A semiconductor device is provided, the semiconductor device comprising a substrate and a first semiconductor fin and a second semiconductor fin disposed over the substrate. The first and second semiconductor fins each having an upper portion and a width. Epitaxial structures are disposed over the upper portions of the first and second semiconductor fins. The upper portions of the first and second semiconductor fins and the epitaxial structures provide an active layer. A metal structure is positioned between the active layer and the substrate. The metal structure extends at least across the widths of the first and second semiconductor fins and a separation distance between the fins. A first isolation material separates the metal structure from the active layer. A second isolation material separates the metal structure from the substrate. A contact electrically connects the metal structure to the epitaxial structures.

When forming a device including a plurality of semiconductor devices, such as integrated circuits, standard logic cells may be used as a base unit for designing and manufacturing the integrated circuits. The standard logic cells may be used to form one or more functional circuits, therefore reducing design and manufacture costs.
During a typical operation, each standard logic cell requires power input (Vdd) and ground (Vss) connections. To power the various components, each standard logic cell is generally coupled to a power rail which is electrically connected to an active layer of the standard logic cell to provide the power (Vdd). In some instances, a plurality of power rails may be provided for each standard logic cell to provide the power (Vdd) and ground (Vss).
Since the power rails need to supply power to a number of standard logic cells, the power rails are often implemented with much larger sizes (e.g., larger width) compared to standard routing tracks or signal lines that are used within the cells. Typically, the size difference of the power rail compared to a normal routing line can be as large as three to four times, thus the power rails may utilize a substantial area within a cell. Hence, power rails may be fabricated in back-end of line (BEOL) metal layers. The large dimensions of the power rails lead to a reduction in the area that may be utilized for standard routing tracks or signal lines.
Hence, there is an urgent need to overcome the challenges mentioned above.

Semiconductor device with metal structure under an active layer


The present invention provides materials and methods for pest control. The subject invention provides pesticidal compositions that contain one or more compounds that interact with organic solute transporter/ligand-gated ion channel multifunction polypeptides in the pest. Upon exposure to a target pest, these compositions either compromise pest growth and/or cause the death of the pest. In a preferred embodiment, the compositions of the subject invention contain one or more amino acids and/or amino acid analogs. In a particularly preferred embodiment, the methods of the subject invention involve exposing a pest to a composition that comprises methionine or leucine, or an analog thereof.

A longstanding worldwide demand exists for new, effective, environmentally friendly, and safe means to control pests that damage agriculture or serve as disease vectors. Agriculture costs incurred by pests exceed billions of dollars annually in decreased crop yields, reduced crop quality, increased harvesting costs, pesticide application costs, and negative ecological impact. In addition to agriculture pests, many blood-feeding insects are vectors for pathogenic microorganisms that threaten human and animal health, or are annoying at the least. As in the case of agriculture pests, direct and intangible costs incurred by blood-feeding pests concern pesticide safety hazards to humans and animals, bioaccumulation and environmental incompatibility, and synthesis and application costs.
Almost all field crops, nursery and horticulture plants, and commercial farming areas are susceptible to attack by one or more pests. Particularly problematic are Coleopteran and Lepidopteran pests. An example of a Lepidopteran pest is the hornworm larva of Manduca sexta, and an example of a Coleopteran pest is the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata. Vegetable and cole crops, lentils, leafy vegetables, melons, peppers, potatoes and related tubers, tomatoes, cucumbers and related vine crops, as well as a variety of spices are sensitive to infestation by one or more pests including loopers, armyworms, moth larvae, budworms, webworms, earworms, leafeaters, borers, cloverworms, melonworms, leafrollers, various caterpillars, fruitworms, hornworms, and pinworms. Likewise, pasture and hay crops such as alfalfa, pasture and forage grasses and silage are often attacked by a variety of pests including armyworms, alfalfa caterpillars, European skipper, a variety of loopers and webworms, as well as yellowstriped armyworms.
Fruit (including citrus), nut, and vine crops are susceptible to attack by a variety of pests, including sphinx moth larvae, cutworms, skippers, fireworms, leafrollers, cankerworms, fruitworms, girdlers, webworms, leaffolders, skeletonizers, shuckworms, hornworms, loopers, orangeworms, tortrix, twig borers, casebearers, spanworms, budworms, budmoths, and a variety of caterpillars and armyworms.
Field crops are targets for infestation by insects including armyworm, asian and other corn borers, a variety of moth and caterpillar larvae, bollworms, loopers, rootworms, leaf perforators, cloverworms, headworms, cabbageworms, leafrollers, podworms, cutworms, budworms, hornworms, and the like. Pests also frequently feed upon bedding plants, flowers, ornamentals, vegetables, container stock, forests, fruit, ornamental, shrubs and other nursery stock. Even turf grasses are attacked by a variety of pests including armyworms and sod webworms.
For the past 50 years growers, health officials, and the public have depended on chemical pesticides for controlling a variety of pests. However, environmental experts, health officials, and the public have become concerned about the amount of residual chemicals found in food, ground water, and elsewhere in the environment. Regulatory agencies around the world are restricting and/or banning the uses of many synthetic pesticides, particularly those that are persistent in the environment and that enter the food chain. Stringent new restrictions on the use of pesticides and the elimination of some effective pesticides from the market place could limit economical and effective options for controlling costly pests. Some synthetic chemical pesticides can poison the soil and underlying aquifers, pollute surface waters as a result of runoff, and destroy non-target life forms. These synthetic chemical pest control agents have the further disadvantage of presenting public safety hazards when they are applied in areas where pets, farm animals, or children may come into contact with them. They can also pose health hazards to the people applying them, especially if the proper application techniques are not followed.
Because crops of commercial interest are often the targets of pests, environmentally sensitive methods for controlling or eradicating pest infestations are desirable in many instances. This is particularly true for farmers, nurserymen, growers, and commercial and residential areas which seek to control pest populations using environmentally friendly compositions.
The most widely used environmentally friendly pesticidal formulations developed in recent years have been microbial pesticides derived from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (xe2x80x9cB.t.xe2x80x9d). B. thuringiensis is a Gram-positive bacterium that produces proteins which are toxic to certain orders and species of pests. Many different strains of B. thuringiensis have been shown to produce insecticidal proteins. Compositions including B. thuringiensis strains which produce insecticidal proteins have been commercially-available and used as environmentally-acceptable insecticides because they are toxic to specific target pests, but are harmless to plants and other non-target organisms. The specificity of these toxins is often strain-specific, with certain toxins being active against a relatively narrow spectrum of pests. Indeed, many B.t. toxins have been identified that are active only against particular insect orders (e.g., dipterans, hymenopterans, coleopterans, etc.). This limitation prevents the use of a single B.t. endotoxin composition as a broad-range pesticide.
Crop pests are not the only targets for which an environmentally friendly and safe pesticide would be highly desirable. Many blood-feeding pests are known to prey on humans and animals, and many pests are vectors for pathogenic microorganisms that threaten human and animal health, including commercially important livestock, pets and other animals. The order Diptera contains a large number of blood-ingesting and disease-carrying pests, including, for example, mosquitoes, black flies, no-see-ums (punkies), horse flies, deer flies and tsetse flies. Various species of mosquitoes, for example, transmit diseases caused by viruses, and many are vectors for disease-causing nematodes and protozoa. Mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles transmit Plasmodium, the protozoan that causes malaria. The mosquito species Aedes aegypti transmits an arbovirus that causes yellow fever in humans. Other viruses transmitted by Aedes species include the causative agents of dengue fever, eastern and western encephalitis, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, St. Louis encephalitis, chikungunya, oroponehe and bunyarnidera The genus Culex, which includes the common house mosquito C. pipiens, is implicated in the transmission of various forms of encephalitis, filarial worms, and West Nile virus. Trypanasoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease, is transmitted by various species of blood ingesting Triatominae bugs. Tsetse flies (Glossina spp.) transmit African trypanosomal diseases of humans and cattle. Other diseases are transmitted by various blood-ingesting pest species.
Various pesticides have been employed in efforts to control or eradicate populations of disease-transmitting pests. For example, DDT, a chlorinated hydrocarbon, has been used in attempts to eradicate malaria-bearing mosquitoes throughout the world. Other examples of chlorinated hydrocarbons are BHC, lindane, chlorobenzilate, methoxychlor, and the cyclodienes (e.g., aldrin, dieldrin, chlordane, heptachlor, and endrin). The long-term stability of many of these pesticides and their tendency to bioaccumulate render them particularly dangerous to many non-target organisms.
In addition to environmental concerns, another major problem associated with conventional chemical control practices is the capability of many species to develop pesticide resistance. Resistance results from the selection of naturally occurring mutants possessing biochemical, physiological or behavioral factors that enable the pests to tolerate the pesticide when it is applied.
There is clearly a longstanding need in the art for pesticidal compounds that reduce or eliminate direct and/or indirect threats to human health posed by presently available pesticides, that are environmentally compatible and safe, are not toxic to non-pest organisms, and have a reduced tendency to bioaccumulate.
Approaches to pesticide development arc lacking that involve specifically disrupting key pest metabolic regulatory processes, notably membrane transporter or channel proteins as targets. The development of such methodologies could provide safer, environmentally friendly alternatives to conventional commercially used pesticides, and provide more economical means for suppressing or eradicating target pest populations. The formulation of pesticidal compositions that are non-toxic to animals and to humans would greatly enhance the present methods available for killing pests, and would provide alternative strategies for environmentally responsible pest management.
Membrane transporter proteins and ion channel proteins serve critical roles in maintaining organic solute and ionic metabolic, thermodynamic, and electrical events in all cells. In both eukaryotes and prokaryotes these proteins affect electrochemical gradients of a wide variety of metabolic molecules and electrolytes, including amino acids and related metabolites as well as H+, OHxe2x88x92, Na+, K+, Clxe2x88x92, and carbonate ions (Gerencser and Stevens, 1994, J. Exper. Biol. 196:59-75; Stevens, B. R. 2001. xe2x80x9cTheory and methods in nutrient membrane transport.xe2x80x9d In: Surgical Research. pp. 845-856. W. W. Souba and D. W. Wilmore, eds., Academic Press, San Diego). Molecular cloning studies have identified several subfamilies of organic solute transporters and ion channels (Griffith, J. K. and C. E. Sansom, 1998, In: The Transporter Facts Book, Academic Press, San Diego, pp. 500).
Organic solute transporters and ion channels are commonly defined by their substrate selectivity within polypeptide superfamilies. For cloned or native secondary active transporters, it is generally assumed that cell membranes utilize ion and organic molecule electrochemical gradients to aid in exchanging these solutes between the cell interior and extracellular environment (Gerencser, G. A. and B. R. Stevens, 1994, J. Exper. Biol. 196:59-75; Stevens, B. R. 1999, Digestion and Absorption of Protein. In: Biochemical and Physiological Aspects of Human Nutrition. pp. 107-123, M. H. Stipanuk, ed., W. B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia). In the xe2x80x98prototypicalxe2x80x99 transporter, organic solutes that can be moved across cell membranes by uniport, hetero- or homo-exchange, and/or uptake can be activated by ions, and/or thermodynamiclly cotransported with ions (Quick, M. and B. R. Stevens, 2001, J. Biol. Chem. 276(36):33413-33418; Griffith, J. K. and C. E. Sansom, 1998, In: The Transporter Facts Book, Academic Press, San Diego, pp. 500). Ion channels, on the other hand, are typically distinct from organic solute transporters, are selective in their conducting ion species, and may be gated by organic ligands (Hille, B, 2001, Ionic channels of excitable membranes, 3rd Edition, Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, Mass., pp. 814).
Manduca sexta is a major crop pest whose larval stage, commonly known as tobacco and tomato hornworms, rapidly attack and defoliate tobacco and tomato plants; the large fifth instar larvae are especially damaging. Other vegetable crops such as peppers, eggplant, and potatoes also can be affected. Tobacco and tomato hornworms rapidly grow and gain weight as they progress from the first instar stage (about 6.7 mm) through the fifth instar (about 81.3 mm) over a period of about 20 days. The sated larvae then drop to the soil to pupate, and eventually emerge as adult moths. The moths lay eggs, which develop into larvae, and the life cycle continues, thereby sustaining crop damage. Killing the larvae prevents immediate crop damage and prevents or reduces future damage by interrupting the life cycle.
The midgut region of M. sexta larvae displays compartments with the property of high concentrations of K+ as well as Na+ in an alkaline fluid (xcx9cpH 10), with trans-epithelial potentials xcx9c250 mV (Harvey et al., 1999, Am. Zool. 38:426-441; Harvey and Wieczorek, 1997, J. Exper. Biol. 200:203-216). Epithelial cells of this region transport a variety of nutrients, including nutrient amino acids and electrolytes, as demonstrated by in vitro isolated membrane vesicle uptake studies. In place of a Na+/K+-ATPase typically found in cells, this tissue instead possesses a proton translocating V-ATPase (Graf et al., 1992, FEBS Lett. 300:119-122; Merzendorfer et al., 1997, J. Exper. Biol. 200:225-235) which energizes the cell membranes for secretion and absorption of K+ and Na+ ions, and establishment of a large pH gradient. A K+-activated leucine-preferring transporter (KAAT1) has been identified from the hornworm midgut (Castagna et al., 1998, Proc Natl. Acad Sci. USA 95:5395-5400), and a GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid) transporter has been cloned from an M. sexta embryo cDNA library (Mbungu et al., 1995, Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 318:489-497).
CAATCH1 (Cation-Amino Acid Transporter/CHannel) is a recently cloned insect membrane protein initially cloned from Manduca sexta; CAATCH1 exhibiting a unique polypeptide and nucleotide sequence related to, but different from, mammalian Na+, Clxe2x88x92-coupled neurotransmitter transporters (Feldman et al., 2000, J. Biol. Chem. 275:24518-24526). Utilizing a unique PCR-based strategy, the gene encoding CAATCH1 was cloned (Feldman et al., 2000, supra) from a cDNA library in LambdaZap plasmids, obtained from the digestive midgut of Manduca sexta larvae.
The unanticipated and novel biochemical, physiological, and molecular properties of CAATCH1 indicated that it is a multi-function protein that mediates amino acid uptake in a manner that is thermodynamically uncoupled from ion electrochemical potentials, and furthermore that CAATCH1 simultaneously functions as an amino acid-modulated gated alkali cation channel (Quick, M., and B. R. Stevens, 2001, xe2x80x9cAmino acid transporter CAATCH1 is also an amino acid-gated cation channelxe2x80x9d. J. Biol. Chem 276: 33413-33418) serving at least Na+ and K+. Radiotracer and electrophysiology experiments with functional CAATCH1 polypeptide expressed from the full length CAATCH1 cDNA demonstrated direct amino acid ligand-protein interactions, and indicated that binding by different amino acid substrates differentially affects the conformational states of CAATCH1 (Quick, M. and B. R. Stevens, 2001, J. Biol. Chem. 276:33413-33418). Notably, L-methionine binding to CAATCH1 in situ in biomembranes in the presence of Na+ perturbs the charge-voltage relation with a high affinity binding constant, affecting transient currents due to CAATCH1-associated charge transfer across the membrane dielectric field. Furthermore, CAATCH1-associated voltage-dependent amino acid-elicited steady state inward cation currents are blocked by methionine, and indeed methionine reversed charge movements via CAATCH1 expressed in cell membranes, even though radiotracer methionine influx is catalyzed by CAATCH1 (Quick, M. and B. R. Stevens, 2001, J. Biol. Chem. 276:33413-33418). In insects, CAATCH1 likely plays a broader role than that of a xe2x80x98classicalxe2x80x99 transporter or channel; as a multifunction protein CAATCH1 is likely a key protein in electrolyte and organic solute homeostasis of certain insects (Feldman et al, 2000, J. Biol. Chem. 275(32):24518-24526)
Many pestsxe2x80x94including mosquitoes, Lepidopterans, and Coleopteransxe2x80x94possess an alkaline pH midgut, and share some similar physiological mechanisms that occur within this unusual milieu (Nation, J., 2001, In: Insect Physiology and Biochemistry, CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 496). Mosquito larvae possess such an alkaline midgut, and adjust free amino acid concentrations in their hemolymph and extracellular compartments in direct response to existence of foreign factors in the gut (e.g., B.t. xcex4-endotoxin) or the salinity of their habitat (Bounias, M. et al., 1989, J. Invertebr Pathol. 54:16-22). Notably, one standout free amino acid, L-proline, accumulates 4-fold during the normal course of Aedes aegypti larval development, and in Culex spp. L-proline accumulation can exceed 50-fold (up to 70 mM) when larvae are stimulated by Na+ in their feeding pools (Bounias, M. et al., 1989, supra; Patrick, M. L. and T. J. Bradley, 2000, J. Exp. Biol. 203:831-839; Chaput, R. L. and J. N. Liles, 1969, Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 62:742-747). This proline is likely utilized as an energy source and for osmoregulation (Patrick, M. L. and T. J. Bradley, 2000, J. Exp. Biol. 203:831-839; Bounias et al., 1989, J. Invertebr Pathol. 54:16-22). In contrast, free L-methionine has the distinction of virtually the lowest measurable concentration ( less than 0.001 mM) of any of the free amino acids in mosquito larvae. Virtually all methionine existing in the free amino acid state in larvae (Dadd, R. H., 1973, Ann Rev Entomol 18:381-420) is metabolically shunted and sequestered into so-called methionine-rich hexamerin proteins (Korochkina et al., 1997, Insect Biochem Mol Biol. 27:813-824) that are stored for post-larval developmental events. In its role as a nutrient transporter, the CAATCH1 protein has been shown to be primarily responsible for proline uptake (Feldman et al., 2000, J. Biol. Chem. 275(32):24518-24526), while in the presence of extremely low concentrations of methionine, CAATCH1 effectively shuts down ionic fluxes via its channel properties (Feldman et al., 2000, J. Biol. Chem. 275(32):24518-24526; Quick, M. and B. R. Stevens, 2001, J. Biol. Chem. 276(36):33413-33418).
Compared to conventional organic pesticides, the use of biodegradable small molecules, such as amino acids, as pesticides is highly desirable, owing to the safety of such compounds to humans, animals, and the environment.
The present invention provides materials and methods for pest control. In a preferred embodiment, the subject invention overcomes drawbacks inherent in the prior art by providing pesticidal compositions that contain one or more compounds that interact with organic solute transporter/ligand-gated ion channel multifunction polypeptides in the pest. Upon exposure, ingestion, or other means of absorption by a target pest, these compositions either compromise pest growth and/or cause the death of the pest. In a preferred embodiment, the compositions of the subject invention contain one or more amino acids and/or amino acid analogs.
In a preferred embodiment, the materials and methods of the subject invention achieve pest control by disrupting the function of a newly discovered class of multifunction solute transporter/ligand-gated ion channel proteins (the CAATCH1 class of proteins). The CAATCH1 protein of Manduca sexta (tomato hornworm) exemplifies this class of proteins. In accordance with the subject invention, CAATCH1 has been found to be a key protein in regulating electrolyte and organic solute fluxes, especially in those pests with midguts exhibiting an alkaline pH. The unanticipated biochemical, physiological, and molecular properties of CAATCH1 indicated that it is a multi-function protein that mediates amino acid uptake in a manner that is thermodynamically uncoupled to ion electrochemical potentials, and furthermore that CAATCH1 simultaneously functions as an amino acid-modulated gated alkali cation channel serving at least Na+ and K+. In accordance with the subject invention, effective pest control is achieved by disrupting the function of a CAATCH1 protein and/or related molecules.
As described herein, the function of the CAATCH1 proteins, and related proteins, can be disrupted in a number of ways to achieve the desired pest control. For example, in accordance with the subject invention, it has been found that small molecules, which interfere with these proteins, can be administered to a pest, or its situs, to achieve pest control. Specifically exemplified herein is the use of the amino acids methionine or leucine (and/or analogs thereof) to control pests. These compounds can be administered in a wide range of ways including the application of compositions comprising these individual amino acids (and/or their analogs, or bound to other molecules, for example by amide bonds), application of polypeptides which are made up of an abundance of these pesticidal amino acids, and providing a transgenic plant which expresses a pesticidal amount of the amino acids as either free amino acids, as salts of amino acids or their analogs, or bound to other molecules, or existing in polypeptides.
In a preferred embodiment, the methods of the subject invention involve delivering to or applying to a pest a composition that comprises methionine or leucine, or an analog thereof. Exemplary analogs include, but are not limited to, methionine esters, leucine esters, D-methionine, D-leucine, D-tert-leucine, L-tert-leucine, DL-methionine, DL-leucine, L-methioninol, L-leucininol, L- or D-methioninemethylsulfonaium chloride, small methionyl peptides, low molecular weight leucyl peptides, alphaketoisocaproic acid, and the like. Likewise, methyl or ethyl esters of such compounds are also contemplated to be useful, as are keto derivatives of such compounds. In a specific embodiment, insect pests are controlled by administering methionine to the insects. Alternatively, other amino acids such as histidine, glycine, threonine, or alanine can also be used. For all embodiments involving compounds with chiral centers, the L-, D-, DL-, or partially racemic forms are also contemplated to be useful. Alternatively, amino acid analogs that do not possess chiral centers are contemplated to be useful.
Additional target crops to be protected within the scope of the present invention comprise, e.g., the following species of plants:
Although it is believed that the administration of amino acids to achieve pest control according to the subject invention is effective as a result of the disruption of particular proteins as described herein, one aspect of the subject invention is simply the control of pests by administering amino acids or these analogs (regardless of the specific mechanism involved).
One aspect of this invention contemplates altering methionine levels in pests by manipulating biochemical pathways leading to methionine production in target pests. Such manipulations include, but are not limited to, precursors and cofactors of methionine metabolic biosynthesis pathways.
The subject invention provides various other alternative approaches to disrupting the function of the unique newly discovered class of multifunction transporter/channel proteins. These other approaches include, for example, the use of interfering RNA (RNAi), gene silencing techniques, and antisense polynucleotides. In a specific embodiment, the antisense molecules are complementary to contiguous nucleotide sequences of at least about 15 nucleotides from SEQ ID NO:1. These antisense constructs can be used to xe2x80x9cdown-regulatexe2x80x9d the expression of CAATCH1, and/or related proteins, in a particular cell. Alternatively, antisense constructs complementary to a contiguous nucleotide sequence from the CAATCH1 promoter sequence may also be used to regulate the activity of CAATCH1 and/or related proteins. Antisense constructs are well-known in the art and include the use of antisense mRNA to reduce the transcription or translation or otherwise impair the net production of the encoded polypeptide.
The subject invention also provides methods for identifying compounds which regulate, alter, or modulate the biochemical and/or physiological functional activity of a CAATCH1 polypeptide or polynucleotide (or related molecules). In one embodiment this method comprises exposing a cell that expresses a CAATCH1 polypeptide to at least one compound or signal whose ability to modulate the activity of the CAATCH1 polypeptide is sought to be determined, and thereafter monitoring the cell for a change that is a result of the modulation of activity of CAATCH1 or related polypeptide(s). Such an assay is particularly contemplated to be useful in the identification of agonists, antagonists and/or allosteric modulators of CAATCH1.
A further aspect of the invention provides methods for screening compounds (e.g., synthetic peptides, peptide analogs, peptidomimetics, small molecule inhibitors, etc.) which inhibit or reduce the binding of a CAATCH1 polypeptide. According to this embodiment, screening for chemical or biochemical entities may be performed e.g., by means of a cell-based assay, an in vitro assay for CAATCH1function and/or rational pesticidal formulation or amino acid transporter-active analogs, drugs, or compounds. Cell-based assays for screening can be designed e.g., by constructing cell lines in which the expression of a reporter protein, i.e. an easily assayable protein, is dependent on CAATCH1 activity. Such an assay enables the detection of compounds that directly antagonize CAATCH1, or compounds that inhibit other cellular functions required for the activity of CAATCH1. Compounds may also be identified which recognize or inhibit amino acid or other solute transport via the CAATCH1 polypeptide or modify ion flux through the CAATCH1 polypeptide. Example ions include, but are not limited to, N+, K+, H+, OHxe2x88x92, Clxe2x88x92, bicarbonate, and carbonate.
In another aspect, the present invention provides an antibody that is immunoreactive with a transporter/channel polypeptide of the invention. Reference to antibodies includes whole polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies, and parts thereof, either alone or conjugated with other moieties. The monoclonal antibodies of the present invention can be used in standard immunochemical procedures, such as immunoprecipitation, ELISA and Western blot methods. Also, immunoabsorbent protocols may be used in purifying native or recombinant peptide species or synthetic or natural variants thereof.
Advantageously, the amino acid-based targeted pesticides of the subject invention are environmentally safe due to target selectivity, low toxicity to humans and pets, and their biodegradation by environmentally friendly naturally occurring microorganisms. Also, the use of these pesticides is compatible with the use of natural enemies of pests (e.g., parasitoids and predators). In fact, L-methionine is an xe2x80x9cessential or indispensablexe2x80x9d amino acid in humans, meaning that L-methionine is not synthesized by the body but instead is a required nutrient in the diet needed to sustain human life (Fuller, M. F., 2000. xe2x80x9cProtein and amino acid requirementsxe2x80x9d, pp.287-304 In: Biochemical and Physiological Aspects of Human Nutrition, M. H. Stipanuk, ed. W. B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia). Since it is a naturally occurring substance, the use of this compound and related amino acids contribute to a sustainable, pesticide-free food supply, and preserve the environment by reducing the reliance on traditional pesticides.

Materials and methods for controlling pests

University of Florida Research Foundation, Inc.


An information processing device includes: a device main body including a cooling plate; and a heat generating unit including a heat generating element and a contact plate thermally coupled to the heat generating element, the heat generating unit being detachable from the device main body, wherein the cooling plate includes a heat transfer spring configured to come into contact with the contact plate, the heat transfer spring includes a spring portion configured to come into elastic contact with the contact plate, and a thermally conductive portion disposed between a surface of the spring portion on an opposite side from a contact surface of the spring portion that comes into contact with the contact plate, and the cooling plate.

As increases in performance, increases in functionality, and reductions in size of information processing devices such as servers and the like are promoted, the heat generation density of electronic parts such as central processing units (CPUs) or the like used in the information processing devices is increased.
A related technology is disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-266518 or Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 02-224265.

Information processing device and server


Methods, systems, and computer-readable storage media for ranking anomaly detection algorithms, including operations of receiving a set of unlabeled data from one or more sensors in a plurality of sensors of an internet of things, generating a plurality of data distributions corresponding to the set of unlabeled data by using a plurality of anomaly detection algorithms, and ranking the plurality of anomaly detection algorithms relative to the set of unlabeled data based on a distance between a first quantile and a second quantile of each of the plurality of data distributions.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of physical objects, or "things," embedded within electronics, software, sensors, and connectivity to enable and achieve greater value and service by exchanging data with the manufacturer, operator, and/or other connected devices or systems. The IoT provides application gateways for data aggregation and distribution that are located between application servers and numerous devices. Because the data amount in the IoT is very large and unlabeled, it can be difficult to determine data that is anomalous.

Comparing unsupervised algorithms for anomaly detection


An end mill having an insert blade utilizing polycrystalline diamond cutting edges along the insert lateral and end edges wherein side milling, surface milling and pocket milling may be achieved with extraordinary tool life.

Metal cutting tools such as turning tools, drills and saws have used carbide inserts to improve the life of the cutting edge, and with certain types turning, sawing and drilling operations cutting edges formed of polycrystalline diamond compositions have been used which provide even greater life than carbide tools. Examples of polycrystalline diamond cutting tools are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,605,343; 4,702,649 and 4,714,385.
While tools using polycrystalline diamond cutting edges have been used primarily with turning tools the advantages of this type of cutting edge have not previously been incorporated into an end mill.
It is an object of the invention to provide an end mill of such construction as to utilize the advantages of polycrystalline diamond cutting edges.
Another object of the invention is to provide an end mill having polycrystalline diamond cutting edges wherein the mill is readily usable with conventional milling machines, and may be employed by milling machine operators without requiring special skills or knowledge.
A further object of the invention is to provide an end mill having polycrystalline diamond cutting edges wherein the polycrystalline diamond edges are defined upon an insert which may be readily installed upon, or removed from, an end mill body for maintenance, sharpening, repair, and the like.
In the practice of the invention a substantially cylindrical end mill body having an end which is clamped within the machine tool spindle includes a recess defined in the other end region of the body. A flat pad surface is defined in the recess receiving a cutting insert having a sharp lateral cutting edge, and a sharp end cutting edge. A layer of polycrystalline diamond material is embedded into the insert defining the effective cutting edges thereof wherein the insert is capable of both side mill and end milling operations.
An obliquely disposed threaded hole is defined in the end mill body which receives a screw extending through a hole defined in the insert for attaching the insert upon the end mill body. The recess includes flat shoulders lying in planes specifically related to the geometry of the body engageable by insert edges wherein the insert will be accurately and firmly positioned with respect to the body.


The object of the invention are methods for producing composite particles, characterized in that α) one or more silicon compounds of the general formula: (RO)nSiR14-n (1), wherein R denotes an optionally substituted alkyl or aryl residue having 1 to 20 carbon atoms or a hydrogen atom, R1 denotes an optionally substituted hydrocarbon residue or a hydrogen atom, and n assumes a value of 1 to 4, or β) one or more condensation products of the silicon compounds of formula (1) are condensed in the presence of one or more soluble polymers in a solvent or a mixture of multiple solvents, wherein said soluble polymers are obtainable by radically initiated polymerization of a) one or more ethylenic unsaturated monomers having one or more further functional group selected from the group comprising carboxyl groups or the derivatives thereof, silane, sulfonic acid, sulfate, phosphate, phosphonate, isocyanate, amine, quaternized amine, hydrazine, epoxy, ether, hydroxyl, or CO groups, and b) one or more ethylenic unsaturated monomers selected from the group comprising vinyl esters of carboxylic acids having 1 to 15 C atoms, methacrylic acid esters or acrylic acid esters of carboxylic acids with branched or unbranched alcohols having 1 to 15 C atoms, olefins and dienes, vinyl aromatics and vinyl halides, and wherein condensation products thus formed of said silicon compounds α) or condensation products β) or the condensation products thereof are fixed on one or more soluble polymers.

Composite particles contain organic and inorganic domains, for example an organic polymer matrix and inorganic particles fixed thereto, and typically have a diameter of 4 to 5000 nm.
In common processes for producing composite particles, organic monomers are polymerized by means of emulsion polymerization in aqueous dispersions of inorganic particles, which anchors organic domains on the surface of the inorganic particles, as described, for example, in Dong-Ming Qi, J. of Applied Polym. Sci., 2006, Vol. 99, pages 3425 to 3432; Tsutomu Mizutani, J. of Applied Polym. Sci., 2006, Vol. 99, pages 659 to 669; Frank Bauer, Macromol. Mater. Eng., 2006291, pages 493 to 498, or in DE-A 10 2004 010 155, U.S. Pat. No. 3,544,500, U.S. Pat. No. 4,421,660 or WO-A 2006/072464.
However, the fixing of the organic and inorganic domains of the composite particles and the provision of stable composite particles present problems. This is because the inorganic particles or starting materials thereof and the organic monomers or the organic polymer matrices usually have different polarities and tend to separate from one another or agglomerate with one another.
If such an agglomeration occurs before or during the production of the composite particles, for example, the agglomerated inorganic particles are encapsulated by the organic polymer matrix in the course of polymerization of the organic monomers, such that there is no homogeneous fixing of inorganic particles on the organic polymer matrix, and hence there is ultimately no formation of chemically homogeneous composite particles formed from organic and inorganic domains. Corresponding mixtures are not in the form of colloidal primary particles in solvents. It may even be the case that the inorganic particles and the organic polymer matrix are present alongside one another as a blend.
However, there may also be agglomeration of the inorganic or organic domains in composite particles formed homogeneously from inorganic and organic domains, which lead to inadequate storage stability, especially of dissolved, emulsified or dispersed composite particles, and is manifested by gelation or spot formation. Especially at relatively high temperatures, for example from 40° C., such agglomeration occurs. Aqueous dispersions of particles formed exclusively from inorganic units, for example colloidal silica or organopolysiloxanes, likewise tend to agglomerate at relatively high temperatures, for example at 70° C., or even at room temperature.
Agglomerated composite particles no longer have the desired performance properties or are completely unusable. In order to provide, for example, stable aqueous dispersions of composite particles, typically emulsifiers, protective colloids or specific additives are added as stabilizers, for example the hydroxyl-containing alkylamino compounds recommended in DE-A 10 2004 010 155.

Method for producing composite particles


A time slot boundary of an unknown cell in a telecommunications system is identified by correlating a received signal with a known code over a range of delay values for each of one or more time slots, wherein the known code is used by all cells in the telecommunications system. Only for each of the delay values that are not associated with a known cell, correlation values obtained at each of the one or more time slots are accumulated. The time slot boundary is identified by determining which of the delay values is associated with a highest accumulated correlation value. One or more stored monitored delay sets may be used to determine which delay values are not associated with a known cell. The one or more stored monitored delay sets may be filtered using delay information obtained over a period of time.

The present invention relates to communication systems, and more particularly to the processing of multipath propagation delay information for use in mobile communication systems.
Modern telecommunications systems, such as cellular telecommunications systems, rely on digital technology for the representation and transmission of information, such as audio information. Any of a number of modulation techniques is used to impose the digital information onto a radio frequency signal, which is then transmitted from a sender's antenna, and which is received by a receiver's antenna. Ideally, the receiver would merely perform a reverse of the modulation process to recover the digital information from the received signal.
In practice, however, the transmitted signal is often distorted by the channel (i.e., the air interface) between the transmitter's antenna and the receiver's antenna. For example, a main ray of a transmitted signal may take a direct route between the transmitting and receiving antennas, but other rays may take indirect routes, such as reflecting off of various objects (e.g., buildings, mountains) in the environment prior to being received by the receiver's antenna. This effect is often called "multipath propagation" of the signal. These indirect paths can take longer for the signal to traverse than the direct path. Consequently, signals representing the same information emanating from the same source may arrive at the receiver at
different times. The various paths between the transmitter and the receiver subject the signal to varying amounts of attenuation, so they are not all received at the same signal strength. Nonetheless, they are typically received at sufficiently high power levels to cause an effect wherein, at any moment, a received signal includes a present signal (representing a present piece of desired information) plus one or more delayed components from previously transmitted signals (each representing an earlier piece of information). This type of signal distortion is often called Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI).
To counteract ISI, a receiver typically employs an equalizer, which demodulates the signal in a way that utilizes a model of the channel (also referred to as an "estimate" of the channel). The channel estimate is typically generated from another component in the receiver, called a channel estimator. A channel estimator relies on a received signal including a portion, often called a "training sequence", that contains a predefined sequence of 1's and 0's known to have been transmitted by the transmitter. By comparing an actually received training sequence portion of a signal with an expected training sequence, the channel estimator is able to construct a model of the channel that can be used by the equalizer when it attempts to demodulate a portion of the received signal that includes unknown information.
While one might consider ISI to be a detrimental affect of multipath propagation, the phenomenon of multipath propagation may itself be applied to the benefit of a communications system, such as to combat fading in a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system. CDMA is a channel access technique that allows signals to overlap in both time and frequency. CDMA is a type of spread spectrum communication technique, which has been around since the days of World War II. Early applications were predominantly military-oriented. However, today there has been an increasing interest in using spread spectrum systems in commercial applications because spread spectrum communications provide robustness against interference, and allow for multiple signals to occupy the same radio band at the same time. Examples of such commercial applications include digital cellular radio, land mobile radio, and indoor and outdoor personal communication networks.
In a CDMA system, each signal is transmitted using any of a number of spread spectrum techniques. In one such variation of CDMA, called "Direct Sequence CDMA" (DS-CDMA) (e.g., Wideband-CDMA—"WCDMA"), the informational data stream to be transmitted is impressed upon a much higher rate data stream known as a signature sequence. This permits the same broadband frequency channel to be re-used in every adjacent cell. Typically, the signature sequence data are binary, thereby providing a bit stream. One way to generate this signature sequence is with a pseudo-noise (PN) process that appears random, but can be replicated by an authorized receiver. The informational data stream and the high bit rate signature sequence stream are combined by multiplying the two bit streams together, assuming the binary values of the two bit streams are represented by +1 or −1. This combination of the higher bit rate signal with the lower bit rate data stream is called spreading the informational data stream signal. Each informational data stream or channel is allocated a unique signature sequence.
A plurality of spread information signals modulate a radio frequency carrier, for example by binary phase shift keying (BPSK), and are jointly received as a composite signal at the receiver. Each of the spread signals overlaps all of the other spread signals, as well as noise-related signals, in both frequency and time. If the receiver is authorized, then the composite signal is correlated with one of the unique signature sequences, and the corresponding information signal can be isolated and de-spread. If quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation is used, then the signature sequence may consist of complex numbers (having real and imaginary parts), where the real and imaginary parts are used to modulate respective ones of two carriers at the same frequency, but ninety degrees out of phase with respect to one another.
Traditionally, a signature sequence is used to represent one bit of information. Receiving the transmitted sequence or its complement indicates whether the information bit is a +1 or −1, sometimes denoted "0" or "1 ". The signature sequence usually comprises N bits, and each bit of the signature sequence is called a "chip". The entire N-chip sequence, or its complement, is referred to as a transmitted symbol. The conventional receiver, such as a RAKE receiver, correlates the received signal with the complex conjugate of the known signature sequence to produce a correlation value. Only the real part of the correlation value is computed. When a large positive correlation results, a "0" is detected; when a large negative correlation results, a "1" is detected.
In order to optimally detect the transmitted signal, the strongest rays of the multipath propagated signal must be combined in an appropriate way. This is usually done by the RAKE receiver, which is so named because it "rakes" different paths together. A RAKE receiver uses a form of diversity combining to collect the signal energy from the various received signal paths (or rays). The term "diversity" refers to the fact that a RAKE receiver uses redundant communication channels so that when some channels fade, communication is still possible over non-fading channels. A CDMA RAKE receiver combats fading by detecting the echo signals individually, and then adding them together coherently.
In order to collect the different rays, the RAKE receiver comprises a number of so-called "fingers", each configured to receive the information from a differently delayed version of the received signal. The receiver can use a searcher to determine those delays associated with the strongest signal energy. Briefly, a searcher operates by correlating differently delayed versions of a chip sequence known to be present in the received signal against the received signal. The delays associated with the highest correlation values are then stored as the "delay profile" of this channel. It is important that the RAKE receiver configure each of its fingers to use a corresponding one of the strongest taps (paths). If the receiver does not use the strongest taps, the receiver will ask for more power and thereby increase the interference experienced by the other receivers. The overall interference is minimized when each of the receivers uses the least amount of power possible. It will be apparent, then, that in a receiver such as a RAKE receiver, it is important for the delay profile to reflect, as much as possible, present conditions of the receiver. However, as the receiver moves from place to place, the delay profile will change in correspondence with the changed terrain over which the signal has propagated. Thus, it is desired to provide improved methods and apparatuses for maintaining an accurate delay profile.
The phenomenon of multipath propagation can also be advantageously applied in the mobile communication device's quest to identify new cells in its vicinity. When moving with a mobile communication device in a mobile communications system, the device constantly needs to look for new cells, with potentially better transmission conditions. This process is called the cell search. For example, in accordance with the present standard for WCDMA mobile telephone systems, the device keeps track of 21 cells simultaneously, of which 9 are intra-frequency cells and two other frequencies (inter-frequency) containing at most 6 cells each. As the device moves around, this list of monitored cells needs to be updated to reflect present conditions.
At a high level, the cell search can be viewed as a process whereby the device processes a received signal to determine its source. More particularly, the cell search comprises three phases, as illustrated in the flow diagram of FIG. 1. In the first phase (phase 1), the slot boundary (i.e., time slot boundary) is found; in the second phase (phase 2), the slot boundary is used to find the frame boundary; and in the third phase (phase 3), knowledge of the frame boundary enables the cell's scrambling code to be determined. The scrambling code identifies the cell.
Looking first at phase 1, the search to find the slot boundary is aided by the fact that all cells use the same primary synchronization code. Thus, to find the slot boundary, a known primary synchronization code is correlated against the received signal for a range of delay values that span the duration of a slot (e.g., in WCDMA, over at least 2560 chips) (step 101). This generates a correlation value for each tested delay.
The primary synchronization code appears once in each time slot contained in a transmitted frame. (In WCDMA, each frame includes 15 time slots). In order to improve performance (e.g., to mitigate the effects of a short fade in the signal), this correlation process is repeated for each of a number of successively received time slots. That is, if the duration of a time slot is Ts, then for each delay value Td, a correlation is performed at a position Tcorr(n)=Td+nTs, where n=0, . . . , Ntest—slots−1 and Ntest—slots is the number of slots to be tested. For example, in a WCDMA system, one might perform the at least 2560 test correlations for each of the 15 slots known to be present in a frame.
For each tested delay value, the resultant correlation values are then accumulated (step 102). The maximum accumulated value is then taken as the slot boundary for a cell (step 103).
Knowledge of the slot boundary does not, by itself, inform the device of what the frame boundary is, because as mentioned earlier, each frame includes more than one slot. Turning now to phase 2, the frame boundary may be found by using the just-determined slot boundary in conjunction with a set of known secondary synchronization codes. In systems such as WCDMA, each frame includes a secondary synchronization code positioned at a known location within the frame. While the particular secondary synchronization code for the cell being "searched" is not known to the device doing the testing, the set of predefined secondary synchronization codes is. Thus, the device may hypothesize that each of the, for example, 15 slot boundaries is the start of the frame, and for each of these hypothesized frame boundaries, determine where the secondary synchronization code should be. For each of the hypothesized secondary synchronization code locations, each of the secondary synchronization codes known to be in use in the communication system is correlated against the received signal. This generates, for each hypothesized secondary synchronization code location, a correlation value. The highest correlation value from among all of the performed correlations is taken as an indicator of the secondary synchronization code location (step 104). Since the secondary synchronization code location is defined to have a predefined offset from the frame boundary, the frame boundary may be easily determined. Knowledge of which hypothesized secondary synchronization code is associated with the highest correlation value also informs the device what the secondary synchronization code is for the cell being "searched".
Further in accordance with communication system standards such as those set forth for WCDMA, each secondary synchronization code is, itself, associated with a particular set of scrambling codes. The scrambling code is located once in each frame at a known offset from the frame boundary. Thus, in phase 3 of the cell search process, the scrambling code for the cell is found by correlating each of the scrambling codes associated with the known secondary synchronization code against the received signal at the known offset from the frame boundary. The highest correlating scrambling code is then taken to be the scrambling code for this "searched" cell (step 105).
As is readily apparent from the above, there is quite a bit of processing involved in discovering a cell. However, in this process there is nothing to prevent the slot boundary of an already known cell from being detected when it is necessary to identify multiple cells within the same carrier frequency (a common occurrence in CDMA systems). Thus, it is desired to provide cell search methods and apparatuses that avoid unnecessary processing steps.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide methods and apparatuses that address one or more of the above-described problems.

Filtering multipath propagation delay values for use in a mobile communications system


There is disclosed an elongate radiation source cartridge. The cartridge comprises: (i) an elongate radiation source assembly having a proximal portion and distal portion, the distal portion of the elongate radiation source assembly being unsupported, (ii) a housing coupled to the proximal portion of the elongate radiation source assembly, and (iii) a power supply disposed within the housing, the power supply in electrical communication with the elongate radiation source assembly (in certain embodiments the power supply is optional). The elongate radiation source assembly and the housing are in substantial alignment with respect to a longitudinal axis of the elongate radiation source cartridge.

1. Field of the Invention
In one of its aspects, the present invention relates to an elongate radiation source cartridge. In another of its aspects, the present invention relates to a radiation source module comprising the elongate radiation source cartridge.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Fluid treatment systems are known generally in the art.
For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,482,809, 4,872,980 and 5,006,244 (all in the name of Maarschalkerweerd and all assigned to the assignee of the present invention and hereinafter referred to as the Maarschalkerweerd #1 Patents) all describe gravity fed fluid treatment systems which employ ultraviolet (UV) radiation.
Such systems include an array of UV lamp modules (e.g., frames) which include several UV lamps each of which are mounted within sleeves which extend between and are supported by a pair of legs which are attached to a cross-piece. The so-supported sleeves (containing the UV lamps) are immersed into a fluid to be treated which is then irradiated as required. The amount of radiation to which the fluid is exposed is determined by the proximity of the fluid to the lamps, the output wattage of the lamps and the flow rate of the fluid past the lamps. Typically, one or more UV sensors may be employed to monitor the UV output of the lamps and the fluid level is typically controlled, to some extent, downstream of the treatment device by means of level gates or the like.
The radiation source typically used in these systems is known as a low pressure ultraviolet radiation lamp. More recently, some of the systems have employed the so-called low pressure, high output (LPHO) ultraviolet radiation lamps and/or amalgam lamps. Both of these types of lamps are relatively long (48 inches or more).
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,418,370, 5,539,210 and 5,590,390 (all in the name of Maarschalkerweerd and all assigned to the assignee of the present invention and hereinafter referred to as the Maarschalkerweerd #2 Patents) all describe an improved radiation source module for use in gravity fed fluid treatment systems which employ UV radiation. Generally, the improved radiation source module comprises a radiation source assembly (typically comprising a radiation source and a protective (e.g., quartz sleeve) sealingly cantilevered from a support member. The support member may further comprise appropriate means to secure the radiation source module in the gravity fed fluid treatment system.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,507,028 [Sarchese et al. (Sarchese)] teaches a radiation source module having a power supply that is adapted to be at least partially immersed in fluid being treated by the radiation source module.
United States patent publication 2007/0284315 [Collins et al. (Collins)] teaches a water disinfection apparatus in which elongate radiation sources are supported at both ends. One end of the water disinfection apparatus includes a power supply for the apparatus.
Notwithstanding the above advances in the art, there is still room for improvement.
Conventional radiation treatment systems feature a number of lamps that must be oriented in the fixed array (e.g., using one or more modules). In order to service the array, it is common that the array needs to be turned off and removed, compromising efficiency and/or disinfection. In addition, removal of the array normally requires a lifting device (e.g., a crane) due to the weight of the array. Conventional disinfection systems comprise a number of such arrays that are secured with respect to an effluent channel (e.g., an open channel comprising a flow of fluid). In this way, it is possible to increase the capacity of the system in a step-wise manner by increasing the number of lamps in the array or arrays in the channel.
Conventional fluid treatment systems also employ relatively low power density lamps of long length to reduce the overall number of lamps required in the fluid treatment system—see, for example, the Maarschalkerweerd #1 Patents. The use of such long lamps necessitated that they be fixed at both ends to reduce the effluent flow-induced stresses to acceptable levels.
Conventional radiation source modules contain multiple lamps that are coupled to the frame, optionally including a power supply for the radiation sources in the module. Thus, when it is desired to service a single lamp in the module, it is necessary to remove the entire module from service, replace (or otherwise service) the radiation source of interest and return the module to service. This necessitates that there be redundancy in the fluid treatment system so that acceptable levels of disinfection can be attained even when one or more radiation source modules are removed from the fluid flow for servicing.
In addition, servicing of conventional radiation source modules requires that qualified personnel in the field be available to carefully remove the radiation source module from service and to disconnect the appropriate electrical connections and reconnect them after the module has been serviced. In many cases, when more than a single lamp in a given module is being serviced, there is likelihood that incorrect electrical connections will be made thereby potentially compromising the operability of the module.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a radiation source cartridge which contains the radiation source and electrical components needed to operate the radiation source so that servicing thereof is facilitated. It would also be desirable if such a radiation source cartridge was capable of being coupled to the fluid treatment system in a unique manner so that there was a unique orientation of the radiation source with respect to other radiation sources in the fluid treatment system.

Radiation source cartridge and module containing same


A load controller includes a casing; a busbar module, the busbar module including a DC busbar and an AC busbar connected to a load; a capacitor connected to an external DC power supply, the capacitor being connected to the DC busbar; an IGBT power module, an input end of each IGBT being connected to the DC busbar, and an output end of each IGBT being connected to the AC busbar; a heat-dissipating module, the heat-dissipating module including multiple heat-dissipating fins, each IGBT in a same column of IGBTs being sandwiched between adjacent two heat-dissipating fins; a driving circuit board, the driving circuit board being electrically connected to each IGBT; and a control circuit board, the control circuit board being connected to the driving circuit board, where all of the busbar module, the IGBT power module, the heat-dissipating module, the driving circuit board and the control circuit board are disposed on the casing.

In the related art, in a load controller of an electric vehicle, a cooler and a power module (for example, an IGBT power module) are in single-sided contact with each other for cooling, and the cooling efficiency is low. Moreover, in a casing of the load controller, a busbar, the power module and the cooler are unreasonable in layout, large in space occupation and small in size, and there is room for improvement.

Load controller and electric vehicle having load controller


Apparatus and method for adjusting at a user equipment a power level of a first signal type transmitted over a set of resource elements (REs). The method includes transmitting the first signal type with a first power level over a first set of REs, and transmitting the first signal type with a second power level over a second set of REs, wherein the second power level is higher than the first power level and the second set of REs is a sub-set of the first set of REs.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed, in general, to wireless communication systems and, more specifically, to the adaptation of transmission power adjustments in Single-Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) communication systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
The invention considers transmission power adjustments in SC-FDMA communication systems and is further considered in the development of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) Long Term Evolution (LTE). The invention assumes the UpLink (UL) communication corresponding to the signal transmission from mobile User Equipments (UEs) to a serving base station (Node B). A UE, also commonly referred to as a terminal or a mobile station, may be fixed or mobile and may be a wireless device, a cellular phone, a personal computer device, a wireless modem card, etc. A Node B is generally a fixed station and may also be called a base transceiver system (BTS), an access point, or some other terminology.
The UL physical channel carrying the transmission of data information signals from UEs is referred to as the Physical Uplink Shared CHannel (PUSCH). In addition to data information signals, the PUSCH carries the transmission of Reference Signals (RS), also known as pilot signals. The PUSCH may also carry the transmission of Uplink Control Information (UCI) signals. The UCI signals may include any combination of positive or negative acknowledgement signals (ACK or NAK, respectively), Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) signals, Precoding Matrix Indicator (PMI) signals, and Rank Indicator (RI) signals. In the absence of data information signals, UCI signal transmission is through the Physical Uplink Control CHannel (PUCCH).
The ACK or NAK signal is associated with the use of Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) and is in response to the respective correct or incorrect data packet reception in the DownLink (DL) of the communication system corresponding to signal transmission from the serving Node B to a UE. The CQI signal from a UE is intended to inform the serving Node B of the channel conditions the UE experiences for signal reception in the DL, enabling the Node B to perform channel-dependent scheduling of DL data packets. The PMI/RI signals from a UE are intended to inform the serving Node B how to combine the transmission of a signal to the UE from multiple Node B antennas in accordance with the Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) principle. Any one of the possible combinations of ACK/NAK, CQI, PMI, and RI signals may be transmitted by a UE in the same Transmission Time Interval (TTI) with data signal transmission or in a separate TTI without data transmission.
UEs are assumed to transmit UCI and/or data signals in the PUSCH over a TTI corresponding to a sub-frame.
FIG. 1 illustrates the sub-frame structure assumed in the exemplary embodiment of the invention. The sub-frame 110 includes two slots. Each slot 120 further includes NsymbUL=7 transmission symbols, for example, and each transmission symbol 130 further includes a cyclic prefix (CP) for mitigating interference due to channel propagation effects. The PUSCH transmission in the two slots may be in the same part or it may be at two different parts of the operating BandWidth (BW). RS are transmitted in the middle transmission symbol of each slot 140 and in the same BW as the data signal. The RS are primarily used to provide channel estimation enabling coherent demodulation of the UCI or data signal (DM RS). The PUSCH transmission BW includes frequency resource units, which may be referred to as Resource Blocks (RBs). In an exemplary embodiment, each RB includes NscRB=12 Resource Elements (REs), or sub-carriers, and a UE is allocated MPUSCH consecutive RBs 150 for its PUSCH transmission.
In order for a Node B to determine the RBs where to schedule PUSCH transmissions and the associated Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), a CQI estimate, such as a Signal-to-Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR) estimate, is needed over the UL scheduling BW. Typically, this UL CQI estimate is obtained through the separate transmission of an RS sounding the UL scheduling BW (Sounding RS, or SRS). The SRS is transmitted from a UE in a transmission symbol 160 of some UL sub-frames, over MSRS consecutive RBs 170, replacing the transmission of data or control information from the same or from a different UE. The SRS may be transmitted from UEs not having PUSCH transmission in the reference sub-frame and its transmission power is independent of the PUSCH transmission power.
An exemplary block diagram of the transmitter functions for SC-FDMA signaling is illustrated in FIG. 2. Coded CQI bits and/or PMI bits 205 and coded data bits 210 are multiplexed 220 through rate matching. If ACK/NAK bits are also multiplexed, coded data bits are punctured to accommodate ACK/NAK bits 230. The Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) of the combined data bits and UCI bits is then obtained 240, the sub-carriers 250 for the assigned transmission BW are selected 255, the Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) is performed 260, the CP 270 is inserted, and the selection 280 of the power amplification level 285 is applied to the transmitted signal 290. For brevity, additional transmitter circuitry, such as digital-to-analog converter, analog filters, and transmitter antennas are not shown. Also, the encoding process for data bits and CQI and/or PMI bits, as well as the modulation process, are omitted for brevity.
At the receiver, the reverse (complementary) transmitter operations are performed. This is conceptually illustrated in FIG. 3 where the reverse operations of those illustrated in FIG. 2 are performed. After an antenna receives the radio-frequency (RF) analog signal and after further processing units (such as filters, amplifiers, frequency down-converters, and analog-to-digital converters), which are not shown for brevity, the digital received signal 310 has its CP removed 320. Subsequently, the receiver unit applies an FFT 330, selects 345 the sub-carriers 340 used by the transmitter, applies an Inverse DFT (IDFT) 350, extracts the ACK/NAK bits and places respective erasures for the data bits 360, and de-multiplexes 370 the data bits 380 and CQI/PMI bits 390. As for the transmitter, well known receiver functionalities such as channel estimation, demodulation, and decoding are not shown for brevity.
Initial transmission of a Transport Block (TB) from a UE may be configured by the Node B through the transmission of a Scheduling Assignment (SA) or through higher layer signaling to the reference UE. In the former case, the PUSCH transmission parameters, including the transmission power and the Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) may be adapted by the SA and the respective PUSCH transmission is referred to as adaptive.
PUSCH HARQ retransmissions of a TB are assumed to be synchronous. If the initial transmission occurs in UL sub-frame n, a retransmission will occur at UL sub-frame n+M, where M is a known integer such as, for example, M=8. It is assumed that the Node B transmits to the reference UE a NAK signal in a DL sub-frame n+L prior to the n+M UL sub-frame, where L is a known integer with L<M (for example, L=4).
PUSCH HARQ retransmissions may be adaptive (configured by a SA) or non-adaptive (occurring without SA). Non-adaptive HARQ retransmissions use the same parameters as the initial transmission for the same TB. In particular, the transmission power adjustment and the PUSCH RBs are the same as the ones used for the initial transmission of the same TB.
When UCI or SRS is multiplexed in the PUSCH, it is possible that either the initial transmission includes UCI or SRS while the HARQ retransmission does not, or the reverse. In either case, for non-adaptive HARQ retransmissions, the amount of REs available for data information is different between the initial transmission and the HARQ retransmission for the same TB since the number of RBs remains the same. The UE autonomously performs rate matching or puncturing of coded data symbols to accommodate UCI or SRS transmission. However, the PUSCH transmission power remains the same. This results in a different BLock Error Rate (BLER) for the data between the initial transmission and a HARQ retransmission for the same TB due to the different effective data coding rate. The same may also occur for PUSCH transmissions configured by higher layer signaling (non-adaptive).
For example, a transmission power adjustment ΔTF in sub-frame i may be computed as ΔTF(i)=10 log10(2K(TBS/NRE)−1) where K is a constant, TBS is the TB Size, and NRE=2·MPUSCH·NscRB·(NsymbUL−1) is the number of REs per sub-frame excluding REs used for DM RS transmission (one transmission symbol per slot is used for DM RS transmission in the exemplary structure in FIG. 1). Therefore, the PUSCH transmission power remains the same in non-adaptive HARQ retransmissions regardless of the presence or absence of UCI or SRS.
The data BLER difference between the initial transmission and a non-adaptive HARQ retransmission for the same TB is not deterministic and depends on the difference in the REs available for the data information (difference in data coding rate). If more REs are allocated to data information in the initial transmission (for example, there is no UCI or SRS transmission) than in a HARQ retransmission (for example, there is UCI or SRS transmission), the puncturing or rate matching of data information needed in the HARQ retransmission results in increased data BLER. The reverse applies if fewer REs are allocated to data information in the initial transmission and the data BLER in the non-adaptive HARQ retransmission may be lower than needed for achieving the desired system throughput.
When the previously described variability exists in the number of REs available for data information in the initial transmission and in a non-adaptive HARQ retransmission for the same TB, or for transmissions configured by higher layer signaling, the conventional approach considers that the PUSCH power adjustment in a HARQ retransmission remains the same as in the initial transmission. For example, as it was previously described, ΔTF(i) does not account for UCI or SRS transmission. Then, two distinct cases exist:
(A) UCI or SRS is not included in the initial transmission but is included in a non-adaptive HARQ retransmission. Then, to decode the data, the Node B receiver may insert erasures in REs where UCI or SRS replaces data or account for the different rate matching performed at the UE. The data BLER increases, due to the increase in the effective coding rate that is not compensated by a respective increase in transmission power, and the system throughput decreases.
(B) UCI or SRS is included in the initial transmission but is not included in a non-adaptive HARQ retransmission. Then, during the HARQ retransmission, the UE may transmit additional bits in the REs where UCI or SRS were located in the initial transmission, thereby decreasing the effective code rate with rate matching. The data BLER unnecessarily decreases, due to the decrease in the effective code rate that is not compensated by a respective decrease in transmission power, and the interference management is sub-optimal due to the unnecessarily high transmission power.
Therefore, there is a need to adjust the transmission power depending on the amount of control signals or reference signals in a PUSCH transmission.
There is another need to determine the appropriate adaptation of the transmission power adjustment depending on the amount of control signals or reference signals in a PUSCH transmission.

Autonomous user equipment transmission power control in communication systems


A method for operating of an electronic device includes: connecting communication with an external electronic device; identifying state information and service information of the electronic device and the external electronic device; and selecting at least one communication method based on the state information and the service information. An electronic device includes a communication module and a processor. The processor is configured to select at least one communication method from a plurality of communication methods based on state information and service information of the electronic device and the external electronic device.

1. Field of the Disclosure
Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method and apparatus for selecting a communication method in an electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of information and communication technology and semiconductor technology, various kinds of electronic devices are developing into multimedia devices being capable of providing various multimedia services. For example, the electronic devices provide various multimedia services such as a messenger service, a broadcasting service, a wireless Internet service, a camera service, and a music replay service.
Such electronic devices can be connected with an external electronic device via various wireless communications such as Bluetooth (BT), WiFi-direct, etc. For example, compared with the WiFi communication method, the Bluetooth communication method has a relatively narrow communication range and low data transmission and reception speed, but has the advantage of low power consumption. On the contrary, compared with the Bluetooth communication method, the WiFi communication method has a relatively wide communication range and high data transmission and reception speed, but has the disadvantage of high power consumption. Accordingly, electronic devices, particularly battery-operated electronic devices, may use a communication method that consumes less power (for example, the Bluetooth communication method) to communicate with an external electronic device at a short distance. When the electronic device is a relatively further distance from the external electronic device, the electronic device may maintain a communication connection with the external electronic device by switching to a communication method that consumes more power but has a wider communication range and higher data transmission and reception speed (for example, the WiFi communication method).
The electronic device may switch to a communication method according to a communication condition such as communication signal strength, a communication error rate, a band width (BW), etc. In this case, the electronic device may not consider state information of the electronic device, such as power consumption, a remaining life of a battery, a device state, etc., which changes depending on the communication with the external electronic device, and thus may malfunction in the process of switch the communication method. Due to the electronic device switching the communication method being used based on communication conditions, there is a problem in that the electronic device cannot switch to a communication method as desired by the user according to the state information of the electronic device.

Method for selecting communication method and electronic device thereof


This invention relates to a method for manufacturing selective area grown stacked-layer electro-absorption modulated laser structure, comprising: step 1: forming a selective growth pattern of a modulator section on a substrate; step 2: simultaneously growing a 2-stacked-layer active region structure of a modulator MQW layer and a laser MQW layer by the first epitaxy step; step 3: etching gratings, and removing the laser MQW layer in the modulator section by selective etching; and step 4: completing the growth of the entire electro-absorption modulated laser structure by a second epitaxy step.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor technologies, and more particularly, to a method for manufacturing a selective area grown (SAG) stacked-layer electro-absorption modulated distributed feedback lasers (EMLs) structure, which has the advantage of simple process and fabricates monolithically integrated EML of low threshold current.
2. Description of Prior Art
A monolithically integrated device of an electro-absorption modulator (EAM) and a distributed feedback (DFB) laser diode (LD), EML, is a significant transmitting light-source of optical communication systems, especially, in high speed long-haul trunks. At present, a main method for manufacturing the EML integrated light-sources is Butt-Joint method. For example, the international famous corporations such as NEC, Hitachi, AT&T, Lucent and France Telecom all adopt such method to develop EMLs. In such method, the EAM active layer and the LD active layer are respectively grown by two epitaxies (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,459,747), which facilitates the selection of structural parameters of both active layers, and EML devices thus manufactured are of better characteristics. However, the Butt-Joint method requires multiple epitaxial growths, complex manufacturing process and very high precision requirements of the process. Additionally, the joining interface of the active sections, that is the joining interface of the EAM active section and the LD active section, which are respectively grown by two epitaxies, usually leads to crystal quality problems such as holes or bumps, causing the low yield and high cost of EMLs.
In recent years, in order to reduce the cost and simplify the process, the basis of the work to develop EMLs focuses on a manufacturing method for growing the LD active layer and the EAM active layer simultaneously by a single epitaxy.
Following are manufacturing methods based on such idea:
1) Selective area growth (SAG) method. The EML devices manufactured by the famous corporations, such as NTT, Fujitsu, Nortel and Siemens, adopt the SAG method. This method grows multiple quantum well (MQW) active layers by one epitaxy (for example, Chinese Patent No. ZL00109780.6), and can get the bandgap wavelength difference between LD-MQW active layer and EAM-MQW active layer up to 30 meV. Although the SAG method greatly simplifies the growth process and reduces the cost, its brought problem is that the structure parameters of the LD-MQW active layer and those of the EAM-MQW active layer constrain each other, which is difficult to deal with in a single epitaxy. For example, in terms of reducing the threshold current and weakening the influence of non-uniform carrier implantation, the number of the QW in the LD active layer is required to be small and the thickness of the wells is required to be thin, but in terms of extinction ratio, the number of the QW in the EAM active layer is required to be large and the thickness of the wells is required to be thick. When the EML is actually manufactured by the SAG method, the numbers of the wells in the two active layers are equal, which is the tradeoff between the two sections, but it can not overcome the disadvantage that the thickness of the wells in the LD active layer is thick while the thickness of the wells in the EAM active layer is thin. Therefore, compared with the Butt-Joint method, the optical output power and the extinction ratio of the EML devices manufactured by the SAG method is inferior, and it's difficult to improve the characteristics of the devices.
2) Identical active layer (IAL) method, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,548,607. The manufacturing process of this method is simplest, because the active layer structures of the LD and the EAM are identical. The wavelength difference between LD section and EAM section is implemented by the red-shift of the oscillating wavelength determined by the Bragg gratings etched in the LD region relative to the peak wavelength of the QW active layer. However, the EAM section strongly absorbs the light from the LD region after all, so the threshold current of the device is high. It is difficult to improve the whole characteristics of EMLs by the IAL method.
3) QW intermixing (QWI) method, for example, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 7(9), P. 1016, 1995. On the basis of the IAL structure, this method makes intermixing of the MQW in the EAM section by ion implantation or dielectric induced diffusion plus annealing and so on to cause the blue-shift of the absorption peak wavelength of the MQW in this region, so as to reduce the absorption loss and improve the characteristics. However, till now, the repeatability of the intermixing technology hasn't be solved effectively.
4) Stacked-layer MQW structure, for example, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 14(12), P. 1647, 2002. This method grows the 2-stacked-layer MQW structure by one epitaxy, one layer EAM-MQW and another layer LD-MQW, and the two layers can be designed respectively so that the bandgap wavelength difference between them is no more than 60 nm. However, the EAM-MQW layer in the LD section not only absorbs the light from the LD-MQW, but also consumes the injection carrier, and the LD-MQW layer in the EAM section has relatively strong absorption of light when there is no bias voltage, so EML devices of stacked-layer MQW structure have high threshold current and low optical output power. In 2003, we proposed an improved stacked-layer MQW structure (Chinese patent application No. 200310122343.7), which improves the optical output power significantly by etching the LD-MQW layer in the EAM section away by photolithography and selective etching. However, the problem of high threshold current of these EMLs hasn't been solved yet.

Method for manufacturing selective area grown stacked-layer electro-absorption modulated laser structure

Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences


A method for detecting substructure includes the steps of: nondestructively scanning an assembly using a substructure scanning system including a precision motion carriage and a nondestructive scanning sensor, positioning the assembly under the substructure scanning system, positioning the scanning sensor on the outer skin, moving the scanning sensor over the outer skin with the precision motion carriage, locating the substructure through the outer skin, and controlling an assembly process using the location of the substructure. By using the method of the present invention substructure features may be located through an outer skin with sufficient accuracy to control assembly operations and to meet engineering tolerances. The method for precisely detecting substructure using precision eddy current scanning may be used for, but is not limited to, the location of substructure features, such as edges of flanges, machined steps, or tooling holes, covered by outer mold line skins of an aircraft airframe.

The present invention generally relates to nondestructive inspection methods and, more particularly, to detecting substructure using precision eddy current scanning.
Automated assembly systems in the aerospace industry, for example, for airframe assembly of aircraft, generally employ some type of vision system for locating structure components and key features of components, such as edges of flanges, machined steps, and tooling holes. Knowledge of the exact location of these features is necessary, since these features are used to adjust numerically controlled programs for drilling holes or other machining operations, such as trimming or reaming, to maintain blueprint tolerances. Currently, it is often necessary to manually record where the substructure is located. In order to do this, the outer mold line skins, for example of a section of the fuselage or the wing, need to be removed to make the substructure underneath visible. Once a map of the substructure is created, the outer mold line skins are temporarily fastened to the structure and the created map of the substructure needs to be transferred to the skin. Since this step is performed while the assembly is in the machine bed, the flow time is impacted and the percentage of the machine time actually used for the intended function, such as drilling, is reduced.
Eddy current as a nondestructive inspection process is commonly used in the aerospace industry to detect subsurface flaws or anomalies in conductive materials. The advantage of eddy current for nondestructive inspection is the ability to perform scanning through the outer skin material. Eddy current data can be collected using automated scanning systems to improve the quality of the measurements and to construct images of scanned areas. The most common type of scanning is line scanning where an automated system is used to push the probe at a fixed speed. The data is usually presented as a strip chart recording. The advantage of using a linear scanning system is that the probe is moved at a constant speed such that an indication on the strip chart can be correlated to a position on the part being scanned. Two-dimensional scanning systems are used to scan a two-dimensional area. This could be a scanning system that scans over a relatively flat area in an x-y raster mode. The data is typically displayed in a C-scan, which is a false-color plot of signal strength or phase angle shift as a function of position. Mobile automated scanners, such as MAUS® IV and V developed by The Boeing Company, St. Louis, are generally used in the aerospace industry for nondestructive testing utilizing eddy current and ultrasonic waves. MAUS IV eddy current C-scans are used, for example, for corrosion detection or crack detection around fastener holes.
As can be seen, there is a need for a method to accurately and effectively locate and map the substructure features of an aircraft airframe that are located underneath the outer mold line skins. Furthermore, there is a need to eliminate the step of the outer skin removal in order to see the substructure and the step of skin installation after recording the substructure. Still further, there is a need to improve the product flow and automation of aircraft assemblies.
There has, therefore, arisen a need to provide a method for detecting substructure using nondestructive techniques. There has further arisen a need to locate substructure features with sufficient accuracy to control assembly operations and meet engineering tolerances. There has still further arisen a need to provide a device that allows detection and location of substructure features within the tolerances required.


A drug solution administration device includes: an injection unit configured to inject a drug solution in vivo; a container; a push-out mechanism configured to allow the drug solution stored inside the container to flow into the injection unit; a sealing member attached to the push-out mechanism and pressed against a wall surface of the containing space; a drive mechanism configured to generate a drive force for moving the push-out mechanism back and forth; and a control unit is configured such that, when a predetermined time has passed after the control unit controls the drive mechanism to stop operation of the drive mechanism, the control unit controls the drive mechanism to move the push-out mechanism and to shift a position of the sealing member relative to the wall surface of the containing space.

The present disclosure relates to a drug solution administration device used for in vivo administration of a drug solution and relates to a method for controlling a drug solution administration device.
In the related art, as a device for administering a drug solution such as insulin, there is known a portable administration device that enables continuous administration of a drug solution while being attached to the skin of a patient of interest or a subject.
In this drug solution administration device, a cylindrical body (such as a syringe) and a plunger form a space that contains a drug solution. Moving the plunger inside the cylinder pushes out the drug solution inside the cylinder and introduces the drug solution in vivo through a tube or the like connected to the cylinder (refer to JP 2002-136594 A).

Drug solution administration device and method for controlling drug solution administration device