A system and method for implementing a cable system is disclosed. The system includes a paddle card system that includes a card, and a circuit coupled to the card and configured to couple to a server system node. The circuit indicates when the card is properly seated when the card is plugged into the server system node. As a result, errors due to the paddle card system being improperly seated are minimized.

Cables are well known and are used to connect multiple components such as server nodes in a server system. The cables are often identical, and the number of cables can vary. For example, in some server systems, there may be as few as 3 identical cables or as many as 12 identical cables, depending on the server system configuration.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional cable system 50. The cable system 50 includes a cable 52, a paddle card 60 coupled to one end of the cable 52, and a paddle card 62 coupled to the other end of the cable 52. The cable 52 includes a bundle of N wires 64. Connection pins 66 are coupled to one end of the wires 64, and connection pins 68 are coupled to the other end of the wires 64. Gaskets 70 and 72 are coupled to the paddle cards 60 and 62, respectively. The paddle cards 60 and 62 are plugged into respective server system nodes 80 and 82 of a server system.
A problem with the conventional cable system 50 is that if the paddle cards 60 and 62 are not properly connected or "seated" when plugged into the server system nodes 80 and 82, the overall server system may not be fully functional. Accordingly, for a fully functional server system, proper care must be taken to ensure that the paddle cards 60 and 62 are seated properly.
Another problem with the conventional cable system 50 is that the thickness of the gaskets 64 and 66 may vary sufficiently such that the paddle cards 60 and 62 may feel as though are properly seated when they are, in fact, not seated properly.
Determining if the paddle cards 60 and 62 are seated properly is difficult, because the server system may still work even if the paddle cards 60 and 62 are not seated properly. In this case, the server system would have degraded performance. This of course would be problematic, especially if the degraded performance goes unnoticed.
Cyclical redundancy check (CRC) errors may indicate degraded performance. However, trouble shooting a server system to isolate one or more cables as the root cause of the degraded performance may be time consuming. For example, a high number of CRC errors may indicate a possible problem with the cable 52 or the paddle card 60 and 62, but one would not be able to determine if the problem is simply caused by an improper seating of the paddle cards 60 and 62. Furthermore, if one or more of the paddle cards 60 and 62 are not seated properly, the improper seating may not cause enough errors for the server system to issue any warning. Yet, the degraded performance may still exist.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for assuring that cables for server systems are seated properly. The system and method should be simple, cost effective, and capable of being easily adapted to existing technology. The present invention addresses such a need.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method for implementing a cable system

International Business Machines Corporation


An adaptive SINR control process is triggered based on various quality measures associated with the received signal in a mobile device or on a geographic region in which a base station and an interferer are located. As part of the adaptive SINR control process, the mobile device reduces the signal level of the received signal, which reduces both the signal strength of the desired signal and the interfering signal. If the control process is triggered on the mobile device side, after detecting the presence of interference, the mobile device sends a request that the base station increase its transmit power of the desired signal to improve the receiving SINR in the mobile device. Alternatively, the mobile device may receive information from the base station causing the mobile device to reduce the signal level of the received signal based on quality indicators sent by the mobile device to the base station or based on geographic location of the base station.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates to interference in radio networks and more particularly to reducing the effects of interference during communication sessions between a base station and a mobile device.
Description of the Related Art
As cellular and Internet communication services continue to reach into more aspects of life, mobile voice (cellular), mobile broadband data and quadruple-play (voice, data, video and mobility) multimedia services, are expected to dominate future wireless markets. All these diversified mobile broadband services share radio frequency (RF) resources. Along with the growth of mobile broadband services under limited RF resources, RF service systems are being deployed in physical proximity and share adjacent RF bands. These neighboring systems and RF equipment have an increased potential to impact each other through in-band and out of band interference. An undesired signal sourced from a neighboring RF system that exceeds certain critical levels and that is received by an RF receiver can lead to overload, intermodulation, dynamic range reduction and a noise floor rising of more than 1 dB. In the cases of dynamic range reduction, adaptive modulation schemes can be adopted to improve service performance at the receiving device, or at least, to minimize undesired link errors by reducing link capacity. This potential problem becomes progressively harder to resolve when the undesired signal is much stronger, e.g., when exceeding the desired signal by an order of magnitude, and/or the receiving device only plays a passive role within the loop of interference control.
Interference issues can be generally classified into two generic categories. One category is called inter-cell interference, and the other is called inter-system interference. Increased deployment of different wireless services in the same location and/or operating in adjacent frequency bands, can lead to increased problems with both increased inter-cell and inter-system interference.
Inter-system interference has typically been managed through RF system planning that follows Federal Communication Commission (FCC) license requirements. In addition, inter-system interference can be managed by agreement(s) negotiated among service providers. When there are only a few RF service systems deployed in the same physical location and operated in adjacent RF frequency bands, the inter-system interference is usually minor and can be managed through system planning and by negotiated service agreements. Unique interference issues can be worked out on a case-by-case basis among affected parties.
Due to diversified service growth and development in RF communications, the current approaches to managing inter-system interference may be inadequate. As RF radio bands become occupied and wireless resources become more congested, RF base stations are deployed in close proximity to each other. The RF service environment is becoming more and more traffic/interference limited. Under this tightened RF resources condition, it becomes more likely that adjacent RF service systems will operate under a power disparity environment to provide for different service requirements. When the received power at a handset or base station from an undesired signal is significantly increased, the receiving device may be overloaded, and driven into a nonlinear operating range.
For example, in the S band operation, Wireless Communication Channels (WCS) are assigned between 2.305 GHz-2.315 GHz and 2.345 GHz-2.36 GHz bands. Satellite Digital Audio Radio Services (SDARS) operators are assigned the spectrum between 2.315 GHz and 2.345 GHz and thus, WCS and SDARS operations are in adjacent frequency bands. Meanwhile, WCS base stations and SDARS ground repeaters could also be deployed to the same metropolitan area where the WCS base station transmitter is limited by 2 KW Equivalent Isotropically Radiated Power (EIRP) and SDARS ground repeater transmission can run EIRP up to 40 KW. Such an environment demonstrates a typical inter-system interference scenario including potential for overload, intermodulation, dynamic range reduction, as well as other forms of interference due to the high power disparity.
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) spectrum auction in 700 MHz frequency range provides another potential interference scenario. For example, one-way digital video service system and 2-way mobile data service system, both running in neighboring bands of 700 MHz, could be deployed to the same metropolitan area. One-way digital video service base station transmitters can run up to 82 KW EIRP and 2-way mobile data service base station transmitters are limited to 1.6 KW EIRP. Once these two RF service systems are deployed adjacent to each other in the neighboring RF bands, a significant inter-system interference impact is possible through overload, intermodulation, dynamic range reduction as well as other forms of interference due to the high power disparity.
In addition to system planning to avoid high power disparity or otherwise plan for it, there are a variety of methods for mitigating interference impact at the device level. For example, receive filters can be used to mitigate the interference by selectively reducing the strength of the desired versus the undesired signals based, assuming the undesired signals are of different frequency. However, filters that separate signals at adjacent frequency bands can be difficult to build. Further, even when a technical solution is available, the limitations of cost and size might prevent incorporation into customer devices.
As diversified growth and development in RF communications continues, the current approaches to managing inter-system interference may be inadequate. Accordingly, improved approaches to the problems of inter-system interference are desirable.


The invention relates to a device for determining the position of a plane or recess of an instrument. The device includes a positioning element that has at least one reference marker, wherein a spatial position of the positioning element can be ascertained, and a position determining element coupled to the positioning element. The position determining element includes at least one reference element that defines a contact plane, and at least one pressing element.

When inserting implants, such as, for example, artificial knee, elbow, finger or hip joints, it is necessary to position the implant on the bone as precisely as possible. To this end, precise incisions must be made to the bone structures that interface with the implant.
FIG. 17 schematically shows an incision block 1 being positioned on a femur bone K in accordance with the prior art. To this end, a guiding rod 100 is inserted into the bone K, wherein a positioning mechanism 101 for positioning and holding the incision block 1 in a desired position is provided at the outer end of the guiding rod 100. Once the incision block 1 has been moved to the desired position, the block 1 can be fixed to the bone using positioning pins 3, such as screws, nails and/or pins, for example, which can be inserted through holes 2 provided in the incision block 1 and into the bone K. After the incision block 1 has been successfully fixed to the bone K, a first incision plane S0, preferably as perpendicular as possible to the mechanical axis of the bone or slightly angled with respect to the mechanical axis of the bone, can be formed by means of an incision tool 4, as shown schematically in FIGS. 14A and 14B. In order to position the corresponding knee implant component on the bone K, additional incisions are made in additional incision planes S1 to S4 running obliquely to or angled with respect to the incision plane S0, as shown in FIG. 15. To this end, a second incision block 10 is placed onto the bone K at the first incision plane S0 and positioned by means of a suitable mechanism. The incision tool 4, which is guided by obliquely or laterally running slits of the second incision block 10, is used to make the additional lateral incisions to the bone.
A device 20 for determining the position of an incision block as shown in FIG. 16 is known from European Patent No. EP 1 190 676 A1 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 6,551,325 belonging to the Applicant, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. The device includes a reference star 21 having a plurality of arms 21a, 21b, 21c extending therefrom. Spherical markers 22a, 22b, 22c, each having a reflective surface, are coupled to the arms, wherein two infrared cameras (not shown) detect infrared light reflected on the spherical markers 22a, 22b, 22c. Based on the incident and reflected infrared light, the cameras can ascertain the three-dimensional spatial position of the reference star 21.
The reference star 21 is fixedly connected to a base body 22, to which a rotatable element 23 is attached. Two plates 24a, 24b of different thicknesses are arranged on the outer end of the rotatable element 23 and can be inserted into a guiding slit, such as the guiding slit 1a of the tibial incision block 1 shown in FIGS. 12A to 12E. Alternatively, the plates 24a, 24b can be inserted or into one of the guiding slits II, III of the femoral incision block 1′ shown in FIG. 13.
In order to make the incision shown in FIG. 14, the incision block 1 is navigated to the desired point on the bone K and then is fixed to the bone K using fixing elements 3. An incision is made in the desired incision plane using the incision tool 4, as shown in FIG. 14B. A second incision block 10 then is placed on the incision plane S0 formed by the first incision, as shown schematically in FIG. 15, and incisions are made in the planes S1 through S4 using the guiding slits provided in the second incision block 10. Once the incisions are completed, an artificial joint can be placed on the bone and, provided the incision planes S0-S4 are correctly positioned, the artificial joint also will be correctly positioned.
Repeated use of the positioning device 20 described above, however, can lead to attrition in the area of the plates 24a and 24b shown in FIG. 16. Additionally, repeated use of the incision tool 4 may enlarge the guiding slits 1a, I,II,III. Plate attrition and/or enlargement of the slits can result in excessive clearance between the plates 24a, 24b and the walls of the slits 1a, I, II, III, thus allowing the reference star 21 to move with respect to the incision block. Movement of the reference star with respect to incision block can result in misalignment of the incision block 1, 1′ and, therefore, misalignment of the incision planes S0-S4.

Device for determining the position of an incision block


A system for updating a control device includes a user's portable programmable media having a data storage device, and a primary controlling device including a computer having a data storage device for storing data. A primary reader/writer communicates with the primary controlling device, and the primary reader/writer transfers control data and transactional data from the primary data storage device to the user's portable programmable media. A secondary controlling device includes a secondary computer and a secondary data storage device for storing data. A secondary reader/writer communicates with the secondary controlling device and reads the control and transactional data included in the user's portable programmable media, transferring the data to the secondary controlling device for authenticating, completing a transaction, and storing at least part of the data in the secondary data storage device.

Currently, portable programmable media such as smart cards are used in commercial applications, for example, as a debit card which may contain the account balance of the card holder. The account balance is physically updated either at a designated kiosk or via a special-use card reader/writer. The account balance may then be debited by an off-line point-of-sale (POS) device. Information such as exchange rates, prices of dispensed goods, etc. which are stored within online POS devices may be updated remotely either via a wide-area public or private computer network (such as the Internet), or via an as-needed telephone modern connection, whereas an off-line device (i.e. one that has no remote network or telephone modem access) must be physically updated using a computer or other local interface mechanism.
Similarly, typical point of entry systems to a secure area, for example, a door or building security system, may require a communication link such as a network to update security criteria. For a point of entry off-line system, updates must be made manually using a computer or other local interface mechanism.
Therefore, a need exists for a system and method for increasing the efficiency and frequency of updates to an off-line system, such as a POS device or point of entry security device.

Updating dynamic information within an intelligent controller utilizing a smart card


A rotary Stirling cycle engine which has a pair of hollow chambers (20) each having an elliptical rotor (30) positioned inside and rotatably sealed to the chambers inner walls. A crankshaft (40) connects the rotors in tandem to transmit rotational energy when the rotors revolve around the chambers. A cooling and a heating heat exchanger (44) and (48) are each connected through ports (26) and (28) in the chambers sidewalls one to the other. Working fluid (60) is present at a constant volume within the chambers and heat exchangers, revolving the rotors as the volume in each chamber changes due to the cyclic expansion and contraction of the working fluid as it sweeps around the chambers through the ports while being alternately heated and cooled by the heat exchangers.

Previously many alternative types of systems have been introduced in endeavoring to improve and provide an efficient and practical Stirling cycle engine. Since its conception, in the early nineteenth century, a displacer and output power piston was operated in the same cylinder. More recently, some have attempted to use rotary mechanisming which have by their very nature reduced extraneous volume not swept by the pistons thereby enhancing compression resulting in efficiency beyond those of the early days. However, the present internal combustion engine has still far surpassed the efficiencies of the not only original concept developed by Stirling but even the latest improvements by others.
The use of rotors instead of pistons is just now becoming a practical reality due to the exhaustive development of rotary engines for automotive applications and fluid pumps. The need still exists however for the utilization of a system that will yield efficiencies duplicating or exceeding the latest piston engine technology.
A search of the prior art did not disclose any patents that read directly on the clams of the instant invention however, the following U.S. patents were considered related:
______________________________________ U.S. PAT. NO. INVENTOR ISSUED ______________________________________ 4,753,073 Chandler 28 June 1988 4,179,890 Hanson 25 December 1979 4,044,559 Kelly 30 August 1977 3,984,981 Redshaw 12 October 1976 3,958,422 Kelly 25 May 1976 3,537,256 Kelly 3 November 1970 3,370,418 Kelly 27 February 1968 ______________________________________
Chandler in U.S. Pat. No. 4,753,073, improved the Stirling cycle using three rotors each separately rotatable within a toroiadal housing cavity. Each rotor contains a pair of rotor blocks forming six separate chambers. Heat exchangers are employed and relative angular rotor movement within the chambers is achieved by meshing elliptical gears connected to a common output shaft.
Hanson teaches in U.S. Pat. No. 4,179,890 an epitrochoidal Stirling type engine using a three-lobed rotary piston in a four-lobed housing. A cam is coaxially mounted between rollers in sufficient preciseness to eliminate peripheral seals. Connectors for fluid flow between pairs of lobes permit the cycle to receive heat on one end and discharge it from the other.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,044,559 issued to Kelly discloses a closed series cycle or double-acting reciprocating Stirling engine cycle. Tandem rotary units employ a series gas flow loop using a large number of heat transfer tubes with separation between the hot and cold sources. Hydrogen gas is used as fuel obtained from an electrolysis unit driven by a wind generator.
Redshaw employs a rotary Stirling cycle system in U.S. Pat. No. 3,984,981 utilizing rotors also internal heat exchangers, and displacers as heat regenerators. Chambers are formed with two wedge-shaped spherical sectors connected by a disk-like coupling producing four variable displacement chambers. Sectors contain passageways through hollow shafts covered with fins to provide heat transfer porous heat absorbing material becomes the heat regenerator transferring heat from one chamber to the other.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,422 also issued to Kelly uses multiple rotary units having an eccentric rotor with vanes independent from adjacent units. Multiple heat transfer loops with heating and cooling sources provide the regeneration heat transfer. Hydrogen is employed as the working gas with any suitable fuel used as the heat source.
Kelly in an earlier patent (U.S. Pat. No. 3,537,256) uses two simple eccentric rotors with vanes and interconnecting flow paths. A modular split housing allows valves to be connected to both rotors. The heat is optically transmitted to a hot displacer. Photo heat powered by liquid fuel or electrical lamps provides the heat source for the invention.
Finally, Kelly in U.S. Pat. No. 3,370,418 issued a few year earlier disclosed a pressurized Stirling cycle engine employing both axial and radial gas flow. Two in-line cylinders are used, each having a truncated rotor and multiple rings on the rotor having impeller blades. A shaft supports the rotor and endplates with bearings support the shaft. A number of ports freely communicate with the cylinders allowing heat transfer and a circular regenerator provides internal counter-balancing.


A method of oxidising carbohydrates and/or carbohydrate derivatives having primary alcohol groups comprising contacting a reaction medium containing said carbohydrates and/or carbohydrate derivatives with a nitroxy radical mediator and a peroxidase enzyme, characterized in that the initial reaction medium contains at least 10% by weight carbohydrates and/or carbohydrate derivatives, in that the peroxidase enzyme is an oilseed peroxidase and in that a hydroperoxide and an alkali compound are gradually added to the reaction medium such that its pH is maintained at between 3.5 and 10.0 (pH-Stat); use of said method in a process for producing gluconic acid, glucaric acid and/or D-glucuronolactone.

Oxidation of the primary alcohol groups of carbohydrates (and carbohydrate derivatives) leads to the formation of aldehyde (R′—CHO) and/or carboxyl (R′—COOH) groups.
The formation of aldehyde and carboxyl groups enhances the reactivity, versatility and solubility of the resulting compounds which, therefore, have a greater number of industrial applications (for example, in the food, textile and paper industries). As a result, there has been a great deal of interest in the development of methods allowing for the selective oxidation of primary alcohol groups. One such method involves the use of nitroxy radical mediators.
A number of nitroxy radical-mediated oxidation methods have been described in the art. Examples of such methods can be found in the following applications: WO00/50621A1, WO01/00681A1, US20030029588A1, and EP1077221A1.
Unfortunately, all of the existing methods have a number of disadvantages. Both US20030029588A1 and EP1077221A1, for example, require the use of environmentally hazardous halide compounds. The main drawback of existing methods, however, is their poor performance in terms of the quantity of carbohydrate substrate that can actually be oxidised at any one time. In both of WO00/50621A1 and WO01/00681A1, for instance, the amount of carbohydrate which can be added to the reaction mediums described is restricted to no more than 1 to 2% dry substance (more often than not, in fact, the dry substance levels do not exceed 0.05%).
Thus, for any useful quantity of oxidised carbohydrate to be obtained, very large amounts of reagent would be required and the amount of waste water produced would be considerable. It has been suggested, for example, that in order to increase oxidation levels, greater amounts of enzyme should be used. Not only would this undesirably increase reaction costs, but it has also been found to be ineffective. Accordingly, existing methods are neither economical, nor suitable for application on an industrial scale.
There exists, therefore, a need for an improved nitroxy radical-mediated oxidation process. The present invention provides such a process.

Oxidation of carbohydrates by means of peroxidases and nitroxy radicals


The present invention provides a unit cell of a metal-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MESFET). The unit cell of the MESFET includes a source, a drain and a gate. The gate is disposed between the source and the drain and on an n-type conductivity channel layer. A p-type conductivity region is provided beneath the source and has an end that extends towards the drain. The p-type conductivity region is spaced apart from the n-type conductivity channel region and is electrically coupled to the source.

Electrical circuits requiring high power handling capability (>20 watts) while operating at high frequencies such as radio frequencies (500 MHz), S-band (3 GHz) and X-band (10 GHz) have in recent years become more prevalent. Because of the increase in high power, high frequency circuits there has been a corresponding increase in demand for transistors that are capable of reliably operating at radio frequencies and above while still being capable of handling higher power loads. Previously, bipolar transistors and power metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) have been used for high power applications but the power handling capability of such devices may be limited at higher operating frequencies. Junction field-effect transistors (JFETs) were commonly used for high frequency applications but the power handling capability of previously known JFETs may also be limited.
Recently, metal-semiconductor field effect transistors (MESFETs) have been developed for high frequency applications. The MESFET construction may be preferable for high frequency applications because only majority carriers carry current. The MESFET design may be preferred over current MOSFET designs because the reduced gate capacitance permits faster switching times of the gate input. Therefore, although all field-effect transistors utilize only majority carriers to carry current, the Schottky gate structure of the MESFET may make the MESFET more desirable for high frequency applications.
In addition to the type of structure, and perhaps more fundamentally, the characteristics of the semiconductor material from which a transistor is formed also affects the operating parameters. Of the characteristics that affect a transistor's operating parameters, the electron mobility, saturated electron drift velocity, electric breakdown field and thermal conductivity may have the greatest effect on a transistor's high frequency and high power characteristics.
Electron mobility is the measurement of how rapidly an electron is accelerated to its saturated velocity in the presence of an electric field. In the past, semiconductor materials which have a high electron mobility were preferred because more current could be developed with a lesser field, resulting in faster response times when a field is applied. Saturated electron drift velocity is the maximum velocity that an electron can obtain in the semiconductor material. Materials with higher saturated electron drift velocities are preferred for high frequency applications because the higher velocity translates to shorter times from source to drain.
Electric breakdown field is the field strength at which breakdown of the Schottky junction and the current through the gate of the device suddenly increases. A high electric breakdown field material is preferred for high power, high frequency transistors because larger electric fields generally can be supported by a given dimension of material. Larger electric fields allow for faster transients as the electrons can be accelerated more quickly by larger electric fields than by smaller.
Thermal conductivity is the ability of the semiconductor material to dissipate heat. In typical operations, all transistors generate heat. In turn, high power and high frequency transistors usually generate larger amounts of heat than small signal transistors. As the temperature of the semiconductor material increases, the junction leakage currents generally increase and the current through the field effect transistor generally decreases due to a decrease in carrier mobility with an increase in temperature. Therefore, if the heat is dissipated from the semiconductor, the material will remain at a lower temperature and be capable of carrying larger currents with lower leakage currents.
In the past, high frequency MESFETs have been manufactured of n-type III-V compounds, such as gallium arsenide (GaAs) because of their high electron mobilities. Although these devices provided increased operating frequencies and moderately increased power handling capability, the relatively low breakdown voltage and the lower thermal conductivity of these materials have limited their usefulness in high power applications.
Silicon carbide (SiC) has been known for many years to have excellent physical and electronic properties which should theoretically allow production of electronic devices that can operate at higher temperatures, higher power and higher frequency than devices produced from silicon (Si) or GaAs. The high electric breakdown field of about 4×106 V/cm, high saturated electron drift velocity of about 2.0×107 cm/sec and high thermal conductivity of about 4.9 W/cm-° K. indicate that SiC would be suitable for high frequency, high power applications. Unfortunately, difficulty in manufacturing has limited the usefulness of SiC for high power and high frequency applications.
MESFETs have been produced having channel layers of silicon carbide have been produced on silicon substrates (See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,762,806 to Suzuki et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,028 to Kondoh et al.). Because the semiconductor layers of a MESFET are epitaxial, the layer upon which each epitaxial layer is grown affects the characteristics of the device. Thus, a SiC epitaxial layer grown on a Si substrate generally has different electrical and thermal characteristics then a SiC epitaxial layer grown on a different substrate. Although the SiC on Si substrate devices described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,762,806 and 4,757,028 may have exhibited improved thermal characteristics, the use of a Si substrate generally limits the ability of such devices to dissipate heat. Furthermore, the growth of SiC on Si generally results in defects in the epitaxial layers that result in high leakage current when the device is in operation.
Other MESFETs have been developed using SiC substrates. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/540,488 filed Jun. 19, 1990 and now abandoned, the disclosure of which is incorporated entirely herein by reference, describes a SiC MESFET having epitaxial layers of SiC grown on a SiC substrate. These devices exhibited improved thermal characteristics over previous devices because of the improved crystal quality of the epitaxial layers grown on SiC substrates. However, to obtain high power and high frequency it may be necessary to overcome the limitations of SiC's lower electron mobility.
Similarly, commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,270,554 to Palmour describes a SiC MESFET having source and drain contacts formed on n+ regions of SiC and an optional lightly doped epitaxial layer between the substrate and the n-type layer in which the channel is formed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,925,895 to Sriram et al. also describes a SiC MESFET and a structure that is described as overcoming "surface effects" which may reduce the performance of the MESFET for high frequency operation. Sriram et al. also describes SiC MESFETs which use n+ source and drain contact regions as well as a p-type buffer layer.
Furthermore, conventional SiC FET structures may provide the constant characteristics during the entire operating range of the FET, i.e. from fully open channel to near pinch-off voltage, by using a very thin, highly doped channel (a delta doped channel) offset from the gate by a lightly doped region of similar conductivity type. Delta doped channels are discussed in detail in an article by Yokogawa et al. entitled Electronic Properties of Nitrogen Delta-Doped Silicon Carbide Layers, MRS Fall Symposium, 2000 and an article by Konstantinov et al. entitled Investigation of Lo-Hi-Lo and Delta Doped Silicon Carbide Structure, MRS Fall Symposium, 2000. However, further improvements may be made in SiC MESFETs.
For example, it may be important that SiC MESFETs have high breakdown voltages and relatively low leakage currents if they are used in high efficiency, high power, high linearity radio frequency (RF) applications. In an attempt to provide high breakdown voltages, devices have been provided having highly compensated substrates, such as Vanadium doped semi-insulating SiC. These devices typically provide adequate breakdown voltages as well as low leakage currents, but may sacrifice device performance due to unwanted trapping effects in the substrate. Furthermore, devices having highly doped p-type layers under the channel of the FET have been provided and have been successful in providing good electron confinement and low leakage currents. However, these devices generally contain excessive parasitics that may degrade the RF performance of the device. Accordingly, further improvements may be made with respect to existing SiC FET devices such that they may provide improved breakdown voltages without sacrificing other performance characteristics of the device.

Methods of fabricating transistors having buried p-type layers beneath the source region


A junction structure includes a first metallic material, a second material different in type from the first metallic material, and a welding wire as a third material similar to the first metallic material. The second material is stacked on the first material. The molten metal of the third metallic material is deposited by arc welding into the through part of the second material so as to form a flanged or tapered bead, so that the first and third metallic materials and the second material are fixed together.

The recent globalization of the production of automobiles and other transportation vehicles has created a growing demand for reducing the total cost for each vehicle, in particular, for improving throughput by reducing production time.
Furthermore, there is a global demand for reducing CO2 emissions to prevent global warming, and this demand has been answered by the transportation vehicle industry, which is making increasing efforts to improve fuel efficiency. One of the efforts is to reduce the vehicle weights by, for example, increasing the proportion of light-weight materials in the vehicles.
With such a background, spot welding is popular in this industry. However, this welding is a kind of resistance welding, in which materials to be welded are pressurized by upper and lower electrodes until there is no gap left between the materials, and then the electrodes are energized. For this reason, spot welding is not suitable for one side welding. Spot welding also imposes limitations on the product shape because the part to be welded is sandwiched from above and below. Another disadvantage of the welding is that pressurizing the part to be welded needs a space into which the welding gun with the upper and lower electrodes enters above and below the materials to be welded. Still another disadvantage is that beside welding time, spot welding takes additional time, such as the time to carry the heavy gun, the time to pressurize the materials after the gun reaches the part to be welded, and the time to cool the welded part.
Meanwhile, the industry is trying to reduce the weight of automobile materials by changing some of the materials from steel to light metal such as aluminum. This trend has created a growing demand for techniques and structures that allow the joining of light metal and steel.
Examples of conventional tools for joining different types of materials together include rivets for spot welding, and adhesives. Patent Literature 1 discloses the following techniques: a pressurization method in which a rivet and a material of the same type as the rivet sandwich a different type of material and pressurize it; a rivet having a shape capable of absorbing the plastic flow of the different type of material caused by welding heat input; and methods of crimping and spot welding capable of the absorption. This configuration ensures the space into which deformed part of the different type of material is moved during the crimping and spot welding. The configuration also prevents depression of the different type of material due, for example, to misalignment of the electrodes during spot welding, thereby maintaining the junction strength.

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


A method and an assembly for decontaminating a material. The material is charged into a container, where at first steam is introduced and fluids including some contaminants are removed. Then extractant is introduced into the container, and fluids comprising condensation water, extractant and contaminants are removed. Then the material is stripped with vapor. The dry or slightly humid material in the container is removed in a condition suitable for return to its place of origin. The used extractant can be purified to be re-used.

Over the last years mankind has become increasingly aware of the environmental consequences of the methods that are and have been used for the disposal of waste materials. Particular attention has thus been paid to the pollution of surface waters, such as rivers (especially the river Rhine), and lakes, such as the Great Lakes in the USA, and also of seas and oceans, where pollution by for instance oil is a constantly recurring problem. More recently attention has been drawn to the pollution of soil. Numerous examples are known, where industrial waste has been deposited by burying metal drums containing the waste material, or where the waste has been led directly into nature in various ways. These acts have resulted in considerable cleansing operations. Concurrent with pollution due to "sins of the fathers" accidents occur despite increasingly sophisticated precautions where undesirable, environment-destroying, poisonous materials escape into nature. Examples of such accidents include oil-pollution of coastal areas, for instance after ship collisions or loss of ship, or of other areas, for instance after traffic accidents. Various attempts have been made to control environmental pollution, but none of the methods suggested has resulted in a solution of the problems sufficiently attractive with respect to costs involved and the possibility of fast action.
Today several cases are known, where contaminated areas have been discovered, for instance, during the excavation of a building site. A common method used today to remove such contaminations comprises excavating the entire amount of contaminated soil and filling it into drums. These drums are sent to a specialized incinerator plant, such as Kommunekemi in Denmark. Here the entire material is incinerated under controlled conditions ensuring a high combustion temperature. It is necessary to operate with high combustion temperatures, since lower temperatures result in a generation of dioxines, which are generally known to be very toxic. This method is not very suitable as the work connected with excavating the soil, filling it into drums, transporting it to the plant, opening of the drums and filling the material into the incinerator plant is extensive and not at all safe. Transporting large amounts of material is very cost-intensive and the capacity of the incinerator plant has to be considerable. In practice it is almost impossible to return the material to its place of origin, partly because of the transport costs involved and partly because such a return would require a further technical treatment of the material subsequent to its incineration.
For minor contaminations a method is used, where the costs for transport and incineration can be reduced. In this method a controlled deposit is created in form of an excavation provided with a sealing membrane onto which the contaminated material is deposited. With such a deposit it is mandatory to collect and examine, and, if necessary, to treat the rainwater seeping through the material. The deposit has thus to be constantly monitored, often over a period covering many years.
Both above methods are cost intensive, since the amount of contaminated material to be excavated and transported is large. A further problem connected with the incineration is that the contaminated material is often very heterogenous and may result in heavy wear of the plant, for instance in case of brickwork in a rotor incinerator. Another problem is how to control the incineration of the heterogenous waste, which often comprises for instance bituminous residues, phenolic compounds and frequently large amounts of polyaromatic hydrocarbons. To ensure that no poisonous materials, such as dioxines, escape together with the smoke, the incineration has to be made under very stationary conditions. It is, however, difficult and expensive to ensure a stationary incineration of the heterogenous materials in question.
EP Publication No. 0.161.698 Al discloses a method for purifying soil, such as from petroleum products, by extraction in a scrubber by means of an aqueous liquid of a pH value adapted to the contaminant, whereupon the extractant and the contaminants are separated. In this method the coarse materials are first separated from the soil by means of a sieve unit. This step implies that a portion of the contaminants is removed together with the coarse material and is thus not eliminated. Then the soil and the liquid are mixed. Subsequently the phases are separated and the liquid used is purified by floatation and is re-used. This method requires intricate and expensive equipment, since it requires a rugged device for mixing soil and water as well as a floatation tank. From the results stated in the publication it is moreover apparent that only a partial decontamination is obtained.
EP Publication No. 0.059.020 Al discloses a method for extracting contaminants from soil by means of water, alcohols or petroleum ether. The method is carried out by introducing the extractant directly into the contaminated soil through tubes extending into the soil. If necessary the contaminated area is first screened off from the surface layer and down to a water-impervious layer. Despite the screening there is a considerable risk of further contamination by spreading the contaminants and the extractant. It is thus mandatory to take extensive precautionary measures. Moreover comprehensive prior investigations concerning the type of contamination and soil have to be undertaken. Finally the method requires large amounts of extractant.
WO Publication No. 86/03134 discloses a method for separating bitumen from broken road surface materials by extraction, preferably with toluene in several steps followed by distillation and recovery of the solvent by condensation. The method is directed to the re-use of asphalt, which means that not all types of compounds usually occuring in connection with contaminated soil are removed. Bituminous material occurs in solid form. It is thus necessary to employ a comparatively sophisticated assembly for carrying out said method using high-pressure steam as well as vacuum together with heat.
GB Patent Application No. 2.022.444 discloses a process for the treatment of oil-containing waste by means of countercurrent extraction in several compartments using a solvent such as kerosene, i.e. a solvent ligther than water. A rotating container is used, said container comprising blades or buckets in each compartment to ensure contact between the waste material and the extractant. This patent application discloses a mechanically complicated process, where the material has to be present in form of an aqueous suspension. The process is applicable for aqueous waste materials and cannot thus be used for purifying contaminated soil materials.
EP Publication No. 0.172.056 Al discloses a method for washing out oil-containing sand or gravel, where the washing is performed with a solvent composition comprising kerosene and surfactants. Subsequent to the washing the solvent and the oily products are separated. This separation is performed by means of intricate equipment comprising hydrocyclones and flocculation units. The method is unsuitable for removing contaminants of a high content of polymeric compounds.
WO Publication No. 82/04440 discloses a method of separating oil or bitumen from oil sands or tar sands, where a chlorinated hydrocarbon, such as methylene chloride, is used as solvent and a liquid, such as water or alcohol, is used for subsequent treatment. The subsequent treatment allows an easy separation of the oily solution from the sand due to the influence of the solvent on the surfaces of the sand grains. It is also possible to use water first and then the extractant, but it is preferred to use water last. When carrying out the method complicated equipment is used, since the sandy material usually has to be ground and mixed mechanically with the liquids used. Moreover centrifugation or fluidisation are used to recover the solvent.
EP Publication No. 0.070.593 Al discloses a method for purifying soil by means of a heating medium, especially steam. The method is carried out in situ by injecting the steam through lances extending into the soil. The volatile contaminants driven out of the soil are collected by means of a vacuum clock. Treating the contaminated soil by heating to high temperatures involves a high energy consumption. Another problem is the risk of the contaminants spreading to the adjacent areas despite the use of the vacuum clock. Moreover the method is difficult to control. Finally said method does not remove non- or low-volatile or solid products, such as asphalt, tar and the like.
Different methods for the recovery of oil, bitumen or bituminous oil from oil sand, tar sand or the like by extraction are also known. Such methods are for instance disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4.424.112, 4.424.113, 4.532.024, 2.596.793, 4.387.016, 3.475.318 and 1.514.113. These methods are, however, directed to recovering the desired materials and are thus not suitable for removing a broad spectrum of contaminants. They are neither intended nor suitable for removing the last residues of the materials/contaminants, since this would render such a process too expensive.
It is also known to remove contaminants by only heating soil. This method does, however, not remove all contaminants. When the material contains for instance high-molecular, chlorinated compounds, such as PCB, chlorinated paraffines or the like, a moderate heating, i.e. a heating to below 1200.degree. C., can cause a partial decomposition of such compounds. The resulting decomposed products can have a negative influence on the environment, as they may be highly toxic, and may exceed the negative environmental impact of the original contaminants.
It is furthermore known to remove contaminants by biological means, which is, however, a very time-consuming process. Moreover, biological methods can only be used in case of slightly oil-contaminated materials. In case of contamination by heavy metals and other substances that can accumulate in an organism, biological cleansing will result in a later secretion of the heavy metals and other substances by the organism involved. As a result the contaminants are only transferred to an organism rather than being completely removed. Biological methods for fighting pollution demand considerable space and depend on various variables, such as the type of pollution as well as temperature and humidity conditions.

Method for decontaminating a material and an assembly for carrying out said method


An improved drawer assembly which may be secured underneath a desk top or the like, the drawer assembly being capable of supporting a computer keyboard or the like for movement between storage and working locations and which will permit the keyboard to be in various positions of vertical and tilting adjustment, which positions of adjustment will be maintained as the keyboard drawer is moved between storage and working positions.

Keyboard drawers are well known in the art and typically comprise a drawer which is mounted upon left and right slide assemblies secured to the bottom surface of a desk top or the like. It is also well known to provide shelves for keyboards which may be mounted either forward of the desk top surface or within a front cutout of the desk, as shown for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,515,086. This patent discloses that the keyboard support may be vertically adjusted and it is also possible, to a limited extent, to tilt the surface shown in this patent. In supports which are mounted forward of the desk top, such as for example as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,691,888, it is also possible to vary the tilt and height of the keyboard. However, the design shown in these latter two patents does not permit the storage of the keyboard under the desk top. Designs which do permit the storage of a keyboard under the desk top are not presently known which permit the height of the keyboard to be varied as well as the tilt of the keyboard, which positions can be maintained as the keyboard is moved between working and storage locations.


An apparatus for measuring velocity relative to a reference plane having a linear sonar array disposed in parallel with the direction of travel and including from the foremost position to the rearmost position a first transmitter, a plurality of first receivers, a second transmitter, and a plurality of second receivers. The second transmitter is controlled to transmit a sonar pulse after a predetermined time delay has lapsed since the first transmitter transmitted a sonar pulse. The predetermined time delay is selected such that the second transmitter transmits the sonar pulse when the second transmitter occupies the position which the first transmitter occupied when it transmitted the first sonar pulse. A first set of reception signals, which are generated by the plurality of first receivers in response to reception of echoes of the first sonar pulse reflected from the bottom, is delayed for the predetermined time delay, and then correlated with a second set of reception signals, which are generated by the plurality of second receivers in response to reception of echoes of the second sonar pulse reflected from the bottom. Based on the result of the correlation, the predetermined time delay may be adjusted. The velocity is then determined and displayed. The process is repeated to continually update the velocity.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for measuring velocity. More particularly, the present invention relates to a velocity correlator utilizing side-looking sonar (SLS) which is useful in underwater vehicles for measuring speed relative to the bottom.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
One conventional technique used in measuring the speed at which an underwater vehicle is travelling relative to the bottom is the Doppler sonar method. To measure the forward velocity of the underwater vehicle using the Doppler sonar technique, two sonar projectors are used which are positioned such that one of the projectors projects a sonar beam in the forward direction and the other projects a sonar beam in the aftward direction of the vessel. When the vessel is moving forward, the received echo of the fore directed beam will exhibit an upward shift in Doppler frequency and the received echo of the aft directed beam will exhibit a downward shift in Doppler frequency. The faster the vessel moves in one direction, the greater the shifts in Doppler frequency. Thus, the velocity of the vessel may be determined by measuring the shifts in Doppler frequency.
The Doppler sonar technique is susceptible to error, however, since the wide beams have spreads of Doppler shifts and the bottom scattering characteristics are not always uniform. Also, bottom slopes cause errors.
In an effort to provide for greater range to the bottom, the correlation velocity log sonar was developed. The correlation velocity log sonar utilizes a single sonar projector which projects a sonar beam vertically downward. A pair of receivers, which are directed downward and spaced apart from one another along the longitudinal axis of the vessel, sense the echo from the projected sonar beam and provide identical output waveforms. When the vessel is moving forward, the aft receiver will sense the echo after the forward receiver causing the output wave form of the aft receiver to be delayed from that of the forward receiver. This delay is equal to the distance between the two receivers divided by twice the velocity of the vessel. Thus, the velocity of the vessel may be determined by measuring the delay between the output signals of the fore and aft positioned receivers having a fixed distance therebetween or, alternatively, by fixing the measurable delay time and altering the spacing between the fore and aft receivers.
Because it is necessary that the delay in which the aft receiver receives the same return echo as the fore receiver is determined precisely, and because the return echo received by the receivers varies when a continuous wave is transmitted by the projector, it is necessary to correlate the output waveforms of the fore and aft receivers and to determine what delay or spacing is required to maximize the correlation.
When the fore and aft positioned receivers have a single fixed distance therebetween, it is necessary to vary a delay introduced into the output waveform of the fore receiver until a correlation of the delayed output waveform of the fore receiver and the output waveform of the aft receiver is maximized. The delay introduced into the output waveform of the fore receiver and the distance between the fore and aft receivers can then be used to calculate the velocity of the vessel.
As an alternative method, the spacing between the fore and aft receivers can effectively be altered by replacing the single aft receiver with an array of receivers having identifiable fixed spacings between each receiver of the array and the forward receiver. Then, by fixing the delay introduced into the output waveform of the fore receiver, the output waveform of the fore receiver is correlated with the output waveform of each of the aft receivers. The correlations are compared to determine which of the aft receivers has output a waveform that has the maximum correlation with the output waveform of the fore receiver. The distance between the fore receiver and the aft receiver having maximum correlation is then used to determine the velocity of the vessel. Further, to more accurately determine the proper spacing, the spacings between the fore receiver and the aft receivers having the two highest levels of correlation may be used to interpolate the proper spacing.
Doppler sonar and correlation velocity log sonar have, at best, accuracies of approximately 0.05 knot.

Apparatus and method for measuring velocity


A method for managing network congestion is provided. The method comprises: receiving, at a receiver, a packet comprising a timestamp provided by a first clock of a sender; deriving, by the receiver, a latency value based at least in part on the timestamp provided by the first clock and a receipt time provided by a second clock of the receiver; determining a latency change by comparing the latency value with a previous latency value; and determining a state of network congestion based at least in part on the latency change.

Congestion situations arise in data communication networks such as when the available transmission capacity of a network node or link is lower than the data rate it needs to relay. Such congestion problems are typically handled by congestion control or congestion management mechanism. Currently, there are several congestion management mechanisms employed to avoid, mitigate, and handle congestion problems. In an example, congestion management mechanisms based on network devices (switch/routers) may be used for detecting congestion. For instance, Quantized Congestion Notification (QCN) is a standardized method for the network switches to convey congestion notifications back to the source nodes. In another instance, Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) is used in the network to provide single-bit feedback to the end-nodes. However, such congestion management methods rely on the networks devices feedbacks which require additional configurations and tuning of intermediate network devices. Moreover, signals derived from queue occupancy such as ECN fail to directly inform end-to-end latency inflated by network queueing. An ECN mark on a packet simply indicates that the queue measure corresponding to the packet exceeds a threshold. In another example, congestion can be detected by measurement of round trip time (RTT). For instance, a queuing delay along a network path between a source and a destination in a network is determined based on the RTT measured along the network path. However, RTT based congestion detection scheme is limited that RTT measurement lump queueing in both directions along the network path. This may confuse reverse path congestion experienced by acknowledgement (ACK) with forward path congestion experienced by data packets.

Methods and systems for network congestion management


A method, apparatus, system and medium for reading data from a tiled memory. In some embodiments a method may, include for one tiled-X cache read request, requesting two cache lines from the tiled memory without fragmenting the tiled-X cache read request, and returning data associated with the two requested cache lines.

Cache memory systems may be used to generally improve memory access speeds in computer or other electronic systems. Increasing cache size and speed may tend to improve system performance. However, increased cache size and speed may be costly and/or limited by advancements in cache size and speed. Additionally, there may be a desire to balance overall system performance gains with overall system costs.
Different types of mapping methods may be used in a cache memory system, such as direct mapping, fully associative mapping, and set-associative mapping. For a set-associative mapping system, the cache memory is divided into a number of "sets" where each set contains number of "ways" or cache lines. Within each set, searching for an address is fully associative. There may be n locations or ways in each set. For example, in a 4-way, set-associative cache memory, an address at the data source may be mapped to any one of 4 ways 0, 1, 2, or 3 of a given set, depending on availability. For an 8-way set-associative cache memory, the address at the data source may be mapped to one of 8 ways or locations within a given set.
Memory management is crucial to graphics processing and manipulating the large amounts of data encountered therewith. As processing requirements increase for graphics, including 3-D (three dimensional) texturing, various aspects of memory allocation and mapping have been considered for improvement to increase graphics processing. In some instances, a memory for graphics data may be organized in tiles. Tile organized memory may allow faster access of graphics data as compared to linearly organized memory.
In some instances, the systems and methods for tile organized memory mapping may be directed to optimizing processing of "y-major" or "tiled-Y" read request operations. In a tiled-Y tiling scheme, two contiguous data structures in the Y-direction are consecutive in memory. Also, Y-major tiling may be an efficient method of organizing memory for graphics texture applications. Some graphics engines and graphics systems load texture data from a processor into cache memory in the Y-direction. Accordingly, a graphics engine or system may be configured or optimized to read graphics data (e.g., texture data) in the Y-direction. Such optimization may allow be tiled-Y read requests to be processed in one clock cycle. However, optimization for one type of operation may have undesired results regarding other operations.

Method and system for symmetric allocation for a shared L2 mapping cache


A two-cycle engine having a fuel injector, scavenge port and an exhaust port is provided with a scavenge pump for supplying scavenging air into a cylinder. An exhaust rotary valve is connected to the exhaust port to open and close the port. Similarly, a scavenge rotary valve is connected to the scavenge port to open and close the port. Engine operating condition including engine speed and degree of depressing the accelerator pedal, representing the engine load, is inputted to a control unit, which variably controls the timings of opening and closing the exhaust and scavenge rotary valves in accordance with the engine operating condition.

The present invention relates to a two-cycle engine with a scavenge pump for feeding air into the engine and with a direct fuel injection system, and more particularly to a system for controlling the timing of opening and closing scavenge and exhaust rotary valves in the engine.
In two-cycle engines, each cycle is completed with one revolution of a crankshaft so that self-intake operation into a cylinder is not carried out. For this reason, a method is used wherein air is induced into a crankcase with the use of vacuum generated in a crankcase while a piston is in its upward strokes, and wherein intake into the cylinder is carried out through a scavenge port by increased pressure in the crankcase due to downward strokes of the piston while the gases produced after combustion in the cylinder is forced out of the cylinder by the scavenging flow of the intake gas. Further, for control depending upon the load on the engine, a throttle valve is provided in an intake system, and the amount of intake is adjusted by varying the degree of opening of the throttle valve.
In such a known system, the scavenging flow tends to be insufficient under low load condition due to a small amount of intake, and this causes misfiring with resultant unstable operation of the engine. Moreover, it is difficult to obtain a smooth torque characteristic of the engine in accordance with operating conditions so that much fuel is consumed and exhaust gas is degraded. Furthermore, there is a limit to increase in the scavenging ability of the engine with such a type of scavenging system using the crankcase pressure. This means that it is difficult to obtain a sufficiently increased torque of the engine under high load.
Under such circumstances, it has been desired to obtain increased scavenging ability and to reduce flow of the fuel through the cylinder. With a view to realizing the above, it has been proposed to use a scavenge pump for increasing the scavenging pressure and to inject the fuel directly into the cylinder chamber by means of a fuel injector so as to prevent the unburnt fuel from flowing through the cylinder during the scavenging.
A two-cycle engine provided with a scavenge pump and a fuel injector is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open (unexamined) Publication No. 62-97,229. The two-cycle engine disclosed in this publication is provided with overhead valves as in the case of a four-cycle engine and with a supercharger in an intake system and an exhaust blower in the exhaust system. The supercharger and/or the exhaust blower are operated depending upon the operating condition of the engine.
In the known two-cycle engine described above, low scavenging efficiency accompanied by the overhead valves must be compensated for by the supercharger and the exhaust blower, so that the engine necessarily has a complicated construction as well as increased loss of power for driving auxiliary mechanisms of the engine. Furthermore, in the known engine, timing of opening and closing the intake and exhaust valves is always fixed, so that it is not possible to increase the scavenging efficiency and the output of the engine in accordance with the engine operating conditions.


The invention relates to a method, system and dispensing device for assisting a patient in complying with a medical regimen. The system includes an electronic dispensing device to be used by the patient which comprises a device to obtain information about the regimen. A device registers operation of the dispensing device by the patient taking the medicines. A warning device reminds a patient of the regimen. A medicine packing station packs the medicine within a package in portions to be taken according to the regimen. A database stores information about the regimen. A service center is provided to assist when necessary. A communication network is provided for communication between the dispensing device and the service center and/or between the service center and the patient.

The discussion below is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Aspects of the present invention relate to a method, system and device for assisting a patient to comply with a medical regimen. Several methods, systems and devices are known in the art and they are all aiming at an improvement of the quality of life of patients by simplifying the compliance by reminding or warning patients when medicines should be taken and by supplying dispensing devices that are simple to operate.

Method, system and device for assisting a patient in complying with a medical regime


A mating assistance device comprises a housing having an opening receiving an electrical connector in a direction of insertion and a locking device movable between an unlocked position and a locked position with respect to the housing. The locking device has a connector pushing element displaceable in the direction of insertion when the locking device moves from the unlocked position to the locked position.

Electrical connector assemblies used for cabins in commercial aerospace and other applications often comprise separate connectors that mate together to form a secure physical and electrical connection. The electrical connector assemblies for aerospace applications, in particular, must also meet altitude immersion requirements.
To achieve an effective, properly aligned, and sealed electrical connection of the connectors, it is common to employ a mating assistance device for connecting the electrical connectors together. The mating assistance devices are usually made of several parts which are assembled by screwing, welding, and/or bonding when the connection between the connectors is achieved. Consequently, the mating assistance devices require the use of additional tools, such as a screwdriver, for the assembly. Furthermore, the mating assistance devices, commonly provided with machined parts, are costly to produce, and are also not sufficiently light for the reduced weight requirements of cabins in commercial aerospace applications.

Mating assistance device for electrical connectors


Irridium complexes with molecular formula of L3Ir, together with application thereof and organic electroluminescent devices, wherein Ir is the central metal atom and L is a ligand. The structure of these complexes is of the following formula (I):

Near-infrared region refers to the spectral range from 700 nm to 2500 nm. Recent years, near-infrared materials and technologies have attracted great attentions from scientific community. In terms of military demand, near-infrared technology could be used as heat source target locking, regional defense, night vision equipment, missile positioning and target tracking; in civil applications, near-infrared technology can be used for thermal efficiency analysis, temperature remote sensing transmission, short-range wireless communication and weather forecasting. In biological tissues and cells, near-infrared light can penetrate the skin into the living tissues, and can avoid the interference of the biological autofluorescence signal. Consequently, near-infrared spectrum is the best biological analysis window. Meanwhile, near-infrared spectrum is also the window of optical fiber communications because near-infrared light source with wavelengths of 1.31 and 1.55 μm can minimize the energy loss of light in the optical fiber. In addition, nearly 50% of the solar energy falls in the near-infrared region, so in order to make full use of them, it is also necessary to develop new type of near-infrared photovoltaic materials.
Iridium complexes are excellent phosphorescent dyes due to their rich photophysical properties, and have been widely used in organic light-emitting devices, sensors, and lasers. At present, Iridium complexes with visible light emission have been successfully developed and applied. However, high-efficiency near-infrared iridium complexes are still rare, which could be ascribed to the contradiction between the red shift of the emission wavelength and improvement of near-infrared luminescence efficiency. In order to make the emission wavelength of near-infrared materials red-shifted, it is necessary to reduce the energy gap between HOMO and LUMO by modifying the molecular structure. However, according to the energy gap law, the reduction of optical energy gap would lead to exponentially increased non-radiative decay rate, and thus resulting in a decrease in luminescence efficiency. How to solve the abovementioned contradiction is the key issue to develop high-efficiency iridium complexes with pure near-infrared. Especially, at present, most of the iridium complexes are heterolepticed, and very few homoleptic iridium complexes have been reported in the near-infrared region.

Iridium complexes and their applications, as well as organic electroluminescent devices

Abstract: Ar is selected from substituted or unsubstituted aryl groups with 6 to 30 carbon atoms, and substituted or unsubstituted heterocyclic aryl groups with 4 to 30 carbon atoms. R1 to R7 are each independently selected from atoms or groups described herein. The substituent group on above-mentioned Ar or R1 to R7 is independently selected from F, Cl, Br, I, CHO, CN, substituted or unsubstituted alkyl or cycloalkyl groups with 1 to 30 carbon atoms, fluoroalkyl groups, alkoxy groups, and thioalkoxy groups.


A dielectric material includes a composite sintered body in which conductive particles are dispersed in an insulating material, in which a dielectric constant at a frequency of 40 Hz is 10 or higher, and a difference between a maximum dielectric loss value and a minimum dielectric loss value at a frequency of 1 MHz in a surface of the composite sintered body is 0.002 or less.

Recently, in a semiconductor manufacturing process, further improvement in a microfabrication technique has been required along with an increase in element integration density and performance. In the semiconductor manufacturing process, an etching technique is one of the important microfabrication techniques. Recently, among the etching techniques, a plasma etching technique capable of microfabrication on a large area with high efficiency has been mainly used.
This plasma etching technique is a dry etching technique. Specifically, a mask pattern is formed on a solid material as a workpiece through a resist. Next, in a state where this solid material is supported in a vacuum, a reactive gas is introduced into this vacuum, and a high-frequency electric field is applied to the reactive gas. As a result, accelerated electrons collide against gas molecules to be in a plasma state. Next, radicals (free radicals) produced from the plasma and ions are caused to react with the solid material so as to be removed as a reaction product. As a result, a fine pattern is formed on the solid material.
On the other hand, in a plasma CVD method which is a thin film forming technique, a compound, which is obtained by plasma causing raw material gases to combine with each other, is deposited on a substrate. In this method, a high-frequency electric field is applied to gases containing raw material molecules to discharge plasma. The raw material molecules are decomposed by electrons accelerated by the plasma discharge to obtain a compound, and the obtained compound is deposited on a substrate. A reaction, which does not occur only with thermal excitation at a low temperature, may occur in plasma because gases in the system collide against each other and are activated into radicals.
In a semiconductor manufacturing device using plasma such as a plasma etching device or a plasma CVD device, in the related art, an electrostatic chucking device is used as a device which simply attaches and fixes a wafer as a workpiece to a sample stage and maintains the wafer at a desired temperature.
This electrostatic chucking device includes: a substantially disk-shaped dielectric plate on which a wafer is placed; and an electrode for electrostatic adsorption that is embedded in the dielectric plate. By applying a direct current voltage between the dielectric plate and the wafer placed on the dielectric plate, an electrostatic adsorption force is generated due to the Coulomb force or a small leakage current. Due to this electrostatic adsorption force, the wafer is fixed to the dielectric plate.
As the dielectric plate used in the electrostatic chucking device, a ceramic such as aluminum oxide, aluminum nitride, or yttrium oxide is generally used.
As such an electrostatic chucking device, for example, an electrostatic chucking device is disclosed in which a base body of an electrostatic chuck includes a ceramic member which is formed of a yttrium oxide sintered body, the yttrium oxide sintered body including 5 vol % to 40 vol % of silicon nitride, and the ceramic member having a volume resistivity of 1×1015 Ω·cm or higher at room temperature and a relative dielectric constant of 10 or higher. As a result, high adsorption force and satisfactory desorption response of a workpiece are realized (Patent Citation 1).
In addition, in order to improve the yield and reliability of a chip in a semiconductor process, it is necessary to reduce an in-plane variation in the surface temperature of a wafer. Therefore, an electrostatic chuck is disclosed in which a semiconductor substrate such as a silicon wafer can be uniformly processed by using an aluminum nitride sintered body. In this aluminum nitride sintered body, when measured at plural measurement points including the center and an outer periphery of a surface of a wafer, an average relative density is 98% or higher, an average volume specific resistance value at 50° C. is 107 Ω·cm to 1012 Ω·cm, an average dielectric loss at a frequency of 1 MHz is 50×10−4 or lower, and a difference between a maximum dielectric loss value and a minimum dielectric loss value is 50% or lower of the average dielectric loss (Patent Citation 2).
On the other hand, as an electrostatic chuck in which the power of suppressing residual adsorption is not likely to deteriorate over time, an electrostatic chuck in which an insulating substrate formed of aluminum oxide or aluminum nitride is used is disclosed (Patent Citation 3).
In this electrostatic chuck, by controlling the dielectric loss of the material used for the insulating substrate to be 1×10−4 or lower, the temperature distribution on the surface of the insulating substrate is improved. As a result, non-uniformity in the surface temperature is improved.
[Patent Citation 1] Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-225185
[Patent Citation 2] Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2003-40674
[Patent Citation 3] Pamphlet of International Re-Publication No. WO2012/014873

Dielectric material and electrostatic chucking device


A method of treating or inhibiting cancer cells grown in the pancreas, liver, kiidney, lymph glands, salivery glands, breast, lung and stomach of humans, which comprises administering an effective amount of a sodium salt, potassium salt or calcium salt of 5,6-O-benzylidene-L-ascorbic acid to a human who is suffering from the growth of cancer cells in the body of the patient.

That a known compound, 5,6-O-benzylidene-L-ascorbic acid of the formula ##STR1## as described in the "Steroids" 12, 309 (1968) is active as an anti-tumor agent and that the new sodium salt, new potassium salt and new calcium salt of the 5,6-O-benzylidene-L-ascorbic acid are also active as an anti-tumor agent are described in the specification of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 683,477 of which the joint-inventors include me. The specification of this pending U.S. patent application also describes that the alkali metal salts and the alkaline earth metal salt of 5,6-O-benzylidene-L-ascorbic acid are readily soluble in water and their aqueous solutions show a pH value of nearly 7.0 and may be administered as injectable aqueous solutions; and further that the anti-tumor activity of the sodium salt of 5,6-O-benzylidene-L-ascorbic acid was tested against fibro-sarcoma Meth-A cells (mouse solid tumor) as implanted in mice. There is also described a particular process of producing 5,6-O-benzylidene-L-ascorbic acid and a metal salt thereof, which process comprises reacting L-ascorbic acid with .alpha.,.alpha.-dimethoxytoluene to produce 5,6-O-benzylidene-L-ascorbic acid, in the presence of an acid catalyst such as p-toluenesulfonic acid under heating and in an inert organic solvent such as dimethylformamide, dimethylsulfoxide and the like.
The preparation of the metal salts of 5,6-O-benzylidene-L-ascorbic acid may conveniently be performed by suspending crystals of 5,6-O-benzylidene-L-ascorbic acid in water, and adding to the resultant aqueous suspension an equi-molar proportion of an alkaline metal compound such as sodium compound, for example, sodium hydrogen carbonate, followed by stirring the mixture, so that the crystals may dissolve in water and undergoes the salt-forming reaction. The resulting reaction solution may then be either lyophilized or added with an organic solvent such as isopropanol in which the sodium salt of 5,6-O-benzylidene-L-ascorbic acid is sparingly soluble, to deposit sodium salt of 5,6-O-benzylidene-L-ascorbic acid as white to pale pink colored crystals. Similarly, the potassium salt of 5,6-O-benzylidene-L-ascorbic acid may be obtained by reaction of 5,6-O-benzylidene-L-ascorbic acid with potassium hydrogen carbonate, and the calcium salt of 5,6-O-benzylidene-L-ascorbic acid by reaction of 5,6-O-benzylidene-L-ascorbic acid with 1/2 molar proportion of calcium carbonate.
The production of 5,6-O-benzylidene-L-ascorbic acid and the alkali metal and alkaline earth metal salts thereof is illustrated in the pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 683,477 with reference to the following Examples 1 to 4.

Method of treating cancer cells in humans


Device for mixing and applying a paste such as bone cement or the like, including a cylinder 3 receiving the paste, a piston 1 reciprocable in the cylinder 3, a piston rod 2 displaceable and rotatable in the piston 1 and forming mixing means 21 for paste received in the cylinder 3, and latch means for interconnecting the piston 1 and the piston rod 2 to allow displacement of the piston 1 in the cylinder 3 by means of the piston rod 2 for deposition of the paste outside the cylinder 2, characterized in that means are provided for locking the piston rod 2 to the piston 1 by jamming, said means allowing the piston rod 2 to be locked to the piston 1 at any position along the complete length of the piston rod 2.

Bone cement is used e.g. in connection with surgical replacement of a hip joint. Bone cement generally consists of akrylate plastic, which is biocompatible. Depending on the use, bone cement has got different viscosity characteristics. For use in connection with hip joint replacements, the viscosity is often quite high, whereas the bone cement used for e.g. spinal disc enhancements has lower viscosity. This invention mainly relates to mixing and application of bone cements with higher viscosity, but is just as useful for low viscosity applications.
For simplicity, the term bone cement will be used throughout this application, although the invention can be used for any other kind of paste that requires mixing prior to application.
Presently, mixing of bone cement ingredients is mostly done in a separate vessel, whereupon the mixed bone cement is put into a bone cement applicator that generally is made of stainless steel. This method has some severe drawbacks:                1. Mixing of the bone cement should preferably be performed under vacuum, since low ambient pressure reduces the presence of gas impurities in the bone cement, that leads to a connection with reduced strength. The vacuum treatment is often performed after the components of the bone cement have been mixed. Applying the prior art method, the mixed (and vacuum treated) bone cement must be put into an applicator, which increases the risk of adding gas impurities to the bone cement.        2. The applicator is usually not of single use type, which makes it necessary to disassemble the applicator to be able to clean it and sterilize it properly after it has been used. Additionally, the applicator wears down by time.
The object of this invention is to provide a single use mixer/applicator in which the bone cement is mixed under vacuum and that is capable of handling bone cement with high viscosity.

Device for mixing and delivering bone cement


A semiconductor device includes a layer having first and second surfaces and a first type first region, a second type second region in the layer between the first region and first surface, a first type third region in the layer between the second region and first surface, first and second gate electrodes, wherein the second region is between the first and second gate electrodes, a first field plate electrode between the second surface and first gate electrode, a second field plate electrode between the second surface and second gate electrode, a first film, at least a portion between the first field plate electrode and first region, a second film at least a portion between the second field plate electrode and first region, and a second type fourth region in the first region between the first and second films. A portion of the first region is between second and fourth regions.

A vertical transistor in which the gate electrode is embedded in a trench is used in order to achieve miniaturization and high performance of a transistor. In the vertical transistor, a drain-to-source breakdown voltage (hereinafter, simply referred to as "breakdown voltage") and on-state resistance have a tradeoff relationship. That is, when the impurity concentration of the drift layer is increased so as to decrease the on-state resistance, the breakdown voltage is lowered. To the contrary, when the impurity concentration of the drift layer is decreased so as to improve the breakdown voltage, the on-state resistance is increased.
As a method of improving the tradeoff relationship between the breakdown voltage and the on-state resistance, a field plate electrode may be provided in the trench below the gate electrode. When the electric field distribution in the drift layer is changed by the presence of the field plate electrode, the breakdown voltage of the vertical transistor is improved in comparison to no field plate electrode when the impurity concentration of the drift layer is maintained the same.
In addition to the improvement of the on-state resistance and the breakdown voltage, it is desirable to decrease parasitic capacitance of the device. For example, in order to improve the switching efficiency of a transistor, it is desirable to decrease an output capacitance (Coss) and an output charge amount (Qoss) at the time of charging and discharging the output capacitance. In addition, in order to prevent switching noise of the transistor, it is desirable to optimize the change (hereinafter, referred to as Coss-Vds curve) of the output capacitance (Coss) in accordance with the change of a drain-to-source voltage (Vds).


A sequence of characters may be evaluated to determine the presence of a natural language word. The sequence of characters may be analyzed to find a subsequence of alphabetical characters. Based on a statistical model of a natural language, a probability that the subsequence is a natural language word may be calculated. The probability may then be used to determine if the subsequence is indeed a natural language word.

Strong passwords are typically an important part of computer system security. A password that is based on a natural language word or on a person's given name may be easy for an unauthorized user to guess and the unauthorized user may thereby gain access to confidential information protected by the password. One way to encourage users to generate strong passwords is to provide visual feedback representing the relative strength of a candidate password, such as a progress bar indicator that increases with password strength.
Some existing methods of password strength measurement analyze candidate passwords by searching through a dictionary of existing words to find matches. This approach has several drawbacks. If, for example, the dictionary is stored on a local device, such as a personal digital assistant or a cellular phone, and a search is performed thereon, the dictionary and search may be resource-intensive in terms of storage space, time, and computing power, and may consume a significant portion of the resources available on the local device. In addition, the results of the search are typically only as good as the searched dictionary, which may be incomplete or outdated. If, instead, the candidate password is generated locally but sent over a network to be evaluated remotely, the user must typically ensure that the network as well as the evaluation program itself may be trusted to keep the password secure.
Accordingly, improved systems and methods of password strength measurement are needed.

Systems and methods for evaluating a sequence of characters


A power supply device includes a control unit performing PFM control for a switching element, a voltage detection unit detecting an output voltage of a converter, and a signal generation circuit. The control unit calculates a first control command value based on the output voltage, calculates a new first control command value adjusting the output voltage to a target voltage, calculates a difference value therebetween, and outputs a voltage, which has a polarity corresponding to the difference value, for a first output period corresponding to the difference value. The signal generation circuit generates a pulse signal in which a frequency increases or decreases in accordance with a first command value voltage corresponding to a charged voltage at a storage element according to the new first control command value. The switching element is driven by the pulse signal that has a finer adjustment unit frequency.

The present invention relates to a power supply device. Specifically, the power supply device performs PFM (pulse frequency modulation) control relative to a switching element by using a digital circuit.
A known power supply device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication Number 2006-295802. This power supply device has a pulse control device that has a clock generator, a pulse driving signal generation unit and a PFM (pulse frequency modulation) control unit. In this pulse control device, the clock generator generates a clock signal, which has any frequency, based on a pulse that is output from an oscillator (not shown) such as a crystal oscillator and supplies the clock signal to the pulse driving signal generation unit. The pulse driving signal generation unit generates a pulse driving signal based on the clock signal that is input and outputs the pulse driving signal to a switching element. Specifically, the pulse driving signal has a switching frequency that is set by the PFM control unit. The PFM control unit performs a PFM operation (calculation), which corresponds to a digital arithmetic process, by sampling a feedback signal that is induced at a secondary winding in a feedback transformer every control cycle. Then, the PFM control unit sets the calculated switching frequency in the pulse driving signal generation unit.
In this pulse control device, first of all, the PFM control unit performs sampling by A/D converting the feedback signal. Next, based on information of an output power after performing sampling, the PFM control unit performs the PFM operation for a pulse frequency (a switching frequency) of the pulse driving signal, which corresponds to a PFM pulse, determines a PFM pulse frequency and sets it in the pulse driving signal generation unit. The operations of the PFM control unit with respect to the determination and setting explained above are repeated. In this case, specifically, the pulse driving signal generation unit counts the clock signal that is input, and at the same time, generates the pulse driving signal by suitably raising or lowering an output signal level according to a count number. Further, as an example, the pulse driving signal generation unit performs a frequency modulation of the pulse driving signal by making a width of an ON period of the pulse driving signal constant and changing a width of an OFF period corresponding to the PFM pulse frequency that is set by the PFM control unit. Therefore, according to the above count number that is counted by the pulse driving signal generation unit, a frequency of the pulse driving signal is defined. Thus, even though Japanese Patent Publication Number 2006-295802 does not disclose it, the above count number that is counted by the pulse driving signal generation unit is considered to be set as a number that shows a determined PFM pulse frequency by the PFM control unit.
The power supply device described above, however, still has some problems to be solved as discussed below. That is, it is necessary in this power supply device that a frequency of the clock signal that is output from the clock generator to the pulse driving signal generation unit must be raised to make an adjustment unit finer in regards to a frequency of the pulse driving signal. However, when the frequency of the clock signal is raised, as a result, an electric part capable of high speed operations needs to be used as an electric part such as a CPU that configures the pulse driving signal generation unit. Therefore, the problems to be solved, such as an increase of noise and an increase of electric power consumption, exist.
The present invention attempts to solve these problems. An object of the present invention is to provide a power supply device that can avoid using high-speed electric parts, and at the same time, that can make an adjustment unit finer in regards to a frequency of a driving signal for a switching element.


The present invention generally relates to processes for the catalytic hydrogenation of halonitroaromatics. In particular, the present invention includes processes for the catalytic hydrogenation of halonitroaromatics such as 2,5-dicloronitrobenzene to 2,5-dichloroaniline over a platinum-containing catalyst. The present invention also relates to processes for producing 3,6-dichloro-2-methoxybenzoic acid.

Halonitroaromatic compounds include various mono- and di-halo substituted nitroaromatics. Specific examples include chloronitroaromatic compounds such as 2-, 3-, and 4-chloronitrobenzene; 2,4-dicloronitrobenzene; 2,5-dicloronitrobenzene; 3,4-dichloronitrobenzene, among others. The catalytic hydrogenation of halonitroaromatics is a reaction of significant industrial importance because the resulting haloaminoaromatic compounds (e.g., haloanilines) are useful as intermediates in the production of certain agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, and polymers. For example, 2,5-dichloroaniline can be used as an intermediate in the production of 3,6-dichloro-2-methoxybenzoic acid (also known by its common name dicamba), which is a highly effective and commercially important herbicide that is useful for controlling a wide variety of unwanted vegetation, including agricultural weeds. Convenient and economical methods of preparing dicamba, therefore, are of significant commercial importance.
Various processes for the catalytic hydrogenation of halonitroaromatics are described in references such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,073,865; 3,145,231; 3,291,832; 4,020,107; 4,760,187; as well as Kosak, "Hydrogenation of Haloaromatic Nitro Compounds," Catalysis in Organic Synthesis, Academic Press, London, 1980, 107-117. One problem typically encountered during the hydrogenation process is the loss of selectivity to the desired haloaminoaromatic product through dehalogenation of the haloaminoaromatic product. Attempts to solve this problem have focused on introducing catalyst modifiers or additives into the reaction medium to suppress the dehalogenation reaction. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,073,865 describes the addition of a hydroxide or oxide of magnesium to the reaction medium as a dehalogenation suppressor. U.S. Pat. No. 3,145,231 discloses the use of cycloaliphatic amines such piperazine and morpholine as dehalogenation suppressors. U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,107 introduces an acidic phosphorous compound to suppress the dehalogenation reaction. U.S. Pat. No. 4,760,187 uses a ruthenium-platinum catalyst for halogenating chloronitrobenzenes to chloroanilines that also reduces dehalogenation. Also, Kosak teaches that the use of a sulfided platinum catalyst is one of the more effective procedures for minimizing dehalogenation.
Although these processes may be effective strategies for minimizing dehalogenation of the halonitroaromatic compound, these processes introduce additional components to the reaction medium or catalyst material. In multi-step processes that include the step of hydrogenating a halonitroaromatic, introducing additional components to the reaction mixture can affect downstream processes and reactions and may necessitate further separation operations, which increase process costs. Also, introducing catalyst modifiers can increase process costs and result in the presence of undesired metal contaminants or the production of other undesired reaction products.
Accordingly, there remains a need for processes for the catalytic hydrogenation of halonitroaromatic compounds that minimize the introduction of extraneous additives and catalyst modifiers but still provide for high selectivity to the haloaminoaromatic product and limit selectivity loss through dehalogenation.

Process for catalytic hydrogenation of halonitroaromatics