Ridges and grooves are alternately formed on a platen in the direction of transporting sheets. Wave holding spurs are rotatably supported by torsion springs downstream of a recording area, and pressed against the grooves. Sheet discharge roller pairs are disposed generally downstream from the grooves. Recording sheets exhibit cockling which rises up toward a recording head due to swelling from ink, but a substantial amount of the swelling is contained in the grooves, so the cockling does not come into contact with the recording head, and further, the peak-to-peak distance of the wave shapes of the recording sheets can be reduced. Following the leading edge of a recording sheet passing the sheet discharge roller pairs, the crests of the cockling are collapsed by transporting spurs and divided between wave holding spurs and the transporting spurs, and thus the peak-to-peak distance is further reduced, consequently preventing off-target landing of ink droplets.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for recording on sheets with recording means, and particularly relates to the configuration of a particular part of an ink jet recording apparatus which records by discharging ink droplets from ink jet recording means, the part being the printing region and the areas upstream and downstream therefrom.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to record with ink jet recording apparatuses in a stable manner, the effects of wrinkling and undulations (hereafter referred to as "cockling") upon ink being applied to recording sheets serving as a recording medium must be eliminated as much as possible, and also recording sheets which tend to curl due to the effects of humidity and the like must be kept from floating toward the head, so as to maintain the distance between the surface of the recording sheet and the recording head. This is because in the event that the recording sheet floats up so far as to come into contact with the recording head, this not only leads to soiling of the recording sheet due to ink droplets on the recording head being transferred thereto and smearing of the unfixed ink on the recording sheet, but also causes trouble such as clogging of the ink discharge orifices of the recording head.
Techniques for solving the above-described problems have been conventionally disclosed, such as in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-071532 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-158644. A first conventional example according to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-071532 will first be described, with reference to FIGS. 12 and 13.
An ink jet recording apparatus 100 comprises a transporting roller 102 serving as sheet transporting means, disposed upstream in the recording sheet transportation direction of a recording head 101, a pinch roller 103 which is pressed against the transporting roller 102 so as to be driven thereby, and sheet discharge rollers 104 and sheet discharge spurs 105 pressed against the sheet discharge rollers 104 so as to be driven thereby, which are provided downstream in the sheet transportation direction. The ink jet recording apparatus 100 further comprises a platen 106 for guiding the rear face of a recording sheet S at a position facing the recording head 101, with multiple ribs 107 and grooves 108 alternately formed on the upper face for forming waves in the sheet width direction of the recording sheet S. A sheet pressing plate 110 having protrusions 109 for guiding recording sheets S into the grooves 108 is provided upstream from the platen 106 in the sheet transportation direction. Also, wave holding spurs 112 for pressing the recording sheet S into the grooves 108 in the same way are provided downstream in the sheet transportation direction from the grooves 108. The sheet discharge rollers 104 and the sheet discharge spurs 105 are positioned downstream from each rib 107 of the platen 106 in the sheet transportation direction, and the height of the nip formed between the sheet discharge rollers 104 and the sheet discharge spurs 105 is arranged to be approximately the same height as the ribs 107.
With such a configuration, the behavior of the recording sheet S upon the platen 106 will be described with reference to FIG. 13, which is a view of the arrangement shown in FIG. 12 from the direction of the arrow C.
The recording sheet S which has passed beyond the sheet pressing plate 110 is provided with a wave shape such as indicated by the solid line S5. At this time, in the event that the recorded image is one of high concentration, recording ink which uses water as the primary medium thereof will have been ejected onto and absorbed into the recording sheet S in great amounts, so the recording sheet S becomes swelled. Now, the recording sheet S has the apexes of the waves immediately upstream from the recording area pressed between the ribs 107 and a horizontal portion 111 of the sheet pressing plate 110, and accordingly does not readily move even due to swelling. On the other hand, movement is not restricted at the multiple grooves 108, so stretching of the recording sheet S due to swelling primarily occurs at the grooves 108. The recording sheet S is displaced downwards beforehand by the protrusions 109, so cockling is sure to occur downwards, and the recording sheet S following recording assumes a form indicated by the dotted line S6. The recording sheet S upon which cockling such as indicated by S6 at the recording area is transported by the sheet discharge rollers 104 and sheet discharge spurs 105 with the cockling state maintained by the wave holding spurs 112. The sheet discharge roller pairs are disposed downstream from each rib 107, thereby being situated at the crest portion of each cockle, and accordingly maintaining the cockling state.
Also, with regard to curling of the recording sheet S due to the environmental conditions, the recording sheet S is provided with the wave shape upstream of the recording area, and the wave shape is maintained by the wave holding spurs 112 even after the trailing edge of the recording sheet S passes over the sheet pressing plate 110. Accordingly, the rigidity of the recording sheet S is increased and curling is corrected, so the recording sheet S is prevented from floating up towards to the recording head 101 side.
Next, a second conventional example according to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-158644 will be described with reference to FIGS. 14 through 16. Description which would be repetitive of the description of the first conventional example will be omitted here.
An ink jet recording apparatus 200 comprises a transporting roller 202 serving as sheet transporting means, disposed upstream in the recording sheet transportation direction of a recording head 201, a pinch roller 203 which is pressed against the transporting roller 202 so as to be driven thereby, and sheet discharge rollers 204 and sheet discharge spurs 205 pressed against the sheet discharge rollers 204 so as to be driven thereby, which are provided downstream in the sheet transportation direction. The ink jet recording apparatus 200 further comprises a platen 206 for guiding the rear face of a recording sheet S at a position facing the recording head 201, with multiple ribs 207 and auxiliary ribs 208 shorter than the ribs 207 formed on the upper face for forming waves on the sheet width direction of the recording sheet S. The transporting roller 202 and the pinch roller 203 are arranged such that the pinch roller 203 is offset as to the transporting roller 202 in the direction of the platen 206 as shown in FIG. 15, which is a cross-sectional view along line XV-XV in FIG. 14, and with the nip portion thereof positioned above the ribs 207. Accordingly, the recording sheet S is pressed against the ribs 207 from an upper diagonal direction while being transported, and as indicated by the solid line S7 in FIG. 16, which is a view of that shown in FIG. 14 from the direction of the arrow D, the recording sheet S is provided with a wave formed wherein crests are formed at the ribs 207 and troughs are formed at the portions between the ribs 207. Also, the sheet discharge rollers 204 and the sheet discharge spurs 205 are positioned downstream from each rib 207 of the platen 206 in the sheet transportation direction, and wave holding spurs 209 for pressing the recording sheet S in between the ribs 207 and between the sheet discharge rollers 204 in the same way are also provided downstream.
With such a configuration, the behavior of the recording sheet S upon the platen 206 is such that it assumes a wave shape indicated by the solid line S7 before recording with the recording head 201 as shown in FIG. 16, and in the event that a high-concentration image has been recorded thereupon, stretching due to swelling of the recording sheet S between the ribs 207 and auxiliary ribs 208 occurs in the direction away from the recording head 201 as shown by dotted line S8.
However, there are problems with the above-described conventional examples. As a first problem, the shape of the waves and the depth of the troughs of the recording sheet change before and after the leading edge of the recording sheet reaches the wave holding spurs. The reason that this occurs is as follows. The shape of the waves, and consequently the depth of the troughs, formed upstream of the recording head by the sheet pressing plate 110 or by the offset of the pinch roller 203 as to the transporting roller 202, differ depending on the thickness and rigidity of the recording sheets, and further depending on the density of the fibers from one sheet to another, or even from one place to another within the same sheet. However, the height of the wave holding spurs 112 or 209 is set so as to be lower than the ribs 107 or 207 taking into consideration the tolerance of parts and assembly, in order to press the recording sheets between the ribs 107 or 207 in a sure manner. Accordingly, in many cases, the depth of the trough increases after the leading edge of the recording sheet reaches the wave holding spurs. Also, the wave holding spurs 209 are rotatably borne by torsion coil springs 210 so as to be capable of elastic movement, and are capable of moving a certain amount in the height-wise direction, but this arrangement is originally intended for providing wave shapes to the recording sheets, and accordingly cannot completely eliminate the effects.
Consequently, the distance between the recording head and the recording face of the recording sheet changes before and after the leading edge of the recording sheet reaches the wave holding spurs, and with multi-pass recording wherein scanning of the recording head is repeated for multiple sheet feeds for forming an image, there have been problems such as the ink droplets landing off-target, offset in image colors, overall coarseness, and so forth.
As a second problem, in the event that a high-concentration recording image is recorded on a recording sheet, swelling of the recording sheet occurs in the direction away from the recording head at the trough portion of the wave shapes of to the recording sheet beforehand, i.e., between the grooves 108 or between the ribs 207 and auxiliary ribs 208 of the platen, thereby preventing contact with the recording head, as already described with regard to the conventional art. However, this has negative effects as well, in that at portions where cockling occurs, the recording face of the recording sheet is distanced form the recording head, so the ink droplets land further off-target. Also, the massive wave effects of the region where cockling occurs act to distance the trough portions from the recording head for portions that have not been recorded on yet as well, so the ink droplets land far off-target in the same way.
Further, as a third problem, the depth of the wave shapes of the recording sheet changes between before and after the trailing edge of the recording sheet passing over the transporting roller 102 or 202. This occurs due to the entire width-wise area of the unrecorded face of the recording sheet changing from a state of being supported by the transporting roller to a state of being supported only by the ribs 107 or 207 of the platen. That is to say, in the state before the trailing edge of the recording sheet passes over the transporting roller, the entire width of the recording sheet is supported by the transporting roller at the time of providing wave shapes for troughs between the ribs 107 or 207 of the platen, which acts as drag. However, after the trailing edge of the recording sheet passes over the transporting roller, this drag does not act on the recording sheet any more, so the depth of the troughs increases. Consequently, there have been problems such as the ink droplets landing off-target, offset in image colors, overall coarseness, and so forth.


To permit a precise and easy adjustment of a pump absorption torque of a main pump in accordance with environmental conditions when a sub-pump different in characteristics from the main pump is connected to a prime mover. A main controller 12 includes a processor means for setting the level of an absorption torque of a cooling fan pump 20 at a maximum absorption torque in use, a processor means for incrementing an adjustment target absorption torque for a main pump 13 at a slow rate from a sufficiently small pump absorption torque, and a processor means for repeating loading of a load factor signal and the increment of the adjustment target absorption torque as long as “NO” is determined by a fourth determination means, and a processor means for storing the adjustment target absorption torque as an adjustment value when “YES” has been determined by the fourth determination means.

Depending on environmental conditions such that a hydraulic working machine is installed in an upland area or performs work in an environment of extremely low temperatures or use conditions of a hydraulic working machine such that work is performed using inferior fuel or different work loads are applied to the hydraulic working machine, a prime mover, that is, an engine may be overloaded even if the hydraulic machine is the same. In such a case, a need arises to limit the engine output. It is, hence, necessary for a maintenance service engineer to visit the site and to adjust the maximum absorption torque of the main pump of the hydraulic working machine. This adjustment of the maximum absorption torque of the main pump requires special equipment such as service tools, and moreover, the maintenance service engineer is required to have good skills and experiences.
In addition to a main pump, sub-pumps different in the manner of control and the manner of use from the main pump, such as a cooling fan pump and a pilot pump, are also connected to an engine. In other words, plural pumps different in characteristics from each other are connected to an engine. Unless the above-mentioned adjustment is performed well, an interference takes place in pump absorption torque among the pumps to adversely affect the operability and working performance of the hydraulic working machine.
Conventional technologies of the above-mentioned sort include those disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2. The conventional technology disclosed in Patent Document 1 is to change the setting of the engine revolution speed depending on the altitude. The conventional technology disclosed in Patent Document 2, on the other hand, is to use a sealed bellows vessel, which can expand or contract depending on the atmospheric pressure to make the absorption torque of a pump variable in accordance with the atmospheric pressure.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2004-132197
Patent Document 2: JP-A-9-126150

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Pump torque controller of hydraulic working machine

Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.


A method for microfluidic printing continuous tone color pixels on a reflective receiver by using cyan, magenta, and yellow inks, including supplying a fourth, colorless ink along with the cyan, magenta, and yellow inks needed for color printing and pumping the inks through capillary microchannels by microfluidic pumps. The method further includes mixing the correct amount of colorless ink with the cyan, magenta, or yellow inks to produce mixtures of ink having a desired correct hue and tone scale; and transferring the pixels of the ink mixtures to the reflective receiver to form colored pixels on the receiver comprising a support, a layer formed over the support of an ink impermeable material and cavities defined in a surface of the ink impermeable layer and an ink absorbing material disposed in the cavities for absorbing a determinable amount of ink until saturated such that ink is not conveyed to adjacent cavities.

Microfluidic pumping and dispensing of liquid chemical reagents is the subject of three U. S. Pat. Nos. 5,585,069, 5,593,838,and 5,603,351,all assigned to the David Sarnoff Research Center, Inc., and hereby incorporated by reference. The system uses an array of micron sized reservoirs, with connecting microchannels and reaction cells etched into a substrate. Electrokinetic pumps comprising electrically activated electrodes within the capillary microchannels provide the propulsive forces to move the liquid reagents within the system. The electrokinetic pump, which is also known as an electroosmotic pump, has been disclosed by Dasgupta et al., see "Electroosmosis: A Reliable Fluid Propulsion System for Flow Injection Analyses", Anal. Chem. 66, pp 1792-1798 (1994). The chemical reagent solutions are pumped from a reservoir, mixed in controlled amounts, and them pumped into a bottom array of reaction cells. The array may be decoupled from the assembly and removed for incubation or analysis. When used as a printing device, the chemical reagent solutions are replaced by dispersions of cyan, magenta, and yellow pigment, and the array of reaction cells may be considered a viewable display of picture elements, or pixels, comprising mixtures of pigments having the hue of the pixel in the original scene. When contacted with receiver, the capillary force of the receiver fibers pulls the dye from the cells and holds it in the receiver, thus producing a receiver print, or photograph, of the original scene. One problem with this kind of printer is the rendering of an accurate tone scale. The problem comes about because the capillary force of the receiver fibers remove all the pigment solution from the cell, draining it empty. If, for example, a yellow pixel is being printed, the density of the image will be fully yellow. However, in some scenes, a light, or pale yellow is the original scene color. One way to solve this problem might be to stock and pump a number of yellow pigments ranging from very light to dark yellow. Another way to solve the tone scale problem is to print a very small dot of dark yellow and leave white receiver surrounding the dot. The human eye will integrate the white and the small dot of dark yellow leading to an impression of light yellow, provided the dot is small enough. This is the principle upon which the art of color halftone lithographic printing rests. It is sometimes referred to as area modulation of tone scale. However, in order to provide a full tone scale of colors, a high resolution printer is required, with many more dots per inch than would be required if the colors could be printed at different densities. Another solution to the tone scale problem has been provided in the area of ink jet printers, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,351, by Gilbert A. Hawkins, hereby incorporated by reference. In an ink jet printer, the drop size is determined primarily by the surface tension of the ink and the size of the orifice from which the drop is ejected. The ink jet printer thus has a similar problem with rendition of tone scale. U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,351 overcomes the problem by premixing the colored ink with a colorless ink in the correct proportions to produce a drop of ink of the correct intensity to render tone scale. However, ink jet printers require a relatively high level of power to function, and they tend to be slow since only a few pixels are printed at a time (serial printing), in comparison to the microfluidic printer in which all the pixels are printed simultaneously (parallel printing). Another possible solution to the tone scale problem is described in the above cross referenced copending application, wherein a colorless ink is mixed with the colored inks to make the light colored pixels that are needed for a continuous tone image. The problem with this method is that the receiver receiver to which the inks are being transferred must be removed at just the right time or too much ink may be pulled from the microchannels which convey it to the receiver. This is particularly difficult to time in conditions where the temperature may vary, because the rate of flow of the ink will be temperature sensitive. If too much ink is pulled from the microchannel apparatus, the densities of the image will be too high, and resolution will be lost, because the expanding pixel of ink will blend with the adjacent pixels. This blending may also cause the color saturation to be reduced. Excess ink will not produce a pretty picture.
It would be desirable to have a receiver for rapidly printing a high quality continuous tone image using a microfluidic printing apparatus.


The present invention is a media-based fluid filtration system that extends the time between backwashing operations and prevents the agglomeration of filtered particles at the top of the media bed through the use of a plurality of rotating vanes and associated tines that continuously agitate the upper portion of the filtration media to create a fluidized bed. The fluid stream to be filtered is introduced at the top of a generally cylindrical filtration chamber at a tangential angle to induce a helical flow inside the chamber. The chamber contains one or more layers of filtering media such as sand, gravel, or the like below the inlet. The incoming fluid stream makes contact with a plurality of pivotally mounted vanes, causing them to rotate. One or more downwardly extending tines are attached to each blade, extending down from the blade into the top layer of the filtering media. The pressure from the incoming fluid rotates the blades, causing the tines to stir the top layer of the media which prevents filtered particles from agglomerating or caking at the top of the media.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to media-based solid-liquid filters, and more particularly to a new and improved sand media filtering device for efficiently and continuously filtering solids from liquids in a liquid/solid mixture for longer periods of time with fewer backwashing operations.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many agricultural, industrial, and commercial processes and systems require filtration of the water or other fluids used. The ultimate purpose or use for the water or fluid generally dictates the amount of filtration required. For some operations, filtration of particles down to 20 microns is sufficient, while others may require filtration down to 5 microns, 1 micron or even less. To address these needs, different filtration systems have been developed.
Screen or wire mesh filters are well known in the art. Such filters typically employ one or more layers of woven wire screen or mesh, sometimes having different opening sizes. Water or fluid is passed through the mesh which filters out particles larger than the smallest opening sizes of the mesh. Because of their permanent fixation, such filters can become easily and quickly clogged, and therefore require constant cleaning or backwashing. This kind of constant interruption of the filtration process cannot be tolerated in many environments.
Media-based filters have also been developed which include one or more layers of different sized media (such as sand or gravel) deployed in a filtration chamber. Water or fluid is passed through the chamber, and the media filters out particles. The media may range in size from coarse to fine, depending upon the amount of filtration required, and may include activated carbon to remove organic materials such as bacteria and the like. Filtered particles accumulate in the media and must eventually be removed by backwashing.
For many media-based filters, it is common to backwash three or four times per day. This causes a disruption in the filtering process, and often requires use of filtered water or fluid to perform the backwashing operation itself. It is possible to lengthen the time between backwashing operations by providing larger filters with more media, however large filters may not be appropriate or affordable in many applications. Unfortunately, media-based filtration systems also suffer from a significant drawback posed by the potential for agglomeration or caking of filtered particles at the top of the media bed, forming a solid layer. When such caking occurs, it may slow or stop the filtration process until the caked material can be backwashed out. More significantly, if the caked material becomes too thick, it may also interrupt or prevent the backwashing process itself.
It is therefore desirable to provide a media-based fluid filtration system that is capable of providing filtration for longer periods of time between backwashes without increasing the size of the system, and which prevents the agglomeration of filtered particles at the top of the media bed.


A drill bit and method of drilling a wellbore. The drill bit includes a pad configured to extend and retract from a surface of the drill bit, and a force application device configured to extend and retract the pad. The force application device includes a screw driven by an electric motor that linearly moves a drive unit to extend and retract the pad from the drill bit surface. The drill bit may be conveyed by a drill string and the pad may be extended from the drill bit face to drill the wellbore.

1. Field of the Disclosure
This disclosure relates generally to drill bits and systems that utilize same for drilling wellbores.
2. Background of the Art
Oil wells (also referred to as "wellbores" or "boreholes") are drilled with a drill string that includes a tubular member having a drilling assembly (also referred to as the "bottomhole assembly" or "BHA"). The BHA typically includes devices and sensors that provide information relating to a variety of parameters relating to the drilling operations ("drilling parameters"), behavior of the BHA ("BHA parameters") and parameters relating to the formation surrounding the wellbore ("formation parameters"). A drill bit attached to the bottom end of the BHA is rotated by rotating the drill string and/or by a drilling motor (also referred to as a "mud motor") in the BHA to disintegrate the rock formation to drill the wellbore. A large number of wellbores are drilled along contoured trajectories. For example, a single wellbore may include one or more vertical sections, deviated sections and horizontal sections through differing types of rock formations. When drilling progresses from a soft formation, such as sand, to a hard formation, such as shale, or vice versa, the rate of penetration (ROP) of the drill changes and can cause (decreases or increases) excessive fluctuations or vibration (lateral or torsional) in the drill bit. The ROP is typically controlled by controlling the weight-on-bit (WOB) and rotational speed (revolutions per minute or "RPM") of the drill bit so as to control drill bit fluctuations. The WOB is controlled by controlling the hook load at the surface and the RPM is controlled by controlling the drill string rotation at the surface and/or by controlling the drilling motor speed in the BHA. Controlling the drill bit fluctuations and ROP by such methods requires the drilling system or operator to take actions at the surface. The impact of such surface actions on the drill bit fluctuations is not substantially immediate. Drill bit aggressiveness contributes to the vibration, oscillation and the drill bit for a given WOB and drill bit rotational speed. Depth of cut of the drill bit is a contributing factor relating to the drill bit aggressiveness. Controlling the depth of cut can provide smoother borehole, avoid premature damage to the cutters and longer operating life of the drill bit.
The disclosure herein provides a drill bit and drilling systems using the same configured to control the aggressiveness of a drill bit during drilling of a wellbore.

Drill bit with a force application using a motor and screw mechanism for controlling extension of a pad in the drill bit


In a unilateral NMR probe for the analysis of a material comprising at least one magnet for generating a constant time-invariant polarization field B0 in the material to be analyzed and current conductors forming a radio frequency oscillation circuit for generating a pulsed radio frequency magnetic excitation field B1 which is superimposed on the polarization field N0 in the material, the circuit conductors are so designed as to provide several adjacent excitation fields B0 with alternatingly oppositely oriented magnetic fields, whereby the current conductors generating each one of the excitation fields have a distance from each other which causes a certain penetration depth in the material to be analyzed and echoes received therefrom provide measurement values which are characteristic for the material being analyzed.

The invention relates to an NMR probe for the analysis of materials by nuclear magnetic resonance. The probe comprises a magnet, for example an electromagnet or a permanent magnet for generating a constant time-invariant polarization field Bo in the material to be examined and a radio frequency oscillation circuit for generating a pulsed high-frequency magnetic excitation field B1, which is superimposed on the polarization field Bo to generate echo signals S in the material which are determined by the NMR probe as material-characteristic measurement values. The echo signals can be measured on a time basis after changes of the magnetic field by way of two or more radio frequency pulses provided by the NMR probe, the third and subsequent pulses after an echo period tE. The signal to be measured is generated in the area around the probe in the magnetic field wherein the components of the two magnetic fields B0 and B1 are orthogonal to each other.
A mechanical NMR probe such as the probe of the NMR-MOUSE (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance—Mobile Universal Surface Explorer) is a mobile measuring apparatus by which nuclear magnetic resonance is used for the analysis of materials. With an NMR-MOUSE spatial material structures can be examined. Crystalline or glass-like materials as well as soft materials such as elastomers can be examined with respect to their molecular dynamics, and also liquids and biological materials can be analyzed, see for example G. Eidmann et al. "The NMR-MOUSE, a mobile universal surface explorer", Journal of Magnetic Resonance, 1996, p. 104/109, and P Blümler et al., "Spatially resolved magnetic resonance", Wiley-VCH-publishers, 1998, p. 195/209, or A. Guthausen et al. "NMR imaging and material research", Chemie in unserer Zeit, 1998, page 73/84. The time-constant static magnetic polarization field B0 is generated with the NMR-MOUSE usually by means of one or several permanent magnets. The pulsed magnetic excitation field B1 is the magnetic component of a high frequency field, which is generated by a radio frequency coil, below called RF coil, as a component of an electric oscillation circuit, wherein the RF coil serves generally at the same time as the receiver coil for the echo signals S to be measured. For the polarization of the nuclear magnetization in the permanent magnetic polarization field B0 and for the generation and detection of the echo signals, spatially homogeneous magnetic fields are generally not needed. NMR-Mouse probes can therefore be small and inexpensive in comparison with the normal NMR apparatus. The form and size of the ambient volume which is utilized for nuclear magnetic resonance and from which the electromagnetic signals are detected, are defined on one hand by the orthogonal components of both magnetic fields B0 and B1, and, on the other hand, by the band-width of the radio frequency impulses and their time pattern. The profile of the magnetic fields can be changed by the dimensioning and the arrangement of the permanent magnets and the coil of the electrical radio frequency oscillation circuit.
DE 199 28 039 A1 discloses an NMR-MOUSE apparatus for the examination of flatware of polymer materials with embedded textiles wherein several NMR-MOUSE probes form a measuring plane for supporting the flatware (3). The flatware is scanned from the surface thereof; the penetration depth of the excitation fields depends on the dimensioning of the NMR-MOUSE probe. Herein, the spatial measuring area in the material to be examined is variable in three dimensions by displacement of the NMR-MOUSE, by varying the magnetic field by auxiliary coils and by changing the high-frequency field. In connection with the present NMR-MOUSE apparatus, it is however disadvantageous that the given inhomogeneities of the permanent magnetic polarization field B0 and the excitation field B1 result in a dissatisfactory yield of the measuring signals from the volume area excited by an NMR-MOUSE probe by means of the radio frequency circuit. The signal to noise ratio is insufficient for demanding requirements particularly if thin material layers have to be examined.
It is the object of the present invention to improve the signal-to-noise ratio for unilateral NMR probes, wherein the penetration depth of the measuring volume taking into consideration the respective thickness of the material to be analyzed is optimized.


A method for processing communication identifications includes obtaining communication records corresponding to a plurality of communication identifications of a current user, determining use frequencies of the communication identifications according to the communication records, and determining one of the communication identifications as a frequently-used communication identification according to the use frequencies.

With the development of Internet technology, people can contact and communicate with each other in various ways such as telephone, SMS, email, and IM (instant messaging). Further, a person may have multiple phone numbers, email addresses, IM accounts, or the like.
Sometimes, multiple phone numbers of a friend may be saved in an address book. When a user needs to call the friend, it may be difficult for the user to determine which phone number to dial. If the user randomly picks a phone number to dial, that number may not be used by the friend very often, and thus it is likely that the friend will miss the call.
Therefore, in the related art, if a friend has a plurality of communication identifications, it is possible that the attempt to contact the friend will fail.

Method and apparatus for processing communication identification


A synchronizing system including a generation unit for generating a synchronizing pulse from data of an independent clock, the synchronizing pulse being generated in a periodic manner, transmission links to transmit the synchronizing pulse to all the computation units, and in each of the computation units, a control element to compare the synchronizing pulse that has been received to a pulse generated by an internal clock of the computation unit and to detect a compliance or a lack of compliance, a scheduler of each of the computation units activating a sequence of partitions when the synchronizing pulse is received, and this only if the control element has detected a compliance. The synchronizing system is configured to synchronize the computation units in a reliable and accurate manner and to increase the operating safety of these computation units.

In the context of the present invention, the computing units:                may each correspond to a computer, the set of computing units then representing a set of computers, comprising, for example, a master computer and a slave computer; or        may correspond to various channels or various modules of a single computer, the set (of computing units) then representing the computer and the computing units corresponding to these channels or modules.
In addition, in the context of the present invention, the computing units of the set of computing units implement at least in part the same types of partition. Each partition implements at least one (software) function, for example for controlling actuators of a rudder in the case of a flight control computer.
It is known that an aircraft, in particular a transport plane, generally comprises several sets of computing units, and, in particular, a set of flight control computers that compute control orders for controlling actuators of rudders of the aircraft. In general, some of the computers are used in control mode (COM) and the other computers are used in monitoring mode (MON), a computer in monitoring mode monitoring the operation of a computer in control mode. The computers are thus distributed into COM/MON pairs.
Furthermore, some of the computers of the aircraft may be of duplex type, that is to say, they comprise two modules forming, for example, a channel A and a channel B. Each function implemented by the computer is duplicated on each of the channels A and B, one of the channels acting in control mode (COM) and the other in monitoring mode (MON). This makes it possible to perform COM/MON monitoring during which, for each function implemented by the computer, the channel acting in monitoring mode monitors the channel acting in control mode so as to detect any failure of the pair of channels.
Regardless of the architecture under consideration, it is necessary for the computing units of such a set of computing units to be able to be synchronized accurately and reliably, while at the same time providing safety means.
There is therefore a need for such synchronization.

Computing unit assembly and a method and a system for synchronizing computing units of an aircraft


A signal enhancement system improves the quality of a noisy input signal. The system finds a low noise signal model which best matches the noisy input signal. Noisy portions of the input signal are replaced with portions of the low noise signal models. As the input signal increases in noise content, the output signal includes an increasing amount of the low noise signal model. The system thereby produces an output signal with very low noise which corresponds to the input signal.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to systems and methods for enhancing the quality of an acoustic signal degraded by additive noise.
2. Related Art
There are several fields of research studying acoustic signal enhancement, with the emphasis being on speech signals. Among those are: voice communication, automatic speech recognition (ASR), and hearing aids. Each field of research has adopted its own approaches to acoustic signal enhancement, with some overlap between them.
Acoustic signals are often degraded by the presence of noise. For example, in a busy office or a moving automobile, the performance of ASR systems degrades substantially. If voice is transmitted to a remote listener—as in a teleconferencing system—the presence of noise can be annoying or distracting to the listener, or even make the speech difficult to understand. People with a loss of hearing have notable difficulty understanding speech in noisy environment, and the overall gain applied to the signal by most current hearing aids does not help alleviate the problem. Old music recordings are often degraded by the presence of impulsive noise or hissing. Other examples of communication where acoustic signal degradation by noise occurs include telephony, radio communications, video-conferencing, and computer recordings.
Continuous speech large vocabulary ASR is particularly sensitive to noise interference, and the solution adopted by the industry so far has been the use of headset microphones. Noise reduction is obtained by the proximity of the microphone to the mouth of the subject (about one-half inch), and sometimes also by special proximity effect microphones. However, a user often finds it awkward to be tethered to a computer by the headset, and annoying to be wearing an obtrusive piece of equipment. The need to use a headset precludes impromptu human-machine interactions, and is a significant barrier to market penetration of ASR technology.
Apart from close-proximity microphones, traditional approaches to acoustic signal enhancement in communication have been adaptive filtering and spectral subtraction. In adaptive filtering, a second microphone samples the noise but not the signal. The noise is then subtracted from the signal. One problem with this approach is the cost of the second microphone, which needs to be placed at a different location from the one used to pick up the source of interest. Moreover, it is seldom possible to sample only the noise and not include the desired source signal. Another form of adaptive filtering applies bandpass digital filtering to the signal. The parameters of the filter are adapted so as to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), with the noise spectrum averaged over long periods of time. This method has the disadvantage of leaving out the signal in the bands with low SNR.
In spectral subtraction, the spectrum of the noise is estimated during periods where the signal is absent, and then subtracted from the signal spectrum when the signal is present. However, this leads to the introduction of "musical noise" and other distortions that are unnatural. The origin of those problems is that, in regions of very low SNR, all that spectral subtraction can determine is that the signal is below a certain level. By being forced to make a choice of signal level based on sometimes poor evidence, a considerable departure from the true signal often occurs in the form of noise and distortion.
A recent approach to noise reduction has been the use of beamforming using an array of microphones. This technique requires specialized hardware, such as multiple microphones, A/D converters, and other hardware, thus raising the cost of the system. Since the computational cost increases proportionally to the square of the number of microphones, that cost also can become prohibitive. Another limitation of microphone arrays is that some noise still leaks through the beamforming process. Moreover, actual array gains are usually much lower than those measured in anechoic conditions, or predicted from theory, because echoes and reverberation of interfering sound sources are still accepted through the mainlobe and sidelobes of the array.
The inventor has determined that it would be desirable to be able to enhance an acoustic signal without leaving out any part of the spectrum, introducing unnatural noise, or distorting the signal, and without the expense of microphone arrays. This invention provides a system and method for acoustic signal enhancement that avoids the limitations of prior techniques.


Techniques are provided for improved management of cloud computing platform services in cloud computing environments. For example, a system comprises one or more processors operatively coupled to one or more memories to form a cloud computing platform services management framework, wherein the cloud computing platform services management framework is configured to perform steps of: providing one or more graphical user interfaces; and enabling centralized self-service access to a plurality of cloud computing platform services through the one or more graphical user interfaces for one or more application developers of a given enterprise. In one example, the cloud computing platform services comprise PaaS platform services and support tools.

It is well understood that efficient software program (e.g., application program or simply "application") development and effective deployment of such applications in cloud computing environments are important processes for an enterprise to maintain advantages over its competitors. To achieve such advantages, an enterprise may typically utilize a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) platform to develop and deploy their applications in a cloud computing environment. A PaaS platform is a cloud computing-based platform that provides users, typically via a third-party provider, with software and hardware infrastructure that enable the users to develop, deploy and update their applications. For example, Dell® IT Cloud Foundry is a PaaS platform offering that, along with other PaaS support service and tool offerings (some privately available within an enterprise and others publicly available through third-party providers), enable users to manage their applications through the lifecycles of their applications.
However, within a given enterprise, there are typically procedures in place for application development teams to follow when developing, deploying and/or updating their applications. By way of example only, application developers may have to reach out to information technology (IT) administrators for any PaaS platform, support service, or tool configuration requests. There may be a lengthy process for each request, e.g.: (i) open one or more tickets for any access requests; (ii) follow up on prioritized tickets; (iii) close tickets; and (iv) if the fulfillment is not done properly, then reopen or submit a new ticket. This process results in a labor and routine task intensive experience for managing a PaaS platform. As such, it is likely that configuration or administrative errors will be made and parallel requests by development team members will be backlogged, resulting in extra cost and/or loss of competitive opportunities for a given enterprise. As such, improved cloud computing platform (e.g., PaaS) service management techniques are needed.

Cloud computing platform service management


A system and method for providing the dynamic geographic location of a computing device to location aware applications. This system and method enables the location aware applications to enhance the user experience by taking the dynamic geographic location of a user into account in its operations. Location providers associated with the computing device provide dynamic geographic data associated with the geographic location of the user. The dynamic geographic data is converted to a common format that is recognized by the location aware applications. The location aware applications incorporate the dynamic location in presenting information to the user.

Today's computing devices can perform more tasks than ever before. Manufactures and software developers continue to find new uses for computing devices. For example, with the proper hardware and software components, a computing device can serve as a communication device for communicating with friends and family. A popular type of communication application is instant messaging (IM). A local user may log on to an IM server using an appropriate application. Once the local user is logged on to the IM server, the local user may communicate with remote users located at different geographic locations. IM has been popular among users of desktop computing devices for some time now. Recently, IM has also become increasingly popular among users of mobile computing devices.
In conventional IM systems, a local user can usually determine whether a remote user is available for communication or chatting. Some IM systems also allow the local user to enter a particular profile for viewing by remote users. However, the user-entered profiles are static in nature and could not be updated automatically. Thus, although IM allows users to communicate with one another, the user experience is somewhat limited in scope.

System and method for providing dynamic location information


A processor supports a processing mode in which the address size is greater than 32 bits and the operand size may be 32 or 64 bits. The address size may be nominally indicated as 64 bits, although various embodiments of the processor may implement any address size which exceeds 32 bits, up to and including 64 bits, in the processing mode. The processing mode may be established by placing an enable indication in a control register into an enabled state and by setting a first operating mode indication and a second operating mode indication in a segment descriptor to predefined states. Other combinations of the first operating mode indication and the second operating mode indication may be used to provide compatibility modes for 32 bit and 16 bit processing compatible with the x86 processor architecture (with the enable indication remaining in the enabled state).

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to the field of processors and, more particularly, to address and operand sizes in processors.
2. Description of the Related Art
The x86 architecture (also known as the IA-32 architecture) has enjoyed widespread acceptance and success in the marketplace. Accordingly, it is advantageous to design processors according to the x86 architecture. Such processors may benefit from the large body of software written to the x86 architecture (since such processors may execute the software and thus computer systems employing the processors may enjoy increased acceptance in the market due to the large amount of available software).
As computer systems have continued to evolve, 64 bit address size (and sometimes operand size) has become desirable. A larger address size allows for programs having a larger memory footprint (the amount of memory occupied by the instructions in the program and the data operated upon by the program) to operate within the memory space. A larger operand size allows for operating upon larger operands, or for more precision in operands. More powerful applications and/or operating systems may be possible using 64 bit address and/or operand sizes.
Unfortunately, the x86 architecture is limited to a maximum 32 bit operand size and 32 bit address size. The operand size refers to the number of bits operated upon by the processor (e.g. the number of bits in a source or destination operand). The address size refers to the number of bits in an address generated by the processor. Thus, processors employing the x86 architecture may not serve the needs of applications which may benefit from 64 bit address or operand sizes.

Establishing an operating mode in a processor


A search engine system (100) and CAM device (300) are disclosed. A search engine system (100) may generate response packets (112) in response to requests packets (110) and include at least one content addressable memory (CAM) device (102-0) having an input interface (116-0) for receiving data packets and an output interface (116-1) for transmitting data packets.

Search engine systems typically perform a search operation that can compare a search key value (e.g., a comparand) against a number of other data values. In the event a search key value matches a data value, a search key result may be considered a "hit" (e.g., match). If a search key value does not match any data values, a search result may be considered a "miss" (e.g., no match). Search engine systems continue to gain prevalence in networking hardware, and the like, as packet processing can require rapid matching of header fields to various tables in order to execute various functions on data packets. Such functions can include packet forwarding, filtering, or other types of processing.
While search engines can be based on a general-purpose processor and an accompanying algorithm, such approaches may be undesirably costly or slower in speed when compared to systems based on devices that may specialize in more rapid matching capabilities. One such device is a content addressable memory (CAM) device.
A CAM based search engine can typically include one or more CAM devices. A CAM device may include a number of entries, each of which may store a data value, or portion thereof. In a search operation, a comparand (or key) may be compared to multiple entries to see if all, or a portion, of the key matches an entry. After a search operation, a CAM device may give a search result as an output. Typically a search result may provide associated data directly, or can provide an "index" value that may be used to retrieve associated data from another device, such as a random access memory (RAM).
CAM devices may take a variety of forms. As but a few of the possible examples, a CAM device may be based on particular types of CAM cells. Such cells may include storage circuits integrated with compare circuits. Examples of storage circuits may be static random access memory (SRAM) type cells or dynamic random access memory (DRAM) type cells. Alternate approaches may include random access memories (RAM) arrays, or the like, with separate matching circuits and/or processing circuits.
A conventional CAM device and CAM based search engine device will now be described.
Referring to FIG. 19, a conventional CAM based device is set forth in a block diagram and designated by the general reference character 1900. A CAM device 1900 may include CAM entries 1902, an address decoder 1904, a compare data portion 1906, and a priority encoder 1908. CAM entries 1902 may store data values for comparison with a search key value. Address decoder 1904 may decode address values to provide access to CAM entries 1902. Compare data portion 1906 may apply search key values to CAM entries 1902. Priority encoder 1908 may prioritize match indications from CAM entries 1902, and encode a highest priority match entry into an index value.
The conventional CAM of FIG. 19 also includes a buffer 1910 and a command decoder 1912. A buffer 1910 may receive and output data values. In particular, a buffer 1910 may receive data values to be written into CAM entries 1902, search key values for application to CAM entries 1902, and output data values read from CAM entries 1902. A command decoder 1912 may receive command values and generate control signals from such command values for executing predetermined operations within CAM device 1900.
A conventional CAM device 1900 can also include dedicated input/outputs (I/Os) 1914-0, 1914-1 and 1914-2. Dedicated I/Os (1914-0, 1914-1 and 1914-2) may receive only predetermined values. Thus, in FIG. 19, dedicated I/Os 1914-0 may receive only address data or entry data, and may provide entry data. Similarly, dedicated I/Os 1914-1 may only receive command data, while dedicated I/Os 1914-2 may only provide index values. In a packaged CAM device, dedicated I/Os (1914-0, 1914-1 and 1914-2) can correspond to conductive leads of a package.
It is noted that conventional CAM devices may also include a RAM interface, or the like, for receiving index values. A RAM interface may generate address and control signals for a RAM device to thereby access data associated with a given index value.
A conventional CAM-based search engine system will now be described with reference to FIG. 20. The conventional CAM-based search engine system 2000 shown in FIG. 20 includes a command issuing device ("host") 2002, a CAM device 2004, and a RAM device 2006. A command issuing device 2002 may provide command and search data to dedicated I/Os of a CAM device 2004. In response to such command and search data, a CAM device 2004 can generate index values. Such index values can be received by a RAM interface within a CAM device 2004, which can generate memory address and control signals ADD/CTRL in response thereto. Memory address and control signals ADD/CTRL may be received on dedicated I/Os of a RAM device 2006. From such memory address and control signals, a RAM device 2006 may provide associated data to a data bus 2008.
While conventional CAM devices and CAM-based search engines can typically provide a fast rate of search relative to processor systems, it is always a desirable goal to provide faster search rates.
It is also noted that the conventional CAM-based search engine system of FIG. 20 shows a system with relatively few components. However, as such systems scale up in size, there may be increased wiring and/or operational complexity. In particular, many CAM devices and/or RAM devices may operate according to some kind of enabling signal, or the like. For example, a CAM device may identify command data according to a command valid signal, or the like. Similarly, a RAM device can be enabled by a chip select signal, or the like. As component numbers are increased, the number of signal lines that carry such enabling signal can increase. Further, it can become increasingly difficult to match signal line impedances with respect to a host device. Consequently, a host may have to accommodate different timings between different devices.
In light of the above, it would be desirable to arrive at some way of increasing overall search rates for a CAM-based search engine relative to conventional approaches. In addition, or alternatively, it would be desirable to arrive at a CAM device configuration that results in more simplified wiring as the number of CAM devices in such a system is increased.

Packet based communication for content addressable memory (CAM) devices and systems


A figurine for displaying a locket of hair in a simulative manner wherein the locket of hair is releasbly secured within a hair clip and the hair clip is removably attached to the top portion of a figurine's head thus simulating the figurine having a tuft of hair. The figurine may have a simulative appearance of that of a young child or baby and serves as a keepsake memento for those who wish to preserve and display a child's first locket of hair in an non-time consuming, non-complicated, and non-damaging manner.

A child's first haircut is a momentous occasion for many people, as the first locket of hair is a cherished keepsake memento. Unfortunately, often times the locket of hair is lost, misplaced or is kept in a box somewhere out of site and out of mind.
There exists various devices for displaying or storing a locket of hair. Examples of these devices are described by U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,257,955 and 5,755,166, and by U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/643588. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,257,955 there is described an apparatus including figurine in the form of a doll or a doll's head for displaying a locket of baby hair. The locket of baby hair is irremovably and permanently affixed to the figurine with an epoxy. While this method effectively and permanently retains the locket of hair, there are several disadvantages. One, the lock of hair can not be removed from the figurine without damaging the hair, and this is a disadvantage should the figurine become damaged and is no longer usable, or if one simply desired to no longer display the locket of hair with the figurine. Second, the correct use of epoxy requires a certain level of skill and is time consuming which is undesirable for most users'.
Accordingly, there is a need for a figurine for displaying a locket of hair in a simulative manner where the locket of hair is attachable to a figurine in a non-damaging manner without requiring a special skill, that is not time consuming, and readily permits removal of the locket of hair from the figurine without damage to the locket of hair.

Figurine for displaying a locket of hair


A zoom lens, which changes a magnification by properly changing distances between a plurality of lens components, has, in order from the object side, a first lens component with positive power, a second lens component with negative power, a third lens component with positive power, a fourth lens component with positive power, and a fifth lens component with positive power, and the first lens component has a reflecting member changing an optical path. The zoom lens satisfies the following conditions:1.6<β2(t)/β2(w)<10.03.3<β4(t)/β4(w)<10.0where β2(t) is a lateral magnification of the second lens component in a telephoto position in infinite focusing, β2(w) is a lateral magnification of the second lens component in a wide-angle position in infinite focusing, β4(t) is a lateral magnification of the fourth lens component in the telephoto position in infinite focusing, and β4(w) is a lateral magnification of the fourth lens component in the wide-angle position in infinite focusing.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a zoom lens suitable for compact digital still cameras or digital video cameras (which are hereinafter generically called digital cameras) and an image pick up apparatus provided with this zoom lens and an image sensor.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has been required that the zoom lens adopted to the digital camera is wide in angle of view, high in magnification, and compact in design. As a zoom lens satisfying such requirements, a zoom lens which includes, in order from the object side, a first lens component with positive power, a second lens component with negative power, a third lens component with positive power, a fourth lens component with positive power, and a fifth lens component with positive power and in which the first lens component has a prism for changing an optical path is known, and an example of this zoom lens is disclosed in Japanese Patent Kokai No. 2004-347712. Use of such a zoom lens realizes a variable magnification ratio of about 3 and favorable optical properties, and makes it possible to attain a slim design of a digital camera provided with the zoom lens.

Zoom lens and image pickup apparatus using the same


In an electroluminescent device comprising an insulating substrate having consecutively thereon a first electrode, a first insulating layer, a luminescent layer composed of two types or more luminescent portions differing in luminescent color which are provided in a flat panel arrangement to give a single-layered luminescent layer, a second insulating layer and a second electrode, a first dielectric film is disposed between the luminescent portions to provide an isolation layer for isolating the luminescent portions, and a second dielectric film for adjusting the luminescence threshold voltage is disposed on the light outcoupling side or on the side opposite thereto of one of said luminescent portions. Herein, the first and second dielectric films provided for isolating the luminescent portions and for adjusting the luminescence threshold voltage, respectively, are made of the same material and have a refractive index lower than that of both luminescent portions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multicolor electroluminescent device of a flat-panel display type, and to a process for fabricating the same.
2. Related Arts
Multicolor light-emitting device structures using electroluminescent devices known heretofore include those comprising a plurality of luminescent regions differing from each other in luminescent color, the luminescent regions being arranged in a same plane and interposed between insulating layers.
In the electroluminescent devices of this type, the luminescent regions differing in color also differ from each other in luminescence threshold voltage (a voltage for triggering light emission). Accordingly, means for realizing a uniform luminescence threshold voltage for the luminescent regions have been heretofore proposed in, for instance, unexamined Japanese Utility Model publication Hei-5-11392. The structure disclosed therein comprises a first luminescent portion containing a manganese-doped zinc sulfide (ZnS:Mn) and a second luminescent portion containing zinc sulfide doped with a rare earth element (ZnS:RE, where RE represents a rare earth element) arranged in a same plane in such a manner that the first and the second luminescent portions are in contact with each other to form a dichromatic luminescent layer. The publication further discloses that the structure constructed as above should include a dielectric layer interposed between the first luminescent portion and an insulating layer which envelops the luminescent layer. Though the luminescence threshold voltage of the first luminescent portion is lower than that of the second luminescent portion, the interposed dielectric layer lowers the voltage applied to the first luminescent portion for a voltage corresponding to that applied to the dielectric layer, and thus, the same drive voltage can be applied to the first and second luminescent portions.
Furthermore, in the electroluminescent devices above, it is necessary to prevent crosstalk of light from occurring between the luminescent regions. For instance, a structure disclosed in unexamined Japanese Patent publication Hei-4-39894 comprises light-absorbing materials interposed between the luminescent regions as light shielding films.
However, no effective means has yet been disclosed for a structure in which the luminescence threshold voltage is adjusted and in which crosstalk of light is circumvented at the same time.

Process for fabricating an electroluminescent device


A mini card has a size smaller than a card that conforms to established standards, and includes a hole for attachment to a key ring or other external device. Increased durability is provided by means of a substrate that includes a core made of PVC material, sandwiched between two durable layers of polyester material. Printing on these layers is protected by transparent overlay layers made of PVC. The durability of the card is measured by means of a test procedure in which random multi-dimensional motion is imparted to an assembly of the card and an attached weight. The durability is quantitatively indicated by the amount of elapsed time until the weight becomes separated from the card while undergoing the vibrational movement.

Plastic cards containing personalized information have become ubiquitous components of many aspects of modem life. For example, credit cards and debit cards are used to purchase goods and services, identification cards provide their holders with access to restricted areas, and ATM cards enable patrons to conduct monetary transactions with financial institutions. Personal information of the card holder that pertains to the transaction to be performed, e.g. account numbers, identification data, etc., is stored in the card. The storage mechanism can be a magnetic stripe on the card. In the case of a smart card, the information is stored in an electronic memory within a chip embedded into the card, either in lieu of or in addition to a magnetic stripe.
Many cards of these types have a size which conforms to the international standard ISO/IEC 7810. This standard defines a card having a nominal width of about 86 mm, a nominal height of about 54 mm, and a nominal thickness of 0.76 mm. Cards of this size are well known and readily adapted to be carried in a holder's wallet, pocketbook, purse or the like.
Recently, plastic cards having a smaller size than this standard format have become popular. Such cards are sometimes known as "mini cards". Examples of such cards are depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 6,471,127 and D467,247. For instance, a mini card might have a width of 66 mm and a height of 40 mm. The card can also have a non-standard shape, as shown, for example, in U.S. Patent No. D462,966.
One of the advantages of the smaller size of the mini card is that it can be easily carried with other items commonly found on a person, such as a set of keys. For this reason, as illustrated in the previously cited patents, the mini card may be provided with a hole that enables it to be attached to a key ring. Typically, the hole might be located at one corner of the card.
The ability to attach the mini card to other everyday items can result in stresses being placed upon the card that are not typically encountered by standard format cards. For instance, when not in use, a standard card is often carried in a protective environment, such as a wallet or a purse. In contrast, a mini card attached to a key ring is likely to be subjected to much more stress and abrasion. Even the simple acts of hanging the keys on a hook or turning a key in the ignition of a motor vehicle can cause the mini card to be flung against other objects. Of particular significance is the stress that is placed upon the area around the hole that serves as the point of attachment to the keys or other external objects. Over time, the periphery of the hole will be subjected to a significant amount of abrasion. Furthermore, the corner of the card where the hole is located will undergo an appreciable amount of torque stresses, due to normal use.
A conventional plastic transaction card is constructed as a multi-layer structure. A core layer made of Teslin® (a polyolefin-based microporous film) is sandwiched between two PVC printed layers. Transparent PVC overlay layers outside of the printed layers form the exterior surfaces of the card. Although superior to a card made only with PVC layers, this construction still results in a relatively brittle structure that constrains the durability of a mini card. The flexure and torque that is experienced by the mini card can lead to cracking, particularly in the vicinity of the keyhole.

Durable plastic mini card and method for testing its durability


A radiation image storage panel has a phosphor layer containing an energy-storing phosphor, in which the storage panel has a surface showing an absorbance of 0.2 to 0.5 at the stimulating wavelength of the phosphor, and the phosphor layer contains the phosphor at a packing density of 3.0 g/cm3 or more.

When exposed to radiation such as X-rays, an energy-storing phosphor (e.g., stimulable phosphor, which gives off stimulated emission) absorbs and stores a portion of the radiation energy. The phosphor then emits stimulated emission according to the level of the stored energy when exposed to electromagnetic wave such as visible or infrared light (i.e., stimulating light). A radiation image recording and reproducing method utilizing the energy-storing phosphor has been widely employed in practice. In that method, a radiation image storage panel, which is a sheet comprising the energy-storing phosphor, is used. The method comprises the steps of: exposing the storage panel to radiation having passed through an object or having radiated from an object, so that radiation image information of the object is temporarily recorded in the panel; sequentially scanning the storage panel with stimulating light such as a laser beam to emit stimulated light; and photoelectrically detecting the emitted light to obtain electric image signals. The storage panel thus treated is subjected to a step for erasing radiation energy remaining therein, and then stored for the use in the next recording and reproducing procedure. Thus, the radiation image storage panel can be repeatedly used.
The radiation image storage panel (often referred to as energy-storing phosphor sheet) has a basic structure comprising a support and a phosphor layer provided thereon. However, if the phosphor layer is self-supporting, the support may be omitted. Further, a protective layer is generally provided on the free surface (surface not facing the support) of the phosphor layer so as to keep the phosphor layer from chemical deterioration or physical damage.
Various kinds of energy-storing phosphor layers are known. For example, the phosphor layer can comprise a binder and energy-storing phosphor particles dispersed therein, or otherwise can comprise agglomerate of an energy-storing phosphor without binder. The latter layer can be formed by a gas phase-accumulation method or by a firing method.
The radiation image recording and reproducing method (or radiation image forming method) has various advantages as described above. However, it is still desired that the radiation image storage panel used in the method have as high sensitivity as possible and, at the same time, give a reproduced radiation image of as high quality (in regard to sharpness and graininess) as possible.
JP-A-2004-132872 discloses a radiation image storage panel containing a pigment in the form of particles having a mean size of 0.1 to 1.2 μm. The pigment shows integrated absorbances (a) and (b) at the wavelength regions of 670 to 690 nm and 390 to 420 nm, respectively, under the condition of 0.80≦a/b≦3.00.
JP-A-2004-177314 discloses another radiation image storage panel comprising a stimulable phosphor layer. The phosphor layer contains stimulable phosphor particles having a mean size of 3.0 μm or less and, in addition, pigment particles having a mean size of 1.2 μm or less in an amount of 0.0002 to 0.001 wt. % based on the amount of the stimulable phosphor. Both radiation image storage panels disclosed in the above-identified publications have object for improving quality, particularly, sharpness of the reproduced radiation image.
As described above, for the purpose of improving the sharpness of radiation image, it has been proposed and practically adopted to incorporate a colorant such as pigment into the phosphor layer of the radiation image storage panel. The radiation image storage panel capable of giving a radiation image of high sharpness is practically used in precise examination such as dental diagnosis and non-destructive inspection, as well as in the conventional radiography. In the precise examination, the storage panel is required to give a radiation image having both high sharpness and no imaging defects such as arcifacts. Even if there are some scratches on the panel surface, it is necessary for the scratches not to cause arcifacts on the image. In other words, the radiation image storage panel must be excellent in resistance to scratch Accordingly, it is desired to provide a radiation image storage panel not only giving high sharpness but also having excellent scratch resistance.
However, it is difficult to manufacture a radiation image storage panel having both excellent scratch resistance and high sharpness at the same time. When the surface of the storage panel is scratched, the phosphor layer in the scratched area is locally dented. Since the phosphor layer is thus rendered to have uneven thickness, arcifacts are liable to appear on the resultant reproduced image. For the reason, the higher sharpness the radiation image storage panel gives, the more likely the resultant reproduced image suffers arcifacts.


A method, system and apparatus for processing a radiographic image of a scanned object is disclosed. A pixel offset correction is performed in integer format on the radiographic image using saturation arithmetic to produce an image in integer format with any negative corrected values clipped to a value of zero. The resulting pixels are converted to floating point format and the converted pixels are multiplied by a gain factor. Optionally the resulting pixels are recursively averaged with previous results. The resulting pixels are converted to integer format and the converted pixel values are clamped to a maximum value using saturation arithmetic. Non-functional pixel correction is performed in integer format and the resulting pixel values are clamped to a maximum value using saturation arithmetic. An optional processing path replaces the recursive average by a linear average. The resulting pixel values are optionally filtered to enhance features of interest. The resulting pixel value is mapped in integer format to a palette index to establish an output pixel intensity having one of many intensity levels. The optional processing is controlled through the hardware interface of a real-time image controller as images are acquired.

The present invention relates generally to a method, system, and apparatus for processing radiographic images of scanned objects, and particularly to a method, system, and apparatus for processing radiographic images in real-time using a commercial off the shelf processor, a graphical user interface for setup and control, and a programmable commercial off the shelf controller box.
Radiography is the technique of producing an image of any opaque specimen by the penetration of radiation, such as gamma rays, x-rays, neutrons, or charged particles. When a beam of radiation is transmitted through any object, the radiation is differentially absorbed depending upon variations in object thickness, density, and chemical composition. The energy emergent from the object forms a radiographic image, which may then be realized on an image detection medium, such as a radiation sensitive detector having an array of elements that generate a signal output depending on the level of radiation absorbed, the detector signal output being converted into a voltage proportional to the level of radiation absorbed by the detector elements. Radiography is a non-destructive technique for examining the internal structure of an object, and is conventionally used in medical and industrial applications. Radiography is used to detect medical conditions such as tuberculosis and bone fractures, as well as manufacturing imperfections in materials such as cracks, voids, and porosity.
In industrial applications, digital radiographic systems tend to be designed for inspection of specific components and require highly trained operators to setup and operate, limitations that make them expensive to purchase and manage. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for advances in industrial radiographic systems having a lower cost and improved ease-of-use.

Method, system and apparatus for processing radiographic images of scanned objects


The present invention provides a communication device that reduces waste in paper, toner, and the like that are used for printing error reports, by eliminating the output of an error report when a user has noticed the occurrence of a communication error. The communication device may not print out an error report when a communication error occurs due to the failure to establish a connection with a recipient. An error report will be printed only when a user has not confirmed the occurrence of a communication error within a predetermined time period from the time the communication error occurred. Thus, output of an error report can be prohibited whenever a communication error occurs, and thus waste in paper, toner, and the like which are used for printing error reports can be reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication device such as a facsimile. More specifically, the present invention relates to a communication device that functions to inform a user of a communication error by printing out an error report when the communication error occurs.
2. Background Information
Japan Patent Application Publication JP-A-2002-232625 discloses a communication device, such as a facsimile, a multifunction device with a facsimile function, and the like, that prints out an error report on which a communication error is recorded when a communication error occurs. A communication error refers an error in which a connection with another communication device is disabled due to, for example, a nonexistent telephone number having been input into to that communication device.
If the communication device fails to connect, the communication device will make several additional attempts to connect to the other communication device. If the communication device cannot connect to the other communication device within a predetermined number of attempts, the communication device is generally configured to recognize the situation as a communication error. Therefore, a communication error often occurs after a predetermined time has elapsed from the time a user has operated the communication device, such as the input of a telephone number thereto and the like. In addition, when a communication error occurs, a user is often away from the communication device. Thus, even if a communication error occurs, the user often will not notice the occurrence of the communication error. On the other hand, a communication device will be able to bring the communication error to the attention of the user by outputting an error report to the user after the occurrence of a communication error.
However, a user may have already noticed the occurrence of the communication error by the time the user reads the error report. In other words, when the user is in the vicinity of the communication device, the user may have noticed the occurrence of the communication error even if an error report is not output. However, conventional communication devices output error reports whenever a communication error occurs. Therefore, papers, toner, and the like, are wasted in order to print the error reports.
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure that there exists a need for an improved communication device. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.

Communication device applied to confirming error reporting


Systems and methods for automatically modeling the discourse structure of psychiatric reports and segmenting these reports into various sections are provided. The systems and methods can be based around a model that learns the section types, positions, and sequence and can automatically segment unlabeled text in a psychiatric report into the corresponding sections. Knowledge of the ordering of the sections can improve the performance of a section classifier and a text segmenter. A Hierarchical Hidden Markov Model (HHMM) can be trained and can categorize sections in psychiatric reports into a predefined section label.

With the exponential growth of free text in electronic health records (EHRs), which includes mental health documents, it is ever more important to develop natural language processing (NLP) models that automatically understand and parse such text. When incorporated in other systems, these models may aid: (1) clinical decision support; (2) the extraction of key population information and trends; and (3) precision medicine efforts where personalized information and trends are extracted and used in the treatment process.
The majority of clinical NLP work has focused on semantic parsing of clinical notes found in EHRs. There are several challenges in automatic understanding of unstructured text in EHRs, encompassing many levels of linguistic processing, including identifying document layouts, identifying document discourse organization, mapping lexical information to semantic concepts found in biomedical ontologies, and understanding inter-concept co-reference and temporal relations. These challenges are also present for mental health NLP applications.
A mental health assessment is the process through which a psychiatrist or a psychologist obtains and organizes necessary information about mental health patients. This process usually involves a series of psychological and medical tests (clinical and non-clinical), examinations, and interviews. These procedures serve the purpose of making a diagnosis that then guides a treatment or a treatment plan.
The output of a mental health assessment is a mental health report. Psychiatric reports are simpler subtypes of this document type, and mainly include long-form unstructured text. They are the end product of psychiatric assessments in which psychiatrists summarize the information gathered, as well as integrate the patient history, their evaluation, patient diagnosis, and suggested treatments or future steps.

Systems and methods for segmenting documents

The Florida International University Board of Trustees


The production of maleic acid and fumaric acid (or the anhydride form of either, maleic anhydride) via gas-phase, oxidative cleavage of levulinic acid in a single packed bed reactor over a reducible oxide catalyst. The production may be carried out in an initial mixing vessel into which levulinic acid is continuously charged and mixed with both inert (He, N2, Ar, etc.) and oxidizing (O2, air, etc.) gases. The feed stream can then be safely heated to reaction temperature, which generally ranges from 200-500° C., without initiating polymerization, in a second stage preheater that thermally equilibrates the gaseous mixture of LA, O2, and inert diluent and fed to a third stage catalytic reactor for final processing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the production of maleic acid, its isomer fumaric acid, the anhydride of either maleic or fumaric acid (maleic anhydride) and, more particularly, the oxidation of levulinic acid to yield maleic acid, fumaric acid, or maleic anhydride.
2. Description of the Related Art
Concern over diminishing fossil reserves has increased interest in the production of industrial commodities (transportation fuels, commodity chemicals, etc.) from biomass resources. In particular, lignocellulosics (e.g., woody biomass) are viewed as an ideal alternative source of industrial carbon (i.e., alternative to petroleum) since they are abundant, easily cultivated, often grow on marginal land, and require minimal resource inputs compared to conventional food crops.
Despite the interest in establishing lignocellulosic biorefineries on a large scale, no technologies have to date proven cost effective. The source of the lack of economic viability despite a myriad of potential options for biomass processing is complex; however, it can be generally summarized as a tension between the ease of converting biomass to a potentially useful industrial commodity and the revenue that can be generated from said product. In general, transportation fuels are a difficult market to enter as lignocellulosic fuels must compete with relatively low cost petroleum and a well-optimized refinery structure built around the large scale production of transportation fuels. Despite large markets in the transportation sector, biofuels—particularly lignocellulosic biofuels—have been unable to compete with conventional fuels. Further, they are unlikely to be competitive with petroleum-based fuels for the foreseeable future. Even inexpensive lignocellulosic commodities, such as pyrolysis oils, require extensive upgrading before their properties match those of the hydrocarbon fuels required in the current infrastructure. As such, lignocellulosic fuels will likely remain prohibitively expensive in the near term. In contrast, chemical products are relatively difficult to derive from petroleum and generally offer higher profit margins. Further, chemical targets are often more straightforward to produce from biomass than via competing peteroleum based strategies. This suggests that lignocellulosic chemical products could be economically viable in the near term, allowing a portion of the peterochemicals industry to shift toward using renewable feedstocks.
Levulinic acid, as seen in FIG. 1, is one such example of an attractive chemical product that is relatively easy to source from lignocellulose. The entire carbohydrate content of lignocellulose (i.e., hemicellulose, cellulose, and sugars derived therefrom) can be converted into levulinic acid using well established technologies. For example, the BioFine Process has been optimized to produce Levulinic acid from six-carbon sugars such as the glucose subunits forming cellulose in yields as high as 75% of the theoretical maximum. If five-carbon sugars are present in biomass, they are converted to furfural by acid hydrolysis and can be recovered as co-products of LA production. Furfural is presently produced at commodity scales by acid hydrolysis of xylan rich corn waste (e.g., cobs). Once formed, furfural can be converted to levulinic acid in high yields by sequential hydrogenation (to form furfuryl alcohol) and hydrolysis (to form levulinic acid). Given that C5 and C6 sugars generally comprise up to 80 wt % of lignocellulose, LA appears to be an attractive chemical intermediate that is relatively easy to produce from sugars and can utilize a large fraction of the available feedstock.
Presently, LA is a relatively expensive chemical intermediate, and no existing industry relies on this molecule as a precursor; as such, despite its straightforward production, there are presently no large scale off-takers for LA, and development of the industry has largely stalled despite its promise. This has motivated research to identify strategies by which LA can be easily converted into a target product that does have a robust market. Much of the effort has pursued efficient production of transportation fuels from LA; however, no matter how efficient the upgrading, LA-based fuels are not yet competitive with petroleum derived alternatives.

Production of maleic or fumaric acid from levulinic acid


A heat exchanger support structure comprises a heat exchanger support and a heat exchanger and is mounted to the front end portion of a motor vehicle body. The heat exchanger support has an upper heat exchanger support member with upper holes, a lower heat exchanger support member with lower holes located in parallel to the upper heat exchanger support member, right and left side support members respectively connecting right and left portions of the upper and lower side support members, and a hood lock stay connecting intermediate portions of upper and lower side support members, which are integrally formed by injection molding. The heat exchanger has upper pins and lower pins, which are inserted into the upper and lower holes, respectively, with a rubber member disposed between them. The lower heat exchanger support member is formed in a shape like a capital H in cross section and has ribs to reinforce its mechanical strength.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat exchanger support structure of a motor vehicle which supports a heat exchanger, such as a radiator, on a motor vehicle body, for example, at its front structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
A heat exchanger support structure of a motor vehicle of this kind is disclosed in, for example, Japanese patent laying-open publication No. (Tokkai) 2003-81135, which illustrates only a radiator core support.
The radiator core support mainly comprises an upper radiator core support member extending laterally with respect to a motor vehicle body, a lower radiator core support member in parallel with and vertically apart from the upper support member, a hood lock stay connecting the center portions of the upper and lower support members with each other, and right and left side support members respectively connecting the upper and lower sides of the upper and lower support members with each other, which are made of steel or aluminum alloy.
The lower support member has an enclosed rectangular cross section and is provided on its upper surface with two lower supporting portions to be laterally separated from each other. The lower supporting member supports a radiator core as a heat exchanger on the lower supporting portions. The upper support member also supports the radiator core similarly to the lower support member. The radiator core support, supporting therein the radiator core, is mounted to a front structure of a motor vehicle body.
In recent years, a radiator core support that has a configuration similar to the above radiator core support and is mainly made of resin is increasing in use for saving weight and its design freedom. In this case, a lower radiator core support member is formed of resin by injection molding to have a cross-sectional shape like a channel that opens rearward for weight saving and easy removal of the molded support member from the mold. The lower support member comprises an upper portion, a lower portion in parallel with the upper portion, and a front vertical wall portion connecting the upper and lower portions with each other. The upper portion is provided on its upper surface with two lower supporting portions laterally separated from each other. The lower support member supports the radiator core on its upper side portion.
The above known conventional heat exchanger support structure of a motor vehicle, however, encounters a problem in that the channel shaped lower support member fails to maintain satisfactory rigidity of the lower supporting portion against a shearing force caused by the radiator core's weight and/or a load fluctuation during vehicle running for a long time.
In order to avoid the above described problem, there have been various attempts, for example, to add as many ribs as possible to weak rigidity portions of the lower radiator core support member, or to position the lower supporting portion as close as possible to the vertical wall portion. The former attempt, however, increases the weight and cost, and the latter the space for installing the radiator.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a heat exchanger support structure of a motor vehicle which overcomes the foregoing drawbacks and can strengthen the rigidity, at a lower supporting portion of a lower heat exchanger support member made of resin, against shearing stress caused by weight of a heat exchanger to reduce deformation thereof.

Heat exchanger support structure of motor vehicle