An monitoring system for detecting urine includes an electric circuit for activating an indicator, having a break in continuity bordered by a pair of electrodes, a lead member extending from each electrode, the lead members being in a spaced apart relationship from each other, and a sheet of hydrophilic material extending over and resting against the lead members for absorbing and retaining urine to permit the urine to provide a conductive path between the lead members to complete the circuit and activate the indicator. The indicator is either a light or a sound generator. The system may additionally include a flexible sheet of waterproof material to which the lead members are joined. The flexible sheet of waterproof material optionally fits into a pocket of a bed pad. The system may additionally include a heat sensor for monitoring the temperature of a person resting against the sheet of hydrophilic material. Two independent and spaced apart heat sensors are optionally provided and measure the temperature differential at two different points on the flexible sheet to indicate by the magnitude of the differential whether the sheet is wet. The system also preferably includes a water-permeable cover sheet which extends across a side of the sheet of hydrophilic material opposite the lead members. Several of these systems may be independently monitored at a single annunciator panel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of systems for detecting liquids on beds, and more specifically to a urine detecting sensor pad including a waterproof substrate material having on its upper surface a pair of spaced apart and parallel strips of metallic ink material, each strip connected to a terminal of an alarm circuit, the sensor pad being inserted into a bed pad which has a bottom layer of waterproof material embossed on cloth, an absorbent middle layer which would lie on top of the inserted sensor pad, and a cloth top layer, such that urine deposited on the bed passes through the top layer and soaks the middle layer, providing both the liquid medium and electrolytes necessary to conduct a small electric current between the metallic ink strips and activate the alarm, and optionally including heat sensors to indicate fever or death by monitoring the temperature of a patient in the bed with a single sensor, and/or to indicate wetness or the presence of a high level of moisture by monitoring the temperature differential between two spaced apart sensors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have long been wet bed monitoring systems for sounding an alarm when a person urinates on a bed. These systems may sound the alarm when urine is present, but are often so sensitive that they sound false alarms when exposed to even a minute volume of virtually any liquid. They also tend to be difficult and expensive to manufacture and highly labor intensive to routinely clean.
The Prior art is aimed mainly at enuresis and incontinency problems. The present invention targets instant early detection systems for a health maintenance system that caters to persons suffering from pressure sore problems whose skin condition becomes very sensitive to and aggravated by the acetic urine liquid for long term patients in nursing homes, hospitals and at home. It is further intended as an aid to those patients who are heavily sedated or groggy from daily sedation who are incapable of requesting assistance in situations where early care is mandated.
Examples of such a prior art system include those of Wilson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,479, issued on Oct. 26, 1982, and Wilson U.S. Pat. No. 4,271,406, issued on Jun. 2, 1981. Both Wilson devices feature electrodes fabricated from permanent magnets which are held apart by a thin spacer. These magnets are attached to a patient's clothing or bed sheet. Urine completes the circuit between the electrodes to sound an alarm. A problem with Wilson is that the extent of the monitored area when a magnet is attached to a bed sheet is limited to the dimensions of the magnet, and if a patient happens to roll away from that spot and urinates elsewhere, the condition goes undetected. There is also some risk of danger from electric shock where the preferred embodiment including alternating current and the fuse system is employed. Finally, patient mobility is restricted where the option of attachment to the patient's garment is used, because the apparatus must be removed each time the patient gets out of bed.
Regal, U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,449, issued on Aug. 7, 1979, teaches a device which provides an aversive stimulus to a child who bed wets while asleep. Regal includes a urine detection pad of absorbent material having wire screen electrodes on either side of the pad which trigger an alarm when even a small amount of urine is present. A problem with Regal is that the sensor pad would react to any liquid, such as pure water, if soaking causes the wire screens to engage each other. Another problem with Regal is that it is designed to condition a child with an unpleasant sound rather than to alert a nurse or other health care worker at a distance.
Bloom, U.S. Pat. No. 3,971,371, issued on Jul. 27, 1976, discloses a urine sensing pad including a sheet of flexible insulating material carrying an array of conductive sensor strips on both of its faces. Moisture makes the electrical connection between the sensor strips to activate an alarm. A problem with Bloom is that the sensor strips are formed of aluminum tape and fastened to a Mylar pad with staples, which is a fragile construction. Cleaning such an arrangement is difficult, because urine seeps between the pick-up strips and sensor strips. Bacteria can be secluded among the layers, causing potential health problems. Another problem with Bloom is its complicated construction.
Campbell, U.S. Pat. No. 2,907,841, issued on Oct. 6, 1959, discloses a flexible support of dielectric material having crosswise electrodes traversing the width of the support. Alternate crosswise electrodes are attached to the different terminals of the circuit and the circuit is completed when an electrolyte shorts these electrodes, activating an alarm. A problem with Campbell is that free flowing urine is used to activate the device, so that the user must lye in this unabsorbed wetness until help arrives. Campbell is also cumbersome to build, uncomfortable to sleep on because nothing cushions contact with the electrodes and support, and it is difficult to clean. The metal foil is vulnerable to damage from rough handling.
McKenzie, U.S. Pat. No. 2,866,454, issued on Dec. 30, 1958, teaches metal grids of bronze wire; a plastic sheet and a pad to deliver shock treatment to a patient. A problem with McKenzie, apart from its design to shock rather than merely signal, is that it is clumsy and of intricate construction. Low reliability and high manufacturing costs are likely.
Seiger, U.S. Pat. No. 2,644,050, issued on Jun. 30, 1953, discloses a flat, thin, waterproof electro-insulative pad having embedded in its top face several thin metal conductors forming separated electrodes. The presence of urine shorts the electrodes and activates a signal. A problem with Seiger is that moisture is retained against the patient's skin while the signal is triggered. Another problem is that the caustic urine would quickly corrode the rubber and tin materials. Still another problem is that urine would seep into all the many crevices and make cleaning difficult and time consuming.
Kroening, U.S. Pat. No. 2,726,294, issued on Dec. 6, 1955, teaches two elongated flat thin plates of cardboard material, having metallic coatings on either side of the material. A problem with Kroening is that it would be difficult to clean urine from this multi-layer construction. Single use followed by disposal, on the other hand, would make Kroening prohibitively expensive to use. Another problem is that it is cumbersome to build and uncomfortable to sleep on.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a moisture monitoring system which is activated only by urine and a limited number of other liquids.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a monitoring system which is comfortable and which draws urine away from the user to minimize irritating contact with the skin.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a temperature monitoring system with a single heat sensor which is activated by a fever level temperature of a patient or by a temperature level which indicates patient discomfort.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a temperature monitoring system, optionally incorporating two heat sensors, which measures the temperature differential between the two heat sensors to detect wetness or a high degree of moisture.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such a monitoring system which is durable and easily cleaned for reuse.
It is finally an object of the present invention to provide such a monitoring system which is comparatively simple in design and inexpensive to manufacture.

Wet bed alarm and temperature monitoring system


Disclosed herein are methods for inducing insulin secretion in a glucose-dependent manner and compounds for use in these methods. The compounds may have the structure of formula I(a):

Diabetes mellitus type 2 (type 2 diabetes) is a metabolic disorder that results in patients having high blood sugar level and insulin resistance. Long-term complications from high blood sugar include heart disease, strokes, diabetic retinopathy which can result in blindness, kidney failure, and poor blood flow in the limbs which may lead to amputations. Type 2 diabetes is primarily due to obesity and not enough exercise in people who are genetically predisposed. It makes up about 90% of cases of diabetes, with the other 10% due primarily to diabetes mellitus type 1 and gestational diabetes. In diabetes mellitus type 1 there is an absolute lack of insulin due to breakdown of islet cells in the pancreas. Diagnosis of diabetes is by blood tests such as fasting plasma glucose, oral glucose tolerance test, or A1C.
The number of people affected by type 2 diabetes has grown substantially over the last decades. As of 2013 there were approximately 368 million people diagnosed with the disease compared to around 30 million in 1985. Type 2 diabetes is associated with a ten-year-shorter life expectancy. Thus, numerous therapies have been developed to treat or ameliorate the symptoms of type 2 diabetes. One such therapy involves drugs that promote the ß-cells from pancreatic islet to secret insulin independent of how much glucose is circulating in the blood. For example, sulfonureas induce constant insulin secretion but in doing so, they can cause hypoglycemia and ß-islet cell burnout. GLP-1 analogs require administration by injection and can result in pancreatitis. Thus, there is a need in the art for insulin secretagogues that are glucose-dependent, such that they activate insulin secretion only when the circulating blood glucose level is physiologically high.

Compounds and methods for regulating insulin secretion

Abstract: wherein the substituents are as described in the description;or a pharmaceutically acceptable form thereof.


A fuel injection valve for internal combustion engines, having a valve member that is guided so that it can slide axially in a bore of a valve body. The valve member has a valve sealing face on one end which cooperates with a valve seat face on the valve body and this valve member, on an end remote from the valve sealing face, is acted on in the closing direction toward the valve seat by a valve spring, as well as having another adjusting member that controls a two-stage opening stroke course of the valve member. In order to control the two-stage opening stroke course of the valve member, the adjusting member is embodied as an adjustable stop, in which the valve member comes into at least indirect contact with after passing through a partial stroke and which in a first position, is locked in its initial position and in a second position, can be moved in the opening direction by means of the valve member.

The invention is based on a fuel injection valve for internal combustion engines. DE-OS 39 07 569 has disclosed a fuel injection valve of this kind in which a piston-shaped valve member is guided so that it can slide axially in a bore of a valve body, which protrudes with its one end into the combustion chamber of the engine to be fed. On its combustion chamber end, the valve member has a valve sealing face with which it cooperates with a valve seat face disposed on the valve body, in order to control an opening cross section to an injection opening. On its end remote from the valve sealing face, the valve member is acted upon in the direction of the valve seat face by two valve springs disposed in series in relation to each other, of which a first valve spring continuously acts on the valve member and a second valve spring only comes into contact with the valve member after its passage through a pre-stroke path so that a two-stage opening stroke course of the valve member can be formed. This division of the injection quantity at the injection valve into a small pre-injection quantity with a small opening cross section and the main injection quantity with a large cross section permits an optimal injection and preparation as well as a low-pollutant combustion of the fuel in the combustion chamber of the engine. Furthermore, an adjustable stop acts on the second valve spring and the position of this stop can be used to change the initial stress force of the second spring and consequently the beginning of the course of the second opening stroke phase of the valve member, wherein this change, in the known injection valve should in particular permit an adaptation of the spring force to the increasing opening pressure forces acting on the valve member at high speeds of the engine.
The known fuel injection valve, however, has the disadvantage that it is not possible to freely select the second opening stroke phase independently of the load and speed of the engine.

Fuel injection valve for internal combustion engines


An electro-hydraulic assembly for use in underground mining is disclosed. The assembly includes a hydraulic component, such as a valve block for an underground self-advancing roof support, as well as actuators and/or sensors which have a housing and can be connected or are connected via a data-transmission system to a control unit. A function (e.g. withdrawing the support, setting, advancing, or the like) can be activated at the hydraulic component by each actuator, and/or a hydraulic state associated with a measuring point of the hydraulic component or another measured variable associated with the self-advancing roof support can be measured by each sensor. A reader unit is associated with each actuator and/or sensor in its respective housing, and an information element or transponder is associated with the hydraulic component for each function, each control valve, or each measuring point. The information in the information element or transponder is readable by the reader unit and transmittable to the control unit. All the control valves and sensors are coded for the control unit and the control unit can associate each actuator with its corresponding control valve. In this way, it can be known which actuator is associated with which function of the hydraulic component and connection faults can be avoided.

Various hydraulic assemblies are used in underground mining, such as electro-hydraulic valve blocks or strips for controlling the hydraulic functions of shields used in underground longwall mining. In this case, each valve strip is provided with a plurality of hydraulic control valves and each control valve can be controlled by use of an actuator mounted on the valve strip specifically for this purpose. In underground mining, it is typical to use actuators which are identical in structure and appearance on the valve strips of all shields so that, in the case of a fault of one of the actuators for instance, that faulty actuator can be replaced by any other actuator. When replacing one actuator or when one or more control valves are replaced, the miner must ensure that the correct actuator is always assigned to each control valve. The valve strips of underground shields therefore present a potential risk of assembly and connection faults that are attributable to operator error. The same also applies to the sensors associated with underground shields. Such sensors typically measure for instance, the position of individual canopy bars or lifting props, or measure the hydraulic pressure in the cylinders or props forming the hydraulic components of the shield.
It is an objective of the invention to provide an assembly of hydraulic components which may include actuators and/or sensors for underground mining, in which the aforementioned risks associated with personnel-related connection faults is reduced or eliminated.


A method and apparatus for interfacing between a Segmentation and Reassembly (SAR) circuit and an ATM Cell Interface is disclosed. The interface circuit comprises a transmit FIFO and a receive FIFO. The transmit FIFO transfers data from the System and ATM Layer Core in the SAR circuit to a Cell Interface block, which in turn dispatches the data to the ATM Cell Interface. The receive FIFO transfers data received from the ATM Cell Interface via the Cell Interface block, to the Core. Various interface signals provided between the Core and the transmit FIFO, the transmit FIFO and the Cell Interface block, the Core and the receive FIFO, and the receive FIFO and the Cell Interface block, are used to coordinate data transfer. The interface circuit insulates the Core from the ATM Cell Interface, allowing the Core to operate independently from ATM Cell Interface specifics.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of computer systems and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for providing a segmentation and reassembly (SAR) engine which is independent of interface protocol and which can be interfaced to an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) Cell Interface operating at a different data rate.
2. Description of the Related Art
ATM technology is emerging as the preferred technology for sending information at very high speeds between a transmission point and one or more receiving points. An ATM system facilitates the transmission of data over such a network by defining a set of "data connections" in which each connection represents a virtual circuit having a particular source and destination and an associated data transmission rate.
One particular implementation of an ATM system employs a Cell Interface block configured to implement a Universal Test and Operational Physical Interface (UTOPIA) protocol. The Cell Interface block receives cells from the ATM Layer Core for transfer to the ATM Cell Interface (I.E., UTOPIA). The Cell Interface block also receives cells from the ATM Cell Interface for forwarding to the ATM Layer Core for reassembly into packets for eventual transfer to the host device or local area network (LAN).
Typically, data is transferred over the ATM network using short bursts of 53-byte cells. Each cell consists of 5-header bytes and 48-data bytes. The data stream over the ATM network sent to a particular host device may consist of interleaved cells belonging to several virtual circuits. A receiver at the host device assembles these cells separately depending on which virtual circuit the incoming cell belongs to. Conversely, a transmitter segments the data to be sent across one or more virtual circuits into cells and transmits them according to a predetermined order in a single stream. Thus, cells destined to a particular host device are sent along to a particular virtual circuit.
One technique of segmentation and reassembly includes cellification over the Input/Output (I/O) bus through which data in 48-byte cells are provided from a SAR circuit to a host device or vice versa. This technique however, results in a bottleneck at the I/O bus and is thus inefficient. A second technique involves segmentation and reassembly of the data cells on the SAR circuit between the host and Cell Interface block. Although this technique results in greater efficiency in data transmission over the prior technique, there is bandwidth and data mismatch between the buffer memory, where data to be transmitted and data that is received is stored, and the Cell Interface block. This is because the buffer provides data through a 32-bit data path, while the Cell Interface block supports an 8-bit stream at 20 MHz for 155 Mbps or a 16-bit stream at 40 MHz for a 622 Mbps data stream.
In addition, current standard specifies rates over the ATM network ranging from 25 Mbits to 2.4 Gigabits/second. To conform to the UTOPIA specification, the Cell Interface block has to support an 8-bit stream at 20-25 MHz for 155 Mbps or a 16-bit stream at 40-50 MHz for a 622 Mbps data stream. One problem, in providing such a Cell Interface block, is accounting for the requirements of the two data rates. This is particularly problematic because of possible phase delays of generally unknown duration, occurring between the clock signals operating internally within the ATM Layer Core on the SAR circuit and the clock driving the ATM Cell Interface. In other systems, similar phase or timing delays are accounted for by iteratively tuning the relative phases of the separate systems, perhaps by inserting various delay lines. The need to iteratively tune a system, however, adds to the overall cost of developing the system.
Accordingly, there is a need in the technology to provide a system for interfacing with a Cell Interface block which is not only capable of operating efficiently at different transmission rates, but which also insulates the details of such operation from the ATM Layer Core within the SAR engine.

Cell interface block partitioning for segmentation and re-assembly engine


An integrated circuit (30) for non-contact operation by means of at least one coil (L) forming a tuned resonant circuit with a tuning capacitor (C.sub.A), including a charge pump (10) with two clock inputs (E.sub.1 E.sub.2), wherein the clock inputs (E.sub.1 E.sub.2) of the charge pump (10) are constantly connected to the terminals of the coil (L), at least during the periods of non-contact operation of the integrated circuit, whereby the charge pump, seen from the clock inputs thereof, is a constant component of the tuning capacitor of the tuned resonant circuit.

The present invention relates to an integrated circuit capable to operate without contact by means of at least one coil forming a tuned resonant circuit with a tuning capacity, and comprising a charge pump with two clock inputs.
The integrated circuits used to implement chip cards, electronic labels and in a general way integrated circuits mounted on portable supports comprise generally an EEPROM memory (electrically erasable and programmable memory) to record and store data, as well as a booster circuit to produce a high voltage for programming or erasing said memory. As a matter of fact, a programming or erasing voltage of an EEPROM memory is typically about 15 to 20 V, when the supply voltage Vcc of an integrated circuit is about 3 to 5 V only.
In the field of microelectronics, the preferred embodiment of a booster circuit is a charge pump, which is easy to integrate on silicon.
The problem when using a charge pump is however that it must be driven by clock signals. Such signals must be provided by an oscillator, which generally consumes some current. In the case of a contactless integrated circuit supplied by electromagnetic induction and having low energetic resources, such a current consumption may be not desirable.
Before dealing with this technical problem in more details, the conventional structure of a charge pump and the conventional arrangement of such a charge pump in a contactless integrated circuit will be recalled.
The charge pump shown in FIG. 1 comprises a plurality of capacities arranged in cascade, for example N capacities C.sub.1 to C.sub.N. The anode of each capacity C.sub.1, C.sub.2. . . is coupled to the anode of the following capacity C.sub.2, C.sub.3, . . . by means of MOS transistors T.sub.1 to T.sub.N having their gate fed back to their drain and equivalent to diodes. At the end of the chain, the transistor T.sub.N Couples the anode of the capacity C.sub.N to the anode of a storing capacity C.sub.hv whose cathode is connected to ground. The cathodes of the odd numbered capacities C.sub.1, C.sub.3 . . . are driven by a clock signal Hi applied to one input E.sub.1 of the charge pump and the cathodes of the even numbered capacities C.sub.2, C.sub.4, . . . are driven by a signal H.sub.2 applied to one input E.sub.2, the signal H.sub.2 having its phase opposite with respect to the signal H.sub.1. Thus, alternately, each odd numbered capacity C.sub.1, C.sub.3, . . . discharges into the following even numbered capacity C.sub.2, C.sub.4 . . ., and each even numbered capacity C.sub.2, C.sub.4, . . . discharges into the following odd numbered capacity C.sub.3, C.sub.5, . . . At the end of the chain, the capacity C.sub.N discharges into the capacity C.sub.hv whose terminals, present a high voltage V.sub.hv.
FIG. 2 represents a conventional arrangement of the charge pump 10 within a contactless integrated circuit 20. The integrated circuit 20 comprises a coil L forming a tuned resonant circuit LCa with a tuning capacity Ca, allowing the integrated circuit to receive an alternating voltage Va by electromagnetic induction. The charge pump 10 is connected by its clock inputs E.sub.1 and E.sub.2 to an oscillator 15 which is controlled by a signal PGR and produces the clock signals H.sub.1 and H.sub.2. The oscillator 15 receives a supply voltage Vcc from a rectifier bridge Pd using diodes or transistors, which receives the induced alternating voltage Va at its input and comprises a filtering capacity Cf at its output. A conventional embodiment of the oscillator 15 is shown in FIG. 3. Three cascading inverting gates I.sub.1, I.sub.2, I.sub.3 are arranged in closed loop by means of an AND gate referenced A1 and controlled by the signal PGR. The signal H.sub.1 is for example taken at the output of the last gate I.sub.3 and the inverse signal H.sub.2 provided by a fourth inverting gate I.sub.4.
The tuning capacity Ca is generally an adjustable capacity, adjusted so that the resonance frequency of the circuit LCa is as close as possible to the oscillating frequency of the magnetic field in which the integrated circuit 20 is intended to work. As shown, the tuning capacity Ca for example comprises several capacities Ca.sub.1, to Ca.sub.n in parallel, the metallic tracks enabling the connection of some capacities having been cut at the time of adjusting.
Thus, when an erasing or writing operation of an EEPROM memory (not shown) has to be performed, the signal PGR is set to 1, the gate A1 becomes transparent, the oscillator 15 starts and the charge pump 10 is activated.
As mentioned above, the working of the oscillator 15 implies a non-negligible current consumption, due to the fast commutation of the various inverting gates. At the start of an erasing or programming operation, when the signal PGR is set to 1, this consumption is added to the consumption of the charge pump 10 which has to perform the charge of the storing capacity NChv. Furthermore, in a contactless chip card or an electronic label, such an erasing or programming operation can be started when the reception conditions of the induced voltage Va are bad. Thus, if the energy received by the coil L is too week, the supply voltage Vcc may drop, causing the end of the working of the integrated circuit.
It is thus desirable, in a contactless integrated circuit, to reduce as much as possible the current consumption during the periods when the high voltage Vhv is generated.
In the state of the art, there is also known a method consisting in directly activating a charge pump by means of the positive and negative half waves of an alternating voltage induced in a coil.
This method, illustrated in FIG. 4, consists in connecting the two terminals of the coil L to the two inputs E.sub.1 and E.sub.2 of the charge pump by means of two switches 16, 17 controlled by the programming signal PGR. When the signal PGR is at 1, the switches 16, 17 are closed and the half waves Va1 and Va2 are directly sent to the charge pump 10 as the activation signals H.sub.1 and H.sub.2.
However, the applicant has remarked that this method, although allowing the suppression of the oscillator 15, has the drawback of detuning the resonant circuit LCa.
As a matter of fact, referring to the diagram of FIG. 1, a charge pump considered from its inputs E.sub.1 and E.sub.2 is equivalent to a capacity C.sub.E with a value EQU C.sub.E =N C/2 (2)
N being the number of stages of the charge pump and C the value of the capacities C.sub.1, C.sub.2, . . . C.sub.N of each stage.
Therefore, in FIG. 4, when the signal PGR switches to 1 and the charge pump 10 is so connected to the coil L, the capacity C.sub.E substantially detunes the resonant circuit LCa and the energy reception is done in bad conditions.
The aim of the present invention is to reduce this drawback.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,206,495 describes a chip card with two operating modes, contact or contactless, comprising an integrated circuit, a contact field to operate in the contact mode, and two coils to operate in the contactless mode.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,285,370 describes a device wherein the voltage that is induced on the terminals of a coil is used to activate the clock inputs of a charge pump. However, the device is provided with a "wide band" inductive coil without tuning capacitor, which does not form a resonant circuit. Moreover, this document recommends to dispose a switch between the coil and the clock inputs of the charge pump, so that the coil is connected to the charge pump only when necessary.

Contactless integrated circuit comprising a charge pump


An optical automatic attitude measurement device for a lightweight portable optical system is disclosed. In one embodiment, a first optical device is configured to provide an attitude beam. A second optical device mechanically coupled to the first optical device to a lose tolerance. The second optical device is configured to provide a reference beam and to receive the attitude beam from the first optical device. The second optical device is further configured to obtain an attitude measurement by computing a differential measurement between the reference beam and the attitude beam in x and y planes at room temperature.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to optical systems and more particularly to attitude adjustment for light weight portable optical systems.
2. Brief Description of Related Art
Existing systems measure all three axes of rotation, i.e., angular attitudes, such as pitch, roll and yaw to measure attitude between optical devices. This can be very expensive and calibration intensive and may drive down reliability. Further, attitude between two optical devices, such as between a laser targeting system and a receiver, for example, a north finder is critical to reduce error in target computations. Typically, very large and heavy mechanical interfaces (couplings) are used between the optical devices to hold the two devices tightly and to ensure good alignment from tolerance perspective. However, such large mechanical interfaces may be sensitive, and if they get fouled, dirty, and/or banged, may result in misalignment and unexpected errors.
Another existing approach to measure attitude is to use a checker board pattern to generate parallel lines that provide depth information (pitch, yaw and roll) as the lines diverge or converge in the image captured by the camera. To obtain a higher precision in 3 dimensional attitude measurement between the optical devices, such an approach requires calibration on the non-linear aspects of the camera lens over temperature which may significantly increase cost. Also, these alternative methods require the measurement of roughly 40 or so reference angles and over a range of roughly six temperature set points.

Optical automatic attitude measurement for lightweight portable optical systems

BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc.


A system and method that efficiently, accurately, and simply detect reliably least-significant-bit (“LSB”) embedding of a secret message in randomly scattered pixels. The system and method apply to both 24-bit color images and 8-bit grayscale or color images. Many commercial steganographic programs use Least Significant Bit embedding (LSB) as the method of choice to hide messages in 24-bit, 8-bit color images and in grayscale images. They do so based on the common belief that changes to the LSBs of colors cannot be detected because of noise that is always present in digital images. By inspecting the differences in capacity for lossless (invertible) embedding in the LSB and the shifted LSB plane, the present invention reliably detects messages as short as 1% of the total number of pixels (assuming 1 bit per sample). The system and method of the present invention are fast, and they provide accurate estimates for the length of the embedded secret message.

This invention relates to steganography. Steganography is the art of secret communication, whose purpose is to hide the very presence of a communication. In particular this invention relates to the detection of hidden messages.
Steganography differs from cryptography, whose goal is to make communication unintelligible to those who do not posses the right keys. By means of steganography, digital images, videos, sound files, and other computer files that contain perceptually irrelevant or redundant information can be used as covers, that is, as carriers that hide secret messages embedded within. If one embeds a secret message into a cover-image, one obtains a "stego-image."
The stego-image cannot contain any detectable artifacts that result from embedding the secret message. If it does, a third party can use such artifacts to determine that a secret message lies within the stego-image. Once the third party can reliably detect the presence of the secret message, the steganographic tool becomes useless.
Images stored in the JPEG format make very poor cover images for steganographic methods that embed information in the spatial (pixel) domain. The quantization introduced by JPEG compression can serve as a "watermark" or unique fingerprint, and one can detect even very small modifications of the cover image by inspecting the compatibility of the stego-image with the JPEG format. (See J. Fridrich, M. Goljan, and R. Du, "Steganalysis based on JPEG compatibility", SPIE Multimedia Systems and Applications IV, Denver, Colo. (Aug. 20-24, 2001), to be presented).
Most steganographic programs use Least Significant Bit embedding ("LSB") as the method of choice to hide a message in 24-bit and 8-bit color images, and in grayscale images. They do so because it is generally believed that changes to the LSBs of colors cannot be detected. The noise that is always present in digital images is thought to mask such changes.
The present inventors have developed a steganographic method to detect LSB embedding in 24-bit color images. (See J. Fridrich, R. Du, and L. Meng, "Steganalysis of LSB Encoding in Color Images", ICME 2000, New York City, July 31-August 2, New York.) This RQP method is based on analyzing close pairs of colors created by LSB embedding. It works reasonably well as long as the number of unique colors in the cover image is less than 30% of the number of pixels. The size of the secret message can be estimated only very roughly. The results become progressively unreliable once the number of unique colors exceeds roughly 50% of the number of pixels, as happens frequently for high resolution raw scans and images taken with digital cameras stored in an uncompressed format. Another disadvantage of the RQP method is that it cannot be modified for grayscale images.
Westfeld and Pfitzmann ("Attacks on Steganographic Systems", Proc. 3rd Info. Hiding Workshop, Dresden, Germany, Sep. 28-Oct. 1, 1999, pp. 61-75) introduced a method based on statistical analysis of Pairs of Values (PoVs) that are exchanged during message embedding. These PoVs could be formed, for example, by pairs of colors that differ in the LSB only. This method provides very reliable results when the message's placement is known (e.g., when it is sequential). However, randomly scattered messages can only be reliably detected with this method when the message length becomes comparable with the number of pixels in the image.
Johnson and Jajodia ("Steganography: Seeing the Unseen." IEEE Computer, February 1998, pp.26-34; "Steganalysis of Images Created Using Current Steganography Software." Proceedings of Workshop on Information Hiding, Portland, Oreg., April 1998. Also published as Notes in Computer Science, vol. 1525, Springer-Verlag, 1998) pointed out that steganographic methods for palette images that preprocess the palette can be vulnerable. A number of steganographic programs create clusters of close palette colors that can be swapped for each other to embed message bits. This swapping can be done by decreasing the color depth and then expanding it to 256 by making small perturbations to the colors. This preprocessing creates suspicious pairs (clusters) of colors that can be easily detected. However, steganographic techniques that do not modify the palette (e.g., those that hide messages by embedding LSB into the pointers) cannot be detected by inspecting the palette itself.
Thus there is a need for reliable and accurate steganalytic techniques that can be applied to both 24-bit color images and to 8-bit grayscale or color images with randomly scattered message bits embedded in the LSBs of colors or pointers to the palette.

Reliable detection of LSB steganography in color and grayscale images


The present invention relates to an electronic cigarette case, including a case body, a frame module disposed in the case body, a battery module, and a printed circuit board (PCB) module. The electronic cigarette case further has a touch control method for performing at least a predefined function. The touch control method includes: defining a touch zone on the case body, and providing a touch control module in the case body. The at least a predefined function is performed to indicate an electric quantity of a battery when a finger touch gesture is detected on the touch zone by the touch control module. The electronic cigarette case is durable, waterproof and dustproof, rapidly response, space saving, and easy to use.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic cigarette case.
2. Related Art
An electronic cigarette is a kind of simulating cigarette which heats and atomizes materials having flavors through a heating wire to generate smoke for use. An electronic cigarette case for accommodating at least one electronic cigarette generally includes a case body and a rechargeable battery disposed in the case body. When not smoking, the at least one electronic cigarette is put in the electronic cigarette case and recharged through a battery so as to assure that the at least one electronic cigarette has enough electric quantity for use. Therefore, users need to know a remaining electric quantity of a battery at any moment. The existing electronic cigarette case is controlled by a physical key, i.e. a mechanical key, to indicate a reaming electric quantity of the electronic cigarette case on a digital display screen. However, gaps are formed between the physical key and case body and therefore resulted in incapability of waterproof and dustproof. Besides, the physical key has a short limited lifespan. Furthermore, the physical key is easily be pressed and leads to a misoperation. Therefore, it is necessary to provide an electronic cigarette case that is capable of overcoming the above-mentioned problems.

HUIZHOU KIMREE TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD., SHENZHEN BRANCH


A screen having a hydrophobic portion to resist the entry of liquid into an acoustic module and a hydrophilic portion to aid in the removal of liquid from an acoustic chamber is described. The screen is placed in an orifice in the acoustic module between the external environment and the internal acoustic chamber.

An acoustic module integrated into a device can be used to transmit or receive acoustic signals. In a typical device, the acoustic signals are transmitted to or received from a surrounding medium (e.g., air). To facilitate communication with the surrounding medium, the acoustic module may be at least partially exposed to the environment surrounding the device via one or more orifices or openings that permit sound waves to both enter and exit the acoustic module.
In some cases, an acoustic module may include one or more components that are disposed within a cavity or chamber to help protect the components from the external environment. In some cases, the components may be acoustically coupled to the cavity to produce a particular acoustic response. Typically, at least some portion of the cavity or chamber is exposed to the external environment to allow acoustic signals to be transmitted to or received from the surrounding medium. However, because the cavity or chamber is exposed to the external environment, liquid or moisture may accumulate or become trapped in the cavity or chamber, which may impair the performance of the acoustic module.
Thus, it is generally desirable to prevent the ingress of moisture into an acoustic module. However, in some cases, the complete prevention of liquid ingress is not possible or practical. Thus, there may be a need for a system and technique for facilitating the evacuation or removal of moisture that has entered or accumulated in an acoustic module. It would be particularly useful to have a device that acts to both inhibit entry of liquid into the acoustic module and to facilitate the removal of any liquid that does pass through the device and enters into the acoustic module chamber.


A system and method approves a submission of information. The information includes field data from a data source system. The system communicates the submission to a data validation system and receives, from the data validation system, validation data that defines a validation response. The system communicates information indicative of the validation response to the data source system. The system predicts validation responses for subsequent submissions of information.

Field
This application generally relates to information systems. In particular, this application describes a method and system for a submission of information.
Description of Related Art
Various environments exist in which a source generates a submission, which has to be approved by a validation system. For example, an insurance claim may need to be generated and sent to an insurance adjuster for validation before the claims will be paid.
Similarly, in the health care industry, a provider, such as a doctor or hospital, may be required to obtain prior approval of a procedure from an insurance company before a claim for payments can be made. The insurance company will evaluate a request for approval against internal company guidelines to determine whether to approve or deny the request.
One problem with the arrangements above is that the form of the submission or request for payment of a claim or for prior approval of a procedure can come in many different varieties. No standard exists. As such, many requests/submissions are rejected because the submission/request is missing information. This in turn results in the submission having to be corrected and resubmitted. This process may repeat until the correct information is provided. The extra process increases the time required in obtaining approval of a submission/request and necessarily results in increased cost.

Method and system for approving a submission of information


Methods for extracting queries from webpages is provided. Methods may include receiving a plurality of queries. Each query in the plurality may be input into a search box located on a public-facing webpage. Methods may include receiving content associated with each of the public-facing webpages. Methods may include receiving identifying information associated with an inputter of each query. Methods may include selecting at least one query from the plurality of queries based at least in part on factors. The factors may include query length. The factors may include query rank. The query rank may be based in part on the magnitude of predetermined terminology included in the at least one query. The predetermined terminology may be stored on a computer-readable memory. The factors may include the grammatical relationship between query terms. The factors may include the identifying information about the inputter associated with the at least one query.

Many websites present a list of questions and answers, which are frequently asked by users or customers. This list of questions has conventionally been known as frequently asked questions, or FAQs.
From an entity perspective, it is crucial that the FAQ list incorporates informative, noteworthy, and significant questions. A user who is encountering a problem or question should be able to access the FAQ list and find a solution to his or her problem, or answer to his or her question. This list should provide answers to a majority of website user's questions, and consequently, lessen the frustration of website users who encounter a problem.
FAQ lists may also increase efficiency by limiting the amount of human intervention required to manage a website. A user or customer, encountering a problem or question, may refer to a FAQ list to find a solution of answer prior to contacting a human operator. Without a FAQ list, an online user encountering a problem or question, may be required to communicate the question or problem with website personnel. The user may communicate the question utilizing live chat applications, text messaging, email messages, telephone communication or any other suitable form of communications.
In order to determine which questions, or queries, should be included in the FAQ list, website administrators typically employ personnel to review a sampling of inputted questions. The process of selecting beneficial and useful queries from a plurality of queries may be time consuming and generate uneven results.
Therefore, it is beneficial to create a system which can identify beneficial queries from a plurality of queries in a standardized and efficient manner.

Method and apparatus for extracting queries from webpages


A stacked thin film device structure grown on a substrate, the resonator structure comprising a thin film device comprising at least one piezoelectric crystal layer sandwiched between metallic electrodes, and constructed to have an acoustic response in a given frequency range, and an acoustical stack disposed between and joining the thin film device and the substrate and comprising multiple layers of material, each layer having a characteristic thickness and impedance and being composed of a non-lossless material, the characteristic thicknesses and impedances of the layers being adjusted to determine the input impedance presented to the thin film device, and thereby determining the acoustical coupling between the thin film device and the substrate.

Thin film resonator (TFR) technology makes possible thin film acoustic devices operable in the microwave range that are compatible with active semiconductor circuitry. They are compatible with such circuitry both in the sense of being similarly sized, and in that the thin film acoustic devices can be integrated with semiconductor devices on a common substrate.
A basic thin film resonator is composed of the three basic elements common to all piezoelectric resonators: a piezoelectric dielectric, electrodes for applying electric fields, and two reflecting surfaces for establishing a standing wave. In TFR technology, thin film metallic electrodes, typically composed of aluminum, serve both as electrodes and as reflecting surfaces with the metal/air interface at the top of the resonator serving as the primary source of reflection. Sandwiched between the two electrodes is a piezoelectric layer. As the bottom metallic layer is typically grown directly on a substrate, the acoustic cavity for the resonator is defined by the aluminum-substrate composite membrane. To approximate a conventional free plate resonator, and in order to provide for high frequency operation, that membrane should be of low mass. Accordingly, it is preferable that the substrate material underlying the membrane portion of the thin film resonator be removed. Moreover, coupling between the thin film resonator and the bulk silicon would negatively impact the Q characteristics of the resonator, thus also requiring removal of the silicon substrate beneath the resonator.
A variety of techniques have been employed for the purpose of removing the substrate material beneath the resonator. In one such technique, a silicon substrate is employed with a boron doped p+ layer implanted at the upper surface which is to be adjacent the bottom aluminum electrode. This p+ layer serves as an etch stop for a selective backside chemical etch, which is performed after the resonator is fabricated on the substrate. The p+ layer itself may also optionally be removed. In either case, a via in the substrate is formed beneath the resonator, leaving it unsupported except at its edges. In an alternative technique, the thin film resonator is formed on a semiconductor substrate, and then an under cutting etch is used through a hole in the piezoelectric layer to remove the substrate material beneath the resonator. In a further alternative, a cross-over air bridge metalization pattern is used to create an air gap between the silicon and the bottom electrode of the resonator.
All of these techniques for removing material beneath the resonator share the common disadvantage of requiring multiple additional process steps after formation of the resonator to etch or otherwise remove the material underneath the resonator. Furthermore, the largely unsupported resulting structures have low yields because of the additional and complex process steps. Because of the suspended nature of these structures they are subject to damage both during processing and subsequent thereto. As a result of this fragility, thinner piezoelectric, higher frequency devices become problematic. The need for removal of this substrate material also affects how closely such resonators may be spaced, since the remainder of the silicon substrate must maintain its structural stability.
Other applications of TFR technology are similarly limited. A further example is a stacked crystal filter which utilizes a five layer structure of three alternating metal electrodes with two piezoelectric layers sandwiched therebetween. To operate properly, this device also requires the silicon substrate beneath to be removed.
Other devices utilizing TFR technology do not require etching of the silicon beneath the devices, particularly when the resonators are to be acoustically coupled through the substrate. One such example can be found in the inventor's published PCT application, bearing International Publication Number WO93/24971 published Dec. 9, 1993. That application discloses an acoustically coupled antenna using an overmoded configuration. In that case, a thin film resonator is grown on either side of a silicon substrate. Each thin film resonator comprises a piezoelectric layer sandwiched between two metal, typically aluminum, electrodes. The silicon, or other semiconductor, substrate serves as a delay element between the two thin film resonators. When the silicon has a thickness substantially equal to a multiple of one-half wave length of the desired frequency of the predetermined frequency band, the two thin film resonators become acoustically coupled in that pre-determined frequency band. Thus, while the requirement for etching of the silicon substrate has been eliminated in this device in order to provide coupling between the resonators, it is useful primarily in this antenna configuration. This is due to the fact, as mentioned previously, that the presence of the silicon substrate under a single, uncoupled resonator prevents conventional free plate resonance, as well as affecting the resonator Q because of transmission of the acoustic radiation into the substrate. Further, the overmoded structure also places a constraint on the thickness on the silicon, since it must be an integral multiple of one-half the wave length of a desired frequency in the predetermined frequency band of the resonators.

Multiple layer acoustical structures for thin-film resonator based circuits and systems

Iowa State University Research Foundation


An apparatus for a display device includes a controller and an interface coupled to at least one network. The controller determines network states for respective ones of a plurality of services and sets display features for corresponding ones of the services based on the detected network states. The network state of a first service is different from the network state of a second service, a display feature for the first service is set to be different from a display feature of the second service, and the display features for the first and second services are simultaneously displayed on the screen.

1. Field
One or more embodiments herein relate to control of network services.
2. Background
Televisions display a variety of types of information in addition to broadcast signal programming. This information includes on-demand movies, games, web browsers, web-sites, and other network-related information. When the television is used to display or otherwise provide access to network-based content, the state of the network will often determine the quality of service. The network state, however, cannot be known by a viewer until the viewer actually attempts to access the content. This creates delays and inconvenience.

Method and apparatus for controlling display of information on a television


The present invention provides interchangeable activity centers having a variety of themes, complexity, or content. Parents, teachers, therapists, or others can select, combine, and arrange two or more activity centers according to a user's interests and capabilities at that time. As the user develops greater skills or begins to lose interest, one or more of the activity centers may be removed, rearranged, or substituted for one or more other activity centers. This may lead to longer interest in the device and better correlate its subject matter with information or materials needed for further development.

Parents today have a great variety of toys they can purchase for their children. One of the factors parents may consider when deciding what toy to buy is how long their children may play with the toy before losing interest in it. Another factor parents may consider is whether the toy will help in the development of their children's motor skills or learning ability. Recognizing the importance parents place on these factors, toy manufacturers are constantly working to develop new toys that are either fun to play with or help in childhood development, or both.
However, since every child has his own unique combination of physical and mental development, personality, and interests, he is prone to quickly lose interest in any one toy for a variety of reasons. For instance, some children may have less fun with a toy once they understand how it works. As its operation or outcome becomes routine or well understood, the toy no longer presents a challenge or holds excitement for the child. One example of this tapering of interest is with puzzles. Once a child understands the "secret" of a puzzle and has mastered its solution (i.e., the child is both capable of understanding the secret and also has developed sufficient motor skills to perform tasks associated with the secret), the level of continued interest in the toy can drop significantly.
Conversely, some toys may have features that are too complicated for a child, and therefore also may not be as fun, educational, or helpful in child development. With each unsuccessful attempt to make a toy work, frustration levels may build until some children ultimately give up trying to play with the toy. Similarly, there may be an aspect or feature of a toy that frightens a child. Thus, some children may not enjoy or maintain interest in a toy because of an aspect or feature that is not well-matched to the child's interests, capabilities, or sensitivity.
In many cases there are several aspects of a toy that are well-matched to a child's interests and capabilities, while only a small portion or element may be too difficult, complex, or perhaps frightening. For instance, a toy having an element or feature requiring a certain level of fine motor skills may not be interesting to a child who has not yet developed the necessary skills to competently manipulate its parts. Similarly, a toy having a feature requiring memorization of a series of steps before proceeding may present too much of a challenge for some children. Unfortunately, once a child loses interest in a toy it is difficult to generate renewed interest in it later on, even though the child may have subsequently developed the skills needed to enjoy its more difficult or complicated features.

Apparatus for child activity and occupational therapy


Provided are an electronic device, a control program, a recording medium, and a control method that enable a user to efficiently learn a word to be learned. If search processing for searching for detailed information of a headword based on a received input is performed while an image is being displayed, the electronic device causes the headword corresponding to the detailed information searched for by the search processing and image information identifying the image being displayed to be stored in an associated manner. When the image identified by the image information is displayed, the electronic device causes the headword associated with the image information to be further displayed.

In recent years, in various apparatuses having a function of recording an image of a video content such as a television (TV) broadcast program (hereinafter also referred to as image-recording/reproduction apparatuses), a function of searching for and displaying various information is being incorporated. Therefore, a number of techniques for searching for various information have been conventionally disclosed.
For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 09-294253 (Patent Document 1) discloses a technique for searching for supplementary information on a broadcast program being viewed by a user.
Further, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-215094 (Patent Document 2) discloses a technique for extracting information on the contents of TV broadcast and searching for information on the TV broadcast utilizing the extracted information.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 09-294253
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-215094

Electronic device, control program, recording medium, and control method


Provided are a method, system, program, and data structure for implementing a locking mechanism to control access to a shared resource. A request is received to access the shared resource. A determination is made of whether a first file has a first name. The first file is renamed to a second name if the first file has the first name. A second file is updated to indicate the received request in a queue of requests to the shared resource if the first file is renamed to the second name. An ordering of the requests in the queue is used to determine whether access to the shared resource is granted to the request. The first file is renamed to the first name after the second file is updated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system, and program for implementing a locking mechanism for a shared resource.
2. Description of the Related Art
Almost all computer architectures provide a locking mechanism to control the execution of concurrent operations directed to a shared resource in a manner that ensures that no two processes execute their critical sections concurrently. This means that two processes cannot be allowed to simultaneously proceed with mutually exclusive atomic operations. In prior art systems, a process, such as a write operation, that requires exclusive access to a shared resource must obtain an exclusive lock on the shared resource that prevents any other process from concurrently accessing the resource. A process requiring non-exclusive access, such as a read operation, must obtain a nonexclusive lock to access the resource. Multiple resources with a non-exclusive lock may concurrently access the resource associated with the lock.
Computer operating systems implement some form of a locking mechanism to control how processes are allowed access to resources. Application programs also implement a locking mechanism to control access to shared application resources, such as database tables, files, etc. For instance, database programs institute locking to prevent two different requests from performing mutually exclusive operations with respect to database records.
Notwithstanding the widespread use of locking, software developers writing programs in computer languages intended to execute across multiple operating systems through the use of a virtual machine layer, such as the Java programming language, have faced difficulties implementing locking mechanisms. One prior art solution is to write separate native locking mechanisms for each operating system on which the cross-platform application will execute. When the application requires locking, the application would call the native locking mechanisms written for the specific operating system. This approach is especially cumbersome because the software developer must write separate native locking mechanisms for each operating system on which the application is designed to run. For this reason, many Java applications do not implement a locking mechanism.
Moreover, even if a locking mechanism is implemented in Java that utilizes the native operating system locking mechanisms, in cases where the Java application partially fails, the lock may remain in place in the operating system tables even though the Java process is no longer functional. Such a result of a partial crash can be quite common in applications that use a virtual machine or extra translation level, such as the Java Virtual Machine, between the executing application and operating system.
For these reasons, there is a need in the art to provide a technique for implementing a locking mechanism for applications implemented in computer languages that are intended to execute across multiple operating system platforms.

Method, system, program, and data structure for implementing a locking mechanism for a shared resource


A cellulose ester film comprising a compound represented by Formula (1): Formula (1) B-(G-A)n-G-B, wherein B represents a benzene monocarboxylic acid residue; G represents an alkylene glycol residue having 2-12 carbon atoms, an aryl glycol residue having 6-12 carbon atoms, or an oxyalkylene glycol residue having 4-12 carbon atoms; A represents an alkylene dicarboxylic acid residue having 4-12 carbon atoms or an aryldicarboxylic acid residue having 6-12 carbon atoms; and n represents an integer of 1 or more.

Recently, demand on thinning layer, larger sizing and higher performance for the polarizing plate protecting film to be used in a display such as a liquid crystal display rise accompanied with development of thin and light note type personal computers and large screen televisions. In such the situation, the narrow viewing angle has considered hitherto as a problem. For making a wider viewing angle, it is proposed to provide a function of optical compensation sheet to the protecting film, (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection (hereafter referred to as JP-A) No. 6-222213).
Moreover, a technique of addition of a crosslinking agent into the protective film for preventing tear of the polarizing plate is proposed (for example, refer to JP-A No. 2001-55402). The yield of the polarizing plate can be raised by such the technique.
Furthermore, an addition of a rod-shaped compound to the protective film is proposed for solving a problem of variation of the displayed image such as the contrast, tone and gradation, particularly variation in tone, depending on the viewing angle (for example, refer to JP-A Nos. 2002-267847 and 2004-4550).
The variation of the displayed image in the contrast, tone and gradation depending on the variation of viewing angle and the occurrence of tear of the polarizing plate can be improved by the above-described means but the effects of them have not been fully sufficient. Furthermore, a problem is posed that the retardation value of the protective film used in the usual polarizing plate is reversely varied accompanied with variation of the humidity. Such the phenomenon relates to variation in the quality of displayed image on the liquid crystal display. Therefore, a technical means for dissolving such the problem has been desired.
Furthermore, it has been found that the light leaking caused by thermal distortion cannot be completely prevented when the polarizing plate using an optical compensation sheet is installed as the protecting film on a large size panel of not less than 17 inches. It is necessary that the optical compensation sheet not only has the function of optically compensating the liquid crystal cell but also has excellent durability against variation of the environmental condition.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Cellulose ester film, polarizing plate and liquid crystal display


Techniques for video decoding include cross-layer prediction from a base layer to an SNR or spatial enhancement layer of spatial intra prediction mode information. In one example embodiment, the Most Probable Mode (MPM) for intra prediction of an enhancement layer block is predicted from the spatially corresponding base layer block.

Subject matter related to the present application can be found in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/529,159, filed Jun. 21, 2012 and entitled "Scalable Video Coding Techniques", which is incorporated herein in its entirety.
Video coding, as discussed herein, refers to techniques where a series of uncompressed pictures is converted into a compressed video bitstream. Video decoding refers to the inverse process. Many image and video coding standards such as ITU-T Rec. H.264, "Advanced video coding for generic audiovisual services", March 2010, available from the International Telecommunication Union, Place de Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland (ITU), and at http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-H.264, and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, or ITU-T Rec. H.265, "High Efficiency Video Coding" (HEVC), April 2013, available from the ITU, and at http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-H.265, can specify the bitstream as a series of coded pictures. In such standards, each coded picture can be described as a series of blocks, such as macroblocks in H.264, and largest coding units in HEVC. The standards can further specify the decoder operation on the bitstream.
In video decoding according to H.264, for example, two coding modes can be identified, namely, "inter mode" and "intra mode." Inter mode can refer to the coding of samples, blocks, or pictures relative to previously coded or decoded pictures or parts thereof, using techniques commonly referred to as "inter picture prediction." In contrast, intra mode can refer to the coding of samples, blocks, or pictures without inter picture prediction.
While, by definition, there is no inter picture prediction in intra mode, there are mechanisms that can predict between information related to blocks within the same picture or parts thereof, for example, a slice. One of these prediction mechanisms is commonly referred to as "Intra Prediction." Intra prediction refers to the prediction of sample values, for example, a block of samples currently being decoded, based on sample values belonging to (neighboring) blocks that previously have been decoded for the subject picture. The actual sample values of a block under reconstruction can be created by adding, to the predictor, a residual that is coded in the bitstream.
In H.264, intra prediction can use samples from neighboring blocks following a spatial direction coded in the bitstream. FIG. 1 illustrates eight prediction modes that are used for directional spatial prediction in H.264. A ninth prediction mode (not shown in FIG. 1) is DC prediction. Referring to FIG. 1, the eight directional spatial modes (101) can be identified by arrows pointing in the direction from which the prediction samples are taken, and by numerals indicating the symbol that is being coded in the bitstream to refer to the directional spatial mode (102). To code a block in intra mode, a most probable mode (MPM) is derived based on the prediction modes and availability of previously coded or decoded neighboring blocks. If the MPM is chosen to predict the current block (DC prediction), then this is coded by prev_intra4×4_pred_mode_flag (in the case of a 4×4 block) or prev_intra8×8_pred_mode_flag (in the case of an 8×8 block). Otherwise, one of the eight remaining modes is coded using a syntax element consisting of three bits (rem_intra4×4_pred_mode for a 4×4 block or rem_intra8×8_pred_mode for an 8×8 block).
For spatial intra prediction in HEVC, thirty-five intra prediction modes are specified, of which two are used for DC and planar prediction, and the remaining thirty-three are used for directional spatial prediction. FIG. 2 illustrates thirty-three directional spatial modes (201) as arrows indicating the spatial direction from which the prediction sample is copied, and numerals indicating the symbol used to represent the spatial mode (202). Note that mode 0 is used for planar prediction and mode 1 for DC prediction (not illustrated in FIG. 2). To code each prediction unit (PU) in intra mode, three MPMs are derived based on the prediction modes and availability of previously coded or decoded neighboring blocks. If one of the three MPMs is chosen to predict the current PU (this is indicated by prev_intra_luma_pred_flag), the selected MPM is coded by a syntax element representing an index to one of the three MPMs (mpm_idx=0, 1, or 2), which indicates that the intra spatial directional prediction mode is equal to the selected MPM. Otherwise, the intra spatial directional prediction mode is one of the thirty-two remaining modes, and its value is coded by a syntax element that is a fixed length, five bit field (rem_intra_luma_pred_mode). With the five bits, values between 0 through 31, for a total of 32 values, can be represented.
Excerpts of the HEVC coding_unit syntax and semantics are shown below, which illustrate the described intra prediction direction coding mechanism in the language used by the HEVC standard.
SYNTAX TABLEcoding_unit( x0, y0, log2CbSize ) {Descriptor. . . pbOffset = ( PartMode = = PART_NxN ) ? ( nCbS / 2 ) : nCbS for( j = 0; j < nCbS; j = j + pbOffset )  for( i = 0; i < nCbS; i = i + pbOffset )   prev_intra_luma_pred_flag[ x0 + i ][ y0 + j ]ae(v) for( j = 0; j < nCbS; j = j + pbOffset )  for( i = 0; i < nCbS; i = i + pbOffset )   if( prev_intra_luma_pred_flag[ x0 + i ][ y0 + j ] )    mpm_idx[ x0 + i ][ y0 + j ]ae(v)   Else    rem_intra_luma_pred_mode[ x0 + i ][ y0 + j ]ae(v). . .
Semantics Specification: The syntax elements prev_intra_luma_pred_flag[x0+i][y0+j], mpm_idx[x0+i][y0+j] and rem_infra_luma_pred_mode[x0+i][y0+j] specify the intra prediction mode for luma samples. The array indices x0+i, y0+j specify the location (x0+i, y0+j) of the top-left luma sample of the considered prediction block relative to the top-left luma sample of the picture. When prev_intra_luma_pred_flag[x0+i][y0+j] is equal to 1, the intra prediction mode is inferred from a neighboring intra-predicted prediction unit according to subclause 8.4.2.
Spatial and SNR scalable coding can refer to techniques where a coded picture at a highest resolution/quality is represented by at least two pictures, one coded in a base layer bitstream and the others in at least one enhancement layer bitstream. In SNR scalability, the spatial resolutions of the pictures of the various layers are the same, whereas in spatial scalability, the enhancement layer resolution can be higher than the base layer resolution, requiring, for example, upsample filters or similar techniques to enable the reconstruction of an enhancement layer from an already reconstructed base layer. Except for this difference, spatial and SNR scalability can utilize similar techniques, including intra prediction mechanisms.
H.264 specifies techniques for spatial and SNR scalable coding in its Annex G, also known as Scalable Video Coding or SVC. Annex G specifies many different cross-layer prediction techniques that utilize similarities between the coding decisions of a base layer and an enhancement layer encoder (which can result from the coded material being the same for both encoders). However, SVC does not specify prediction of spatial intra coding modes between layers. Under development is a second version of H.265, referred to as Scalable High Efficiency Video Coding (SHVC). A working draft of SHVC can be found at http://phenix.int-evry.fr/jet/doc_end_user/documents/13_Incheon/wg11/JCTVC-M1008-v1.zip.


In a temperature measuring circuit suitable for implementation on an integrated circuit (IC) a plurality, M, nominally unit value current sources are individually and collectively applied to a sensor such as a diode or transistor. The resulting individual V.sub.BE voltages are measured and used to form an average, V.sub.BE(AVG), of the individual voltages. The difference .DELTA.V.sub.BE between the voltage, V.sub.BE(TOT), resulting from application of all M current sources and V.sub.BE(AVG) is used to solve for temperature in a relationship that is independent of the current values used. An error-corrected version of a sigma-delta analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is used to convert the analog measurements into digital signals representative of temperature.

Solid-state temperature sensors are widely used to provide reliable temperature measurement for many applications. In fact, silicon sensors often provide superior performance at a much lower cost than resistance-temperature-detectors, thermocouples and thermistors. Silicon-based temperature measurement typically involves an integrated circuit (hereinafter "IC") and a sensor diode as shown in FIG. 1. The IC 100 in FIG. 1 applies current to diode 150 using on-chip current sources 110 and 115 of standard design and corresponding switches S1 and S2 (120 and 125, respectively). Clock and switch control circuit 140 provides alternating clock control signals to alternately close switches S1 and S2 and apply the respective currents to diode 150. Measurement circuit 130 then measures the voltages, V.sub.BE, appearing across the diode when the currents are applied, which voltage is proportional to temperature. Specifically, switch control circuit 140 is shown generating the alternating sampling signals, .PHI..sub.1 and .PHI..sub.2. During clock phase 1, .PHI..sub.1, switch S1 is closed and the diode is biased by I.sub.1 to produce a voltage, V.sub.BE1. During clock phase 2, .PHI.2, switch S2 is closed and the diode is biased by I.sub.2 to produce voltage, V.sub.BE2. The measurement circuit samples and stores the diode voltage during each clock phase.
The measurements are based on a diode's voltage-current relationship, which is governed by the equation EQU V.sub.BE =V.sub.T *ln(I.sub.D /I.sub.S) (1)
where, I.sub.D is the forward diode current, I.sub.S is the diode reverse-saturation current, V.sub.BE is the forward diode voltage, and V.sub.T is the diode's thermal voltage given by EQU V.sub.T =K*T/q (2)
where, K=Boltzmann's Constant=1.38066*10.sup.-23 J/.degree.K
T=Temperature in degrees Kelvin, .degree.K, and
q=Electron Charge=1.602*10.sup.-19 Coulombs.
It can be shown that the change in voltage measured across a diode, .DELTA.V.sub.BE, when the diode is excited with two different currents, I.sub.1 and I.sub.2, is EQU .DELTA.V.sub.BE =V.sub.T *ln(I.sub.1 /I.sub.2) (3)
If the currents, I.sub.1 and I.sub.2, are precisely matched, then .DELTA.V.sub.BE can be used to provide a very stable, well-defined thermometer signal by substituting Equation (2) in Equation (3) and solving Equation (3) for T.
FIG. 1 illustrates a "single-wire" diode temperature measurement system in which only one conducting path connects a single pin of IC 100 and diode 150. The structure of FIG. 1 can, of course, be expanded for use with a plurality N of diodes, each connected to a respective pin on an IC such as 100 in FIG. 1, and each monitoring temperature at a respective off-chip location. A standard N:1 multiplexer is then controlled by the clock and control circuit 140 to connect the measurement circuitry 130 to each of the N diodes in turn.
By way of contrast, FIG. 2 illustrates the use of a transistor 250 to provide a more accurate "two-wire" differential measurement. The IC 200 in FIG. 2 contains an excitation circuit comprising current sources I.sub.1 (215), I.sub.2 (210), and respective switches S1 (220), and S2 (225), operating under the control of clock and switch control circuit 240, as in FIG. 1. Again, the voltages V.sub.BE1 and V.sub.BE2 are sampled and stored when respective currents I.sub.1 and I.sub.2 are applied. In the circuit of FIG. 2 current flows from the excitation circuit output through pin 245 of the IC 200 and through a wire connection 260 having resistance R.sub.WIRE to the emitter of transistor 250. Voltage measurements are made by measurement circuit 240 by way of pin 246 on IC 200. Pin 246, in turn, connects to the emitter of transistor 250 via a separate wire connection 265. Because the current over connection 265 is very low, the IR drop over that wire is likewise low. The use of a separate connection to the emitter 250 avoids possible errors resulting from an IR drop due to the relatively higher applied currents through the sometimes non-negligible resistance of wire 260. In cases where the value for R.sub.WIRE is low, however, the wire 265 may be eliminated and a jumper provided across pins 245 and 246 of IC 200. Because connections 247 and wire 265 are options, they are indicated by dashed lines in FIG. 2. The two-wire connection using transistor 250 (which may be a PNP or NPN transistor) to IC 200 also includes the ground sense path 270 connecting the base of transistor 250 to ground pin at IC 200. Because of the transistor connection, the current flowing in the ground sense wire is divided by the .beta. of transistor 250. Multiplexing techniques can be applied to the circuitry of FIG. 2 in the same manner as for the diode monitor arrangement of FIG. 1. Either PNP or NPN sensor transistors can be used in such applications.
If the currents I.sub.1 and I.sub.2 in the circuits of FIGS. 1 and 2 are precisely in the proportion I.sub.1 =M*I.sub.2, and the measurement circuit is designed to subtract V.sub.BE2 from V.sub.BE1, then the residual signal, .DELTA.V.sub.BE =V.sub.T *ln(M), provides an accurate measure of temperature. A key to achieving accurate temperature measurement using this technique therefore is the matching of the current sources, I.sub.1 and I.sub.2. It is generally not possible to exactly match two independent current sources on a chip with any high degree of reproducibility.
Ratio matching in the range of 0.1% to 1.0% can be achieved through the use of very precise design and manufacturing techniques, but many applications require better accuracy. One-time factory calibration is often used to reduce the current source mismatch error, but this approach relies on the use of expensive manufacturing techniques including thin-film laser trimming, so-called zener-zapping, or fuse blowing. These solutions require additional active silicon for implementation, which increases the size and cost of the chip. Furthermore, the extra trim circuitry and testing results in a reduction of product yield and increase in manufacturing cost.


An apparatus for use in a data processing device is described in which an audio system and a light system is embedded within a cursor control device such as a directional pad. In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises a cursor control device for performing one or more defined cursor control functions; an audio system embedded within the cursor control device, the audio system configured to generate audio signals responsive to audio signals received and/or generated by the data processing device; and a light source embedded within the cursor control device, the light sources configured to generate light from the cursor control device responsive to control signals generated by the data processing device.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of data processing input devices. More particularly, the invention relates to an input device having an integrated speaker and lighting system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Portable data processing devices such as Personal Digital Assistants ("PDAs") and programmable wireless telephones are becoming more powerful every day, providing users with a wide range of applications previously only available on personal computers. At the same time, due to advances in silicon processing technology and battery technology, these devices may be manufactured using smaller and smaller form factors. Accordingly, users no longer need to sacrifice processing power for portability when selecting a personal data processing device.
Although processing devices with small form factors tend to be more portable, users may find it increasingly difficult to interact with them. For example, entering data may be difficult due to the absence of a full-sized keyboard and reading information may be difficult due to a small, potentially dim Liquid Crystal Display ("LCD"). Moreover, given the fact that telephony and data processing functions may require different types of input/output elements (e.g., directional pads, telephony speakers, light emitting diodes, . . . etc), the real estate on the external surface of data processing devices is at a premium. Accordingly, to the extent possible, it is desirable to integrate multiple input/output functions into a single input/output device.

Directional pad having integrated acoustic system and lighting system


An accessory adapter for mounting an ornamental piece with two opposing edges. The adapter has a body with two spaced members forming a cavity therebetween for receiving one of the edges. The body also has an exterior surface configured to be fixed to an anchoring portion for mounting the adapter on a human body or object. A movable member is rotatably mounted on the body and rotatable to engage the other edge of the two opposing edges to releasably secure the adapter to the ornamental piece.

1. Field of the Invention
The subject matter presented herein relates to ornamental accessories such as jewelry, and more particularly to adapters that permit a single ornamental piece to be worn on different types of accessories, or that permit different ornamental pieces to be mounted alternatively on a single adapter.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most ornamental jewelry arrangements or charms are permanently mounted on an accessory with a specific use. For example, a user cannot usually easily disconnect a diamond charm on a ring by hand and to mount the charm on an earring, necklace, or bracelet without special tools or taking the jewelry to a jeweler. Thus, it also is difficult to replace one charm with a different charm on the same mounting. For instance, a user cannot easily replace a diamond charm on a ring mounting with a gold and emerald charm without tools for example. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a way for a user that wears the accessories to easily replace alternative ornamental objects on an accessory mounting or use the same ornamental object on different types of accessories.


Method for extinguishing a fire in a space, especially in a tunnel or equivalent, in which method an extinguishing medium is sprayed in the space by means of spraying heads. In a first stage of the method, the flow and temperature of the hot gases produced by the fire are influenced by spraying an extinguishing medium into the space, especially by creating in the space at least one curtain (7) of extinguishing medium, and at least some spraying heads (11, 12) in the space are pre-activated into a state of readiness, and in a second stage at least one spraying head is activated to produce a spray of extinguishing medium. The invention also concerns an apparatus.

The present invention relates to a method as defined in the preamble of claim 1 for extinguishing a fire in a space, especially in a tunnel or equivalent, in which method an extinguishing medium is sprayed in the space by means of spraying heads.
The invention also relates to a fire extinguishing apparatus as defined in the preamble of claim 11.
In recent times, the question of firefighting in tunnels, such as road and railway tunnels and equivalent, has emerged. Several destructive fires have occurred in tunnels because they generally have no permanent fire extinguishing systems. The traditionally imaginable fire extinguishing systems are either sprinkler systems or zonewise triggered spraying systems. In sprinkler systems, the sprinklers are triggered individually by the action of heat. In a tunnel application, they involve the problem that, as a consequence of the fast propagation of hot gases, a very large number of them are triggered even far away from the actual place of fire. Therefore, the pump sizes and correspondingly the pipe sizes should be designed for such a large area that the system would become practically unfeasible. In a zonewise triggered system, the tunnel is divided into zones, and when a signal based on fire detection is received from a zone, the entire zone is triggered. A problem with these systems is how to locate the right zone. Due to the fast propagation of smoke and heat, signals may be received from numerous wrong zones, and again the practical problems of sizing are encountered. Therefore, a special area of investigation in recent times has been the development of new and accurate detection systems.
A problem with all traditional solutions is the difficulty of directing the extinguishing power of automatic firefighting equipment to the right area, i.e. to the area on fire. In tunnels there is always a strong air current, either due to natural ventilation or—more generally—produced by mechanical ventilation. The hot combustion gases rise up and are quickly drifted in the tunnel away from the actual area on fire. Therefore, individual heat-activated sprinklers of conventional sprinkler systems are triggered in a very large area. The capacity of the extinguishing system is soon exceeded and the best extinguishing power may even be applied to a completely wrong area where no seat of fire exists at all. Dimensioning the system for such a large area in practice leads to impossible water quantities and pipe sizes. Alternatively, the system may be triggered a complete zone at a time, but for the selection of the right zone it is necessary to have an advanced detection system in addition to the extinguishing system. These problems are fairly well avoided in the apparatus disclosed in specification WO 0126742 (FI patent 108216). The object of the present invention is to further develop the method and system according to the prior-art solution, especially in connection with firefighting in tunnels.

Method and system for extinguishing a fire


To provide a hollow poppet valve having an improved heat reduction effect. In a hollow poppet valve (10) having a valve head (14) and a stem (12) integral with the valve head (14), the hollow poppet valve (10) is formed with an internal cavity S that extends in the valve head (14) and the stem (12). The internal cavity S is charged with a coolant (19) and an inert gas. The internal cavity S has a generally disk-shape internal cavity S1 and an internal stem cavity S2 formed in the stem (12) and connected to the internal valve head cavity S1 at a right angle. During a reciprocal motion of the valve (10), a vertical convective flow of coolant (19) along the axis L of the valve (10) is established at least in the internal valve head cavity S1, thereby enhancing its heat reduction effect.

Patent Documents 1 and 2 listed below disclose hollow poppet valves formed with an internal cavity in the valve head and the stem of the valve, with the space charged with a coolant (such as metallic sodium, which has a melting point of about 98° C.) having a higher heat conductivity than the valve material, together with an inner gas.
The internal cavity extends from inside the valve head into the stem adapted to contain a large amount of coolant for enhanced heat transfer property of the valve. (The property enhanced by the coolant will be hereinafter referred to as heat reduction effect.)
An engine is heated during an operation, and, if the temperature of the combustion chamber of the engine is excessively, knocking may take place, which lowers the fuel efficiency and hence the power of the engine. In order to lower the temperature of the combustion chamber, there has been proposed use of a coolant charged in an internal cavity formed in a valve together with an inner gas so as to positively enhance the heat transfer effect of the valve.


The invention provides a method of treating a chronic ulcer, such as a diabetic ulcer, comprising administering a therapeutic amount of a hydrogel matrix to the ulcer, the matrix composition comprising gelatin and a long chain carbohydrate. The matrix may further include polar amino acids, nitric oxide inhibitors and super oxide inhibitors. Injection is a preferred method of administration. The matrix may be injected into one or more locations within the ulcer, underneath the ulcer and/or around the periphery of the ulcer.

There are over 15 million diagnosed cases of diabetes in the United States alone. According to the American Diabetes Association, about 60-70% of people with diabetes have mild to severe forms of diabetes-related nerve damage. Diabetic neuropathy is a condition that encompasses a wide range of dysfunction. Neuropathic ulcers or lesions of the foot resulting from diabetic neuropathy are a major cause of lower leg amputations. In fact, progression of diabetic foot ulcers is the leading cause of non-traumatic lower limb amputations in the United States. The risk of a leg amputation is 15-40 times greater for a person with diabetes.
Loss of protective sensation and repetitive trauma (e.g. walking) are major causes of such ulcers. Loss of tone in the small muscles of the feet cause changes in the architecture of the foot that ultimately result in increased pressure over the ball of the foot. This increased pressure causes calluses and eventually ulceration.
These lesions are associated with microcirculatory compromise, resulting in the breakdown of dermal integrity. The etiology is thought to be progressive endothelial vessel injury induced by chronic hyperglycemia. While neuropathy, trauma, and infection secondarily promote foot lesion extension, the underlying pathology for these conditions and the ulcer itself is chronic hyperglycemia resulting in compromised vascular flow to the skin. Once developed, these ulcers become chronic conditions lasting indefinitely. It is not unusual for ulcers of this type to persist for many years. Unlike common trauma-induced superficial wounds, chronic diabetic ulcers penetrate deep into the patient's tissue, often exhibiting penetration completely through the dermis, leaving the ulcer open and exposing underlying structures such as tendon, muscle or bone.
Current therapy for diabetic foot ulcers is inadequate, as evidenced by the high incidence of healing failure (See Ramsey et al., Diabetes Care 22:382-387, 1999). Conventional therapies include debridement of necrotic tissue, repeated sterile dressings, use of orthotic devices to reduce pressure, bed rest, and aggressive use of antibiotics to fight infection. Conventional therapy does not address the underlying pathology of microangiopathy in the lower extremity, but seeks to provide enough covering to prevent ulcer extension and possible amputation. Cell-based coverings are sometimes used to treat ulcers, such coverings including autologous skin flaps, skin grafts, or cultured skin layers such as APLIGRAF™. However, providing a covering that may or may not assist in closure does nothing to treat the underlying pathology, which is compromised circulation in combination with compromised sensation. As such, the rate of recurrence of healed ulcers is as high as 80%. There remains a need in the art for therapeutic methods for treating chronic ulcers, such as diabetes-related ulcers.


A method for producing an optical lens includes: forming a mark outside a lens region set in a lens substrate, the mark being adapted to perform position alignment; pattern-forming a masking layer above one principal surface of the lens substrate while controlling formation position of the masking layer with the mark as a reference, the masking layer having an aperture at a predetermined position in the lens region; performing a selective process with respect to a surface exposed from the bottom of the aperture of the masking layer by performing a process from above the masking layer; and removing the masking layer from above the lens substrate to form a processed pattern by the selective process on the side of the one principal surface of the lens substrate.

A spectacle lens has various films coated on a lens substrate thereof. Examples of the various films include a hard coat film, an antireflection film, a water-repellent film and the like, wherein the hard coat film is adapted to prevent the lens substrate from being scratched, the antireflection film is adapted to prevent light from being reflected by lens surface, and the water-repellent film is adapted to prevent water spotting on the lens. Apart from the aforesaid configuration, another configuration is proposed in which, as a film for reducing the amount of the light incident on the eye of the wearer of the spectacles, a semi-transmissive thin film is coated on the entire surface of the lens in a dot-like manner, and an antireflection film is coated on the semi-transmissive thin film (see Patent document 1, for example).
In recent years, a plastic lens light in weight and excellent in dyeing affinity is favorably used as a high-fashion spectacle lens; and further, in order to improve the designability, a configuration is proposed in which a pattern is formed on the lens by applying a pigmented coating on the lens using an inkjet method.