This paper proposes a faceted information exploration model that supports coarse-grained and fine-grained focusing of geographic maps by offering a graphical representation of data attributes within interactive widgets. The proposed approach enables (i) a multi-category projection of long-lasting geographic maps, based on the proposal of efficient facets for data exploration in sparse and noisy datasets, and (ii) an interactive representation of the search context based on widgets that support data visualization, faceted exploration, category-based information hiding and transparency of results at the same time. The integration of our model with a semantic representation of geographical knowledge supports the exploration of information retrieved from heterogeneous data sources, such as Public Open Data and OpenStreetMap. We evaluated our model with users in the OnToMap collaborative Web GIS. The experimental results show that, when working on geographic maps populated with multiple data categories, it outperforms simple category-based map projection and traditional faceted search tools, such as checkboxes, in both user performance and experience.

Moving a module in a modular robot is a very complex and error-prone process. Unlike in swarm, in the modular robots we are targeting, the moving module must keep the connection to, at least, one other module. In order to miniaturize each module to few millimeters, we have proposed a design which is using electrostatic actuator. However, this movement is composed of several attachment, detachment creating the movement and each small step can fail causing a module to break the connection. The idea developed in this paper consists in creating a new kind of deformable module allowing a movement which keeps the connection between the moving and the fixed modules. We detail the geometry and the practical constraints during the conception of this new module. We then validate the possibility of movement for a module in an existing configuration. This implies the cooperation of some of the modules placed along the path and we show in simulation that it exists a motion process to reach every free positions of the surface for a given configuration.

We study heterogeneous $k$-facility location games. In this model there are $k$ facilities where each facility serves a different purpose. Thus, the preferences of the agents over the facilities can vary arbitrarily. Our goal is to design strategy proof mechanisms that place the facilities in a way to maximize the minimum utility among the agents. For $k=1$, if the agents' locations are known, we prove that the mechanism that places the facility on an optimal location is strategy proof. For $k geq 2$, we prove that there is no optimal strategy proof mechanism, deterministic or randomized, even when $k=2$ there are only two agents with known locations, and the facilities have to be placed on a line segment. We derive inapproximability bounds for deterministic and randomized strategy proof mechanisms. Finally, we focus on the line segment and provide strategy proof mechanisms that achieve constant approximation. All of our mechanisms are simple and communication efficient. As a byproduct we show that some of our mechanisms can be used to achieve constant factor approximations for other objectives as the social welfare and the happiness.

An aqueous dispersion includes particles at least partially encapsulated in a microgel where the microgel is prepared from a hyperbranched acrylic polymer. In addition, a method for making an aqueous dispersion includes: (1) mixing in an aqueous medium: (a) particles, (b) at least one ethylenically unsaturated monomer, and (c) a water-dispersible hyperbranched acrylic polymer having ethylenic unsaturation; and (2) polymerizing the at least one ethylenically unsaturated monomer and water-dispersible hyperbranched acrylic polymer having ethylenic unsaturation to at least partially encapsulate the particles in a microgel.

Compounds of the formula (I) or (I'), where R1 is a hydrogen atom or C1-C4-alkyl and R'1 is C1-C4-alkyl; X1 and X2 are each, independently of one another, a secondary phosphine group; R2 is hydrogen, R01R02R03Si—, C1-C18.acyl substituted by halogen, hydroxy, C1-C8-alkoxy or R04R05N—, -or R06—X01—C(O)—; R01, R02 and R03 are each, independently of one another, C1-C12-alkyl, unsubstituted or C1-C4-alkyl or C1-C4-alkoxy-substituted C6-C10-aryl or C7-C12-aralkyl; R04 and R05 are each, independently of one another, hydrogen, C1-C12-alkyl, C3-C8-cycloalkyl, C6-C10-aryl or C7-C12-aralkyl, or R04 and R05 together are trimethylene, tetramethylene, pentamethylene or 3-oxapcntylene; R06 is C1-C18-alkyl, unsubstituted or C1-C4-alkyl- or C1-C4-alkoxy-substituted C3-C8-cycloalkyl, C6-C10-aryl or C7-C12-aralkyl; X01 is —O— or —NH—; T is C6-C20-arylene; v is 0 or an integer from 1 to 4; and * denotes a mixture of racemic or enantiomerically pure diastereomers or pure racemic or enantiomerically diastereomers, are excellent chiral ligands for metal complexes as enantioselective catalysts for the hydrogenation of prochiral organic compounds.

A dehydrogenation process for the dehydrogenation of at least one dehydrogenatable hydrocarbon, the process comprising contacting a feed comprising the at least one dehydrogenatable hydrocarbon under dehydrogenation conditions with a catalyst composition comprising a support and at least one dehydrogenation component wherein said conditions include a temperature of from 400° C. to 750° C. and a pressure of at least 50 psig (345 kPag).

A process for reforming hydrocarbons is presented. The process involves applying process controls over the reaction temperatures to preferentially convert a portion of the hydrocarbon stream to generate an intermediate stream, which will further react with reduced endothermicity. The intermediate stream is then processed at a higher temperature, where a second reforming reactor is operated under substantially isothermal conditions.

Disclosed is a method for removing weakly basic nitrogen compounds from a hydrocarbon feed stream by contacting the hydrocarbon feed stream with a basic catalyst to convert a portion of the weakly basic nitrogen compounds to basic nitrogen compounds. The method also includes contacting the hydrocarbon feed stream with an acidic adsorbent to adsorb the basic nitrogen compounds from the stream. The hydrocarbon feed stream comprises an aromatic compound and a weakly basic nitrogen compound.

A process for reforming a hydrocarbon stream is presented. The process involves splitting a naphtha feedstream to at least two feedstreams and partially processing each feedstream in separate reactors. The processing includes passing the light stream to a combination hydrogenation/dehydrogenation reactor. The process reduces the energy by reducing the endothermic properties of intermediate reformed process streams.

Disclosed is a method for removing weakly basic nitrogen compounds from a hydrocarbon feed stream by contacting the hydrocarbon feed stream with acidic clay to produce a hydrocarbon effluent stream having a lower weakly basic nitrogen compound content relative to the hydrocarbon feed stream. The hydrocarbon feed stream comprises an aromatic compound and a weakly basic nitrogen compound.

A process for reforming a hydrocarbon stream is presented. The process involves splitting a naphtha feedstream to at least two feedstreams and partially processing each feedstream in separate reactors. The processing includes passing the light stream to a combination hydrogenation/dehydrogenation reactor. The process reduces the energy by reducing the endothermic properties of intermediate reformed process streams.

A process is presented for quenching a process stream in a paraffin dehydrogenation process. The process comprises cooling a propane dehydrogenation stream during the hot residence time after the process stream leaves the catalytic bed reactor section. The process includes cooling and compressing the product stream, taking a portion of the product stream and passing the portion of the product stream to the mix with the process stream as it leaves the catalytic bed reactor section.

An approach for introspection of a software component and generation of a conditional memory dump, a computing device executing an introspection program with respect to the software component is provided. An introspection system comprises one or more conditions for generating the conditional memory dump based on operations of the software component. In one aspect, a computing device detects, through an introspection program, whether the one or more conditions are satisfied by the software component based on information in an introspection analyzer of the introspection program. In addition, the computing device indicates, through the introspection program, if the one or more conditions are satisfied by the software component. In another aspect, responsive to the indication, the computing device generates the conditional memory dump through the introspection program.

A function f(x) is calculated with a calculating apparatus that makes a correct calculation with a low probability. Provided that G and H are cyclic groups, f is a function that maps an element x of the group H into the group G, X1 and X2 are random variables whose values are elements of the group G, x1 is a realized value of the random variable X1, and x2 is a realized value of the random variable X2, an integer calculation part calculates integers a' and b' that satisfy a relation a'a+b'b=1 using two natural numbers a and b that are relatively prime. A first randomizable sampler is capable of calculating f(x)bx1 and designates the calculation result as u. A first exponentiation part calculates u'=ua. A second randomizable sampler is capable of calculating f(x)ax2 and designates the calculation result as v. A second exponentiation part calculates v'=vb. A determining part determines whether u'=v' or not. A final calculation part calculates ub'va' in a case where it is determined that u'=v'.

The present invention relates to a process comprising the steps of reacting a reactive mixture comprising at least one silicone-containing component, at least one hydrophilic component, and at least one diluent to form an ophthalmic device having an advancing contact angle of less than about 80°; and contacting the ophthalmic device with an aqueous extraction solution at an elevated extraction temperature, wherein said at least one diluent has a boiling point at least about 10° higher than said extraction temperature.

The various implementations described herein include systems, methods and/or devices used to enable multipass programming in buffers implemented in non-volatile data storage systems (e.g., using one or more flash memory devices). In one aspect, a portion of memory (e.g., a page in a block of a flash memory device) may be programmed many (e.g., 1000) times before an erase is required. Some embodiments include systems, methods and/or devices to integrate Bloom filter functionality in a non-volatile data storage system, where a portion of memory storing one or more bits of a Bloom filter array may be programmed many (e.g., 1000) times before the contents of the portion of memory need to be moved to an unused location in the memory.

A system and method for detecting, filtering, prioritizing and reporting shared memory hazards are disclosed. The method includes, for a unit of hardware operating on a block of threads, mapping a plurality of shared memory locations assigned to the unit to a tracking table. The tracking table comprises initialization information for each shared memory location. The method also includes, for an instruction of a program within a barrier region, identifying a potential conflict by identifying a second access to a location in shared memory within a block of threads executed by the hardware unit. First information associated with a first access and second information associated with the second access to the location is determined. Filter criteria is applied to the first and second information to determine whether the instruction causes a reportable hazard. The instruction is reported when it causes the reportable hazard.

A system, method and computer program product for allocating shared resources. Upon receiving requests for resources, the cost of bundling software in a virtual machine (VM) image is automatically generated. Software is selected by the cost for each bundle according to the time required to install it where required, offset by the time to uninstall it where not required. A number of VM images having the highest software bundle value (i.e., highest cost bundled) is selected and stored, e.g., in a machine image store. With subsequent requests for resources, VMs may be instantiated from one or more stored VM images and, further, stored images may be updated selectively updated with new images.

According to an embodiment, based on task border information, and first-type dependency relationship information containing N number of nodes corresponding to data accesses to one set of data, containing edges representing dependency relationship between the nodes, and having at least one node with an access reliability flag indicating reliability/unreliability of corresponding data access; task border edges, of edges extending over task borders, are identified that have an unreliable access node linked to at least one end, and presentation information containing unreliable access nodes is generated. According to dependency existence information input corresponding to the set of data, conversion information indicating absence of data access to the unreliable access nodes is output. According to the conversion information, the first-type dependency relationship information is converted into second-type dependency relationship information containing M number of nodes (0≦M≦N) corresponding to data accesses to the set of data and containing edges representing inter-node dependency relationship.

There is provided a parallel computer system for performing barrier synchronization using a master node and a plurality of worker nodes based on the time to allow for an adaptive setting of the synchronization time. When a task process in a certain worker node has not been completed by a worker determination time, the particular worker node performs a communication to indicate that the process has not been completed, to a master node. When the communication has been received by a master determination time, the master node performs a communication to indicate that the process time is extended by a correction process time, in order to adjust and extend the synchronization time. In this way, it is possible to reduce the synchronization overhead associated with the execution of an application with a relatively large variation in the process time from a synchronization point to the next synchronization point.

A fluorographene and preparation method thereof are provided. For the said fluorographene, the fraction of F is 0.5

The present disclosure relates to a process for separating a fluoroolefin from a mixture comprising hydrogen fluoride and fluoroolefin, comprising azeotropic distillation both with and without an entrainer. In particular are disclosed processes for separating any of HFC-1225ye, HFC-1234ze, HFC-1234yf or HFC-1243zf from HF.

Disclosed and claimed herein are hybrid silica aerogels containing non-polymeric, functional organic materials covalently bonded at one or both ends to the silica network of the aerogels through a C—Si bond between a carbon atom of the organic material and a silicon atom of the aerogel network. Methods of their preparation are also disclosed.

A processor determines whether a first program is under execution when a second program is executed, and changes a setting of a memory management unit based on access prohibition information so that a fault occurs when the second program makes an access to a memory when the first program is under execution. Then, the processor determines whether an access from the second program to a memory area used by the first program is permitted based on memory restriction information when the fault occurs while the first program and the second program are under execution, and changes the setting of the memory management unit so that the fault does not occur when the access to the memory area is permitted.

In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for controlling a process using a process map. These mechanisms and methods for controlling a process using a process map can enable process operations to execute in order without necessarily having knowledge of one another. The ability to provide the process map can avoid a requirement that the operations themselves be programmed to follow a particular sequence, as can further improve the ease by which the sequence of operations may be changed.

Graphical programming or modeling environments in which a coding standard can be applied to graphical programs or models are disclosed. The present invention provides mechanisms for applying the coding standard to graphical programs/models in the graphical programming/modeling environments. The mechanisms may detect violations of the coding standard in the graphical model and report such violations to the users. The mechanisms may automatically correct the graphical model to remove the violations from the graphical model. The mechanisms may also automatically avoid the violations in the simulation and/or code generation of the graphical model.

A single software project in an integrated development environment (IDE) may be built for multiple target environments in a single build episode. Multiple different output artifacts may be generated by the build process for each of the target environments. The output artifacts are then deployed to the target environments, which may be homogeneous or heterogeneous environments. The same source project may be used to generate multiple output artifacts for the same target environment.

In one embodiment, a machine-implemented method programs a heterogeneous multi-processor computer system to run a plurality of program modules, wherein each program module is to be run on one of the processors The system includes a plurality of processors of two or more different processor types. According to the recited method, machine-implemented offline processing is performed using a plurality of SIET tools of a scheduling information extracting toolkit (SIET) and a plurality of SBT tools of a schedule building toolkit (SBT). A program module applicability analyzer (PMAA) determines whether a first processor of a first processor type is capable of running a first program module without compiling the first program module. Machine-implemented online processing is performed using realtime data to test the scheduling software and the selected schedule solution.

Methods and systems to identify and reproduce concurrency bugs in multi-threaded programs are disclosed. An example method disclosed herein includes defining a data type. The data type includes a first predicate associated with a first thread of a multi-threaded program that is associated with a first condition, a second predicate that is associated with a second thread of the multi-threaded program, the second predicate being associated with a second condition, and an expression that defines a relationship between the first predicate and the second predicate. The relationship, when satisfied, causes the concurrency bug to be detected. A concurrency bug detector conforming to the data type is used to detect the concurrency bug in the multi-threaded program.

An improved method for program building uses predefined source files and predefined build scripts comprising a sequence of build commands; wherein each build command comprises an origin command line interpretable by an operating system and addressed to at least one compiling tool.

The present invention is directed to processes for recovering ethanol obtained from the hydrogenation of acetic acid. Acetic acid is hydrogenated in the presence of a catalyst in a hydrogenation reactor to form a crude ethanol product. The crude ethanol product is separated in one or more columns to recover ethanol. In some embodiments, less than 10 wt. % ethanol is recycled to the hydrogenation reactor.

The present invention relates to catalysts and to chemical processes employing such catalysts. The catalysts are preferably used for converting acetic acid to ethanol. The catalyst comprises acidic sites and two or more metals. The catalyst has acidic sites on the surface and the balance favors Lewis acid sites.

A process is disclosed for producing ethanol comprising contacting acetic acid and hydrogen in a reactor in the presence of a catalyst comprising a binder and a mixed oxide comprising nickel and tin.

Disclosed herein are processes for alcohol production by reducing an esterification product, such as ethyl acetate. The processes comprise esterifying acetic acid and an alcohol such as ethanol to produce an esterification product. The esterification product may be recovered using an extractive separation. The esterification product is reduced with hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst to obtain a crude reaction mixture comprising the alcohol, in particular ethanol, which may be separated from the crude reaction mixture.

In a process for the dehydrogenation of cyclohexanone to produce phenol, a feed comprising cyclohexanone is contacted with a dehydrogenation catalyst under dehydrogenation conditions comprising a temperature of less than 400° C. and a pressure of less than 690 kPa, gauge, such 0.1 to 50 wt % of the cyclohexanone in said feed is converted to phenol and the dehydrogenation product contains less than 100 ppm by weight of alkylbenzenes.

Disclosed herein are processes for alcohol production by reducing ethyl acetate produced by hydrogenating acetic acid in the presence of a suitable catalyst. The product of the acetic acid hydrogenation is fed directly to a decanter to separate the hydrogenation product into an aqueous phase comprising water and ethanol and an organic phase comprising ethyl acetate. The organic phase is reduced with hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst to obtain a crude reaction mixture comprising the alcohol, in particular ethanol, which may be separated from the crude reaction mixture. Thus, ethanol may be produced from acetic acid through an ethyl acetate intermediate without an esterification step. This may reduce the recycle of ethanol in the hydrogenolysis process and improve ethanol productivity.

In a process for the dehydrogenation of dehydrogenatable hydrocarbons, a feed comprising dehydrogenatable hydrocarbons is contacted with a catalyst comprising a support and a dehydrogenation component under dehydrogenation conditions effective to convert at least a portion of the dehydrogenatable hydrocarbons in the feed. The catalyst is produced by a method comprising treating the support with a liquid composition comprising the dehydrogenation component or a precursor thereof and at least one organic dispersant selected from an amino alcohol and an amino acid.

The present invention relates to a process for heat integration in the preparation of saturated C3-C20-alcohols, in which a hydrogenation feed comprising at least one C3-C20-aldehyde is hydrogenated in the presence of a hydrogen-comprising gas in a hydrogenation zone and a discharge is taken off from the hydrogenation zone and subjected to distillation in at least one distillation column to give a fraction enriched in saturated C3-C20-alcohols.

A process for preparation of 2-phenyl ethanol by catalytic hydrogenation of styrene oxide using a catalyst consisting of Pd (II) on basic inorganic support is investigated. The present invention comprises development of new Pd based catalysts. The present method yields 2-phenyl ethanol in 98% selectivity at total conversion of styrene oxide. The present process represents an environment friendly alternative to conventionally used methods in industry and eliminates the reduction step for catalyst preparation. In the present invention the active catalyst is generated in situ during the hydrogenation of styrene oxide. In addition, Pd (II) supported catalysts do not catch fire (non pyrophoric), can be stored under ambient conditions and produce very less or no dust which makes said catalysts suitable for industrial application.

Apparatus for orientating a user in a space wherein the space comprises a plurality of zones of which only certain zones constitute functional zones wherein each functional zone includes a first type device containing information relating to the position of the zone in the space and wherein the first type device is reactive to the presence of a second type device associated with the user to provide the user with the information to determine the orientation of the user in the space. A method of orientating the user within the space and guiding the user toward one or more features in the space is also disclosed.

An integrated circuit having a programmable clock spreader configured to generate a plurality of controllably skewed clock signals, each applied to a corresponding region within the integrated circuit with circuitry configured to be triggered off the applied clock signal. The programmable clock spreader is designed to enable customization of the current-demand characteristics exhibited by the integrated circuit, e.g., based on the circuit's spectral impedance profile, to cause transient voltage droops in the power-supply network of the integrated circuit to be sufficiently small to ensure proper and reliable operation of the integrated circuit.

A via disposition information acquiring unit acquires via disposition information indicating a disposition of the plurality of first vias (212). A second conductor information acquiring unit acquires second conductor information indicating disposition positions of a plurality of second conductors (232) repeatedly disposed in the second conductor layer (230). A via extracting unit extracts an extraction via with respect to each of the plurality of second conductors (232). The extraction via is each of the first vias (212) overlapping the second conductor (232). A via selecting unit selects a selection via with respect to each of the plurality of second conductors (232). The selection via is each of first vias (212) selected in a predetermined number from the extraction vias. An opening introducing unit introduces a first opening (234) to each of the plurality of second conductors (232). The first opening (234) overlaps the extraction via not selected by the via selecting unit in plan view.

Methods and systems for managing data loads on a cluster of processors that implement an iterative procedure through parallel processing of data for the procedure are disclosed. One method includes monitoring, for at least one iteration of the procedure, completion times of a plurality of different processing phases that are undergone by each of the processors in a given iteration. The method further includes determining whether a load imbalance factor threshold is exceeded in the given iteration based on the completion times for the given iteration. In addition, the data is repartitioned by reassigning the data to the processors based on predicted dependencies between assigned data units of the data and completion times of a plurality of the processers for at least two of the phases. Further, the parallel processing is implemented on the cluster of processors in accordance with the reassignment.

An encoder for providing an audio stream on the basis of a transform-domain representation of an input audio signal includes a quantization error calculator configured to determine a multi-band quantization error over a plurality of frequency bands of the input audio signal for which separate band gain information is available. The encoder also includes an audio stream provider for providing the audio stream such that the audio stream includes information describing an audio content of the frequency bands and information describing the multi-band quantization error. A decoder for providing a decoded representation of an audio signal on the basis of an encoded audio stream representing spectral components of frequency bands of the audio signal includes a noise filler for introducing noise into spectral components of a plurality of frequency bands to which separate frequency band gain information is associated on the basis of a common multi-band noise intensity value.

A speech recognition system, method of recognizing speech and a computer program product therefor. A client device identified with a context for an associated user selectively streams audio to a provider computer, e.g., a cloud computer. Speech recognition receives streaming audio, maps utterances to specific textual candidates and determines a likelihood of a correct match for each mapped textual candidate. A context model selectively winnows candidate to resolve recognition ambiguity according to context whenever multiple textual candidates are recognized as potential matches for the same mapped utterance. Matches are used to update the context model, which may be used for multiple users in the same context.

An audio signal decoder has a time warp contour calculator, a time warp contour data rescaler and a warp decoder. The time warp contour calculator is configured to generate time warp contour data repeatedly restarting from a predetermined time warp contour start value, based on time warp contour evolution information describing a temporal evolution of the time warp contour. The time warp contour data rescaler is configured to rescale at least a portion of the time warp contour data such that a discontinuity at a restart is avoided, reduced or eliminated in a rescaled version of the time warp contour. The warp decoder is configured to provide the decoded audio signal representation, based on an encoded audio signal representation and using the rescaled version of the time warp contour.

A time warp contour calculator for use in an audio signal decoder receives an encoded warp ratio information, derives a sequence of warp ratio values from the encoded warp ratio information, and obtains warp contour node values starting from a time warp contour start value. Ratios between the time warp contour node values and the time warp contour starting value are determined by the warp ratio values. The time warp contour calculator computes a time warp contour node value of a given time warp contour node, on the basis of a product-formation having a ratio between the time warp contour node values of the intermediate time warp contour node and the time warp contour starting value and a ratio between the time warp contour node values of the given time warp contour node and of the intermediate time warp contour node as factors.

To freely establish a peripheral equipment selection operating environment of excellent operability which can remarkably reduce an operation burden which is applied until construction information of selectable peripheral equipment can be confirmed and can easily confirm the construction information of the selectable peripheral equipment by everyone by a simple operating instruction, a CPU obtains construction information of a printer that is being selected and default setting on the basis of a selection instructing state relative to a selectable printer candidate on a network and allows them to be caption-displayed at a position near the position indicated by a cursor on a printer selection picture plane displayed on a CRT.

The present disclosure relates to a sulfonated benzene compound emitting fluorescence by reaction with hydrogen peroxide, aqueous-dispersed fluorescent nanoprobes applicable for real-time detection of hydrogen peroxide, and a fluorescent nanoprobe fabrication method. The fluorescent nanoprobe contains the following sulfonated benzene compound and water.

An application framework including different application programming interfaces (APIs) is described which performs a variety of mobile device functions in response to API calls from applications. For example, in response to relatively simple API calls made by applications the application framework manages the complex tasks associated with invitations and matchmaking. By way of example, the details of complex transactions such as establishing peer-to-peer connections between mobile devices may be transparent to the application developer, thereby simplifying the application design process. The application framework may include an application daemon for communicating with a first set of services and an applications services module for communicating with a separate set of services. The application framework may also include a cache for caching data for each of the services based on different cache management policies driven by each of the services. The cache may be updated by push notification cache updates sent from each of the services.