An apparatus, method, and system for writing data to a hard disk drive synchronous with an apparent disk speed. The apparatus, method, and system has a phase-locked loop (PLL) to generate am output clock signal, wherein a clock interpolator responsive to phase rotation control is in the PLL feedback loop. The phase rotation control is proportional to the apparent disk speed, and the PLL output clock signal is also proportional to the apparent disk speed. A second clock interpolator further modifies the PLL output clock signal to provide pre-compensation control.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to the field of information storage, and more particularly to read/write channel control devices that can generate timing signals for controlling read/write operations in rotating magnetic storage devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hard disk drives (HDD) typically comprise at least one disk having a magnetic medium for storing information, a spindle, a controller for controlling disk rotational speed, a read/write head and actuator assembly for positioning the head over the appropriate disk track, and data channels for reading data from the disk and writing data to the disk. The read/write head reads data from and writes data to the disk in data blocks having either fixed or variable length. A data block comprises a preamble (for acquiring timing signals), timing bits, address bits, data bits, and error correction bits. Data blocks are recorded in sectors in concentric tracks and a track may comprise several sectors. The number of sectors may depend on the radial location of the track on the disk.
In efforts to increase data density, HDD manufacturers write data to disks such that data density is substantially uniform throughout the disk. Uniform density requires a write clock that is synchronized to disk speed (disk speed being defined as the speed of the disk media relative to a specific point such as a write head). There are three sources of variation in disk speed: uncertainty of rotational speed, eccentricities of the disk to the spindle caused by disk slip, and location of data sectors relative to the axis of rotation.
Rotational speed is uncertain because spindle speed control is not perfect in disk drives. Most HDDs have spindle speed specifications of +/−0.1% absolute variation. Because uncertainty in the spindle speed results in a lower format target, engineers design margins to allow the HDD to continue functioning under the worst-case spindle speed variation. For example, a sector written at a fixed +0.1% higher spindle speed and read at −0.1% lower spindle speed will experience a read data-rate 0.2% lower than the nominal read speed. In order for the read timing loop to lock properly to this lower data rate, the data sector requires a longer preamble, resulting in lower format efficiency. Also, in order to prevent writing over part of the preceding or the succeeding sector that was previously written at a different spindle speed, a larger gap between sectors must be allocated to provide a buffer zone. This larger gap also reduces the overall format efficiency of the drive.
In addition to the longer preamble required to enable timing loop lock to a read-back waveform, it is also often necessary to increase the timing loop bandwidth, resulting in a higher read error, rate. Read error rate is lower when the read timing loop bandwidth is lower.
Disk slip is due to manufacturing tolerances creating eccentricities between the disks and the spindle mechanism. When HDDs experience a large lateral shock, the disk may slip relative to the spindle, causing the tracks to be placed on circular paths off-center from the axis of rotation. When reading or writing data, this off-center rotation appears to be a variation of spindle speed. Data read from a sector written prior to a disk slip will have an even larger frequency offset than the nominal value.
Disk slip has sinusoidal sector-to-sector timing variation. The variation in the time interval between sectors appears as a spindle speed variation even though the variation may be due partially to disk slip. Although this component of variation is repeatable around the disk, data written to a disk before the disk slip may be read after the disk slip, resulting in an unpredictable disk read. In many HDDs, a disk slip creates a read frequency offset as large as 0.5% of nominal, which is larger than normal spindle speed variation.
Some modern read channels employ digital timing recovery loops and already have a capability to adjust the read back initial frequency offset if the offset amount is known. FIG. 1 shows an example of a phase-locked loop (PLL) circuit for adjusting the frequency of the read channel to compensate for a known frequency offset. The phase detector 102, low pass filter 103, voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) 104, and divider 105 are part of a PLL time base generator 101. The read clock interpolator 106, normally used for read clock timing, is outside the time base generator loop and is responsive to a known frequency offset signal 108 to provide a modified frequency output signal 109.
Disk speed variation is also due to the location of data sectors relative to the axis of rotation. As a data sector is written farther from the center of the disk, the physical length of the sector increases unless the write clock frequency also increases. Timing circuits also may use one or more interpolators to pre-compensate the write clock to change the write density according to the track location on the disk. FIG. 2 shows that a clock interpolator 206 may also be used to provide pre-compensation for adjusting the data write density necessary to compensate for the track location on the disk. The write pre-compensation control signal 208 adjusts the clock interpolator 206 to account for track location on the disk, thereby providing a pre-compensated clock signal 209. However, if the interpolator has to perform frequency adjustments in addition to pre-compensation adjustments, then the design of the control logic and clock interpolators becomes significantly more complicated.
Therefore, a need exists for circuitry that adjusts the write clock frequency in response to apparent disk speed variations and pre-compensation controls.


A video coding device may be configured to perform directional Bi-directional optical flow (BDOF) refinement on a coding unit (CU). The device may determine the direction in which to perform directional BDOF refinement. The device may calculate the vertical direction gradient difference and the horizontal direction gradient difference for the CU. The vertical direction gradient difference may indicate the difference between the vertical gradients for a first reference picture and the vertical gradients for a second reference picture. The horizontal direction gradient difference may indicate the difference between the horizontal gradients for the first reference picture and the horizontal gradients for the second reference picture. The video coding device may determine the direction in which to perform directional BDOF refinement based on the vertical direction gradient difference and the horizontal direction gradient difference. The video coding device may perform directional BDOF refinement in the determined direction.

Video coding systems are widely used to compress digital video signals to reduce the storage needs and/or transmission bandwidth of such signals. Among the various types of video coding systems, such as block-based, wavelet-based, and object-based systems, block-based hybrid video coding systems are widely used and deployed. Examples of block-based video coding systems may include international video coding standards such as the MPEG1/2/4 part 2, H.264/MPEG-4 part 10, AVC, VC-1, and High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC).

Bi-directional optical flow method with simplified gradient derivation


A magnetic disk device has a large capacity with a small and thin structure and includes a spindle system, an actuator system, a control package for controlling the systems, and a PCMCIA connector. The spindle system is of an in-hub structure wherein two magnetic disks are rotated in inside diameter portions of the magnetic disks. The actuator system has sliders mounting magnetic heads for writing and reading magnetic information to and from the magnetic disks, guide arms and suspension structures. The suspension structures also include a coil, a magnetic circuit for imparting a drive force in cooperation with the coil, a coil holder for supporting the coil, a pivot sleeve for rocking the guide arms, the coil holder and spacers which are integrally laminated to each other, bearings and a pivot shaft. The PCMCIA connector connects to the control package and is fixed by the housing and a package cover.

Magnetic disk devices tend to increase in memory density and capacity every year, and are expected to be used in many applications other than just as large external memory devices added to a conventional general computer system or personal computer. For example, proposed uses for a magnetic disk device include mounting it in a portable small-sized information processing apparatus, which allows a user to carry necessary data recorded in the magnetic disk device outdoors.
If a magnetic disk device is to be mounted in a portable small-sized information processing apparatus, however, it is essential to make the magnetic disk device small and thin. In this regard, the goal of magnetic disk device design is aimed at reducing the size of the device so that it satisfies a size (thickness: 5 mm or less) requirement of a so-called PC card specification of PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association)/JEIDA (Japan Electronic Industry Development Association) and the like. A variety of mechanisms have been disclosed for satisfying such a device thickness of 5 mm or less in a magnetic disk device using a small diameter disk having a diameter of 1.8 inch.
For example, International Publication No. W093/10535 discloses a thin magnetic disk device having a device thickness of 5 mm that is intended to be realized by holding a 1.8 inch disk between electronic parts mounted between printed circuit boards and the inner surfaces of a housing and a cover. In this technique, the electronic parts are mounted on a thin printed circuit board rather than a conventional thick one, and they are arranged on both sides of a thin disk having a relatively large space in the thickness direction, to thus make thin the total thickness of the device. This technique also adopts a spindle motor structure wherein two ball bearings can be mounted in a small inside diameter (12 mm) portion of the 1.8 inch disk along the spindle axis and also a magnet rotor that can be contained in a hub of the disk by the effect of using a face-to-face spindle motor, to thus achieve a magnetic disk device.
In Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 6-84302, a thin actuator is disclosed that is intended to be realized by axially stacking and clamping a so-called guide arm integrated type suspension in which a suspension mounting a magnetic disk/slider is welded to a guide arm, a coil holder for supporting a coil and a spacer, around a sleeve of a pivot bearing of an actuator. The guide arm integrated type suspension is made thin by welding a suspension mounting a magnetic head to a thin guide arm.
At present, the supporting of a suspension on a guide arm is generally performed by welding a cylindrical member to an end portion of the suspension, inserting the cylindrical member of the suspension in a hole provided at the leading end of the guide arm, and fastening the hole by caulking. In this case, a so-called integrated carriage integrating a plurality of the guide arms is generally used. In the method of fastening the suspension to the guide arm, the suspension is inevitably required to be relatively thick for obtaining a practical holding force. Consequently, the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 6-84302 in which a suspension only has a thickness sufficient to be welded to a guide arm is advantageous for making a thin suspension.
Incidentally, a housing and cover containing a magnetic disk is required to be sealed for realizing a highly reliable magnetic disk device. In a technique disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,577/Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 6-215554, the sealing performance at a mating portion between the housing and the cover and at an extension portion of the FPCs (flexible printed circuit board), a gap is formed that is simply covered using a tape seal having a constant width. on the other hand, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Sho 62-279587, a packing is held between a flat housing and a cover, to maintain the sealed housing area.


A hand bag for striking by a back of a game player's hand comprises a plurality of panels first stitched together to form first and second panels that are then stitched about their periphery. The hand bag contains disk-shaped fluid pellets of a high density polyethylene material therein or a gel therein. The ellipsoid-shaped filler pellets are contained within an inner lining for insertion into the hand bag during assembly. Lacing extends about the stitched periphery to further secure the panels while protecting the initial stitching. The plurality of panels with lines of flexion therebetween are configured to complement the back of the user's hand so that upon striking an improved lift and airborne flight is imparted to the hand bag.

This invention relates to a hand bag for a game use and, more particularly, to an improved device designed to be kept aloft with lift afforded by the back of the game player's hands during game play.
The use of objects in various games which are to be kept in the air is well known. Game devices such as Frisbees.RTM., Hacky Sacks.RTM., balls, etc. are utilized with various types of game rules, if any, so as to provide enjoyment to the game players.
Such games and devices employed therein are known to assist in the development of one's eye/foot and eye/hand coordination. In my U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,351, a game device was disclosed which is kept aloft by the back of the game player's hand. I have improved the device's configuration so as to provide optimum efficiency when contacting the back of the game player's hand.
In response thereto, I have invented an improved device designed for airborne movement in connection with various types of game rules, herein referred to as a "hand bag" for purposes of description and not limitation. The hand bag is kept aloft by offering lift thereto with the back of one's hand. The shape and structure of this hand bag and the filler material within the hand bag allow for more efficient contact with the back of the hand when properly struck so as to increase the efficacy of the hand bag in game use and the subsequent user enjoyment offered thereby. Also, the method of assembling the hand bag provides for efficient insertion of a filler material.
The preferred embodiment of the invention generally presents a device gradually disk-like in configuration having a plurality of panels secured together by stitching and exterior leather lacing so as to maintain the integrity of the hand bag during use and to promote efficient contact with the back of the hand. The device is preferably made of a garment suede leather with the filler material being made by an "underwater pelletized" method and contained within an inner liner or pouch. The filler pellets are disk-shaped so as to efficiently slide over each other when the hand bag is compressed. It has been discovered that ellipsoid-shaped pellets provide more efficient sliding than any other pellet shape (e.g., cylindrical, spherical, or irregular). In another embodiment, the filler material may be a resilient gel-like substance injected into a bladder within the device and having a fluidity similar to the disk-shaped pellets.
It is therefore a general object of the invention to provide a hand bag for use as an airborne device in various games of play.
Another general object of the invention is to provide a hand bag, as aforesaid, which is kept aloft during game play by lift offered by the back of the hand of the game player.
A further object of the invention is to provide a hand bag, as aforesaid, which is utilized in various games for the development of skills transferrable to other sports.
A particular object of this invention is to provide a hand bag, as aforesaid, which presents a structure adapted for efficient lift upon proper contact with the back of the hand during game play.
Still another particular object of this invention is to provide a handbag, as aforesaid, which presents a structure for efficient contact by the back of the hand of the game player.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a hand bag, as aforesaid, which presents a structure for efficient insertion of filler material.
Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein is set forth by way of illustration and example, an embodiment of this invention.


A modified creping adhesive composition, comprising an adhesive component and at least one terpene modifier, and its use in the production of creped paper products by a process which includes the steps of adhering a paper web to the surface of a drying cylinder and separating the paper web from the drying cylinder with a creping blade.

The present invention relates generally to the manufacture of crepe paper products, and more particularly to a modified creping adhesive composition which facilitates the creping of paper webs for making disposable and/or absorbent tissue, towels, napkins, or other paper products.
Paper is generally manufactured by suspending cellulosic fiber of appropriate geometric dimensions in an aqueous medium, forming the fiber into a wet ribbon or web on a porous support and then drying the web. In the manufacture of disposable and/or absorbent tissue, towel and the like, creping is performed in order to impart desired aesthetic and performance properties to the resulting product. Creping is generally carried out by causing the cellulosic fiber web to adhere to the surface of a large, rotating cylindrical dryer, known in the industry as a Yankee dryer, and then scraping the web off of the dryer surface by means of a doctor blade. This blade is also sometimes referred to as a creping blade. The result is an increase in basis weight (mass per unit area) as well as dramatic changes in many physical properties of the web, particularly when measured in the machine direction.
Traditionally, absorbent paper has been produced by one of three basic technologies: (i) conventional wet press technology with wet creping and embossing, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,048,589 to Cook et al.; (ii) conventional wet press technology with dry creping and embossing, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,048,589 to Cook et al.; and (iii) through-air-drying (TAD), with or without creping. Conventional TAD processes are generally described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,301,746 to Sanford et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 3,905,863 to Ayers.
Typically, the paper web is first formed on a foraminous carrier or support, such as a Fourdrinier wire, where it is freed of the copious water needed to disperse the fibrous slurry. Thereafter, it is usually transferred to a felt or fabric in a so-called press section where de-watering is continued either by mechanically compacting the paper or by some other de-watering method such as through-drying with hot air, before finally being transferred in the semi-dry condition to the surface of the Yankee dryer for the drying to be completed.
The impact of the adhered web with the doctor blade is essential in order to obtain from the drying process a dried paper web having the properties desired by the manufacturer. This creping action has the effect of breaking a substantial number of interfiber bonds in the paper web, increasing its bulk, and resulting in improved softness and absorbency. The term "bulk," as used herein, refers to the inverse of the density of a tissue paper web.
The paper web is caused to adhere to the Yankee dryer well around the cylindrical heating surface from the doctor blade, which crepes the traveling web as it is separated from the dryer. To adhere the nascent web to the surface of the Yankee dryer, a creping adhesive alone or in combination with a release agent, ordinarily in the form of an aqueous solution, emulsion or dispersion, is applied to the rotating surface prior to its taking up the partially dried web, which occurs with the assistance of a pressure roll. Alternatively, the spray may be applied to the traveling web. Suitable apparatus for use with the present invention is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,304,625 to Grube et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,213 to Lazorisak et al.
The level of adhesion of the papermaking web to the dryer is of considerable importance in relation to control of the web in its travel in the space between the creping blade and the reel, and to crepe formation itself. Different creped products require different levels of adhesion, tack and rewetability. For example, a facial tissue web will require a different level of adhesion and tack and rewetability in comparison to a paper towel web. Webs which are not sufficiently adhered to the dryer tend be difficult to control, with consequent difficulties in forming a uniform reel of paper. A loose sheet leads to poor creping, wrinkles in the reel, Holdovers, or weaving of the sheet in the rolled-up paper, which can lead to problems in converting. Hence it is very important to be able to control the level of adhesion and tack of the adhesive package (i.e., adhesive plus additives) by appropriate modification of its properties.
The level of adhesion of the papermaking web to the drying surface is also of importance in relation to the drying of the web. Higher levels of adhesion tend to promote heat transfer and cause the web to dry faster, enabling more energy efficient, higher speed operation. Low levels of adhesion can inhibit heat transfer, resulting in poor drying of the web.
Rewetability is another important characteristic of a creping adhesive. "Rewetability," as used herein, refers to the ability of the adhesive material to be activated by the moisture contained in the semi-dry web when the web is brought into contact with the adhesive material on the heated drying surface. A marked increase in tack is indicative of high rewetability.
Various types of creping adhesives are known. Some unmodified adhesives, such as polyamidoamine-epichlorohydrin (PAAE) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) tend to form a very hard coating with poor tack and rewetability properties. It is also known to incorporate one or more modifier into a-creping adhesive to impart certain desirable properties to the adhesive. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,280,571 to Allen.
The development of a creping adhesive providing enhanced performance with respect to level of adhesion, tack and rewetability remains a highly desired objective in the paper industry.

Modified creping adhesive composition and method of use thereof


A method for anti-piracy protection of a software application by obfuscation of the execution of portions of the applications code is described. The method includes providing a language specification and library to implement the functions of the language, providing a compiler to translate the language into byte codes, and providing an interpreter to execute the byte codes using the library. The method further includes providing the language specifications, library, compiler, interpreter, and instructions to a software publisher, where the software publisher embeds the library and interpreter in the application to be protected, and selects and prepares application code segments for processing into byte codes by the compiler. The application is then executed using the embedded library and interpreter, where the execution of the application is obfuscated by the use of byte codes.

Software licensing and anti-piracy protection has been used for some time in the software industry as a means of controlling use of software, and more particularly, for the purpose of limiting or eliminating unauthorized use of software, known as software piracy.
The resulting economic dislocation that occurs due to software piracy is severe. As the cost of developing and supporting software programs increases, the need to reduce piracy grows. One of the key elements of reducing software piracy is through the use of an electronic software license, delivered to the authorized user to enable the software program to operate. The electronic license includes the required information in a form that is understood by the software program, and contains license terms.
License terms are the terms that apply to the use of the particular copy of the software program, and can include a start date, an end date, a number of program launches, fingerprint information to limit use on a specific local area network or on a specific machine, and other controlling information. For increased security, the electronic software license may be encrypted to hamper hacker efforts to bypass its function. This requires that the software program contain a decryption key to decrypt the license before extracting the information required.
One of the limitations of typical machine fingerprinting solutions is that the accessing of the fingerprint information and the determination of a correct, match is completed during the protection phase prior to the execution of the main application. Thus, if the application can be separated from the protection wrapper, it will execute correctly on any machine.
In addition to license files, other anti-piracy tools have been employed. These tools typically are used to add various types of authentication to the program being protected, such as decryption, checksum validation, and overriding various debug mechanisms in the operating system and hardware. All of these and other techniques were created for the purpose of making it difficult for a software hacker to break into the application code and remove it from its protection "wrapper" so it can be provided free of any license terms at no cost or very low cost, and where the software publisher receives no payment of any kind for its use. The process of adding protection software to a software application is often referred to as "wrapping." Wrapping tools are typically sold to software developers who then perform the wrapping process on each software program prior to shipping the software to customers.
Since the runtime environment for the software program and its protection wrapper is typically unprotected, such as with Microsoft Corporation's Windows Operating System, and since a large number of programmers have extensive knowledge of programming on such a system, it is difficult to effectively protect software running on such machines. In addition to having extensive knowledge of the operating environment, hackers also can purchase or "borrow" a copy of the protection-wrapping tool. By studying the operation of the tool, the hacker gains a much deeper understanding of the protection mechanisms and techniques used by the tool than by studying only the resulting protected software, reducing the work required to compromise a given protected software product. In fact, the level of difficulty for breaking protected code without this additional aid is sufficiently high that most hackers will take great pains to acquire a copy of the protection tool for the purpose of studying its operation. Thus, it is extremely important to protect the wrapping tool itself. Otherwise, if the tool finds its way into the wrong hands, the security of every program wrapped for protection by the tool is at a substantially higher risk of being compromised.
Many of the techniques described above use encryption and debugging suppression features, often requiring kernel-level drivers to implement successfully and clandestinely. Unfortunately, this technique of using kernel-level drivers is susceptible to driver architecture changes and system configuration variations, and thus requires a high level of customer support. While the level of support required is reasonable for a small market, large markets cannot tolerate the support costs, and require other solutions.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method for obfuscation of program execution without using kernel level drivers, to make it difficult for a hacker to determine what work is being done by the application and its protection logic. Additionally, what is needed is a means of providing the toolset in a secure environment to eliminate the opportunity for studying the tool processing method, and thereby increasing the security of the protection. The present invention addresses such a need.

Protecting software from unauthorized use by converting source code modules to byte codes


A method, in an electronic switching system comprising a main processor and line processors which can adapt K number of signaling types, N and K being positive integers, respectively, wherein the system is connected to another electronic switching system at trunk ports through trunk lines and the main processor includes a database for the line processors, route data, prefix data and state of the trunks including the trunk lines and the trunk ports, comprises the steps of: identifying a signaling type of a line processor; informing the identified signaling type to an operator; checking whether the trunk port connected to the line processor adapts the identified signaling type or not if the operator decides to change the identified signaling type; deleting data of the trunk in the main processor's database and assigning a new signaling type to the line processor if said trunk port adapts the identified signaling type, wherein the new signaling type is a same signaling type as used in said another electronic switching system connected thereto; assigning the new signaling type to the line processor if said trunk port does not adapt the identified signaling type; changing data of the line processor in the main processor's database into data concerning said new signaling type; and generating route data, making new data of the trunk and generating prefix data in the main processor's database.

In an electronic switching system (ESS), a signaling refers to a transmission of switching information between a subscriber and an exchange or between two exchanges.
A signaling for exchanging information between a subscriber and an exchange is called a subscriber line signaling, wherein the information includes, e.g., a call request signal, a call release signal, address signals, a ringing signal, a metering pulse and tones and recorded announcements.
A signaling for exchanging information between two exchanges is called an interexchange signaling. The interexchange signaling includes a line signal and a register signal. The line signal represents the state of an interexchange trunk line, e.g., a seizure signal, a release signal, called party on/off supervisory signals and relates to the state of a called line. The register signal is a signal interchanged between two registers or two similar control equipments. The register signal generally includes a proceed-to-send signal, an address signal and signals indicating the result of a call attempt.
There are a plurality of types of the interexchange signalings. Especially, in an R1 signaling, the line signal uses a frequency of 2600 Hz in transmission lines. The register signal is made of two frequencies out of six frequencies and may be transmitted on a link-by-link basis, wherein the six frequencies used in the R1 register signals are 700, 900, 1100, 1300, 1500 and 1700 Hz.
In an R2 signaling, the line signal uses a frequency of 3825 Hz in transmission lines. The register signal uses two frequencies out of six frequencies and may be transmitted on an end-to-end basis, wherein the six frequencies used in the R2 register signals are 1380, 1500, 1620, 1740, 1860 and 1980 Hz for forward signaling and 1140, 1020, 900, 780, 660 and 540 Hz for backward signaling.
As described above, each of interexchange signaling types has a different format from one another and different interexchange signaling type is used in different region or nation.
Since, however, the ESS can interchange the information with another ESS only if the interexchange signalings in two ESS's are identical, e.g., an ESS adapting the R1 signaling can interface only with an ESS adapting the R1 signaling and an ESS adapting R2 signaling can interface only with an ESS adapting R2 signaling, the ESS lacks flexibility in the interexchange signaling between exchanges.

Method for setting up an adaptive interexchange signaling system in an electronic switching system


A food tray is disclosed that prevents direct contact of the food items with the hands of a consumer and prevents the food to spill on the consumer clothes. In some embodiments, the food tray includes a back panel, two side panels, four flaps, and a midsection. During the consumption of the food item, the two side panels and the midsection form an apron which is placed under the chin of the consumer to prevent the food from spilling on the consumer cloths. In some embodiments, the midsection includes a chin curve that facilitates placing the apron under the chin of the consumer.

Disposable packages such as Styrofoam containers, paper bags, cardboard boxes, carton, and sandwich wraps are widely used in restaurants, particularly those known as fast food restaurants for dispensing sandwiches, hamburgers, hotdogs, burritos, and the like. Many consumers, who purchase fast food items, consume it while standing, walking, or sitting in a car. Often, eating the food item would cause spillage of food items and garnishing on the consumer clothing. Also, the food item or garnishing may touch the consumer hand. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a food holder that is easy to hold, makes easy access to the food, and prevents spill.


A memory management system for a thinly provisioned memory volume in which a relatively larger virtual address range of virtual address blocks is mapped to a relatively smaller physical memory comprising physical memory blocks via a mapping table containing entries only for addresses of the physical memory blocks containing data. The memory management system comprises a snapshot provision unit to take a given snapshot of the memory volume at a given time, the snapshot comprising a mapping table and memory values of the volume, the mapping table and memory values comprising entries only for addresses of the physical memory containing data. The snapshot is managed on the same thin provisioning basis as the volume itself, and the system is particularly suitable for RAM type memory disks.

The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to a snapshot mechanism for computer memory and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to a snapshot mechanism that provides an image of all or part of a computer memory frozen at a given time.
Computer memory organization is typically split into physical organization—physical disks and memory cards etc on the one hand and logical—volumes or logical partitions on the other hand. Snapshots provide instantaneous copies of the volume.
Snapshots, or zero time copies, are used for various purposes. These uses include taking copies for backups across different points in time, as well as using multiple copies of a database for different uses, for example production, Development, Testing, different copies for different users, copies for users of virtual machines, disaster recovery etc. Writable snapshots, sometimes known as clones, are used in virtualization infrastructure as multiple images of virtual machines. Snapshots may also be used as the internal mechanism to implement asynchronous replication between storage arrays.
Snapshot implementations are varied, and can be roughly categorized according to the following parameters:                Read-Only vs. Writable        Data Space Efficiency        Metadata Space Efficiency        Hierarchies & Restrictions        Performance
The following briefly considers each of the above-listed parameters and various implementations thereof.
Read-only snapshots are typically used for purposes such as backup. They cannot be written to and thus do not change. Hence there is thus no point in taking snapshots of read-only snapshots. Writable snapshots however, can be read from and written to just like ordinary volumes, and in some cases it makes sense to take a snapshot of a writable snapshot. Aside from backups, writable snapshots are the usual choice.
From the point of data efficiency, two types of solutions exist. The first is not data space efficient, which means that the snapshot uses up space according to the address space of the volume it was taken from, regardless of the number of writes performed to it or to its ancestor volume. The second is data space efficient, which means that only subsequent writes to the snapshot or its ancestor volume may take up space. However, if the granularity is for example 1 MByte, each subsequent write to a new 1 MByte address range will use up space equal to at least 1 MByte, even if only 4 KByte were actually written. Thus, data space efficient snapshot can be further divided into rough granularity and fine granularity variants.
Regarding metadata space efficiency, where metadata is to be interpreted as auxiliary structures (e.g. mapping tables) used by the snapshot mechanism, the question is again how much metadata is needed per snapshot. It is specifically important to be metadata space efficient when discussing short lived snapshots, since relatively few writes are made to these snapshots and to their ancestor volume during their lifetime. Thus, the metadata may often take more space than the data itself. This is also true in thinly provisioned memory systems and in systems which employ a data deduplication mechanism. Metadata space efficiency has several possible levels. Most systems consume metadata in accordance with the address size of the original volume. Thinly provisioned systems may consume metadata in accordance with the amount of data previously written to the original volume, which is still quite wasteful because both the original volume and the snapshot share this data until pieces of it are changed in one of them.
The next parameter is hierarchies and restriction. This refers to various restrictions such as the number of snapshots, the times in which they can be taken or removed, and the volumes/snapshots they can be taken from. The most restrictive form allows each volume to have a single snapshot taken at any given point in time. More lenient forms allow several snapshots (up to some limit) to be taken on the same volume only after various time intervals have elapsed from the last snapshot taken. Even more lenient forms allow snapshots to be taken on writable snapshots. Most systems have limits on the number of snapshots and the amount of space snapshots may take up.
The last parameter is performance. It can be further divided to read/write performance and to create/delete performance. Read performance usually depends on the number of reads from disk needed to retrieve a piece of data. Write performance depends on the number of operations which must be performed per user write. Popular approaches include "copy on write" which requires two writes and one read per user write and "redirect on write" which requires only one write. Again, "redirect on write" depends on the granularity of the mechanism. For example, if the granularity of the mapping table is 1 MByte, meaning each megabyte has a single pointer to a physical data location, a 4K user write will still require extra writes and reads to be performed in order to copy the megabyte of data encompassing the 4K block to the newly chosen location.
Creation and deletion of snapshots can also be performed at various efficiency levels. Creation of snapshots must be instant, but may contain prolonged asynchronous procedures which depend on the address space of the original volume or on the amount of data previously written to the original volume. Snapshot deletion is usually a factor of the data and metadata efficiencies, since all data and metadata must be deleted. In most cases, this requires going over metadata in accordance with the address space of the snapshot, or even the aggregated address space of all snapshots of this ancestor volume. Often, a prolonged snapshot deletion process delays the creation of new snapshots, due to a limit on the number of snapshots or a limit on the amount of space available. This delay may significantly increase the RPO (Recovery Point Objective) when using snapshots to implement asynchronous replication
Traditionally, memory is stored and accessed by assigning addresses to fixed size (e.g. 512 B or 4 KB) chunks of data, as shown in FIG. 1. Each such address is in fact a number in some range, and the range indicates the amount of available memory to be written and read.
Thin Provisioning
Reference is now made to FIG. 2, which illustrates an enhancement of the above traditional storage known as thin provisioning. Under thinly provisioned systems, the range of addresses can be much larger than the actual amount of available memory. In this case, the address to data mapping array can be viewed as a sparse array, where many addresses do not have a value. In this case the mapping can be viewed as being from logical user address to internal physical location.
Data Deduplication
Reference is now made to FIG. 3 which is a simplified diagram showing an enhancement, of the thin provisioning of FIG. 2 to provide data deduplication. In some cases, identical chunks of data may appear under different addresses. To avoid holding two or more duplicate copies of the same data chunk (deduplication), another layer of indirection may be introduced. Instead of mapping multiple addresses to the same chunk of data, one can map addresses to much shorter hash digests of typically a few bytes, representing the 4K data chunks, and further map these hash digests to the internal physical location according to the actual data they represent.
Snapshots
Reference is now made to FIG. 4 which illustrates thin provisioning as per FIG. 3 but with a snapshot made of the thinly provisioned memory source.
It is noted that the snapshot of FIG. 4, is in fact a duplication of the original address range, whether the original address range is fully provisioned or only thinly provisioned. A snapshot is taken of a specific address range at a certain point in time, and inherits all the mappings of that address range. Furthermore, it may overwrite mappings and diverge from the source range (or volume) it was taken from.


An assessment model for enabling a subjective assessment value to be estimated from a brainwave feature amount is constructed, and assessment data which does not deviate from a subjective assessment result on the basis of an objective brainwave signal by using the assessment model can be acquired. An assessment model representing relevance between a brainwave feature amount of a subject and a subjective assessment value of the subject with respect to a stimulus is constructed by presenting the stimulus to the subject. For example, images with different image qualities and a standard image are alternately displayed on a display unit which is a stimulus presentation unit, brainwave feature amount corresponding to an image quality of a subject observing the displayed images and subjective assessment values corresponding to image qualities are acquired, and an image quality assessment model for enabling subjective assessment values to be estimated from the brainwave feature amounts is constructed by machine learning in which the brainwave feature amounts and the subjective assessment values are used as input data.

In recent years, image quality improvement technologies for images have progressed and use of high dynamic range (HDR) images with extended colors or luminance ranges which can be output as delivery content of television broadcast or media recording content such as Blu-ray (registered trademark) discs (BDs) has extended.
Note that an image of the related art with a narrower outputable color or luminance range than an HDR image is referred to as a standard dynamic range (SDR) image.
An HDR image has an outputable color or an outputable luminance range further extended than an SDR image of the related art, and thus a more natural image such as a scene actually seen by eyes of people can be output.
An HDR image has a contrast ratio between a maximum brightness color and a minimum brightness color, for example, 10000:1 or more, and thus an actual world can be realistically expressed.
An HDR image can record almost all of the luminance of a visible range and thus support the same dynamic range and color gamut as human vision properties. An HDR image can be said to be a considerably high-quality image than an image of the related art in terms of realistic expression of shade, expression of glare, or the like.
On the other hand, assessment processes for qualities of images can be classified into an objective assessment process and a subjective assessment process.
The subjective assessment process is a process of sensually assessing whether an image observer determines the quality of an observation target image to be good or bad. The objective assessment process is an assessment process executed by removing such personal subjectivity.
At present, various studies for new image quality improvement of images have been carried out. An improvement in subjective assessment for an image quality is one of the elements to be considered when image quality improvement technologies or compression encoding technologies for images are developed.
As subjective schemes for image quality assessment, for example, there are the following various assessment schemes executed together by experts or non-experts of image processing:
n-stage assessment (MOS: Mean Opinion Score), (where n=5, 7, or the like);
score assessment (magnitude estimation method or the like); and
introspective assessment (comment recording).
These schemes are subjective schemes of executing an image quality assessment process by replacing feelings of images viewed by experts or non-experts of image processing with numbers or text.
However, the subjective assessment processes have the following problems:
(1) results are irregular for each individual because of subjective assessment;
(2) since assessment axes are designated, items deviating from the axes are not assessed;
(3) assessment results are considerably influenced by experience or knowledge of subjects; and
(4) many subjects are necessary and time and cost are required to guarantee precision of results.
For example, there are the foregoing problems.
To solve the problems, it is necessary to execute image quality assessment objectively.
Here, when an objective assessment result deviates from a subjective assessment result, there is no meaning.
Accordingly, it is important to generate an objective assessment result which does not deviate from a subjective assessment result.
As an objective scheme for image quality assessment, peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and structured similarity index measure (SSIM) are known.
Both the schemes are schemes of outputting image quality assessment values as objective numerical values.
However, a case in which numerical values obtained as image quality assessment values by the foregoing PSNR and SSIM do not match actual feelings of image viewers is pointed out, and thus subjective assessment is not yet replaced completely.
To solve the problem, a study for an objective assessment scheme for an image quality using brainwaves of image observers has recently been carried out.
The image quality assessment scheme using brainwaves is configured to detect how subjects viewing assessment target images feel by monitoring changes in the brainwaves.
It is considered that a human feeling or a kind of stimulus presented to an image observer can be inferred from a brainwave by linking a brainwave of the image observer which is an objective assessment result with an actual feeling based on a subjective assessment result of the image observer.
However, this scheme has the following problems:
(1) cost and training are necessary to introduce and administrate a device; and
(2) this scheme is more complicated than the above-described objective assessment scheme since electrodes are worn on a subject at the present time.
However, it is considered that results which are rarely influenced by knowledge or experience of a subject and assessment axes can be obtained.
In addition, by synchronizing a presentation timing of an image with a recording timing of a brainwave, it is possible to record when and what a subject feels.
As examples of the related art in which image assessment structures using brainwaves are disclosed, for example, there are Patent Literature 1 (JP 2014-021986A), Patent Literature 2 (JP 2003-058298A), Non-Patent Literature 1, and Non-Patent Literature 2.
Patent Literature 1 discloses, for example, a configuration capable of supplying content in accordance with a favorite of users by analyzing relevance between brainwaves of the users observing image content and observing regions of the users and determining preference for content.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a device that classifies subjective knowledge, interests, or the like of a user with respect to viewing targets from brainwaves, in particular, event-related potential (ERP).
On the other hand, Non-Patent Literature 1 is a document related to a study on a steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) measured from brainwaves and reports that subjective qualities of texture images with different compression ratios and feature amounts of SSVEP have high correlation.
In addition, Non-Patent Literature 2 discloses a scheme of assessing an image quality by displaying a low dynamic range (LDR) image which is a low dynamic image and a moving image of a high dynamic range (HDR) which is a tone-mapped high dynamic image on a display which does not correspond to the HDR.
Specifically, the report describes a study to structure a model for discriminating whether a brainwave is obtained as an appreciation result between moving images of an HDR and an SDR by measuring a visual evoked potential from the brainwave of a viewer, further acquiring a subjective assessment of the viewer, and executing machine learning in which a feature amount of VEP is used as a student and a subjective assessment value is used as a supervisor.

Information processing device and information processing method


Coatings are described to improve the performance of cathodic protection systems used in water heater tanks. Semi-permeable sparingly soluble films of silicates and other organic resins protect critical areas of sacrificial anodes from concentrated usage which could sever their tank connections, yet preserve the total amount of protection available. They reduce usage of these more active anode areas and return them to service after less active ones are used up, and when the corrosion rate of exposed metal in the tank has been reduced by prolonged service, thus further extending anode life. Other coatings reduce usage of the entire anode in high conductivity waters and in electric heaters where such protection is rapidly consumed by secondary chemical reactions or absorbed by electric heating elements. These coatings also prevent complete deactivation of the anode by oxides, and bacterial interactions which generate objectionable odors. They lessen contamination of tank water by insolubilizing anode byproducts, which are then electroplated onto nearby exposed steel to passivate it, further enhancing anode life. Coatings provide a "time released" protection by exposing fresh anode metal as they dissolve. They are applied either to the anode alone, or to both anode and exposed steel, or anode and electric heating element to increase their effectiveness. Such coatings also reduce anode usage by increasing its electrochemical efficiency which then allows less metal or lower cost alloys to be used for tank protection.

This invention relates to corrosion prevention in water heaters, and more particularly to improved cathodic protection systems which supplement glass coatings in protecting steel tanks. Specifically, it defines easily applied coatings for sacrificial anodes to improve their performance, which coatings can also be applied to exposed metal in the tank and electric heating elements to reduce the amount of protection they absorb.
In prior art, sacrificial anodes of active metals like magnesium and aluminum are suspended in water heater tanks to provide cathodic protection for steel not covered by glass coatings. Such exposed areas include weld seams, protruding spuds, and defects in the glass itself. Because of their reactivity, these anodes are attacked faster by hot water than exposed steel. Electrons produced are transferred to the tank wall where they polarize exposed areas and prevent their corrosion. Protection is said to be cathodic because the anode forms an electrochemical cell with the tank wall as cathode, and preferentially corrodes to protect exposed areas of steel there. Anode usage is proportional to the amount of exposed steel present. Since this is small, they remain active for many years, but many other factors also increase anode usage. Premature loss of this cathodic protection results in accelerated corrosion of steel at these exposed areas causing failure of the tank before its warranted life.
Ideally, sacrificial anodes dissolve uniformly over their length, converting all of their active metal to cathodic protection. However, in certain waters, when large amounts of exposed steel are present in the tank head, anodes are preferentially attacked at their top end near the tank connection because of the closeness of this exposed steel and metal of fittings. This causes "necking down" there which can sever the tank connection before the active metal is completely used. The fitting holding the anode affects necking most because it is closest to the active anode metal. This problem is most severe in low conductivity water where it is difficult to draw protection from the end of the anode furthest from this connection for the large amount of exposed steel in the tank head.
Another problem of conventional anodes is their excessive usage in certain high conductivity waters. Here high levels of dissolved salts accelerate hot water attack of the anode metal, producing more electrons than needed for corrosion protection. These dissolved salts also facilitate interaction of anode electrons with surrounding water to form hydrogen gas, rather than being transferred to the tank wall for corrosion protection. Both these effects cause premature exhaustion of the anode. They also reduce its electrochemical efficiency which is the amount of usable protection produced per gram of active metal, so that larger anodes are needed for a given tank life.
Efficiency of anode metals is also reduced by formation of inert surface films. These impermeable barriers prevent interaction of water and active metal at certain areas of the anode, reducing the rate that protection is produced. They can even totally deactivate the anode. Such inert films are formed by accumulation of reaction products such as insoluble oxides on the anode. In other cases films are formed which reduce the electrochemical activity of the anode below that of exposed steel, so that the tank wall preferentially corrodes to protect the anode film (reversals). A related problem is the low efficiency of anodes in electric heaters caused by the proximity of highly charged, heating elements whose strong electronic fields draw off most of their electrons, shortening anode life and reducing the protection available for the rest of the tank.
Other problems with conventional anodes are the objectionable nature of their byproducts. Bad odors are produced in some sulfur containing waters when the anode interacts with anaerobic bacteria formed during heater operation. The more active the anode metal, the greater the possibility that odors will form. Unfortunately these more active metals provide the best cathodic protection. Anode operation also adds trace amounts of heavy metal ions to the tank water. When anode usage is high, such as in aggressive waters, these additions become more significant, and could have possible toxicological effects. For example, aluminum ions have tentatively been linked to Alzheimer's disease. Reducing this type of contamination could become a greater issue as stricter regulations on water purity are enacted.

Performance enhancing coating for water heater


An object of the invention is to provide an image processing apparatus capable of extracting a target image portion included in an image targeted for processing with high accuracy, by reducing a data amount required for extracting the target image portion. The image processing apparatus mounted in the image forming apparatus includes: pre-processing section for converting information for use in image formation into low-volume information for use in image extraction; an image judging section for judging whether or not a specific image part belonging to the target image portion is included in the image targeted for processing; and an image confirming section for checking, when the specific image part is judged to be included in the image targeted for processing, whether or not a potential target image portion including the specific image part is equal to the target image portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus capable of extracting a to-be-extracted target image portion included in an image targeted for processing, which is designed to prevent certain documents, such as banknotes, valuable securities, and confidential documents, from being illicitly copied.
2. Description of the Related Art
With recent improvements in performance of color copiers, there has been an increasing demand for a copier capable of preventing illicit copy of certain documents, such as banknotes and valuable securities, for counterfeit purposes.
One conventionally-known copy preventive technique employed in copiers is as follows. Whether or not a read image is subjected to image formation is determined by making a comparison between image data obtained by reading an image to be recorded on a recording paper sheet, such as an original, using an image reading apparatus, and image data on a specific image subjected to copy prevention that is stored in advance in a copier. When it is judged that image formation is not performed, an ongoing image formation is discontinued, or an image different from that having being read is formed.
As such a conventional art, Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication JP-U 5-85158 (1993) discloses an image processing apparatus capable of detecting a certain circular image such as a red seal printed in a banknote. This image processing apparatus functions as follows. Firstly, a red pixel included in a read image, as viewed in a main scanning direction, is detected, and the image composed of a plurality of red pixels is thinned out. Next, another red pixel located a predetermined distance away from said red pixel in the main scanning direction is detected. If it is assumed that the red pixel detected first and the red pixel detected subsequently are located at both ends of a line segment defining a diameter of a circle, the line segment is turned by a predetermined angle with respect to the central position of the circle in the main scanning direction. When the locations of the two pixels at both ends of the line segment fall in a predetermined range of pixel positions stored in a memory, the red pixels are judged to represent a circularly contoured image, namely, a red seal of a banknote.
As another conventional art, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 6-178098 (1994) discloses a similar image processing apparatus. This image processing apparatus functions as follows. Firstly, two pixels equivalent to both ends of a line segment defining a diameter of a circle in a main scanning direction are detected. Next, if it is detected that an image is present at an intersection of the circle and a line located a predetermined distance away from the center of the circle in a sub scanning direction, the assumption that the detected red image has a circular shape is judged to be correct. Moreover, in this image processing apparatus, the number of ON pixels falling in a predetermined space within the circle, namely, the number of red pixels, is counted, and it is judged whether or not the counted value is equivalent to the numerical value corresponding to specific image data stored in a memory. If equivalency is found, an image to be formed based on the detected pixels is judged to be a specific circular image, namely, a red seal of a banknote.
However, the above-described image processing apparatuses have the following disadvantages. In the former disclosed in JP-U 5-85158, a red seal of a banknote is identified by detecting a red circular image. This method is simple, but poses a problem that an image similar to a red circle of a banknote's red seal is inadvertently judged to be a banknote's red seal. This leads to poor judgment accuracy.
In the latter disclosed in JP-A 6-178098, the number of red pixels within a red circle image having being read is counted, and a comparison is made between the counted value and the numerical value corresponding to specific image data stored in a memory. This method provides excellent judgment accuracy, but requires a considerably large storage capacity of a memory for storing specific image data. This necessitates high-speed comparing means, resulting in a circuit configuration of the image processing apparatus being very complicated. Hence, the cost required for manufacturing the image processing apparatus is undesirably increased.


A method for fabricating a semiconductor device to account for misalignment includes forming a top via on a first conductive line formed on a substrate, forming liners each using a first dielectric material, including forming first and second liners to a first height along sidewalls of the top via, forming dielectric layers, including forming first and second dielectric layers on the first conductive line to the first height and adjacent to the first and second liners, respectively, recessing the top via to a second height, and forming an additional dielectric layer on the recessed top via to the first height using a second dielectric material. The first and second dielectric materials are selected to compensate for potential misalignment between the first conductive line and the top via.

The present invention generally relates to semiconductor devices, and more particularly to semiconductor devices accounting for misalignment and methods of fabricating the same.
Semiconductor devices (e.g., integrated circuits) can include a plurality of transistors disposed within a semiconductor substrate. Back-end-of-line (BEOL) processing can be performed to form metallization layers that can be used to provide connections for the transistors. The metallization layers can include stacked layers of small conductive wires and vias that are disposed within a dielectric material over the semiconductor substrate. The wires can provide for lateral connections while the vias can provide for vertical connections between the wires. The metallization layers can increase in size as the metallization layers get further from the substrate of the semiconductor device, such that (tightly packed) small wires can be located near the transistors and larger wires can be located near a top of the stack.

Top via process accounting for misalignment by increasing reliability

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A search interface is provided that is easy to use and understand. A unique visual metaphor in the form of a "highlight" tool is used for this purpose. The highlighting tool is used to identify search terms. In one embodiment, a user uses the tool to mark text on a document, such as an HTML document displayed in a Web browser. Upon selection of this text, and preferably following a time delay, a pop-up menu appears that offers the user the option of searching for this text. After searching and receiving the results, the user can again use the highlighting tool to mark one or more words/terms (or other information, such as a URL) within the results listed.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a method and system for data processing and in particular to an improved method and system of user interface to a data processing system. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to an improved method and system for searching on a graphical user interface of a data processing system using a "highlighting" graphic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Within data processing systems, user interface is accomplished in a variety of ways. An increasingly common type of user interface is a graphical user interface (GUI), which provides a user with a graphical and intuitive display of information. Typically, the user interacts with a GUI display with a graphical pointer, which a user controls utilizing a graphical pointing device, such as a mouse, track ball, or joystick. Depending upon the actions allowed by the application of operating system software, the user can select a widget (i.e. a user-discernible feature of the graphic display) by positioning the graphical pointer over the widget and depressing a button associated with the graphical pointing device. Furthermore, depending upon the type of widget, the user can relocate the widget within the graphical display utilizing the well-known drag-and-drop technique. Conventionally, the motion of the graphical pointer within the GUI display has a fixed relationship to the manipulation of the graphical pointing device over all portions of the graphical display. For example, if the user moves the graphical pointing device two units to the right, the graphical pointer responds by moving two scaled units to the right within the graphical display.
A known GUI interface is an Internet Web browser. In the Web environment, client machines effect transactions to Web servers use the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is a known application protocol providing users access to files (e.g., text, graphics, images, sound, video, etc.) using a standard page description language known as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). HTML provides basic document formatting and allows the developer to specify "links" to other servers and files. In the Internet paradigm, a network path to a server is identified by a so-called Uniform Resource Locator (URL) having a special syntax for defining a network connection. Use of an HTML-compatible browser (e.g., Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer) at a client machine involves specification of a link via the URL. In response, the client makes a request to the server identified in the link and receives in return a document or object formatted according to HTML. One of the most common usages of the Web browser is to specify a WWW search. Typically, this is accomplished by the user structuring a "search" (usually a word or words and some associated operator(s)) and then entering the search into a search or other dialog box on the interface. The search is then processed using a search engine, with the results then being returned to the user. Conventional Internet search services include those operated by Infoseek, HotBot, Excite, Lycos and AltaVista, among others.
Known search interfaces such as those described above have several shortcomings. In particular, a search service should be easy to understand, easy to use, and it should provide acceptable and useful results to novice, casual and expert users alike. Current GUI search mechanisms attempt to solve this problem by providing one of several options. A first approach, which is implemented in the Web browser, is for the user to simply type in a word or words that are used for the search. Although this interface is simple, it often provides too many results to be of practical use. It is not clear to the novice or casual user how to specify more complex searches. A second approach is to use a guided interface in which the user types in search terms and then has the option of changing certain default parameters, often by selecting a button that identifies the boolean logic used in the search or by describing the effect of the logic on the search results. While more useful than a simple user-controlled text search, this technique increases the complexity of the interface and requires more display screen real estate for implementation. Another approach is a command line style interface in which the user directly enters search terms and logic syntax to define the search parameters. While this approach provides even more flexibility, it often requires detailed knowledge of the specific grammer and syntax used by the specific search engine.
Thus, in the prior art, search engines and their associated interfaces are typically simple, yet inefficient, or they are efficient but complex or arcane. The present invention addresses these and other shortcomings of the prior art by providing a novel interface to an interactive search tool that provides significant advantages over known techniques.

Highlighting tool for search specification in a user interface of a computer system

International Business Machines Corporation


A network access point can serve as a bridge between an 802.11 network and a cellular network. The network access point can receive packets from the 802.11 network and reformat the packets for transmission over the cellular network. Similarly, the network access point can receive packets from the cellular network and reformat them for transmission over the 802.11 network.

One or more devices can connect in a wireless local area network ("WLAN") using the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 802.11 standard. The 802.11 standard provides a physical layer protocol that can be used to transmit physical bits of information across a wireless interface of the 802.11 WLAN. The 802.11 standard also provides a MAC sub-layer format, which can be used to format bits of information into packets of data. The formatted MAC sub-layer packets can then be transmitted to other devices on the 802.11 WLAN using the physical layer protocol.
Using the 802.11 standard, two or more devices can wirelessly connect with each other and exchange data. In an ad-hoc configuration, the wireless devices can exchange data directly with other wireless devices on the 802.11 WLAN. In a basic service set configuration, an access point can serve as an intermediary for communication between devices on the 802.11 WLAN. Thus, a device sends a packet to the access point, which then relays the packet to its intended destination device.
The access point can also be used to provide connectivity to other networks. For example, the access point can connect over a wired link to another access point. This configuration, which is termed an extended service set, links two or more basic service sets. In this configuration, a device in one basic service set can exchange data with a device in another basic service set.
In another example, the access point connects via a wired link to another network, such as the Internet. Using this connectivity, a device on the 802.11 WLAN can exchange data with a device on the other connected network, such as the Internet. While this configuration allows for increased access by devices on the 802.11 WLAN, it has several disadvantages.
In one example of a disadvantage, the wired link to the other network limits the mobility of the 802.11 WLAN. The 802.11 WLAN is confined to a fixed location by the wired connection and cannot be easily moved without rewiring the connection to the access point. In another example of a disadvantage, the wired connection to another network increases the difficulty of setting-up an 802.11 WLAN. In order to set-up the 802.11 WLAN, the access point's location must be known. Then, the wired link can be installed at the access point's location. Installing a wired connection can include running cabling to the location of the access point, which can be expensive and time-consuming.
Therefore, there exists a need for a better way to connect an access point in an 802.11 WLAN with other networks.

Wireless bridge for interfacing an 802.11 network with a cellular network


The invention relates to a zoom optical system that can offer an effective tradeoff between low cost and size reductions, and electronic equipment that incorporates the same. The zoom optical system comprises, in order from an object side thereof, a first lens group G1 of negative refracting power, an aperture stop S, a second lens group G2 of positive refracting power, a third lens group G3 of negative refracting power and a fourth lens group G4 of positive refracting power, and satisfies the following condition.2<|dw12−dt12|/|dw23−dt23|<200Here dw12 is a spacing between G1 and G2 at a wide-angle end, dt12 is a spacing between G1 and G2 at a telephoto end, dw23 is a spacing between G2 and G3 at the wide-angle end, and dt23 is a spacing between G2 and G3 at the telephoto end.

The present invention relates generally to a zoom optical system and electronic equipment incorporating the same, and more specifically to a compact zoom optical system and electronic equipment that incorporates the same. Such electronic equipments, for instance, include digital cameras, video cameras, digital video units, personal computers, mobile computers, cellular phones, and personal digital assistants.
Recently, personal digital assistants abbreviated as PDAs and cellular phones have boasted explosive growth in demand. Added to some such equipments are a digital camera function and a digital video function. To implement those functions, CCD (charge coupled device) and CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) sensors are now in use. To reduce the sizes of such equipments, it is preferable to rely on an image pickup device having a relatively small effective area on a receiving plane. This requires a sensible tradeoff between compactness and low cost while keeping the performance of an optical system high. Patent Publications 1, 2 and 3 referred to below disclose prior art zoom optical systems whose size and cost are reduced to some extents.
Patent Publication 1
JP(A)9-179026
Patent Publication 2
JP(A)10-333034
Patent Publication 3
JP(A)10-48524
However, the zoom optical system set forth in Patent Publication 1 leaves much to be desired in terms of size reductions thanks to the third lens group comprising two lenses. A problem with the zoom optical system described in Patent Publication 2 is that large lens thickness renders the length of the lens system long because of using a gradient index lens in the second lens group.
In the zoom optical system shown in Patent Publication 3, too, there is left a great deal to be desired in terms of compactness because an aperture stop is interposed between the second lens group and the third lens group and so more lenses is needed for correction of chromatic aberration of magnification.

Zoom optical system, and electronics incorporating the same


Disclosed is a heat-resistant rubber composition comprising (A) 100 parts by weight of an ethylene/.alpha.-olefin copolymer or a modified ethylene/.alpha.-olefin copolymer formed by graft-copolymerization with at least one compound selected from the group consisting of unsaturated carboxylic acids and anhydrides and esters thereof, and (B) (i) 10 to 100 parts by weight of a silica type filler which has been treated with a silane compound represented by the following formula: ##STR1## wherein R.sup.1 stands for an alkenyl group, a chloroalkenyl group or a chloroalkyl group, and R.sup.2 stands for a lower alkyl group, or (ii) a combination of 10 to 100 parts by weight of said silane-treated silica type filler or an untreated silica type filler and 0.5 to 30 parts by weight of a polyorganosiloxane having an average composition represented by the following formula: EQU (R.sup.3).sub.a (R.sup.4).sub.b SiO.sub.(4-a-b)/2 (II). wherein R.sup.3 stands for a monovalent saturated or unsaturated hydrocarbon group, R.sup.4 stands for a chloroalkyl group or an alkenyl group, a is a number of from 1 to 2.5 and b is a number of from 0.01 to 1.2, with the proviso that the sum of a and b is in the range of from 1.8 to 3.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat-resistant rubber composition. More particularly, the present invention relates to a rubber composition comprising a modified or unmodified ethylene/.alpha.-olefin copolymer rubber and a specific silane-treated silica type filler or a combination of a silane-treated or untreated silica type filler and a specific polyorganosiloxane, which gives a cured rubber excellent in mechanical properties, resistance to heat aging and electric properties.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
An ethylene/.alpha.-olefin copolymer rubber is widely used as a rubber having excellent mechanical properties and electrically insulating properties for car parts, electric parts, ordinary industrial parts, and the like. Recently, a high resistance against heat aging is often required for car parts, electric parts and the like.
Accordingly, as is shown in Complete Book of Synthetic Rubber Processing Techniques, "Ethylene-Propylene Rubber", addition of antioxidants to rubbers of this type has been tried, but no satisfactory improvement effect can be attained.
A composition comprising an ethylene/.alpha.-olefin copolymer and a silica type filler has been used in various fields where a rubber is ordinarily used. It is known that if a silica type filler is surface-treated with trimethylchlorosilane or the like, a hydrophobic property can be imparted, and this silane-treated silica type filler is incorporated in an ethylene/.alpha.-olefin copolymer.
A composition of this type is excellent in the initial physical properties, but the aging resistance is still insufficient.
It has already been known that reinforcing silica and an organopolysiloxane are incorporated in an ethylene/.alpha.-olefin copolymer such as EPR. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. 116739/81 and Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Specification No. 120744/81 teach that organochlorosilane-treated silica and an organopolysiloxane such as dimethylpolysiloxane are incorporated in EPR, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Specification No. 195757/82 teaches that finely divided silica and an organopolysiloxane are incorporated in EPR.


In a cabinet (1) for telecommunications engineering, with a frame rack containing at least one module carrier (2) designed to receive plug-in units, and a ventilating installation for cooling the plug-in units, the ventilating installation comprises at least one fan insert (13) with several vertically blowing axial fans, which can be plugged in and integrated into the module carrier (2). The fan insert (13) is located under transverse supports of the module carrier (2) and has at least one plug connector at the rear, which makes contact with a secondary plug connector provided on the rear wiring panel (10).

A cabinet is known from EP-B-0 485 281, with a built-in swivel frame and mounting plates attached thereto, for carrying circuit boards that are vertically arranged on the rear side facing the inside of the cabinet, and which are separated from each other. If required to cool the heat produced by the circuit board components, there are air inlet ducts and fan inserts attached to the swivel frame under the mounting plates, each with two horizontally blowing axial fans. Deflectors are provided to guide the air streams vertically.
DE-A 27 10 356 also describes an aerated cabinet with a frame containing several cross bars, which allow the installation of two instrument housings next to each other in several superimposed rows. The instrument housings contain the groups of components to be cooled, and have slots in their bottom and top plates for the passage of cooling air. The latter is produced by two fan inserts placed in the frame rack between the lower row of instrument housings and the bottom of the cabinet. As viewed in the installation direction, each fan insert contains two vertically blowing axial fans placed next to each other.
Module carriers, for example in a 19" assembly system, are known from the publication DE-U-87 14 894; they can be equipped with different components and are mounted above each other in a frame, cabinet or housing. In an embodiment designed as a table housing, in addition to the side walls of the housing which is open on the front and has ventilation slots in the bottom and on the top, there are vertical profile rails to which the lateral flanges of the module carrier and the front plate of a fan insert are bolted, where the latter has an inserted filter mat instead of a bottom. Vertical profile rails attached horizontally to the guide rails facilitate the installation of the fan insert. Two vertically blowing axial fans are arranged next to each other behind the front plate of the fan insert, and the space behind them has connecting clamps for external lines that are connected to the axial fans' service lines.
When a defect has been signalled or the end of the service life of an axial fan, the replacement is complicated and time-consuming. In addition, this presupposes that the fan insert must be accessible from the rear of the housing for unclamping the external lines, before the attachment can be loosened from the vertical profile rails and the fan insert removed. Otherwise the external lines must have an excess length so that they can be pulled out of the housing together with the fan insert. This requires undesirable additional space for storing the excess lengths in the housing.

Frame rack with module carriers and a ventilating installation


An X-ray computed tomography apparatus according to an embodiment includes an X-ray detector that includes a first semiconductor chip including a plurality of elements configured to convert X-rays into an electrical signal, a substrate configured to collect the electrical signal from each element, a second semiconductor chip that is provided between the first semiconductor chip and the substrate and is formed of the same material as that of the first semiconductor chip, a plurality of first electrodes configured to couple each element of the first semiconductor chip to the second semiconductor chip, and a plurality of second electrodes that are configured to couple the second semiconductor chip to the substrate and are larger than the first electrodes. The second semiconductor chip wires the first electrodes and the second electrodes on a one-to-one basis.

An X-ray computed tomography (CT) apparatus is a device that images the inside of a subject by scanning the subject by using X-rays and performing processing on collected data with a computer.
For example, the X-ray CT apparatus exposes the subject to X-rays a plurality of times in different directions and detects signals of X-rays that transmitted through the subject with X-ray detection elements (hereinafter, simply described as "detection elements"). The detection elements include scintillators and a photodiode (PD) chip, for example. The X-ray CT apparatus collects the detected signals, and performs A/D conversion and then preprocessing and others on the collected signals to generate projection data. The X-ray CT apparatus then performs reconstruction processing based on the projection data and generates an image.
In the X-ray CT apparatus, an output line may be provided for each detection element and a simultaneous collection method in which the signals detected by the respective detection elements are simultaneously collected may be employed. In this case, as a method to take out the signals from the respective detection elements, available are a method using bonding wire and a method using a ball grid array (BGA).
In the method using bonding wire, the signals are collected by extending signal lines up to the end of the PD chip. That is, in this method, because the signal lines run through between the detection elements, the light-receiving areas of the detection elements are impaired. In contrast, in the method using a BGA, because the signals are collected from respective electrodes on the bottom of the PD chip with electrodes in a ball shape such as solder balls, the light-receiving areas are not impaired. Thus, in a multi-line X-ray detector, the method using a BGA is widely employed.
Meanwhile, in the X-ray CT apparatus, to enhance a spatial resolution, achieving high definition of detection elements has been advancing. When the above-described method using a BGA is employed, the pitch (width) of the ball-shaped electrodes narrows along with the implementation of high definition. However, there are limitations on the pitch of the ball-shaped electrodes formed between the PD chip and a substrate that is for collecting the signals from the PD chip. Thus, achieving high definition by the method using a BGA depends on the pitch of the ball-shaped electrodes.

X-ray computed tomography apparatus and X-ray detector


A non-volatile semiconductor memory device includes a non-volatile memory cell and a write circuit that is adapted to write data to the memory cell by supplying a write voltage and a write control voltage to the memory cell to change the write state of the memory cell, changing the supply of the write control voltage to reduce the rate of changing the write state, further changing the supply of the write control voltage to control the reduced rate of changing the write state and terminating the write operation to the memory cell while the rate of changing the write state is reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electrically data rewritable non-volatile semiconductor memory device. More particularly, it relates to a multi-value flash memory adapted to store a multi-valued data in a memory cell.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a flash memory, the accumulated electric charge of the floating gate of a memory cell transistor is changed as the stored data is erased and a new data is written there. Then, as a result, the threshold voltage is changed to store the data. For instance, the negative threshold voltage may be made to corresponds to a "1" data, whereas the positive threshold voltage may be made to corresponds to a "0" data.
In recent years, multi-value flash memories adapted to store a plurality of bits in a single memory cell have been developed to reduce the cost per bit and/or increase the storage capacity. In a memory device adapted to store two bits in a single memory cell, the memory cell has four threshold voltages depending on the data to be stored there.
A highly reliable memory device can be obtained by accurately controlling the threshold voltages of each memory cell. "Fast and Accurate Programming Method for Multi-level NAND EEPROMs, pp. 129–130, Digest of 1995 Symposium on VLSI Technology" proposes a method of writing data, raising the write voltage Vpgm at a rate, in order to precisely control the threshold voltages of each memory cell.
With the method proposed in the above cited document, the width of distribution of each threshold voltage can be controlled theoretically to as small as 0.2V by raising the write voltage Vpgm at a rate of 0.2V/10 μsec. Normally, the write voltage Vpgm is divided into a plurality of write pulses and the voltage Vpgm of the pulses is raised stepwise at a predetermined rate. This technique provides an effect similar to that of continuously raising the write voltage Vpgm. The threshold voltage is checked after applying each pulse to the memory cell and the write operation is terminated when the threshold voltage has got to a predetermined verification level.
Meanwhile, micronization of processing dimensions is in progress. This means that the gaps separating memory cells are made smaller and smaller to consequently give rise to various problems from the viewpoint of multi-valued flash memories. For instance, the distance separating floating gates is reduced to produce problems as pointed out below as a result of micronization.
Imagine two memory cells A and B arranged side by side. Assume that the data of the two memory cells are erased simultaneously and they are made to have a threshold voltage of −3V. Then, firstly a data is written into the memory cell A. As a result, its threshold voltage may be raised to 0.5V to 1V. Subsequently, another data that is different from the data written into the memory cell A is written into the memory cell B. As the threshold voltage of the memory cell B is raised to 1.5V to 2V, the electric potential of the floating gate of the memory cell A falls and its threshold voltage is raised, say, to 1V to 1.5V as a result of the capacitive coupling of the floating gates of the two memory cells.
In the above described instance, the difference of the threshold voltages of the memory cells A and B (read out margin) should be at least 0.5V. However, it is reduced to 0V as a result of the capacitive coupling of the floating gates of the two memory cells. Thus, the difference of the threshold voltages necessary for discriminating two different data is reduced and the read out margin disappears.
It may be conceivable to reduce the stepwise increment Dvpgm of the write voltage Vpgm in order to avoid this problem. For example, the distribution width of the threshold voltage is reduced from 0.5V to 0.1V to increase the write out margin by 0.4V by reducing the stepwise increment Dvpgm from 0.5V to 0.1V.
However, as the stepwise increment is reduced to ⅕ of the original value, the number of pulses becomes five times as many as the original number. Then, the write time will become five times as long as the original value to give rise to a new problem.
For example, Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. 2003-196988 discloses a technique of reducing the difference of the threshold voltages without reducing the stepwise increment Dvpgm of the write voltage Vpgm. With the disclosed technique, a write operation is conducted by supplying the write voltage that is stepwise incremented by Dvpgm and the write control voltage of 0V being applied to the bit line to the memory cell. When the memory cell approaches a predetermined write state, the write control voltage is raised from 0V to, for example, 0.4V to reduce the rate at which the threshold voltage is changed and the write operation to the memory cell is terminated while the rate of changing the threshold voltage is reduced.
As discussed above, with the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. 2003-196988, the write control voltage is raised during a write operation in order to reduce the rate of changing the threshold voltage. However, the rate of changing the threshold voltage returns to the original level sooner or later because the write voltage itself rises stepwise. Therefore, it is necessary to sufficiently reduce the rate of changing the threshold voltage and hence it takes time from the time when the rate of changing the threshold voltage is reduced to the time when the write operation is completed. Additionally, the performance of controlling the threshold voltage is not necessarily satisfactory.
Therefore, so far, any attempt at securing a write out margin and raising the reliability of a memory device is accompanied by the problem of an increased write time.

Non-volatile semiconductor memory device adapted to store a multi-valued in a single memory cell


A defoaming method for removing air bubbles from a curable resin material and a contact portion of the resin material with an irregular structure of a flat metallic mold. The mold includes a fine structural region having a fine irregular structure and a flat region in the periphery of the fine structural region. The curable resin material is applied to the irregular structure of the fine structural region, filling the irregular structure with the resin material.

As well known in the art, PDP is characterized in that it is a thin type, and a large image can be displayed on it. Therefore, PDP is used for business and domestic use, for example, in the form of a wall-hung television set. PDP usually includes a large number of fine discharge display cells. As schematically shown in FIG. 1, each discharge display cell 156 is defined being surrounded by a pair of glass substrates, which are opposed to each other, that is, surrounded by a front glass substrate 161 and a back glass substrate 151, and also surrounded by a fine structural rib 154 which are referred to as a barrier rib or a separation wall. On the front glass substrate 161, there are provided a transparent display electrode 163 formed of a scanning electrode and a maintaining electrode, a transparent dielectric layer 162 and a transparent protective layer 164. On the back glass substrate 151, there are provided an address electrode 153 and a dielectric layer 152. Each discharge display cell 156 has a fluorescent body layer 155 on the inner wall. Further, a rare gas, for example, Ne—Xe gas is enclosed in each discharge display cell 156. Therefore, each discharge display cell 156 can make a display by itself when a plasma discharge is made between the above electrodes. Therefore, light can be emitted from itself. In this connection, to the manufacture of PDP shown in the drawing, it is possible to advantageously apply the present invention which will be explained in detail below. In this connection, PDP rib is commonly made of a fine ceramic structural body and formed into a matrix-shaped pattern or a delta(meandering)-shaped pattern. PDP rib can be advantageously manufactured by using a flexible mold.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2004-160843, the present inventors has proposed a flexible mold, which is advantageously used for forming PDP ribs, and a manufacturing method of PDP ribs using the flexible mold. According to this invention, a flexible mold having a support body and a shaping layer, which has a groove pattern of a predetermined shape and size on the surface, can be manufactured by the following transfer method which comprises the steps of:
forming a photo-curable material layer upon coating of a photo-curable material at a predetermined film thickness on a metallic mold having a protrusion pattern, the shape and size of which correspond to a groove pattern of the mold;
forming a laminated body of the metallic mold, the photo-curable material layer and a transparent support body by laminating the support body composed of a film of the plastic material on the metallic mold;
curing the photo-curable material layer by irradiating light onto the laminated body from the support body side; and
releasing the resulting shaped layer, which has been formed by curing the photo-curable material layer, from the metallic mold together with the support body.
However, according to the recent investigation by the present inventors, the following matters were found in the method described above. In the case where the flexible mold is manufactured in the way described above, since the photo-curable material is only coated on the metallic mold, air bubbles are incorporated into the resulting photo-curable material layer, and thus it becomes impossible to accurately executing transferring. Especially, in the case of the metallic mold used in this invention, since a larger number of fine protrusions are vertically arranged, when air bubbles are generated in this fine protrusion portion, it is difficult to defoam. Further, it was also found that it is necessary to hold the metallic mold at a high flatness during defoaming and transferring executed after defoaming. That is, when the flatness of the metallic mold is deteriorated, irregularities caused by the deterioration of the flatness are transferred onto the resulting mold as they are and the dimensional accuracy of a distance between ribs is greatly affected.
According to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-15663, the following method is proposed, as schematically shown in FIG. 2, in the manufacturing of PDP, after a glass substrate 256, on which a dielectric glass paste 255 has been coated, is set on a setting table 253 of a decompressing leveling device 250, a decompressing pump 252 is operated. Due to the operation of the decompressing pump 252, an inner space 254 in a container 251 is put into a decompressed condition. In this patent publication, it is reported that air bubbles 257 existing in the glass paste 255 can be defoamed toward the inner space 254 in the container 251 as shown by the arrow 258 in the drawing. In this method, a whole portion of the glass substrate 256 is covered with the decompressing leveling device 250. In this patent publication, there is no description about the problem that the photo-curable material spreads onto the back side of the metallic mold and the flatness of the metallic mold is deteriorated.
Although it does not propose the manufacture of PDP ribs, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-187135, as shown in FIG. 3 in order, proposes a method of manufacturing Fresnel's sheets made of silicon resin. First of all, as shown in FIG. 3A, a metallic mold 310 having a pattern corresponding to an objective Fresnel's sheet is prepared. Next, as shown in FIG. 3B, a curable silicone resin 320 is injected onto a metallic mold 310. Further, an aluminum sheet 360 is laminated on it. The silicone resin 320 is subjected to vacuum defoaming and then returned to the atmospheric pressure and hardened at the room temperature. When the silicone resin 320 is peeled off from the metallic mold, the aluminum sheet 360 having the Fresnel's sheet 321 can be obtained as shown in FIG. 3C. In this patent publication, there are no descriptions about the spread of resin and the deformation of the metallic mold, either.

Defoaming method, defoaming device and manufacturing method of transfer mold