A wireless CDMA communication system receiver receives a stream of chips generated by spreading data symbols formed by grouping bits of information at a wireless CDMA communication transmitter which are broadcast at a certain chip-rate. The received chips are de-spread and symbols pertaining to respective users are reconstructed. The stream of chips are formatted into blocks of chips, and an iterative block decision feedback equalization is performed in a frequency domain at the chip-rate of the broadcast stream of chips to remove inter-symbol interference by defining a transfer function. The chips generated are interleaved by spreading each data symbol being transmitted before broadcasting the stream of interleaved chips in distinct blocks of chips.

The latest generation of mobile networks requires an ever expanded capacity to support high-rate multimedia applications on a common communication channel [1]. Since the spectrum is dynamically assigned to users, an access scheme is needed to share the radio transmission resources. Among the various alternatives proposed, many are based on the technique known as code division multiple access (CDMA) due to its flexibility and low-cost implementation.
According to the CDMA technique, bits of information are produced at a certain bit rate. For example, if a bit is produced every Tb seconds, the rate is 1/Tb. The bits of information that are produced are grouped to form spectrum symbols to be broadcast at a certain symbol rate. For example, if there are 4 bits for each symbol, the symbol rate of transmission will correspond to 1/T=¼Tb.
From each symbol to be broadcast N_S chips are obtained and are eventually broadcast in a block format. Therefore, the chip-rate is the rate at which the chips are generated. For the considered example, the chip-rate is N_S/T.
A scheme according to which data bits are grouped to form data symbols and from which a number of respective chips are obtained is illustrated in FIG. 1. Unfortunately, multipath propagation of the channel of each user significantly affects performance of CDMA transmissions. In fact, channel dispersion disrupts orthogonality among codes of different users causing multi-user access interference (MAI). Multi-user access interference (MAI) means that any block of a de-spread signal will not ideally contain the spread chips belonging to a certain CDMA symbol. On the contrary, it will contain beside the spread chips of the CDMA symbol pertaining to the user and incumbent noise but also the spread chips of CDMA symbols pertaining to other users. Interference among the transmitted chips of a CDMA symbol of the user is known as interchip interference (ICI). As a consequence, de-spreading of the received chips within the receiver may sometimes not properly restore the data signal with the effect of producing so-called inter-symbol interference (ISI).
To contrast MAI, ICI and ISI, various receiver architectures have been proposed. One of the most common approaches is the rake receiver [2], which for moderately dispersive channels provides a good trade-off between complexity and performance. As channel dispersion increases, the performance of this receiver significantly degrades. Top performance receivers should include multi-user detection (MUD), whereby more users may be simultaneously detected [3]. A suboptimal, but still effective MUD technique is that of interference cancellation (IC), according to which, in cascade of a bank of rake receivers, data of all users are detected to permit tentative decisions that are used to construct MAI, which as purposely reconstructed may be then cancelled out of the received signal. Two IC schemes have been proposed: serial IC (SIC) and parallel IC (PIC).
According to the SIC scheme, at each stage only one user is detected and its interference contribution is canceled before detecting the next user and so forth. According to the PIC scheme, simultaneous detection of all users and IC are performed iteratively. However, the performance of known SIC and PIC schemes with rake receivers remains affected by ICI and ISI. Moreover, because the rake receivers operate at the chip-rate, computational complexity of such SIC and PIC schemes may become significant for channels with more than just a few taps.
To curb ICI, linear equalizers operating at the chip-rate have been studied [4], [5], and a joint equalization and MUD scheme has been proposed [6]. With regard to non-linear approaches, a common equalization structure comprises a feed-forward filter operating at the chip-rate, and a feedback filter which is fed with prior detected symbols [7]-[11]. A scheme that iterates IC and linear equalization has been proposed [11] according to which coding step is included in the iterative process. This increases significantly the overall complexity.
All these receiver structures operate in the time domain (TD) at the chip-rate, hence their computational complexity is quite high. To reduce complexity, two efficient implementations of PIC have been investigated [12]. The first concentrates the IC only on the most significant terms, while the second exploits the multistage organization of PIC to avoid double calculations.
Another structure has been proposed in [13], wherein design and performance evaluations are derived for channels with particular statistical properties and for the asymptotic case of infinite length filters. The efficiency of the receiver is enhanced by implementing all filters in the frequency domain (FD) through element-wise products of discrete Fourier transforms (DFTs), and the resulting structure is denominated FD-IC. Equivalence between time-domain filtering and the DFT products is ensured by employing a special transmission format of data block, according to which the stream of chips is divided into blocks separated either by a cyclic extension or by a fixed PN sequence [14], [15]. Drawbacks of this structure are a slight bandwidth inefficiency due to the data block extension, and an increased latency because detection is performed on blocks of CDMA symbols.
At the receiver, for each stage of the IC process, a block DFE step is iterated with a detection step. In particular, for each user, at the first iteration only the feed-forward (FF) filter is active and a tentative decision on data is produced. At the next iterations, decisions already produced during previous iterations are used to generate the feedback (FB) filter input signal, the output of which is added to the FF filter output before the new data detection, [11]. Notwithstanding the fact that the coefficients of both FF and FB filters are varied, depending on the reliability of the detected data at the previous iteration when studying the performance of many channels, error propagation in the DFE block becomes significant due to the CDMA spreading, whereby an error on one symbol generates a burst of wrong chips.

Frequency-domain multi-user access interference cancellation and nonlinear equalization in CDMA receivers


A warhead which may be integrated, for example, in a bazooka, is capable of shooting through a wall protecting an enemy. For that purpose, a tandem charge includes a hollow charge which produces in the wall a firing passage for a follow-up charge. The follow-up charge is in the form of a fragmentation projectile which produces fragments behind the wall.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a warhead with a tandem charge, including a fuze for sensing a target. A tandem charge includes a hollow charge which is fixed with respect to a housing, and with a smaller-caliber second-fired or follow-up charge being axially displaceable within a guide tube for the subsequent flight of the second-fired charge. Included are safety devices for the first and second-fired charges, providing for a firing delay for the second-fired charge.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
A warhead with a tandem charge as set forth hereinabove is generally known from the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,803,928. In a housing there are arranged a target detector for either impact or proximity, an explosive charge operating on the principle of a hollow charge, a guide housing having an axially guided second-fired charge arranged therein, a propellent charge for the second-fired charge and a detonator for triggering of the hollow charge and of the second-fired charge. The guide housing for the second-fired charge together with the propellent charge thereof is pressure-resistant because of the high pressure exerted thereon by the propellent charge, and consequently possesses a comparatively large weight. This essentially signifies that the warhead is adapted for the destruction of aircraft runways by the explosive charge which produces a bore in the concrete slab of the runway, into which there penetrates the second-fired charge and then detonates therein.
Moreover, German Patent 26 29 280 discloses a warhead designed for deployment against aircraft which are disposed in shelters. That particular warhead incorporates a structure which, in principle, is similar to that disclosed in the above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,803,928. In that arrangement, however, the second-fired charge which is propelled by a propellent charge is in the form of a fragmentation projectile in order to increase the hitting probability thereof.
The above-mentioned known warheads are not suitable for use in combat areas and against shelters or dugouts which are protected behind barricades or barriers, since in fact the barriers which are constituted from heterogeneous materials are penetrated but, due to the high kinetic energy of the warhead, the latter is either not triggered or detonated too late.
It is readily obvious, that due to new and more stringent target criteria, represented by a barrier or barricade, it is necessary to correspondingly change the sensor device of the fuze. The foregoing then results in the unsatisfactory only partially successful condition that the barrier is admittedly penetrated by the hollow charge; however, the second-fired charge does not produce an effect by virtue of its delayed or post-acceleration.


A device, system, and method are directed towards employing a beacon to sniff a network metric. When a mobile device requests content from a content server, the content server obtains a beacon be a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that encodes information about the mobile device, a network carrier, a time the beacon is generated, a connection type, or the like. The beacon may further provide a link to a small image, file, or the like. The beacon may be included with the response to the mobile device. When the mobile device receives the response, it may send a request for content using the beacon's link. A time that the request for the beacon's content is received by a server is recorded. A reverse round trip time (RRTT) may then be determined based on the encoded information and the time the beacon is received.

According to some studies, the volume of digital information over a wireless network is expected to continue to increase over the coming years. This may not be so surprising considering that more people are using their mobile phones, and other mobile devices to communicate data over networks. However, with this increased use have come numerous issues regarding network traffic. Often, these issues range from business to consumer response times, to the time required to deliver business information to a traveler using their mobile device, to the download time for rich media such as music, videos, and so forth.
However, for many content providers that employ network carriers to communicate content to their mobile subscribers, there may be little, if any visibility of network slow-downs, dropped connections, disconnects, or the like. In many cases, a content provider may learn about a network carrier's performance problems after the fact, rather than while problems are occurring. Sometimes, the content providers learn about networking problems from disgruntled subscribers that may believe the problems reside with the content provider.
If the content providers were able to access the metrics on a network carrier's performance more quickly, the content provider would be in a better position to respond to networking issues. Therefore, it is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.

Auto sniffing of carrier performance using reverse round trip time


Embodiments of the invention relate to a method for managing subscriptions. The method includes monitoring a plurality of query requests executing on a plurality of query nodes, identifying, based on the monitoring, a query request of the plurality of query requests that satisfies a hidden subscription criterion, and generating a hidden subscription for the query request.

Companies collect large amounts of data about their own operations. This data is then analyzed to determine, among other things, how to improve the operation of the company and/or how to plan for the future operation of the company. The traditional approach to efficiently analyzing data (or data sets) is to load the data (or data sets) into memory and then analyze the in-memory data. As the size of data sets that need to be analyzed has grown, the traditional approach has become impractical or at a minimum cost prohibitive. Specifically, in order to keep all of the data in memory, a larger amount of memory needs to be provisioned and additional overhead needs to be expended in order to ensure that the data in the memory is current. Further, as the size of the data set increases, it is difficult to efficiently and effectively scale the hardware and software infrastructure necessary to analyze the larger data set.

Method and system for implementing hidden subscriptions in a distributed computation system


An apparatus for extending a pipe through a wall. The apparatus includes a ball joint through which at least one pipe extends, an inner pipe, which extends through the ball joint and through which a fluid material may transfer, a housing unit, which substantially surrounds the ball joint and comprises resin bonding surfaces that that seal the housing unit to the ball joint, and a flange unit, which affixes to the housing unit and comprises resin bonding surfaces that seal the flange unit to a wall. The angle between the longitudinal axis of the inner pipe and a line orthogonal to the wall through which the pipe extends is in the range of between about 0 and 20 degrees.

Numerous conventional fitting devices exist that provide a manner for sealing a tube or a pipe that extends through a wall. However, many applications require double conduit tubing, a fitting device that can penetrate a double walled tank, and flexibility during installation. For example, many applications would benefit from a fitting device that could pass a double conduit pipe through a tank wall at an angle. Conventional devices, however, fail to provide such a means for angling the tubing and therefore greatly restrict the ease of installation and severely limit the effective implementation of the fitting device. Further, conventional fitting devices fail to provide a spacing system for the inner and outer flanges of the fitting, thereby causing improper seating and sealing of the fitting device on the tank wall(s).

Apparatus and method for a ball joint fitting assembly


A system and method are disclosed for performing ranging operations between two wireless devices without employing cyclic shift diversity (CSD) compensation techniques. For some embodiments, a first wireless device sends a negotiation request frame requesting the second wireless device to respond to subsequently received frames of a specified type using a selected one of the transmit chains in the second wireless device. Thereafter, the first wireless device sends a data frame to the second wireless device to initiate a ranging operation. The second wireless device sends a response frame of the specified type to the first wireless device using the selected one of the transmit chains.

The recent proliferation of Wi-Fi access points in wireless local area networks (WLANs) has made it possible for positioning systems to use these access points for position determination, especially in areas where there is a large concentration of active Wi-Fi access points (e.g., urban cores, shopping centers, office buildings, and so on). For example, a client device or station (STA) such as a cell phone or tablet computer can use the round trip time (RTT) of signals transmitted to and from the access points (APs) to calculate the distances between the STA and the APs. Once the distances between the STA and three APs are calculated, the location of the STA can be estimated using trilateration techniques. Similarly, the distance between a pair of STAs may also be calculated using the RTT of signals transmitted between the STAs, and thereafter trilateration techniques may be used to determine and/or verify the locations of the STAs.
For example, referring to FIG. 1, the distance (d) between an access point (AP) and a mobile station (STA) may be calculated as d=c*tp/2=c*(RTT-TAT)/2, where c is the speed of light, tp is the summation of the actual signal propagation times of a request (REQ) frame and an acknowledgement (ACK) frame exchanged between the AP and the STA, and TAT is the turn-around time (or processing delay) corresponding to the time delay between the STA receiving the REQ frame from the AP and beginning its transmission of the ACK frame to back the AP. The value of RTT may be measured by the AP as the difference between (1) the time of departure (TOD) of the REQ frame from the AP and (2) the time of arrival (TOA) of the ACK frame at the AP. The value of TAT is typically estimated.
Multiple input-multiple output (MIMO) technology may increase data throughput by allowing wireless devices (e.g., APs and STAs) to transmit data using multiple transmit chains and antennas. For MIMO devices, cyclic shift diversity (CSD) may be introduced between the transmit chains to prevent beam-forming by the multiple antennas. However, when performing ranging operations between wireless devices, phase delays associated with the CSD introduced between the transmit chains in the STA may result in errors associated with the measured TOA values of received signals. For example, referring again to FIG. 1, if the STA uses multiple transmit chains to send the ACK frame to the AP, then the CSD between the multiple transmit chains in the STA may result in different TOA values measured by the AP. A number of post processing operations may be used to compensate for the different TOA values resulting from CSD introduced by the STA when transmitting the ACK frame using multiple transmit chains. In addition to consuming power and processing resources, these post processing operations may not accurately compensate for CSD.
Thus, there is a need to increase the accuracy of RTT ranging operations performed between two wireless devices.

Method of enabling single chain ranging operations


Negative pressure applying means for generating a meniscus in a nozzle hole through a balance with a negative pressure applied to an ink chamber via a restrictor part; pressurizing means for supplying pressurized ink to the ink chamber; withdrawal controlling means for drive-controlling an actuator for changing the volume in the ink chamber to withdraw the meniscus until the balance with the negative pressure is broken through the change of the volume in the ink chamber in response to the driving of the actuator; and recovery controlling means for, after the negative pressure applying means withdraws the ink in the ink chamber to the restrictor part, controlling the pressurizing means to supply the ink to the ink chamber and again generate the meniscus are provided. The pressurizing means pressurizes the ink under a pressure where the meniscus is not broken, and supplies the ink to the ink chamber.

The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus that drives an actuator and discharges ink in an ink chamber from a nozzle, and a control method of the inkjet recording apparatus.
Conventionally, as a recording apparatus that is relatively simple in configuration and easy in high speed recording and high quality recording, an ink jet recording apparatus is known. The ink jet recording apparatus supplies ink to an ink chamber of a recording head, drives a piezoelectric element and the like in accordance with an image data, and discharges the ink in the ink chamber as an ink drop from a nozzle to a recording medium such as a paper and the like, and then records a pattern of an ink dot. However, there is a case where a micro air bubble dissolved in the ink is grown in the ink chamber and the like, and the air bubble is generated in the ink chamber, and a discharging defect is consequently induced.
So, a purging operation and a flushing operation are carried out to try the removal of the air bubble. For example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 10-305587 (1998), in situation where a cap is in contact with a nozzle surface of a recording head, a suction pump linked to the cap is used to suck the ink inside a nozzle chamber together with the air bubble and exhaust to outside. Or, the ink is pressurized, and the ink inside the nozzle chamber together with the air bubble is discharged to the cap and exhausted to the outside.

Ink jet recording apparatus and control method thereof


The present invention relates to a method for segmenting a myocardial wall with the following steps: recording a first data record and a second data record in the same cardiac phase by means of x-ray radiation with differing radiation intensities, reconstructing the myocardial wall from the first and second data record. To generate a detailed and complete reconstruction of the myocardial wall, it is proposed that the method be supplemented by the following steps: separating an inside and an outside of the myocardial wall from the data record recorded with higher radiation intensity, and separating tissue interspersing the myocardial wall between the inside and the outside, in particular fatty tissue, from the data record recorded with lower radiation intensity.

A generic method, in particular using an x-ray tomograph with two x-ray beam sources is known from the publication "First performance evaluation of a dual-source CT (DSCT) system" by Flohr et al., which appeared in Eur. Radiol. 2006, 16, pages 256 to 268.
By recording a first data record and a second data record of the myocardial wall in the same cardiac phase by means of x-ray radiation with differing radiation intensities, the myocardial wall is segmented by the first data record and the second data record. However a corresponding image comprises only an external outline of the myocardial wall and shows the coronary arteries.
Current studies show that cardiological diseases are constantly on the increase. There is therefore a need to identify possible pathological changes, stenoses, constrictions, etc, as early as possible. There is therefore an emphasis on segmenting the pump function of the heart and in this process principally that of the left chamber, the so-called ventricle and its myocardial wall, the myocardium. Stenosed or calcified coronary arteries, which are no longer able to supply the myocardium with sufficient oxygen-rich blood, have the greatest negative effect on this pump function. As a result the muscle of the region supplied by the corresponding coronary artery is weakened and in time ceases to play an active role in the contracting movement, thereby weakening cardiac output. During the further course of the disease fat cells accumulate specifically at these less perfused points of the myocardium.
In current standard examinations coronary protocols are used, which set the dose of an x-ray tube of a CT scanner so that it is possible to achieve an optimum contrast between the lightness of the interiors of the coronary arteries filled with contrast agent and the darkness of external tissue. This standard protocol allows a distinction between contrast agent and tissue but makes a tissue classification between the myocardium and surrounding tissue, which is of interest for cardiological applications, virtually impossible. The reason for this is a relatively high x-ray tube voltage, typically approximately 120 kV, for recording a first data record.
In current cardiological examinations, such as induced computed tomography scans—abbreviated to CT scans—an attempt is made to find pathological changes to the coronary arteries by examining the coronary arteries themselves. In other words an attempt is made to find constrictions and stenoses or calcifications by tracking each individual coronary artery in the CT data and checking for pathological changes. This method has three significant disadvantages:
Firstly this method is very time-consuming, since every individual branch of the coronary arteries would have to be tracked in CT recordings. A large number of branches of the coronary arteries means a time outlay that is no longer reasonable. To manage this time outlay, frequently only a few main branches of the coronary arteries are examined, resulting in a greatly reduced probability of discovery. In other words the pathological changes are only identified very late and not at an initial stage, thereby resulting in a lower probability of recovery and serious and extremely cost-intensive delay consequences.
Secondly pathological changes in the coronary arteries that are present in the initial stage cannot be detected on the basis of examinations of the coronary arteries themselves.

Method for segmenting a myocardial wall and device for detecting a coronary artery with pathological changes


A system for applying recipes of semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses includes a plurality of apparatus controllers respectively arranged for semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, a host computer commonly connected to the apparatus controllers to store process recipes, and a group controller which is commonly connected to the apparatus controllers through a channel different from channels which connect the apparatus controllers to the host computer, and is connected to the host computer through a dedicated channel to directly exchange information with the host computer. The host computer sends process recipes to the respective apparatus controllers, writes/reads out a recipe in/from the group controller through the dedicated channel, and reads out a recipe history therefrom through the dedicated channel. The apparatus controllers respectively operate the semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses on the basis of the process recipes sent from the host computer. The group controller stores a history of a process recipe used by the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

The present invention relates to a system for applying recipes of semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses.
A process for manufacturing semiconductor wafers or liquid crystal substrates generally comprises various steps, e.g., the film formation step, the coating/developing step, the etching step, the ion implantation step, and the diffusion step. A to-be-processed substrate, e.g., a semiconductor wafer (to be referred to as a wafer hereinafter), sequentially moves among a plurality of stations corresponding to the above steps. Predetermined processes proceed in this manner. In general, a plurality of identical treatment apparatuses are installed at each station to cope with mass production. These apparatuses are managed by a high level controller. Consider, for example, a batch scheme type heat treatment apparatus. In a heat treatment apparatus of this type, many wafers are mounted on a wafer boat in the form of shelves. This wafer boat is loaded into a vertical heat treatment furnace to heat-treat the wafers.
In a conventional heat treatment station system, a plurality of heat treatment apparatuses are controlled by a host computer through a group controller. More specifically, a recipe ID for designating process information required to heat-treat the wafer is sent from the host computer to the group controller. The group controller holds the recipes used by the respective heat treatment apparatuses. The group controller edits recipes in accordance with the recipe IDs from the host computer, performs management such as storage of the histories of process recipes used, and exchanges the process recipes to be executed with the respective heat treatment apparatuses. Each heat treatment apparatus is operated on the basis of the received recipes. The process data for each apparatus, e.g., changes in temperature, pressure, gas flow, and the like, is temporarily sent to the group controller, from which the data is transferred to the host computer.
In the conventional system having the above arrangement, however, when the group controller goes down, the treatment apparatuses cannot receive any recipes, and hence cannot be operated. Even if a given apparatus has already received a recipe for one process and can be operated, the recipe cannot be copied in the remaining apparatuses. The remaining apparatuses cannot therefore be operated. In addition, no process data can be transferred to the host computer, and no operation state of the apparatuses can be monitored by the host computer. As a result, the entire system goes down, and cannot be restarted until the group controller is restored.

System for applying recipe of semiconductor manufacturing apparatus


The present invention relates to a composition for treating synthetic textile material and a method of using it. The composition comprises a smectite clay to scour the textile material, a wetting agent to enhance addition of the clay to other components of the composition, a sequestrant to sequester metal ions that inhibit the performance of the clay, and, when the composition is an aqueous slurry, a viscosity control agent to adjust the viscosity of the composition in order to prevent separating or settling of the clay. The method comprises contacting the textile material with the synthetic textile material treating composition under conditions sufficient to remove the contaminants from the textile material and washing the textile material treating composition off of the textile material, thereby producing a treated textile material from which the contaminants have been removed.

The present invention relates to a composition and method of treating synthetic textile material used in yarns, textiles and carpets to scour the textile material, make it more susceptible to dyeing, and/or to enhance other properties of the textile material while reducing the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) in effluents resulting from the treatment. The composition comprises clay and appropriate formulation adjuvants.
Various types of clays, particularly smectite, have been used in the past for treating wastewater, for bleaching edible oils, in laundering wash and rinse cycles, and in fabric softening in automatic clothes dryers, among many other uses.
Bentonite clay has been used in combination with a wetting agent and a sequestrant for bleaching cotton. The clay adsorbs color bodies that are oily impurities on the cotton fiber.
Although there has been a long-felt need for a product that effectively scours synthetic textile material of the type used in yarns particularly suitable for carpets, as well as the carpeting material made from them, and there has been a like long-felt need for the use of such a product which does not contaminate effluent with high BOD and COD discharge levels, those familiar with the carpet dyeing and finishing industry have not found a solution to these problems. The present invention is a solution to the long-felt, but unsolved problems particularly in the carpet industry, but it also is applicable more broadly, for example to textile material used as wearing apparel and particularly spandex-containing material. Use of the composition of the present invention adsorbed and precipitated organic impurities, which reduced subsequent BOD and COD in effluents. Dyeing of the treated textile material, and especially the carpet material and yarn used for carpets, is noticeably superior compared to material treated with the current scouring products.

Clay-containing textile material treating composition and method


When a trouble has occurred in any one or more of copying machines, a data terminal (i.e. an equipment management apparatus) transmits to the computer of the management center the trouble data and the management data about the copying machines in which no trouble has occurred. Therefore, the management data about a plurality of copying machines can be efficiently transmitted to the computer of the management center. The copying machine of which management data is to be transmitted together with the trouble data is determined in accordance with the count number remaining until the time for the next regular maintenance comes. As a result, the management data about the copying machine which is scheduled to have regular maintenance in a near future can be transmitted to the computer of the management center prior to other data. The management center can know which copying machine is scheduled to have maintenance in a near future. As a result, a service engineer can be efficiently dispatched.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an equipment management apparatus for performing a centralized management of a plurality of equipment, an equipment management system, and an equipment management method. More specifically, the present invention relates to an equipment management apparatus which collects management information from a plurality of equipment, and transmits the collected management information to a centralized management center via communication lines, an equipment management system including the equipment management apparatus and the centralized management apparatus of the centralized management center, and an equipment management method which is carried out by use of these apparatuses.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there has been known equipment management system in which centralized management is performed for a plurality of equipment by a centralized management center via communication lines. As such equipment management system, known is a system in which, instead of providing a communication line to each of a plurality of equipment, the plurality of equipment are all together connected to one equipment management apparatus, and the equipment management apparatus is connected to the centralized management center via one communication line. Information about expendables and information about trouble or the like are transmitted from each of equipment to the centralized management center via the equipment management apparatus. Based on the information, the centralized management center performs centralized management for each of equipment.
In the conventional equipment management system such as described above, each information transmitted from each of equipment is managed independently of each other. Therefore, one signal transmission from the equipment management apparatus is performed on information about single equipment. If an increased number of equipment is connected to the equipment management apparatus, the number of signal transmissions from the equipment management apparatus is increased accordingly. In this case, there arises a problem that the processing in the centralized management center is complicated, and increased fee is required for using the communication lines. In addition, there may arise another problem as follows. When a trouble has occurred in one of the plurality of equipment, a service engineer is dispatched to deal with the trouble. In this case, if there arises a necessity of maintenance for another equipment immediately after the dispatch of the service engineer, the service engineer must be dispatched again for the maintenance of another equipment.
In addition, since a plurality of equipment are connected to one equipment management apparatus, there may be a case where, after the equipment management apparatus receives information from each of the plurality of equipment, the timings of transmitting the plural pieces of information from the equipment management apparatus to the centralized management center are overlapped (i.e. become simultaneous). In the conventional management system, it may be impossible to assign higher priority to information with more importance and information with higher urgency over other information, and therefore, may be impossible to transmit such information to the centralized management center prior to other information.

Equipment management apparatus, equipment management system, and equipment management method


A measurement method for determining the position of an omega profile component placed on a shell component of an aircraft, in which the ACTUAL position of the omega profile component relative to the shell component is optically acquired in a contactless manner, so as to subsequently compare the latter with a defined DESIRED position, wherein several adjacently spaced apart measuring points are established at two mutually opposing flank sides of the profile cross section of the omega profile component, through which a regression line is run according to the path measurement principle based on coordinates, whose point of intersection is drawn upon to determine the orthogonal position of the omega profile component relative to the shell component.

The area of application for the invention extends primarily to aircraft construction. In particular commercial aircraft are fabricated using a shell type of construction with respect to the large-volume fuselages, wherein an internal reinforcement structure supports a shell component, which as the outer skin comprises the outside surface of the fuselage. The internal reinforcement structure usually consists of longitudinally running stringers and frames running transversely and roughly annularly thereto, which are joined to the shell component on the inside. In modern production technologies, at least the stringers are most often bonded to the shell component during its fabrication, so that separate attachment means, such as rivets, need not be used. Aside from T-stringers, so-called omega stringers are used for this purpose, and are here also referred to as omega profile components. Within the framework of the present invention, omega profile components are understood as cross sectional forms of profile components, which exhibit an open profile cross section, and together with the shell component yield a closed profile. For example, the profile cross sections are here symmetrical, and exhibit two nonparallel, opposing flank sides extending away from the shell component.
By comparison to the T-stringers, such profile cross sections have a greater area moment of inertia, so that they impart a high stability in particular to an aircraft structure. In a special embodiment, an omega profile component involves a reinforcement profile made out of metal or plastic with a roughly hat-shaped, symmetrical cross section. In addition to aircraft construction, these components can also be used in conjunction with other large-scale shell components from automotive engineering, ship engineering and the like. The solution according to the invention can also be applied thereto.
Known from DE 103 31 358 A1 is a method for fabricating a structural component of an aircraft fuselage, in which the stringers are bonded to the shell component in a special manufacturing process. The outer surfaces of the mold carrier with the modular profiles imbedded in annular channels are here covered with a loosely overlying film. The hollow space formed by the gaps is exposed to a vacuum in such a way as to aspirate the film over the annular channel and slits of the modular profiles. After a sufficient vacuum has been achieved, the film roller is coupled with the vacuum skin roller in such a way that the film is wound, and the vacuum skin is unwound on the outer surfaces of the modular profiles, and drawn into the profile grooves of the depressions in a dimensionally accurate manner. Stringers provided with support elements are subsequently inserted into the profile grooves covered by the vacuum skin. All fiber composite skin layers are then placed on the vacuum skin-covered outer surfaces of the modular profiles and the stringers. Finally, an optimal quantity of sealing compound is applied to the outer skin layer. A structural shell is precisely fitted onto the sealing compound, so as to compact the sealing compound in such a way as to yield a vacuum-tight seal between the vacuum skin and structural shell. After the prescribed process vacuum has been reached, the cavity between the vacuum skin and structural shell, the vacuum is also turned off, and the hollow space is opened toward the atmosphere. The structural shell can thereupon be lifted and rotated by 180°, so as to subject the latter to an injection and curing process. The finished structural shell comprised of a shell component can subsequently be removed from the mold with stringers.
Before curing and/or after fabricating such a structural component, the stringer position relative to the shell component must be measured, in order to run a quality control for dimensional accuracy. This had previously been accomplished in complicated manual measurements by means of a photometric procedure, in which markings must first be provided to the stringer face and shell component, which are subsequently acquired by a picture camera and evaluated through image processing.
However, the present invention can also be used independently of the so-called AutoVac process described above. The basic application involves a shell component with omega profile components, regardless of the method used in their fabrication.

Measurement method and device for determining the position of a profile component applied to a shell component


A method for selecting an analysis procedure for a value series, including displaying a value series on a computer display monitor, receiving one or more sequences of user provided annotations, where the annotations overlay at least a sub-interval of the value series on the computer display monitor, using the sequences of user provided annotations to select an optimal value series analysis method from a set of value series analysis methods, where selecting an optimal value series analysis method includes determining parameter values for the optimal value series analysis method, and presenting the selected optimal value series analysis method and parameters, and the optimal reconstruction of the annotation sequences to the user.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure is directed to methods for preprocessing value series data, which encompasses time series data, for selecting an appropriate analysis method and tuning parameters.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Choosing the right analysis method and tuning its parameters appropriately is a prerequisite for making useful analytics applications. This is especially true for the analysis of time or value series. The tuning and selecting of the right analysis method on the one hand requires statistical expertise to understand the methods and their tuning process while on the other hand requires domain expertise to interpret the data and understand the task of interest. The statistical analysis is frequently difficult to understand and use for the domain expert while statisticians waste time acquiring the necessary domain expertise for solving the task of interest.
A typical example is the denoising of time series derived from sensor data. Such series can exhibit anything from random noise added to the actual signal to extreme values or complete sensor failure.
There are many methods known for filtering noise and removing outliers from data. Simple examples are smoothing algorithms based on moving averages, spline based methods, or filtering techniques such as low pass filters, etc.
There are challenges with these methods.                Setting the parameters is a non-trivial task that usually requires a considerable amount of background knowledge, e.g., about the properties of the sensors. The choice of the best denoising method among a large number of diverse and highly tunable methods requires statistical expertise.        The "right" filtering parameters may change over time, possible even frequently. A sensor could, for example, exhibit different properties by day and by night.        The search space can be huge, which creates challenges from a point of view of computation complexity and statistical significance.
For these reasons, pre-processing large amounts of time series for analytics is still a very work intensive task that requires profound statistical knowledge about the properties of filters and the distribution of the original data.
Instead of this, an improved method would:                1. be simple enough to be used by an expert without too much statistical knowledge;        2. reduce the amount of interaction to a minimum; and        3. allow for a fine grained application of methods to a single or a set of series.
The current state of the art is to do this by a trial and error approach with the expert testing different methods and parameters to tune these methods to find the most suitable. This approach may, however, require much manual work and is prone to errors.
One alternative, if given a supervised learning task, is to use a wrapper with evolutionary computing to optimize the parameters for this task. As the search space for this optimization can be huge, these methods are likely to over-fit and have a high computational complexity. In addition, these methods are only applicable for supervised tasks. There are also methods of semi-supervised learning for clustering, which usually take pairs of entities and label them as similar or dissimilar. Based on this, optimal parameters and a distance metric can be learned. While these methods might work well for some data sets, they usually require many labeled pairs, and rely on good existing features, which are usually not available for value series. Furthermore, those methods are usually tuned for clustering and are not appropriate for analyzing value series. Most importantly, the interaction with the user is limited to labels given by the user, which restricts the interaction between the user and the analysis system.

Automatic tuning of value-series analysis tasks based on visual feedback

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


The present invention relates to a method to control a liquid feed stream carried out by measuring at least one spectrum of the liquid feed stream comprising an initiator or catalyst, determining its activity using a predictive model on the basis of said spectrum and adjusting the feed streams and/or the preparation conditions of the feed stream comprising the initiators or catalysts in order to attain or maintain a desired level of total activity. In a further aspect the invention relates to a controlled process for the preparation of polymers in a polymerization reactor by contacting liquid feed streams comprising monomers and initiators or catalysts, whereby the control of the feed streams entering the polymerization reactor and/or the initiator or catalyst preparation is carried out by measuring at least one spectrum of the liquid feed stream comprising an initiator or catalyst, determining its activity using a predictive model on the basis of said spectrum and adjusting the feed streams and/or the preparation conditions of the feed stream comprising the initiators or catalysts in order to attain or maintain a desired level of total activity within the polymerization reactor. More particularly, the invention relates to a method for controlling the activity of aluminum containing initiators in a process for the co-polymerization of isolefins and multiolefins, in particular isobutylene and isoprene. The present invention further to device and a chemical plant suitable to operate said process.

Initiator or catalyst systems for polymerizations often exhibit highly variable and poorly controllable or reproducible activity since the typically extremely low concentration of active centers is strongly influenced by preparation conditions and the presence of trace components.
The assessment of a initiator or catalyst systems typically require intense testing since established analytic methods suitable for online monitoring of the activity of initiators or catalysts are currently not available.
Real-time monitoring of monomer consumption and polymer formation for example via ATR-IR or calorimetric measurements is known from Storey, R. F.; Donnalley, A. B.; Maggio, T. L. Macromolecules 1998, 31, 1523 and A. Ledwith, E. Lockett, D. C. Sherrington, Polymer 1975, 16, 31. However, the contribution and quality of the initiator activity and their distinction from other factors that also may influence polymerization kinetics was not measured.
In X. Xu, Y. Wu, Y. Qiu, C. Dong, G. y. Wu, H. Wang, Eur. Polym. J. 2006, 42, 2791 and L. Balogh, L. Fabián, I. Majoros, T. Kelen, Polym. Bull. 1990, 23, 75 conductivity measurements have been used to determine ion concentrations and degree of dissociation in initiator solutions.
In G. Heublein, J. Macromol. Sci.-Chem. 1985, A22, 1277 and R. Metava, C. Konstantinov, V. Kaibanov, J. Polym. Sci. Part A, Polym. Chem. 1970, 8, 3563 attempts are disclosed to link initiator characteristics to catalytic activity.
It is further known from EP 0 948 761 A to control the properties of a halobutyl rubber product by using variable process parameters, in particular Mooney viscosity and polymer molecular weight distribution as process control parameters. The process is performed using an in situ measurement system that does not require the removal of any sample material from the process and which comprises inter alia a Fourier Transform Near Infrared (FTNIR) spectrometer. However, EP 0 948 761 A does not disclose a manufacturing process for polymers which uses the activity of a catalyst or a initiator employed in a polymerization process as process control parameter.
Therefore, there was still a need for a process which allows to determine the activity before using the initiator or catalyst in a continuous or batch polymerization reaction and in particular to control the amount of catalyst or initiator employed in said polymerization process by using the activity as process control parameter.

Activity monitoring and polymerization process control


The present invention provides a reflective control switchable thin film material that can become completely colorless when transparent, and the present invention relates to a reflective control switchable thin film material composed of a multilayer thin film in which a magnesium-titanium alloy thin film is used, and to reflective light control glass, and light control window glass, wherein a magnesium-titanium alloy thin film is used as a control switchable layer, a catalyst layer is formed on the surface of the thin film, a protective layer is optionally formed over the catalyst layer, the material has chromic characteristics whereby a colorless and transparent state is produced by hydrogenation at room temperature (about 20° C.), and the material has chromic characteristics whereby a mirror state is produced by dehydrogenation at room temperature (about 20° C.), and thereby a novel magnesium-titanium alloy thin film material that exhibits excellent reflective control switchable characteristics and is colorless when transparent is provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reflective control switchable thin film material and reflective control switchable (light control) glass in which a magnesium-titanium alloy thin film is used, and more particularly relates to a novel magnesium-titanium alloy-based reflective light control material used in light control glass that automatically controls the amount of sunlight coming through window glass, without using blinds or curtains, and to reflective light control glass produced using this material. The present invention provides window material technology pertaining to a novel reflective control switchable thin film material for controlling the transmissivity of sunlight through the windows of buildings or vehicles.
2. Description of the Related Art
Windows (openings) are generally the place where the most heat comes into and goes out of buildings. For example, about 48% of the heat produced by heating systems in winter escapes through windows, and the proportion of heat that comes in through the windows of air-conditioned rooms in summer can reach about 71%. Therefore, a tremendous energy savings can be realized by effectively controlling light and heat at windows. Light control glass was developed for this purpose, and its function is to control the inflow and outflow of light and heat.
There are several ways by which light is controlled with this light control glass. Of these, 1) a material that reversibly changes its transmissivity under application of current or voltage is called an electrochromic material, 2) a material whose transmissivity changes with temperature is called a thermochromic material, and 3) a material whose transmissivity is changed by controlling the atmosphere gas is called a gas chromic material. Of these, the most research has gone into electrochromic light control glass in which a tungsten oxide thin film is used for the light control layer, and this glass has just about reached the practical stage today, and some commercial products have already appeared.
Electrochromic light control glass that has been known up to now, including tungsten oxide, is all based on the principle that light is controlled by absorbing light with a light control layer. A drawback to this type of light control glass is that heat is produced when the light control layer absorbs light, and this heat is radiated back into the room, which diminishes the energy saving effect. To eliminate this drawback, the light control must be performed by reflecting light, rather than by absorbing it. Accordingly, there has been a need for the development of a light control material having characteristics that allow it to reversibly switch between a mirror state and a transparent state.
Such a material capable of switching between a mirror state and a transparent state could not be found for a long time, but in 1996 a group in the Netherlands discovered a hydride of a rare earth such as yttrium or lanthanum switches between a mirror state and a transparent state under the influence of hydrogen, and such a material has been termed a "switchable mirror" (J. N. Huiberts, R. Griessen, J. H. Rector, R. J. Wijngaarden, J. P. Dekker, D. G. de Groot, N. J. Koeman, Nature, 380 (1996), 231). These rare earth hydrides undergo a large change in transmissivity, and have excellent light control mirror characteristics. Nevertheless, because a rare earth element is used in the material, there are problems in terms of resources and cost when these switchable mirrors are used for window coatings and so forth.
Materials known up to now to have reflective light control characteristics (switchable mirror characteristics) include hydrides of yttrium, lanthanum, and other rare earth metals, hydrides of allows of magnesium and a rare earth metal such as gadolinium, and hydrides of magnesium-nickel alloys. Of these, the ones most suited to coating window glass from the standpoint of resources and cost are those that make use of a magnesium-titanium alloy (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2003-335553; Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2004-139134; Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2005-056706; Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2005-274630). However, light control layers made from materials reported up to now, while varying in degree, do not become colorless when transparent, and instead have a tint, which poses a major problem when applied to window glass.

Color-neutral reflective control switchable thin film material

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology


A crash structure is provided as an internal support in an armrest on a door lining of a motor vehicle. The crash structure has cross-shaped recesses. A foam element is above the crash structure and is covered by a decorative layer above the crash structure. The crash structure absorbs loads in the event of a side impact to protect the vehicle occupants against increased force peaks.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an armrest for a door or a door lining of a motor vehicle, with an internal crash element.
2. Description of the Related Art
DE 1 655 007 discloses a vehicle arm support having a cellular structure with intersecting vertical walls forming openings between one another. The cellular structure is covered externally by a flexible filling material that extends as far as an outer shell of the vehicle arm support.
DE 10 2011 101 574 A1 discloses an armrest for a side door of a motor vehicle. The inside of the armrest has an energy absorption element designed as a folding structure. The energy absorption element can absorb impact energy on the side door in the event of an impact on the vehicle in the transverse direction of the vehicle.
It is an object of the invention to provide an armrest on a side door or on a door lining of a motor vehicle that permits an absorption of load in the event of a side impact on the vehicle to protect vehicle occupants from increased force peaks.

Dr. Ing. h.c.F. Porsche Aktiengesellschaft


A synthetic aperture side-looking sonar which includes a receiver transducer array and two transmitter transducers. When the apparatus is at a first position, the forwarded transmitter transducer is provided with a signal of frequency F1 while the aft transmitter transducer is provided with a signal of frequency F2. At a subsequent position, the application of the frequencies to the transmitter transducers are reversed. At each location, the F1 and F2 returns are stored and combined with the returns of the subsequent transmission to form a plurality of receiver beams.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention in general relates to sonar systems, and particularly, to an improved synthetic aperture multi-beam side-looking sonar system.
2. Background Information
In side-looking sonar systems, apparatus on a carrier vehicle repetitively transmits acoustic pulses (pings) to sonify a target area. Acoustic energy reflected back from the target area impinges upon a multi-element elongated receiver transducer, and beam forming circuitry creates a plurality of receiver beams such that the energy reflected from adjacent narrow strips on the target area may be portrayed as a line-by-line picture that is a pattern of highlights and shadows, analogous to an optical viewed panorama illuminated by side lighting, with objects outlined in such a way as to permit their identification.
There is considerable interest in applying the principles of synthetic aperture side looking radar to side looking sonar systems. A synthetic aperture system is based upon the generation of an effectively long antenna or receiver transducer by signal processing means rather than by the actual use of a physically long antenna or transducer. In synthetic aperture side-looking sonar systems, a multi-element receiver transducer is moved to take up sequential positions along a course line, and during movement, acoustic transmissions take place whereby the energy reflected back from the target area causes the transducer elements to provide respective output signals which are stored. After a predetermined number of sequential pings during the course of travel, all of the stored signals are suitably processed to form a plurality of synthetic aperture beams each having a higher resolution due to the longer aperture than the real aperture beam.
With the present invention, faster forward travel is possible and less processing circuitry is required as compared with conventional synthetic aperture sonar systems, and further, the arrangement allows for a synthetic aperture retrofit for various existing side-looking sonar systems.

Synthetic aperture side-looking sonar apparatus


A first conductive film, a first insulating film, a semiconductor film, an impurity semiconductor film, a second conductive film, and a first resist mask are formed; first etching is performed to expose at least a surface of the first conductive film; second etching accompanied by side etching is performed on part of the first conductive film to form a gate electrode layer; a second resist mask is formed; third etching is performed to form a source and drain electrode layers, a source and drain regions, and a semiconductor layer; a second insulating film is formed; an opening portion is formed in the second insulating film to partially expose the source or drain electrode layer; a pixel electrode is selectively formed in the opening portion and over the second insulating film; and a supporting portion formed using the gate electrode layer is formed in a region overlapping with the opening portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, thin film transistors each formed using a semiconductor thin film with a thickness of several nm to several hundred nm over a substrate having an insulating surface, such as a glass substrate, have attracted attention. Thin film transistors have been widely used for ICs (integrated circuits) and electronic devices typified by electrooptic devices. Thin film transistors have been rapidly developed particularly as switching elements for display devices typified by liquid crystal display devices, EL (electroluminescent) display devices, and the like. In an active matrix liquid crystal display device, a voltage is applied between a selected pixel electrode connected to a switching element and a counter electrode corresponding to the selected pixel electrode, whereby a liquid crystal layer disposed between the selected pixel electrode and the counter electrode is subjected to optical modulation, which is perceived by a viewer as a display pattern. Here, an active matrix liquid crystal display device refers to a liquid crystal display device adopting a method in which pixel electrodes arranged in matrix are driven by switching elements to display a display pattern on a screen.
The range of uses of such an active matrix liquid crystal display devices described above has been increased and thus, demands for a larger size of a screen, higher definition, and a higher aperture ratio have been increased. Further, higher reliability of an active matrix liquid crystal display device is required and high productivity and reduction in manufacturing cost are required for a method for manufacturing the active matrix liquid crystal display device. Simplification of a process is one way for increasing productivity and reducing manufacturing cost.
In an active matrix liquid crystal display device, thin film transistors are mainly used as switching elements. In manufacturing thin film transistors, it is important that the number of photomasks to be used for photolithography be reduced in order to simplify a process. For example, when one more photomask is required, the following steps are further required: application of a resist, prebaking, light exposure, development, postbaking, and the like, and steps before and after the above steps, such as formation of a film, etching, removal of a resist, cleaning, and drying. Thus, even when only one more photomask is used in a manufacturing process, the number of steps is significantly increased. In order to reduce the number of photomasks used in a manufacturing process, many techniques have been developed.
Thin film transistors are broadly classified into top gate thin film transistors in each of which a channel formation region is provided below a gate electrode and bottom gate thin film transistors in each of which a channel formation region is provided above a gate electrode. It is known that the number of photomasks used in a process for manufacturing a bottom gate thin film transistor is smaller than that in a process for manufacturing a top gate thin film transistor. A bottom gate thin film transistor is generally manufactured using three photomasks.
Further, as conventional techniques for reducing the number of photomasks, complicated techniques such as backside light exposure, resist reflow, and a lift off method are often used and a particular apparatus is required in many cases. It has been concerned that using such complicated techniques may cause various problems, which leads to reduction in yield and the like. Further, the number of photomasks has been reduced at the cost of electric characteristics of a thin film transistor in many cases.
As a typical means for reducing the number of photomasks in a process for manufacturing thin film transistors, a technique using a multi-tone mask (referred to as a half-tone mask or a gray-tone mask) is widely known. As a technique for reducing manufacturing steps by using a multi-tone mask, for example, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2003-179069 is given. By using a multi-tone mask, a bottom gate thin film transistor can be manufactured using two photomasks.

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A method and apparatus to reconstruct high-frequency components of an input audio signal. The apparatus includes a frequency inverter to invert the frequency spectrum of the input audio signal, a band pass filter which filters out the higher frequency components of the input audio signal, a converter which shifts the frequency spectrum of the filtered signal to create a correction signal, and an adder which adds the correction signal to the input audio signal to obtain a reconstructed audio signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to multimedia and radio electronics, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus used to perform digital signal processing to improve the quality of audio signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various methods and systems have been developed to improve the quality of audio signals to a degree noticeable by an audience by recovering various high-frequency component characteristics that may have been lost during encoding of the audio signals or during the transmission of the audio signals via channels with poor transmission capability.
One conventional method of recovering audio information lost from audio signals is disclosed in Russian Patent No. RU 2,194,361. In this patented method of recovering lost audio information, digital data is divided into a plurality of blocks of digits in which the digits are arranged in a descending order based on a significance of digit position, thus providing a sufficient level of accuracy to reconstruct a block structure.
In another conventional method of recovering audio information lost from audio signals, which is simpler than the method disclosed in Russian Patent No. RU 2,194,361, correction signals are generated by processing low-frequency components of audio signals. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,335,973 and 6,023,513, for example, disclose this type of method, and particularly, a method of generating high-frequency harmonic components based on low-frequency components of audio signals. Nonlinear transformation is generally used for generating high-frequency harmonic components based on low-frequency components of audio signals.
In addition to the above conventional audio information recovery methods, U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,666 discloses a method of generating high-frequency components of an audio signal using a high-frequency noise generator. In this patented method, noise parameters are chosen through analysis of low-frequency components of audio signals.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 5,893,068 relates to a method of expanding a range of frequencies of digital audio signals, thereby enabling addition of high-frequency components of the digital audio signals.
However, due to the characteristic of the human sense of hearing in which the higher the frequency of sound, the lower the frequency resolution of the human ears, it is difficult to improve the quality of audio signals to a degree perceivable by an audience, and which is the same quality as corresponding original audio signals, simply by expanding the frequency range of the audio signals or shifting the frequency spectrum of the audio signals.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus to reconstruct high-frequency components of an audio signal


A lamp includes a glass bulb 2 with a concave portion 1, a base 7 attached so as to cover at least part of the concave portion, a lead 11 for supplying electrical power with an end section located in the concave portion 1, and lead-free solder 17. The lead free solder 17 is composed mainly of Sn, and further contains, at least, between 5% and 40% inclusive of Sb and between 0% and 10% inclusive of Cu by mass, and has a solidus temperature of at least 235° C.

Lamps such as metal halide lamps commonly include a glass bulb (external bulb) with a concave portion formed at one end part, and an E-type base that is fixed to the one end of the glass bulb and has an eyelet part and a shell part.
A arc tube with electrodes disposed therein is provided inside the glass bulb.
Further, two leads for supplying electrical power to the electrodes extend out from the end of the glass bulb that is at the base.
One of the leads extends through a through hole provided in the eyelet part of the base, and is soldered to the outside surface of the eyelet part to form an electrical connection with the eyelet part.
The other lead extends from the concave section of the glass bulb, and passes between the glass bulb and the shell part of the base, being electrically connected to the shell part by solder poured into a gap between the concave portion and the base.
The solder poured into the gap between the concave portion and the base connects to the glass bulb and the base, and further functions to prevent the base from rotating with respect to the glass bulb.
Note here that, during metal halide lamp operation, the temperature of the base reaches 200° C. or more due to the heat generated in the arc tube. Hence, the solder used in the base section must not only be a high temperature solder, but one that does not melt even at temperatures of 200° C. or more.
Note that, in this specification, a solder whose solidus temperature is 183° C., the melting point of Pb-63Sn, or more is referred to as a high temperature solder.
Conventionally, solders such as Pb-20Sn and Pb-10Sn, which are described in JIS Z 3281 (1999), have been widely used as high temperature solders in the base section of lamps. Such high temperature solders, whose main constituent is Pb, have good solderability with respect to bases made from brass, nickel plated brass and the like.
Note that the "good solderability"referred to here means, in terms of the manufacturing process, that solder wire can be used, that solder is easily fed into the soldered section, and that the melted solder sets quickly; and in terms of solder quality, that respective alloy layers are formed between the lead material, the solder and the base material, and that the formed electrical connections are stable.
However, in recent years, due to environmental considerations, regulation against the use of high temperature solder with lead as the main constituent has continued globally. For this reason, there is a strong demand for lead-free solder, which does not include Pb.
To realize such a lead-free solder, solders containing Sn as their main constituent, and including other appropriately added elements have been examined.
Specifically, an alloy composed of mainly of Sn, containing between 1% and 2.5% exclusive of Cu by mass, has been proposed as a lead-free solder for use in lamps (see laid open Japanese patent application 2002-245974).
However, when lamps using this type of lead-free solder composed of an Sn—Cu alloy were used, for instance, in low temperature conditions where the temperature of the surroundings reached −40° C., a problem occurred. This problem was cracking in the soldered section, causing poor conduction between the leads and the base.
On consideration of this problem, the following conclusions could be drawn.
Namely, if a lamp is used in low temperature conditions where the ambient temperature is −40° C., when the lamp is not operating, the temperature of the base is the same as the temperature of the surroundings, which is −40° C. However, when operating, the temperature of the base is 200° C. or more. Hence, the temperature difference between the on and off states for the lamp is extremely large.
Moreover, if the lead free solder composed of Sn and Cu approaches or exceeds its solidus temperature, as is it does when the lamp is on, even supposing it does not melt, its bonding strength will be much reduced.
Due to the factors described above, it may be concluded that that, when a lamp is switched from on to off, the base temperature falls quickly from a high temperature of 200° C. or more to a very low temperature, the solder comes under a large stress because of the differing rates of thermal expansion for the solder and the base, and cracking occurs in the in the soldered section.
Further, in lamps using lead-free solder composed of Sn and Cu the problem occurred whereby the leads easily separated from the solder.
This problem is considered to occur because of insufficient heat-resistance in the lead-free solder.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A machine for processing a workpiece is disclosed. Preferably, the machine includes a circular saw blade that may be positionable about multiple axes with respect to the workpiece. The machine is particularly suited for processing an elongated workpiece. The machine includes two gripping mechanisms and three vises that cooperate with one another to move an elongated workpiece into position, hold the workpiece while it is being processed, and remove the workpiece from the machine. The machine also includes a computer system that controls the orientation of the saw blade and the movements of the vises and gripping mechanisms.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to industrial processing machines and, more particularly, to automatic sawing machines.
2. Description of the Related Art
Power saws are well-known and are used in a wide variety of applications. Circular saws, for instance, have long been used as an economical means for cutting wood, metal, and other materials. Power saws may be used to segment a workpiece, to cut completely or partially through a workpiece, or to bevel or miter a workpiece.
In the past, a number of operations required to transform a workpiece from a first state to a second or useable state have been done in a manual or semi-automatic fashion. In manual operations, the workpiece is totally transformed to its useable state as a result of an operator manipulating the power saw and/or workpiece. In semi-automatic operations, a power saw may be adapted to manipulate a workpiece under the selective control of an operator. Of course, the success of either the manual or semi-automatic operations is limited, to varying degrees, by the operator's own capabilities and skill.
Typically, as the complexity of the operation on the workpiece increases, automation becomes more difficult and a greater amount of operator interaction is required. The cutting of miter-ended, extruded parts often requires the use of several machines with multiple set-ups and operations. The operator of a power saw performing these operations can spend a good deal of time setting up the power saw to make some of the more complicated cuts. Generally, this set-up can involve manually adjusting the elevation of the saw blade with respect to the workpiece, manually setting the miter angle to be cut, and manually setting any desired bevel angle. Even an operator who takes the time to perform these operations carefully does not always achieve the desired accuracy from cut to cut simply because the accuracy of the resulting cut is dependent in part upon the operator's technique in performing the set-up operation. It is not uncommon to find that different operators using the same equipment can achieve widely varying results, depending upon their techniques.
In relatively recent times, automatic sawing machines have become available for workpiece operations. For example, a number of commercial robots are available which are capable of performing various operations on a workpiece. These automatic sawing machines are known in the art to possess several automatic or semi-automatic features. These features may include the automatic advancement of a cutting blade into a workpiece and the subsequent retraction of the blade to a home position, the automatic advancement of a workpiece in the direction of workflow to a desired sawing position, and a computer to control some aspects of the machining operation. In fact, due to the high cost of raw material and labor, and in view of the aforementioned operator inaccuracies and the resulting waste, automatic and computer-controlled sawing machines are becoming economically more feasible. Of course, as the accuracy and repeatability of automatic sawing machines increases, so does their usefulness.
The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the affects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.


A method for treating essential tremor or restless leg syndrome using spinal cord stimulation includes implanting a lead near a spinal cord of a patient. The lead includes a plurality of electrodes disposed on a distal end of the lead and electrically coupled to at least one contact terminal disposed on a proximal end of the lead. Electrical signals are provided from a control module coupled to the lead to stimulate a portion of the spinal cord of the patient using at least one of the electrodes. The electrical signals reduce, alleviate, or eliminate at least one adverse effect of essential tremor or restless leg syndrome.

Parkinsonism is a neurodegenerative syndrome of the central nervous system that belongs to a group of conditions called motor system disorders. The symptoms of Parkinsonism may vary from patient to patient. In general, Parkinsonism impairs motor skills and speech, as well as other functions. Most patients experience tremors (resting or functional) in one or more body locations (e.g., at least one hand or arm, foot or leg, jaw, face, and the like), rigidity (e.g., stiffness in one or more of the limbs or trunk), slowness of movement (bradykinesia), or postural instability (e.g., impaired balance or coordination, stooping posture, etc.). Many additional signs and symptoms may also occur including, for example, difficulty with speech and swallowing, difficulty with limb movement (e.g., shuffling gate), fatigue, reduced facial expressions (i.e., facial masking), mood disturbances, reduced sensation, reduced cognitive ability, incontinence, light sensitivity, and dermatitis.
There are many known underlying causes of Parkinsonism including, for example, Parkinson's disease, Autoimmune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), corticobasal degeneration, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, diffuse Lewy body disease, drug-induced Parkinsonism, encephalitis lethargica, multiple system atrophy, pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration, progressive supranuclear palsy, exposure to toxins (e.g., carbon monoxide, carbon disulfide, manganese, paraquat, hexane, rotenone, toluene, and the like), side effects of medications (e.g., phenothiazines, thioxanthenes, butyrophenones, piperazines, antidepressants, and the like), vascular Parkinsonism, Wilson's disease, parancoplastic syndrome, head trauma, mental disorders, and the like.
Currently there is no known cure for Parkinsonism. Many patients suffering from Parkinsonism take one or more medications for reducing, alleviating, or eliminating one or more of the symptoms of Parkinsonism. However, some patients are either unresponsive to medications or detrimentally affected by medications and, instead, undergo brain surgery to reduce, alleviate, or eliminate one or more Parkinsonism-related symptoms.
Essential tremor is a progressive neurological disease. The symptoms of essential tremor may vary from patient to patient. Many patients experience tremors. Some patients may experience impaired speech in addition to, or instead of, tremors. Most patients experience tremors during voluntary movement which dissipate during sleep or periods of inactivity. Tremors may occur in the upper body, for example, in one or more of the arms and hands, as well as in the head, neck, jaw, eyelids, and voice. However, tremors may also occur in one or more of the lower extremities. Essential tremor patients may also experience one or more additional signs and symptoms including, for example, decreased balance, anxiety, depression, decreased cognitive ability, and dementia. Some patients may experience an increase in the severity of essential tremors in response to caffeine, tobacco, fatigue, fear, anger, low blood sugar, lithium salts, anti-depressants, and the like.
Currently there is no known cure for essential tremor. Many patients suffering from one or more of the adverse affects of essential tremor take one or more medications for reducing, alleviating, or eliminating one or more of the symptoms of essential tremor. However, some patients are either unresponsive to medications or detrimentally affected by medications and, instead, undergo brain surgery to reduce, alleviate, or eliminate one or more of the symptoms of essential tremor.
Restless leg syndrome is a progressive disease of the nervous system often characterized by an irresistible urge to move one's body in response to an unpleasant sensation that is sometimes characterized as being uncomfortable, creepy, like pins-and-needles, itchy, tickly, or burning. Many patients may experience the unpleasant sensation in at least one lower leg. However, some patients with restless leg syndrome experience the unpleasant sensation in other body locations in addition to, or instead of, the legs including, for example, one or both feet, one or both thighs, the torso, or one or both arms. Some patients may experience an increase in the severity of the unpleasant sensation as the day progresses from morning to evening. Additionally, some patients may experience an increase in the severity of the unpleasant sensations when sitting or lying down. Some patients only experience the unpleasant sensations when sitting or lying down.
Patients with restless leg syndrome may also experience one or more additional signs and symptoms including, for example, walking discomfort, insomnia, sleepiness, anxiety, depression, confusion, and decreased cognitive ability. Some restless leg syndrome patients may experience an increase in the severity of restless leg syndrome in response to iron deficiency, stress, hypoglycemia, pregnancy, alcohol, caffeine, undergoing surgery, aberrant dopamine levels, varicose veins, folate deficiency, sleep apnea, uremia, diabetes, thyroid disease, peripheral neuropathy, anticonvulsive medication, lithium salts, tobacco, antidepressants, beta blockers, H2 blockers, antipsychotics, Lyme disease, magnesium deficiency, vitamin B-12 deficiency, amyloidosis, kidney disease, Parkinson's disease, and some autoimmune diseases such as Sjögren's syndrome, celiac disease, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Currently there is no known cure for restless leg syndrome. Some patients with restless leg syndrome take one or more medications or vitamin or mineral supplements for reducing, alleviating, or eliminating one or more of the symptoms of restless leg syndrome. However, some patients are either unresponsive to, or detrimentally affected by, medications or vitamin or mineral supplements.

Systems and methods for treating essential tremor or restless leg syndrome using spinal cord stimulation


A roller assembly is provided for spreading and chilling a web in a printing press. The roller assembly includes a roller for chilling and spreading a web and a trolley roller contacting the roller, the trolley roller configured and arranged to impart a deflection in the roller. Also provided is a roller assembly for counteracting web loading on a roller in a printing press. This roller assembly includes a roller for transporting a web, the roller having an axis; a web wrapped partially around the roller and applying a load on the roller transverse to the axis; and a trolley roller contacting the roller, the trolley roller configured and arranged to impart a sufficient force on the roller to keep the axis of the roller linear under said load.

The present invention relates generally to printing press equipment.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,042,525, 6,058,844, 6,250,220 and 6,843,762 purportedly disclose spreader rollers for use with a printed web in a printing press. Spreader rollers are often used to eliminate or reduce wrinkles and/or tearing in the web and web fluting. The spreader rollers may include bowable shafts, bow rolls, and interconnected cylinder elements. The shafts or segments may be mounted on rolls via bearings.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,606,948 discloses a method for controlling a chill roll system. The method prevents post-chill marking by sufficiently cooling the web, and sets chill roll temperature profiles to avoid solvent condensation on chill roll surfaces and to avoid condensate marking.

Combined chiller and spreader roll assembly


Methods and systems for identifying content of interest. Accessed textual information is processed by at least one of character unification, phrase unification, and concept unification. A configured processor executes at least one predefined rule to determine whether the unified content includes certain types of information. Unified content that matches may be subject to further action such as alerts, encryption, logging, etc.

Documents and other types of information are commonly communicated through electronic messages (e.g., email, SMS, MMS) or the like. Often times, however, these documents include information that is sensitive or otherwise considered private. Accordingly, the sender (along with other parties) may not want certain information to be shared. Furthermore, there may be legal implications in sharing certain information or otherwise not keeping certain information private.
For example, a sender may want to email certain documents to a recipient. However, and unbeknownst to the sender, the documents may include information that is considered private (e.g., telephone numbers, addresses, bank account numbers, network identifiers, financial information, etc.). It therefore may be helpful to know whether documents exiting a network or data store contain potentially private information prior to transmission.
Existing techniques for data search and/or extraction include text-based searches. These techniques only match a document if a specific phrase is present in the document. These existing techniques are typically limited to a single language or require translations prior to searching foreign language documents.
Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods for identifying content of interest that overcome the above-described disadvantages.


Memory control techniques for dual channel lockstep configurations are disclosed. In accordance with one example embodiment, a memory controller issues two burst-length 4 DRAM commands to two double-data-rate (DDR) DRAM sub-channels behind a memory buffer (e.g., FB-DIMM or buffer-on-board). The two commands are in time-staggered lockstep. The time-stagger allows data coming back from the two back-side DDR sub-channels to flow naturally on the host channel without conflict. Multiple DIMMs can be used to obtain chip-fail ECC capabilities and to reclaim at least some of the lost performance imposed by the burst-length of 4 s typically associated with dual channel lockstep memory controllers. The techniques can be implemented, for instance, with a buffered memory solution such as fully buffered DIMM (FB-DIMM) or buffer-on-board configurations.

As is known, a memory controller manages the flow of data going to and from the memory of a computing system. A memory controller can be implemented on the system's motherboard (e.g. in the northbridge of a northbridge-southbridge configuration), or even directly on the system's CPU die to reduce the memory latency. In any such cases, memory controllers typically include logic for reading and writing dynamic RAM (DRAM), as well as the requisite refresh circuitry.
Memory controllers generally include a number of memory channels. Each channel communicates to DRAM devices installed on dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs). Memory controllers traditionally issue a system cache line request to one channel, using a data burst-length of 8 transfers. Channel width is 8 bytes, resulting in a 64 byte cache line transfer. Alternatively, memory controllers can issue a system cache line request to two channels simultaneously using a data burst-length of 4 (with channel width still at 8 bytes). This transfers 32 bytes per channel, simultaneously, resulting in the 64 bytes cache line. In such dual channel configurations, the channels are said to operate in lockstep.
An advantage of obtaining 64 bytes from 2 lockstep channels is that the payload data resides in twice as many DRAM devices. This allows chip-fail error correction code (ECC) algorithms to be used in the system for a wider variety of DRAM devices. These chip-fail algorithms require transferring payload data from either 16 or 32 DRAM devices, or 18 or 36 devices when including the ECC devices. A disadvantage of lockstep channels is the data burst-length of 4. This incurs a performance penalty for the system, because the data transfer duration on the channel is short compared to bus electrical turnarounds. In addition, new DRAM devices like double-data-rate three (DDR3) are optimized for a burst-length of 8, and incur additional performance penalties when used in burst-length 4 mode.
What is needed, therefore, are memory controllers for dual channel lockstep configurations.

Memory controller using time-staggered lockstep sub-channels with buffered memory


A mixer includes two transistor circuits, two control inputs, two RF inputs and two IF outputs, wherein, for switch-support, there are provided positive feedback elements and impedance elements, by which intermodulation strength, stability and noise performance of the mixer circuit are improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mixer circuits and particularly to mixer circuits for processing television/video signals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 5 shows a push-pull mixing stage with bipolar transistors, such as described in "Taschenbuch der Hochfrequenztechnik", Meinke, Gundlach, Springer-Verlag, 5th edition, 1992, page Q22. The active mixing stage includes a first bipolar transistor T11 500, a second bipolar transistor T12 502, a third bipolar transistor T21 504, and a fourth bipolar transistor T22 506. The bipolar transistors are respectively arranged as two transistor circuits such that the two transistors T11, T12 are connected to each other in the first transistor circuit so that their emitters are coupled, wherein the coupled emitters of the two transistors T11, T12 represent the RF input. The transistor circuit formed by the two transistors T11, T12 is controllable by two control inputs, i.e. the base terminals of the two transistors, wherein a local oscillator signal may be applied to the base terminal of the first transistor T11, and wherein an inverted local oscillator signal may be applied to the base terminal of the second transistor T12, i.e. the second control input. Analogously, the positive local oscillator signal LO and the negative local oscillator signal LO_ are coupled to the two transistors T21, T22 of the second transistor stage so that the negated local oscillator signal is applied to the base terminal of the transistor T21 of the right-hand transistor circuit, and wherein the local oscillator signal is applied in non-inverted state to the second control input of the second transistor stage, i.e. to the second transistor T22. Thus, also the second transistor circuit formed by the two transistors T21, T22 has an RF input, which is again at the coupled emitters, in addition to the two control inputs, i.e. the base terminals of the transistors 504 and 506.
Both transistor circuits have two IF outputs. Thus, the collector terminal of the first transistor, i.e. the transistor also providing the first control input, represents the IF output (in non-inverted state), while the collector terminal of the second transistor represents a second IF output at which the IF signal may be taken in inverted state. Analogously, the second transistor circuit is formed by the transistors 504 and 506. The left-hand transistor T21 represents the IF output, while the right-hand transistor T22 represents the inverted IF output.
In addition to the two transistor circuits described above, the known mixer shown in FIG. 5 also includes an RF supply stage formed by the two transistors T1 and T2. The positive RF signal may be supplied to a control input of the first transistor T1, while the inverted RF signal may be supplied to the control input of the second transistor T2. Further, there is a current source means Idc.
The mixing stage illustrated in FIG. 5 is thus based on two push-pull mixing stages, each formed with two npn transistors. The drive thus takes place by the RF supply stage. In other words, the transistor T1 controlled by the RF signal and the direct current source Idc may together be regarded as controlled current source providing both the RF signal and the supply current. The local oscillator signal required for frequency conversion, as mentioned above, is supplied to the base terminals of the transistors and selected so large that the transistors operate in switching mode.
The circuit shown in FIG. 5 is particularly well suited for monolithic integration. Input signal RF and oscillator signal LO are each supplied in push-pull, and the intermediate frequency is taken in a balanced way. Thus a reduction of the even order intermodulation products and a suppression of the oscillator signal are achieved. Good balancing is achieved in active mixing stages when the transistor parameters of the transistors used in the left-hand and right-hand branches are as equal as possible.
In the mixer circuit shown in FIG. 5, the two transistors T11 and T12 are actually switched back and forth with the local oscillator signal. This maintains the non-linearity resulting in the frequency conversion. Particularly for applications at higher frequencies or also for applications expecting high linearity, a problem is that the transistors do not switch synchronously with each other due to real parameter variations, etc., wherein the problem is aggravated when going to higher frequencies. However, due to the controllability of the circuit design, it is preferred, on the other hand, to use transistor mixers instead of diode mixers or varactor mixers.
Furthermore, the intermodulation strength of mixers and, particularly, of balanced and double-balanced mixers suffers particularly when the transistor parameters of the two transistors in a transistor circuit, and, in the case of the double-balance mixers, the transistor parameters of the transistors in the two amplifier circuits differ, which, in turn, becomes more and more noticeable when going to higher frequencies.
A lower intermodulation strength, in other word, an increase in energy in unwanted intermodulation products, results in reduced linearity and an unwanted interference of the IF signal.

Mixer circuit with phase-shifted radio frequency signal