A coil filter includes a core member having two end members extended from two end portions, the left end member includes a front protrusion, a rear protrusion, and a middle protrusion extended upwardly beyond the core member, the front protrusion includes a width (W) greater than that of the rear protrusion and the middle protrusion, the second end member includes a rear projection, a front projection, and a middle projection extended upwardly beyond the core member, the rear projection includes a width (T) greater than the width (t) of the front projection and the middle projection, and a coil member wound onto the core member and disposed between the end members without wasting the spaces of the core member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coil filter, and more particularly to a coil filter including a core member having an improved structure or configuration for allowing the windings of the coil member to be suitably wound and engaged onto the core member without wasting the spaces of the core member.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typical coil filters comprise a core member, and a coil having one or more windings to be wound and engaged onto the core member, and the windings each include two ends or terminals to be extended out of the core member and attached or mounted or secured or anchored or retained to the core member with latches or fasteners or welders, or the like, and to be electrically connected or coupled to the other electrical facilities.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,917,273 to Okamoto, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,474,193 to Na et al. disclose two of the typical coil filters each also comprising a core member having a predetermined size or shape or structure or configuration, and a coil having one or more winding members to be wound and engaged onto the core member.
However, the predetermined size or shape or structure or configuration of the core member may determine and affect the winding or engaging of the winding members onto the core member, and a portion or a space of the core member will be wasted and may not be wound and engaged with the winding members.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages of the conventional core members for the coil filters.

Youth Industrial District Yangmei, Taoyuan


There is provided a system and method of cleaning surfaces of an interior cabin space of a contamination comprising a microbial and viral load. The method includes the steps of sealing the interior cabin space and placing water, and a solid or gel pack, into a container and generating a vortex the container by rotating an impeller. The agitation causes the solid or gel pack to release a gaseous cleaning agent. An air-borne spray exiting from the container spreads throughout the interior cabin space to coat the surfaces to be cleaned within the interior cabin space. The cabin is maintained closed for an effective time period while the coating from the air-borne spray dwells on the surfaces to eliminate or substantially reduce the load of the contamination.

1. Field of the Invention
The present technology relates to apparatus and systems for air-borne dispersal of a cleaning agent onto contaminated surfaces to clean these surfaces. More particularly, the technology relates to cleaning of surfaces, contaminated with microbial and/or a viral load that may be hazardous to human health and that may lead to contagion, in enclosed spaces, such as vehicle people-carrying spaces, to reduce or eliminate the contamination.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is increasing concern about the spread of contagious diseases, whether these may be influenza, common colds, or a potentially lethal virus such as Ebola, or microbial or viral diseases that are not even known or identified at this time. For purposes of this description, microscopic fungi are included in the term "microbes." Most of these microbes and viruses are spread through contact; a first person contacts some surface (for example, by shaking the hand of a contagious person or touches a contaminated surface) and acquires the contamination, becomes infected, and then passes it on to yet another person. This chain of infection is well-known. Some contaminants, whether microbial or viral, appear to be spread through air-borne means. This includes coughing and the emitting of a fine spray of contaminated and contagious sputum.
In a modern urban environment, one of the main means of transportation is in enclosed vehicles such as, but not limited to, aircraft, busses, trains, boats, cars, SUVs and trucks. Some of these are vehicles that are open to the general public to use, and some members of the public may have a communicable disease that is spread through microbes or viruses. Surfaces inside the cabin of the vehicle, where passengers are usually seated, may over time become heavily contaminated with live microbes and viral contaminants. Thus, these surfaces serve to spread the microbial or viral disease to other passengers through contact.
Even in non-public, personal or family transportation, one family member may be ill and could contaminate surfaces thereby passing a contagious illness to other family members. This is especially a risk where school-aged children "pick up" a microbial or viral infection from classmates at school, and can then pass it on to parents and siblings through contaminated surfaces in a family vehicle. Some microbes or viruses may be long-lived, and immunity to these may not be readily achieved. Thus there is a chance of recurrent illness. Merely wiping surfaces may not eliminate the microbial or viral load on surfaces because surfaces may not be smooth and totally accessible. For example, surfaces are often textured and may have joints and other features where microbial and viral loads may persist.
With regard to newly manufactured vehicles, the chances of a microbial or viral load on surfaces are low, unless the vehicle was contaminated during assembly. On the other hand, the chances that a "pre-owned" or "used" vehicle is contaminated and a source of potential infection, is relatively far higher. Aside from the potential health issues, there are often also aesthetic issues with pre-owned or used cars: they may have an odor in the cabin space from pets carried in the space or from the way in which they were (mis)used by the previous owners. This can have a negative impact on the resale value of the vehicle.
There is a need from a public health standpoint to clean surfaces within a passenger carrying cabin space of vehicles to reduce any microbial and/or viral load. Moreover, there is also not only a public health need to do this but also a business or economic need to remove any undesirable odors from the cabin space of public, used or pre-owned vehicles.

Systems for air-borne cleaning of surfaces


A novel bicyclic compound having an HSP90 inhibitory effect and a carcinostatic effect. A pharmaceutical agent based on the HSP90 inhibitory effect and useful in the prevention and/or treatment of a disease involving HSP90, particularly cancer. The compound has a general formula (I) or is a salt thereof wherein at least one of X1, X2, X3, and X4 represents N or N-oxide and the rest thereof are each independently C—R2; any one or two of Y1, Y2, Y3, and Y4 represent C—R4 and the rest thereof are each independently CH or N; R1 represents an optionally substituted monocyclic or bicyclic unsaturated heterocyclic group having 1 to 4 heteroatoms selected from N, S, and O; R2 represents a hydrogen atom, an optionally substituted alkyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms etc.; R3 represents a hydrogen atom, —CO—R5 etc.

A group of proteins called molecular chaperones have various functions such as the formation promotion or maintenance of functional structures of other proteins, the promotion of normal association, the prevention of unnecessary aggregation, protection from degradation, and the promotion of secretion (Non Patent Document 1). The molecular chaperone HSP90 is found as abundant as approximately 1 to 2% of all intracellular soluble proteins and, unlike other chaperone proteins, is not required for the biosynthesis of the majority of polypeptides (Non Patent Document 1). Signaling-related factors (e.g., ERBB1/EGFR, ERBB2/HER2, MET, IGF1R, KDR/VEGFR, FLT3, ZAP70, KIT, CHUK/IKK, BRAF, RAF1, SRC, and AKT), cell cycle regulatory factors (e.g., CDK4, CDK6, Cyclin D, PLK1, and BIRC5), and transcriptional regulators (e.g., HIF-1α, p53, androgen receptor, estrogen receptor, and progesterone receptor) are known as main client proteins whose structural formation or stability is controlled through interaction with HSP90 (Non Patent Documents 2 and 3). HSP90 is deeply involved in cell growth and survival by maintaining the normal functions of these proteins. In addition, HSP90 is required for the normal functions of mutant or chimeric factors (e.g., BCR-ABL and NPM-ALK) which cause malignant transformation or cancer exacerbation, indicating the importance of HSP90, particularly, for processes such as malignant transformation and the survival, growth, exacerbation, and metastasis of cancer (Non Patent Document 2).
When the chaperone functions of HSP90 are suppressed by a specific inhibitor such as geldanamycin, its client protein is inactivated, destabilized, and degraded, resulting in induced cell growth arrest or apoptosis (Non Patent Document 4). In terms of the physiological functions of HSP90, such an HSP90 inhibitor is characterized by being capable of simultaneously inhibiting a plurality of signaling pathways involved in cancer survival and growth and as such, can serve as a drug having extensive and effective anticancer effects. Also, the HSP90 inhibitor is expected to serve as a drug with high cancer selectivity from the finding that cancer cell-derived HSP90 is more highly active than normal cell-derived HSP90 and has high affinity for ATP or inhibitors (Non Patent Document 5).
A plurality of HSP90 inhibitors are currently under clinical development as anticancer agents. Development of the geldanamycin derivative 17-allylamino-17-desmethoxygeldanamycin (17-AAG), which is most ahead of others, is underway as a single agent and is also under trial in combination with various anticancer agents (Non Patent Documents 3 and 4). Unfortunately, the problems of 17-AAG, such as poor solubility, instability in solutions, low oral absorbability, and hepatotoxicity, have been pointed out (Non Patent Documents 4 and 5). Thus, a new type of HSP90 inhibitor has been demanded. Reportedly, these HSP90 inhibitors not only have anticancer effects but may serve as therapeutic agents for, for example, autoimmune diseases, inflammatory diseases, central nervous system diseases (such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and Huntington's disease), viral infectious diseases, cardiovascular diseases (Non Patent Documents 2 and 6).


A refrigerated container having a refrigeration system using CO2 as the refrigerant, includes a sensing and warning system for sensing the CO2 concentration in the container and responsively displaying the sensed condition in a display module so that an operator will be aware of excess levels of concentration which might present a hazardous condition and therefore should not enter the container until the condition is alleviated.

Refrigerated vehicles have longed been employed in a wide variety of applications including the storing and marketing of perishable commodities, particularly produce such as fruit and vegetables, as well as other perishable foods, including processed and frozen or chilled products such as ice cream or the like. The refrigerated vehicles contemplated by the present invention include, for example, truck trailers for road transport and piggy-back use, railroad cars and container bodies contemplated for land and sea service and the like. Accordingly, all such refrigerated containers are included within the present invention under the general designation of refrigerated containers or vehicles adapted to receive cargo in a refrigerated space.
Refrigeration systems for such refrigerated containers have generally used conventional refrigerants in a closed loop system which included an evaporator for cooling the air in the container. Because of environmental concerns, hydrochloro flourocarbons (HCFCS), such as R-22 have been discontinued and hydroflourocarbons (HFCS), such as R-134a, R-410a and R-407c have taken their place. However, because of these same environmental concerns, it has been desirable to replace the use of these HFCS with a more "benign" refrigerant which does not adversely react with the atmosphere. Accordingly, the use of CO2 has now become attractive for use in vapor compression systems for refrigerated containers.
One characteristic of carbon dioxide as a refrigerant is that it has low critical temperature and therefore, most CO2 refrigerant vapor compression systems are designed for operation in the transcritical regime. This requires that they operate at substantially higher pressure then when operating with conventional refrigerants, and special compressors are designed for that purpose. In order to accommodate these higher pressures, the other components and tubing must be robust in their design. Still, the likelihood of leakage occurring within this system is greater than when operating with a lower pressure system with conventional refrigerants.
Depending on where in the system a leak may occur, the CO2 may be released to the outside atmosphere or to the inside of the container box. If released to the inside of the container box, the carbon dioxide concentration may create a potentially hazardous atmosphere to humans that may enter the container box. While the toxicity of CO2 is not likely to be a problem, the corresponding reduction in available oxygen may be harmful to one entering the container box. In this regard, OSHA has indicated that the lowest acceptable oxygen concentration for shift-long exposure is 19.5%, which corresponds to a carbon dioxide concentration of about 60,000 ppm (6%).
The use of carbon dioxide sensors within a refrigerant container has been made, but for a different purpose and manner. That is, in so called "controlled atmosphere" refrigerated container systems, the concentration of nitrogen within the container is enhanced so as to thereby decrease the oxidization (i.e. ripening) that may occur during shipping and storage. Such a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,457,963. In such a system, there are certain types of cargo (e.g. asparagus, blueberry, blackberry, cantaloupe, fresh chili pepper) where the depletion of CO2 within the container is detrimental to the cargo. Thus, a known technique is to sense when the percentage of CO2 reaches a predetermined lower level and then responsively injecting CO2 into the container from a pressurized vessel that is provided for that purpose.
What is needed is a method and apparatus for determining when the content of CO2 has reached an undesirable higher level and providing notice thereof so that an operator does not enter the container under those conditions.


A rain sensor operates such that when a raindrop cuts off a direct light beam from a transmitter to a detector, the output level of the detector is lowered. A convex member is disposed to prevent a portion of the light emitted from the transmitter from reflecting and then reaching the detector. Thus, detecting error due to such reflected light is reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical space monitoring type rain sensor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1 illustrates a structural example of a conventional space monitoring type rain sensor. This sensor is mounted, for example, on a motor vehicle, and is used with a so-called automatic windshield wiper drive control system for automatically regulating the intervals of wiping operation depending on the amount of sensed precipitation. A transmitter 1 and a detector 2 are disposed opposed to each other, and they are installed so that both the optical axes thereof coincide with each other. When a direct light beam L1 passing from the transmitter 1 to the detector 2 is cut off or interrupted by an obstacle 4 such as a raindrop such occurrence is detected as a drop of the level of reception light output (amplitude modulation) as shown in FIG. 2 (2). FIG. 2 (1) shows an output level when the pulse-modulated direct light L1 is received directly, i.e. without interruption.
Since the amplitude modulation amount .DELTA.Vl in FIG. 2 (2) is proportional to the shielding area of the obstacle 4, when .DELTA.Vl is large, it indicates a large raindrop, and when small it indicates a small raindrop.
However, since the light beam from the transmitter 1 has a certain spread, there is also other light L2 directed toward a casing 3. Accordingly, when a reflected light beam L3 of L2 enters the detector 2, if there is the same obstacle 4, the amplitude modulation amount .DELTA.V2 becomes smaller than the above .DELTA.Vl, as shown in FIG. 2 (3), and thus there will occur an error in detention, i.e. .DELTA.V2 indicates less water than actually is present may occur. A similar phenomena may also occur, when the optical axis of the transmitter 1 becomes deviated.
Hitherto, in order to reduce this problem, as shown in FIG. 3, formation of the reflected light L3 into the detector 1 is prevented by increasing the height H of installation of the transmitter 1 and detector 2, or roughening the surface of the casing (surface embossing, undulations).
In the method shown in FIG. 3, however, the outer size of the sensor is increased, mounting is restricted and appearance may not be always favorable. Furthermore, by roughening the surface of the casing 3, wax or dust may deposit, the surface may be easily made to appear dirty, and this is not desirable for appearance.

Rain sensor with improved avoidance of reflected light


According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided an apparatus configured to operate as a subscriber server (2). The apparatus comprises a memory (11) for storing the subscription information of one or more Machine Type Communications, MTC, subscribers, the subscription information of a MTC subscriber including one or more MTC Features and information regarding the MTC subscriber's subscribed services, a processor (10) for assessing which of the one or more subscribed MTC Features are supported, assessing any interaction that may occur between each of the supported subscribed MTC Features and between each of the supported subscribed MTC Features and the subscribed services, and determining the subscription information that should be sent to a serving node (1) based on the outcome of the assessments, and a transmitter (13) for sending the determined subscription information to the serving node (1).

Machine-type communication (MTC), also known as Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication, is a form of data communication which involves one or more entities that do not necessarily need human interaction. Such communication may be facilitated by the data services offered by existing mobile communication networks. However, a service optimised for machine-type communications differs from a service optimised for human-to-human communications. In particular, machine-type communications are different to current mobile network communication services as they involve different market scenarios, data communications, lower costs and effort, and a potentially very large number of communicating terminals with, to a large extent, little traffic per terminal. The entities involved in MTC are referred to as MTC Devices and MTC Servers. A MTC Device is a communication device equipped for MTC, which communicates through a PLMN with MTC Servers and/or other MTC Devices. FIG. 1 illustrates schematically a communication scenario in which MTC Devices communicate with an MTC Server over a telecommunications network.
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is currently working to define a comprehensive set of network improvements for MTC. As part of this work some general requirements (e.g. in the areas of identification, addressing, congestion control etc) have already been defined. In addition, some network functions that are required in order to optimise networks for use by M2M applications have been identified, with these network optimisations being referred to as MTC Features. 3GPP TS 22.368 v10.1.0 defines these MTC Features as including Low Mobility, Time Controlled, Time Tolerant, Packet Switched (PS) Only, Small Data Transmissions, Mobile Originated Only, Infrequent Mobile Terminated, MTC Monitoring, Priority Alarm Messages, Secure Connection, Location Specific Trigger, Network Provided Destination for Uplink Data, Infrequent Transmission and Group Based MTC Features. It is expected that network operators will be able to independently offer MTC Features to a MTC Subscriber, with the MTC Features provided to a particular subscriber being identified in the subscription. As such, the MTC Devices that belong to a given MTC Subscriber will be controlled by the subscription and therefore subject to Subscription Control. However, it is not yet defined in any detail as to how Subscription Control of the MTC Features will be handled.
Currently, subscription data management for traditional mobile services is carried out according to the procedures defined for the S6a, S6d, Gr, and D interfaces (see 3GPP TS 29.272 and 3GPP TS 29.002). In general, these consist of the procedures defined to update entities within the core network that are responsible for mobility management with the subscriber data stored in the HLR/HSS, either at the time of attachment to the network, at restoration, or when a subscription change occurs due to administrative procedures. However, these existing solutions only cover the procedures for updating the information regarding the subscribers subscribed services, and do not include how to manage subscription information that includes subscribed MTC Features. As such, there is a need to define procedures for management of subscription information that includes subscribed MTC Features.
In this regard, 3GPP TR 23.888 V0.5.1 identifies some key issues for MTC that require system improvements, and outlines solutions to some of these key issues. In particular, section 6.37 proposes two alternative solutions, referred to as Simple Subscription Control, which could be included in 3GPP Specification Release 10. The first of these solutions proposes doing nothing, provided that no MTC Features are included in Release 10. The second of these solutions proposes identifying the subscribed MTC Features as Information Elements (IEs) in the MTC Subscription stored in the HSS, together with some procedures to determine whether or not the subscribed MTC Features are supported by the MTC Device and by the network. In addition, according to this solution, all subscribed MTC Features are considered essential and mandatory such that, if an MTC Device or the network does not support one or more of the subscribed MTC Features, then an attempt by an MTC Device to attach to the network is rejected. However, the information that would be needed within the new Information Elements identifying the MTC Features, and the message exchanges that would be needed between the HSS/HLR and the core network nodes to control service and MTC Feature availability, are not specified.

Machine-type communication subscription control


An improved electromagnetically actuated valve is disclosed. The improved valve design includes a layer of structurally stable, non-magnetic material, preferably Kapton or Chrome, disposed intermediate the core element and the electromagnetic element of the valve, and a core element and electromagnetic element fabricated from a high electrical resistive iron material. The layer of non-magnetic structurally stable material and high resistance core element serve to eliminate the hysteresis effect in the magnetic force of the valve. The core element may also include radially extending or axially extending perforations through the core element. The axial and radial perforations serve to reduce the weight of the core design and the axial perforations serve to reduce the effect of the air spring created in the gap as the core element approaches the electromagnetic element during operation of the valve.

In the past, valves have been designed for opening and closing mechanisms that combine the action of springs with electromagnets. However, the earlier designs did not operate quickly enough to open and close the valves with sufficient speed. For example, valves using spring action could not be designed with the speed normally required for the opening and closing of an internal combustion engine's intake and exhaust valves, or for the speed required for air compressors.
One of the reasons why the earlier valve designs could not operate at the desired high speeds is the mass of the moving core assembly. In previous designs, the mass of the moving core piece providing the return path for the magnetic flux was not sufficiently small so that it could be accelerated as quickly as desired for certain applications, such as modern internal combustion engines. Therefore, a need existed for a lightweight core design for use in an electromagnetically actuated valve.
Another problem with the valves of the prior art is caused by hysteresis, or a lagging in the value of magnetization in a magnetic material due to a change in magnetizing forces. More specifically, in the previously designed electromagnetic actuators, eddy currents and a residual flux remain in the magnetic material when the electromagnet in the valve is deenergized, causing a delay in the release of the core and therefore a decrease in the speed of the valve. Therefore, it is desirable to eliminate the residual flux, and thereby instantaneously decay the magnetic forces to zero such that the actuator reacts quicker.

Core design for electromagnetically actuated valve


The roll orientation of a thrust vector control (TVC) or other missile section is measured and used to compensate the operation of the control surface. A measurement of a roll orientation of the control surface relative to the missile is obtained from a detector, memory or other source. Compensated control commands are determined at least in part based upon the measurement to account for the roll orientation of the control surface relative to the missile, and the compensated control command is provided to thereby actuate the control surface during operation of the missile.

Missiles are constantly evolving to become more effective yet easier to manufacture. In recent years, for example, certain types of missiles have used thrust vectoring to improve missile control and performance. The AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles manufactured by Raytheon, for example, commonly use a thrust vector control (TVC) mechanism that is mounted to the rear of the missile's exit cone to change the direction of thrust and thereby control the attitude or angular velocity of the missile. The TVC typically includes any number of vanes or other control surfaces that can extend into thrust gasses exiting the rocket motor to thereby change the heading of the missile. Thrust vectoring is also used in other types of missiles, as well as in rockets, jet aircraft and the like.
A challenge often arises, however, in properly orienting the TVC or other control surfaces of the missile during assembly. Generally speaking, it has been important that the control surfaces be precisely positioned with respect to the roll axis of the missile to allow for accurate control in the pitch and yaw directions. Typically, the need to precisely orient the control surfaces to the rest of the missile presents a significant challenge in manufacturing and assembly. In the case of the Sidewinder TVC mechanism, for example, the exit cone containing the TVC control surfaces is typically attached to the body of the missile using a non-threaded joint that is relatively bulky, complicated and expensive to implement. Other attempts to use conventional threaded joints to attach the TVC to the missile body have been met with limited success due to the level of precision needed to machine accurate threads. Even in such cases, shimming or other compensation was often needed during assembly of the threaded joint. Similar issues can arise in other settings, particularly where threaded joints are desired. A seeker assembly attached the nose of a glide bomb casing, for example, often uses a threaded or non-threaded joint that can be sensitive to the roll alignment between the seeker and bomb. Alignment uncertainty issues may arise in any number of other components and products as well.
It is therefore desirable to conveniently manufacture, assemble and operate the control surfaces of a missile or other projectile without sacrificing performance. These and other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background section.

Systems, apparatus and methods to compensate for roll orientation variations in missile components


A multifunction printer enables the printing of time-based media and is operated via a user interface. The user interface includes a touch screen for accepting command inputs and providing information to a user. Time-based media data is received by the printer from a media source specified via the user interface. A user specifies one or more multimedia processing functions for the printer to apply to the data. The printer performs the specified functions, and previews the output to the user via a display of the user interface. If the user decides to print the previewed output, the user specifies one or more output devices, such that the printer can print conventional printed output and/or to a specified electronic output.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to printers that have embedded functionality for printing time-based media, and in particular to a user interface for operating a printer that prints time-based media resulting in a combination of a printed output and a related electronic data output.
2. Description of the Related Art
While conventional printers can print documents in a wide variety of formats, these printers are fundamentally limited in their ability to reproduce different kinds of media. For example, it is standard technology for a printer to produce images of static text, pictures, or a combination of the two. But because these printers print onto paper or another similar fixed medium, they cannot record the nuances of time-based media very well.
In developing a printer that is equipped to print time-based media without the limitations of conventional printers, a user interface for controlling such a printer is needed. It is further desirable that such a user interface be operable with a printer that performs at least some of the necessary processing itself rather than requiring an attached computer or other device to perform all of the processing. Ideally, the user interface should allow a user to specify how much processing is done by the printer.


The present invention discloses a chemically amplified (CA) resist composition for printing features having a dimension of about 30 nm or less and a method of forming a material structure having a pattern containing features having a dimension of about 30 nm or less by using the inventive CA resist. The CA resist composition comprises (a) about 1 to about 50 weight % of a copolymer, (b) about 0.02 to about 25 weight % of a photoacid generator, (c) about 47 to about 99 weight % of a solvent, and (d) about 0.004 to about 25 weight % of a base additive. The copolymer comprises at least one hydrophilic monomer unit containing one or more polar functional groups and at least one hydrophobic monomer unit containing one or more aromatic groups. Some, but not all, of the one or more polar functional groups in the copolymer are protected with acid labile moieties having a low activation energy.

The microelectronics industry strives toward fabricating high density circuitry by decreasing the minimum feature size of the components on the chip. This requires high-resolution lithography, the principal technique used in patterning microelectronics circuitry. Over approximately the last 20 years, the industry has migrated to shorter wavelength photolithography as the primary means of scaling the resolution to sustain the progressive demand for smaller features. The wavelength of photolithography has migrated from mid-ultraviolet (MUV) wavelengths (350-450 nm) to deep-UV (DUV) radiation (190-300 nm) and vacuum UV (VUV, 125-160 nm). Likewise, the photosensitive materials used in photolithography, i.e., photoresists, have evolved. MUV lithography employed diazonaphthoquinone (DNQ) and novolak-based resists. These materials offered high performance, but were not extendible to DUV and VUV wavelengths due to their opacity at these shorter wavelengths. In addition, these resists were not of sufficient sensitivity to afford high throughput manufacturing.
In response to the need for new, lower opacity, higher sensitivity materials for DUV imaging, Ito et al. disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,628 the development of chemically amplified (CA) resists based on photochemically-generated-acid catalyzed deprotection of an acid labile polymer. That is, for positive tone CA resists, acid labile moieties of the polymer are cleaved by acid catalyzed thermolysis reaction that renders the deprotected form of the polymer soluble in a subsequently applied developer, such as an aqueous base. Thus, an image of the projected patternwise radiation is formed in the resist film after development, which can then serve as an etch-resistant mask for a subsequent pattern transfer step. The resolution obtained is dependent on the quality of aerial image and the ability of resist to maintain that image.
CA resists have been developed for 248, 193, and 157 nm lithography. The theoretical dimensional limit of equal-sized half-pitch features is one quarter of the wavelength, λ (K1=0.25) when NA=1, as the dose applied to the resist is equal to the square of the intensity, and thus the resolution cannot be modulated by any more than λ/4, or a pitch of λ/2. The term "K1", as used herein, refers to one of the Rayleigh K factors which are process dependent constants as shown in the following equation: R=K1λ/NA. The resolution attainable with each advancing generation of materials has been extended towards these limits through the use of low K1 techniques and high numerical aperture tools. For the latest VUV wavelength being developed for manufacturing, 157 nm, with a very high, but potentially manufacturable NA of 0.95, λ/4 equals about 40 nm. To obtain images below this feature size, either an extension of NA to >1, such as is afforded with immersion lithography, or a non-diffraction limited, non-optical lithography system, such as the so-called next generation lithography (NGL) has to be applied. The most promising of these NGLs are extreme ultraviolet (EUV, sometimes referred to as soft x-ray) or electron beam lithography (EBL).
One barrier to imaging in the sub-50 nm half-pitch regime is a phenomenon known as image blur, which diminishes the integrity of the pattern (see, for example, Hinsberg et al., Proc. SPIE, 2000, 3999, 148 and Houle et al., J. Vac. Sci. Technol B, 2000, 18, 1874). Image blur can be defined as the deviation of the developable image from the projected aerial image. Image blur can be divided into two contributing factors: gradient-driven acid diffusion and reaction propagation. Both factors contribute to blur, but to different degrees and with different temperature dependence.
The first factor contributing to image blur is often referred to as acid diffusion and can be described by Fickian diffusion models for solids. The choice of the photoacid being generated from photoacid generator (PAG) and the mobility in the chosen polymer matrix dictate this factor. The mobility in the polymer matrix is dependent on the comprising chemical functionality of the polymer, the free volume of the matrix, the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the polymer and the temperature and time of baking the steps encountered during the resist processing.
A second contributing factor to image blur is sometimes described as reaction propagation and is best described by Arhenius behavior. Activation energy (enthalpy), volatility of products (entropy), and the availability and concentration of deprotection-reaction-dependent co-reactants, such as moisture, dictate the degree to which the reaction propagates away from the original acid profile.
Since the image blur resulting from diffusion of photochemically generated acid has been determined to be on the order of 10's of nm's and is enhanced by post-exposure baking (PEB), it is extremely difficult to create dense (1:1) device features around 50 nm or less using conventional CA resists. In order to achieve high resolution, high sensitivity and high degree of process latitude, both image blur factors must be eliminated or minimized. Both of these contributing factors can be tempered by the addition of acid-quenchers, or bases, which have been shown to reduce image blur. Additionally, it has been recognized that image blur is temperature dependent. Breyta et al. disclose that appropriate baking conditions can optimize the resolution attainable with CA resists in U.S. Pat. No. 6,227,546. Medeiros et al. disclose a method of fabricating sub-50 nm dense features using a CA resist based on acid labile protecting groups having a low activation energy in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0265747 A1.
However, in order to print sub 30 nm features, it is required that a CA resist possesses dissolution properties different from those of the above-mentioned prior art resist so that the image collapsing problem in thin film imaging can be prevented. A CA resist is also required to further reduce the diffusion of the photochemically-generated-acid and, at the same time, maintain the desired sensitivity to consistently print sub 30 nm features. In addition, EUV radiation causes a flare problem that limits CA resist performance. Thus, a CA resist has to possess certain optical properties and dissolution characteristics to reduce flare in printing sub 30 nm images.
In view of the above discussion, there remains a need for an advanced CA resist composition for sub 30 nm dense feature resolutions and a method of performing sub 30 nm imaging.

Advanced chemically amplified resist for sub 30 nm dense feature resolution

International Business Machines Corporation


The present disclosure provides compositions that inhibit the SH2-containing inositol 5′-phosphatase (SHIP), as well as methods using such compositions for use in treating or ameliorating the effects of a medical condition in a subject.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common malignancy in women and the third most common malignancy in men worldwide (1). Although CRC mortality has been declining due to improvements in screening techniques and CRC treatment, it is still the second most common cause of cancer-related death. Therapeutic approaches for CRC have included antimetabolite drugs interfering in biosynthetic processes. However, these compounds do not specifically target cancer cells alone, resulting in a number of side-effects. More specific targeted therapies have also been used. In particular, inhibitors of the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) have been used (2-4). EGFR is a kinase, whose activity results in phosphorylation and activation of downstream signaling cascades such as the Ras-Raf-MEK-ERK and PI3K-PKB/Akt pathways (5). However, some CRCs harbor an activating mutation in the Ras gene (6), rendering the use of upstream EGFR inhibitors ineffective (7). Pan-kinase inhibitors (e.g. Regorafenib (8)) or selective kinase inhibitors (e.g. PI3K/AKT inhibitors (9)) are currently being tested, however, the potential for side effects is present as phosphorylation of proteins and lipids is essential for virtually all cellular functions. While kinases have so far been targeted for treatment, phosphatases are generally regarded as tumor suppressors and have for the most part been disregarded in cancer research.

Tryptamine-based ship inhibitors for the treatment of cancer

THE RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR THE STATE UNIVERSITY of New York


The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a decorative building board, including: ejecting active ray-curable ink from an ink jet recording head onto a building board that includes a base material selected from a metallic base material and a ceramic base material and an ink receiving layer arranged on the base material, the ink receiving layer being obtained by curing a resin composition and having an arithmetic average roughness (Ra) specified under JIS B 0601:2001 of from 0.4 μm to 3 μm, to thereby perform printing on the ink receiving layer; and irradiating the active ray-curable ink with an active ray from 2.2 seconds to 30 seconds after the active ray-curable ink lands on the ink receiving layer.

In recent years, ink jet recording systems have been used in various fields because such systems are capable of easily forming a wide variety of patterns on a base material at low cost.
In particular, an active ray-curable ink jet system has relatively low odor as compared to solvent type ink jet systems and is capable of forming an image on a recording material having no fast-drying properties or ink absorbability, and hence active ray-curable ink jet systems are drawing attention (for example, Patent Literature 1).
Further, ink jet recording systems have been used in various fields as described above, and not only for paper materials but also for building materials, such as siding materials (for example, Patent Literature 2).
In Patent Literature 2, there is a disclosure that, with the purpose of providing an ink jet recording method capable of easily ensuring suitable quality in patterning with respect to building materials, dots are formed to perform patterning through use of ink drops in which the initial speed of each ink drop discharged from ink jet recording head is adjusted and the volume of one drop that lands on a surface of a recording material is set to 45 picoliters.
Further, in Patent Literature 1, there is a disclosure of a method of forming an image through use of active ray-curable ink capable of stably reproducing an image with high definition on various recording materials, and specifically, there is a disclosure of a method of forming an image involving performing printing on a recording material, in which the active ray-curable ink is irradiated with a particular light source between 0.001 second and 1.0 second after the active ray-curable ink lands on the recording material.
On the other hand, aqueous ink has also been conventionally used as ink to be used in the ink jet recording system. The ink receiving layer of the ink jet recording material in this case has a porous structure. When the ink lands on the ink receiving layer of the recording material, the ink rapidly spreads with wetting (within 0.5 second) due to capillary action, and the ink dot diameter stabilizes within 0.5 second.

Method of manufacturing a decorative building board


A method for mining a block in a decentralized blockchain consensus network (DBCN) includes sending, by a mining computing entity (MCE), a signing request for mining a new block of a blockchain to a trusted execution environment computing entity (TEE-CE), the signing request including block information, the block information including block height information, and comparing, by the TEE-CE, the block height information of the signing request with block height information from a last signing request and providing a matching, when the difference between the block height information of the signing request and the block height information from the last signing request satisfies a defined value. The method further comprises, upon providing the matching, signing, by the TEE-CE, the new block based on the block information, and providing, by the MCE, the new signed block to the DBCN.

Proof-of-works are getting more and more important in information technology security. For example crypto-currencies like Bitcoin rely on proof-of-works to thwart the overproduction.
Bitcoin is a decentralized payment system and is currently gaining popularity as a digital currency; several businesses are starting to accept Bitcoin transactions. For instance, Bitcoins were used as a form of fast payment in a local fast-food restaurant.
Bitcoin is a Proof-of-Work (POW) based currency that allows users to "mine" for digital coins by performing computations. Users execute payments by digitally signing their transactions and are prevented from double-spending their coins (i.e., signing-over the same coin to two different users) through a distributed time-stamping service. This service operates on top of the Bitcoin Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network that ensures that all transactions and their order of execution are available to all Bitcoin users.
Bitcoin is increasingly used in a number of "fast payment" scenarios, where the exchange time between the currency and goods is short. Examples include online services, ATM withdrawals, vending machine payments and fast-food payments, where the payment is followed by fast (<30 seconds) delivery of goods. While Bitcoin PoW-based time-stamping mechanism is appropriate for slow payments (e.g., on-line orders with delivery of physical goods), it requires tens of minutes to confirm a transaction and is therefore inappropriate for fast payments. This mechanism is, however, essential for the detection of double-spending attacks—in which an adversary attempts to use some of her coins for two or more payments. Since Bitcoin users are anonymous and users (are encouraged to) hold many accounts, there is only limited value in verifying the payment after the user obtained the goods (and e.g., left the store) or services (e.g., access to on-line content).
Double-spending attacks may be launched in particular during a temporary fork until the Bitcoin network merges the forks and agrees on the total order of transactions.
At present, blockchain forking is the one of the main challenges for distributed consensus. It slows down the time for the network to reach consensus and reduces the efficiency of the system.
The original conventional Proof-of-Work consensus protocol or mining protocol as disclosed in the non-patent literature of Gervais, A., Karame, G. et al, "On the Security and Performance of Proof of Work Blockchains, available under https://eprintiacr.org/2016/555.pdf was criticized for its waste of energy for mining (as disclosed in the non-patent literature of Karame, Androulaki, & Capkun, 2012, Double-Spending Attacks on Fast Payments in Bitcoin. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS). Chicago, Ill., USA), miners have to invest computation resources to repeatedly perform hashing functions until the right parameters are found to make the block legitimate. Therefore, a further conventional blockchain was proposed using multiple virtual mining protocols such as Proof-of-Stake PoS and Proof-of-Elapsed-Time PoET. Instead of brute-forcing the next block with computation resources, a node here uses his virtual mining resources such as stakes PoS or random timer returned by its secure hardware PoET to mine the next block. However, since the mining process comes without much cost, the main risk in virtual mining is nothing-at-stake, i.e., a node that can mine multiple blocks at the same time in order to increase its chance among all miners so that one of its blocks will be finally included in the blockchain and thus gaining the reward. Consequently, mining multiple blocks can create multiple forks in the system, and nodes can in turn work on multiple forks (branches) at the same time, thus increasing the number of forks in the system exponentially, which will considerably slow down the consensus speed and increase the risk of double-spending.
Some conventional methods, e.g. disclosed in the non-patent literature of Buterin, V. (2014, January) Slasher: A Punitive Proof-of-Stake Algorithm, available under https://blog.ethereum.org/2014/01/15/slasher-a-punitive-proof-of-stake-algorithm/ involve penalizing miners if they simultaneously create blocks on multiple forks or voting on the "wrong" fork. This is done by holding some deposit of the miners for a period and allowing the reclamation only if no misbehaviour is detected and reported. For example, Slasher 1.0 as disclosed herein delays the reward claiming by locking the reward for some number of blocks. The reward and possibly some deposit can be destroyed whenever the misbehavior is detected and is included in the blockchain before the claiming point.

Method for mining a block in a decentralized blockchain consensus network


The present invention relates to non-aqueous electrolytes having electrode stabilizing additives, stabilized electrodes, and electrochemical devices containing the same. Thus the present invention provides electrolytes containing an alkali metal salt, a polar aprotic solvent, and an electrode stabilizing additive. In some embodiments the additives include a substituted or unsubstituted cyclic or spirocyclic hydrocarbon containing at least one oxygen atom and at least one alkenyl or alkynyl group. When used in electrochemical devices with, e.g., lithium manganese oxide spinel electrodes or olivine or carbon-coated olivine electrodes, the new electrolytes provide batteries with improved calendar and cycle life.

Lithium-ion batteries utilize carbon anodes, lithiated transition metal oxide cathodes, and an organic-based solvent electrolyte with a dissolved conducting salt such as lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6). These batteries currently dominate the battery market in the area of cellular phones, cam-recorders, computers, and other electronic equipment. However, attempts to apply these battery technologies to electric and hybrid vehicles have met with limited success. Problematic areas include safety, calendar life, cost, and, in the case of hybrid vehicles, high rate capability for power assist and regenerative braking.
Lithium-manganese-oxide-spinel-based electrodes have drawn enormous attention as a cathode material, since manganese (Mn) is less expensive than cobalt (Co) and nickel (Ni), which are currently used in commercial Li-ion cells. Mn also has better power characteristics, is safer, and is environmentally benign when compared to Co and Ni. However, poor capacity retention (fading) of LiMn2O4 spinel has been a major drawback of this technology and has prevented its wide acceptance by in the industry. Moreover, the deterioration of its electrochemical performance, including capacity loss, impedance rise, and material instability is far more severe at higher temperatures (i.e. above 40-50° C.) that can easily be reached in portable electronic devices or hybrid electric vehicles. Although several factors have been reported to be responsible for the electrochemical degradation of the spinel based cells, it is generally attributed to the instability of manganese spinel. This degradation likely results from the formation and dissolution of manganese ions in the organic based electrolyte.
The dissolution of the manganese originates from the instability of the manganese (III) ions on the surface of the manganese spinel electrode during cycling in the LiPF6-based organic electrolyte that is used in nearly all commercial Li-ion batteries today. The manganese (III) instability results from a disproportionation reaction that occurs on the surface of the spinel electrode (2Mn3+(stable solid)→Mn4+(stable solid)+Mn2+(unstable solid, tending to be dissolved)). The Mn2+ ions that are formed, dissolve in the LiPF6-containing organic electrolyte. Thereafter, the dissolved manganese ions diffuse through the electrolyte to the graphite anode where they are likely reduced to manganese metal and deposited on the anode surface. This phenomenon results in a huge increase in the impedance of the anode and a loss of active lithium from the cell, as well as the degradation of the spinel cathode. The result is a cell with poor electrochemical performance and little or no power.
In addition, manganese dissolution has been attributed to acid attack, and occurs even with trace levels of HF, commonly present in LiPF6-based electrolytes. Together with the manganese ion diffusion problem as mentioned above, the presence of acid such as HF causes formation of a partially protonated λ-MnO2 phase. This phase is not totally electrochemically active, since the protons are bonded to octahedral oxygen sites of the cubic close-packed oxygen array of MnO6. This scenario suggests that with the manganese dissolution there is also the partial protonation of the λ-MnO2 that leads to the deterioration of manganese spinel cathode material.
As another alternative to Ni— and Co-based lithium ion cells, olivine based cathodes have garnered much attention. In particular, since its introduction by Padhi et al. [A. K. Padhi, K. S. Nanjundaswamy, J. B. Goodenough, J. Electrochem. Soc., 144 (4), 1188 (1997)], LiFePO4 olivine material has become one of the most studied cathodes for lithium-ion battery (LIB) applications. Unlike many cathodes, the electrochemistry of this material involves the Fe2+/Fe3+ redox couple, which occurs at a voltage of 3.45V, and has a theoretical capacity of 170 mAh/g. Discharged and charged positive active materials, LiFePO4 and FePO4, respectively, have the same structural arrangement, i.e. the same space group and close crystalline parameters, leading to very good system stability during the electrochemical cycling process. This stability is not altered by Fe3+ ion generation, in contrast to the highly oxidizing Ni4+ ions that are involved in the charging of LiMIIIO2 (M=Ni, Co) layered materials. In addition, the cutoff voltage of 3.45 V is low enough to prevent the acceleration of electrolyte aging but not so low as to sacrifice the energy density or electrochemical performance of the olivine. Moreover, LiFePO4 is an inexpensive material, non-toxic and environmentally benign. For these reasons, LiFePO4 has been considered as a potentially attractive cathode material for LIB.
However, LiFePO4 is an insulating material, which seriously limits its rate capability and thus its calendar life. Although extensive work has been conducted recently to enhance the electronic conductivity of the material, much room for improvement exists.
To prevent degradation of the cathode material, several approaches have been attempted, including cationic substitution of manganese or surface modification (coatings) of the spinel cathode or of graphite anode surfaces. See, e.g., C. Sigala, A. et al., J Electrochem. Soc., 148, A826 (2001).; I. J. Davidson, et al., J. Power Sources, 54, 205 (1995); M. Yoshio, et al., J. Power Sources, 101, 79 (2001); and A. M. Kannan and A. Manthiram, Electrochem. Solid State Lett., 5, A167 (2002). While these methods have shown some promise at room temperature, none have prevented significant electrochemical deterioration due to the manganese dissolution at elevated temperatures. See, e.g., A. Blyr, et al., J. Electrochem. Soc., 145, 194 (1998); and G. G. Amatucci, et al., J. Electrochem. Soc., 148, A171 (2001). Accordingly, there is a need in the art to develop electrolyte systems that protect the cathode surface from any unwanted reactions. Furthermore, there is a need in the art for batteries using such electrolyte systems.

Long life lithium batteries with stabilized electrodes


Data is collected relating to the availability of a computing resource such as data identifying a start event that indicates that the computing resource became available for use and data identifying a stop event that indicates that the computing resource became unavailable for use. The data relating to the availability of the computing resource is processed to determine the outage time for the computing resource during a period of time, such as a 24-hour period. The outage time is then utilized to calculate the level of availability for the computing resource during the period of time.

Information technology ("IT") professionals are increasingly being requested to demonstrate the level of availability of the computing resources they manage. For instance, an IT manager may be requested by company management to demonstrate the level of availability of the company's mail servers, file stores, world wide web ("WWW" or "web") servers, gateway servers, application programs, or other computing resources. The level of availability for a computing resource refers to the time during each day, or other period of time, that the computing resource is operating and available for use.
The importance of being able to demonstrate the level of availability for computing resources is becoming more important for a variety of reasons. For one, computing resources now more than ever are expected to be readily available to users. For this reason, IT managers are being asked with greater regularity to achieve availability of the computing resources they manage 99.999% of the time (this is referred to in the IT industry as achieving "five 9's"). Without accurate statistics regarding the level of availability being achieved, it is difficult for an IT manager to achieve five 9's.
Another reason IT managers are being asked to demonstrate the level of availability for the systems they manage stems from the increased popularity of electronic mail ("e-mail") and messaging service hosting providers. Service hosting providers own and manage the computing resources necessary to provide a computing service to users, such as e-mail, and charge users for the provision of the service. As the customers of hosting providers become more sophisticated, they are more commonly interested in having detailed information regarding the level of service they are receiving from their provider. This information may be used to set service level requirements in a service level agreement ("SLA") between the hosting provider and the customer, and to determine whether the specified service levels are actually being met. Additionally, some customers want to include financial penalties in the SLA for the provider's failure to achieve specified availability levels. Because it is currently difficult for service providers to generate the necessary system availability level metrics, the inclusion of these metrics in an SLA and the prospect of financial penalties for failing to meet the metrics are challenging propositions for both the hosting service provider and the customer. In many cases, decisions are being made in this regard based upon a perception of system availability level rather than on actual data.
In the past, system level availability metrics have generally been calculated manually using spreadsheet application programs, custom-built spreadsheets, and information from various non-standard sources. While calculating these metrics manually can provide some useful information regarding system availability, calculating availability metrics in this manner suffers from a number of potentially serious drawbacks. For instance, availability calculations are often custom created within each organization without a standard mechanism for deriving system level availability. As a result, it is frequently difficult to understand whether the calculations are correct, to understand exactly what the calculated results mean, and to meaningfully compare availability calculations generated within different organizations. Additionally, manually calculating availability metrics can be a time intensive task literally taking hours each month. This can be expensive and particularly frustrating for a time-strapped IT manager. Moreover, the manual calculation of the availability metrics is likely to generate incorrect results. Incorrect system availability level metrics can result in erroneous and inconsistent reporting, incorrect data for setting service levels, penalties for failing to meet the service levels specified in an SLA, resources being allocated to incorrect areas, and poor perception of system performance, among other problems.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that aspects of a computing system for determining the availability of a computing resource are described below.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Determining the level of availability of a computing resource


A method of producing at least one through-hole and countersink in at least one ultrahard insert including the steps of providing a body having a first major surface and an opposite second major surface; forming at least one pilot hole in said body using a laser, wherein said at least one pilot hole extends from said first major surface to the opposite second major surface of said body; cutting said pilot hole using a wire electrical discharge machine (WEDM) to produce a straight cylindrical portion and top conical portion; forming a countersink on at least one side of said body using an electrical discharge grinding machine (EDG); and severing said at least one ultrahard insert from said body forming a finished insert, wherein said finished insert includes a through-hole and a countersink.

In the evolving world of cutting tools, desirable cutting inserts include those tools in which the edges are superhard and processes such as brazing in the manufacture of the finished insert are eliminated. This requirement is partially fulfilled by fully solid inserts formed from a homogenous monolithic body of superhard materials. Normally, these inserts allow cutting edges on both the top and bottom surfaces of the insert, contributing to the economic benefit of their use. In other words, they tend to be used mostly in "negative" geometries where the side faces of the inserts are perpendicular to both the top and bottom of the insert.
However, in a number of scenarios, "positive" inserts are required, i.e. the side faces are not perpendicular to either the top or the bottom of the insert and cutting edges forming only acute include angles are usable. In such inserts, the acute angled cutting edges occur on the top of the insert adjoining the hard-layer. For the raw material of the cutting tool, it is more economical to use layered superhard grades. Here, only the top layer, typically 0.5-2.0 mm thick, comprises the superhard material. The remaining portion in the bottom is composed of tungsten carbide/cobalt composites. The superhard layer is integrally bonded to the carbide layer during the sintering process itself.
An important difference between the two layers, aside from the hardness, is that the carbide layer is more easily machined with electrical discharge processes. This raw-material design removes attendant redundancy of PCBN in the fully solid inserts.
In "positive" inserts, a clamping hole in the insert becomes necessary to locate the insert in the tool-holder or cartridge pocket opposing the cutting forces. Furthermore, the sides of such inserts are required to be ground to the required relief angles. The relief angles create the positive rake angles and the acute included angles at the cutting edge.
To achieve this, current practice uses a layered superhard tip brazed in a pocket ground in a carbide insert and is subsequently ground to final dimensions. The clamping hole in the carbide insert serves to locate the insert in a tool-holder or cartridge pocket. Therefore, the amount of superhard material to be ground is only of the order of the lateral dimensions of the tip and not of the insert dimensions itself.
This process design places severe restrictions. For example, more aggressive cutting conditions may demand a larger tip be brazed in the insert. However, the space available for the tip in the carbide insert itself may itself be small. Another likely scenario is that cutting temperatures in the tip are high enough to cause de-brazing of the tip, for example, in titanium machining.
A solution to these problems is an insert with an integral clamping hole. Such an insert also increases the number of usable edges from a single tip to tips at every corner on the top face. It also allows for more compactness. For example, in a milling cutter, the integral clamping hole allows more inserts to be stacked for a given diameter, because of the room gained by eliminating top-clamps. A greater number of inserts in the cutter would allow greater feed-rate of cutting and consequently greater productivity.
However, an insert with an integral clamping hole dictates that the amount of superhard material to be ground is of the order of the insert dimensions itself, likely resulting in higher grinding cost and time. Several steps are required to reduce this cost: 1) the raw insert presented to the tool-grinder is as close to the final desired shape and dimensions as feasible; and 2) the amount of grindstock on the insert is reduced down to the depth of subsurface damage caused by insert severing processes such as WEDM and laser. To achieve this, the manufacturing process to produce this raw insert is designed to eliminate all geometrical form errors.
The three key geometrical criteria are a) perpendicularity of the axis of the integral clamping hole to the insert top, b) concentricity of the through-hole to the inscribed circle of the insert and c) proximity of edge damage on the through-hole entrance. Criteria a) and b) are important to ensure that the amount of grindstock on each side of the insert is the same. Criterion c) is important to ensure that an adequate amount of superhard material is available for incorporating a suitable chamfer and/or hone to the cutting edge and the integrity of the insert itself. Both a) and b) may be eliminated if the operation of severance of the insert and finishing of the through-hole are performed in the same setup on the same WEDM machine. Criterion c) may be eliminated if the process of obtaining the profile of the hole involves only WEDM and not electrical discharge with an electrode.
If the severance of the raw insert from the polycrystalline body is performed such that the insert sides bear the relief angles of the final finished ground insert, significant savings in grinding cost and time are obtained, since part of the superhard material removed in the tool grinding process is removed by the WEDM without impacting the finished cutting tool in any way.
In other words, it is important to exploit the flexibility of the WEDM process fully, since it represents very minimal and localized damage to the superhard material compared to electrical discharge processes using an electrode. The ability to tilt the wire while cutting superhard material is a significant facility which until now has not been utilized in the manufacture of superhard inserts with integral clamping holes.
However, one difficulty is that when surfaces cut with the wire are such that the severed part is concave upwards, there is a tendency of the severed part to drop by gravity and produce an electrical short of the wire. The manufacturing process design has to take this important factor into account.
There is a need for simplicity and uniform costs, to keep the manufacturing process standard for all grades of PCBN and PCD. The one process where different grades differ greatly is electrical discharge grinding using an electrode, though slight differences are likely in the WEDM process also. This need is particularly amplified when the lot size of inserts to be manufactured is rather large and on a recurring basis, for example in standard ISO specified inserts, unlike a one-off case of specialized geometry. Elimination of electrical discharge with an electrode on the hard-layer is the single biggest step towards achieving this goal. Such a process design vastly simplifies the finished-tool manufacturing process and provides economy of scale when inserts are produced in large quantities.

Method of producing holes and countersinks in polycrystalline bodies


A one-way glass based on the persistence of vision of human eyes includes a double glazing or a single glazing. The double glazing includes a switchable glass with electrically controllable and adjustable light transmittance, and a luminous glass that is electronically controlled to emit light. The luminous glass is a transparent glass. The switchable glass and the luminous glass are controlled by pulse signals of a pulse controller. When the luminous glass emits light, the switchable glass does not transmit light. When the switchable glass transmits light, the luminous glass does not emit light. Dot-matrix LED light sources are uniformly provided on the single glazing. A side of the dot-matrix LED light source facing indoors is provided with a light-shielding layer. A transparent gap is formed between adjacent dot-matrix LED light sources.

With the improvement of the quality of life, people's requirements for privacy becomes greater. In the indoor space where people live, light is transmitted through windows. The windows, however, also expose the indoor space in full view of the outdoor space while allowing the light to transmit therethrough. Traditionally, people use curtains to block the light, open the curtains when requiring light transmission, and close the curtains when requiring more privacy. Advancements in science and technology enable people to directly control the glass and adjust its transparency or light transmittance.
As for glass with adjustable transparency, for example, Chinese Patent No. CN102385187A, titled Composite Electro-induced Liquid Crystal Atomized Glass and Manufacturing Method Thereof published on Dec. 11, 2013, discloses an electronically controlled atomized glass, the transparency of which can be adjusted through on-off control of power to switch between a clear state and an atomized state.
As for glass with adjustable light transmittance, for example, mobile phone screens and LCD screens as computer monitors that are frequently used in daily life, and electronic ink that is switchable between black and white colors, can be electronically controlled to adjust their light transmittance to switch between a light-transmitting state and a non-light-transmitting state.
However, the adjustment of the above-mentioned two kinds of adjustable glass is two-way, that is, both sides are visible when in a clear state but are invisible when in a blocked state.
In the prior art, there is also a way of using indoor light sources to achieve one-way visibility. For example, in International Patent No. WO2017/065693, published on Apr. 20, 2017, an LED light source is provided indoors, and a switchable window is a glass with switchable light transmittance. The LED light source and the switchable window can be powered on and off synchronously by using pulse signals. When the LED light source is on, the window is in a non-light-transmitting state. When the LED light source is off, the window is in a light-transmitting state, in which the outdoor view is visible from the indoors, while the indoor view is invisible from the outdoors because the indoors are dark, thereby achieving one-way visibility. In this solution, a good one-way visibility effect is achieved only when both the indoors and the outdoors are dark. If there are other light sources indoors, then the indoors are also visible to the outdoors when the switchable window is transparent. If it is daytime or there is a light source outdoors, the outdoor light irradiates into the indoors when the switchable window is transparent, so that the indoors has a certain brightness, making the indoors visible to the outdoors. Therefore, this solution has very limited application scenarios, as it achieves one-way visibility only when both sides of the switchable window are dark and illumination is performed only by the LED light source adjusted synchronously with the window.

One-way glass based on persistence of vision of human eyes


An image pickup unit includes: a plurality of pixels each including a photoelectric conversion device and a field-effect transistor; and a readout control line and a signal line that are disposed in a peripheral region of the photoelectric conversion device and are connected to the transistor. The readout control line includes a first wiring layer and a second wiring layer that are laminated and are electrically connected to each other. The first wiring layer is electrically connected to a gate electrode of the transistor, and the second wiring layer is provided in a same layer as the signal line.

The disclosure relates to an image pickup unit suitable for X-ray radiography, for example, and an image pickup display system using such an image pickup unit.
In recent years, an image pickup unit, which obtains an image based on a radiation ray as an electric signal without intervention of a radiographic film, has been developed for X-ray image-pickup units in medical applications, nondestructive inspection uses, etc. In such an image pickup unit, a photoelectric conversion device and a field effect thin-film transistor (TFT) are disposed for each pixel. Signal charge stored in the pixel is extracted using a pixel circuit including the transistor, and thereby an electric signal based on the amount of radiation is obtained.
As the photoelectric conversion device used for such an image pickup unit, a Positive Intrinsic Negative (PIN) photodiode, for example, may be used. The PIN photodiode has a structure in which a so-called i-type semiconductor layer (an intrinsic semiconductor layer) is interposed between a p-type semiconductor layer and an n-type semiconductor layer. This PIN photodiode is capable of extracting signal charge in an amount corresponding to a quantity of incident light (see, for instance, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 2008-277710 and 2011-14752).

Image pickup unit and image pickup display system


Radar systems are disclosed that include a signal generator, an antenna, a switching circuit, an I/Q sampling and signal-demodulation (demodulation) processor, and a FFT processor. The signal generator produces energization signals. The antenna has multiple individual antenna elements. The switching circuit is configured to deliver the energization signals to a selected antenna element at a respective moment in time to cause the selected antenna element to transmit a respective radar signal in response to the energization signal. At least one element receives a corresponding return-radar signal before the switching circuit selects a next antenna element to transmit a respective radar signal. The demodulation processor receives the return-radar signals from the antenna elements and demodulates the return-radar signals. The FFT processor fast-Fourier transforms the return-radar signals. The system can include a magnitude processor that determines, from the Fourier transforms, respective magnitudes of the return signals in at least one data plane. The system also can include an imager.

Radar is a system that uses radio waves to detect, to determine the direction and distance and/or speed of, and to map objects such as aircraft, ships, terrain, or atmospheric precipitation. In a conventional radar system, a transmitter emits radio waves toward a target. The waves reflected by the target back toward the transmitter are detected by a receiver. The receiver typically is in the same location as the transmitter. Although the returned radio signal is usually very weak, radio signals can easily be amplified. Consequently, radar can detect objects at ranges where other emissions, such as sound or visible light, would be too weak to detect. Radar is used in many contexts, including meteorological detection of precipitation, air-traffic control, police detection of speeding ground traffic, as well as various military applications.
The term "RADAR" was coined in 1941 as an acronym for Radio Detection and Ranging. This acronym, of American origin, replaced the previously used British abbreviation "RDF" (Radio Direction Finding). The term has since entered the English language as a generic word, "radar," that has lost its original capitalization.
One way in which to measure the distance to an object is to transmit a short pulse of radio signal, and to measure the time elapsed for the reflection to return. The distance is one-half the product of round-trip time (because the signal has to travel to the target and then back to the receiver) and the velocity of the signal. This concept was exploited in certain early radars. Since velocity of the signal is the velocity of light, the round-trip time is very short for terrestrial ranging.
Another form of distance-measuring radar is based on frequency modulation. Frequency comparison between two radio signals is considerably more accurate, even with older electronics, than timing the returned signal. By changing the frequency of the returned signal and comparing with the frequency of the transmitted signal, the difference is easily determined. An example is a chirp-radar system, in which the frequency of the transmitted signal is linearly increased during the period of transmission. The chirped signal provides increased signal bandwidth, which is directly proportional to range resolution, i.e., the ability of the system to discriminate between closely spaced targets in the range dimension. Greater bandwidth generally yields higher (better) range resolution.
An "antenna array" in the radar context comprises multiple individual active antennas (antenna "elements") coupled to a common source or load to produce a directed radiation pattern. Usually, the spatial relationship of the elements in the antenna array contributes to the directivity of the antenna array. The term "active antenna" pertains to an antenna having constituent antenna elements of which the respective energy outputs are modified. Modification of the energy output by an element is usually achieved by coupling the element to an energy source that is other than the mere signal energy passing through the circuit including the antenna element. Another way of achieving modification of the energy output by an element is by coupling the antenna element to a source of energy having an output that is controlled by the signal input. In a phased array of antenna elements, the relative amplitudes of, and constructive and destructive interference effects among, the signals radiated by the antenna elements determine the effective radiation pattern produced by the array. A phased array may be used to point (steer) a fixed radiation pattern, or to scan rapidly in azimuth or elevation.
Antenna arrays are used in several types of radars. One type is called Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, also known as an active phased-array radar. In an AESA radar system, the transmitter and receiver functions are performed by numerous small transmit/receive (T/R) modules that are connected to respective antenna elements and that energize the elements simultaneously. Since each element is energized by a respective RF source, the elements are "active." Another type is called Passive Electronically Scanned Array (PESA) radar, in which a microwave-feed network in the rear of the antenna is powered by a single radio-frequency (RF) source (magnetron, klystron, traveling-wave tube (TWT), or the like). The single RF source sends its waves simultaneously to multiple phase-shift modules that are coupled to respective antenna elements and that energize the elements simultaneously. The phase-shift modules are usually digitally controlled. Since the antenna elements do not receive their RF energy directly from respective modules, the elements are "passive."
AESA radar systems do not have or utilize a traditional RF source (in the common meaning of the term, including a magnetron, a klystron, a TWT, or the like). These traditional RF sources usually require extremely high operating voltages (reaching 50 kVa). Rather, individual AESA elements create electromagnetic waves using devices such as gallium-arsenide modules that operate at relatively low voltage (e.g., 40-60 volts). In addition, AESA radar systems tend to have simpler mechanical designs and tend to be more compact than other radar systems.
Unfortunately, however, both AESA and PESA antenna arrays require the use of electronic phase shifters, one for each antenna element. This poses the requirement for many electronic units that should remain in a functional state during operation of the radar. Whereas having a large number of independently driven antenna elements provides some accommodation for failures of individual phase shifters and/or antenna elements, the large amount of electronics inevitably increases the probability of failure somewhere.
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a type of radar system in which sophisticated post-processing of radar data is used to produce a very narrow effective beam. SAR can only be used by moving the radar system over a relatively immobile target. Nevertheless, SAR has seen wide applications in remote sensing and mapping. In a typical SAR application, a single radar antenna is attached to the side of an aircraft or the like. A single pulse from the antenna array is rather broad (several degrees) because diffraction requires a large antenna to produce a narrow beam. The pulse also is broad in the vertical direction; often the pulse will illuminate the terrain from directly beneath the aircraft out to the horizon. If the terrain is approximately flat, the respective times at which echoes return allow points at different distances from the flight track to be distinguished from one another. Distinguishing points along the track of the aircraft is difficult using a small antenna array. However, if the amplitude and phase of the signal returning from a given piece of ground are recorded, and if the aircraft emits a series of pulses as it travels, then the results from these pulses can be combined. Effectively, the series of observations can be combined just as if they had all been made simultaneously from a very large, one-dimensional, linear-array antenna; this process creates a synthetic aperture that is much larger than the length of the physical antenna array (and in fact much longer than the aircraft itself).
In SAR, combining a series of radar observations requires significant computational resources. Computations are normally performed at a ground station, after the observations are complete, using Fourier transform techniques. The result is a two-dimensional, reflectivity image of range versus cross range.
A variation of SAR is Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR), which exploits motion of the target (rather than of the radar) to synthesize a large-aperture antenna. ISAR is also used for generating two-dimensional high-resolution images of targets. In situations in which other radars display only a single unidentifiable bright moving pixel of an image, an ISAR image can often discriminate between various missiles, military aircraft, and civilian aircraft. One can generate a high-resolution image of a stationary object by moving an SAR around the object. Alternatively, one can generate the same image using a stationary radar and rotating the object. If the target rotates by a small amount, the rotation has the same effect as if the radar had traveled a distance equal to the arc length at the range R. ISAR can be used for identifying the reflectivity centers of a target with high spatial resolution. A fine two-dimensional reflectivity map of the target is generated using a large-bandwidth transmitted signal to achieve high range resolution and coherently processing the echoes received from different aspect angles of the target. ISAR images of a target region also can be useful for locating scattering regions on the target. ISAR images of a rotating target are produced by processing the resultant doppler histories of the scattering centers on the target. If the target rotates in azimuth at a constant rate through a small angle, scatters will approach or recede from the radar at a rate depending only on the cross-range position (the distance normal to the radar line of sight with the origin at the target axis of rotation). The target rotation will result in the generation of cross-range-dependent doppler frequencies that can be sorted by a one-dimensional Fourier transform. This operation is equivalent to the generation of a large synthetic-aperture antenna formed by the coherent summation of the receiver outputs for varying target/antenna geometries.
3D radar provides radar coverage in three dimensions. Whereas 2D radar provides range and azimuth data, 3D radar provides data concerning range, azimuth, and elevation. Applications include weather forecasting, defense, and surveillance.
While the various conventional radar systems summarized above have numerous advantages, including those noted, their advantageous status is not universal. For example, phased-array radar systems are expensive and complex from both an electronics and signal-processing point of view. With respect to electronics, the need to provide respective phase shifters and control electronics for each element contributes substantially to cost and complexity. With respect to signal processing, during beam steering all the antenna elements in the array are excited simultaneously in the transmit mode. Meanwhile, the phase shifters are continuously energized in a controlled manner to adjust the respective phase of the signal produced by each antenna element. Synthetic aperture radars are limited by, inter alia, having to be mounted on an object (typically an airplane) moving in a controlled manner relative to the target. Also, synthetic aperture radars are not capable of forming three-dimensional images or data.

Multi-dimensional real-array radar antennas and systems steered and focused using fast fourier transforms

Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education on Behalf of the University of Nevada, Reno


An IC card processing apparatus has a data reading/writing unit which accepts an IC card and electrically connects the IC card with terminal equipment. Data is exchanged with the IC card and/or the data reading/writing unit. To shorten the time for processing data of the IC card processing apparatus, the terminal equipment directly exchanges data with the IC card. To achieve this, the data line of the terminal equipment is connected to the data line of the IC card. Before using the IC card for transactions, the data reading/writing unit feeds a personal identification number (PIN) to the IC card for identifying the PIN information. To prevent the PIN information from being delivered to the terminal equipment, a switch is provided between the data line of the terminal equipment and the data line of the IC card. While identification of the PIN information is underway, the switch remains totally open, preventing reception of the code by an unauthorized party.

The present invention relates to an IC card processing apparatus which includes a data reading/writing unit for exchanging data with an IC card and terminal equipment for exchanging data with a data reading/writing unit.
A conventional IC card processing apparatus processes data by allowing the terminal equipment to transmit data to the data reading/writing unit before allowing the data 10 reading/writing unit to eventually identify the contents of the IC card. If the data reading/writing unit receives command data to control an operation of the data reading/writing unit itself, it executes operations corresponding to the content of the command data, and then transmits the result of the process to the terminal equipment as response data. On the other hand, if the data reading/writing unit receives data other than a control or command signal from the terminal equipment, the data reading/writing unit transmits the received data to the IC card. The IC card executes processes corresponding to the content of the command data and transmits the processed result to the data reading/writing unit as the response data. The data reading/writing unit transmits received response data to the terminal equipment. A typical example of an IC card processing apparatus incorporating the above structure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,672,182 to Hirokawa.
When operating such an IC card processing apparatus, the data reading/writing unit relays data between the terminal equipment and the IC card. To achieve this objective, it is essential for the system to execute communication between the terminal equipment and the data reading/writing unit and also between the data reading/writing unit and the IC card. This requires the system to spend a significant amount of time executing the entire data processing operation.
Recently, another system for processing IC cards has been under development by the assignee of this invention. This system would allow the terminal apparatus to directly exchange the data with the IC card. To achieve this, data lines of both the terminal equipment and the data reading/writing unit are directly connected to the data line of the IC card.
All of these systems, however, and specifically the latter, have another problem. Specifically, a personal identification number (PIN) is delivered to the IC card via the keyboard of the data reading/writing unit without being delivered to the terminal equipment. The security of the system is maintained based the PIN information never being delivered to the terminal equipment. However, the PIN information may potentially flow into the terminal equipment because data lines of the terminal equipment and the IC card are directly connected to each other. This reduces the security of the system.


There is provided a color scheme changing apparatus capable of changing a color scheme on a screen immediately depending on the situation so that each piece of information that makes up the screen will always stand out within the entire screen according to the degree of importance thereof. A color scheme changing apparatus 1 includes: an input unit which accepts the designation of an evaluation target screen from a user; a color scheme information acquiring unit 11 which acquires object identification information and color scheme information; an attractiveness calculation unit 12 which performs attractiveness calculation processing, an importance storage unit 13 which stores importance information; a color scheme appropriateness determining unit 14 which determines whether the order of the importance information associated with the objects matches the order of degrees of attractiveness associated with the objects; an improvement plan creating unit 15 in which, if not match, color scheme information in which at least one of used colors is changed is output to the attractiveness calculation unit 12, or if match, improved color scheme information including the previously determined objects is output; a screen drawing unit 16; and an output unit 19.

If a display is so provided that information highly important to a user is made conspicuous among various pieces of information on a screen, the screen can be a user-friendly screen. Elements that affect the conspicuousness of information include color as well as size and layout. In general, a designer determines the color scheme of a screen to coordinate colors in such a manner that each piece of information that makes up a screen will be conspicuous at an appropriate level within the entire screen depending on the degree of importance of each piece of information.
However, the kinds of information and the number of pieces of information to be displayed on the screen vary from situation to situation. For example, in the case of a screen in a monitoring service system, the number of pieces of alert or warning information to be displayed on the screen increases in the event of an abnormal situation compared with the normal situation. In this case, the proportion of the area of a color assigned to the alert or warning information on the screen increases. Thus, if the kinds of information or the number of pieces of information to be displayed on the screen vary, the balance of conspicuousness of respective colors on the entire screen may break down. For example, suppose that the system designer assigns, to alert information, red color that stands out alone on the screen in the monitoring system mentioned above on the assumption that the alert information is highly importance to users. However, for example, if many pieces of alert information are displayed on the screen in the event of an abnormal situation, the proportion of red on the screen will become high, reducing the conspicuousness of red in terms of the entire screen.
The color scheme determined when the screen is designed cannot be changed in most cases after the product is completed. Although there is a case where a user may be allowed to customize the screen even after the product is completed, the user is required to carry out change operations point by point. Further, when a user with no knowledge of the color scheme and the screen design customizes the screen, the screen may not have an appropriate color scheme according to the degree of importance on the screen. Therefore, it is desired that the color scheme can be changed immediately in response to a change in situation on the screen so that information that makes up the screen always stands out according to the degree of importance to the user.
Described in Non Patent Literature (NPL) 1 is a technique for evaluating a method of setting a color and area of each piece of information when plural pieces of information different in priority are displayed on a screen. This technique can evaluate, as a so-called "visualization achievement" value, display appropriateness as the entire screen in consideration of the attention-getting degree and priority of each piece of information on the screen.
A technique described in Non Patent Literature (NPL) 2 is able to calculate the conspicuousness of each color used within a screen in an attractiveness evaluation model in which a characteristic attractiveness as the conspicuousness of a color alone and a heterogeneous attractiveness as the conspicuousness of a color compared with the other colors are considered together. This technique can calculate the conspicuousness of respective colors in consideration of the balance of the entire screen.
Described in Patent Literature (PTL) 1 is a technique for controlling the way of making a region conspicuous by giving a difference in color or hatching density according to the area or importance of the region in a document. The saturation or shading of a color as an element used to determine the conspicuousness of the color alone can be changed according to the area or importance of the region, enabling easy coloring.

Color scheme changing apparatus, color scheme changing method, and color scheme changing program


Systems and methods that include a metallic panel having an upper surface for contacting an animal and a lower surface, at least one metallic cooling element thermally contacting the lower surface of the metallic panel and having an internal passage therein, and a coolant supply that flows a coolant through the internal passage of the cooling element. Flow of the coolant through the cooling element reduces the temperature of the upper surface of the metallic panel and thereby reduces the body temperature of the animal when the animal is in contact with the metallic panel.

The present invention generally relates to systems and methods for cooling animals to promote well-being and reproductive performance. The invention particularly relates to a system comprising a cooling pad configured to actively cool an animal relative to the ambient environmental temperatures to which the animal is exposed.
Modern hog farrowing operations have reached a state in which the ambient environmental conditions preferred for piglets are usually significantly different from that preferred for the sow. Selection for increased litter size and lean growth has led to the selection of piglets with decreased birth weights and less body energy reserves at birth. In order to promote survival rates of the piglets, ambient environmental (room) temperatures greater than 25° C. and a floor lying area temperature of about 37° C. provided by heat pads or heat lamps is currently recommended for farrowing barns. Therefore, in most swine producing areas, the farrowing rooms are maintained at about 25° C. for about nine months of the year, and the barns are often still warmer during summer months.
However, sows have an increased susceptibility to heat stress, if the ambient temperature in the farrowing room rises above 25° C. Recently, greater than 60% of sow farm operations in the U.S.A. reported a decline in fertility during the warmest summer months of July and August. Moreover, daily feed intakes, milk production levels, and subsequent reproductive performance of sows are negatively impacted as a result of maintaining farrowing room temperatures of 25° C. to promote piglet survival. This issue has been worsened by increases in litter size and milk production which have increased the heat production of lactating sows by 55% to 70% and reduced their upper critical temperature to approximately 18° C.
If the anticipated ambient environmental temperatures continue to be increased, it will become increasingly more important for lactating sows to be provided with some form of active cooling to maintain their productivity and welfare. Attempts have been made to provide cooling systems embedded within the floors of sow farrowing crates to reduce the impact of heat stress on sows and improve sow productivity and reproductive performance by local removal of excess heat from the animals. However, such known attempts to date have been limited by inefficient heat transfer from the sow and do not allow for changes in the amount of cooling relative to the sow's heat production or surrounding environmental conditions.
In view of the above, it can be appreciated that there is an ongoing desire for systems and methods suitable for cooling an animal that are capable of promoting efficient heat transfer from the animal and adjusting the amount of cooling relative to the animal's heat production and environmental conditions.

Systems and methods for cooling an animal