfaces of the male screw 5 and the female screw 10.
According to the above-mentioned prior art, the large-sized molten metal pouring pipe B having a total length of at least 4 m and an outside diameter of at least 350 mm can be provided by connecting the two pipe sections 1 and 6 made of a refractory.
However, the molten metal pouring pipe B of the prior art has the following problems: When applying the molten metal pouring pipe B of the prior art to the pressure-casting machine to cast molten metal, the molten metal pouring pipe B is subjected to a considerable stress by molten metal passing therethrough, and particularly, stress is concentrated on a portion 3a near the starting point of the male screw 5 of the lower end portion 3 of the upper pipe section 1, and on a portion 7a near the starting point of the female screw 10 of the upper end portion 7 of the lower pipe section 6. Such concentration of stress may cause cracks in the above-mentioned portions 3a and 7a to cause the leakage of molten metal, and furthermore, the molten metal pouring pipe B may be broken at the junction between the upper pipe section 1 and the lower pipe section 6, i.e., at the threaded joint b, thus resulting in a stoppage of the casting operation.
Under such circumstances, there is a strong demand for the development of a molten metal pouring pipe for a pressure-casting machine, which increases the strength at the junction between the upper pipe section and the lower pipe section, thereby making it possible to continue a stable casting operation for a long period of time, but such a molten metal pouring pipe has not as yet been proposed.

Molten metal pouring pipe for pressure-casting machine


A back reaming tool is disclosed which includes a tool body adapted to be coupled to a drill string, and at least cutting structure mounted to a leg and having cutting elements disposed thereon. The leg is removably coupled to the tool body.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to the field of wellbore drilling. More specifically, the invention is related to tools used in back reaming operations, such as used to create boreholes river crossing and similar horizontal drilling applications.
2. Background Art
Horizontal directional drilling (HDD) is a technique used to create subsurface conduits underneath roadways, river beds or other obstructions in the path of things such as petroleum product pipelines and communication cable passageways.
Typically, a specialized drilling rig, such as one sold under the trade name DITCH WITCH by the Charles Machine Works, Inc. Perry, Okla., is used to drill the subsurface conduits. An entry hole is bored at the earth's surface on one side of the obstruction, using a steerable drilling head attached to one end of a drill string. The drill string is generally made of a number of segments or "joints" of threadedly coupled drill pipe. The entry hole is started at an angle slightly inclined from horizontal so that the conduit will become increasingly deeper in the ground as the conduit extends laterally away from the surface position of the entry hole. When the conduit reaches a sufficient depth, the conduit is drilled substantially horizontally until it crosses the lateral surface position of the obstruction. Then drilling proceeds in a slightly upward direction, continuing laterally away from the obstruction, to terminate the conduit at an exit hole on the earth's surface on the other side of the obstruction.
To complete the conduit, a service cable or pipe is attached to the exposed end of the drill string at the exit hole, and is pulled back to the drilling rig along with the drill string. Often, the conduit driller or operator may wish to increase the diameter from that initially drilled during the directional drilling operation. A device known as a back reaming tool is coupled to the end of the drill string to perform this enlargement as the drill string is withdrawn from the conduit. Several different types of back reaming tools are known in the art.
A first type of back reaming tool is formed from a roller cone drill bit of a type used to initially drill the conduit, or of a type used in petroleum and mining wellbore drilling operations. In such roller cone bit type back reaming tools, roller cones are disposed so that their cutting ends face the drilling rig from the exit hole. As the drill string is withdrawn from the conduit, the drill string is rotated so that roller cones on the back reaming tool will cut the walls of the conduit to enlarge the conduit diameter. Drill bit type back reaming tools are essentially an improvisation, and while they have proven commercially successful, they have limited application because of the difficulty in making them and the fact that once any of the cutting elements, any one of the roller cones, or any of the rotary bearing structures on the roller cones wear out or fail, the entire reaming tool must be replaced.
Another type of back reaming tool is intentionally designed as a back reaming tool, and includes a reaming tool body, to which are removably attached a plurality of cutting structures. Each one of the cutting structures includes a roller cone rotatably mounted on a bearing journal. In one embodiment of a back reaming tool known in the art, the bearing journal is removably mounted at both ends thereof in a cradle. The cradle is removably mounted to the tool body. In another embodiment of a back reaming tool known in the art, the bearing journal is threadedly coupled at one end to the cradle. A common aspect of the back reaming tools known in the art is that they include roller cone cutting structures which are exposed to wellbore fluids at both axial ends. Therefore, the back reaming tools known in the art require that the bearings be sealed in two places along the axis of the bearing journal to exclude wellbore fluids and maintain adequate bearing life. Another aspect common to back reaming tools known in the art is that they include a plurality of roller cones rotatably mounted on the tool body. Limitations on the minimum useful size of the bearing journal limits the diameter of conduits which may use such back reaming tools. Another aspect common to back reaming tools known in the art is that they use roller cones for the cutting elements thereon.


A coding apparatus for image compression which includes a transformer that transforms image data into a plurality of transform coefficients arranged in a matrix; a quantizer that quantizes each of the transform coefficients into a coefficient data of a predetermined number of bits; a data divider that divides the coefficient data into a fixed-length data part and a variable-length data part and a variable-length encoder that encodes the variable-length data part into a variable-length code.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coding apparatus for image compression that compresses the data of a digital image signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a highly efficient compression technique for encoding natural images, there has been proposed a method of performing a 2-dimensional discrete cosine transform (called a DCT hereafter) and quantizing the transform coefficients to encode them into variable-length codes. This method is adopted by the JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) of CCITT/ISO.
The variable-length coding part of this method uses a single table of codes to perform variable-length coding. However, if statistical properties of input symbols and characteristics of the variable-length coding are in disagreement, the efficiency of the coding declines. Therefore, a method of preparing several tables of variable-length codes and selecting one of them for encoding was proposed (For example, see Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Hei. 4-87469).
In this method, the variance of the DCT coefficients after quantizing in each block is obtained, and one of the several tables of variable-length codes is selected based on the variance to perform the variable-length coding.
However, the statistical properties of occurring symbols vary not only from block to block but also vary greatly depending on the order of the transformed domain in each block. Therefore, by the above method, a table of variable-length codes can not be selected depending on the order of the transformed domain. Further, the method requires much more overhead information for indicating a selected table of variable-length codes.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


An oxygen scavenger is provided. An oxygen scavenger comprises iron, malic acid, and a wicking agent. A method for scavenging oxygen from an enclosed container comprises providing an oxygen scavenger compound comprising iron, malic acid, and a wicking agent, sealing the composition in an oxygen permeable, water impermeable container, and activating the composition by injecting water into the container.

Oxygen scavengers, or oxygen absorbers, are used to quickly absorb oxygen from a contained volume of air. Oxygen scavengers can be used in many applications, including in food packaging. By quickly removing oxygen from food packaging, the shelf life of perishable goods is improved. When used in food packaging, oxygen scavengers prevent food color change and slow the growth of bacteria.
Oxygen scavengers often operate by reacting an oxygen reducing agent with oxygen. One common oxygen reducing agent is iron. The reaction of iron and oxygen may be represented by the following formula:4Fe+O2→2Fe2O3 The unaided oxidation of iron is rather slow, however. Thus, it is advantageous to include a catalyst to speed the reaction. One such catalyst is water. In the presence of water, the reaction of iron and oxygen may be represented by the following formulae:2Fe+O2+2H2O→2Fe(OH)2 4Fe(OH)2+O2→2H2O+2Fe2O3·H2O
Another such catalyst is an acid. A lowered pH improves the speed of oxidation. However, some acid catalyzed oxygen scavengers produce hydrogen gas and other gasses as a byproduct of oxygen absorption. The production of gas is undesirable in food packaging, as it tends to cause packaging to bloat.

Oxygen scavenger and a method for scavenging oxygen


A high voltage pulse generator is disclosed. The high voltage pulse generator comprises a pulse generating transformer having a primary coil with a first side and a second side, and a secondary coil with a first side and a second side. A direct current (DC) voltage source connection is at the first side of the primary coil. A first high frequency power driver transistor is coupled between the second side of the primary coil and a ground connection. The first high frequency power driver transistor is configured to operate in an on-mode for a selected time period to charge the primary coil for the selected time period based on a switching frequency of the first high frequency power driver transistor, and switch the first high frequency power driver transistor to an off-mode at the switching frequency to release the charge from the primary coil to the secondary coil. A diode is coupled between the first side of the secondary coil and a pulsed voltage output that is configured to be connected to a high voltage device. The diode configured to direct a flow of charge from the secondary coil to charge a capacitance of the high voltage device to a rising pulse leading edge of a voltage pulse.

Embodiments of the invention relate to a method and apparatus for generating a high voltage electrical pulse that can be used to operate a number of different applications, including an ion source within a sealed neutron generating tube. To increase logging resolution, newer types of neutron generating tubes utilize sophisticated ion sources that present higher values of capacitance that must be driven with voltages at faster rise times. As downhole temperature requirements increase, ion source driver topologies with higher efficiencies offer great value. Although the apparatus for generating a high voltage electrical pulse is primarily designed for the operation of such tubes, it can be used anywhere a variable electrical high voltage pulse signal is required, such as in the running of microwave radar equipment.
In the past fifty years the use of neutron activation analysis for oil well logging has yielded positive success for identifying regions of petroleum accumulation. Basically, neutron well logging methods can determine the porosity of the geologic earth formations surrounding a borehole by irradiating the rock with neutrons and measuring the resulting spatial distribution of signals, usually gamma rays, coming back from the artificial and temporary radioactivity created in the surrounding material. To establish a neutron flux, special tubes have been constructed over the years to take advantage of certain fusion reactions that can occur between deuterium and tritium, both heavy isotopes of hydrogen, that yield neutrons as a by-product. Within a neutron generating tube, a device comparable in size to an old fashion radio receiving tube, a beam of deuterium ions are electrically accelerated into a target saturated with either deuterium, tritium, or a combination of both. The ensuing nuclear fusion reaction liberates neutrons that exit the tube and can irradiate nearby material. As an example of operation, if the rock formation contained chloride atoms (from salt water) the unique gamma radiation released by such an irradiated atom will allow a determination of the porosity of the rock formation outside of the borehole. The porosity value is an important indicator for hydrocarbon accumulation.
The design and operation of sealed neutron generating tubes has been well documented over the last 80 years. Their history starts in 1940 when F. Penning disclosed a neutron generator (U.S. Pat. No. 2,211,668) constructed of a low pressure deuterium-filled envelope containing a cathode and anode and advances in this technology continues on to today with newer types utilizing nano-structure field emission components such as disclosed by J. Navarro-Sorroche and W. Guo, (U.S. Pat. No. 10,408,968), September 2019. Since oil-well logging is usually a lucrative business, there are many financially driven reasons to improve such tubes to provide more neutrons per second or offer higher resolution in the strata logging profiles.
All neutron generating tubes require an ion source. FIG. 1 shows a typical design for a basic neutron tube. For many years the "Penning" ion source has been employed extensively because it offers many advantages. The design is simple and robust because they have a cold cathode giving a long service life. A Penning ion source can supply large discharge currents for low pressures and they have a high extraction yield (from 10% to 40%).
Generally, neutrons are segregated into several categories on the basis of their energy. Thermal neutrons are those that are in thermal equilibrium with matter and, in special cases, have a Maxwellian distribution of velocities. In this distribution, the most probable velocity at 295 Kelvin (K) is 2200 meters per second (m/sec), corresponding to an energy of 0.025 electron volts (eV).
Neutrons in the energy range 0.5-10 kilo eV (keV) are called intermediate neutrons. These neutrons may also be called resonance or epithermal neutrons. Fast neutrons are those in the energy range 10 keV to 10 Mega eV (MeV). In this energy range, neutrons interact with matter through elastic collisions (i.e., billiard-ball-type collisions). Neutrons with energies >10 MeV are called relativistic neutrons.
The operation of an ion source is described by Groves (U.S. Pat. No. 9,001,956B), saying "the source is disposed in a pressurized environment containing an ionizable gas where ion source voltage supply circuitry provides a positive voltage potential between the substrate and the grid of the ion source to cause ionization of the gas and emission of ions through a grid."
To power such electrostatic ion sources, a potential of up to 2 kilovolts (kV) (positive) is applied to a metal structure within the tube, simply called the ion source, as illustrated in FIG. 1, which is equipped with an exiting hole. This voltage causes ions, such as D2+, to emerge from the ion source as a beam. Once the beam has cleared the ion source it is accelerated towards the target by a very high negative voltage (up to 100 kV) provided by another power supply, sometimes called the Very High Voltage (VHV) supply. As mentioned earlier, the deuterium ions hit the target and interact with the heavy hydrogen isotopes inside resulting in a fusion reaction that produces neutrons within a few microseconds after the ion source has been turned on. The initial source of the deuterium ions is usually a heated metal cathode that contains absorbed deuterium. This is not shown in this application for brevity.
Depending on the data being sought, the ion source can be either run non-stop or pulsed on and off during the logging process. In the first case, the ion source is left on continuously at a selected voltage, such as +2,000 volts, resulting in a steady production of neutrons irradiating the rock formations outside the well as the logging probe is lowered (or raised) within the borehole. By knowing the speed of the tool and its movement, a log of porosity as a function of depth may be generated from the detected ensuing gamma radiation. In one embodiment, the gamma ray detectors can be located within the probe.
More commonly though, the neutron tube is pulsed on and off during operation because this mode offers some advantages. This was initially stated in A. Youmans (U.S. Pat. No. 3,379,882—1967), where the formations can be irradiated with neutrons from a periodically varying source. In this mode, the disclosure says, the ion source was provided with a varying positive voltage whose repetition frequency was approximately 2,500 cycles per second, being thus alternately on and off for periods of 200 microseconds each. When the ion source is switched on and off, the result is the switching on and off of the neutron output. By synchronizing the pulses of the neutron source with the detecting system this technique allows more information to be determined. From the time the source is turned off, the exponential decay of signals from the induced artificial radioactivity of the surrounding material can be used to help identify the rock formation by comparing this data to known energy and half-life information. In addition, by measuring the number of thermal neutrons present at any particular time the rate of decay of the thermal neutron population may be also measured. Because the rate of decay is dependent upon the nuclei of the material present in the rock, the rate of decay can vary from formation to formation. This rate of decay is also related to the time required for these nuclei to capture slow neutrons and for the thermal neutrons to diffuse away; therefore, the measurement is related to this time and hence to the lifetime of the neutrons in the formations and to the albedo of the formations.
Reference will now be made to the exemplary embodiments illustrated, and specific language will be used herein to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended.

High efficiency high voltage pulse generator


A pump generates a gas flow within a measurement passage having an orifice. A differential pressure sensor detects a pressure difference between both ends of the orifice. Switching valves are disposed in the measurement passage to create a first concentration measurement state in which the measurement passage is opened at both ends thereof and the gas flowing through the measurement passage is the atmosphere, and a second concentration measurement state in which the measurement passage is in communication at both ends thereof with a canister and the gas flowing through the measurement passage is a fuel vapor-containing air-fuel mixture provided from the canister. An ECU calculates a fuel vapor concentration by based on a pressure difference detected in the first concentration measurement state and a pressure difference detected in the second concentration measurement state.

The fuel vapor treatment system restricts the dissipation of fuel vapor produced in a fuel tank to the atmosphere. A fuel vapor introduced into the system from the fuel tank through an inlet passage is once adsorbed into an adsorbing material disposed within a canister and, when an internal combustion engine operates, the adsorbed fuel vapor is purged to an intake pipe in the internal combustion engine through a purging passage by utilizing a negative pressure developed within the intake pipe. The adsorption capacity of the adsorbing material is recovered by purging of the fuel vapor. Purging of the fuel vapor is performed by metering the flow rate of purged gas (the flow rate of purged air and that of purged fuel vapor) which metering is performed by a purge control valve disposed in the purging passage.
The purged fuel vapor burns together with fuel which is fed from an injector, therefore, in order to attain an appropriate air/fuel ratio, it is important to measure an actual amount of purged fuel vapor with a high accuracy. As a method for measuring the purge quantity, a method wherein a hot wire type mass flow meter is installed in a purging passage is disclosed in JP-5-18326A.
However, the flow meter is generally designed and calibrated on the premise of 100% air gas or a gas of a single component. Therefore, it has been difficult to measure with a high accuracy the flow rate of an air-fuel vapor mixture of which concentration is not constant like the purged gas. In JP-5-33733A (U.S. Pat. No. 5,216,995), another hot wire type mass flow meter is installed in an atmosphere passage which branches from the purging passage and the volume flow rate of the purged gas and the concentration of fuel vapor in the purged gas are detected from output values provided from the two mass flow meters.
In JP-5-18326A and JP-5-33733A (U.S. Pat. No. 5,216,995), since the flow meter(s) is installed in the purging passage, the concentration of fuel vapor cannot be detected unless purging of fuel vapor is performed with flow of purged gas. Therefore, for reflecting a measured concentration of fuel vapor in the control of air-fuel ratio, it is necessary to measure the concentration of fuel vapor before the purged fuel vapor reaches the injector position, and to correct a command value for the amount of fuel to be injected from the injector based on the measured concentration of fuel vapor.
However, in the case of an engine having a small intake pipe volume or in an operation region of a high flow velocity of intake air, the time required for purged fuel vapor to reach the injection position is shorter than the time required for completing the measurement of a fuel vapor concentration and thus it is hard to reflect a properly measured fuel vapor concentration in the control of air-fuel ratio. Alternatively, the engine structure including the layout of pipes, and the purge starting operation region are restricted. At present, throttling the purge flow rate up to the extent that the fuel vapor does not exert a bad influence on the control of air-fuel ratio is the only way to avoid the influence of variation in the concentration of fuel vapor. Without purge restriction, it is difficult to control the air-fuel ratio properly. Particularly, when a fuel vapor treatment system is to be applied to a hybrid vehicle which has recently been spotlighted, it is absolutely necessary to carry out a large quantity purge for the recovery of adsorption capacity because of the opportunity of purging is limited. It is expected to develop a technique which can measure an actual purge quantity of fuel vapor with a high accuracy and increase the purge flow rate.

Fuel vapor treatment system for internal combustion engine


Improved liquid antimicrobial solutions useful as preservative additives to personal care preparations, particularly cosmetic formulations and the like, are provided which comprise 1,3-dimethylol-5,5-disubstituted hydantoin, liquid aromatic alcohol, and iodoalkynyl alkyl carbamate. A preferred antimicrobial solution can be prepared by producing the 1,3,dimethylol-5,5-disubstituted hydantoin in situ in the selected liquid aromatic alcohol and then adding to the resulting solution the previously prepared iodoalkynyl alkyl carbamate. The solutions are surprisingly water dispersible and display broad spectrum antimicrobial effectiveness, particularly antifungal effectiveness, at a relatively low usage concentration in a cosmetic medium.

Antimicrobial combinations of formaldehyde substituted hydantoin, particularly 1,3-dimethylol-5,5-dimethyl hydantoin (abbreviated for convenience as DMDMH), with various selected other antimicrobial agents are desirable additives for use in a variety of personal care preparations, particularly cosmetics. Multiple usage personal care preparations, such as shampoos, skin lotions and the like, are especially prone to exposure to bacterial contamination during repeated opening of the container for product usage.
Although DMDMH is a broad spectrum antimicrobial, it is primarily active against bacteria and less active against fungi. Thus, to fully achieve broad spectrum antimicrobial activity, DMDMH is frequently combined with a second component that is particularly active against fungi. Also, the two components in combination should preferably be water soluble and achieve a greater antimicrobial effectiveness than either component used separately at equivalent concentrations.
Conventionally, the second, anti-fungal component employed is a paraben (or paraben mixture). The parabens are esters of parahydroxy benzoic acid (para acid). The parabens can only function in the water phase of a product but are not readily water soluble. Moreover, the parabens can be partially or fully inactivated by hydrogen bonders, such as highly ethoxylated compounds, e.g., polysorbates, by cellulose derivatives, proteins and the like which are frequent ingredients in personal care preparations. There is an ongoing need, therefore, for alternative antifungal components for use in combination with DMDMH.
Recent favorable experience and manufacturer response by the personal care industry has been achieved with the use of 3-iodo-2-propynyl butyl carbamate (abbreviated for convenience as IPBC), a potent fungicide but weak biocide. Consequently, a demand for combinations of DMDMH and IPBC has arisen.
Some dry powder blends of DMDMH and IPBC are disclosed by Merianos in U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,050 and No. 5,496,842 and by Rosen et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,891. However, for additive use in personal care preparations, such dry blends either must be first dissolved, usually in water before being admixed with such a preparation, or must be carefully directly added to a preparation and dissolved therein. Not only is either of such addition sequence time-consuming, but also each sequence is unpredictable and unreliable as to whether or not homogeneous dissolution and distribution will be achieved. Further, such dry blends present handling problems, such as dusting, spillage and the like.
Moreover, IPBC has a limited solubility in water of reportedly about 160-200 parts per million (0.016-0.02%). Thus, as the amount of IPBC increases in dry blends of DMDMH and IPBC, the water solubility of the blend decreases. Merianos, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,428;050 and No. 5,496,842, teaches, for example, that a high weight ratio of DMDMH to IPBC of upwards of 100:1 to 2000:1 in a DMDMH:IPBC powder blend is needed for water solubility and that at DMDMH:IPBC weight ratios below 100:1, it is difficult to uniformly distribute the iodopropynyl compound in aqueous use compositions.
A liquid composition containing predispersed DMDMH and IPBC, therefore, appears to offer the advantages of being readily admixable with aqueous or nonaqueous preparations and of achieving homogeneous distribution in the resulting finished system.
Some liquid compositions of DMDMH and IPBC are described by Merianos in U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,842,. No. 5,552,425 and No. 5,631,273 which are prepared by using the foregoing water soluble, dry blend of DMDMH and IPBC predispersed in propylene glycol or 1,3-butylene glycol. The two foregoing alkylene glycols taught by Merianos are readily water soluble aliphatic diols but have little or no recognized antimicrobial activity, themselves, at use concentrations below about 10 weight percent in the finished preparation. Moreover, the Merianos liquid compositions require that the water soluble, dry blend of DMDMH and IPBC have a high weight ratio of DMDMH to IPBC ranging upwards from 100:1 to 2000:1.
Unfortunately, as the weight of DMDMH in the dry blend increases and the weight of the IPBC decreases, antifungal effectiveness decreases, as shown by tests and evaluations of the antifungal effectiveness of these dry blends reported by Merianos in Tables 21 and 22 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,050 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,842. Consequently, high levels of broad spectrum antimicrobial activity, especially against the yeast, Candida albicans (Ca), was not achieved by using such dry blends at the low usage concentrations that are desired for acceptable commercial practicality in personal care preparations. This presents a problem because the maximum amount of DMDMH containing antimicrobial compositions used in personal care preparations is limited in many countries by regulation.
Thus, the art needs a new and improved liquid composition for DMDMH and IPBC which, when admixed with an aqueous medium at a usage concentration preferably of no more than about one weight percent produces broad spectrum antimicrobial activity, and especially antifungal activity.
The present invention provides such a new and improved liquid composition.

Antimicrobial liquid preservative solutions and process for preparation


The present disclosure presents a method and an apparatus for network cognizant uplink transmissions during inter radio access technology (IRAT) handovers. For example, the method may include skipping inter radio access technology (IRAT) measurements during one or more dedicated channel (DCH) measurement occasion (DMO) or idle interval gaps of a transmission timing interval (TTI). The method further includes transmitting data on an uplink from a user equipment (UE) to a network entity during the entire duration of the TTI and determining whether the network entity is decoding the data transmitted on the uplink based on a response received from the network entity. As such, network cognizant uplink transmissions during inter radio access technology (IRAT) handovers may be achieved.

Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to inter radio access technology (IRAT) handovers.
Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and so on. Such networks, which are usually multiple access networks, support communications for multiple users by sharing the available network resources. One example of such a network is the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN). The UTRAN is the radio access network (RAN) defined as a part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a third generation (3G) mobile phone technology supported by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The UMTS, which is the successor to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technologies, currently supports various air interface standards, such as Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA), Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA), and Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA). The UMTS also supports enhanced 3G data communications protocols, such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), which provides higher data transfer speeds and capacity to associated UMTS networks.
For example, in TD-SCDMA systems, Dedicated Channel (DCH) measurement occasion (DMO) or Idle Interval gaps may be configured by a network to support LTE or GSM measurements by a user equipment (UE) during TD-SCDMA to LTE or TD-SCDMA to GSM handovers when the UE is in connected mode. However, 3GPP Specifications do not specify whether a user equipment (UE) can transmit data on an uplink to a network entity during the DMO or Idle Interval gaps which may result in lower throughput at the UE.
Therefore, there is a desire for a method and an apparatus for network cognizant uplink transmissions during inter radio access technology (IRAT) handovers for improved throughput at UEs.

Method and apparatus for network cognizant uplink transmissions during IRAT handovers