There is provided a multifocal contact lens having a lens curve formed by altermately arranging a plurality of curved surfaces for far vision and a plurality of curved surfaces for near vision in the form of concentric zones, and a die for forming the contact lens, and a method for producing the contact lens. Each of the curved surfaces (F1, F2, . . . ) for far vision of the lens curve (2) has a center (O.sub.F1, O.sub.F2, . . . ) of curvature on an optical axis and a radius (R.sub.F1, R.sub.F2, . . . ) of curvature, which is set so that a ray being incident on the corresponding curved surface and being parallel to the optical axis forms an image at a location near a single focal point (F.sub.F) for far vision on the optical axis, and each of the curved surfaces (N1, N2, . . . ) for near vision of the lens curve (2) has a center (O.sub.N1, O.sub.N2, . . . ) of curvature on the optical axis and a radius (R.sub.N1, R.sub.N2, . . . ) of curvature, which is set so that a ray being incident on the corresponding curved surface and being parallel to the optical axis forms an image at a location near a single focal point (F.sub.N) for near vision on the optical axis.

1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates generally to a multifocal contact lens, a mold for forming the same, and a method for producing the same. More specifically, the invention relates to a multifocal contact lens with a lens curve formed by alternately arranging a plurality of curved surfaces for far vision and a plurality of curved surface for near vision in the form of concentric zones, a die for forming the same, a method for manufacturing the die, and a method for producing the multifocal contact lens.
2. Description of The Prior Art
A multifocal contact lens, wherein a plurality of portions for far vision and a plurality of portions for near vision are altermately arranged in the form of concentric zones, has been proposed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-146020. When a user wears such a contact lens, the user can consciously choose one of far and near ranges which can be simultaneously viewed by the user. This contact lens is useful since the user can naturally and smoothly choose one of the far and near ranges.
As shown in FIG. 8, such a contact lens 1 has a front curve 2 formed by altermately arranging a plurality of curved surfaces F1, F2, . . . for far vision and a plurality of curved surfaces N1, N2, . . . for near vision in the form of concentric zones, and a base curve 3 having a shape corresponding to the curved surface of the user's cornea.
In conventional contact lenses, the curved surfaces F1, F2, . . . for far vision and the curved surfaces N1, N2, . . . for near vision are formed on the front curve 2 as follows.
It is assumed that the radius of curvature of the curved surface for far vision is R.sub.F and the radius of curvature of the curved surface for near vision is R.sub.N. First, a circle having a radius R.sub.F from a point P on an optical axis corresponding to Z-axis is described to derive an intersection point with the optical axis. It is assumed that this intersection point is a center O.sub.F1 of curvature of the curved surface F1 for far vision. Then, a circle having the radius R.sub.F is described about the center O.sub.F1 of curvature to derive an intersection point P.sub.F1 with a straight line l.sub.F1 which defines a predetermined zone width of the curved surface F1 for far vision and which is parallel to the optical axis. Then, a circle having the radius R.sub.N is described about the point P.sub.F1 to derive an intersection point with the optical axis. In is assumed that this intersection point is a center O.sub.N1 of curvature of the curved surface N1 for near vision. Then, a circle having the radius R.sub.N is described about the center O.sub.N1 of curvature to derive an intersection point P.sub.N1 with a straight line l.sub.N1 defining a predetermined zone width of the curved surface N1 for near vision.
Similarly, a circle having the radius R.sub.F is described about the point P.sub.N1 to derive an intersection point with the optical axis. It is assumed that this intersection point is a center O.sub.F2 of curvature of the curved surface F2 for far vision. Then, a circle having the radius R.sub.F is described about the center O.sub.F2 of curvature to derive an intersection point P.sub.F2 with a straight line l.sub.F2 which defines a predetermined zone width of the curved surface F2 for far vision and which is parallel to the optical axis. Then, a circle having the radius R.sub.N is described about the point P.sub.F2 to derive an intersection point with the optical axis. It is assumed that this intersection point is a center O.sub.N2 of curvature of the curved surface N2 for near vision.
The centers O.sub.F1, O.sub.F2, . . . of curvature of the curved surfaces F1, F2, . . . for far vision and the centers O.sub.N1, O.sub.N2, . . . of curvature of the curved surfaces N1, N2, . . . for near vision thus obtained are shown in FIG. 7.
As can be clearly seen from FIG. 7, the centers O.sub.F1, O.sub.F2, . . . of curvature of the curved surfaces F1, F2, . . . for far vision are distributed so as to be sequentially shifted in a direction of Z-axis, i.e., from the base curve 3 toward the front curve 2.
As a result, as shown in FIG. 6, rays, which are incident on the curved surfaces F1, F2, . . . for far vision and which are parallel to the optical axis, form images at the respective focal points F.sub.F1, F.sub.F2, . . . of the curved surfaces F1, F2, . . . for far vision, so that the image formation is not carried out at a point. Similarly, rays, which are parallel to rays being incident on the curved surfaces N1, N2, . . . for near vision, form images at the respective focal points F.sub.N1, F.sub.N2, . . . of the curved surfaces N1, N2, . . . for near vision, so that the image formation is not carried out at a point. That is, there is a problem in that the spherical aberration of the conventional contact lens is too great to obtain a clear image.
Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 6, since the spherical aberration of the periphery of the contact lens 1 is great, the order of arrangement of the focal points F.sub.F1, F.sub.F2, . . . for far vision is the reverse of the order of arrangement of the centers O.sub.F1, O.sub.F2, . . . of curvature of the curved surfaces F1, F2, . . . for far vision.
In order to eliminate such a problem, a multifocal contact lens has been proposed by the applicant of the instant application as shown in FIG. 5 (e.g., Japanese Patent Application No. 5-508019 (International Publication No. 93/14434)).
As shown in FIG. 5, a contact lens 1 has a front curve 2 formed by altermately arranging curved surfaces F1, F2, . . . for far vision and curved surfaces N1, N2, . . . for near vision in the form of concentric zones, and a base curve 3. It is assumed herein that the optical axis of the contact lens 1 is Z-axis and the direction of the Z-axis is from the front curve 2 toward the base curve 3. It is also assumed that X-axis passes through the vertex P of the contact lens 1 and is perpendicular to the Z-axis.
The shape of the curved surface of the base curve 3 is chosen so as to correspond to the shape of the curved surface of the user's cornea. On the basis of the values for the chosen shape of the curved surface of the base curve 3, the radius R.sub.F of curvature of the curved surfaces F1, F2, . . . for far vision and the radius R.sub.N of curvature of the curved surfaces N1, N2, . . . for near vision, which are required to obtain desired powers of the portions for far vision and desired added powers of the portions for near vision, are defined.
The centers O.sub.F1, O.sub.F2, . . . and O.sub.N1, O.sub.N2, . . . of curvature of the curved surfaces F1, F2, . . . for far vision of the front curve 2 and the curved surface N1, N2, . . . for near vision of the front curve 2 are derived as follows.
As shown in FIG. 4, an intersection point of parallel rays being incident on the curved surface F1 for far vision and outgoing the base curve 3, with the optical axis is derived, and this intersection point is defined as a focal point F.sub.F for far vision. In addition, an intersection point of parallel rays being incident on the curved surface N1 for near vision and outgoing the base curve 3, with the optical axis is derived, and this intersection point is defined as a focal point F.sub.N for near vision.
First, it is assumed that the position on the optic axis, which is apart from the vertex P by the radius R.sub.F of curvature of the portion for far vision, is the center O.sub.F1 of curvature of the curved surface F1 for far vision. Then, a circle having the radius R.sub.F is described about the center O.sub.F1 of curvature to derive an intersection point P.sub.F1 with a straight line l.sub.F1, which defines a predetermined zone width of the curved surface F1 for far vision and which is parallel to the optical axis. Then, a circle having the radius R.sub.N is described about the point P.sub.F1 to derive an intersectional point with the optical axis. It is assumed that this intersectional axis is the center O.sub.N1 of curvature of the curved surface N1 for near vision. These steps are the same as those of the conventional method shown in FIG. 8.
Then, as shown in FIG. 5, the center O.sub.F2 of curvature of the curved surface F2 for far vision is derived as follows. That is, a circle having the radius R.sub.N is described about the center O.sub.N1 of curvature to derive an intersection point P.sub.N1 with a straight line l.sub.N1, which defines a predetermined zone width of the curved surface N1 for near vision and which is parallel to the optical axis. Then, a circle having the radius R.sub.F is described about the point P.sub.N1 to derive an intersection point with the optical axis. This intersection point is defined as a proposed point for the point O.sub.F2 which is to be the center of curvature of the curved surface F2 for far vision.
Then, the proposed point for the center O.sub.F2 of curvature is used as a start point to derive a rightful center O.sub.F2 of curvature near the proposed point using the ray tracing method. Specifically, the center O.sub.F2 of curvature is derived using the ray tracing method as follows.
First, a circle having the radius R.sub.F is described about the proposed point for the center O.sub.F2 of curvature to derive an intersection point of this circle with a straight line l.sub.F2. It is assumed that this intersection point is a proposed point for the point P.sub.F2 and that the curved surface extending from the point P.sub.N1 to the point P.sub.F2 is a proposed curved surface for the curved surface F2 for far vision.
Then, parallel rays are incident on the proposed curved surface for the curved surface F2 for far vision in the zone between the straight lines l.sub.N1 and l.sub.F2 to derive an intersection of the parallel rays outgoing the base curve 3 with the optical axis.
In a case where the intersection of the incident parallel rays with the optical axis is shifted from the focal point F.sub.F for far vision defined in FIG. 4 in a negative direction of Z-axis, the proposed curved surface for the curved surface F2 for far vision is rotated slightly counterclockwise about the point P.sub.N1 in FIG. 5.
On the other hand, in a case where the intersection of the incident parallel rays with the optical axis is shifted from the focal point F.sub.F for far vision in a positive direction of Z-axis, the proposed curved surface for the curved surface F2 for far vision is rotated clockwise about the point P.sub.N1.
Thus, the rotating direction and amount of the proposed curved surface for the curved surface F2 for far vision rotated about the point P.sub.N1 are derived and the rotating position is decided so that the parallel rays being incident on the front curve 2 pass through the focal point F.sub.F for far vision. The curved surface, which is obtained by rotating the proposed curved surface for the curved surface F2 for far vision about the point P.sub.N1 to the decided rotating position, is a curved surface F2 for far vision to be derived, and the decided center of curvature of the curved surface F2 for far vision is a center O.sub.F2 of curvature to be derived.
Then, a center O.sub.N2 of curvature of the curved surface N2 for near vision is derived as follows. That is, a circle having the radius R.sub.F is described about the decided center O.sub.F2 of curvature to derive an intersection point with a straight line l.sub.F2, which defines a predetermined zone width of the curved surface F2 for far vision and which is parallel to the optical axis, and this intersection point is defined as a point P.sub.F2. Then, a circle having the radius R.sub.N is described about the point P.sub.F2 to derive an intersection point with the optical axis, and this intersection point is assumed as a proposed point for the center O.sub.N2 of curvature of the curved surface N2 for near vision.
Then, the proposed point for the center O.sub.N2 of curvature is used as a start point to derive a rightful center O.sub.N2 of curvature near the proposed point using the ray tracing method. In order to derive the rightful center O.sub.N2, a circle having the radius R.sub.N is described about the proposed point for the center O.sub.N2 of curvature to derive an intersection point of this circle with the straight line l.sub.N2. This intersection point P.sub.N2 is used as a proposed point to define the shape of a proposed curved surface for the curved surface N2 for near vision extending from the point P.sub.F2 to the point P.sub.N2.
Then, parallel rays in the range between the straight lines l.sub.F2 and l.sub.N2 are incident on the proposed curved surface for the curved surface for near vision to derive intersections of the parallel rays with the optical axis after outgoing the base curve 3.
In a case where the intersections of the incident parallel rays with the optical axis are shifted from the focal point F.sub.N for near vision shown in FIG. 4 in a negative direction of Z-axis, the proposed curved surface for the curved surface N2 for near vision is rotated slightly counterclockwise about the point P.sub.F2 in FIG. 5.
On the other hand, in a case where the intersections of the incident parallel rays with the optical axis are shifted from the focal point F.sub.N for near vision in a positive direction of Z-axis, the proposed curved surface for the curved surface N2 for near vision is rotated clockwise about the point P.sub.F2.
Thus, the direction and amount of the proposed curved surface for the curved surface N2 for near vision rotating about the point P.sub.F2 is derived so that the parallel rays being incident on the front curve 2 pass through the focal point F.sub.N for near vision, and the rotating position is decided. The curved surface, which is obtained by rotating the proposed curved surface for the curved surface N2 for near vision about the point P.sub.F2 to the decided rotating position, is a curved surface N2 for near vision to be derived, and the center of curvature of the decided curved surface N2 for near vision is a center O.sub.N2 of curvature to be derived.
Similarly, other centers O.sub.F3, O.sub.F4, . . . and O.sub.N3, O.sub.N4, . . . of curvature are derived, so that the contact lens 1 shown in FIG. 5 is obtained.
However, in the case of the contact lens shown in FIG. 5, the spherical aberration may be sufficiently corrected for the following reasons.
That is, as shown in FIG. 5, although the center O.sub.F1 of curvature of the curved surface F1 for far vision and the center O.sub.N1 of curvature of the curved surface N1 for near vision are located on the optical axis, the centers O.sub.F2, O.sub.F3, . . . of curvature of the curved surfaces F2, F3, . . . for far vision and the centers O.sub.N2, O.sub.N3, . . . of curvature of the curved surface N2, N3, . . . for near vision are not located on the optical axis to be apart from the optical axis in a direction of X-axis. In addition, the ray tracing method is applied under the restriction that the curved surfaces F1, F2, F3, . . . for far vision must have the same radius R.sub.N of curvature and the curved surface N1, N2, N3, . . . for near vision must have the same radius R.sub.N of curvature When the ray tracing method is applied, the degree of freedom of design is decreased, so that the spherical aberration may remain as follows.
For example, with respect to the whole predetermined zone widths of the curved surface F2 for far vision and the curved surface N2 for near vision, there is considered parallel rays being incident in parallel to the optical axis and outgoing the base curve 3 to travel to the intersection with the optical axis. As shown in FIG. 4, these parallel rays converge before the optical axis after outgoing the base curve 3, and then, they are divergent rays. Therefore, no image is formed at a point on the optical axis defined by the line extending from the vertex P of the contact lens to the center O.sub.F1 of curvature of the curved surface F1 for far vision, so that spherical aberrations remain in the respective spherical surfaces of the curved surface F2 for far vision and the curved surface N2 for near vision.
More specifically, the parallel rays being incident on the curved surface F2 for far vision at a predetermined zone width, outgo the base curve 3 to converge at the respective points on a ring, which is described about the Z-axis so as to have a radius corresponding to the distance between the Z-axis and the point O.sub.F2. Thereafter, the rays become divergent rays, so that an image is formed on the Z-axis in the form of a line, not a point. In addition, the parallel rays being incident on the curved surface N2 for near vision at a predetermined zone width, outgo the base curve 3 to converge at the respective points on a ring, which is described about the Z-axis so as to have a radius corresponding to the distance between the Z-axis and the point O.sub.N2. Thereafter, the rays become divergent rays, so that an image is formed on the Z-axis in the form of a line, not a point. Thus, the parallel rays being incident on the respective curved surface do not form images at the focal point F.sub.F for far vision and the focal point F.sub.N for near vision on the curved surface defined above, so that spherical aberrations remain in the respective curved surfaces. This is the same with respect to the curved surfaces F2, F3, . . . for far vision and the curved surfaces N2, N3, . . . for near vision determined by the ray tracing method.
In addition, the dimension of the spherical aberration is under the influence of the absolute quantity of variation of the respective centers O.sub.F2, O.sub.F3, . . . and O.sub.N2, O.sub.N3, . . . of curvature in a direction of X-axis when the shapes of the curved surfaces F2, F3, . . . for far vision and the curved surfaces N2, N3, . . . for near vision are determined by the ray tracing method.
More specifically, when the shapes of the curved surfaces F2, F3, . . . for far vision and the curved surfaces N2, N3, . . . for near vision are decided by the ray tracing method, as the distances between the respective centers O.sub.F2, O.sub.F3, . . . and O.sub.N2, O.sub.N3, . . . of curvature and the optical axis in a direction of the X-axis is increased, the spherical aberration is increased.
Thus, in the case of the contact lens shown in FIG. 5, although the center O.sub.F1 of curvature and the center O.sub.N1 of curvature are located on the optical axis, the centers O.sub.F2, O.sub.F3, . . . of curvature of the other curved surfaces F2, F3, . . . for far vision and the centers O.sub.N2, O.sub.N3, . . . of curvature of the other curved surfaces N2, N3, . . . for near vision are not located on the optical axis. In addition, the ray tracing method is applied under the restriction that the curved surfaces F1, F2, F3, . . . for far vision have the same radius R.sub.F of curvature and the curved surfaces N1, N2, N3, . . . for near vision have the same radius R.sub.N of curvature. Therefore, there are problems in that the degree of freedom of design is not sufficient and that spherical aberration may remain.


The specification describes a metal contact material optimized for diffused contacts to the buried emitter-base junction in DHBT devices. The metal contact material is a multilayer structure of Pd-Pt-Au which gives the required critical diffusion properties for low resistance contacts to the buried base layer without shorting to the collector layer.

High efficiency double heterostructure bipolar transistor devices are frequently made with the junctions clad by thin graded quaternary regions. In this structure the junctions are buried for improved device reliability. In the manufacture of these devices, the multilayer stack is first grown, then electrical contacts to the buried base and collector are made by forming mesas to give physical access to the base and collector layers. The contact to the base emitter junction is formed by diffusion of the contact metal through the thin graded quaternary layer between the base and emitter layers. Because the diffusion process is subject to so many variables, low resistance contacts to the base are difficult to form without punch-through to the collector layer. Efforts to avoid punch-through to the collector may result in too shallow diffusion of the metal contact material, with a resultant high resistance or non-ohmic contact. Therefore control of the diffusion depth of the metal contact layer is critical.


The present invention relates to methods and compositions for modulating activity of a TRANCE receptor, including the modulation of TRANCE signaling activity. In particular, the invention provides screening methods by which novel modulators of TRANCE signaling may be identified, including TRANCE inhibitors, agonists and antagonists. The invention also relates to the identification of one or more specific pathways for osteoclast surivival, and the manipulation of this pathway (e.g., using a TRANCE modulator of the invention). Such manipulation may provide strategies for treating osteoclast-related diseases such as osteoporosis and osteopetrosis.

The present invention relates to the identification of the TRANCE signal transduction pathway in osteoclasts. This pathway can be exploited for high throughput screening of compounds to identify TRANCE modulators (agonists and antagonists). The invention also relates to identification of a specific pathway in osteoclast survival, and permits manipulation of this pathway, which can provide strategies for treating osteoclast-related diseases such as osteoporosis and osteopetrosis.
Members of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) family regulate an array of cellular responses including survival, activation, differentiation, and apoptosis. TNF-related activation-induced cytokine (TRANCE; (Wong et al., J. Biol. Chem., 272, 25190-25194, 1997) also called receptor-activator of NF-xcexaB (RANK) ligand (RANKL), osteoclast differentiation factor (ODF) and osteoprotegerin (OPG) ligand (OPGL)) is expressed on T cell-receptor activated T cells and stimulates the TRANCE receptor (TRANCE-R/RANK) on dendritic cells to promote their survival and induce the expression of T-cell regulatory cytokines (Wong et al., supra, 1997; Wong et al., J. Exp. Med., 186:2075-2080, 1997; Josien et al., J. Immunol., 162:2562-2568, 1999). Priming of T cells is dependent on dendritic cell activation (Bachmann et al., J. Exp. Med.: 189, 1025-1031, 1999) and TRANCE appears to be critical for T-helper cell responses to certain viral infections (Bachmann, et al., supra, 1999), suggesting that TRANCE regulates dendritic cell function in vivo. Moreover, it has been shown that TRANCE regulates osteoclasts, cells of monocyte/macrophage origin which resorb calcified bone matrix, a process essential in bone development and homeostasis (Lacey, et al., Cell, 93:165-176, 1998; Yasuda, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 95::3597-3602, 1998). TRANCE is expressed on osteoblasts in response to calciotropic hormones and cytokines, and is critical for osteoclast differentiation from hematopoietic precursors (Lacey et al., supra, 1998; Yasuda, et al., supra, 1998). In mature osteoclasts, TRANCE stimulation induces cell spreading and enhances cell survival and bone resorption (Fuller et al., J. Exp. Med., 188:997-1001, 1998).
Mice with a targeted deletion in the TRANCE gene exhibit osteopetrosis, or thickening of bony matrix, due to a defect in osteoclast differentiation (Kong et al., Nature, 397:315-323, 1999). Mice with a targeted deletion of the non-receptor protein tyrosine kinase (PTK), c-Src (Soriano et al., Cell, 64:693-702, 1991) and mice doubly deficient in nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-xcexaB)1 and NF-xcexaB2 (Iotsova, et al., Nat. Med., 3:1285-9, 1997) also exhibit osteopetrosis. However, while osteoclasts fail to differentiate in NF-xcexaB1 and NF-xcexaB2 deficient mice, osteoclasts from c-Src-deficient mice develop normally but are unable to resorb bone. TRANCE is critical for osteoclast maturation and osteoclast activation (i.e., bone resorption, cytoskeletal rearrangements), suggesting a link between TRANCE, NF-xcexaB and c-Src-mediated signaling. In contrast to its role in osteoclastogenesis, TRANCE does not appear to be important for dendritic cell differentiation since mature dendritic cells are detected at normal levels in TRANCE-deficient mice (Kong et al, supra, 1999).
Two receptors for TRANCE have been identified: OPG/OCIF, a secreted decoy receptor (Yasuda, et al., supra, 1998; Simonet et al., Cell, 89:309-319, 1997), and TRANCE-R (Wong et al., supra, 1997), identified as RANK (Anderson et al., Nature, 390:175-179, 1997), an integral membrane protein with an intracellular signaling domain. TRANCE-R, similar to other TNFR family members, lacks intrinsic catalytic activity and interacts with TNF receptor-associated factors (TRAFs) that act as adapters to activate downstream signaling pathways (Rothe et al., Cell, 78:681-692, 1994). TRANCE-R can interact with TRAF1, TRAF2, TRAF3, TRAF5 and TRAF6 when overexpressed in cell lines. TRAF1, TRAF2, TRAF3, and TRAF5 interact with a canonical PXQXT motif in the C-terminal region of the TRANCE-R cytoplasmic tail whereas TRAF6 binds to a unique motif more proximal to the transmembrane domain (Wong et al., J. Biol. Chem., 273:28355-28359, 1998; Galibert et al., J. Biol. Chem., 273:34120-34127, 1998; Darnay et al., J. Biol. Chem., 274:7724-7731, 1999). Several reports demonstrated that while TRAF2appears important for c-Jun N-terminal kinase activation, TRAF6 is most likely the critical mediator of NF-xcexaB activation by the TRANCE-R since TRAF6 -interacting regions of the cytoplasmic tail are necessary and sufficient for NF-xcexaB activation (Wong et al., supra, 1998; Galibert et al., supra, 1998; Darnay et al., supra, 1999). TRAF6 also mediates NF-xcexaB activation by interleukin-1R (Cao et al., Nature, 383:443-446, 1996; Medzhitov et al., Mol. Cell, 2:253-258, 1998), and toll-like receptors (Zhang et al., J. Biol. Chem., 274:7611-7614, 1999), indicating that TRAF6 links several families of cytokine receptors to NF-xcexaB activation.
TRAF family members are prototypically composed of an N-terminal regulatory domain and a conserved C-terminal TRAF domain (Rothe et al., supra, 1994). The TRAF domain mediates oligomerization, interaction with the receptor, and interaction with various signaling effectors while the N-terminal domain contains a RING finger and several zinc fingers which appears to regulate the activity of its associated signaling molecules (reviewed in Arche, et al., Genes Dev., 12:2821-2830, 1998). Several TRAF family members associate with and activate apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1) which activates c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) (Nishitoh et al., Mol. Cell, 2:389-395, 1998), and also NF-xcexaB inducing kinase (NIK) which induces NF-xcexaB activation (Malinin et al., Nature, 385:540-544, 1997). Although the TRAF domain alone is sufficient to mediate interaction with these kinases, it is not sufficient to induce their activation. The N-terminal RING and zinc fingers of TRAF proteins are also required to intiate downstream signaling although the precise mechanisms by which these regulatory elements function are not understood (Rothe et al., supra, 1995; Malinin, et al., supra, 1998).
Despite the rapid advancement of knowledge of the effects of TNF-related cytokines on cells, there is still a great amount of information about these factors that remains unknown. Thus, there is a need in the art for identification of elements of the TRANCE signal transduction pathway.
There is a further need in the art for identification of elements of the pathway that are involved in signal transduction of other TNF-related cytokines.
These and other needs in the art are addressed by the present invention.

Trance activated signal transduction pathways in osteoclasts


A method and an apparatus for delivery of a therapeutic fluid to the body of a patient are provided. The apparatus includes a dispensing unit having a driving mechanism and a pumping mechanism for pumping the fluid to the body of the patient and a collapsible reservoir fillable with the therapeutic fluid for delivery thereof to the body of the patient.

Medical treatment of several illnesses requires continuous drug infusion into various body compartments, such as subcutaneous and intra-venous injections. Diabetes mellitus patients, for example, require administration of varying amounts of insulin throughout the day to control their blood glucose levels. In recent years, ambulatory portable insulin infusion pumps have emerged as a superior alternative to multiple daily syringe injections of insulin. These pumps, which deliver insulin at a continuous basal rate as well as in bolus volumes, were developed to liberate patients from repeated self-administered injections, and allow them to maintain a near-normal daily routine. Both basal and bolus volumes must be delivered in precise doses, according to individual prescription, since an overdose or under-dose of insulin could be fatal. Therefore, insulin injection pumps must feature high reliability, totally preventing delivery of any unintentional insulin excess.
Several ambulatory insulin infusion devices are currently available on the market. Mostly, these devices have two portions: a reusable portion that contains a dispenser, a controller and electronics, and a disposable portion that contains a syringe-type reservoir, a needle assembly with a cannula and a penetrating member, and fluid delivery tube. Usually, the patient fills the reservoir with insulin, attaches the needle and the delivery tube to the exit port of the reservoir, and then inserts the reservoir into the pump housing. After purging air out of the reservoir, tube and needle, the patient inserts the needle assembly, penetrating member and cannula, at a selected location on the body, and withdraws the penetrating member. To avoid irritation and infection, the subcutaneous cannula should be replaced and discarded after 2-3 days, together with the empty reservoir. Examples of first generation disposable syringe-type reservoir and tubes were disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,631,847 to Hobbs, U.S. Pat. No. 3,771,694 to Kaminski, U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,486 to Stempfle, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,544,369 to Skakoon. The driving mechanism of these devices is a screw thread driven plunger controlling the programmed movement of a syringe piston.
Other dispensing mechanisms have been also discussed, including peristaltic positive displacement pumps, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,498,843 to Schneider and U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,786 to Wolff. These devices represent an improvement over multiple daily injections, but nevertheless, they all suffer from several drawbacks. The main drawback is the large size and the weight of the device, caused by the configuration and the relatively large size of the driving mechanism of the syringe and the piston. This relatively bulky device has to be carried in a patient's pocket or attached to the belt. Consequently, the fluid delivery tube is long, usually longer than 60 cm, in order to permit needle insertion at remote sites of the body. These uncomfortable bulky devices with a long tube are rejected by the majority of diabetic insulin users, since they disturb regular activities, such as sleeping and swimming. Further, the effect of the image projected on the teenagers' body is unacceptable. In addition, the delivery tube excludes some optional remote insertion sites, like buttocks, arms and legs.
To avoid the consequences of long delivery tube, a new concept, of second generation pump, was proposed. This concept includes a remote controlled skin adherable device with a housing having a bottom surface adapted to contact patient's skin, a reservoir disposed within the housing, and an injection needle adapted to communicate with the reservoir. These skin adherable devices should be disposed every 2-3 days similarly to available pump infusion sets. These devices were disclosed at least in U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,895 to Sage, U.S. Pat. No. 6,589,229 to Connelly, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,740,059 to Flaherty. Additional configurations of skin adherable pumps were disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,723,072 to Flaherty and U.S. Pat. No. 6,485,461 to Mason. These devices also have several limitations: they are bulky and expensive, their high selling price is due to the high production and accessory costs, and the user must discard the entire device every 2-3 days, including relatively expensive components, such as driving mechanism and other electronics.
Further, a syringe-type reservoir has at least the following limitations:                It has a round cross section, which increases the device thickness because of inefficient use of space.        Relatively high rotational momentum is required for displacement of the syringe due to the high friction associated with the round gasket and the high surface-area ratio of the plunger and outlet port.        It is difficult to achieve highly accurate dispensing rates because minimal plunger movements cause large amounts of dispensed fluid.
Thus, there is a need for a fluid dispensing device that would avoid the above limitations and disadvantages of conventional units.


A computer implemented method, system, and computer usable program code for classifying a data stream using high-order models. The data stream is divided into a plurality of data segments. A classifier is selected for each of the plurality of data segments. Each of a plurality of classifiers is clustered into states. A state transition matrix is computed for the states. The states of the state transition matrix specify one of the high-order models for classifying the data stream.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system, and in particular, to a computer implemented method and system for processing data streams. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a computer implemented method, system, and computer usable program code for classifying data streams using high-order models.
2. Description of the Related Art
Stream processing computing applications are applications in which the data comes into the system in the form of information flow, satisfying some restriction on the data. With this type of data, the volume of data being processed may be too large to be stored; therefore, the information flow calls for sophisticated real-time processing over dynamic data streams, such as sensor data analysis and network traffic monitoring. Examples of stream processing computing applications include video processing, audio processing, streaming databases, and sensor networks.
Classifying data streams is extremely important for various practical purposes. For example, data streams need to be classified in order to detect credit card fraud and network intrusions. Classifying data streams is difficult because of the large volume of data coming into a system at very high speeds. Additionally, data distribution within the data streams is constantly time-changing.
Classification plays an important role in filtering out uninteresting patterns or those that are irrelevant to the current classification scheme. Often, classifiers may compete with other processing elements for resources, such as processing power, memory, and bandwidth. Some current solutions incrementally update classifiers using models. These models are referred to as decision trees and are repeatedly revised so that the decision tree always represents the current data distribution. Decision trees are unstable data structures. As a result, a slight drift or concept shift may trigger substantial changes. Concept drift is defined as changes in underlying class distribution over time. For example, in a classification system for fraud detection, transactions may be classified into two classes: fraudulent or normal. As the spending pattern of a credit card user evolves over time, the set of transactions that are classified to be normal and fraudulent should also be changing.
In another solution, stream processing applications repeatedly learn new independent models from streaming data to grow and remove new sub-trees. Decision trees with the highest classification accuracy are selected based on new data arriving. Learning costs associated with removing and growing decision trees are very high and accuracy is low. Low accuracy may result from model overfitting due to lack of training data or conflicts of concepts due to abundance of training data.
Ensemble classifiers may also be used to partition data streams into fixed size data segments. Ensemble classifiers have high costs because the classifiers are learned for each new segment. Furthermore, every classifier is evaluated for each test example. The classifiers are homogeneous and discarded as a whole. As a result, current classification process for data streams are time consuming and unable to effectively process high-speed data streams with changing data distributions.

System and method for classifying data streams using high-order models

International Business Machines Corporation


An efficient method for purging cache memory sub-blocks within a cache memory block is disclosed. The method is particularly applicable to cache memories established on rotating magnetic media, such as a hard disk drive. The method is unique in that it requires absolutely no system overhead when the system is running and the cache is not completely full. When all sub-blocks within the cache memory have been filled, sophisticated, system resource-intensive algorithms are not employed to determine which is the oldest or the least frequently used sub-block of data. Instead, sub-blocks of data are removed in a pseudo-random manner until ample space is available within the cache.

This application is related to U.S. application Ser. No. 08/640,670 filed on Apr. 1, 1996 (Sun patent docket No. P1502); to U.S. application Ser. No. 08/644,643 filed on May 1, 1996 (Sun patent docket No. P1503); to U.S. application Ser. No. 08/644,643 filed on May 1, 1996 (Sun patent docket No. P1504); to U.S. application Ser. No. 08/639,527 filed on May 1, 1996 (Sun patent docket No. P1505); and to U.S. application Ser. No. 08/639,531 filed on May 1, 1996 (Sun patent docket No. P1505), all assigned to Sun Microsystems, Inc., assignee of the present invention, the disclosures of which are herein incorporated by this reference.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to non-volatile caching systems for data processing systems, and methods for implementing such systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Caching has long been employed to increase performance of a relatively slow computer memory resource when a faster memory resource, which typically has a higher cost per stored bit, is available. Typically, a temporary memory block within the faster memory resource (i.e., a cache) is established for storing only a portion of the information stored within the slower memory resource. Rather than store within the faster memory resource an entire application program or an entire data file that may be resident on the slower memory resource, certain algorithms are employed to determine which portions of the program or data file are most likely to be accessed. When the system's central processing unit (CPU) calls a memory location that is not stored in the cache, the cache (if completely filled) must be at least partially overwritten with the required data from the slower memory resource. Likewise, when permanent changes are made to data, data in both the cache and the slower memory resource must be updated to reflect that change.
As this is written, there are roughly 150 million computers throughout the world capable of performing general business-related tasks. When the rapid proliferation of personal computers began in the early 1980s, nearly all of them were employed as stand-alone units. However, multi-user systems were soon developed. These early multi-user systems ran software written for the CP/M disk operating system, which had been written by Gary Kildall and was marketed by his company, Digital Research, Inc. The multi-user disk operating system MP/M supplied by Digital Research, Inc. connected several "dumb" terminals to a single microprocessor and a shared disk drive, while TurboDOS--a much more sophisticated product supplied by an unrelated company--utilized a master/slave arrangement much like the Local Area Networks (LANs) in use today.
Both the MP/M and the TurboDOS disk operating systems ran on computer systems based on either the Intel 8080 microprocessor or the Zilog Z-80 microprocessor. Neither of these early microprocessors could directly address more than 65,536 bytes of random-access memory. As a consequence of MP/M and TurboDOS requiring a minimum of about 50,000 bytes of random access memory, only about 15,000 bytes of addressable memory remained for application programs. As few application programs, other than simple word processors, required 15,000 bytes or less, the early multi-user systems were, for the most part, more intellectual curiosities than they were practical, general-use, multi-user data processing systems.
Distributed data processing (i.e., multiple LANs interconnected via a long-distance data link) using either MP/M or TurboDOS was even more hopeless, as it would have required loading a communication program into memory, in addition to the operating system, before application software could be loaded. However, with the introduction of IBM-compatible computers based on the Intel 80286 microprocessor, which was designed to address several megabytes of random-access memory, the development of practical LANs and distributed data processing systems became feasible. Although Novel Corporation initially captured a majority share of the LAN market, the number of networks utilizing LAN software from Microsoft Corp. has been growing.
Present-day LANs generally use a twisted wire pair or a coaxial cable to interconnect individual user computer systems to a server system. Fiber optics the interconnection of LANs is accomplished via telephone lines, special dedicated data lines, microwave, or satellite links. For acoustic links, each end of the link generally requires a modem. The other links typically utilize a "bridge" and a "router" at each end.
Distributed data processing networks and the LANs within those distributed networks can often benefit from caching. Typically, links between LANs of a distributed processing network are slower than the interconnections between the nodes (i.e., individual computers) of a LAN. Furthermore, though a distant memory resource (e.g. a disk drive on a distant server system) may be as fast or even faster than local memory resources, long distance interconnections over a data link can dramatically slow access time to that distant resource. Regardless of the type of link between the LANs of a distributed processing network, or between the nodes (i.e., individual systems) of a LAN, each data link has a given bandwidth which will permit only a finite amount of data to be simultaneously transferred over the link. Once the bandwidth is exceeded, as for example when more than a certain number of users are attempting to communicate over the same link (whether between LANs or within a LAN), response time over that link typically degrades as each user's request is delayed in order to evenly accommodate all competing requests. Consequently, caching of data read over a network can generally increase system performance both by reducing data link loading and by providing the end user with a cache of rapidly accessible data.
Within the last several years, compact disc read-only-memory devices (CD-ROMs) have become extremely popular due to the availability of lowcost, high-capacity compact disk storage media and relatively low cost CD-ROM readers (drives). In fact, nearly all new personal computers being sold in the U.S. include an installed CD-ROM drive. Although current CD-ROM media are capable of storing approximately 450-500 megabytes of data, access to that data is considerably slower than data stored on a modern hard disk drive. For example, the current standard for a high-performance CD-ROM drive, known as a "6X" drive is capable of reading, at most, about 600 kilobytes of data per second. A modern high-speed IDE hard disk drive, on the other hand, is capable of reading about six megabytes per second--roughly ten times the speed of a 6X CD-ROM drive. Thus, CD-ROM drive performance may also be greatly enhanced through caching.
Many graphical user interface (GUI) environments, such as Microsoft.RTM. Windows.TM. ver. 3.X, Microsoft Windows 95, Windows NT.RTM., IBM Corporation's OS/2.RTM., and Geoworks.RTM. have been developed over the years. Of the aforementioned products, only Windows NT and OS/2 are true operating systems, as Geoworks and Windows 3.x must be loaded and run under the venerable Microsoft MS-DOS operating system. Windows 95 is somewhat of a hybrid, as it also requires portions of MS-DOS for its operation. For the sake of simplicity, though, both Windows 3.X and Windows 95 are referred to hereinafter as operating systems.
As this is written, Microsoft Windows ver. 3.X is far and away the most used operating system, having been bundled with nearly every personal computer sold between 1989 and mid-1995. However, from the date of its release in 1995, the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system from Microsoft Corporation has been bundled with most new, high-performance personal computers. In less than a year, it has become the operating system of choice for most business applications, and is expected to rapidly supplant Windows 3.X as the most used operating system for personal computers. The potential exists for significantly increasing the performance of both CD-ROM drives and distributed processing networks operating under Windows 3.x and Windows 95 operating systems through caching.

Method for purging unused data from a cache memory


An ammonia knife assembly is mounted onto a toolbar and is moved across a field to apply ammonia into the bottom of a trench. The ammonia knife assembly includes a knife for piercing the ground and creating the trench, an ammonia supply tube, and a horizontal shield attached to the knife. The shield has a rounded portion extending forwardly from the leading edge and two side portions extending outwardly from the sides of the knife for deflecting any dirt particles that may be thrown upwardly and outwardly from the leading edge of the knife as it pierces the ground.

Plants require the element nitrogen for growth. Plants obtain nitrogen by absorbing it from the soil through their roots. A variety of nitrogen-containing compounds are commonly added to the soil as fertilizers to improve plant growth.
Corn is the most important crop grown in the United States. Corn is also known as maize and has the scientific name Zea mays. Corn has a growing season of about four to six months. Corn requires a relatively large amount of nitrogen, especially in the period of about twenty to eighty days after germination.
Nitrogen is commonly added to corn fields in the form of anhydrous (water free) ammonia, the chemical symbol of which is NH3. The use of ammonia fertilizer is the least expensive way of adding a desired quantity of nitrogen to a corn field. Ammonia is a gas at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperatures, but is typically stored and transported in the liquid phase in pressurized containers. The liquid ammonia changes to gas upon release into atmospheric pressure.
Ammonia is generally applied to a corn field by dragging a wheeled ammonia tank and a wheeled applicator (commonly known as a toolbar) behind a tractor. Attached to the toolbar are a number of knives that create parallel trenches (also known as furrows) in the field. Supply lines run from the ammonia tank to outlets at the bottom of each knife. Ammonia is discharged into the bottom of each trench and the trench is then immediately filled by the action of disc sealers, two of which trail behind each knife. The dirt pushed back into the trench prevents excessive amounts of ammonia gas from escaping before it can dissolve in the water present in the soil.
Ammonia is added to corn fields at various times during the growing season. It is sometimes added before planting, but nitrogen levels decrease over time. Therefore, to achieve a desired level of nitrogen in the soil during the critical period of corn plant growth, application during the critical period requires the least amount of ammonia. The corn plants are typically a few inches tall at the beginning of the critical period. When ammonia is added at this time, it is applied to the space between adjacent rows of corn plants. Application of ammonia when the corn plants are growing is commonly known as "side dressing."
One disadvantage of side dressing is that the young corn plants are easily damaged. Damage can occur both directly and indirectly. If the ammonia toolbar is not dragged precisely through field (i.e., so that the knives, wheels, and/or trailing disc sealers travel in the space between the rows of corn plants), the knives, wheels, and/or trailing disc sealers can directly damage the plants. The second, indirect way damage occurs is by the action of dirt particles that are thrown upward and outward as the knives pierce the soil. The term "dirt particles" is used herein to refer to dirt particles of all sizes. To reduce the damage, ammonia application equipment is typically pulled through the fields at a relatively low speed. The low speed reduces the area that can be fertilized in a given amount of time and increases the cost.
A variety of horizontal shields that are attached to plows and knives have been disclosed. Some shields are designed and intended to travel along the surface. For example, Harryman, U.S. Pat. No. 970,818, Sep. 20, 1910, discloses a plow with an attached horizontal shield. The shield is dragged along the surface of the ground to control the depth at which the plow extends into the ground. As another example, Bruce, U.S. Pat. No. 5,452,673, Sep. 26, 1995, discloses an ammonia knife with a trailing attached plate. The plate drags along behind the knife and closes the trench, thereby replacing the conventional disc sealers. The Harryman shield is not suitable for use with wet soil because a build-up of material occurs. The Bruce shield has no effect on the dirt particles that are thrown upward and outward from the leading edge of the knife.
Other horizontal shields are designed and intended to travel below the surface. Brannan, U.S. Pat. No. 3,605,657, Sep. 20, 1971, discloses an ammonia knife having two angled moldboards that are below ground level during use. The purpose of the moldboards is to direct dirt onto the applied ammonia and to immediately provide a seal. Thompson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,520,125, May 28, 1996, discloses an earthworking sweep that follows a chemical applicator. The sweep is below ground level during use and is intended to direct dirt onto the applied chemical. Dietrich, Sr., U.S. Pat. No. 6,397,767, Jun. 4, 2002, discloses a liquid fertilizer knife having horizontal wedge members. The wedge members are below ground level during use and are intended to direct dirt onto the applied fertilizer. The Brannan, Thompson et al., and Dietrich, Sr. horizontal members have no effect on the dirt particles that are thrown upward and outward from the leading edges of the knives.
Accordingly, a demand exists for a side dressing shield for an ammonia knife that prevents thrown dirt particles from damaging adjacent corn plants. A demand also exists for a method of side dressing corn that reduces the indirect damage to the corn plants caused by thrown dirt particles.


In a network, a route which can be uniquely identified is constructed by selecting an arbitrary packet-switching node and an arbitrary transmission line in an arbitrary order from the network. A route memory unit stores data indicating which route is involved in which transmission line within the network. A congested state detecting unit detects a congested state of a transmission line accommodated within its own node. The detected congested state is transmitted to another node by a congested state informing unit as congested state information. A route identifying unit receives the congested state information from the other node and retrieves a route within a corresponding transmission line from the route memory unit to thereby identify the route accommodated within its node. A route control unit carries out control of the congested state of the identified route on the basis of the received congested state information. As described above, since traffic passing the transmission line is classified into "route" and grouped, an object whose congestion is to be supervised is limited and each node can regulated only the traffic passing the transmission line in which the congestion occurred in units of routes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a packet communication network composed of transmission lines for connecting a plurality of terminals accomodated in a packet -switching node and transmission lines for connecting a plurality of packet-switching nodes and, more particularly, to a packet transfer regulating apparatus for alleviating congested states of packet-switching nodes and transmission lines.
2. Description of the Related Art
A packet communication network is comprised of transmission lines for connecting terminals accomodated in a packet -switching node and transmission lines for connecting packet-switching nodes with each other. The terminal is a source for generating a wide variety of information such as data, image data, audio data and so on. The packet-switching node is adapted to extract priority information contained in a packet from a terminal and to add a new transfer destination address to the header of the priority information to form a packet format or to judge a route to which data is transferred.
In a packet communication network, the packet-switching node extracts from a probability standpoint communication information generated by the terminal and converts it to packet data to effect the communication. Thus, highly efficient resource administration is realized on the basis of large grouping effect within the network. Respective packets are temporarily stored in a transfer queuing buffer provided within the node, thereby keeping constant the band width of the transmission line.
However, when a synchronization communication or the like whose real time property is required is performed by using packet data, information generated from the terminals is irregular. Thus, if respective data are multiplexed on the line, there is a low probability that packet data will be concentrated on the packet-switching node. As a consequence, packets cannot be transferred within the node, and delay in transmission of a communication packet within the node is increased. Then, if the number of packets (stored packets) accumulated in the transfer queuing buffer exceeds an allowable limit, the packet-switching node or the transmission line is placed in a congested state, and packets are discarded in the packet-switching node or in the transmission line. Thus, there arises the problem that packet communication quality is deteriorated.
Such a congested state may occur in the transmission line or in the packet-switching node. When a congested state occurs, a control operation is performed so that the flow of packets to the congestion occurrence point is regulated (stopped) and the flow of packets is regulated so that it becomes less than the flow of packets out of the congestion occurrence point. Thus, excess packets are directed to another switching-node. This control operation is what might be called a transfer regulation. The following two points are considered as points at which the transfer regulation is executed:
(1) An output point of a packet-switching node in which traffic can be flowed to the congestion occurrence point through the transmission line; and
(2) A traffic input point in which traffic is flowed to a network (packet communication network).
Ideally, the input point at which excess traffic, which causes congestion, is input to the network is detected at the congestion occurrence point. The input is then regulated at that input point without delay (zero time). However, a regulation instruction is transmitted to the input point with a constant delay time. Thus, it is impossible to regulate traffic flowing during that period of time. This means that the system for directly regulating the input point cannot be realized in a large-scaled network.
Concentration of traffic is not limited to the excess input of one input (traffic), but may occur when several inputs are accidentally overlapped. When this occurs, the overlapped state may cease to exist automatically after a certain excessive state. Accordingly, the system for regulating traffic flowing to the input point of the network is not always optimum.
When the concentration of traffic occurs in a wave-like fashion, the following transfer regulating system is proposed. Regulation at the point indicated by (2) above is mainly performed and, as indicated by (1) above, the output point of the packet-switching node immediately before the congestion occurrence point is regulated and such regulation is sequentially extended to nodes of preceding stages.
The following three conditions are indispensable to such a transfer regulation system:
(a) [short regulation achieving time]
With ideal transfer control, regulation reaches the input point with a physical transmission time ranging from the congestion occurrence point to the input point in which the traffic is input to the network. In practice, however, the regulation achieving period is affected by the amount of excess traffic flowing into the network. This increase brings about an increase in the delay time of other communication and an increased buffer amount at the congestion occurrence point. Therefore, the regulation achieving time must be minimized.
(b) [minimum regulation extending or covering range]
A system for regulating only a communication (traffic) which causes congestion is ideal because invalid and excessive regulation occurs when it is extended to communications other than that which passes through the congested transmission line.
(c) [appropriate hardware amount]
The amount of hardware must be kept within practical limits.
There are two systems based on conventional techniques.
The first is a direct regulation system. In this system, an input source in which an excessive flow occurs at a congestion occurrence point is specified and a regulation instruction is issued directly to the input source, and in this system, a regulation achieving time and a regulation extending range are both approximately ideal.
The second system is a transmission line regulation system. In this system, an input transmission line is regulated from a congestion occurrence point in the upstream direction (input direction), whereby a quasi-congestion occurs in the preceding node or transmission line, and regulation is sequentially extended in the upstream direction to the traffic input point.
The first example of the aforementioned prior art is described with reference to FIG. 1.
Let us consider a packet communication network composed of packet-switching nodes 101.sub.1 to 101.sub.7 for transferring communications #1 to #6 and transmission lines 102.sub.1 to 102.sub.6 for connecting packet-switching nodes 101.sub.1 to 101.sub.7 or the like as shown in FIG. 1. Let us assume that packet-switching node 101.sub.3 detects congestion in transmission line 102.sub.3 (shown by the hatched area in FIG. 1). Node 101.sub.3 detects all communications (communications #1 to #3 in FIG. 1) which pass through transmission line 102.sub.3 or recognizes them beforehand, and must transmit regulation information including the types of communications to packet-switching nodes 101.sub.1, 101.sub.5 and 101.sub.7, which are the sending or source nodes. In this system, however, to specify the input source, the flow of respective communications through respective transmission lines must be watched constantly. Further, to discriminate communications passing through respective transmission lines, call identifying numbers such as the logical channel numbers of individual packets must be detected, and sending nodes of such calls must be detected. As described above, the first example of the prior art has the substantial problem that an enormous hardware and a complicated processing are needed. Thus, this conventional system cannot cope with a future enlarged network.
The second example of the prior art is fundamentally a system for regulating traffic from a transmission line which becomes an input to a transmission line when a congestion occurs in a certain transmission line. This system is described with reference to the packet communication network of FIG. 2, which is similar to that of FIG. 1. If a congestion occurs in transmission line 102.sub.3 accommodated in a certain packet-switching node 101.sub.3, the regulation will be propagated first to transmission line 102.sub.3 ; then to transmission lines 102.sub.2, 102.sub.5, and 102.sub.6 ; and finally to transmission lines 102.sub.1, and 102.sub.4. In other words, although it is originally requested that only communications #1 to #3 be regulated, the regulation is also propagated to communications #4 to #6, thus lowering the throughput of the entire circuit. As described above, the second example of the prior art has the substantial disadvantage that congestion in the entire circuit cannot be alleviated. Furthermore, traffics are stored in the respective stages so that, in addition to the transmitting time, a time in which buffers of respective stages consume is needed also as the regulation achieving time.


A fused multiply-add hardware operator comprising a multiplier receiving two multiplicands as floating-point numbers encoded in a first precision format; an alignment circuit associated with the multiplier configured to convert the result of the multiplication into a first fixed-point number; and an adder configured to add the first fixed-point number and an addition operand. The addition operand is a floating-point number encoded in a second precision format, and the operator comprises an alignment circuit associated with the addition operand, configured to convert the addition operand into a second fixed-point number of reduced dynamic range relative to the dynamic range of the addition operand, having a number of bits equal to the number of bits of the first fixed-point number, extended on both sides by at least the size of the mantissa of the addition operand; the adder configured to add the first and second fixed-point numbers without loss.

Artificial intelligence technologies, especially deep learning, are particularly demanding in terms of the multiplication of large matrices, which can have several hundred rows and columns. Hardware accelerators are thus emerging that are specialized in mixed precision matrix multiplication.
The multiplication of large matrices is generally carried out in blocks, i.e. by breaking down the matrices into sub-matrices of a size adapted to the computational resources. Accelerators are thus designed to efficiently compute the products of these sub-matrices. Such accelerators include an operator capable, in one instruction cycle, of calculating the dot-product of vectors representing a row and a column of a sub-matrix and adding the corresponding partial result to partial results accumulated in previous cycles. After a number of cycles, the accumulation of the partial results is the dot-product of the vectors representing a row and a column of a full matrix.
Such operators make use of the FMA techniques.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a conventional FMA operator. The operator generally takes three binary floating-point operands, namely two multiplication operands, or multiplicands a and b, and an addition operand c. It calculates the term ab+c to produce a result s in a register designated ACC. The register is so designated because it is generally used to accumulate several products in several cycles, reusing, as illustrated by a dashed line, the output of the register as the addition operand c in the next cycle.
In the paper ["Modified Fused Multiply and Add for Exact Low Precision Product Accumulation", Nicolas Brunie, IEEE 24th Symposium on Computer Arithmetic (ARITH), July 2017], multiplicands a and b are in a half-precision floating-point format, also called "binary16" or "fp16", according to the IEEE-754 standard. A number in the "fp16" format has a sign bit, a 5-bit exponent, and a 10+1-bit mantissa (including an implicit bit encoded in the exponent).
The ACC register is designed to accommodate the full dynamics of the product ab in a fixed-point format. For multiplicands in "fp16" format, an 80-bit register (plus possibly a few overflow bits) is sufficient, the fixed point being located at position 49 of the register. The addition operand c is in the same format as the contents of the ACC register.
This structure makes it possible to obtain an exact result for each operation ab+c, and to maintain an exact accumulation result cycle after cycle, as long as the register does not overflow, thus avoiding rounding errors and the loss of precision following the addition of numbers of opposite sign but close in absolute value.
The above-mentioned article further proposes, in a mixed-precision FMA configuration, to convert the contents of the register to a higher-precision format, e.g. "binary32", at the end of an accumulation phase. However, the number thus converted does not cover the full dynamics of the "binary32" format, since the exponent of the product ab is defined only over 6 bits instead of 8.
FIG. 2 schematically illustrates an application of the FMA structure to an accumulating dot-product operator, as described, for example, in US patent application 2018/0321938. Four pairs of multiplicands (a1, b1), (a2, b2), (a3, b3) and (a4, b4) are provided to respective multipliers. The four resulting products p1 to p4, called partial products, and an addition operand c are simultaneously added by an adder tree. The multiplicands and the addition operand are all in the same floating-point format. The result of the addition is normalized and rounded to be converted to the initial floating-point format, so that it can be reused as operand c.
To add the partial products and the addition operand, the exponents of these terms are compared to align the mantissas of the terms with each other. Only a window of significant bits corresponding to the highest exponent is kept for addition and rounding, a window which corresponds to the size of the adder. As a result, the mantissas of the lower exponent terms are truncated, or eliminated altogether, producing large errors when two partial products of large exponents cancel each other.
The above-mentioned patent application does not mention any particular size of adder. In the same context of addition of partial products, Nicolas Brunie's 2014 thesis entitled "Contributions to computer arithmetic and applications to embedded systems", proposes an adder size equal to twice the mantissa size of the partial products plus a margin of overflow of two bits, i.e. 98 bits for multiplicands in binary32 format. In the same context, patent U.S. Pat. No. 8,615,542, for adding four partial products, provides an adder size equal to only the mantissa size of the multiplicands, i.e. 24 bits for multiplicands in binary32 format.

Fused Multiply-Add operator for mixed precision floating-point numbers with correct rounding


A soft sided insulated container assembly includes a first portion having an insulated, soft sided external wall structure, and an internal, substantially rigid molded plastic receptacle mounted therein. It has a cover structure that includes a reinforcement member for engaging a land region of the molded receptacle, thereby tending to yield an interface tending to have a sealing relationship. The container may also include a thermal storage element, and the container may have an accommodation for receiving the thermal storage element.

Soft sided insulated containers have become popular for carrying either articles that may best be served cool, such as beverages or salads, or warm, such as appetizers, hot dogs, and so on. Such containers are frequently used to carry liquids, whether hot liquids, such as soup containers, coffee or tea, or cold liquids such as beer, soft drinks, or other carbonated beverages, juices and milk. The containers are typically made in a generally cube-like or rectangular parallelpiped shape, whether of sides of equal length or not, having a base, four upstanding walls, and a top. The top is generally a lid which opens to permit articles to be placed in, or retrieved from, the container.
While soft sided containers are, in general, quite convenient, the flexible structure may not provide adequate protection for items stored within the container. For example, sandwiches or other non-durable items may become crushed or squished when the container is carried or otherwise transported. It may be desirable that other objects that may be carried in a cooler, such as, for example, egg sandwiches or cucumber sandwiches, or items of a similar nature for a picnic, be kept cool before being eaten. Alternatively, if one has warmed canapes or hors d'oeuvres, it may be desirable that those appetizers be kept warm until served. However, such items as sandwiches or pastries may tend not to be overly amenable to immersion in water, and, even if placed in a supposedly waterproof bag or plastic container may tend to become damp or clammy. Further, sandwiches or appetizers tend not to be particularly resilient, and once squashed may tend not to return to their former state.
To alleviate this problem, a rigid insert such as a plastic receptacle, which may conform to the interior walls of the soft sided container, may be used to impart structural rigidity to the soft side container. Alternatively, as proposed herein, the various wall panels of the container may be provided with relatively stiff shields, or reinforcements, that while somewhat flexible, may be less prone to being squashed than, for example, a side panel whose stiffness is more strongly dependent a relatively soft layer of insulating foam. As a result of this increased rigidity, items placed within the rigid insert may be less apt to be affected by bumps or other forces applied to the soft sided container.
Further still, in soft sided coolers heretofore, the closure of the lid has tended to depend on the closing of a zipper, often a zipper running around three sides of a rectangle, with the fourth side being hinged. The lid may rest on a foam lip or bead. When a container of this nature falls over, its resistance to the spilling of liquid through the closure may not be as effective as might be desired. It might be advantageous to have a somewhat tighter seal, such as might be made by stiffer materials in an interference fit. A soft-sided panel would not normally be sufficiently stiff to achieve such a seal. The use of a seal in this nature might also permit the elimination of the main peripheral zipper of the main closure of the container. The elimination of the need to use a zipper to obtain access to the contents of the container may itself be considered an advantage. Some users may prefer not to fiddle with zippers, and may prefer a simpler release apparatus.
Further, it may be advantageous to provide a mounting for a thermal storage device, such as an ice pack or an exothermic package, that could be carried in the container. It would be advantageous for the thermal storage element to be removable, to permit it to be re-frozen in the freezer or refrigerator, or reheated, or recharged, as the case may be. Alternatively, it may be desirable to be able to choose between a number of various positions for the thermal storage element, depending on what might be carried in the insulated container. That is, in some cases it might be desirable to have the thermal storage element below objects in the insulated, sometimes above, and sometimes in the middle. Further still, it might be advantageous to be able to remove the thermal storage element from the insulated container entirely, and to use it as a flat surface upon which to serve or eat objects taken out of the container. This role might be advantageously enhanced by forming a recess, or recesses in the thermal storage element such as might be used as drink holders, or retainers for drinks or other objects, to prevent them from sliding in the event the surface is not precisely level (as may be the case on a picnic, or in a vehicle, or from spilling if jostled slightly, in the event the vehicle is moving). Further still, it may be advantageous to permit the thermal storage element to be held in the lids of the container when the container is open, to serve either of the above mentioned roles.

Container with cover and closure reinforcement


The semiconductor device comprises an insulating film in which penetrating holes are formed, a semiconductor chip having electrodes, a wiring pattern adhered by an adhesive over a region including penetrating holes on one side of the insulating film and electrically connected to the electrodes of the semiconductor chip, and external electrodes provided on the wiring pattern through the penetrating holes and projecting from the surface opposite to the surface of the substrate on which the wiring pattern is formed. Part of the adhesive is drawn in to be interposed between the penetrating holes and external electrodes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and method of manufacture thereof, a circuit board, and an electronic instrument.
2. Description of Related Art
With the recent increasingly compact nature of electronic instruments, there is a demand for semiconductor device packages appropriate for high-density mounting. In response to this, surface-mounted packages have been developed, such as Ball Grid Array (BGA) and Chip Scale/Size Package (CSP). With such surface-mounted packages, a substrate is often used on which a wiring pattern for connection to the semiconductor chip is formed. Penetrating holes are formed in the substrate, and external electrodes are often formed so as to project through these penetrating holes from the surface opposite to that of the wiring pattern.
With a semiconductor device to which a package of this construction is applied, after mounting on the circuit board, because of the difference in coefficient of thermal expansion between the circuit board and semiconductor device, a stress may be applied to the external electrodes, and cracks may form in the external electrodes.

Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same, circuit board, and electronic instrument


Combustible is comminuted and dried, and metal and noncombustible are removed from the coarsely comminuted combustible. Then, the combustible is secondarily comminuted and separated into coarse combustible and fluff which is fine combustible. The coarse combustible of the separated combustible is fed onto a fire grate (2) of a refuse incinerator (1), and burned in flat bed combustion in a primary combustion chamber (4). On the other hand, the fluff is burned in suspended combustion in a secondary combustion chamber (7) with a combustion fluff burner (5) for incinerating combustible. Thus, refuse containing much plastics which is formed into fluff can be efficiently disposed of, whereby the amount of incineration is increased as a whole.

Conventionally, a refuse incineration facility for incinerating urban refuse for disposal is provided with a fire-grate-type refuse incinerator. Sometimes there is provided a fluid bed incinerator. In addition, an ash fusion furnace is often installed for reducing the volume of incineration ash discharged from the refuse incinerator and for rendering it harmless.
Recent urban refuse is characterized by an increase in the volume of plastics contained in the refuse and an increase in the amount of refuse as a whole.
The fire-grate-type refuse incinerator is very effective because refuse, other than bulky refuse, can be fed into the incinerator as is without being comminuted. However, when refuse containing plastics in an amount of 30% by weight or more is incinerated, there is the possibility that molten plastics will flow down under the fire grate to damage it or to cause a fire accident. Thus, the firegrate-type refuse incinerator has a problem in that it cannot accommodate refuse containing a large amount of plastics. Furthermore, incinerators must be made larger to accommodate increasing amounts of refuse. In a flat bed combustion system, combustion takes place on the surface of a fire grate. The fire grate may be damaged if it is required to support too large a load. Thus, the volume of refuse which can be incinerated in a typical refuse incinerator is said to be limited to 1000 tons per day.
On the other hand, the fluid bed incinerator is suitable for incineration of refuse containing a large amount of plastics because material to be incinerated is incinerated through suspended combustion while the material is caused to float and flow in a fluid layer. However, since the fluid be incinerator requires much power for breaking and fluidizing refuse, the volume to be incinerated in generally limited to 200 tons as day, and it is difficult to increase the volume.

Method and facility for refuse incineration using a fire-grate-type incinerator and with separation of non-combustibles


A rotor assembly is disclosed herein that includes a diaphragm spring for retaining other components of the rotor assembly. The rotor assembly includes a rotor, a rotor carrier supporting the rotor, at least one spacer arranged on a radially inner side of the rotor, and the diaphragm spring. The diaphragm spring includes a first end formed on a radially outer end of the diaphragm spring that engages against the at least one spacer, and a second end formed on a radially inner end of the diaphragm spring that engages against the rotor carrier.

Electric motors are used in a wide range of industries. Electric motors typically include a stator and a rotor, as well as various other components. A rotor carrier is sometimes provided to support the rotor. In order to connect the rotor with the rotor carrier, various techniques and configurations are currently employed. One such technique requires shrink fitting or heat shrinking. Existing configurations have various drawbacks, in particular due to inaccurate tolerances or insufficient durability.
It is difficult to clamp the rotor with the rotor carrier with a sufficient connection and fitting between the components such that torque is reliably transmitted from the rotor to the rotor carrier.
It would be desirable to provide a more durable and reliable connection between the rotor and the rotor carrier that is also easy to assemble.

Self-retaining compressional diaphragm spring


A personal identification device including: an image pickup unit; a light source which emits the light adapted to be transmitted through a finger and incident on said image pickup unit; an image operating unit which generates a pattern from an image picked up by said image pickup unit and matching the pattern of said image with a pattern registered in advance; a storage which holds said registered pattern; a guide unit which indicates the position where the image of said finger is picked up; and a detection unit which detects a contact between said finger and said guide unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device and a method for identifying a person using the biological information of the person, or in particular the finger vein pattern of the person.
2. Description of the Related Art
Now that the security technique for personal belongings and information is considered critical, the biometrics identification using the biological information of the person is closely watched as a personal identification technique high in utility and confidentiality. The conventional biometrics identification techniques using the fingerprints, the iris, the voice, the face, the veins in the back of the hand or the finger veins have been conceived. Especially, the identification technique using the finger vein, which can be accomplished simply by applying light to the finger, has the great advantages of a low psychological resistance and a high anti-falsification characteristic due to the use of the internal information of an organism.
The identification using the finger veins is implemented in the following manner. Specifically, the infrared light incident on a finger from the back or side surface thereof is scattered in the finger and radiated outside. In the process, the hemoglobin in the blood absorbs more infrared light than the surrounding tissue. In the case where the image of the light radiated and transmitted from the thick of the finger is picked up, therefore, the blood vessels, i.e. the finger veins distributed under the skin of the thick of the finger are visible as a pattern of a dark shadow. This image is registered in advance, and the correlation is determined between this image and the image of an object finger to be checked. In this way, it is possible to determine whether the person involved is registered or not for personal identification.
An identification device using the finger veins is disclosed in JP-A-7-21373. This personal identification device has the feature that an image of a finger is picked up by attaching an optical fiber closely to the finger to minimize the loss of light power for picking up the image. JP-A-2002-83298, on the other hand, discloses a device and a method of personal identification operated in an environment requiring no-contact detection using an image of a finger vein pattern. Also, the device disclosed in JP-A-2003-30632 comprises a finger guide unit and a fingertip button switch to assure uniform image pickup conditions for each case of matching the finger vein pattern for identification.
The conventional techniques use a guide unit for fixing a finger in position or guiding the finger to the correct position in the identification device to pick up an image of the finger veins with a high reproducibility. The finger is inserted along the guide unit, so that the factors of fluctuations of the finger shape including the angle of the finger joints, the three-dimensional rotation angle of the finger about the center axis thereof and the distance from the camera are suppressed, thereby making it possible to pick up an image of the finger vein pattern with a highly reproducible shape.
The user not accustomed to the operation of the identification device, however, may erroneously insert or deform the finger by bringing the finger into contact with the finger guide unit, applying so strong a force to the finger as to bend the finger joint or inserting the finger at variable angles. The user who has long used the device, on the other hand, though capable of inserting the finger with a high reproducibility, may place the finger in a different way than at the time of registration for a reduced correlation with the registered pattern. Also, a willful user may insert a false finger of other than an organism or a finger with a falsified pattern attached thereon for registration or identification.

Personal identification device and method


In one embodiment, an apparatus of a wireless communication device includes control circuitry to cause receiver circuitry of the wireless communication device to switch between an on-mode and an off-mode. The apparatus also includes synchronizing circuitry to: perform a correlation on signals of a packet received by the receiver circuitry when in the on-mode to detect a pattern in the received signals, and cause the control circuitry to hold the receiver circuitry in the on-mode based on detection of the pattern in the received signals. The apparatus further includes demodulation circuitry to process additional signals of the packet received by the receiver circuitry when held in the on-mode.

With the proliferation of wireless devices, such as wireless peripheral devices, receiver devices (e.g. smartphones, laptops, etc.) may increase their packet detection accuracy by scanning more frequently. For example, there may be a number of Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE) peripheral devices, such as home automation sensors and actuators (e.g., smart lights and alarm systems), sports sensors, wearable devices (e.g., wireless headsets), hearing aids, smart watches, and the like, all advertising on only three designated frequencies in the 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio band, leading to more advertising packet collisions. Furthermore, proximate interference caused by other 2.4 GHz devices (e.g., WiFi and some LTE bands) may further degrade advertiser packet detection. More frequent scanning by the wireless receiver device may avoid at least some of these issues, but may also lead to additional power and battery consumption on the receiver device.


The lower mold which forms the external side of the vehicle wheel is water-cooled by water-cooling pipes. The rib-forming portions of the upper mold which forms the internal side of the vehicle wheel are forcibly air-cooled by the air passages provided along the rib-forming portions. Since water-cooling has better cooling capacity than air-cooling, the molten material inside the cavity between the lower mold and the upper mold is solidified from the external side thereof, and no defects such as shrinkage cavities occur on the external side thereof. When the internal side is solidified, the rib portions are solidified not much later than the other portion of the internal side, thereby shortening the casting cycle time. The split molds which form the cavity for forming therein the rim portion of the vehicle wheel are opened earlier than the upper mold, at the time when the surface layer portion of the molten material in the cavity has been solidified. If the split molds are kept clamped, the clearance to be generated between the split molds and the molten material upon contraction thereof due to solidification, restricts the heat dissipation from the molten material to the split molds, resulting in retarded solidification. To the contrary, early opening of the split molds leads to accelerated solidification of the molten material due to cooling of the rim portion by the atmosphere.

This invention relates to a method of casting vehicle wheels such as aluminum wheels or the like.
As is disclosed in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 151344/Heisei 2 (1990), there is conventionally known a method of casting a vehicle wheel by using mold means which comprises a lower mold and an upper mold which together form a cavity for molding therein a disk portion of the vehicle wheel, and split molds which form a cavity for molding therein a rim portion of the vehicle wheel by enclosing the lower and the upper molds. In this method, the split molds are opened when a molten material in the cavities has been completely solidified and the lower and the upper molds are also opened to take out a product.
In this method, the external side of the vehicle wheel which faces an outside of a vehicle when mounted thereon is molded by the lower mold. Cooling water passages are provided in the lower mold and the lower mold is water-cooled by means of cooling water which flows through the passages. The solidification of the external side of the vehicle wheel is thus accelerated so that no defects, such as, shrinkage cavities, occur.
In case reinforcing ribs are formed on the internal side of the vehicle wheel, it is desirable, for the purpose of shortening the casting cycle time, to cool also the upper mold which forms the internal side of the vehicle wheel. However, if the molten material on the internal side is solidified more quickly than that on the external side, unsolidified molten material on the external side is pulled towards the internal side, thereby giving rise to shrinkage cavities on the external side. Therefore, no positive cooling of the upper mold is carried out in the present state of the art.


A novel transceiver structure is proposed to increase the achievable data rate for ultra wideband transmitted reference (UWB-TR) systems. For every Ns pulse pairs during one symbol transmission, the data pulses are weighted by one of the M-ary orthogonal sequences, thus carrying additional log2 M-bit information. Furthermore, by utilizing a pair of balanced matched filters before the cross correlator, the minimum separation between the reference and data pulses is significantly reduced without causing any inter-pulse interference (IPI), which in turn reduces the minimum required frame length in order to avoid the inter-frame interference (IFI). As a result, the invented TR system can achieve higher data rates than the conventional TR system, while maintaining superior bit-error-rate (BER) performance even with lower transmit power.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to ultra wideband (UWB) communication systems. More specifically, it relates to the transmission, reception and detection of impulse radio signals in a transmitted reference (TR) system.
2. Background of Related Art
Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology has been proposed as a promising physical layer candidate for the short-range high-data-rate indoor wireless communications. By the low-duty-cycle transmission of short pulses with a pulse width on the order of sub-nanoseconds, it allows to minimize the power consumption at the radio units and provides fine multipath resolvability. The latter is especially desirable for indoor wireless communications where the channel exhibits dense multipath characteristic.
However, the fine multipath resolvability also provides challenges to the design of a low-complexity and low-cost UWB receiver. To fully collect the signal energy spreaded over all the multipath components (MPCs), a commonly-used Rake receiver has to implement tens or even hundreds of correlation branches. On the other hand, using only a subset of MPCs, notably selective or partial Rake, sacrifices the signal energy for a moderate-complexity implementation of the receiver. In addition, the Rake receiver requires channel estimation to combine the MPCs, which further increases the receiver complexity as the number of MPCs grows.
For the above reasons, much attention has been directed to the use of transmitted reference (TR) system. One such UWB-TR system is disclosed in the U.S. patent "Ultra-Wideband Communications System", numbered as U.S. Pat. No. 6,810,087 B2. As disclosed therein, an unmodulated reference pulse is transmitted before each data-modulated pulse to provide an immediate channel estimation for detecting the data bit modulated on the data pulse. In order for the two pulses to experience the same channel condition, the time separation between the two pulses should be less than the channel coherence time. The TR receiver first correlates the reference pulse with its associated data pulse. In the output of the correlator, each MPC results in a peak and all peaks share the same polarity determined by the modulated data bit. By integrating the correlator output for a certain time interval, the signal energy spreaded over the MPCs is coherently added and then used to detect the modulated data bit. Compared to the Rake receiver, the TR scheme does not require channel estimation and it is suitable in dense multipath environments with manageable receiver complexity. However, these benefits are achieved at the expense of power inefficiency by sending the reference pulse and noise enhancement due to the noisy reference, where the latter results in large noise-times-noise terms which degrade the detection performance severely at the low or medium signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) range. In addition, to avoid the inter-pulse interference (IPI) between the reference and data pulses, the time separation between them has to be at least equal to the channel delay spread, which indicates a loss in the data rate.
In order to improve the detection performance of the TR system, most approaches in the prior art focus on getting a better template signal through noise averaging prior to the correlation. Notable among them is a hybrid matched filter correlation receiver, disclosed in the U.S. patent application Publication Number US 2005/0013390 A1, titled as "Hybrid UWB receiver with matched filters and pulse correlator". As disclosed, by applying a symbol-rate matched filter before the cross correlator, the receiver not only achieves noise-averaging but also allows the subsequent digital processing to operate at the symbol rate rather than the frame rate, making it superior to prior TR schemes. However, this scheme, referred to as conventional TR hereafter, and other prior art TR schemes, are susceptible to the IPI occurred when the reference and data pulses are separated by a distance less than the channel delay spread. As a result, the achievable data rate is much limited. To deal with this, there is one proposal based on maximum-likelihood template estimation in the presence of IPI. However, it is too expensive to implement.
Therefore, there exists a need for a low-complexity UWB-TR system that is not subject to the IPI, and more suitable for high-data-rate communications.

M-ARY orthogonal coded/balanced UWB transmitted reference systems


In various embodiments, method, systems, and vehicles are provided that include: obtaining, via one or more sensors, sensor data pertaining including one or more images of one or more detected objects in proximity to a vehicle; processing the one or more images via a neural network model of a perception system of the vehicle, generating perception results for the one or more images; analyzing, via a processor, a plurality of potential faults in the perception system, based on the perception results, using a respective different technique for each of the plurality of potential faults, for the neural network model; determining a fault of the plurality of potential faults, via the processor, based on the analyzing; and taking a vehicle control action with respect to the vehicle, based on the fault, via instructions provided by the processor.

An autonomous vehicle is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating with little or no user input. It does so by using sensing devices such as radar, lidar, image sensors, and the like. Autonomous vehicles further use information from global positioning systems (GPS) technology, navigation systems, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, vehicle-to-infrastructure technology, and/or drive-by-wire systems to navigate the vehicle. In addition, certain vehicles (hereafter referred to as active safety vehicles) have active safety functionality (e.g., automatic braking, automatic steering, and so on) that provides a level of autonomous control, even when the vehicle is not fully autonomous in nature. Moreover, various vehicles (including autonomous vehicles and active safety vehicles) utilize perception systems (e.g., utilizing sensor data and processing using perception software) of detecting and identifying objects on the roadway on which the vehicle is travelling, for use in implementing control for such autonomous and/or active safety functionality for the vehicle.
While autonomous vehicles and active safety vehicles, and perception systems utilized thereby, offer many potential advantages over traditional vehicles, in certain circumstances it may be desirable for improved operation of such vehicles, including determination of faults in perception systems used in such vehicles.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide systems and methods for operation of vehicles, such as autonomous vehicles and active safety vehicles, including detection and isolation of faults in perception systems for such vehicles. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present disclosure will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.

Fault isolation for perception systems in autonomous/active safety vehicles