A mechanical seal is, at a sliding surface and at its vicinty, formed of a pore-dispersed cemented carbide, so that the lubricating characteristics can be improved and the strength maintained by strictly stipulating the magnitude, shape, and volumetric ratio of the pores, such that pores are contained in an amount of 0.5 to 20 volume %, formed in at least one shape selected from the group of a substantialy spherical shape and a substantially cylindrical shape, the pores in the substantially spherical shape having an average diameter of 3 to 20 .mu.m, the pores in the substantially cylindrical shape having an average diameter of 3 to 20 .mu.m and an average length in the range from the average diameter up to 300 .mu.m, and that the pores are prevented from linking to each other to give a length greater than 2 mm.

In a conventional mechanical seal, a sliding surface in the form of a seal ring, which contacts and slides on a mating material to seal a fluid, is normally of a flat shape. And, this surface is a so-called mirror surface in which pores and the like do not exist (at least, not by design).
This type of mechanical seal has various combinations of members. The mechanical seal for use in a service with a large PV value (where P is the pressure of the sealed fluid and V is the peripheral velocity) is mostly selected from the combinations of cemented carbide/carbon, and cemented carbide/cemented carbide.
However, in a freezer and the like, in addition to requiring a high PV value, a large thermal shock is experienced because of the repetition of running and stopping, and there are problems such that heat cracks are produced in the sliding surface, and that with carbon material, bulges known as blisters are produced.
Many different proposals have been presented to increase the lubricating ability of the sliding surface, in order to eliminate this type of problem.
One such proposal presents a design in which the shape of the seal ring is modified to increase the lubricating ability. For example, there is provided an end-face lubricating seal (hydrostatic seal) in which a plurality of through holes are provided between the sliding surface and the opposite surface, and a lubricating fluid is fed by a pump from the holes in the opposite surface to the sliding surface; or, there is a hydrodynamic seal provided with a channel or a notch extending from the fluid side into the sliding surface close to its center, which conducts a sealed fluid, which plays the role of a lubricant during operation, to the sliding section by means of a wedge effect based on the viscosity of the fluid; or, there is a thermohydrodynamic seal, or the like. These can be used at a higher PV value than conventional seals to reduce the coefficient of friction.
However, with this type of hydrostatic seal, hydrodynamic seal, or thermohydrodynamic seal and the like, in order to bring about that effect, a complicated process must be performed on a cemented carbide, and, in considering the difficulty in processing the cemented carbide, the processing time is exceedingly long in comparison with the conventional seal. Furthermore, there is the drawback that when the shape of the cemented carbide is complicated, stress concentration is readily produced and breakage can easily occur. Accordingly, this type of seal can only be used in limited applications at the present time. Therefore, a new material is required for which this type of processing is unnecessary.
In a sliding surface which must answer to this sort of demand, a mechanical seal with high lubricating characteristics at the sliding surface has been proposed in which after a lapping process, or shot blast process, or etching process is performed, a polishing process is applied to the sliding surface, so that a plurality of minute holes are formed. However, in the case of this type of structure, because the holes are very small and only formed at the sliding surface, the holes disappear as the sliding surface is subjected to wear, so there is the drawback that the improved lubrication result cannot be maintained for a long period of time.
In addition, a mechanical seal has been proposed in which the seal ring itself formed with a porous material. In this case, the strength of the seal ring is reduced, so that a high PV value cannot be obtained, and in addition, another problem occurs wherein the leakage from the holes cannot be ignored if the magnitude and volume of the holes are significantly large.

Mechanical seal using pore-dispersed material, and pore-dispersed cemented carbide and method for manufacturing same


The present invention involves the use of organocalcium precursors for the chemical vapor deposition of thin CaF.sub.2 films under exceptionally mild conditions. This method is based on utilizing an organocalcium compound and a source of fluorine in a chemical vapor deposition reaction to form CaF.sub.2.

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a silicon-on-insulator ("SOI") structure based on a layer of calcium fluoride (CaF.sub.2) as the insulator.
The development of SOI material structures are of considerable interest in integrated circuit technology because successful development of such structures will allow fabrication of three-dimensional integrated circuits. Additionally, SOI material structures will allow fabrication of memory and logic circuits that are immune to both soft errors due to alpha particles and single particle upset events caused by high-energy particles (1).
SOI structures are being pursued as a technique to isolate each device in a chip on its own silicon mesa, which would sit on top of an insulating layer. As a result, less chip area would be required than the present isolation techniques in standard silicon technology. "Latch up" would be eliminated and stray captive coupling would also be reduced. Currently, most research and development activity in SOI focuses on the use of a layer of amorphous SiO.sub.2 with the thickness of 1500-5000 .ANG. as the insulator because of the excellent properties of SiO.sub.2 and its excellent compatibility with silicon. The single crystal layer of silicon over the SiO.sub.2 is formed generally by two main techniques involving recrystalizing amorphous or polycrystaline silicon from seed locations in the underlying silicon substrate, or implanting a very high dose, approximately 10.sup.18 ions/cm, ion implantation of oxygen, to form an amorphous SiO.sub.2 layer below the surface of silicon substrate.
Although prior techniques have met with moderate success, difficulty exists in obtaining low defect density, high-quality single crystal silicon on amorphous SiO.sub.2 layers. An alternative approach to the formation of the SOI structure is utilizing a single-crystal, lattice-matched insulator, which allows the possibility for growth of a single crystal overlying silicon layer directly on the insulator.
Calcium fluoride (CaF.sub.2) is optimal for fabricating SOI because of its wide band gap and a cubic structure similar to that of silicon. CaF.sub.2 is lattice matched to silicon to within 0.6% at room temperature.
SOI insulators based on CaF.sub.2 have been demonstrated using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) (2), but more work is needed to achieve high electrical quality SOI structures and interfaces, and topographically smooth layers of uniform thickness. Using MBE, CaF.sub.2 is grown using CaF.sub.2, evaporated from tungsten or graphite crucibles at very high temperatures (1200-1400.degree. C.) onto silicon substrates at temperatures from 550-700.degree. C. (3,4).
Chemical vapor deposition ("CVD") was used in some of the earlier efforts to grow silicon insulator (SI) on insulating substrates, including CaF.sub.2. However, the gases involved in the CVD process were subject to a growth temperature of about 1100.degree. C. Additionally, the gases reacted with the CaF.sub.2 substrate, resulting in poor epitaxy.
One key requirement for the success of the present approach has been to identify and develop appropriate volatile organometallic precursors and CVD reations which will produce CaF.sub.2. Unlike other well documented organometallic chemical vapor deposition (OMCVD) processes such as those employed for the fabrication of thin films of III/V compound semiconducts (5) there appear to be no previous reports of CVD growth of CaF.sub.2. This may be due to the lack of suitable volatile calcium compounds (6).

Growth of polycrystalline CaF.sub.2 via low temperature OMCVD

Board of Regents, The University of Texas System


Multiple RSVP messages are used to separately signal components of co-routed VCAT to enable the separate components to be implemented on different physical fibers of a link bundle. To enable the PATH messages to be handled as a group, the multiple PATH messages are grouped together and sent out in a RSVP bundle message. When a RSVP bundle message containing multiple PATH messages is received at a network element, such as an ENNI, where the route for the PATH messages needs to be expanded, the route is expanded collectively rather than individually. Specifically, the route will first be expanded and this expanded route will be inserted into each individual PATH message. The modified PATH messages with the expanded route will then be passed through the RSVP finite state machine one at a time to enable resources to be reserved for the connections of the VCAT. Thus, a single LSP may be created for each channel, and the channels may be co-routed even where route expansion is required.

Data communication networks may include various switches, routers, hubs, and other devices coupled to and configured to receive data and forward the data on the network. These devices will be referred to herein as "network elements." A network element is generally not a consumer of the data, but rather is used to receive and forward data so that the data may pass through the network. Data is communicated through a network by enabling the network elements to pass protocol data units, such as frames, packets, cells or segments, between each other over communication links. A particular protocol data unit may be handled by multiple network elements and cross multiple communication links as it travels between its source and its destination over the network.
The various network elements on the communication network communicate with each other using predefined sets of rules, referred to herein as protocols. Different protocols are used to govern different aspects of the communication, such as how signals should be formed for transmission between network elements, various aspects of what the protocol data units should look like, how protocol data units should be handled or routed through the network by the network elements, and how information such as routing information should be exchanged between the network elements.
In optical networks such as SONET networks, a connection will be established before data is allowed to be passed over the optical network. The connections are provisioned through the network so that a particular service instance will be connected between ports on network elements and remain provisioned over those ports until the provisioning is changed or shut down. For example, once the optical network elements are interconnected by optical fibers, a network manager will log into an optical service provisioning system to set up data connections (services) through the network elements and optical fibers.
Optical services are offered in blocks of bandwidth of a particular size (channels). For example, on a SONET network an STS-1 provides 50 Mb of bandwidth, an STS-3c provides 150 Mb of bandwidth, and an STS-12c provides 600 Mb of bandwidth. Where Gigabit Ethernet is to be transported over a SONET network, the Gigabit Ethernet service is too large to be carried on an STS-12c. Unfortunately, the next larger size (STS-48c) offers 2.5 Gb, which is much larger than necessary to carry the 1 Gigabit Ethernet service. Similar channel sizes are offered in SDH networks prevalent in regions outside of North America.
As Ethernet services become more prevalent, the need to accommodate transmission channels of different sizes caused an extension to the SONET standard to be adopted which is commonly referred to as Virtual Concatenation, or VCAT for short. VCAT enables multiple smaller channels (i.e. STS-1s or STS-3c's) to be grouped together logically to form a larger channel through the SONET network. Keeping with the Gigabit Ethernet example, 21 STS-1 s may be concatenated together to create a channel through the optical network with approximately 1 Gb of bandwidth. Alternatively, 7 STS-3c's may be concatenated together to create the same sized channel. One restriction imposed by VCAT is that all channels that are grouped together must be of the same size. Thus, for example, it is not possible to concatenate a STS-12 with a STS-3.
When multiple STS-1s or STS-3c's are concatenated together, the STS-1s or STS-3c's channels are actually separate time slots that may be reserved on the same or different physical fibers of the network. In operation, the data that is to be carried on the virtually concatenated channels will be multiplexed onto the individual channels (time slots) to be transported on the SONET network and then de-multiplexed at the other end.
The fact that multiple individual channels are transporting pieces of a common data stream places some requirements as to how the individual channels are created on the network. Specifically, since the multiple channels are actually time slots that each carry pieces of a common dataset, the delay between the multiple channels should be approximately the same so that the data does not arrive out of order at the far end of the network. If the delay on one of the channels is significantly longer than the delay of the other channels, the data from the other channels will need to be buffered while waiting for the data from the slower channel.
Accordingly, it is common to try to implement the channels so that they follow paths through the network that have similar delay characteristics, such that the delay between each of the virtually concatenated channels is approximately equal. While the connections do not need to go through the same path, to minimize the amount of delay difference between the channels ideally the channels should follow the same path and use the same physical links through the network.
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request For Comments (RFC) 4606 provides details about signaling VCAT on a SONET network using ReSerVation Protocol (RSVP), which enables MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) Label Switched Paths (LSPs) to be set up across the SONET network so that multiple STS-1s (or STS-3c's) may be used to implement the concatenated connection. In GMPLS, Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is commonly used as the routing protocol in the control plane. Nodes on the network advertise adjacencies with other nodes using link state advertisements. The nodes use the advertisements to build a topology database which may be used to route connections through the network. For scalability purposes, where a node has multiple physical links interconnecting itself with a neighboring node, the node will often summarize the multiple physical links into a single routing entry and advertise the link bundle, rather than advertising the individual links.
Links are only bundled where they have the same characteristics including propagation and delay characteristics. Thus, since VCAT enables different connections to be carried by different physical fibers as long as the delay characteristics are similar, it should be possible for different concatenated connections to use different fibers of a bundled link.
Unfortunately, RSVP, which is used to signal connections on GMPLS networks, does not support establishment of multiple VCAT related connections on different physical links between nodes, even if the links are part of a link bundle.
When RSVP is used to signal a connection on the network, it creates a Label Switched Path (LSP) through the network which is a finite state machine. The finite state machine controls the data plane of the network element to cause the data plane to establish the physical connectivity through the network. Succinctly, once the OSPF database has been consulted and a route for a connection has been determined, an RSVP "PATH" message is sent out on the network. The PATH message causes the resources to be reserved by the control plane of each node along the route through the network. Once the PATH message has reached the destination, a second RSVP message is sent back along the connection to cause the control plane to program the connection into the data plane at each node. This message is referred to as a "RESV" message. A node that generates the PATH message will be referred to herein as the "head-end node".
Where the PATH message refers to multiple concatenated STS-1s (or STS-3c's), the nodes along the route will reserve multiple time slots on the same physical fiber. When the RESV message is received, the node will then program the data plane to implement the resource reservation. Thus, in this instance, a single Label Switched Path finite state machine (at each node) will control the concatenated reserved bandwidth for the connection at that node. Upon failure of the fiber or other data plane failure, the finite state machine can trigger the connection to failover to a new connection, since all of the VCAT connections are on the same fiber, the finite state machine can control failover of all of the data plane connections.
While the one finite state machine can control the multiple physical connections if the connections are all on the same fiber, the one finite state machine does not work well where the multiple connections are implemented on different physical fibers in the data plane. For example, the multiple different physical connections may go down at different times, etc., which makes it difficult for the one finite state machine to manage failover of multiple STS-1s (or STS-3c's) on multiple physical connections.
RSVP also can be used to separately signal each connection of a VCAT, which would enable the different connections to use different links of a link bundle. A problem arises, however, when the connections are required to traverse a network domain boundary where the route is required to be expanded. Typically, routing information for a domain is abstracted at network domain boundaries, which prevents the head-end node from calculating the entire route for the path through the network. While the head-end node will have routing information for its own domain, it will not have sufficient routing information for neighboring domains to calculate routes through those domains. Thus, when a PATH message is received at the ingress to a neighboring domain, the External Network to Network Interface (E-NNI) at the ingress to that domain will calculate a route for the connection through the neighboring domain. This is commonly referred to as route expansion. If PATH messages for separate connections of a VCAT are processed by the E-NNI separately, the E-NNI may perform route expansion differently for the related connections which means that there is no guarantee that the different connections will follow the same path through the neighboring domain. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a way to ensure that multiple virtually concatenated channels are co-routed through the network even when route expansion is required to be performed on the connections.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Link bundled co-routed VCAT via RSVP message bundling


A power conversion system which uses a plurality of transistors to convert DC power to AC power is made more efficient by the use of liquid refrigerant to cool the transistors. A plurality of passages are formed in a cold plate on which the transistors are mounted, and liquid refrigerant is flashed into the passages to cool the cold plate and the transistors. The liquid refrigerant can by derived from a condenser from an organic rankine cycle or a vapor compression cycle.

This invention relates generally to power conversion systems and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for cooling power converters.
In the power generation industry, high speed generators are used to generate electrical power at relatively high frequencies (typically a number of times higher than the grid frequency), and power converters are used to convert the high frequency AC power down to an AC grid frequency of 50 or 60 Hz. This is accomplished by rectifying the high frequency AC signal and then generating a new sinusoidal AC wave of the desired frequency. The creation of the new wave involves the use of integrated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT's), which are switched at a carrier frequency rate, which is an order of magnitude higher than the power converter output frequency. Because of the necessary repeated on and off switching of the IGBT's, they generate a substantial amount of heat which must be dissipated. Without cooling this dissipated heat, the temperatures of solid state junctions in the IGBT's would exceed the maximum values, and the transformers would be permanently damaged. Accordingly, all high frequency power conversion equipment typically applies some type of cooling in order to control these junction temperatures.
The cooling requirement increases with power capacity in the IGBT's, and, at a given switching frequency, as the amount of current going through an IGBT is decreased, the heat that is developed will be decreased. Accordingly if the temperature of the solid state junction can be reduced, then the current being switched on and off through the junction can be increased to thereby enhance the power density of the power converter. Further, acceptable IGBT lifetime can be assured if the temperature of the solid state junction is kept below a certain maximum value.
Progress has been made in IGBT design to enable forced-convection air-cooled finned cold plates in removing the heat from the transistors. However, forced-convection air-cooling of finned cold plates is relatively ineffective due to the poor heat transfer between the cooling air and the finned cold plate.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved cooling method and apparatus for a power converter.
Another object of the present invention is the provision in a power converter for more effectively cooling the transistors therein.
Another object of the present invention is the provision in a power converter for reducing the temperature of the solid state junctions while increasing the current flow therein.
Yet another object of the present invention is to improve the life of transistors in power conversion systems.
Still another object of the present invention is the provision for a power conversion system that is economical to manufacture and effective and efficient in use.
These objects and other features and advantages become more readily apparent upon reference to the following description when taken in conjunction with the appended drawings.


An accumulating whistling vent for indicating a level of liquid in a tank having a vent line is disclosed. The whistling vent includes a whistle housing reservoir which has mounting tubes extending from either ends. A whisle is housed in the whistle housing reservoir by insertion into one of the mounting tubes. The whistling vent is coupled between the vent line of the tank such that the tube containing the whistle is closest to the tank. As liquid is introduced into the tank an audible signal is produced by the whistle. Once full, air flowing from the tank through the vent line is replaced by the incoming liquid, thus muting the whistle. Excess liquid is accumulated in the reservoir prior to discharge from the vent line, thereby providing additional time to respond to the change in audible signal. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a transparent reservoir is used to provide a visual indicator in addition to the change in audible signal. In another preferred embodiment of the invention a fuel filter and brass key chain whistle are used to minimize manufacturing costs.

The present invention generally relates to a level indicating device for filling fluid tanks. More specifically the present invention relates to a whistling vent.
It is well known in the art of tank filling to employ a whistling device for detecting fluid levels. Such devices have been known since 1904 as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 753,600, issued to Maul. Whistling vents, as they are commonly referred to, typically produce a change in audible signal when a particular level of fluid is reached, most often xe2x80x9cFullxe2x80x9d. For example, a whistle may sound while the tank is filling and become silent at the prescribed level, or alternatively, begin sounding when filling should stop. Often times these devices contain numerous parts, are difficult to assemble, and are expensive to manufacture.
More recently whistling vents have been incorporated into vent tubes of fuel tanks such as those typically found on boats. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,968 issued to Leary on Nov. 10, 1998.
One drawback of the Leary system is that no safeguard is in place if the signal is missed and the tank overflows. This could occur, for example, when noisy machinery is present or during bad weather. In these instances fuel can spill overboard thus damaging the environment and creating a potential fire hazard.
A need therefore has been identified for an improved whistling vent that can safeguard against overflow.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an accumulating whistling vent which obviates or mitigates at least one of the disadvantages identified above.
In accordance with the present invention there is provided an accumulating whistling vent comprising: a whistle housing reservoir having an first and second end wherein a mounting tube extends from each of the ends; a whistle; wherein the intake of the whistle is housed within the mounting tube extending from the first end of the whistle housing reservoir; wherein the exhaust of the whistle extends into the whistle housing reservoir; wherein the whistle generates an audible signal when gaseous fluids pass therethrough; and wherein the whistle housing reservoir accumulates liquid fluids passing through the whistle.
In accordance with the present invention there is also provided an accumulating whistling vent comprising: a reservoir base having a mounting tube extending therefrom; a lid having a mounting tube extending therefrom; and a whiste; wherein the lid is attached to the reservoir base such that a liquid fluid seal is formed; wherein the intake of the whistle is housed within the mounting tube of the reservoir base; wherein the exhaust of the whistle extends into the reservoir base; wherein the whistle generates an audible signal when gaseous fluids pass therethrough; and wherein the reservoir base accumulates liquid fluids passing through the whistle.
The invention is also directed to an accumulating whistling vent as set out above wherein the whistle housing reservoir or reservoir base is translucent.
The invention is also directed to an accumulating whistle as set out above wherein the reservoir base and lid include a fuel filter base and fuel filter lid.
In accordance with the present invention there is also provided a level indicating system for use in a tank having a vent line comprising: an accumulating whistling vent including: a whistle housing reservoir having first and second ends wherein a mounting tube extending from each of the ends; a whistle; wherein the intake of the whistle is housed within the mounting tube in the first end of the whistle housing reservoir; wherein the exhaust of the whistle extends into the whistle housing reservoir; wherein the whistle generates an audible signal when gaseous fluids pass therethrough; wherein the whistle housing reservoir accumulates liquid fluids passing through the whistle; and wherein the accumulating whistling vent is coupled between the vent line such that the first end is closest to the tank.
In accordance with the present invention there is also provided a level indicating system for use in a tank having a vent line comprising: an accumulating whistling vent including: a reservoir base having a mounting tube extending therefrom; a lid having a mounting tube extending therefrom; a whistle; wherein the lid is attached to the reservoir base such that a liquid fluid seal is formed; wherein the intake of the whistle is housed within the mounting tube of the reservoir base; wherein the exhaust of the whistle extends into the reservoir base; wherein the whistle generates an audible signal when gaseous fluids pass therethrough; wherein the reservoir base accumulates liquid fluids passing through the whistle; and wherein the accumulating whistling vent is coupled between the vent line such that the reservoir base is closest to the tank.


A rehabilitation system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a wearable device for measuring rehabilitation exercise information of a user and a user electronic device receiving the rehabilitation exercise information from the wearable device and driving an avatar training program. The user electronic device may receive the avatar training program recommended based on user personal information and the rehabilitation exercise information from a rehabilitation program recommendation server. According to the present invention, a rehabilitation effect can be enhanced by performing a rehabilitation exercise according to a rehabilitation program suitable for a user using a wearable device and a user electronic device.

Due to untimely accidents or aging, such as damage to the muscles around the joint or joint can occur. In order to restore the range of motion (ROM) of the leg, rehabilitation exercises may be performed after surgery, or rehabilitation exercises may be performed without surgery. However, conventional rehabilitation exercises are repetitive and can be boring and painful. Therefore, the existing repetitive rehabilitation exercise has a problem that the rehabilitation period increases or the rehabilitation effect decreases.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a rehabilitation exercise method linked to a game using a rehabilitation robot and a rehabilitation exercise method linked to a game using a 3D motion camera have been proposed. However, the rehabilitation exercise method using a rehabilitation robot is expensive, and the rehabilitation exercise method using a 3D motion camera has a disadvantage in that it cannot accurately measure the patient's movement. In addition, since the above-described rehabilitation exercise methods have space limitations, there is a problem that the patient cannot perform the rehabilitation exercise at home and must visit a specific place such as a hospital.

Rehabilitation system performing rehabilitation program using wearable device and user electronic device


This disclosure describes techniques for implementing network address translation as a distributed service over the nodes of a logical network fabric, such as a software-defined network fabric. A method includes registering, by an edge node of a network, an IP address of a client device. The method further includes forwarding, by the edge node, the registered IP address to a control plane of the network. The method further includes checking, by the control plane, a network address translation policy. The method further includes recording, by the control plane, translations between the registered IP address and an allocated IP address in a translation table, each of the translations being related to the edge node. The method further includes returning, by the control plane, the translations between the registered IP address and the allocated IP address to the edge node.

Network address translation (NAT) is commonly implemented to enable interconnecting Internet Protocol (IP) traffic between networks having mutually incompatible address spaces, such as a first network using a reserved block of private IP addresses and any number of other private networks using the same, or other reserved blocks, and/or public networks using public IP addresses. By RFC 1918, "Address Allocation for Private Internets," published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the IP address blocks of 10.0.0.0-10.255.255.255, 172.16.0.0-172.31.255.255, and 192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255 are reserved for private networks. IP traffic originating from outside the first network may have destinations addressed using any IP address in public IP space, while IP traffic originating from the first network may have destinations addressed using only using reserved IP addresses in one of these private blocks.
Consequently, if traffic originating from outside the first network has a destination within the first network, or if traffic originating from a node within the first network has a destination outside the first network, the traffic must pass through a boundary between the first network and other networks. NAT is generally configured to modify destination addresses stored in the header of IP packets to an IP address compatible with a network on the outbound side of the boundary, so that the packets may proceed as normal to their destinations. Other forms of NAT may provide analogous services; for example, port address translation (PAT) may further translate destination ports stored in the header in addition to translating destination addresses.
Private networks may be represented by a single public IP address at a single gateway such that the reserved private IP addresses are not exposed, which would result in conflicts. A single gateway may be sufficient to perform NAT services for a small number of nodes physically interconnected to establish a private network. However, as network architecture becomes increasingly logical rather than physical, a logical network fabric plane may be established distributed over nodes across a large physical region. As such, a single gateway may be insufficient for network architectures, and NAT functionality may be extended; furthermore, new implementations of NAT may also be desirable.

Distributed network address translation over network environments


A copolymer comprising a repeat unit A, wherein repeat unit A comprises

Solar energy using photovoltaics requires active semiconducting materials to convert light into electricity. Currently, solar cells based on silicon are the dominating technology due to their high-power conversion efficiency. Recently, solar cells based on organic materials showed interesting features, especially on the potential of low cost in materials and processing.
Organic photovoltaic cells have many potential advantages when compared to traditional silicon-based devices. Organic photovoltaic cells are light weight, economical in the materials used, and can be deposited on low cost substrates, such as flexible plastic foils. However, organic photovoltaic devices typically have relatively low power conversion efficiency (the ratio of incident photons to energy generated). This is, in part, thought to be due to the morphology of the active layer. The charge carriers generated must migrate to their respective electrodes before recombination or quenching occurs. The diffusion length of an exciton is typically much less than the optical absorption length, requiring a tradeoff between using a thick, and therefore resistive, cell with multiple or highly folded interfaces, or a thin cell with a low optical absorption efficiency.
The first reported use of a quinoxalinedithiophene co-polymer for organic photovoltaics was in 2008. One attractive feature of the quinoxalinedithiophene structure is that it can easily be functionalized with either bromine atoms or trimethylstannyl groups, thus allowing it to be copolymerized with a wide variety of co-monomers. There exists a need to find quinoxalinedithiophene co-polymers that are able to increase open circuit voltage.

High performance wide-bandgap polymers for organic photovoltaics

Abstract: a repeat unit B, wherein repeat unit B comprises

Abstract: andat least one optional repeat unit D, wherein repeat unit D comprises an aryl group. In this copolymer, X1, X2, X3, and X4 are independently selected from the group consisting of: H, Cl, F, CN, alkyl, alkoxy, ester, ketone, amide and aryl groups and R1, R2, R3, R4, R5 and R6 are independently selected from the group consisting of: H, Cl, F, CN, alkyl, alkoxy, alkylthio, ester, ketone and aryl groups.


A mounting bracket for supporting a shelf for holding drinking cups or the like includes a housing having a clamping slot at the top for clamping about an upper longitudinally extending rail of a bed side rail, and a clamping slot facing toward the bed in a block carried by an arm for clamping about a lower longitudinally extending rail of the bed rail. The arm is telescopically positioned within a slideway formed in the housing so as to be adjustable relative to the housing. The arm includes a multiplicity of teeth to provide positive stops for the arm as it is moved relative to the housing. A stop member at the top of the arm prevents the arm from being pulled out of the housing. The shelf is slidably removeably attached within a groove at the wall of the housing facing remotely from the bed so that shelves for holding various items can be carried selectively by the bracket.

This invention relates to a mounting bracket adapted for attachment to a bed for holding various items, and more particularly to a mounting bracket adapted to be selectively attached to the side rails of hospital beds or the like for holding various objects for use by a bedridden person.
The specialized beds used in hospitals, nursing homes and convalescent facilities have side rails that can be raised to preclude a bedridden person from falling out and can be lowered to permit the person to exit when necessary. Although articles such as glasses or cups of fluid and other items desired by a bedridden person may be placed on a table or stand adjacent the bed, the side rails on such beds when in the raised position prevent a bedridden person, especially one who is infirm, from reaching over the rail to remove the item from the table. Thus, it is desirable to have the ability to mount such items and other sundry items at a location more convenient to such person.
The side rails on such beds have at least a pair of longitudinally extending rails fastened to slideably mounted uprights at the head and foot ends of the bed and the rails have become convenient mounting locations for a number of bed rail supported brackets. For example, in Nilson U.S. Pat. No. 3,473,772 a urinal holder has a pair of arcuate hooks conforming to the diameter of the upper bed rail supported by a respective spring so that the hook can be disposed about the upper rail, and has a lower arcuate hook adjustably carried on the rear of the holder for positioning about the adjacent lower rail. In DeLong U.S. Pat. No. 4,357,881, a tray support having a pair of arcuate hooks which mount about an upper rail carries a pivotably mounted telescoping arm having a lower arcuate hook for clamping about a lower bed rail. In Pruente et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,432,522 a telephone support has an arcuate hook which snaps onto the upper bed rail and includes a downwardly extending bent hook which merely engages one of the lower rails and is held in position by capture thereof at the edge of the mattress. In Hamm U.S. Pat. No. 4,431,154 a telephone holder has an arcuate hook member for grasping the upper rail with the bottom of the holder merely abutting a pair of upright rails extending between the longitudinal rails. In Jenssen U.S. Pat. No. 3,340,826 a bed tray includes a movable arcuate hook which can mount about the upper bed rail while a downwardly extending portion of the tray merely abuts a pair of other longitudinally extending bed rails. Other known prior art wherein a bracket for clamping onto to spaced apart rails for supporting a member comprise Christine et al where a support member has an arcuate slot for clamping onto an upper rail and a lower slot for clamping about a lower rail, the support member being a dispensing rack for pourable materials. Other patents located during a prior art search conducted prior to the filing of the instant application include: Rose U.S. Pat. No. 1,219,158; Beabberl U.S. Pat. No. 4,215,840; Maffei U.S. Pat. No. 4,410,158; Winckler U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,673; and Waddell et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,113, which except for Babberl have various means for attaching objects to a bed.
The limitations of the known prior art are apparent. Except for Nilson and DeLong none of the known prior art has an adjustable feature for taking into consideration the varying space between the longitudinally extending rails of the bed side rails. Each of these patents, however, are limited to the mounting of specific devices such as either a urinal or a tray holder. Additionally, the adjustable feature in each of these patents requires a wingnut to be tightened to position the member properly, and both require the use of metallic material thereby resulting in relatively expensive manufacturing costs.


A metal line is fabricated in a semiconductor device by a method including: forming an etch stop layer on a substrate; forming an interlayer insulating layer on the etch stop layer, the interlayer insulating layer including dual damascene patterns, each respectively having a trench and a via contact hole; forming a barrier metal layer and a line metal layer on the interlayer insulating layer and in the dual damascene patterns; forming an anti-oxidation layer on above the line metal layer; and forming a metal line in the dual damascene patterns by planarizing an entire surface of the anti-oxidation layer.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for fabricating a metal line in a semiconductor device.
(b) Description of the Related Art
As a semiconductor device becomes more integrated and smaller sized, a gap between lower and upper metal lines is becoming narrower. When the gap between the lower and upper metal lines becomes narrower, a delay of a time constant may increase and thereby an operation speed of the device may decrease. Therefore, for a narrower gap between the lower and upper metal lines, a semiconductor device should be fabricated more precisely.
FIG. 1A to FIG. 1C are sectional views illustrating a conventional process of forming a multiple layer metal line in a semiconductor device.
As shown in FIG. 1A, a lower metal line 12 is formed on a semiconductor substrate 11 having structures of various circuit elements for a semiconductor device thereon and/or therein (e.g., one or more transistors, capacitors, resistors, diodes, etc.), and then a first etch stop layer 13 is formed on the substrate 11 having the lower metal line 12. Subsequently, a first insulating layer 14a, a second etch stop layer 14b, and a second insulating layer 14c are consecutively formed on the first etch stop layer 13 such that an interlayer insulating layer 14 is formed for insulation between metal lines. Then, the first interlayer insulating layer 14 is etched utilizing a dual damascene etching process so as to form a dual damascene pattern 15.
In more detail, the dual damascene pattern 15 is formed as follows. After the first insulating layer 14a and the second etch stop layer 14b are formed on the first etch stop layer 13, the second etch stop layer 14b is partially etched and then the second insulating layer 14c is formed on the second etch stop layer 14b. Subsequently, a trench 15a is formed by partially etching the second insulating layer 14c, and then a via contact hole 15b partially exposing the lower metal line 12 is formed by partially etching the first insulating layer 14a. Thus, the dual damascene pattern 15 is formed to have the trench 15a and the via contact hole 15b.
As shown in FIG. 1B, a diffusion barrier 16 is formed to cover the semiconductor substrate 11 having the dual damascene pattern 15, and then a copper layer 17 is deposited on the diffusion barrier 16.
When the metal layer 17 is deposited, a top surface of the metal layer 17 undulates due to undulation in an outline of the dual damascene pattern 15 formed on the interlayer insulating layer 14.
For that reason, as a primary planarization process, the top surface of the metal layer 17 is planarized by selectively polishing by a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process. That is, the metal layer 17 is polished until the diffusion barrier 16 becomes exposed, and thus the surface of the metal layer 17 becomes more flat.
Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 1C, as a secondary planarization process, another CMP process is performed on the metal layer 17 and the diffusion barrier 16 taking the interlayer insulating layer 14 as an end point, and thereby a metal line is formed in the dual damascene pattern 15. Consequently, an upper metal line 18 is formed in the dual damascene pattern 15 to be connected with the lower metal line 12 through the via contact hole 15b.
However, according to such a conventional method for forming a metal line in a semiconductor device, the metal line may problematically suffer from a dishing phenomenon that is apt to occur in the trench 15a during the secondary planarization process performed for forming the metal line 18 in the dual damascene pattern 15. Such a dishing phenomenon deteriorates an electrical conductivity of the metal line, and it makes a subsequent process become more difficult.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person or ordinary skill in the art.

Method for fabricating metal line in a semiconductor


A multi-step exposed image acquisition method by an electronic shutter and a photography apparatus using the same are provided. The photography apparatus includes a controller configured to divide an image sensor into a plurality of areas and separately control an exposure time with respect to the plurality of areas of the image sensor and a display configured to display an image on which the exposure times for the areas has been controlled. Accordingly, a multi-step exposed image can be acquired from an image having varying brightness.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure generally relates to a multi-step exposed image acquisition method by an electronic shutter and a photography apparatus using the same, and more particularly, to a multi-step exposed image acquisition method which controls the timing of a reset pulse and a lead-out pulse of an image sensor and a photography apparatus using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A shutter of a camera may be generally classified as a lens shutter which is located in the vicinity of a lens or as a focal plane shutter which is located in the vicinity of a focal plane.
The focal plane shutter includes two types, i.e., a left and right type shutter and an up and down type shutter, according to travel directions of front and rear curtains. The up and down type shutter which is advantageous in terms of performance has been mainly used.
In a photography apparatus adopting the focal plane shutter, two curtains including the front and rear curtains travel to expose an image of a subject onto a plane. In other words, the photography apparatus uses a method for exposing the plane to light from the lens of the photography apparatus due to the travel of the front curtain to start an exposure and the travel of the rear curtain at a time interval due to a preset shutter speed to end exposure.
However, many techniques for electronically processing a front curtain of a focal plane shutter have been suggested in order to solve problems of a mechanical shutter, e.g., a front curtain shock caused by shock vibrations during the travel of the front curtain, a release time lag necessary for charging the front curtain, etc.
In other words, an electronic shutter has been used to sequentially scan pixel lines using a reset signal, which causes pixels to begin to be exposed to light in a charge-coupled device (CCD) or a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor (CIS) of a photography apparatus, and thus replace a role of a front curtain.
In general, a photography apparatus using an electronic shutter includes an auto focus (AF) system and an auto exposure (AE) system. The AF system automatically adjusts a focus of a subject, i.e., analyzes contrast of an image obtained through an image sensor to automatically adjust the focus. The AE system determines the brightness of the subject to automatically determine an exposure, i.e., controls opening/closing of an iris and a speed of a shutter with respect to an appropriate exposure amount of the subject to automatically adjust an appropriate exposure.
However, if the brightness of a subject changes gradually, it is not easy to give appropriate exposure to all areas.

Multi-step exposed image acquisition method by electronic shutter and photographing apparatus using the same


This document discloses a means of toothed magnetic gearing with improved dynamic efficiency. In embodiments, a magnetic gearing component comprises: a magnetic core; an endcap adjacent to the magnetic core; and a plurality of helical flutes formed on a surface of the endcap.

Toothed gears are utilized in many systems or devices to actuate chains, belts, or other gears. However, with mechanical gearing, pitch diameters must be integer multiples of the chosen pitch for any given mesh, or a systemic failure is assured. Magnetic meshes are more forgiving and can readily sustain operations with imperfectly matching meshes. This is one advantage provided by the means of toothed magnetic gearing disclosed herein.

Magnetic gearing component having a magnetic core with helical endcaps


A light emitting diode (LED) package includes an LED chip, a first lead frame and a second lead frame electrically connected to the LED chip and separated by a space, and a housing disposed on the first lead frame and the second lead frame. The housing includes an external housing surrounding a cavity, the cavity exposing a first portion of the first lead frame and a first portion of the second lead frame, and an internal housing disposed in the space, the internal housing covering a top portion of the first lead frame and a top portion of the second lead frame.

Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a light emitting diode (LED) package and, more particularly, to an LED package which includes a housing configured to surround uplift portions formed on lead frames electrically connected to an LED chip. The LED package is to increase a heat dissipation area while increasing physical strength between the lead frames and preventing moisture absorption.
Discussion of the Background
A light emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light through recombination of holes and electrons in a P-N junction between a P-type semiconductor and an N-type semiconductor. Such an LED may be manufactured as a package structure having an LED chip mounted therein.
A conventional LED package 1 includes first and second lead frames 11, 12 having a direct type heat dissipation structure. As shown in FIG. 1(a), one of the first and second lead frames 11, 12 separated from each other, for example the first lead frame 11, is formed with a hole-cup 111 by half-etching.
A housing 13 is formed to support the first and second lead frames 11, 12, and an LED chip 14 is mounted on the bottom of the hole-cup 111. As shown in FIG. 1(b), the housing 13 includes the hole-cup 111 and a cavity 131 which exposes portions of the first and second lead frames 11, 12. The housing 13 may be formed by, for example, polyphthalamide (PPA) injection or epoxy molding.
The LED chip 14 mounted in the hole-cup 111 is electrically connected to the second lead frame 12 via a bonding wire W. The hole-cup 111 is filled with a light-transmitting resin 16 containing at least one phosphor, and color uniformity of light emitted from the LED chip 14 can be enhanced by the phosphor in the hole-cup 111. An encapsulation material (not shown) may be disposed in the cavity 131 of the housing 13 to protect the LED chip 14 mounted in the hole-cup 111.
When electric power is applied to the lead frames 11, 12 of the LED package 1 from an external power source, the LED chip 14 is driven to emit light to the outside through the encapsulation material. Here, on a lower surface of the LED package shown in FIG. 1(c), the first lead frame 11 having the LED chip 14 mounted thereon and the second lead frame 12 are exposed outside, and may thereby enhance heat dissipation efficiency from the LED chip 14.
However, although the LED package 1 shown in FIGS. 1(a)-1(c) may have high heat dissipation efficiency, a portion dividing the first and second lead frames 11, 12 may have low physical strength and may be vulnerable to moisture, and the hole-cup 111 formed by half-etching may be non-uniform, thereby making it difficult to maintain uniformity of light generated from the LED chip 14. Further, when the hole-cup 111 is formed by etching, manufacturing costs of the package may increase, thereby limiting mass production.
A conventional LED package 2 developed to solve the problems of such a conventional LED package 1 having low physical strength and vulnerability to moisture includes first and second lead frames 21, 22 as shown in FIG. 2(a). Specifically, the first lead frame 21 includes a first horizontal section 21a, a protrusion 21b bent from the horizontal section 21a and protruding to a predetermined distance from the first horizontal section 21a, and a second horizontal section 21c bent and extending from the protrusion 21b. Further, the second lead frame 22 includes a third horizontal section 22a facing the first horizontal section 21a, a depression 22b bent from the third horizontal section 22a and depressed into the second lead frame 22, and a fourth horizontal section 22c bent from the depression 22b and facing the second horizontal section 21c. The protrusion 21b of the first lead frame 21 is disposed inside the depression 22b of the second lead frame 22.
Referring to FIG. 2(b), the LED package 2 has a housing 23 configured to support the first and second lead frames 21, 22 and having a cavity 231 exposing an LED chip 24. A bonding wire W and portions of the first and second lead frames 21, 22 are exposed through the cavity 231. The cavity 231 may be provided with an encapsulation material (not shown) to encapsulate the LED chip 24.
The first lead frame 21 includes a down-set portion 211 formed by stamping, and the LED chip 24 is mounted in the down-set portion 211. The down-set portion 211 is filled with a light-transmitting resin containing at least one phosphor. As shown in FIG. 2(c), a lower surface of the down-set portion 211 is coplanar with a lower surface of the LED package 2. In FIGS. 2(b)-2(c), the LED package 2 may have low heat dissipation efficiency from the LED chip 24 due to a narrow heat dissipation area, which corresponds to the lower surface of the down-set portion 211.


The aim of the invention is to provide a method for producing protein hydrolysates that have defined molecular weight limits without carrying out enzymatic or pH-adjusting process steps. For this purpose, the method for producing protein hydrolysates from proteinaceous plant and animal materials is characterized by splitting the materials up in an aqueous medium under a targeted pressure build-up in a reaction chamber, the temperature and reaction being controlled by a characteristic curve of the system, and separating the suspension after splitting into a sediment containing the insoluble components of the starting material, and an aqueous supernatant in which the cleavage products of the materials are dissolved.

The invention relates to a method for producing hydrolysates from protein-containing plant and animal raw materials.
Protein-containing plant and animal natural and waste products can be prepared in a variety of ways for material application. As a rule it is accordingly necessary to split the macromolecules (proteins) both into amino acids and also peptides, comprising several amino acids.
Protein-hydrolysis is known which leads to an amino acid mixture through addition of acids or bases with temperature effect. After the protein is split the solution must be neutralised, though the important and economically interesting amino acid tryptophan is destroyed during acid hydrolysis.
The protein splitting can also be carried out enzymatically using proteases of microbial origin. At the same time both endopeptidases, which break up peptide chains into different fragments according to their splitting specificity, and exopeptidases, which provide amino acids, are used.
Methods and processes of pH value-dependent and enzymatic protein hydrolysis are described inter alia in GB 846682, RU 2132142 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,221,423.
Macromolecules of complex materials of animal and plant waste, such as carbohydrates, fats and proteins, can also be split under the effect of raised pressure and raised temperature. The resulting fragments are made available to microbially supported energetic application, e.g. methane development.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,365,047, ES 2162462T and DE 10117321 the prior art of pressure temperature hydrolysis is illustrated with respect to the procedural solutions.
DE 10113537 describes the pressure-temperature treatment for animal meal. In the basic medium a pressure of 2.5 bar and a temperature of 150° C. at least 15 min have an effect on the aqueous animal meal suspension, predominantly in terms of inactivation of the BSE exciter of infected animal meal and flesh pulp.
According to EP 1406508 BSE-free animal meal is split by total hydrolysis of the protein of the animal meal into amino acids with addition of acids/lyes and if required subsequent processing with proteases. Neutralisation must follow the splitting process.
All these methods are, however, not suitable for making hydrolysates in defined molecular weight limits.

Method for producing protein hydrolysates


A supported olefin polymerization catalyst system and a method of making it are disclosed. The catalyst system comprises: (a) a support chemically treated with an organoaluminum, organosilicon, organomagnesium, or organoboron compound; (b) a single-site catalyst that contains a polymerization-stable, heteroatomic ligand; and (c) an activator. Chemical treatment is a key to making supported heterometallocenes that have high activity and long shelf-lives, and can effectively incorporate comonomers.

Many olefin polymerization catalysts are known, including conventional Ziegler-Natta catalysts. While these catalysts are inexpensive, they exhibit low activity, produce polymers having narrow to medium molecular weight distributions (M.sub.w /M.sub.n >4), and are generally poor at incorporating a-olefin comonomers. To improve polymer properties, highly active single-site catalysts, in particular metallocenes, are beginning to replace Ziegler-Natta catalysts. Although more expensive, the new catalysts give polymers with narrow molecular weight distributions, and good comonomer incorporation, which allows easier production of low-density polymers. One disadvantage of metallocene catalysts is that they tend to produce lower molecular weight polymers at higher temperatures.
Recent attention has focused on developing improved single-site catalysts in which a cyclopentadienyl ring ligand is replaced by a heteroatomic ring ligand. These catalysts may be referred to generally as "heterometallocenes."
In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 5,554,775 discloses single-site catalysts containing a boraaryl moiety such as boranaphthalene or boraphenanthrene. U.S. Pat. No. 5,539,124 discloses catalysts containing a pyrrolyl ring, i.e., an "azametallocene." Further, U.S. Pat. No. 5,637,660 discloses catalysts in which a cyclopentadienyl moiety of a metallocene is replaced by a readily available quinolinyl or pyridinyl ligand. In addition, PCT Int. Appl. WO 96/34021 discloses azaborolinyl heterometallocenes wherein at least one aromatic ring includes both a boron atom and a nitrogen atom.
Single-site catalysts are typically soluble in the polymerization reaction medium and are therefore valuable for solution processes. However, for gas-phase, slurry, and bulk monomer processes, it is useful to immobilize the catalyst on a carrier or support in order to control polymer morphology. Much effort has focussed on supporting metallocene and Ziegler-Natta catalysts. Various supports are taught, particularly inorganic oxides. Support modification techniques, which can improve activity, are also known. For example, supports for Ziegler-Natta catalysts modified with organomagnesiums, organosilanes, and organoboranes are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,508,843, 4,530,913, and 4,565,795. Metallocene catalyst support modification with organosilanes and aluminum, zinc, or silicon compounds is taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,808,561 and 5,801,113.
In contrast, relatively little is known about supporting heterometallocenes. U.S. Pat. No. 5,744,417 discloses a silylamine polymer support, but the examples use only a metallocene catalyst. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,554,775, 5,539,124, and 5,637,660 and PCT Int. Appl. WO 96/34021 teach that heterometallocenes can be supported on inorganic oxides, but these references give no examples.
Many heterometallocenes are inherently unstable. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,554,775 and 5,539,124 teach that the catalyst should be used shortly after preparation because activity is lost on storage. Moreover, our own initial efforts to make supported heterometallocenes using untreated supports were largely unsuccessful (see Comparative Example 8 and Table 6 below). New supports for heterometallocenes would ideally provide for increased storage stability.
In sum, new supported heterometallocene catalysts and methods of making them are needed. Particularly valuable supported catalysts would have improved shelf-life and would give polymers with enhanced properties. Ideally, the new supports would have a negligible negative effect on catalyst activity.

Supported olefin polymerization catalysts


A system, a method, and an article of manufacture for controlling operation of an electrical power generation system are provided. The electrical power generation system has a plurality of electrical generators electrically coupled to an electrical grid. The method includes obtaining a first output parameter value associated with the electrical power generation system. The method further includes determining an error value indicative of a difference between the first output parameter value and a desired output parameter value. The method further includes determining a first gain value based on at least one of the first output parameter value and a time-varying operational parameter of the electrical power generation system. The method further includes determining a first power value based on the error value and the first gain value. The method further includes determining a second gain value based on at least one of the first output parameter value, the time-varying operational parameter, and a reference value. The method further includes determining a second power value based on the error value and the second gain value. The method further includes generating a desired power command for the electrical power generation system based on the first and second power values.

A wind farm utilizes a plurality of wind turbines to generate electrical power. The wind farm is generally electrically coupled at a point of interconnection to an electrical grid.
A control system is utilized to control the electrical output from a wind farm to meet utility requirements at the point of interconnection with an electrical grid of a utility company. However, a well-known problem associated with a conventional control system is that the control system is unable to maintain consistent dynamic performance of output voltage or reactive power at a desired level at the point of interconnection to the electrical grid, due to changing wind turbine conditions and electrical grid conditions such as (i) a variable number of turbines on line, (ii) changes in impedance of the electrical grid, and (iii) a switched capacitor or reactor banks.
The inventors herein have recognized a need for an improved control system and method for controlling an electrical power generation system, such as a wind farm.

System, method, and article of manufacture for controlling operation of an electrical power generation system


Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to automatically identifying groups and subgroups in dependency data. In aspects, a data structure that indicates dependencies between components is analyzed to create groups that are related by dependencies. The groups are further analyzed to create subgroups that depend on shared components but that do not depend on each other. Information about the components is used to generate names for the groups that are indicative of the components included in the groups. The groups, their names, and their relationships may then be displayed.

Maintaining and understanding programs is challenging. Large programs may have millions of lines of code that implement hundreds of objects that interact with each other. Making changes to the code without properly understanding this interaction may cause the code to function in unintended ways.
In response, companies have created tools that generate graphical representations of interactions within a program. Unfortunately, these tools often do not give a good understanding of the program.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one exemplary technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.


A hosted application server system and method are disclosed. The hosted application server system includes an interface for receiving a request from one of a plurality of users, a runtime environment for running a plurality of independent applications, a core configured to receive and respond to a request from one of the applications, and an interface for sending a response to the user. The core can have access to a shared data model.

An application server is a software program that runs on a server computer in a computer network for running software applications. Typically, application server software is installed, configured and run by a single trusted user, usually a system administrator or other expert user. For example, a web developer might set up and maintain an application server for applications running on a proprietary website. The problem with existing application servers is they are difficult to set up and configure and are not generally designed for a user without technical expertise. For example, if a typical grandmother wanted to create an application (e.g., to track her family genealogy) and make it available on the web for other family members to view and modify, it would be difficult for her to do so using a standard application server. In addition, the grandmother would have to handle writing and maintaining the code for all features of the application, and set up and maintain her own security model (e.g., for user authentication). It would be desirable to have a way to allow any type of user to develop any type of application. Also, given the growing market for social applications, a solution that facilitates the development of social applications would be particularly useful.


A method of sharing contacts within a converged address book system having a converged address book server, the method receiving from a requestor, at the converged address book server, a request for a contact to be shared with a recipient identified in the request; obtaining contact information for the contact from a repository; and delivering the shared contact to the recipient. Also, a method for interaction with a legacy address book system from a network based converged address book system, the method receiving a request to import legacy address book data from a legacy address book system; contacting the legacy address book system and supplying access parameters; retrieving data from the legacy address book system; and storing the imported data in a network based address book storage.

In a social context or setting, an address book is a useful tool for establishing social relationships between people. A typical address book contains a list of contact entries, with each contact entry comprising a list of contact information. Such information could include, but is not limited to, a name, physical address, email address, telephone number, personal identification number, instant messaging identifier, among others, which enables one user to contact another user. In addition to the contact entries, the address book system may also include a user's own personal contact information.
Growing innovation across services domain and mobile devices creates a number of ways to organize and manage contact information. With rapid growth in the usage of address books on end-user devices, the mobile industry has produced many different types of address book systems, associated data formats and protocols to manage the same. While this offers more choice to end users, it poses a very bad user experience and causes interoperability issues across differing address book applications. In other words, there is a lack of unified user experience and inconsistent user experience across devices with regard to address book applications, particularly for wireless mobile devices where optimization and efficiency of resources is important.
Several activities are under way within various standards organizations such as the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Converged Address Book (CAB), Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), to provide a converged address book system. However, a gap currently exists in terms of defining an underlying system architecture and associated functionality that would permit users to manage (e.g. add, modify, delete), publish, subscribe, search, and share information as part of a converged address book system across various devices over a network. Interaction with legacy or external address book systems (e.g. importing data from other address book systems) is another key functionality of a standard converged address book system.
In particular a communication and access interface from the client to the server or network-based address book system is not specified. Current solutions are not optimal for a mobile device in terms of over-the-air (OTA) traffic and client complexity including memory footprint and data processing requirements. Existing solutions are also not adequate for dealing with requirements related to a converged address book system such as import data from legacy address books to converged address book system with user's request, searching for data stored in network data sources (e.g. XDM and non-XDM repositories), subscriptions to personal contact information of other users, and sharing contact information transparent to the user knowing the underlying techniques.

System and method for access and communication between a converged network-based address book system and a user device


A load balancing method and a corresponding system are proposed. The load balancing method is used in environments (e.g., implementing a licensing management application) wherein each client is associated with a preferred server storing specific information for the client. Each client periodically detects a workload and a response time of all the servers. The client selects a subset of nearest servers (according to their response times). The server in that subset with the lowest workload is set as an eligible server. Whenever a ratio between the workload of the preferred server and the workload of the eligible server exceeds a predefined threshold value (e.g., 1.1), the client switches to the eligible server (transferring the corresponding specific information). The method of the invention exhibits a slow dynamic, and tends to reach a steady condition (wherein the specific information of the clients is not continuously moved across the system).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the data processing field, and more specifically to a load balancing method and a corresponding system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Load balancing methods are commonly used in data processing systems with a distributed architecture, wherein several clients rely on resources managed by multiple servers. The object of the load balancing methods is that of distributing the requests coming from the clients across the servers, such that overall performance of the system is increased.
A typical example is that of a server farm, which consists of a cluster of mirrored servers; the mirrored servers store identical information and provide the same services to the clients. The clients access the server farm through a router, which is the only unit visible to the outside. Whenever a client attempts to contact the server farm, the corresponding request is received by the router, which selects the server in the cluster that is best suited to handle the request.
For this purpose, a number of different algorithms have been proposed in the last years. A conventional approach consists of assigning each request to the servers according to a round-robin policy. More sophisticated techniques propose detecting a workload of each server; the server having the lowest workload is then selected for servicing the request.
An additional problem arises when information specific for each client must be stored on the servers (such as in a licensing management application). In this case, when the number of clients is very high (for example, more than 100,000), it is not feasible to replicate the specific information for all the clients on the different servers. A solution commonly adopted is that of dynamically assigning each client to a preferred server, which only stores the specific information for the corresponding clients; all the requests of each client are then transmitted to the preferred server directly. Whenever the client switches to a different server, the corresponding specific information is transferred to the new preferred server.
However, in these environments the load balancing methods known in the art are not completely satisfactory. Indeed, the techniques commonly used involve frequent switching of the clients between different preferred servers. As a consequence, the specific information of the clients must be continuously moved across the system. These operations adversely affect the overall performance of the system, and can defeat the advantages provided by the load balancing method.

International Business Machines Corporation


A gasket includes an elongated strip including a first resilient gasket component and a second resilient gasket component having shielding properties, the first and second gasket components being joined together. A method for making a gasket is also disclosed.

As is well known, selected electric or electronic parts radiate electromagnetic waves which can cause noise or unwanted signals to appear in electric or electronic parts and devices existing in the vicinity of the radiating parts. Accordingly, it is highly desirable to provide shielding and/or grounding for electronic components that use circuitry that emits or is susceptible to electromagnetic radiation. It is known that these components can be shielded to reduce undesirable electromagnetic interference and/or susceptibility effects with the use of a conductive shield that reflects or dissipates the electromagnetic charges and fields. Such shielding may be grounded to allow the offending electrical charges and fields to be dissipated without disrupting the operation of the electronic components enclosed within the shield.
Various types of EMI/RFI shielding devices are known for reducing the transmission of EMI and RFI. Among the known devices are gaskets or strips of a resiliently deformable material which are secured to an openable, movable, or removable access panel, door, drawer, or the like (hereinafter "door"), to block the transmission of EMI/RFI through the small clearance between the door and the adjacent structure which forms the opening into and out of which the door is movable. Such strips are useful for shielding openings of housings for electronic components which are highly sensitive to the adverse effects of EMI/RFI.
Such known devices are typically made of one of several materials which have the combined functions of acting as an EMI/RFI shield, and which are resiliently deformable so that they can be compressed between the door when closed, and will spring back to an uncompressed configuration when the door is moved out of the opening. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/819,983, filed Mar. 18, 1997, entitled "SELF-TERMINATING, KNITTED METALIZED YARN EMI/RFI SHIELDING GASKET," now U. S. Pat. No. 5,889,299 which is hereby incorporated by reference, provides examples of such gaskets.
One difficulty with known gaskets for providing EMI/RFI shielding is that the gasket material, while resilient, is not as compressible and resilient as other materials. The reduced compressibility sometimes makes it difficult for the gasket to provide a proper environmental shield, and the reduced resilience sometimes makes it difficult for the gasket to spring back into its original shape when compression on the gasket is removed. It is desirable to provide a gasket that combines high levels of EMI/RFI shielding with high compressibility and resilience characteristics to provide high levels of environmental shielding.
Another problem with EMI/RFI shielding gaskets is that conductive elastomers tend to be expensive as compared to other gasket materials. It is desirable to provide a gasket that is inexpensive and simple to install.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a gasket is provided that includes an elongated strip including a first resilient gasket component and a second resilient gasket component having shielding properties, the first and second gasket components being joined together.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method for making a gasket is disclosed. According to the method, a first resilient gasket component is formed, a second resilient gasket component, the second gasket component having shielding properties is formed, and the first gasket component to the second gasket component are joined.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, a gasket is provided that includes an elongated strip including a first resilient gasket component and a second resilient gasket component of a different material than the first gasket component, the first and second gasket components being joined together.


A heat-sensitive recording material comprising a support having provided thereon a heat-sensitive color forming layer containing a colorless or slightly colored electron donating dye precursor and an electron accepting compound capable of forming color by the reaction with the electron donating dye precursor, wherein the heat-sensitive color forming layer contains a 1-alkoxyphenoxy-2-aryloxypropane. The recording material exhibits high sensitivity and satisfactory preservation stability.

So far proposed heat-sensitive recording systems include a wide variety of embodiments. For example, heat-sensitive recording materials using a color former and a color developer are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,255,491, and JP-B-43-4160 and JP-B-45-14039 (the term "JP-B" as used herein means an "examined published Japanese patent application"). With the recent tendencies to rapids reduced energy heat-sensitive recording systems, extensive studies have been directed to an increase of sensitivity of heat-sensitive recording materials. In this connection, many attempts have been made to increase sensitivity by utilizing various additives or sensitizers, and the inventors of the present invention have filed patent applications on several such compounds [e.g., JP-A-58-57989 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,480,052), JP-A-58-87044 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,471,074), and JP-A-61-123581 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application")].
On the other hand, there is a tendency that the temperature at which color formation of a heat-sensitive recording material initiates decreases as the sensitivity of a recording material increases. This tendency not only leads to undesired color formation on white background after black image formation with facsimiles, etc. but also gives rise to a problem relating to preservability at high temperatures. It has been therefore desirable to develop a heat-sensitive recording material exhibiting high sensitivity while retaining satisfactory preservation stability.


The present disclosure relates to a control method for a fuel cell. The control method includes: collecting, by a controller, state information of a fuel cell (FC) stack; determining, by the controller, a degradation state of the FC stack from the collected state information of the FC stack; correcting, by the controller, a basic threshold output corresponding to a present driving state of a vehicle on the basis of information of the determined degradation state of the FC stack; comparing, by the controller, a post-correction threshold output that is obtained by correcting the basic threshold output and a motor demand output, and determining, by the controller, stopping or restarting of a fuel cell; and controlling, by the controller, such that the determined stopping or restarting state of the fuel cell is achieved.

Generally, a fuel cell is a generator in which a fuel gas and an oxidant gas react electrochemically and then the chemical energy of a fuel is converted into electricity. The fuel cell is widely used to supply electricity to small electrical/electronic products and portable devices, in addition to being used as industrial, domestic, and automotive power supplies.
As a fuel cell for a vehicle, a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell having a high power density has been most studied. The polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell uses hydrogen as the fuel gas and oxygen or air containing oxygen as the oxidant gas.
The fuel cell may include a plurality of cells generating reaction of the fuel gas and the oxidant gas to generate electrical energy. The plurality of cells is commonly used in a stacked form in which the cells are stacked and then connected in series, in order to meet a required output level.
In the case of the fuel cell mounted to a vehicle, as high output is required in the fuel cell, hundreds of cells that individually generate electrical energy are stacked into the stacked formed to meet the requirement. As described above, a cell assembly in which the plurality of cells are stacked and connected together is called a fuel cell (FC) stack.
As a cell configuration, the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell includes: a membrane electrode assembly having catalyst electrode layer attached to both sides of a polymer electrolyte membrane to which hydrogen ions are moved; a gas diffusion layer that supplies a fuel gas and an oxidant gas that are reaction gases to the membrane electrode assembly, and transfers generated electrical energy thereto; and a separating plate that moves the reaction gases and cooling water.
The membrane electrode assembly includes: the polymer electrolyte membrane capable of moving the hydrogen ions; and a cathode and anode, which are electrode layers formed by coating a catalyst on opposite surfaces of the polymer electrolyte membrane to allows hydrogen of the fuel gas and air (or oxygen) of the oxidant gas to react to each other.
In a unit cell of the fuel cell, on exterior portions of the membrane electrode assembly, that is, on exterior portions of the cathode and the anode, the gas diffusion layer for uniformly distributing the fuel gas and the oxidant gas is stacked. On the outside of the gas diffusion layer, the separating plate is positioned to provide a flow path through which the reaction gases and the cooling water pass and to supply the reaction gases to the gas diffusion layer.
Further, a gasket is stacked between components constituting the unit cell for sealing fluid. The gasket may be provided by being molded into a single body with the membrane electrode assembly or the separating plate.
After a plurality of cells is stacked with the cells having the above configuration as the unit cell, an end plate is coupled to an outermost side of the cells to support the cells, and the end plate and the cells are fastened together by a fastening device, thereby forming the FC stack.
A fuel cell system mounted to the fuel cell includes the FC stack and devices for supplying the reaction gases to the FC stack.
That is, the fuel cell system includes: the FC stack generating electrical energy through electrochemical reaction of the reaction gases; a hydrogen supply supplying hydrogen that is the fuel gas to the FC stack; an air supply supplying air containing oxygen that is the oxidant gas to the FC stack; a heat and water management system performing operational temperature control to the FC stack and heat and water management; and a fuel cell control unit (FCU) controlling entire operation of the fuel cell system.
Meanwhile, the endurance life of the FC stack is an important factor for securing marketability of the fuel cell vehicle. Therefore, various techniques have been developed to prevent degradation of the FC stack and increase the endurance life of the FC stack, and causes of stack degradation have been variously founded.
Moreover, in addition to a passenger vehicle, demand for a fuel cell system for a commercial vehicle such as a bus and a truck has grown. By the demand, interest in control technology for improving the endurance life of the fuel cell system has grown.
As the operation time of the FC stack is increased, degradation thereof inevitably occurs, and thus the degradation of the FC stack cannot be completely prevented. However, technology that minimizes the degradation of the FC stack has been actively researched.
When the FC stack is degraded, the vehicle starting performance and overtaking performance may be degraded due to shortage of stack output when the FC stack is restarted. Further, the vehicle drive-ability may be degraded due to jerking motion occurring in the vehicle.
Further, even when the demand output is satisfied when the FC stack in the degradation state is restarted, since an optimum operation point of the FC stack is not considered, operational efficiency and fuel efficiency of the fuel cell system may be lowered.


In a rewinding machine for winding web material onto a core to form rolls which has an unusual capability for accurate regulation of the winding, the web material is supplied to a winding drum and is transferred to the core to form the roll. The core is supported, rotated in controlled manner, and transported along a path in which the roll of web material wound on the core is enlarged whilse bearing continuously on the winding drum.

The subject of the present invention is a rewinding machine for winding material in web form onto a core to form rolls, as well as a corresponding winding method.
It is known that the winding of rolls of web material onto cores such as, for example, the winding of paper tissue onto cardboard cores, is performed by means of plant comprising apparatus for continuously unwinding paper from a reel. Downstream of this apparatus there is a winder or rewinding machine which winds the paper onto a plurality of cores to form the rolls. Downstream of the rewinding machine in turn there is apparatus for cutting the finished roll into a plurality of small rolls.
In particular, two methods are known for winding the web material onto the core.
In a first method, known as central winding, the core is fitted on a motor-driven spindle of the same length as the core, for rotating the core about its axis. When an edge of the web material has been stuck to the core, the desired quantity of web material is wound onto the core by rotation of the spindle, to form the roll. Upon completion of the winding, the roll is removed from the working area and the spindle is taken out of the core and returned to the working area by a recirculating device.
A machine of the type described above is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,660,350.
Although these machines have considerable advantages, they have the disadvantage that it is necessary to use spindles and cores of limited axial length. In fact, during the roll-forming step, long cores fitted on long spindles would clearly be subject to bending forces which would set up vibrations such that accurate and even winding with uniform compactness throughout the winding operation would be impossible, resulting in an irreparable deterioration in the quality of the product.
A second method also used for winding web material onto cores is known as peripheral winding. According to this method, after the core has been brought up to winding drums so as to cause the web material to adhere to the core, the core is driven by the drums in a winding area in which the roll being formed is acted on peripherally by three drums, leaving the core free to float in the web material which is being wound thereon.
A machine of the type described above is known from WO 99/42393 in which, upon completion of the winding, the core is removed from the wound roll, to form rolls without support cores.
However, it is clear that, although this latter solution is simpler in operation, it has many disadvantages.
First of all, peripheral winding, by its nature, does not allow the rate of rotation of the core to be controlled directly since the core is floating in the winding area between the three winding drums. With these known rewinding machines, it is therefore impossible to control the tension of the web material directly during its winding around the core, making it particularly difficult to produce rolls which have a uniform consistency throughout their thickness. This disadvantage is particularly important above all when a particularly soft roll is to be produced, as is required by some markets such as, for example, the United States market. In particular, if the web material is supplied without considerable pretensioning, it is almost impossible to ensure the same compactness of the roll both in the initial stages of the winding and in the final stages of the winding and, in the case of particularly soft rolls, the core may even be eccentric relative to the axis of the roll upon completion of the winding.

Rewinding machine to rewind web material on a core for rolls and corresponding method of winding


The present disclosure provides generally for a system and method for generating and processing training data, such as when access to training data for a form may be insufficient to effectively train an artificial entity to process the associated form. According to the present disclosure, a computer system may identify and distinguish between content data and background data from a small set of data, such as a handful of authentic forms. The computer system may remove unwanted text, noise, or other portions of an image to create an empty, blank, or scrubbed form with no data. The system may generate training examples or synthetic data from this form, which may be incorporated into training data. In some embodiments, the synthetic data may be generated into a form. The computer system may synthetically generate variations in the original form to simulate variations that may exist with expected incoming data.

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the development of computer systems to perform tasks such as visual perception, speech recognition, or decision-making. Traditional goals of AI include learning, natural language processing, and computer vision. Each of these may refer to a different focus area for AI. For example, natural language processing refers to a machine's ability to read and understand human language. This may allow for information retrieval, text mining, or machine translation. By way of another example, computer vision allows machines to recognize speech, text, faces, or objects in images or video.
Machine learning came about through advancements in the study of pattern recognition and computational learning theory. Machine learning is a field of computer science that sometimes uses statistical techniques to teach computer systems how to improve on a particular task without being explicitly programmed to do so. Using machine learning, computer systems may be able to provide descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, or prescriptive information or feedback.
Machine learning usually uses input data that serves as a training data set to develop a model to achieve its tasks. The model uses training data to learn patterns within the data set so that the model algorithms may make correct and proper predictions. Training data may be a set of examples, such as inputs with corresponding labels or values. Training data may include a target, which a model would try to achieve and be compared to. In some cases, the model may be unsupervised and must learn from a training data set with only inputs and no corresponding targets. Learning models may be based on support vector machines, linear regression, logistic regression, naïve Bayes, linear discriminant analysis, decision trees, and neural networks.
Deep learning is a subclass of machine learning. Deep learning may use neural networks to help train a computer system. A neural network consists of processing elements that are interconnected to reproduce and model nonlinear processes, originally inspired by the human brain. The neural networks can contain hierarchical levels of representations corresponding to different levels of abstraction. The machine itself determines what characteristics they find relevant to determine an answer. For example, in image recognition, machines may learn what images are labeled "car" and "not car." Using these results, the machine may review other images to identify whether other images have cars or not.
Usually, training data examples are labeled in advance. For example, an object recognition system may be given thousands of labeled images of a variety of types of objects, to be tasked with finding visual patterns in the images to consistently correlate with particular labels. Training data may be labeled by a person, or the object recognition system may try to generate its own labels once it receives a set of training data.
Since machine learning may need historical data to learn patterns and optimize algorithms, larger training sets generally produce better results. Deep learning models in particular may benefit from a greater volume of training data compared to linear or less complex models. One of the issues with training for machine learning is that there are often very few historical examples available and generating additional examples, particularly if human labeling is needed, is costly and time-consuming. To produce better models, and to enhance or expedite machine learning, there is a need for a greater volume of reliable and varied training data.

System and method for generating and processing training data


A cylinder lock 1 for use with a lock assembly 10. More specifically the cylinder lock is of the kind including a cam 5 rotatable from one side by a hand turn means 4, and an opposed side by a key controlled barrel 3. The configuration of the first side of the cam 5 so as to inhibit the interaction with the barrel 3 provides a useful result.

A mortice lock assembly is one form of lock assembly that is located in a mortice cavity formed in a side edge of a door. Where the door edge has limited depth to form the mortice cavity, a mortice lock assembly with a housing having a short depth (referred to as a short backset mortice lock assembly) may be the only option for that can fit in the cavity. However this type of housing will have less space within which the elements of the lock assembly can operate than a standard backset lock assembly.
The elements of the mortice lock will generally include a bolt moveable relative to the housing, an actuator which is operable to move the bolt and a lock means for controlling operation of the actuator and/or movement of the bolt. The lock means may include a detent that slides relative to the housing for adjustment of the condition of the lock between a locked condition and a release condition. Adjustment of the detent can be as a result of operation the cylinder lock, or more specifically rotation of the cam of a cylinder lock.
The door may be installed for left hand opening or right hand opening depending upon the configuration of the entrance. The mortice lock will generally have a preferred orientation regardless of whether the door is left hand opening or right hand opening. This may include orienting of the cylinder lock always above, or always below the actuator handle. Where the mortice lock includes a hook bolt, the preferred orientation may be so that the hook bolt always swings up to a latch position. Furthermore it is generally preferred that the orientation allow for any pin tumblers in the cylinder lock to be located above the barrel. This allows the springs of the cylinder lock to work in conjunction with gravity on the pin tumblers rather than against gravity. Accordingly it is preferred to pivot the mortice lock assembly about a vertical axis when adjusting for installation between either a right hand opening or a left hand opening door.
A reference herein to a patent document or other matter which is given as prior art is not to be taken as an admission that that document or matter was, in Australia, known or that the information it contains was part of the common general knowledge as at the priority date of any of the claims.