Disclosed is an apparatus for expanding and filling plastic parisons to form plastic containers with a liquid medium, with at least one transforming station which has a hollow mould, inside which the plastic parisons can be expanded into plastic containers and can be simultaneously filled by application of a liquid medium, wherein the transforming station is arranged on a carrier and wherein the transforming station has a filling device which feeds the liquid medium to the plastic parisons under pressure, wherein the transforming station has a pressure chamber to which a gas can be applied, wherein for filling of the plastic parisons the filling device can be introduced into the pressure chamber and after the filling can be removed at least partially, and wherein a closing unit can be introduced into the pressure chamber, in order to close the expanded und filled plastic containers.

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for transforming plastic parisons into plastic containers. Such methods have been known for a long time from the prior art. In conventional methods, heated plastic parisons are first of all expanded to form plastic containers, which takes place for example in blow moulding machines. These containers thus expanded are then filled with a filling material, such as for instance a beverage.
More recently, apparatus and methods have become known in which plastic parisons are filled directly with the filling material to be introduced and in this case are also expanded. In order to shape a container from a parison with the aid of a liquid medium, the parisons heated by means of an oven are transferred to a transforming station. After the container has been shaped inside the transforming station and has been simultaneously filled with the liquid medium, the finished but still unclosed container is removed from the transforming station and is passed on by means of a container transport.
While the containers are being expanded and simultaneously filled, they are under a high pressure. For this purpose it is known that the pressure by which the liquid filling material is introduced into the plastic parison to be expanded is generated by means of a pressure generating device or a pressure application device, such as for instance a pump or also a piston. After the expansion and filling of the containers, the containers are relaxed according to the prior art to ambient pressure and are transported further.
This is particularly disadvantageous in the case of carbonised filling material, because in this case over-foaming can occur. Even in the case of so-called hot-fill processes, in which a heated filling material is introduced into the containers, the current state of the art is negative. If the containers which have been relaxed to ambient pressure are closed, while the filling material is still heated a negative pressure is produced during the cooling process of the filling material. As a result there is a danger of deformation of the plastic containers. This deformation is currently counteracted by specific design features of the bottles, but this in turn leads to a lack of design freedom. In the context of this invention, even in the case of still filling material the mechanical resilience of the plastic containers, in particular the topload resilience, should be increased.
Therefore the object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a method in order to overcome the current disadvantages of the prior art.

Mould filling with subsequent closing under internal pressure


The present invention relates to a method and device for driving a brake system pump motor, which has the advantage of simultaneously allowing prioritized, individual braking strategies, using the present invention as a subsystem for intelligently driving the pump motor. The invention provides the additional advantage of reducing pump motor current requirements, allowing the use of a reduced size of pump motor. The invention provides for a predetermined period of full-on voltage at the initiation of a braking request, subsequent periods of variable pump motor voltage on-time, depending on pulse width modulation of a drive motor signal based on a comparison between the motor voltage and a threshold voltage, and subsequent periods of full-on voltage for a predetermined period based on a comparison between the motor voltage and a safety threshold voltage. The invention also provides for minimum on-time per clock cycle for safe braking operations.

The present invention relates to a method and device for controlling a pump of a brake system, such as in an anti-skid control system, a friction control system, or a vehicle dynamics control system.
German Patent Application 42 32 130 describes a method and a device for controlling an electric motor-driven hydraulic pump that is used to generate the servo pressure of a brake system with anti-skid control and/or traction control. For this purpose, it is driven with a variable drive cycle composed of a pulse/pause sequence. The voltage regeneratively induced by the pump motor in the interpulse pauses is evaluated as a measure of pump speed. The computed difference between this generator voltage as an actual speed quantity and a setpoint quantity for the pump motor speed formed in an anti-skid control or traction control system provides a differential quantity to a downstream controller. The pulse width-modulated actuating signal for driving the pump is formed with the output signal from the controller. The drive motor of the hydraulic pump is turned on and off with the clock pulse of this pulse width-modulated actuating signal.
The conventional method and corresponding device are unable to provide optimum results in every respect. An object of the present invention is to provide an optimized method that can also offer the driver a comfortable pedal sensation independently of the setpoint quantity formation, at the same time providing a simple control structure.
German Patent Application No. 198 18 174 (not a prior-publication) describes a method for controlling a pump of a brake system, in which a pump is initially connected to the voltage supply for a specifiable period of time, in response to a pumping request in a brake system. Subsequently, the pump then receives at least one control signal, which is constant for at least one time interval and is formed from the sum of the pulse duration and interpulse period. In this drive cycle, a drive pulse for switching the pump on again is generated based on a comparison of a motor voltage to threshold voltage values. Consequently, the starting pulse for the pump is not generated until a load occurs, which is characterized by the motor voltage reaching a threshold voltage value. Preventive recognition of a load situation and intensified driving of the pump resulting from this, are not shown. In addition, this patent only starts with an arbitrary control algorithm or a feedback control. The use and coordination of several simultaneously active feedback controls acting on the pump is not shown.
Initially, according to an example embodiment of the present invention, the pump is not clocked and is driven at full load for a selected time TAnstMax, i.e., full supply voltage Ubat, in particular, is applied to the pump, driving the latter with a clocked PWM signal that is derived from a direct comparison between motor voltage UM, which drops across the pump motor, and at least one selected voltage threshold value Us. For safety reasons, a minimum on-time TPeinMin=TTaktxe2x88x92TPausMax of the pump can be maintained within a drive cycle by a predetermined maximum off-time TPausMax. Also due to safety considerations, the pump is driven at full load upon reaching a minimum voltage threshold Uss, i.e., supply voltage Ubat, in particular, is applied to the pump motor for a certain period of time. By using motor voltage UM in a direct comparison with different voltage threshold values, the method can be used independently of the controller concept.
The method and device according to the present invention, comma have the advantage that not only is the equipment and methodological design simple, but they can be used independently of the brake logic (e.g., anti-skid control/traction control/vehicle dynamics control system). In addition, the forced pumping action of the pump during drive cycle period TTakt produces a defined pedal sensation. This continuous availability of the active pressure variation in the brake circuit, due to minimum pump on-time TPeinMin, is also secondarily relevant to safety. Defined minimum pump on-time TPeinMin per clock cycle TTakt avoids what may be a large difference between the existing pressure and the pressure needed in the brake circuit, e.g., when a sudden pumping request is received from the brake system. This makes it possible to maintain a low average speed of the pump motor, since the pump is additionally fully driven when subjected to a heavy load, and consequently upon meeting certain conditions, in particular when motor voltage UM reaches a selectable safety threshold voltage Uss. Using a variable number of threshold values and different clock cycle times and/or driving times assigned to them makes it possible to adapt the system to any braking situation. The variable pump on- and off-times advantageously make it possible to reduce the pump motor speed without sacrificing performance.
It is also advantageous for the pump motor voltage to drop to a value that is less than a further threshold voltage during normal clocking operation, in which case this further threshold value can also correspond to safety threshold Uss or another threshold voltage Us, thus reactivating the pump for the rest of the cycle, additionally increasing availability.
If pump motor voltage UM drops to a value that is smaller than, for example, safety threshold value Uss directly after the pump is turned off, i.e., during the next cycle, the pump is reactivated for a selectable period of time. By allowing pump motor voltage UM to drop immediately after deactivation reveals that the pump is under heavy load during this phase. Consequently, the pump can be driven during this phase for a time that is much longer than the drive cycle period. This critical threshold, e.g., Uss, can be used to simultaneously prevent the pump motor from remaining at a standstill.
According to one advantageous embodiment, the method for driving the pump motor is designed so that the pump driving action according to one control strategy, e.g., traction control, is independent of the pump driving action according to another control strategy, such as anti-skid control. This can be accomplished by using different parameters and different logic components for the control systems. Each control strategy, i.e., each control systemxe2x80x94such as anti-skid control or traction controlxe2x80x94can intervene in pump motor clocking at any time, depending on certain input, e.g., using a flag. A priority control system can also avoid additional pump driving conflicts. This enables intervention to be made in the pump motor clocking at any time so that the pump is switched between continuous and full drive. This makes it possible to provide a modular pump motor drive mechanism that uses only one algorithm or only one basic logic. In this module, independent pump motor clocking of the individual systems i.e., control arrangements influencing the braking action can be operated simultaneously to ensure vehicle driving stability and/or safety.
Further advantages lie in reducing the pump motor current and consequently in dimensioning the pump motor, since it needs to be driven continuously only for a short period of time. The duration of full drive can be limited by estimated wheel break pressures, especially when decreasing from a high wheel pressure level.
A pump motor module can also be provided with an additional input for a flag. Controlled, for example, by the traction control algorithm, this flag can be used to immediately disable clocking of the pump driving action, e.g., by the anti-skid control system, and the pump can be driven in a different mode. The same also applies, of course, to all systems, i.e., control arrangements influencing the braking action to provide vehicle driving stability and/or safety.
With the embodiments described above and the conditions selected therein, the pump can be driven selectively and optimized to its requirements and the current operating mode.

Method and device for controlling a pump of a brake system


An air conditioning unit is provided including a base pan having at least one hole surrounded by a first embossment including a first inclined sidewall and a first top wall. A mounting plate is positioned adjacent a portion of the base pan. The mounting plate has at least one opening surrounded by a second embossment including a second inclined sidewall and a second top wall. The at least one opening is generally aligned with the at least one hole. The second embossment overlays the first embossment such that a gap exists between the second inclined sidewall and the first inclined sidewall.

The invention relates generally to air conditioning or refrigeration systems and, more particularly, to a base pan that supports the components of such air conditioning or refrigeration systems.
Typically, a refrigerant compressor of an air conditioning unit is mounted to a base pan. Portions of the base pan have a reduced thickness as a result of thinning during the manufacturing process. During shipment, the compressor tends to vibrate more violently than during normal operation of the air conditioning unit. Such significant vibrations can lead to failure in the piping system and other system components due to the high stresses generated, particularly on the area of the base pan having a reduced thickness. Air conditioning units of this sort are shipped from the factory with the compressor "tied down" tightly against the base pan to prevent damage while the unit is in transit. However, vibration of a "tied down" compressor may still lead to failures in the air conditioning unit. In addition, tying down the compressor requires additional time when preparing the air conditioning unit for shipment and then when installing the unit to tighten and loosen the compressor, as needed.


According to one embodiment, when a predicted trajectory is received, a set of one or more features are extracted from at least some of the trajectory points of the predicted trajectory. The predicted trajectory is predicted using a prediction method or algorithm based on perception data perceiving an object within a driving environment surrounding an autonomous driving vehicle (ADV). The extracted features are fed into a predetermined DNN model to generate a similarity score. The similarity score represents a difference or similarity between the predicted trajectory and a prior actual trajectory that was used to train the DNN model. The similarity score can be utilized to evaluate the prediction method that predicted the predicted trajectory.

Vehicles operating in an autonomous mode (e.g., driverless) can relieve occupants, especially the driver, from some driving-related responsibilities. When operating in an autonomous mode, the vehicle can navigate to various locations using onboard sensors, allowing the vehicle to travel with minimal human interaction or in some cases without any passengers.
Traffic prediction is a very important problem to solve when building autonomous driving vehicle software. While a perception module collects sensor data and generates structured detected objects (such as vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians), a prediction module needs to actually predict the behavior of these objects. The output of prediction includes predicted trajectories, which represent the possible spatial-temporal positions that an object will be at in the near future. While it is easy to evaluate the predicted "behavior" on the concrete categorical level, it is very difficult to numerically and objectively measure the actual similarity between predicted trajectories and actual trajectories.

Evaluation framework for predicted trajectories in autonomous driving vehicle traffic prediction

APOLLO INTELLIGENT DRIVING TECHNOLOGY (BEIJING) CO., LTD.


New inhibitors of histone deacetylases having antitumor activity, and the process of preparation thereof are herein described. These compounds belong to the structural formula (I)

The reversible histone acetylation taking place on the ε-amino group of the lysine residue in the histone N-terminal section mediates important conformational modifications within the nucleosomes. These modifications affect DNA capability to access transcription factors as well as genic expression (Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev. 1998, 8, 173-178). Two classes of enzymes are involved in histone acetylation: histone acetyltransferases (HATs), which catalyse histone acetylation by acting as transcription co-activators, and histone deacetylases (HDACs); the latter enzymes are recruited at the level of promoter regions by transcription repressors and co-repressors such as Sin3, SMRT, and N—CoR, leading to the formation of hypoacetylated histones and transcription silencing (Trends Biochem. Sci. 2000, 25, 619-623). The aberrant recruitment of histone deacetylases through oncogenic proteins, or the disturbed balance of activities of histone acetyltransferases and histone deacetylases in normal cells are involved in a number of pathologies:
first of all, in tumor diseases (Oncogene 2001, 20, 7204-7215, 7186-7203, 3116-3127; Nature 1998, 391, 815-818; Mol. Cell. Biol. 1998, 18, 7176-7184).
in several non-tumor diseases:
Nervous system:
Huntington's disease (J Neurosci 23, 9418-27 (2003); Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100, 2041-6 (2003)), diseases caused by triplette amplifications (Curr Med Chem 10, 2577-87 (2003); Curr Biol 12, R141-3 (2002)), neuroprotection against degenerative diseases (FEBS Lett 542, 74-8 (2003); ischemia (J Neurochem 89, 1358-67 (2004)), oxidative stress (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100, 4281-6 (2003)), inflammatory responses of the nervous system (J Neurochem 87, 407-16 (2003)), epilepsy (Epilepsia 45, 737-44 (2004), J Neurosci 22, 8422-8 (2002)), diseases caused by protein aggregates (Curr Biol 14, 488-92 (2004)).
Infection:
HIV (Mol Cell Biol 23, 6200-9 (2003), Embo J 15, 1112-20 (1996), Biochem Pharmacol 68, 1231-8 2004), Aids 18, 1101-8 (2004)), malaria, leishmaniosis, infections caused by protozoa, fungi, phytotoxic agents, virus, parasites.
Immune system:
autoimmune diseases (Blood 101, 1430-8 (2003)), chronic host-directed immune reaction (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101, 3921-6 (2004)).
Heart:
hypertrophy and cardiac disorders (J Clin Invest 112, 863-71 (2003), Novartis Found Symp 259, 132-41, discussion 141-5, 163-9 (2004), J Clin Invest 112, 824-6 (2003)).
Muscular apparatus:
skin fibrotic disease (Exp Cell Res 278, 184-97 (2002)), fibrosis (Hepatology 29, 858-67 (1999)), spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy, (Hum Mol Genet. 13, 1183-92 (2004)).
Psychic system:
bipolar disorders (Nature 417, 292-5 (2002)), psychiatric disorders (Crit Rev Neurobiol 15, 121-42 (2003)), X-fragile syndrome (BMC Mol Biol 4, 3 (2003), Hum Mol Genet 8, 2317-23 (1999)).
Others:
arthritis (Mol Ther 8, 707-17 (2003)), renal diseases (J Clin Invest 111, 539-52 (2003)), psoriasis (Curr Drug Targets Inflamm Allergy 3, 213-9 (2004)), intestinal diseases, colitis (Wien Klin Wochenschr 114, 289-300 (2002)), beta thalassemy (Expert Opin Investig Drugs 10, 925-34 (2001)), respiratory diseases (Am J Respir Crit. Care Med 167, 813-8 (2003)), Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome (Neuron 42, 947-59 (2004)).
Histone deacetylases inhibitors, such as the natural products tricostatin A (TSA), trapoxin (TPX), and depsipeptide FK-228, short chain fatty acids, sodium butyrrate, phenylbutyrrate and valproate, hydroxamic acid, hydroxamates such as the suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA), pyroxamide, scriptaid, oxamflatin, NVP-LAQ824, cyclic peptides containing hydroxamic acid (CHAPs), and the benzamide MS-275 strongly promote growth interruption, differentiation and apoptosis in a number of transformed cells in culture and in animal models (Curr. Opin. Oncol. 2001, 13, 477-483). Among them, sodium phenylbutyrate (alone or in combination), depsipeptide, SAHA, pyroxamide, NVP-LAQ824, MS-275, are in clinical phase I and/or II for the treatment of several cancerous diseases (Nat. Rev. Drug Discov. 2002, 1, 287-299). Nevertheless their clinical utility is restricted by toxicity problems (TSA, CHAPs, MS-275), low stability (TSA, trapoxin), low solubility (TSA), low potency and lack of selectivity (butyrates and analogues) (Anti-Cancer Drugs 2001, 13, 1-13).
WO 04/063169 discloses hydroxamic acid derivatives as HDAC inhibitors with the following general formula:
with R1 is a N-containing heterocyclic ring optionally substituted with one or more suitable groups, R2 is hydroxylamino, R3 is hydrogen or a suitable substituent, L1 is —(CH2)n— with n an integer of 0 to 6, optionally substituted with one or more suitable substitutents and wherein one or more methylene(s) may be replaced with suitable heteroatom(s); L2 is a lower alkylene chain.
WO 03/087066 describes hydroxamic acid derivatives and their use as histone deacetylase inhibitors with the following formula
where A is an optionally substituted phenyl or aromatic heterocyclic group; m and n independently an integer from 0 to 4; and X is a moiety having a structure selected from
where R2 is hydrogen or optionally substituted C1-C4 alkyl.
WO 02/22577 discloses the following hydroxamic acid derivatives as deacetylase inhibitors of general formula
where R1 is hydrogen, halogen or a C1-C6 alkyl chain, R2 is selected from H, C1-C10 alkyl, C4-C9 cycloalkyl, C4-C9 heterocycloalkyl, cycloalkylalkyl, aryl, heteroaryl etc.; R3 and R4 are independently selected from hydrogen, C1-C6 alkyl, acyl or acylamino R5 is selected from hydrogen, C1-C6 alkyl and others; n1, n2 and n3 are an integer from 0 to 6, X and Y are selected from hydrogen, halogen, C1-C4 alkyl etc.
WO 01/38322 describes histone deacetylase inhibitors of the general formulaCy-L1-Ar—Y1—C(O)—NH—Zwhere Cy is an optionally substituted cycloalkyl, aryl, heteroaryl or heterocyclyl ring; L1 is —(CH2)m—W with m an integer from 0 to 4, W is selected among others from C(O)NH—, S(O)2—NH—; Ar is an optionally substituted arylene ring, wherein said arylene may be optionally fused to an aryl or heteroaryl ring, Y1 is a bond or a saturated alkylene chain; Z is among other groups O-M, wherein M is hydrogen or a suitable pharmaceutical cation ion.
WO 95/13264 discloses hydroxamic acid derivatives of general formula
wherein R1 represents among other groups phenyl or aryloxyphenyl; L is C1-C8 alkylene, C2-C8 alkenylene, (CH2)m—O— (wherein m is an integer from 0 to 4), or —CO—; n is 0 or 1; R2 is hydrogen, C1-C4 alkyl or arylalkyl; M is hydrogen, alkoyl, alkoxycarbonyl; and their use as medicinal having the effect of suppressing smooth muscle growth and being usable as a vascular wall thickening preventive, a post-PTCA retenosis preventive and even an antiarterosclerotic agent.
Mai et al. describe in J. Med. Chem. 2001, 44, 2069-2072, J. Med. Chem. 2002, 45, 1778-1784, J. Med. Chem. 2003, 46, 512-524, J. Med. Chem. 2003, 46, 4826-4829, J. Med. Chem. 2004, 47, 1098-1109, J. Med. Chem. 2004, 47, 1351-1359 and J. Med. Chem. 2005, 48, 3344-3353 pyrrolyl hydroxamide derivatives as selective HDAC inhibitors.
Further HDAC inhibitors are discussed in Expert Opin. Ther. Patents 2004, 14(6), 791-804). Histone deacetylases inhibitors were also identified with different affinities with respect to specific subclasses of histone deacetylases (HD2, HD1-A, HD1-B): the discriminating ability among the various subclasses of histone deacetylases leads to important consequences: i.e. the elimination of side effects and/or the activity towards specific forms of tumor.
However, none of the aforementioned compounds has so far shown a fully satisfactory profile. It is thus still desired to find new histone deacetylases inhibitors having useful antitumor properties, adequate selectivity and stability of action; also, the search is open for new inhibitors having high activity on histone deacetylases, possibly showing a higher activity with respect to specific subclasses thereof.

Abstract: where R1 is a linear or branched chain containing at least two conjugated double bonds, A is an optionally substituted phenyl or pyridyl ring, Ar is an aryl or heteroaryl group, and R3 is hydrogen or alkoxyalkyl. The application also describes the use of said compounds in the treatment of diseases associated to the deregulation of histone deacetylases activity, such as tumors, as well as the relevant pharmaceutical compositions for administration to patients requiring said treatment.


A liquid cleaning and/or cleansing composition comprising non-spherical and/or non-rolling abrasive cleaning particles wherein the abrasive cleaning particles comprise extruded, and/or three dimensional printed, elements wherein the elements have a longitudinal length L extending parallel to a z-axis and a predetermined cross-sectional shape on a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal length L and projecting along the length L, the predetermined cross-sectional shape having a form factor of from 0.1 to 0.7 as measured according to ISO 9276-6, and wherein the ratio of the length L to perimeter-equivalent diameter of the predetermined cross-sectional shape “ECD PHull” is from 0.5 to 3.

Scouring compositions such as particulate compositions or liquid (incl. gel, paste-type) compositions containing abrasive components are well known in the art. Such compositions are used for cleaning and/or cleansing a variety of surfaces; especially those surfaces that tend to become soiled with difficult to remove stains and soils.
Amongst the currently known scouring compositions, the most popular ones are based on abrasive particles with shapes varying from spherical to irregular. The most common abrasive particles are either inorganic like carbonate salt, clay, silica, silicate, shale ash, perlite and quartz sand or organic polymeric beads like polypropylene, PVC, melamine, urea, polyacrylate and derivatives, and come in the form of liquid composition having a creamy consistency with the abrasive particles suspended therein.
The surface safety profile of such currently known scouring compositions is inadequate alternatively, poor cleaning performances is shown for compositions with an adequate surface safety profile. Indeed, due to the presence of very hard abrasive particles, these compositions can damage, i.e., scratch, the surfaces onto which they have been applied.
To address some of these problems, shaped abrasive particles such as those described in EP 2 338 966 A1 have been developed in order to provide effective cleaning and surface safety.
However, there still remains a need to improve the cleaning abilities of abrasive particles as well as simplifying the processability necessary to ensure consistent and appropriate particle shape as well as strength.
It is an advantage of the compositions according to the present invention that they may be used to clean/cleanse inanimate and animate surfaces made of a variety of materials like glazed and non-glazed ceramic tiles, enamel, stainless steel, Inox®, Formica®, vinyl, no-wax vinyl, linoleum, melamine, glass, plastics, painted surfaces, human and animal skin, hair, hard and soft tissue surface of the oral cavity, such as teeth enamel, gums, tongue and buccal surfaces, and the like.
A further advantage of the present invention is that in the compositions herein, the particles can be formulated at very low levels, whilst still providing the above benefits.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Liquid cleaning and/or cleansing composition


This application discloses communication methods and apparatuses. One method includes: receiving, by a terminal device, a reference signal from a beam of a network device; determining, by the terminal device, availability of the beam based on a threshold and the reference signal; and sending, by the terminal device, feedback information to the network device, wherein the feedback information indicates the availability of the beam.

Compared with a fourth generation mobile communications system, a fifth generation mobile communications system uses a higher carrier frequency. A higher carrier frequency indicates severer fading of a radio signal. Therefore, a beamforming (BF) technology is proposed in the fifth generation mobile communications system. With the BF technology, a beam with good directivity can be obtained, and a power of the radio signal in a transmit direction can be increased, to resist the fading of the radio signal.
In the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) release 15 (R15), a method for measuring beam quality is provided. Specifically, a base station sends beam resource configuration information to a terminal device, where the beam resource configuration information is used to notify the terminal device of information such as time-frequency domain resource locations and periodicities of reference signals sent by the base station on different beams. The base station sends the reference signals on the different beams based on the beam resource configuration information. The terminal device may receive the reference signals on corresponding beams, and may feed back a beam quality measurement report to the base station based on the reference signals received on the different beams, so that the base station learns of quality of communication using the different beams. In the prior art, there is no related solution about how the terminal device feeds back the beam quality measurement report to the base station.

Communication method and communications apparatus


In three-dimensional shape measurement, a backscattered electron detection signal and selection signal generator in a control section controls, by selection signal, a signal switching section and a frame memory so that: detection signals from respective semiconductor elements are sequentially switched in the signal switching section in synchronization with a scanning frame of an electron beam on a sample; and the detection signals from the respective semiconductor elements can be sequentially recorded in recording addresses in the frame memory which correspond to the respective semiconductor elements. After four electron beam scanning sessions, each image data for three-dimensional shape measurement is recorded in the frame memory, and processed in a computing processing section for three-dimensional shape measurement, and the result can be displayed in a display section. The backscattered electron detection signal and selection signal generator in the control section is configured to include, for example, a counter updated in frame scanning units, and can be composed of a very simple circuit or software.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scanning electron microscope and a three-dimensional shape measuring device that used it, and, in particular, relates to a three-dimensional shape measuring device provided with a multiply-segmented backscattered electron detector.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are several conventional techniques available for three-dimensional shape measurement using a scanning electron microscope. The three-dimensional shape measurement techniques include: a method based on a feature point shift of a stereo pair image obtained by causing a sample or an incident electron beam to be inclined; and a method based on the difference among signals detected by multiple detectors arranged uniformly with respect to a sample. A representative example of the latter method is a three-dimensional shape measuring device including a backscattered electron detector, which is arranged in a circular pattern facing a sample, equally-segmented in a radial manner. The device is configured to measure a surface shape of a sample on the basis of the difference among directional detection signals from detection elements respectively provided in the segmented backscattered electron detector (refer to FIG. 1 in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Sho 62-6112 and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-31520).

Scanning electron microscope and three-dimensional shape measuring device that used it


An assembly for connecting a fuel or fluid line between a male part and a female part in which a laminar block axially locks the male part and the female part in connection with one another by being displaced about the male part in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the connecting line. The assembly includes a unitary element made of a semi-rigid material and having a substantially semi-circular portion constituting an elastic clamp, projections extending from one side of the clamp, each including a portion facing inwardly toward a central longitudinal axis of the clamp and adapted to engage with the female part, a flap arranged at each end region of the clamp and having a small thickness, and an annular stop releasably coupled to the flaps and including radial blocking elements. The annular stop is adapted to be interposed between the male part and the female part and to be ruptured or separated from the flaps and thus the elastic clamp upon insertion of the male part fully into the female part. On the other hand, the blocking elements are adapted to prevent displacement of the laminar block if the male part is not fully inserted into the female part.

As is well known to those skilled in the art, it is a concern in car assembly plants, and more specifically engine assembly plants, to obtain a perfect tightness during assembly of the fluid pipings and conductors, irrespective of the flammability of the fluid.
As is well known, the assembly of such hoses in their respective connectors is made by fitting axially and under pressure the end of the hose provided with annular radial enlargement, the male backpiece, to the female connection body. The locking with respect to each other is made by a laminar lock which actuates with respect to the male backpiece and the female body, based on movement in a plane perpendicular to the central axis of the coupling members.
The connections used for coupling these hoses may have different shapes, such as elbow, "T"-shaped, "Y"-shaped, depending on the direction of the passing fluid, which may be a flammable fuel, such as gasoline, diesel or alcohol, or may be a lubricating or hydraulic fluid, such as a motor oil, brake fluid or hydraulic steering fluid, or may be even a refrigerating fluid, such as radiator water or solution for sealed radiators.
Although it ensures the axial retention between the parts, a drawback of this conventional method of axial fit and radial locking between the male backpiece and the female body of the vehicle fluid communication line is that it is not possible to find out whether the outermost edge of the male backpiece has reached its end of travel relative to the housing or seat defined within the female body during the axial connection between them. The potentially spaced apart coupling of such pieces may cause leakages to occur which might result in serious problems.
It is obvious that a bad connection of any one of the fluid conduction lines existing in a vehicle may cause serious problems and even accidents due to a mechanical failure of the vehicle caused by fluid leakage.

Method and assembly for connecting a fuel or fluid line

Tampas Click Para Veiculos Industria E Comercio Ltda.


A second switch receives an indication from a roaming network that a call forwarded by the roaming network has been dropped by the roaming network, and in response to receiving the indication, forwards the call from a first switch.

Wireless telephones are devices capable of transmitting and receiving voice and/or data (non-voice) information to and from a network without the use of wires, cables, or other tangible transmission media. So-called cellular telephones are a common example of wireless phones.
Wireless telephones and the networks by which they communicate operate according to various technologies, including analog mobile phone service (AMPS), circuit switching, packet switching, wireless local area network (WLAN) protocols such as IEEE 802.11 compliant networks, wireless wide-area networks (WWAN), short-range RF systems such as Bluetooth, code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency-division multiplexing (FDM), spread-spectrum, global system for mobile communications (GSM), high-speed circuit-switched data (HCSD), general packet radio system (GPRS), enhanced data GSM environment (EDGE), and universal mobile telecommunications service (UMTS). Of course, these are only examples, and other technologies may be employed in wireless communication as well.
Herein, the term 'wireless device' is meant to include wireless telephones (including cellular, mobile, and satellite telephones), and also to include a variety of other wireless devices, including wireless web-access telephones, automobile, laptop, and desktop computers that communicate wirelessly, and wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs). In general, the term 'wireless device' refers to any device with wireless communication capabilities.
Many companies produce wireless telephones and other wireless devices. Among the more well-known producers are Nokia®, Ericsson®, Motorola®, Panasonic®, Palm® Computer, and Handspring®. A variety of producers also provide wireless devices comprising versions of the Microsoft® Windows® operating software.
A mobile device, also called mobile equipment, is a portable communication device that typically, but not necessarily, is also a wireless device. Laptop computers are examples of mobile devices. A "subscriber" represents one or more persons or entities (corporations, partnerships, agents, operators, etc.) with access privileges to a network. A subscriber may be or represent a single person, or may represent more than one person. Typically the subscriber is the operator of a mobile device.
A subscriber may enter into contractual arrangements with a network operator for access rights to the operator's network(s). Networks of this operator are the subscriber's "home networks." Networks other than the home networks of the subscriber are "roaming networks." A subscriber may gain access to roaming networks to make and receive communications, however, such access is typically provided on a per-usage basis (as opposed to a subscription basis common on home networks) and at an additional charge. Such additional charges are "roaming charges".
One situation in which roaming charges may occur involves call forwarding. When a subscriber is roaming, calls to the subscriber may be forwarded conditionally when the subscriber's mobile device is busy (forward busy), or does not answer (forward no-answer), or rejects the incoming call (e.g. forward do-not-disturb). An incoming call is routed through the subscriber's home network, from which point the call is routed to the roaming network that is currently providing access to the subscriber. The roaming network then routes the call back to the home network, to a specified forwarding number. The subscriber thus incurs charges from both the home network and the roaming network, even though they don't answer the call. Furthermore, important call information may be lost by routing through the roaming network in this fashion. This can create problems in certain situations, such as when the call is forwarded to a voice mail system (VMS). Without certain call information, the VMS may not have the capability to intelligently select a voice mail box for the called party.

Call handling scheme to reduce roaming charges


A method of manufacturing a structure, including forming a composite film composed of a coating film and an organic or inorganic film on top of a substrate by forming the coating film on the surface of a template provided on top of the substrate; forming the organic or inorganic film on the surface of the coating film, and removing a portion of the organic or inorganic film and a portion of the coating film; forming a second coating film on the surface of the composite film; forming an organic coating film on the substrate that covers the second coating film; removing a portion of the second coating film; and forming a structure composed of a metal or metal oxide later on the substrate by removing all residues left on the substrate except for the coating film and the second coating film.

In recent years, because of their potential application in all manner of fields, techniques for fabricating microscopic structures have been the subject of intensive research and development. For example, structural bodies that include structures of nanometer size (so-called nanomaterials) exhibit different physical and chemical properties from their corresponding bulk materials, and are therefore attracting enormous interest, both from the fundamental research perspective and the applied research perspective. For example, nanomaterials having a hollow three dimensional structure such as a cylindrical shape are expected to have important roles in a variety of different fields, including inclusion chemistry, electrochemistry, materials science, biomedicine, sensors, catalysts and separation techniques. Furthermore, techniques for fabricating line-shaped micropatterns can be linked directly to the fabrication of integrated circuits and increased integration levels, and are therefore the subject of extremely intensive research and development in fields such as the semiconductor industry.
Conventional methods of producing microscopic structures include methods known as template methods, and methods that use lithography techniques. For example, Non-Patent Document 1 proposes a method of producing a nanomaterial having a spherical capsule-shaped hollow three dimensional structure by dispersing template microparticles in a solution, coating the surface of the template microparticles with a thin film, and then removing the template microparticles.
Further, the applicants of the present invention have proposed methods of producing nanostructures by coating the surface of a template having a nanopattern formed thereon with a coating film or a composite film of a metal oxide and an organic compound, and then removing the template (see Patent Documents 1 and 2).
Furthermore, methods of fabricating microscopic metal structures are also known, including (1) methods in which a lithography technique is used to form a microscopic pattern on top of a metal layer, and that microscopic pattern is then used as a mask for etching the metal layer, and (2) methods in which a metal plating technique is used to fill a microscopic pattern formed using a lithography technique.    [Non-Patent Document 1] Advanced Materials, 13(1), pp. 11 to 22 (2001)
[Patent Document 1]    Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2005-205584
[Patent Document 2]    Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2006-297575


An embodiment of the disclosed DHM system includes a light source configured to emit coherent optical waves, a first optical Fourier element configured to Fourier transform the optical waves from the object area, wherein the Fourier transform occurs at a Fourier plane and the optical waves from the object area includes directly transmitted waves and diffracted waves, a phase modulator at the Fourier plane configured to introduce a phase delay between the directly transmitted waves and the diffracted waves, a second optical Fourier element configured to receive the directly transmitted waves and the diffracted waves from the phase modulator and to inversely Fourier transform the directly transmitted waves and the diffracted waves to provide interfered optical waves, and at least one imaging device configured to record the interfered optical waves at two image planes to generate a first interferogram and a second interferogram.

1. Field
The disclosed subject matter generally relates to digital holographic microscopy.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Numerous biological samples, including live cells, are generally transparent under visible-light illumination and behave essentially as phase objects. Phase objects can only alter the phase component of optical waves, not their amplitude component. Hence, the phase structure of these objects are difficult to see with naked eyes or ordinary imaging techniques, which are only sensitive to the amplitude component of optical waves.
Phase imaging techniques can record phase structure of objects. For example, techniques such as Zernike's phase contrast (PC) method and Nomarski's differential interference contrast (DIC) method can visualize the phase component of optical waves by transforming the phase information into amplitude contrast. However the phase information provided by these techniques is only qualitative. As such, these techniques cannot be used to measure certain biological parameters of specimens, such as intracellular refractive indices, because measuring such biological parameters requires measuring phase structure of the biological specimen quantitatively.
These issues can be addressed using digital holographic microscopy (DHM). DHM is a non-destructive, full-field, label-free method of measuring the amplitude structure and the quantitative phase structure of microscopic specimens. In DHM, optical components are configured in such a way that a portion of coherent optical waves passes through a microscopic specimen, whereas the rest of the coherent optical waves propagates unhindered. The optical waves propagating through the specimens are called object waves, sometimes also called object beams, and the unhindered optical waves are called reference waves, sometimes also called reference beams. The structure of the microscopic specimen introduces amplitude attenuations and phase delays to the object waves with respect to the reference waves. In other words, the structure of the microscopic specimen is encoded in the object waves.
The information encoded in the object waves can be recovered by interfering the object waves with the reference waves and post processing. The reference waves and the object waves are interfered, and the interfered optical waves are recorded using an imaging device. The recorded interference pattern, also called an interferogram, is subsequently processed to reconstruct the amplitude and phase structure of the microscopic specimen.
In DHM, the reference waves and the object waves are interfered using one of the two general techniques: off-axis interferometry and on-axis interferometry. Off-axis interferometry interferes waves propagating along two different axes and records the resulting interferogram using a single camera exposure. The use of a single camera exposure renders this technique especially suited to imaging dynamic processes, such as cell growths, cell membrane fluctuations, cell swelling, neuronal activity, and cytoskeletal dynamics. Unfortunately, off-axis interferometry requires a spatial filtering during numerical reconstruction that separates the desired positive-order diffracted waves, and the unwanted zero- and negative-order diffracted waves. This spatial filtering process limits the spatial resolution of the reconstructed image.
In on-axis interferometry, on the other hand, the reference waves and the object waves propagate along the same axis, which allows for restoring the specimen information without using a resolution-limited spatial filter. However, on-axis interferometry requires recording at least three phase-shifted interferograms. Since a relatively long time is required for applying the phase shifts and acquiring the interferograms, this method of phase-shifting is not suitable for recording dynamic processes. In addition, on-axis phase-shifting interferometry is also prone to phase-shift calibration errors, and system fluctuations that may occur while capturing multiple interferograms.
Some of these issues are partly addressed in Zhang et al., entitled "Reconstruction of in-line digital holograms from two intensity measurements." Zhang shows an optical system that records two interferograms of an amplitude object (i.e., an object that attenuates only the amplitude of illuminated optical waves) and processes the two interferograms to recover an image of the amplitude object.
However, Zhang's optical system is tailored to reconstructing amplitude objects only and is incapable of reconstructing phase objects. Zhang et al. assume that the intensity of the object waves is significantly weaker than that of the reference waves. While this assumption might hold for objects with low transmission coefficients such as amplitude objects, this assumption does not hold for objects with high transmission coefficients such as phase objects. Therefore, Zhang's optical system is incapable of imaging object with both amplitude and phase structures.
FIG. 4 experimentally shows that Zhang's system fails to recover the phase structure of phase objects, and FIG. 6 experimentally shows that Zhang's system also does a poor job in recovering the amplitude structure of amplitude objects due to the impractical weak-object wave assumption. Therefore, Zhang's optical system cannot accurately recover either the amplitude structure or the phase structure of specimens. Thus, it is desirable to develop an in-line DHM technique that is capable of capturing amplitude and phase structures of microscopic objects while maintaining a short exposure time, a high spatial resolution, and a high contrast.

Systems and methods of dual-plane digital holographic microscopy


Service extraction and application composition may include preprocessing and instrumenting an existing application that is to be converted to a service-oriented application. The existing application may be executed to generate traces related to a runtime behavior of services related to the existing application. The traces may be used to generate calling code related to the services related to the existing application. Representational state transfer (REST) application programming interfaces (APIs) that include the calling code to call the services related to the existing application may be generated. Refactored code for the existing application may be generated for invocation of the services related to the existing application by the REST APIs.

Applications typically include an n-tier architecture that provides a model by which developers create flexible and reusable applications. For example, by segregating an application into tiers, when the application is to be modified, a specific layer of the application is typically modified or added, instead of reworking of the entire application. A variety of techniques are used to extract services from applications. A service represents a function that is performed by an application. For example, for an e-commerce application (e.g., an online bookstore application) a service includes login functionality that is performed by the application.


The present invention provides a method and system for depicting an online map of a route along with any incidents on the route. To create the map, a consumer first provides the origination and destination addresses of the route, then a proposed route is provided for their approval. The consumer may modify the proposed route or accept it. Next, the route is analyzed to determine if any incidents have occurred upon it. This analysis comprises preparing the route by creating regions of interest around segments composing the route, examining if any traffic incidents fall within one or more of the regions of interest, and determining for those incidents if the incident is closer than a threshold value to any segment on the route. The final route along with any incidents on the route is then depicted for the consumer.

Communication networks are well known in the computer communications field. By definition, a network is a group of computers and associated devices that are connected by communications facilities or links. Network communications can be of a permanent nature, such as via cables, or can be of a temporary nature, such as connections made through telephone or radio links. Networks may vary in size, from a local area network (LAN) consisting of a few computers or workstations and related devices; to a wide area network (WAN) which interconnects computers and LANs that are geographically dispersed; to a remote access service (RAS) which interconnects remote computers via temporary communication links. An internetwork, in turn, is the joining of multiple computer networks, both similar and dissimilar, by means of gateways or routers that facilitate data transfer and conversion from various networks. A well-known abbreviation for the term internetwork is "internet." As currently understood, the capitalized term "Internet" refers to the collection of networks and routers that use the Internet Protocol (IP) along with higher level protocols such as the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) or the Uniform Datagram Packet/Internet Protocol (UDP/IP) to communicate with one another.
The Internet has recently seen explosive growth by virtue of its ability to link computers located throughout the world. As the Internet has grown, so has the World Wide Web (WWW) The WWW is a vast collection of interconnected or "hypertext" documents written in HyperText Markup Language (HTML) that are electronically stored at "Web sites" throughout the Internet. A Web site is a server connected to the Internet that has mass storage facilities for storing hypertext documents and that runs administrative software for handling requests for those stored hypertext documents. A hypertext document normally includes a number of hyperlinks, i.e., highlighted portions of text which link the document to another hypertext document possibly stored at a Web site elsewhere on the Internet. Each hyperlink is associated with a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that provides the exact location of the linked document on a server connected to the Internet and describes the document. Thus, whenever a hypertext document is retrieved from any Web server, the document is considered to be retrieved from the WWW.
A consumer is allowed to retrieve hypertext documents from the WWW, i.e., a consumer is allowed to "surf the Web," via a Web browser. A Web browser, such as Netscape's NAVIGATOR® or Microsoft's INTERNET EXPLORER®, is a software program implemented by a Web client, i.e., the consumer's computer, to provide a graphical user interface (GUI) to the WWW. Upon request from the consumer via the Web browser, the Web client accesses and retrieves the desired hypertext document from the appropriate Web server using the URL for the document and a protocol known as HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). HTTP is a higher-level protocol than TCP/IP and is designed specifically for the requirements of the WWW. It is used on top of TCP/IP to transfer hypertext documents between servers and clients.
At the advent of the WWW, the information stored on the Internet was generally static in nature and if one wanted to change the information provided on WWW sites it was necessary to manually configure the WWW site by rewriting the HTML code of the WWW site. However, at the present stage of development on the WWW, many WWW sites provide dynamic content that changes depending on a consumer's interaction between the Web browser on the consumer's computer and the WWW site.
There currently exist WWW sites that provide dynamic content such as online atlases and mapping services. Some of these online mapping services also provide traffic analysis and reporting of traffic incidents occurring on particular routes. However, these services determine if an incident occurs on a route by mapping the names or numbers of exits on particular highways or streets to determine where an incident is located. This does not adequately describe the locations of incidents, as a desired travel route may not have a named or numbered exit where an incident has occurred.
Accordingly, a more effective method and system for depicting an online map of a route along with any incidents on the route is needed. The method and system should provide a consumer with the capability to easily and quickly view a depiction of their desired route along with any current incidents on the route.

Method and system for matching an incident to a route


A replaceable lighting head assembly comprised of a high output LED (Light Emitting Diode) socket torch package, vertically aligned thermal heat sink, and electrical connector coupled with a secondary housing unit that conducts heat received from the heat sink to the external environment and acts as a conduit for the external electrical source. This second component also serves as a building block for further fixture design. In this manner, state-of-the-art LED's can be used to provide light within a small, durable package which in turn, provides lighting designers with the opportunity to explore new fixture designs and to improve the quality, energy-efficiency, safety and longevity of existing products.

The present invention relates to a new assembly for packaging a high power dimmable LED light source that can be further incorporated into a larger lighting assembly. More specifically, this invention relates to a replaceable lighting head assembly comprised of a high output LED socket torch, a vertically aligned thermal heat sink and an electrical connector. In itself, this section acts as an electrical inter-connect as well as a thermal heat sink interface suitable for small package integration. The secondary housing unit of this assembly provides a thermal pathway for the heat received from the heat sink to the external environment and acts as a conduit for easy access to the external electrical source. If desired, it can also act as a base for further fixture design functions. This assembly, when integrated into the design of a light housing, provides a means by which to manipulate the light beam of the lighting fixture.
The evolution of electric lighting began in the late 1800's with the first incandescent bulb—essentially a "glowing wire in a bottle". In spite of all the improvements, the light bulb that we use today is really not much different than the one invented by Thomas Edison. Inherent problems such as premature failures due to delicate glass structure or filaments, environmental concerns with the mercury, lead or toxic and flammable gases used, and intrinsic inefficiencies are still a concern. Less than 10% of the energy required to burn an incandescent light bulb is converted to light. Even flourescent lighting—today's most efficient light source, converts only 30–40% into light. Although not yet at the levels of flourescent lighting, LED's have the potential to convert up to 90% of the energy they receive into light. Further, light from conventional sources is emitted in all directions, requiring the use of optics to re-direct the beam in the desired direction for effective illumination. Each time the light is redirected, fixture efficiency decreases. The light generated by an LED, however, is directional so its efficiency doesn't have to necessarily match other light sources to be more effective.
Much of the energy a standard filament light source consumes is converted into hot infrared rays that radiate out within the light beam, thus requiring extra caution when handling the bulb. Because of the heat generated, restrictions to the type and size of the casing around these bulbs must be maintained—all of which reduce the flexibility of the lighting system.
Since the human eye is naturally drawn to the brightest source of illumination, flexibility is often required in the distribution of the light. General and accent lighting applications utilize this premise to direct the attention of the viewer to particular areas or items. If the first thing a viewer sees is the harsh light source, then their first impression may be negative. The increased size of the bulb casing results in a larger area from which the light emanates, thus requiring greater attention to positioning of the fixture to avoid direct eye contact with the light source itself.
This flexibility is sometimes related to the light being used in a space that has changing requirements. An example is a retail space where different products are displayed in different ways each week. In this example, spot lights may be desirable for small items and wider beam lights may be appropriate for larger items. The option available today is to use fixtures with integral reflectors that have different beam spreads. One example of this is low-voltage halogen lamps, of which MR-16 is a common type. The MR-16's are available in several light beam spreads from very narrow spot to very wide flood. This strategy causes complications when lamps are changed after burning out. All MR-16's are very similar in appearance, and beam patterns within a space are only maintained after re-lamping if the exact same lamp is used to replace the burned out lamp. This strategy also requires many different lamp types to be kept on hand.
In outdoor lighting, a fixture should be flexible enough to allow landscape or architectural features to be highlighted as elements change, such as when trees or bushes grow—as well as being discrete enough as to not draw the attention of the eye. If not, the resulting brightness one sees actually makes it harder to observe the surrounding environment as it causes everything else to appear darker. Further, traditional light sources have a relatively short life span, necessitating bulb replacement. This can be both time consuming and dangerous if such fixtures are mounted in an elevated position such as on the soffit of a building or high in a tree.
Contrast to that, LED light sources offer small, directional pinpoints of light. Their size and directionality support highly controllable lighting systems capable of delivering high flux output at relatively low current levels for long periods of time. But in order to achieve this, thermal issues associated with high output LED lighting systems must be addressed. The challenge is to conduct the heat generated within the LED onto the fixture and then to dissipate that heat, via convection, to the surrounding ambient air. Proper design, therefore, must be given to the sizing of the heat sink to create both a pleasing aesthetic look and functional heat dissipation.
It would thus be desirable to provide a lighting assembly contained within a small footprint that can be incorporated into various fixture designs. It would be further advantageous if that lighting assembly allows for easy adjustment of the light beam spread in addition to allowing for changes in light intensity through the use of collimating lenses—without having to change the bulb. It would be of further benefit if such assembly were to include a state-of-the-art high output LED for its long life, reduced maintenance cost and reduced cost of ownership—that is replaceable so that when advances in the industry become available the light source can be updated by the consumer.
High output LED light sources are increasingly becoming the choice of illumination. These dimmable solid-state devices have no filament to break or glass to shatter, no mercury, toxic gases or lead to contaminate the environment and no infrared or UV in the light beam. They are fast approaching the efficiency of fluorescent light sources with new performance standards being achieved regularly.
High output LED's differ from conventional LED light sources in that they are able to separate their thermal and electrical pathways. This enables them to draw more heat away from the emitter core and thus significantly reduce thermal resistance. As a result, high output LED's can handle significantly more power than conventional LED's. However, the higher electrical input also means they tend to operate at higher operating temperatures which can degrade their performance. Heat that is not effectively dissipated can shift colors, reduce brightness and significantly shorten their life span.
Moreover, most heat sink configurations currently available are directed to a planar circuit board mount with a heat spreader or a horizontal finned heat sink design. Neither of these arrangements is suitable for small vertical package integration or compact lighting head construction.

Replaceable LED socket torch and lighting head assembly


A utility line connector assembly having a male stab having a central bore with a port that communicates with a second bore in a receptacle where the stab is fixedly inserted into a receiving female opening in the receptacle, the receptacle has an L shaped opening with a protruding partial spherical pocket, a ring groove for sealing said stab to a riser package, and where the stab and receptacle are placed between a lower marine riser and the blow out preventer in fluid communication therebetween. The stab and receptacle may be sealed with ring seals and the assembly may be used in riser auxiliary line connections, sub sea production tree connections, drape hose connections and surface bop auxiliary line connections.

This invention relates generally to the field of undersea blowout protector valves and more specifically to a high pressure large bore utility line connector assembly. It can also be utilized in a variety of applications including, but not limited to, riser auxiliary line connections, sub sea production tree connections, drape hose connections, and surface blow out preventer auxiliary line connections.
A blowout preventer (BOP) is a large valve at the top of an oil well that may be closed if the drilling crew loses control of formation fluids. By closing this valve (usually operated remotely via hydraulic actuators), the drilling crew usually regains control of the oil reservoir by pumping through the well and controlling the wellbore pressure through the choke line, and procedures can then be initiated to increase the mud density until it is possible to open the BOP and retain pressure control of the formation.
In extraordinary cases it may be necessary to force the wellbore influx back into the formation by pumping down the kill line. BOPs come in a variety of styles, sizes and pressure ratings. Some can effectively close over an open wellbore, some are designed to seal around tubular components in the well (drillpipe, casing or tubing) and others are fitted with hardened steel shearing surfaces that can actually cut through drillpipe. In an undersea application, the lower marine riser package is the pipe between a seabed BOP and a floating drilling rig.

High pressure large bore utility line connector assembly


Roughly described, pictures are divided into multiple spatial sections to be encoded by multiple section encoders. To address discontinuities of compression decisions across section boundaries, the multiple section encoders encode overlapping regions in a picture.

The invention relates to video encoding, and more particularly to the use of parallel encoding techniques to improve speed or reduce artifacts or both.
Digital video capabilities can be incorporated into a wide range of devices, including digital televisions, digital direct broadcast systems, wireless broadcast systems, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop or desktop computers, digital cameras, digital recording devices, digital media players, video gaming devices, video game consoles, cellular or satellite radio telephones, video teleconferencing devices, and the like. Digital video devices implement video compression techniques, such as those described in the standards defined by MPEG-2, MPEG-4, ITU-T H.263, ITU-T H.264/MPEG-4, Part 10, Advanced Video Coding (AVC), and ITU-T H.265, High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard, and extensions of such standards, to transmit, receive and store digital video information more efficiently.
AVC is defined in ITU-T, Series H: Audiovisual And Multimedia Systems, Infrastructure of audiovisual services—Coding of moving video, Advanced video coding for generic audiovisual services, Recommendation ITU-T H.264 (April 2013), incorporated by reference herein, and HEVC is defined in ITU-T, Series H: Audiovisual And Multimedia Systems, Infrastructure of audiovisual services—Coding of moving video, High efficiency video coding, Recommendation ITU-T H.265 (April 2013), also incorporated by reference herein. As used herein, a system or method is considered to comply with "the AVC standard" so long as it complies with any version of that standard. Similarly, a system is considered to comply with "the HEVC standard" so long as it complies with any version of that standard.
The AVC and HEVC standards both accommodate a variety of profiles, each specifying an image resolution, a scanning type (progressive or interlaced) and a refresh rate, among other things. The profiles include one that has been labeled 1080p, which is in common use today as an HDTV transmission format. The 1080p profile specifies a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels progressively scanned. Another profile specified in both standards is one that has been labeled 4K UltraHD, having a resolution of 3840×2160 pixels progressively scanned, with a 60 Hz refresh rate. There is increasing interest in the industry for making 4K UltraHD widely available.
It is technically very challenging to encode 4K UltraHD video live. Whereas encoders are currently available to encode 1080p live, much more extensive processing power is needed for 4K UltraHD video.
One way to handle this challenge is to divide the video signal into "slices" or "tiles" and to use multiple encoders, one for each slice (tile). FIG. 1 shows a picture divided into four slices numbered 1 through 4. Both the AVC and HEVC standards support multiple slice encoding and HEVC also supports multiple tile encoding. As used herein, the term "spatial section" refers to any type of spatial division of a picture, including both slices and tiles. The encoders assigned to handle different spatial sections are sometimes referred to herein as section encoders. The terms "slice" and "tile" have the meanings given to them in the AVC and HEVC standards.
A drawback of multiple slice or multiple tile encoding is that the boundaries between the spatial sections often show compression artifacts. Compression artifacts can arise because each encoder makes its own encoding decisions based on the picture information within its own spatial section. These include decisions related to motion vectors, quantizer indices, deblocking filtering, among others. Since each encoder has different picture information, many encoding decisions will be discontinuous across the boundary, causing the decoded video on either side of the boundary to look different. These differences cause the boundary to be visible as an annoying compression artifact.
A common approach to eliminate these discontinuities is to have the various section encoders share information about their coding decisions near the boundaries. This sharing even can involve sharing many lines of video data, for example to enable motion compensation across section boundaries or to perform in-loop deblocking filtering across the boundaries. This information sharing can require significant bit-rates (many hundreds of Mb/s for 4K UltraHD) and can require very low latency communications. These problems are not limited to 4K UltraHD live video encoding specifically; they apply to any format for which encoding of video at the desired speed is difficult or expensive with then-current technology.

Multi-slice/tile encoder with overlapping spatial sections


A maximum embedding amount can be ensured depending on information to be embedded, by determining an error-correction capability in correspondence with the characteristic of embedded information. For this purpose, upon multiplexing additional information, the additional information is error-correction encoded. At this time, if the additional information is a BMP file, a WAV file or the like, coding is performed with a low error-correction capability since image reproduction can be made without serious problem even if the error-correction capability is low. The error-correction capability is determined by an error-correction parameter determination unit 205 based on an extension of the additional information.

Conventionally, the study of embedding of particular information in image information has grown for the purpose of prevention of unauthorized is duplication and falsification. Such technique is called digital watermarking. For example, a photograph, a picture or the like is electronified, and additional information such as the author's name, permission/prohibition of use and the like is embedded in the image information. A technique which is on its way to becoming standardized in recent years is embedding additional information in original image information in a manner such that the additional information is visually unrecognizable, and delivering the image information via a network such as the Internet.
Further, also being studied is a technique of specifying additional information such as type of printer or its model number from paper on which the image is printed. These techniques are employed for prevention of unauthorized duplication of bank notes, stamps, negotiable instruments and the like, with wide use of high-quality image formation apparatus such as a copier and a printer.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,652,626 discloses a technique of embedding additional information in a high frequency area of visually low-sensible chrominance component and chromaticness component of image.
However, in the above-described conventional art, it is very difficult to embed a large amount of information such as audio information in an image such that the embedded information is not conspicuous when print-outputted.
Accordingly, as means of solution of the above problem, the assignee of the present application has proposed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2001-148778 (corresponding to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/711,956 filed on Nov. 15, 2000) to utilize texture caused by the error diffusion method to artificially generate a combination of quantized values which does not occur in general pseudo halftone processing and embed the generated code in image information. According to this technique, as the shape of texture merely microspically changes, in comparison with the original image, the image quality is not visually degraded. Further, different types of signals can be multiplexed extremely easily by changing a quantization threshold value in the error diffusion method.
Next, a description will be made about an image processing system having an image processing apparatus which embeds additional information in image information and print-outputs an image, and an image processing apparatus which extracts the additional information embedded in a printed image, proposed by the assignee of the present application. FIG. 1A is a block diagram showing the construction of the image processing apparatus proposed by the assignee of the present application which embeds additional information in image information and print-outputs an image.
In the figure, reference numerals 100 and 104 both denote input terminals. Multivalue image information is inputted from the input terminal 100, and additional information to be embedded in the image information is inputted from the input terminal 104. The additional information is different information from the image information inputted from the input terminal 100, e.g., audio information and copyright information regarding the image inputted from the input terminal 100. The additional information is subjected to coding processing for error correction by an error-correction coding unit 103. In the error-correction coding, any type of code e.g. BCH (Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem) code or Reed-Solomon code may be used. The multiplexed information resulted from the error-correction coding is inputted into an additional information multiplexing unit 101. The additional information multiplexing unit 101 embeds the additional information in the image information in a manner such that the additional information is visually indiscriminable. Further, the additional information multiplexing unit 101 quantizes the input multivalue image information. Numeral 102 denotes a printer which outputs information generated by the additional information multiplexing unit 101 by a printer engine. The printer 102 may be a printer such as an ink-jet printer, a laser printer or the like which realizes tonality representation by using the pseudo halftone processing.
FIG. 1B is a block diagram showing the construction of the image processing apparatus proposed by the assignee of the present application which extracts additional information from a printed image.
Information on a printout is read by using a scanner 105, and additional information embedded in the printout is extracted by an additional information extraction unit 106. The extracted additional information is subjected to error-correction decoding processing by an error-correction decoding unit 107, and outputted from an output terminal 108. Note that as the algorithms regarding multiplexing and decoding are described in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2001-148778 (corresponding to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/711,956 filed on Nov. 15, 2000), they are omitted here.
By application of the above method, in comparison with the conventional art, a large amount of information having an arbitrary content can be embedded in an image without degrading the image quality.
However, in the above method, the error-correction coding processing having the same correction capability is performed regardless of the type of printer to print output an image, the resolution upon printing, the print quality arbitrarily set by a user, the characteristic of multiplexed image and the like. Generally, the precision of reproduction of embedded additional information x(j) from a printed image read by the image scanner 105 depends on errors upon reading by the additional information extraction unit 106. The error rate depends on the above-described conditions.
That is, in use of high-performance printer capable of printing an image of quality equivalent to a photograph, as it has a high print precision, the error rate at the additional information extraction unit 106 is low. However, in use of printer which cannot print an image of such high quality, the error rate at the additional information extraction unit 106 is higher. Further, the error rate increases in proportion to the print quality set by the user.
Further, the error rate changes depending on the character of image to be multiplexed. For example, in a case where an image has many high density portions upon printing, blur due to a large amount of ink or toner often causes reading error. On the other hand, if an image has many low density portions, the amount of ink or toner is too small, which often causes reading error due to insufficient representation of periodicity of texture indicating additional information.
In this manner, in the conventional art, the image processing is not performed with distinction between a case where the error rate is high and a case where the error rate is low. That is, the amount of information is increased by reducing the amount of check bits even if it is expected that the error rate is low. Any method of changing the amount of check bits by various conditions has not been proposed.
Further, as uniformly same error-correction coding processing has been performed regardless of characteristic of additional information, the processing is susceptible to improvement. For example, some additional information disables reproduction of the entire information if the additional information includes even 1-bit error information, on the other hand, some additional information has redundancy and does not seriously disturb reproduction of additional information even if the information includes bit error to some degree. As an example of the former information, information of image compression format JPEG can be given, and as an example of the latter information, a BMP file (a file where pixel-unit data are simply rearranged without compression), a WAV file (a file where sound sampled data are simply rearranged) and the like can be given.
That is, regarding a BMP file, a WAVE file and the like, even if more or less bit errors are included, no problem occurs upon representation (reproduction). In other words, in a case where such information is embedded, the intensity for error correction may be low.

Embedding with error-correction encoding


A pillow support for a user featuring an engageable pillow body to a base and at least one storage cavity formed therebetween. An aperture in the pillow body dimensioned to accommodate the face of a user positioned on the pillow communicates with a cavity in the base which communicates with air and light adjacent to the base to provide the user fresh air and light when face down. The storage cavity is adapted to hold a personal music player or phone and the pillow engages to the base with a strap or ridge surrounding the perimeter of the pillow.

In the past, radios have been combined within pillows; however, such past efforts generally have paid little attention to the pillow and to the provision of comfort and proper positioning of the head of a user in either the prone (face down) or supine (face up) position. Such pillows generally have not provided shapes adapted to the facial construction of the user, nor pockets and cavities operatively sized and placed to accommodate modern digital music players and to protect them during transport of the pillow. It is important to the user to keep their head ergonomically supported while lying down for long periods of time to avoid neck pain subsequent to such a relaxing endeavor. Furthermore, previous pillow/radio combinations generally have provided little in the way of optional engageable speakers and the like that allow for the elimination of earphones which are known to cause hearing loss in users. Additionally, such pillow devices have not provided non-collapsible passages for air and light to reach the user in a face down position nor a base that is interchangeable with a plurality of pillow sections that may be adapted for face size.
Accordingly, there is an unmet need for a pillow device that is adapted to allow the comfortable prone positioning of a user's head and face during relaxation, such as on the beach, or around a pool. Such a device should provide passages for air and light to reach the face of the user to alleviate any fear of claustrophobia and to allow the face to remain cool and to provide continual fresh air to the facial cavity and user. Such a device should provide a base that is engageable to a plurality of pillow sections having a plurality of different dimensional characteristics to allow the device to adapt to different sized users and to allow for replacement of worn or otherwise soiled pillows.
Further, in the most preferred mode, such a device should also provide storage and operational positioning of music and audio players and wallets and the like, in an easy to access hidden pocket to keep valuables hidden and maintain the music player in the proximity of the head of the user. Such a device should also provide dimensional characteristics that allow for user comfort with proper ergonomic support while in the prone or supine position. Additionally, such a pillow/audio system combination must be easily engaged to a plurality of different digital music players and protect such players by enclosing them in padded compartments, with easy insertion access thereby eliminating obtrusive elements of the audio system projecting from the pillow during transport and use of the pillow.

Pillow adapted for music system engagement and use in the prone or supine head position


A dispensing assembly has a ferrule and collar for maintaining a coupling of a dispensing module to a receptacle neck. The ferrule has an annular plastic skirt open on one end, and plastic nibs extending radially inwardly from the skirt inner surface. The skirt outer surface is a regular polygon with flat surfaces between corners. The collar has a Nomar edge defining an annular recess adjacent the open end with an annular face facing the collar other end. At least the corners of the skirt open end extend radially outwardly into the annular recess of the collar inner surface when the dispensing assembly is secured to the receptacle to retain the collar on the ferrule while the dispensing assembly is secured to the receptacle by the ferrule nibs beneath the flange of the receptacle neck. Installation involves pushing the collar and ferrule onto the receptacle neck with the collar in a raised position on the ferrule, and then pushing the collar down relative to the ferrule.

Generally speaking, prior art fragrance dispensers and other personal care product dispensers include a pump or aerosol module with a finger actuator for operating the module. Pump dispensers typically also include at least the following additional components: (1) a ferrule that contains the pump module and crimps onto or otherwise engages the receptacle (e.g., glass bottle, plastic container, or metal can), (2) a gasket that seals the ferrule to the top of the flange on the receptacle's neck (although some dispenser designs do not require a gasket if the ferrule material is soft enough to provide a good seal), and (3) a decorative collar around the ferrule. A cap may also be provided over the finger actuator and collar, either in a slip-fit or a snap-fit arrangement.
Typically, a pump module held in a ferrule is retained on a glass bottle by one of two methods:    (a) the lower edge of the ferrule, typically comprised of aluminum, is collapsed inwardly under the neck flange of the bottle by a crimping tool. Then, the collar is pushed over the ferrule as a separate operation; or    (b) the ferrule, made of either plastic or metal, has one or more retention portions that are moved, or retained, under the neck flange of the bottle by sliding the collar down the ferrule. With some designs, the collar and ferrule are initially "preassembled" by the module manufacturer so that the collar is in an "up" shipping position on the upper end of the ferrule, and subsequently the assembly is shipped to the customer (e.g., a fluid product manufacturer) who mounts the assembly on the bottle flange, and then pushes the collar all the way down on the ferrule to move and/or retain the retention portions under the bottle flange.
In either case, the collar can be metal or plastic. Usually, retention of a plastic collar on the ferrule is not a major concern because designs incorporate either snap fits or high force press fits (i.e., "heavy press fits") that do not compromise the outer aesthetics of the collar. However, metal collars are usually fabricated in aluminum and then anodized to produce a lustrous surface. In order to accommodate physical tolerances in the ferrule and collar diameters, the internal surface of the collar may contain multiple, elongated, vertical ribs that project radially inwardly several thousandths of an inch off the inner surface thereof. When the collar is pushed over the ferrule with a heavy press fit, the collar slightly deforms, distorts, or "breathes," into the shape of a polygon, with a resiliency that accommodates the tolerances. Another function of the ribs is to concentrate the "hoop" stress at multiple points, causing the ribs to dig into the ferrule and thus increase the resistance to removal.
However, finding the optimal parameters that provide the best retention and sealing of the module to the receptacle is difficult and heretofore has been elusive. For example, although the press fit over the ferrule must be strong enough to assure that the collar cannot be accidentally pulled off the ferrule, the fit must not be so strong as to damage the outer surface of the collar. The outer surface of the collar is especially susceptible to damage because the anodized surface of the collar is typically a very thin film of aluminum oxide that contains a colorant dye. When stressed in tension, the oxide film can crack, creating a diffraction grating that produces a rainbow effect that detracts from the aesthetics. As a result, the rib locations become evident on the outer surface of the collar, a condition known as "crazing."
Similarly, while the press fit force must be high enough to compress the gasket sufficiently to ensure sealing to the bottle neck so as to avoid leaking, the press fit force should not be so high as to over-compress the gasket, causing it to extrude out from under the ferrule, or create such stresses that the bottle collapses or breaks.
Accordingly, it can be seen that improvements in the art are still desired. Specifically, it is desired to improve the state of the art collars to be able to increase the collar retention force (i.e., the force required to pull a collar off) while also not requiring so much force in initially applying the collar that crazing, bottle leaking, or breaking occurs.
Another proposal that has been used is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,253,941, which discloses a ferrule with a continuous skirt having an outwardly projecting lower edge which is deformed inwardly under the rim or flange of the container neck by the bottom portion of the rigid outer collar when the collar is forced down over the ferrule during the assembly process. However, it should be appreciated that the ferrule disclosed in that patent can therefore generally rest loosely on the container rim prior to the collar being pushed down over the ferrule during the assembly process. As a result, the ferrule may undesirably be dislodged or otherwise mis-positioned on the container rim during automated machine assembly.
Still another proposal which has been suggested is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,935,540, which describes a collar having angled ribs which facilitate securing of the collar to a ferrule of a dispensing assembly. While the collar such as disclosed therein may be advantageously used with a variety of ferrules, such ferrules may be subjected to some of the same drawbacks as referenced above.
Another improvement that has been suggested is to provide spiraling ribs in the inner surface of the collar, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,810. In that structure, the bottom of the ferrule skirt has circumferentially spaced legs or tabs with catches or feet so that the ferrule may be pushed down over the container rim for initial assembly whereby the tabs will flex out to allow the feet to pass the rim and then snap back in when the feet pass the rim, whereby the feet will grip under the rim. The collar is then pushed down over the ferrule so as to trap the tabs and prevent the tabs from being pulled, or flexing, back out—the lowered collar thereby securing the dispensing assembly on the container rim. The spiral ribs on the collar assist in securing the collar on the ferrule, while also permitting the collar to be subsequently twisted off of the ferrule in order to then permit the tabs to flex out as would be necessary to remove the assembly, such as may be desired for recycling the components of a used assembly.
In a typical method of assembling a dispensing package employing the types of collars and ferrules disclosed in the above-discussed U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,810, the pump module is initially snap-fitted into the ferrule. If the ferrule is not itself capable of providing a seal (e.g., if the ferrule material is not soft enough to compress against and seal against the end of the bottle neck), a gasket is disposed inside the ferrule and around the module in a friction fit. Then the metal collar is mounted partially on the ferrule (i.e., the collar is pushed only partway down on the ferrule) in an "up" shipping position or configuration. The dispensing assembly is then shipped to the customer (e.g., a product manufacturer) for mounting to the bottle containing the fluid product. During such shipping and subsequent handling of the dispensing assembly, care must be exercised to avoid knocking the collar into a crooked orientation or off of the ferrule altogether. Thus, it would be desirable to provide an improved dispensing assembly facilitating initial mounting of the collar on the ferrule so that the collar can be initially positioned in the "up," shipping position with an increased retention force while also accommodating subsequent lowering of the collar completely over the ferrule.
It would be beneficial if an improved dispensing assembly for a dispensing package could optionally accommodate incorporation of various aesthetically pleasing designs.
The improved dispensing assembly should preferably also accommodate designs for use with standard or conventional containers, especially glass bottles.
It would also be desirable if the constituent components of such an improved assembly could be relatively easily and economically manufactured with high production quality, and could provide consistent operating parameters unit-to-unit with high reliability.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above, and provides an improved system which can accommodate designs having one or more the above-discussed benefits and features.

Dispenser assembly for a fluid dispensing receptacle and method of assembling same


Many computer processing tasks require large numbers of memory intensive operations to be performed very rapidly. For example, computer network requires that packets be placed into and removed from First-In First-Out (FIFO) queues, numerous counters to be maintained and routing table look-ups to be performed. All of these operations must be performed at very high-speeds in order to keep up with today's high-speed computer network traffic. To help perform these high-speed memory tasks, a high-speed intelligent memory subsystem has been developed. The high-speed intelligent memory subsystem handles the intricacies of these memory operations such that a main process is relieved of some of its duties. Various different high-level memory interfaces for interfacing with the intelligent memory subsystem. The memory interfaces may be hardware-based or software-based. In one embodiment, two layers of interfaces are implemented such that an internal interface may evolve over successive generations without affecting an externally visible interface.

Modern digital networking devices must operate at very high speeds in order to accommodate ever increasing line speeds and large numbers of different possible output paths. Thus, it is very important to have a high-speed processor in a network device in order to be able to quickly process data packets. However, without an accompanying high-speed memory system, the high-speed network processor may not be able to temporarily store data packets at an adequate rate. Thus, a high-speed digital network device design requires both a high-speed network processor and an associated high-speed memory system.
In addition to the high-performance required, networking applications place a wide variety of memory demands on their associated memory systems. For each packet that passes through a network router that packet must be buffered such that high-speed packet-buffering services are needed. Each packet must also be routed such that very frequent routing table look-ups must be performed to determine where each packet will travel on its next network hop. Each packet will also cause a number of statistics counters to be affected such that these statistics counters must be updated. All of this packet-buffering, table look-ups, and statistics counter memory operations must be performed at very high-speeds.
To provide adequate memory services for such demanding network applications, traditional network routers generally employ multiple different types of memory technology coupled to a network processor. A high-speed network device may contain a network processor that is coupled to three or more different types of memory subsystems. For example, a first memory system may be used for packet-buffering, a second memory system may be used for storing statistics counters, and a third memory system is used for storing look-up tables. Such a memory arrangement is very complex and cumbersome. That type of memory arrangement of requires an individual connection to each different type of memory such that many input/output pins are required on the network processor and the printed circuit board layout due to the multiple memory buses. Furthermore, such a memory arrangement may use a large amount of memory such that the memory system will be expensive to implement, consume large amounts of power, and require significant amounts of printed circuit board area.
Due to the overwhelmingly complexity and high cost of conventional memory systems for high-speed network devices, it would be desirable to find an improved method of creating high-speed memory systems for network devices that require a large variety of memory services at very high speeds. Ideally, such a memory system would provide a consistent memory interface that would provide all of the different types of memory services needed by network devices.