The present disclosure discloses an item transfer apparatus, system and method, and belongs to the field of data processing. The method includes: sending, by a terminal, an order instruction of a target item to an order management system, feeding back, by the order management system, order information of an order to the terminal, sending, by the terminal, a resource exchange instruction to a card management system according to the order information and a read e-card, completing, by the card management system, transfer of the exchange resource, sending, by the order management system, an item transfer instruction to an item provider device according to a resource transfer result, and completing, by the item provider device, transfer of the target item. The present disclosure solves the problem that the current item transfer method not only needs to bind an e-card to a mobile phone but also has cumbersome operations; thereby achieving an effect that a user can acquire a target item through the e-card after directly making an order at a terminal without pre-binding or scanning a two-dimensional code or other additional operations.

With development of network technologies, mobile Internet applications related to item transfer are increasingly popular with users. The item transfer means that an item provider device releases item information in a network in advance, and after a user triggers a transfer operation of an item, the item to be transferred is acquired by transferring an exchange resource from a resource account associated with the user to a resource account associated with the item provider device.
At present, more and more terminals support a Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. The NFC technology is a technology evolved from Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). A user can complete item transfer by using an RFID card (e.g., a bus card) on a terminal. The item transfer method generally includes: pre-installing, by a user, an application related to an RFID card on a mobile phone, and binding his/her own RFID card to the mobile phone. When it is necessary to acquire a certain item, the user can acquire item information of the item on a computer and generate an order of the item according to the item information, and the order may correspond to an ID two-dimensional code; then, the user uses the mobile phone to scan the ID two-dimensional code, to make the mobile phone acquire the order of the item; and finally, the user uses the RFID card on the mobile phone to transfer an exchange resource, that is, the exchange resource is transfer from a first resource account corresponding to the RFID card to a second resource account associated with an item provider device, so as to acquire the item. The RFID card belongs to one kind of e-cards, and similar e-cards include NFC labels, non-contact IC cards and iBeacon.
During implementation of the present disclosure, the inventor finds that the technology at least has the following problems: the item transfer method not only requires a user to bind an e-card to a mobile phone in advance, but also, during acquisition, needs to perform multiple steps such as scanning an ID two-dimensional code, acquiring an order and transferring an exchange resource. The whole process is very cumbersome and has low efficiency, and the user can learn operation of the process only with a higher learning cost.

Item transfer apparatus, system and method

Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Company Limited


A decorative shutter assembly includes a plurality of slats or boards arranged in a row presenting a decorative surface with side flanges projecting rearwardly. At least one cross member overlays each of the slats and presents a decorative cross surface with side cross flanges projecting rearwardly. Each cross slat includes at least one mating member affixed behind the cross slat decorative surface having a mating wall affixed to each of the decorative surfaces for affixing the plurality batten slats to the cross slat. Alternatively, a plurality of primary slats are arranged to present a decorative surface having side flanges projecting rearwardly and at least one end piece is attached to the primary slats the ends of the primary slats are received in the end piece for adjoining and aligning said primary slats, said end piece including a cross member traversing said the primary and having slats and slat ends integrated into the end piece, each of said slats and slat ends aligning with one of the primary slats.

The present invention relates to a decorative building shutter for mounting on a wall surface. More specifically, the present invention relates to an improved plastic batten shutter.
Decorative building panels, such as shutters, are widely used in the building industry to add character to a house or other type of building structure. Additionally, decorative building panels are frequently installed on existing structures to change the appearance of the structure. A popular type of building panel that is used is a window shutter. These shutters, which are typically not functional, present a decorative facade that gives the appearance of being a functional shutter.
One popular style of shutter is commonly referred to as a batten shutter. The batten shutter includes a plurality of batten slats or boards arranged vertically in a row. At least one, and usually two, cross slats overlay each of the batten slats. The cross slats adjoin the batten slats forming the batten shutter assembly. A simulated plastic batten shutter commonly includes slats having a decorative surface and flanges projecting rearward from the surface creating a hollow slat that gives the appearance of being a complete wooden slat. While the plastic materials reduce the cost of producing the batten shutter, connecting the slats together is a labor intensive and costly operation.
One such example is U.S. Pat. No. 4,184,300 to Deschamps. Deschamps discloses a batten shutter having plastic batten slats with decorative surface and side flanges. Each batten slat is affixed to a cross slat with pin. Utilizing pins to connect the batten slats to the cross slats adds cost and assembly time due to the increased number of parts required for assembly.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a batten shutter that is simple to produce and yet presents the appearance of being assembled from real wood.


A method for diagnosing pregnancy-related complications in a pregnant woman. The method comprises (a) providing PP13-responding cells having a membrane; (b) exposing the cells to standard PP13; (c) exposing PP13-responding cells to PP13 obtained from the woman, and (d) determining the existence of a modification in the permeability of the cell membrane in (b) and in (c) as a result of exposure to PP13. The modification in permeability in (b) and (c) is then compared, a change in the permeability of (c) as compared to the permeability in (b) indicating the existence of a pregnancy complication in the woman.

The following references are referred to in the text by number:                1. U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,451 to Bohn, et al.        2. WO 99/38970 to Admon et al        3. Than, N. G., et al (1999) Placenta 20:703-710        4. U.S. Pat. No. 5,198,366 to Silberman        5. WO 00/58364 to Paltieli and Rabinovitch        6. U.S. Pat. No. 5,849,474 to Olson, et al.        7. U.S. Pat. No. 5,972,594 to Heine
Each year, approximately one of every three pregnant women experiences a pregnancy-related complication, many being related to placental insufficiency. These figures are rising due to, among others, later pregnancies, inadequate nutrition, increased maternal smoking and the higher incidence of multi-fetal pregnancy. Pregnancy-related complications include spontaneous preterm delivery (SPTD), defined as delivery before the 37th gestation week, intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR), associated with the delivery of babies at the lower 3 percentile for age (severe IUGR) or the lower 10 percentile (mild IUGR), and preeclampsia (PE), defined as pregnancy-induced hypertension coupled to proteinuria. These complications negatively impact the outcome of affected pregnancies, at enormous cost both to the patients as well as to health-care systems.
Placental Protein 13 (PP13) is one of the 56 placental proteins identified to date. PP13 was previously isolated from human placental tissue (1, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference). The protein was characterized by the following parameters: electrophoretic mobility, isoelectric point, sedimentation coefficient, molecular weight determined by ultracentrifugation, molecular weight determined by SDS-PAGE electrophoresis, extinction coefficient and carbohydrate content. The amino acid sequence of PP13 was determined, the full length cDNA was isolated, and the recombinant protein was expressed in various host cells. Sequence analysis revealed resemblence to erthrocyte lysophospholipase A (2). Computer assisted analysis of the deduced amino acid sequence showed that PP13 has the highest homology (56% identity) to the CLC protein, a unique dual-function lysophospholipase. Some authors hypothesize that PP13 is a member of the β-galactosidase binding S-type animal lectin (galectin) superfamily (3). The lysophospholipase activity of PP13 was observed using lysophosphatidylcholine as a substrate.
Utilizing immunoassays based on PP13 and its specific antibody, a test was developed for measuring maternal serum PP13 for predicting pregnancy complication such as severe IUGR, PE and SPTD during pregnancy (4, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference). Both a radioimmunoassay (RIA) and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) were developed using labeled PP13 and anti PP13 polyclonal antiserum, respectively. However, experimental results were given only for the RIA, and not for the ELISA. No further properties of PP13 are disclosed in the Silberman patent. An immunoassay based on the recombinant PP13 is described in WO 99/38970. Subsequently, a more advanced method based on monoclonal antibodies to PP13 and recombinant PP13 was disclosed (5).
There have also been reports in the literature regarding the determination of other placental proteins and their relationship to pregnancy disorders.
A method of diagnosing preeclampsia in a pregnant female by detecting significantly elevated levels of a hemoglobin variant or its precursor, or a red blood cell glycolytic enzyme or its precursor has been disclosed (6).
A method of screening reproductive tract disease, inflammation and preeclampsia in humans by measuring the level of human neutrophil peptide defensins in a sample of bodily fluids has also been disclosed (7). Other measured parameters are beta HCG, PAPP-A, fetal fibronectin or estriol.

Method of diagnosis of pregnancy-related complications


A method of treating or preventing tinea pedis, commonly known as Athlete""s Foot, includes applying a polymerizable monomer adhesive composition to an area of skin afflicted with or susceptible to tinea pedis, optionally with at least one of an additional anti-fungal agent or a foot care additive, and allowing the polymerizable monomer composition to polymerize to form a polymer film over the area of skin.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to treatment and prevention of tinea pedis, commonly known as Athlete""s Foot.
2. Description of Related Art
Monomer and polymer adhesives are used in both industrial (including household) and medical applications. Included among these adhesives are the 1,1-disubstituted ethylene monomers and polymers, such as the xcex1-cyanoacrylates. Since the discovery of the adhesive properties of such monomers and polymers, they have found wide use due to the speed with which they cure, the strength of the resulting bond formed, and their relative ease of use. These characteristics have made the xcex1-cyanoacrylate adhesives the primary choice for numerous applications such as bonding plastics, rubbers, glass, metals, wood, and, more recently, biological tissues.
It is known that monomeric forms of xcex1-cyanoacrylates are extremely reactive, polymerizing rapidly in the presence of even minute amounts of an initiator, including moisture present in the air or on moist surfaces such as animal (including human) tissue. Monomers of xcex1-cyanoacrylates are anionically polymerizable or free radical polymerizable, or polymerizable by zwitterions or ion pairs to form polymers. Once polymerization has been initiated, the cure rate can be very rapid.
Medical applications of 1,1-disubstituted ethylene adhesive compositions include use as an alternate or an adjunct to surgical sutures and/or staples in wound closure, as well as for covering and protecting surface wounds such as lacerations, abrasions, burns, stomatitis, sores, minor cuts and scrapes, and other wounds. When an adhesive is applied to surfaces to be joined, it is usually applied in its monomeric form, and the resultant polymerization gives rise to the desired adhesive bond.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,514,371, 5,514,372, 5,575,997, 5,624,669, and 5,582,834 to Leung et al. disclose the addition of a therapeutic agent in a cyanoacrylate composition. The cyanoacrylate adhesive forms a matrix for the therapeutic agent, with the therapeutic agent being released in vivo over time from the matrix during biodegradation of the polymer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,762,955 to Smith discloses a treatment for healthy, damaged, diseased, or infected biological tissue by applying a bioadhesive coating in conjunction with a medication. The treatment is directed, in part, to treating external biological tissue that may be affected by harmful afflictions such as bruises, burns, dermatological afflictions, infections, gashes, wounds, herpes sores, canker sores, or intra-oral lesions, and skin cancers such as leukemia. Smith further discloses several medications that may be used including corticosteroids, fluoroouracil, obtundants, anesthetics, antibiotics, fungicides, anti-inflammatory agents, antibacterial agents, antiseptic agents, and other medications or combinations of medications used in processes for healing tissue, promoting or preventing blood clotting, destroying cancer cells, palliative treatments and killing of bacteria or viruses.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,880,416 to Horiuchi et al., discloses a dermal bandage of a pre-formed film-like adhesive material for preventing dermally applied ointments, creams, solutions, powders, etc. from falling off, and for delivering drugs, such as anti-fungal agents, to affected parts of the skin. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,716,607 and 5,716,608, both to Byram et al., disclose the use of cyanoacrylate adhesives to prevent ionization radiation damage to skin. Such damage is prevented by applying the cyanoacrylate polymer to the skin to be protected. U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,769 to Barkey, Jr., et al., discloses protecting skin areas from irritation due to contact with artificial devices such as prosthetics, bandages and casts by applying a cyanoacrylate polymer to the desired skin areas that otherwise would be prone to ulceration or irritation by the devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,287,177 to Nakashima et al. discloses a protective covering material for forming a film or coat on the skin or wound surface, wherein the film may contain an anti-fungal agent that is controllably released when the composition is placed in contact with the skin. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,684,042; 5,753,699; 5,762,919; 5,783,177; and 5,811,091 to Greff et al. disclose a cyanoacrylate composition with a compatible anti-fungal agent to form an anti-fungal polymeric cyanoacrylate film to be applied on mammalian skin as wound dressings, wound bandages, surgical incise drapes, wound closure materials and the like.
Tinea pedis, or Athlete""s Foot, is a fungal infection or dermatophytosis of the foot, especially of the skin between the toes, and between the nails, generally caused by fungal species of Microsporum, Trichophyton, and Epidermophyton, particularly by the fungal species of Trichophyton and Epidermophyton. The condition generally includes small vesicles, fissures, scaling, maceration, and eroded areas between the toes and on the plantar surface of the foot, as well as on other skin areas.
Physicians commonly prescribe medications in the form of powders, aerosols, liquids or creams for the treatment of tinea pedis. Such medications are also commonly obtained by individuals xe2x80x9cover-the-counterxe2x80x9d for treatment of the same skin condition. The source of the affliction often is a public safety and health concern, as the occurrence of tinea pedis is higher in public areas such as locker rooms, public showers, sports facilities, and the like.
Often the condition occurs on the skin areas of the feet that are prone to higher levels of moisture and that come into frequent frictional contact with a patient""s clothing or with other skin surfaces. As a result of this frictional contact, topically applied medications can be more easily removed from the affected areas of a patient""s foot. Moreover, topically applied medications are more prone to the affects of moisture that is present at the affected area of skin. These difficulties mean that treatment is significantly reduced, because the medication is not held in place for a sufficient time. As a result, the efficacy of the treatment is significantly reduced, and patients must frequently reapply medications so that the affected area receives proper treatment. Furthermore, the inconvenience of bandages due to constant or frequent movement and flexing of the skin, the small surface area usually involved (such as the toes), friction and moisture, make bandages impractical for minimizing frictional contact that occurs at the affected areas of a patient""s foot, as well as impractical as a means to hold the medication in place for longer periods of time.
In addition, conventional treatment regimens for Athlete""s Foot continue to pose significant public health and safety concerns. Because conventional treatments have the above-described problems of being easily removed from the afflicted skin and being susceptible to moisture, there is a much greater chance that the fungal infection can be spread. This spread of the fungus can be either to other parts of the same patient""s body, or to other individuals.
Despite the known use of adhesives, such as described above, such adhesives have not been used in the treatment of tinea pedis. Instead, the majority of tinea pedis treatments currently on the market include topically applied medications that have the problems of being easily removed from the application site, being prone to moisture effects, and resulting in higher spread or transmission rates. Therefore, there is a need for an alternative tinea pedis treatment that remains at the application site for longer periods, that reduces the spread or transmission of the fungal infection, and that provides fast, effective relief from the symptoms of tinea pedis.
The present invention provides methods for preventing and/or treating tinea pedis by applying a monomeric adhesive composition to the affected area, or to areas that are prone to infection. The monomeric adhesive composition of the present invention preferably comprises a polymerizable 1,1-disubstituted ethylene monomer such as a cyanoacrylate monomer, that may include or be accompanied by an additional anti-fungal agent or foot care additive. The composition reduces moisture contact with the affected skin area, keeps any active ingredients in contact with the affected skin area for a longer time, provides fast and effective treatment of tinea pedis, and can act to prevent infection in the first instance, or prevent the spread of an infection to other areas.
The present invention provides an unexpected treatment or prevention composition and method for tinea pedis, because polymerizable monomers such as 1,1-disubstitutyed ethylene monomers and cyanoacrylates have not previously been used to treat or prevent such skin conditions. Moreover, while such polymerizable monomers have been variously used on other parts of the body, such as for sealing open wounds, their use for treating or preventing tinea pedis, on areas of skin on the foot and between the toes, is an entirely and new and unexpected use of the materials.
The present treatment for or prevention of tinea pedis is advantageous for several reasons. First, because tinea pedis affects the skin on a patient""s foot, it is often very difficult for the patient to keep a treatment agent in contact with the affected skin area for an extended period of time. This is either because frictional contact with the affected area tends to disturb any applied active agents, or because higher levels of moisture present in the area tend to affect or likewise disturb the applied agent. Furthermore, because the treatment and prevention methods of the present invention provide a stronger physical barrier at the affected skin area, the risks of spread or transmission of the fungal infection, either to other areas of the patient""s body or to other individuals, is significantly decreased. The present invention thus provides significant public health benefits.
Because cyanoacrylates tend to polymerize rapidly to form a relatively robust polymerized film, cyanoacrylates applied to an affected area of a patient""s foot (or to an area prone or susceptible to infection) can provide fast, effective protection over the affected area and other skin surfaces. By protecting the affected area from moisture and frictional contact, the cyanoacrylate compound can hold any applied active agents in place for a longer period of time and can accordingly significantly increase the time of exposure of an applied medication to the affected area, ensure more effective treatment, and minimize the possibility of re-infection or transmission of the fungal infection to other areas of the patient""s body or to other individuals. Likewise, the same benefits can be obtained by applying the composition of the present invention to an area prone or susceptible to infection, which in turn aids in preventing spread or transmission of the infection.
In addition to forming a stronger barrier to keep moisture away from the affected area while maintaining active agents in contact with the area, cyanoacrylate compounds are also desirable for the treatment or prevention of tinea pedis because of their inherent anti-fungal properties. In laboratory tests, it has been discovered that at least some cyanoacrylate compounds or formulations, even in the absence of an added anti-fungal agent, appears to inhibit fungal infections. Because of this anti-fungal property, such cyanoacrylate compounds and formulations may be especially desirable for treating or preventing tinea pedis, even without the introduction or pre-application of other anti-fungal agents. Moreover, the anti-fungal properties of such cyanoacrylate compounds and formulations may also be beneficial in instances where an anti-fungal agent is applied before, or together with, the cyanoacrylate, because the cyanoacrylate can continue to provide its anti-fungal effect even after the applied anti-fungal agent has been completely absorbed or used up.
In addition, cyanoacrylate compounds are also useful as anti-fungal agent or foot-care additive carriers or delivery agents. In this capacity, the cyanoacrylate compound provides the same protective and anti-fungal benefits, but also offers the added benefit of enhancing the treatment of the affected area by controllably releasing an anti-fungal agent or foot care additive to the affected area, or providing prolonged preventative benefits to an applied area by controllably releasing an anti-fungal agent to the area.
The present invention also provides various applicators that are suitable for applying the adhesive composition.


Techniques that enable automated processing of news content. A client device receives news content and configures a message for processing by a server. A user of the client device can assign one or more processing attributes to the news content such as scheduling, formatting, or delivery attributes. A message with the news content and assigned attributes is configured according to a predetermined format and transmitted to the server. The server receives the message and may automatically process the news content based upon information contained in the message. Output from the server may be distributed for use at one or more newsrooms.

The present invention relates generally to data processing and, more specifically, to processing, managing, routing, and distributing news content.
Before the wireless revolution in the latter part of the twentieth century, reporters regularly relied upon telegraph, telex, messenger services, wired telephones, facsimile or the like, to report their stories (news content) to news rooms. One limiting factor, however, was that it always required the reporters to be in one spot while writing or reporting the news content.
With the wide-spread availability of wireless communication devices, such as portable telephones, wireless computer connections, or the like, reporters can now write and report news content "on the go." Thus, for example, a reporter may cover an event in the field, and while traveling to their next assignment, the reporter may write-up their story on a computer, a PDA, or the like. When finished, the reporter may wirelessly e-mail the news content to the news room.
Within the new wireless paradigm, the inventors of the present invention have recognized that in addition to receiving the timely news content from reporters, it is just as important for the newsroom to quickly get the news content published (e.g. on-the-air, in-print, web post). Currently, however, the inventors have realized that a substantial amount of human intervention is typically required to transform the news content received from the reporters to something that is publishable. Such tasks may be labor intensive.
The inventors recognize that burden of human intervention may be magnified when the news content from the reporter is distributed to more than one newsroom (e.g. network affiliate). In some cases, each newsroom may have its own criteria for importance of stories, their own formatting requirements, or the like. Because of this, each newsroom would have to manually analyze each e-mailed news report, and reformat the news content in an appropriate manner.
As is understood by the inventors, the value of news often diminishes with the passage of time. For example, news agencies compete fiercely to "scoop" the competition. Accordingly, delay in processing and distributing news content in this competitive environment may have harmful economic consequences.
In light of the above, a system, method, and apparatus, that can process news content quickly and efficiently is desired.

System and method for electronically managing and routing news content


Provided are methods and systems for reducing memory bandwidth usage in a common buffer, multiple FIFO computing environment. The multiple FIFO's are arranged in coordination with serial processing units, such as in a pipeline processing environment. The multiple FIFO's contain pointers to entry addresses in a common buffer. Each subsequent FIFO receives only pointers that correspond to data that has not been rejected by the corresponding processing unit. Rejected pointers are moved to a free list for reallocation to later data.

The art and science of three-dimensional ("3-D") computer graphics concerns the generation, or rendering, of two-dimensional ("2-D") images of 3-D objects for display or presentation onto a display device or monitor, such as a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) or a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD). The object may be a simple geometry primitive such as a point, a line segment, a triangle, or a polygon. More complex objects can be rendered onto a display device by representing the objects with a series of connected planar polygons, such as, for example, by representing the objects as a series of connected planar triangles. All geometry primitives may eventually be described in terms of one vertex or a set of vertices, for example, coordinate (X, Y, Z) that defines a point, for example, the endpoint of a line segment, or a corner of a polygon.
To generate a data set for display as a 2-D projection representative of a 3-D primitive onto a computer monitor or other display device, the vertices of the primitive are processed through a series of operations, or processing stages in a graphics-rendering pipeline. A generic pipeline is merely a series of cascading processing units, or stages, wherein the output from a prior stage serves as the input for a subsequent stage. In the context of a graphics processor, these stages include, for example, per-vertex operations, primitive assembly operations, pixel operations, texture assembly operations, rasterization operations, and fragment operations.
In a typical graphics display system, an image database (e.g., a command list) may store a description of the objects in the scene. The objects are described with a number of small polygons, which cover the surface of the object in the same manner that a number of small tiles can cover a wall or other surface. Each polygon is described as a list of vertex coordinates (X, Y, Z in "Model" coordinates, X, Y, Z, W in "viewer" coordinates) and some specification of material surface properties (e.g., color, texture, shininess, etc.), as well as possibly the normal vectors to the surface at each vertex. For 3-D objects with complex curved surfaces, the polygons in general must be triangles or quadrilaterals, and the latter can always be decomposed into pairs of triangles.
A transformation engine transforms the object coordinates in response to the angle of viewing selected by a user from user input. In addition, the user may specify the field of view, the size of the image to be produced, and the back end of the viewing volume to include or eliminate background as desired.
Once this viewing area has been selected, clipping logic eliminates the polygons (e.g., triangles) which are outside the viewing area and "clips" the polygons, which are partly inside and partly outside the viewing area. These clipped polygons will correspond to the portion of the polygon inside the viewing area with new edge(s) corresponding to the edge(s) of the viewing area. The polygon vertices are then transmitted to the next stage in coordinates corresponding to the viewing screen (in X, Y coordinates) with an associated depth for each vertex (the Z coordinate). In a typical system, the lighting model is next applied taking into account the light sources. The polygons with their color values are then transmitted to a rasterizer.
For each polygon, the rasterizer determines which pixels are positioned in the polygon and attempts to write the associated color values and depth (Z value) into frame buffer cover. The rasterizer compares the depth (Z value) for the polygon being processed with the depth value of a pixel, which may already be written into the frame buffer. If the depth value of the new polygon pixel is smaller, indicating that it is in front of the polygon already written into the frame buffer, then its value will replace the value in the frame buffer because the new polygon will obscure the polygon previously processed and written into the frame buffer. This process is repeated until all of the polygons have been rasterized. At that point, a video controller displays the contents of a frame buffer on a display one scan line at a time in raster order.
With this general background provided, reference is now made to FIG. 1, which shows a functional flow diagram of certain components within a graphics pipeline in a computer graphics system. It will be appreciated that components within graphics pipelines may vary among different systems, and may be illustrated in a variety of ways. As is known, a host computer 10 (or a graphics API running on a host computer) may generate a command list 12, which comprises a series of graphics commands and data for rendering an "environment" on a graphics display. Components within the graphics pipeline may operate on the data and commands within the command list 12 to render a screen in a graphics display.
In this regard, a parser 14 may retrieve data from the command list 12 and "parse" through the data to interpret commands and pass data defining graphics primitives along (or into) the graphics pipeline. In this regard, graphics primitives may be defined by location data (e.g., X, Y, Z, and W coordinates) as well as lighting and texture information. All of this information, for each primitive, may be retrieved by the parser 14 from the command list 12, and passed to a vertex shader 16. The vertex shader 16 may perform various transformations on the graphics data received from the command list. In this regard, the data may be transformed from World coordinates into Model View coordinates, into Projection coordinates, and ultimately into Screen coordinates. Thereafter, the graphics data may be passed onto rasterizer 18, which operates as summarized above.
Thereafter, a Z-test 20 is performed on each pixel within the primitive. Comparing a current Z-value (e.g., a Z-value for a given pixel of the current primitive) with a stored Z-value for the corresponding pixel location performs a Z-test. The stored Z-value provides the depth value for a previously rendered primitive for a given pixel location. If the current Z-value indicates a depth that is closer to the viewer's eye than the stored Z-value, then the current Z-value will replace the stored Z-value and the current graphic information (e.g., color) will replace the color information in the corresponding frame buffer pixel location (as determined by the pixel shader 22). If the current Z-value is not closer to the current viewpoint than the stored Z-value, then neither the frame buffer nor Z test unit contents need to be replaced, as a previously rendered pixel will be deemed to be in front of the current pixel. For pixels within primitives that are rendered and determined to be closer to the viewpoint than previously-stored pixels, information relating to the primitive is passed on to the pixel shader 22, which determines color information for at least one of the pixels within the primitive that are determined to be closer to the current viewpoint.
The multiple steps of processing associated with a pipeline may be accomplished using a plurality of data storage buffers between stages. Efficient implementations of data storage buffers can provide significant performance benefits as well as reduce overall hardware expenses for data buffering. Modern GPU pipelines have significantly complex shape and efficient implementation of data storage buffers can become a challenge. Thus, a heretofore-unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.

Systems and methods for providing a shared buffer in a multiple FIFO environment


An instant message (IM) interface configured to extend a target application over an IM link of a communication network is provided according to the invention. The IM interface includes a communication interface configured to transfer a reply IM to an originating application. The IM interface further includes a processing system configured to obtain data from the target application and provide an output form to a messaging Application Programming Interface (messaging API). The output form is provided from a set of Forms Definition Language (FDL) forms. The messaging API is substantially protocol-dependent and the set of FDL forms is protocol-independent. The processing system is further configured to generate the reply IM in an originating application protocol using the data, the output form, and one or more protocol-specific libraries of the messaging API. The reply IM is an originating application protocol-specific IM.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to the field of communications, and in particular, to an instant message (IM) interface and method for extending a target application over an IM link.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Modern communication devices have been developed with many advanced capabilities. One example is a telephone that is capable of communicating over wires or wirelessly. Other communication devices include computers and portable computers, pagers, portable digital assistants (PDAs), etc. Such communication devices are capable of sending and receiving voice and text communications, and can transfer data wirelessly or over one or more wires.
The increasing capabilities of communication devices have resulted in an increased demand for data exchange. For example, a communication device can be used to request employee data, such as from an employee directory. A relatively instant data exchange can enhance communications, enable better decision-making, and boost productivity. Data exchange is most beneficial when the desired data is remote, and an electronic data exchange quickly and efficiently obtains the desired data.
Instant Message (IM) is a type of communication wherein a source device signals a destination device with a message and receives a response substantially in real time. For packet networks (i.e., computer networks), instant messages travel substantially instantly to the computer device of the recipient. The recipient receives the message and can generate and send a response, also in substantially real time. For switched networks, such as wireline and wireless telephone networks, an instant message can be transmitted from the source to destination using a signaling channel, also substantially in real time. IM typically transfers relatively small, simple messages, such as a text message.
A relatively new prior art development in communications technology is the use of IM for exchanging data between a communication device and a target application over a communication network. An instant message is created and formatted according to the protocol utilized by the target application. The message is transferred to the target application substantially in real time, and the target application responds with requested data and/or a requested operation, also substantially in real time.
However, this prior art approach has drawbacks. The originating application on the communication device must create the message in a proper protocol for the target application. In order to do this, the prior art approach has been to create or modify the originating application in the protocol of the target application. Therefore, an originating application will perform transactions only with a known target application. New originating applications that are later installed on the communication device may not work with the target application and may require modification by a developer. In addition, if the user desires to communicate with new target applications, the originating application will need to be modified in an appropriate manner. An originating application on the communication device must therefore be modified to achieve the protocol of a target application. In addition, the communication device in the prior art may need to be modified for each target application.

Interface and method for extending a target application over an instant message link of a communication network


A substrate treatment process is disclosed to remove organic matter existing on a substrate such as a wafer, glass substrate or ceramic. The process comprises treating the substrate with ozone water and then with hydrogen water, or treating the substrate with ozone-hydrogen water or treating the substrate with ozone water and hydrogen water at the same time.

a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process and apparatus for treating a variety of substratesxe2x80x94such as wafers, glass substrates or ceramic substrates for forming semiconductor devices thereon (hereinafter called xe2x80x9csubstratesxe2x80x9d)xe2x80x94by cleaning off, subsequent to formation of a fine arrangement of electrical component parts or a circuit (hereinafter may be commonly called xe2x80x9cpatternxe2x80x9d) on the substrates, foreign matter such as organic matter remaining on the substrates and other foreign matter adhered during or after the formation of the pattern.
The term xe2x80x9cozone waterxe2x80x9d as used herein means water which is available by dissolving an ozone-containing gas in ultrapure water. The term xe2x80x9chydrogen waterxe2x80x9d as used herein means water which is available by dissolving a hydrogen-containing gas in ultrapure water. Further, the term xe2x80x9cozone-hydrogen waterxe2x80x9d as used herein means water which is available by dissolving an ozone-containing gas and a hydrogen-containing gas in ultrapure water or by mixing ozone water and hydrogen water.
b) Description of the Related Art
When forming a pattern on a substrate, an organic material such as a photoresist (hereinafter called a xe2x80x9cresistxe2x80x9d) is coated on the substrate, exposed and then developed to form a desired resist pattern, and the substrate is thereafter subjected to treatment such as etching at a surface thereof. Subsequent to this treatment, any unnecessary resist on the substrate is removed.
After the removal of the resist, it is necessary to clean off very small pieces of the resist, said pieces still remaining on the substrate, and other foreign matter adhered during or subsequent to the formation of the pattern. Conventional cleaning processes for this purpose are classified into wet processes or dry processes depending on the kinds and properties of the resists and the forming steps of component parts.
In the wet processes, a chemical solution which contains sulfuric acid, hydrogen peroxide or the like as a principal component and has oxidizing power is used in many instances (SPM treatment). In the dry processes, on the other hand, organic matter or the like on a substrate is removed by ashing the same while using oxygen as a primary process gas. Depending on the state of contamination of a substrate, cleaning treatment is also performed making appropriately combined use of ashing treatment with oxygen plasma, SPM treatment, and treatment with a chemical solution containing ammonia and hydrogen peroxide or the like as principal components (APM treatment).
As illustrative conventional techniques for such treatment of substrates, JP 10-298589 A discloses a process in which subsequent to plasma ashing of a resist, organic matter and the like on a substrate are removed using ozone water with a basic fluoride added therein. A process is proposed in JP 9-255998 A, in which ultraviolet rays are irradiated in the presence of ozone gas to remove fine organic particles which are remaining on a substrate. JP 10-41262 A discloses to use carbonated water or hydrogen water, which has been prepared by dissolving hydrogen gas in ultrapure water, for the removal of fine metal particles while minimizing corrosion of a pattern such as metalization, i.e., a deposited film pattern of a conductor material. Further, it is proposed in JP 10-128253 A to clean and rinse a substrate under exposure to supersonic waves in hydrogen water which has been prepared by dissolving hydrogen gas to a concentration of 0.05 ppm or higher in ultrapure water.
The cleaning with ozone water subsequent to ashing as disclosed in JP 10-298589 A involves a potential problem in that a substrate may be damaged as the plasma ashing is performed with high energy, and the cleaning treatment with the ozone water is accompanied by a further potential problem in that the damage may be deteriorated. In addition, surface roughening may also occur by a cause other than the plasma ashing, and the cleaning with the ozone water has a potential problem in that damage may be spread from such surface roughening. The process disclosed in JP 9-255998 A, in which ultraviolet rays are irradiated in the presence of ozone, is intended for fine organic particles, and cannot be applied for stripping a resist. The cleaning with ozone water, which is disclosed in JP 10-41262 A, is intended to remove fine metal particles, and the effect of the ozone water depends upon the concentration of ozone contained in the ozone water. The concentration of ozone in conventional ozone water, which is available at room temperature under the surrounding atmospheric pressure, is its saturated concentration at the maximum, and therefore, this cleaning process is not considered to be effective for the removal of organic matter still remaining after dry ashing of a resist. Further, the process disclosed in JP 10-128253 A, in which a substrate is soaked in hydrogen water prepared by dissolving hydrogen gas to a concentration of 0.05 ppm or higher in ultrapure water and is exposed to ultrasonic waves, relates to rinsing treatment, and this patent publication makes no mention about the removal of a residue of a resist after dry ashing of the resist.
Of these conventional processes, the wet processes use one or more chemicals such as sulfuric acid, hydrogen peroxide and/or ammonia upon treatment, and may develop one or more defects in a formed pattern due to formation of sulfuric acid vapor, which gives detrimental effects such as corrosion to a substrate, or due to incorporation of a metal component such as iron due to the use of ammonia. Avoidance of these problems leads to a further problem that subsequent to the treatment, a great deal of cleaning water is needed, resulting in a substantial load of effluent on the environment. On the other hand, the use of oxygen plasma in the dry processes involves a problem in that a substrate, which is chemically sensitive, and a pattern formed on the substrate may be damaged because the plasma has high energy.
An object of the present invention is, therefore, to provide a substrate treatment process and apparatus, which can achieve similar cleaning effects as the conventional techniques without needing use of sulfuric acid, hydrogen peroxide, ammonia, oxygen plasma and/or the like as an essential requirement and without causing production of harmful vapor, incorporation of a metal component such as iron, damage to a substrate, a pollutant load on the environment, or the like.
The above-described object can be achieved by the present invention. In one aspect of the present invention, there is thus provided a substrate treatment process for removing organic matter existing on a substrate, which comprises the following consecutive steps:
treating said substrate with ozone water which has been prepared by dissolving an ozone-containing gas in ultrapure water; and
treating said substrate with hydrogen water which has been prepared by dissolving a hydrogen-containing gas in ultrapure water.
In another aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a substrate treatment process for removing organic matter existing on a substrate, which comprises the following step:
treating said substrate with ozone-hydrogen water, which has been prepared by dissolving an ozone-containing gas and a hydrogen-containing gas in ultrapure water, or with ozone-hydrogen water prepared by mixing ozone water, which was in turn prepared by dissolving an ozone-containing gas in ultrapure water, and hydrogen water which was in turn prepared by dissolving a hydrogen-containing gas in ultrapure water; or treating said substrate with said ozone water and said hydrogen water at the same time.
In a further aspect of the present invention, there is also provided a substrate treatment apparatus for a substrate, comprising:
a treatment vessel,
a substrate holder for rotating said substrate in a horizontal plane in said treatment vessel,
a nozzle unit arranged in an upper part of said treatment vessel such that a liquid is downwardly fed,
a feed line for feeding the liquid to said nozzle unit, and
a chamber enclosing therein said apparatus in its entirety;
wherein said nozzle unit is constructed in a form of a bar such that as viewed in plan, the liquid ejected from said nozzle unit reaches, with an area range having a length not smaller than a diameter of said substrate and a width smaller than said diameter of said substrate, said substrate. The substrate treatment apparatus is suited for practicing the substrate treatment processes.
The processes according to the present invention use only ozone and hydrogen waters or ozone-hydrogen water to remove unnecessary resist after formation of an arrangement of electrical component parts or a circuit, that is, a pattern on a substrate, and therefore, are low-cost processes which give neither substantial pollutant load on the environment nor damage to the pattern. The processes of the present invention are expected to minimize corrosion-related reductions in electrical characteristics of a device and hence to bring about improvements in production yield, so that they make it possible to lower the running cost of a semiconductor fabrication system and also to improve the safety. As is appreciated from the foregoing, the series of treatments in the cleaning step subsequent to the stripping of a resist, said treatments making use of ozone and hydrogen waters or ozone-hydrogen water, can solve various problems in future manufacturing business, such as energy conservation, owing to a reduction in the pollutant load on the environment and simplification of the device forming steps.
Fine particles existing on a substrate, such as pieces of a resist, have heretofore been removed using sulfuric acid, ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, organic solvent or the like. As the processes of the present invention do not use these chemical solutions, they do not significantly corrode the arrangement of component parts or the interconnecting conductive material. Damage to the arrangement of the component parts or the circuits is thus reduced, leading to improvements, for example, in the reliability of performance of the device. This can obviate a step for the prevention of corrosion or, even if such a step is still needed, the cost of materials employed for such treatments can be reduced. On the other hand, the reduction in the corrosion to the interconnecting conductive material leads a reduction in the electrical resistance of the device, a reduction in the power consumption by the device, and a higher speed in the performance of the device.
The conventional treatment in which hydrogen water is used in an activated form is said to permits removal of very fine particles. The processes of the present invention have a significance in that owing to the above-described combination of the treatment with ozone water and the treatment with hydrogen water or the above-described use of ozone-hydrogen water, steps ranging, for example, from the stripping of a resist or the like to the subsequent cleaning can be conducted together without using a conventional chemical solution of high purity such as sulfuric acid. Use of the processes and apparatus according to the present invention, which have enabled it, has made it possible for the first time to perform the treatment.
According to the present invention, the resist stripping step and the cleaning step can be conducted together. This has made it unnecessary to carry each substrate from one processing step to another, thereby brining about merits such as a reduction in the risk to contact a dangerous chemical solution and a reduction in the risk to contact a pollutant. Owing to these merits, the single-step treatment can contribute to a reduction in cost.

Substrate treatment process and apparatus


Example modular optical network terminals (ONTs) and methods to implement the same are disclosed. A disclosed example ONT includes a base unit having an integral optical interface to optically couple the ONT to an optical network, and to convert an optical signal received from the optical network to form an electrical signal, a plug-in service module to distribute the electrical signal within a customer premises, and a modular interface connector configured to receive the plug-in service module and to couple the electrical signal from the base unit to the plug-in service module.

Increasing numbers of customer premises have access to high-speed and/or broadband Internet connectivity. Such broadband connectivity can be used to enable the delivery of a wide range of services including, for example, "triple-play" services that include voice, data and television. In some instances, a network terminal, such as an optical network terminal (ONT), is installed at a customer premises to communicatively couple the customer premises to a service provider network via a single high-speed communication link. The network terminal receives data associated with a plurality of services and/or communication sessions via the communication link, and distributes the data among and/or to a plurality of interfaces that are accessible to and/or useable by persons at the customer premises. Likewise, the network terminal receives data associated with the plurality of services and/or communication sessions via the user accessible interfaces, and combines them together for transport to the service provider network via the high-speed communication link. Example technologies that may be used to implement the high-speed communication link include, but are not limited to, fiber optic technologies, coaxial cable technologies, and digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies.

Modular network terminals and methods to use the same


There is provided a Multi-functional measuring and waveform-generating equipment with a probe. The equipment is capable of measuring element values of electric or electronic devices and electrical quantities such as a voltage, and generating electrical signals with various waveforms. Also, a user can conveniently manipulate and handily carry it. The equipment provides functions of measuring a voltage, a resistance, an inductance, capacitance, a frequency, the number of pulses, and the voltage level of a logic signal; verifying diode polarities, measuring the voltage level of a pulse signal, and modes generating a rectangular pulse train and a PWM signal by the simple combinations of two switches. Additionally, it also offers a much cheaper equipment than other existing expensive apparatuses, and provide better usability at experimental environments because it is small-sized, light, and conveniently portable, compared to conventional equipments that are large-sized, heavy, and not easy to carry.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a Multi-functional measuring and waveform-generating equipment, and more specifically, relates to a Multi-functional measuring and waveform-generating equipment with a probe configured to be capable of generating signals with various waveforms, and measuring element values of electric or electronic devices and electrical quantities such as a voltage and a current. Also, the equipment can easily be manipulated and provide convenient portability, compared to existing conventional equipments.
2. Description of Related Art
The measuring equipment is roughly classified into circuits for measuring electrical quantities such as a voltage, a current, an electric power, a resistance, impedance, admittance, and an inductance, and circuits for measuring non-electrical quantities such as a rotation angle, a position, pressure, a magnetic field, temperature, humidity, gas, and ions, according to measurement purposes or quantities to be measured.
As a conventional art related to the above, Korean Patent Application Publication No. 1999-0070234 discloses a digital apparatus for testing Multi-functions.
The digital multi-meter according to the disclosed art, may be configured to select a measurement range of current to be adjusted into high or small range, in order for direct current or alternating current values to be measured accurately using a microcontroller; and may be configured to display a measured value in the selected range on a display device using numbers.
However, the measuring apparatus of the conventional art as above had problems of low portability and occupying big space when being used, because it is big and heavy.
Further, the apparatus of the conventional art had a problem that several functions for measuring a voltage, a resistance, an inductance, capacitance, a frequency, the number of pulses, and the voltage level of a logic signal; and distinguishing diode polarities, measuring the voltage level of a pulse signal; and generating a rectangular pulse train and a pulse width modulation (PWM) signal cannot be provided in one apparatus.

Multi-functional measuring and waveform-generating equipment with probe

INDE UNIVERSITY INDUSTRY-ACADEMIC COOPERATION FOUNDATION


A stormwater runoff treatment system that offers an economical means of achieving highly efficient, effective, and compact means of treating runoff through a unique method of flow restrictions, diversions, elevation differences and strategically located components to achieve a combination of treatment advantages.

Stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces is a serious environmental problem due to the pollutants contained in the water and the additional volume of runoff that is created because the impervious surface no longer allows water to enter the ground. While the field is replete with technologies that clean or filter the water and some that attenuate or slow down the water, there are few that combine all of the above.
The present invention is a unique method of treating and routing stormwater runoff that enables a highly efficient, effective, and compact means of treating the runoff.
Stormwater runoff has a significant variation in intensity: from a light drizzle with virtually no measureable runoff to an extreme intensity localized thunderstorm with flash flooding runoff levels. To remove the level of pollutants required to meet today's regulations, filtration is most often required.
With a filter having a limited flow rate, it takes a substantial filtration area to treat peak flows. The filtration area can be reduced by storing the water prior to filtration and filtering it over time. For example, storage and filtering over a 24 hour period. This storage and delayed release reduces the impacts of peak intensity storms and at the same time reduces the risk of downstream flooding
In addition, with the focus on reduction of runoff through ground water replenishment or infiltration, water can be recharged through placing it in a stone pit or equivalent to allow it to percolate into the ground. However this also takes time. A very important element to the longevity of the recharge is that only clean water is recharged because the pollutants will quickly occlude the surface soils in the recharge area and diminish its effectiveness.

Stormwater treatment system flow optimization


A method for producing semiconductor components and a component obtainable by such a method is disclosed. The method comprises the following steps: fixing a conductive film on a carrier; adhesively bonding semiconductor chips onto the conductive film using an adhesive layer, wherein active surfaces of the semiconductor chips, the active surfaces having connection contacts, are situated on that side of the chips which faces the film; overmolding the chips adhesively bonded onto the conductive film with a molding compound; and releasing the conductive film with the overmolded chips from the carrier. In this case, the adhesive layer is structured in such a way that at least connection contacts of the semiconductor chips are free of the adhesive layer and are kept free of the molding compound.

The present disclosure relates to a method for producing semiconductor components, and a semiconductor component obtainable by such a method.
In consumer electronics (CE), microelectronic components (integrated circuits; IC) for the first-level package are generally arranged alongside one another or one above another on a leadframe (quad flat pack no lead; QFN) or laminate substrate (leadless grid array; LGA or ball grid array; BGA) and contact-connected by means of wire bonding or flip-chip techniques. After chip mounting, the leadframe or the laminate substrate is encapsulated with molding compound by injection molding and singulated by means of sawing. These arrangements are soldered onto the second-level printed circuit board in a reflow soldering method.
The so-called "leadless" housings, such as e.g. LGA or QFN, are increasingly superseding the conventional housings having pins, such as small outline integrated circuit (SOIC) or plastic leaded chip carrier (PLCC).
The LGA technique is a serial packaging process comprising die attach, wire bonding and molding, also called transfer molding. Moreover, a comparatively large amount of space is required in the package for the wire bonding connections. In the course of progressive miniaturization, new packaging approaches are being pursued for applications appertaining to microelectronics. In so-called "embedded wafer level ball grid array" methods, the chips, in a "pick and place" process, are placed with the active surface downward onto a carrier provided with a two-sided adhesive film, and are subsequently overmolded. This gives rise to a so-called composite wafer or reconfigured wafer (reconstituted wafer) in the shape of a plastic wafer, preferably in wafer form, in which the chips are embedded. This plastic wafer is then removed from the carrier, as a result of which connections of the chips are exposed. A redistribution wiring can then be carried out as a result. The conventional thin-film technologies and materials are used for the redistribution wiring. The connection pads, also called connection contacts, of the composite wafer are subsequently provided with solder bumps. The components are singulated from the composite wafer by means of sawing.
DE 10 2007 020 656 A1 discloses a workpiece comprising semiconductor chips and a method for producing such a workpiece. The production method comprises the steps of providing at least two semiconductor chips having a first main surface and a second main surface, positioning the semiconductor chips with their first main surfaces on the top side of a carrier plate, applying an electrically conductive layer to regions of the second main surfaces, and applying a potting compound to the electrically conductive layer.

Method for producing semiconductor components, and corresponding semiconductor component


A method, apparatus, and system are disclosed that provide for a secure download of a media asset from a video-on-demand server responsive to a user request. The media asset may be routed to a recorder device for storage purposes. The media asset may also be streamed to a set top box for (simultaneous) playback on, e.g., a television. The media asset may subsequently be played from the storage on one or more media players.

The distribution of copyrighted media asset content, such as television shows, movies, songs, books, etc., has always struggled to balance several competing concerns: First, the consumers of the content would like to access the content at their convenience, which may mean, for example, starting a movie at any time the user desires. Second, the providers of that content need to prevent unauthorized viewing or copying of the content. The balance occurs as providers try to offer more user convenience but in a protected manner.
A cable television service's video on demand (VOD) feature is an example of this balance. Cable television subscribers can make a VOD request at the time of their choosing, but the request can only work within the protected confines of the cable television environment. The requested VOD content is authorized for playback only on the subscriber's set-top box terminal, thereby keeping the content secure from unauthorized copying. Similarly, a cable television subscriber may use a digital video recorder (DVR) to record broadcasted content to the DVR's hard drive, and play it back at some other time, but the recorded contents of the hard drive are not accessible to devices other than the DVR. That again helps maintain security in the system.
There remains, however, an ever-present demand for greater convenience to the user, and for greater security for the content provider.


The invention relates to a method and apparatus for recording and maintaining stored information system object relationship information. Information contained within a stored information system (including system catalogs, referential constraints, triggers, table hierarchies, column references, indexes, stored program packages, system catalogs, stored procedures, stored queries, log/trace files of dynamically executed code, etc.) are searched to identify dependency relationships between objects. This object relationship information is stored and maintained in an information base. Information within the information based may be organized based upon subsets of objects that support a common application, service, or capability. Object relationship data is used to facilitate stored information system administration activities such as generating/restoring from archives, physically/logically segmenting data objects, replicating data objects; optimizing the distribution of data in distributed data system; and estimating operational capacity.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to stored information systems. More particularly, it relates to the recording and management of relationships between data objects and their dependencies and can identify and manage families or sets that need to be treated as a unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today's stored information systems (e.g., database management systems, file management system, etc.) optionally allow objects defined within the system to be related to (i.e., dependent upon) other objects defined within the stored information system in numerous complex ways. Often these interdependency relationships are not easily identifiable or documented as participating in an application set (i.e., a set of files/database tables/metadata, etc. that needs to be maintained as a consistent unit at all times). While it is common to have good documentation of individual objects and their parts, relationships between all objects included in an application are not, generally, fully documented. This is due, in part, to the breadth of detail associated with capturing a complete set of object relationships related to a specific application set. The granularity of the required information spans from complete objects to elements. Furthermore, the human effort required to collect and continuously maintain such an information base is significant and a single omission can negate the value of all efforts made.
An application set includes documented and undocumented relationships between objects associated with an application or capability supported by the stored information system. To assure consistency, objects associated with an application set should be treated on an all or nothing basis. For example, backup and recovery operations should include all tables and other objects associated with an application set to assure integrity of all the information needed to support the common application or capability.
Consistency of the application set requires backup and recovery of all the objects in the set to the same point in time. Knowing the objects associated with an application set, therefore, is very useful knowledge for planning backup and recovery strategies, storage assignments, disaster recovery, performance analysis, archiving, selective partial archiving, relocation, replication, capacity planning and other uses.
Computer based systems undergo constant maintenance and migration of objects and applications. With addition, deletion, and archiving of objects and applications it is common for one or more objects associated with an application set to be omitted from critical administrative procedures, thus jeopardizing the integrity of the application set and jeopardizing full operational processing capability, either immediately, or at some future point in time when, for example, defective archives are used in an attempt to restore a fully operational system. This is especially true for internally developed applications with which support staff may be unfamiliar and/or applications containing some stored information system objects the use of which is occasional or dynamic.
Hence, there remains a strong need for methods, apparatuses, and interfaces that allow stored information system object relationship information to be discovered, stored and maintained. Further, there is a strong need for object relationship information that can be used to streamline stored information system administration processes and to assure consistency of stored information system application sets.

Method and apparatus for recording and managing data object relationship data

International Business Machines Corporation


In a method for decorating a plastic package, on at least a part of a surface of the plastic package, portions which are different in optical characteristics from the surface are periodically arranged to decorate the surface.

Plastics are suitable for mass production because of easy molding. Moreover, since the plastics possess excellent physical properties such as transparency and impact resistance, they have been widely used as various kinds of packages such as bottle containers, cups, pouches, and packaging sheets.
These packages are packed with various kinds of drinks, seasonings, cosmetics, drugs and the like as contents. However, some of these contents change in quality or deteriorate by a light, and therefore, for the purpose of protecting such contents from the light, the packages are colored in some cases. Furthermore, in order to differentiate commercial products from other similar products by giving the beauties with decorating the packages, the packages are sometimes colored as a part of the decoration of the packages.
In general, the plastic packages are colored by mixing colorant such as pigment or dye into plastic which is main material of the packages. When the coloring agent is mixed, the packages absorb a light having specific wavelength to cause color appearance.
The wavelength of the light absorbed by a substance depends on a chemical structure of the substance, and therefore, in order to obtain a specific color, it is necessary to use a specific chemical substance.
Typical examples of the packages which are colored by mixing the colorant are as follows.
Plastic containers colored green, blue, brown and the like by mixing various pigments or dyes into resins are examples thereof. With these containers, penetration of the wavelength components of the light which is absorbed by coloring components into the containers is restricted, and in consequence, the protection of the contents that are apt to change in quality or to deteriorate owing to a light beam, i.e., visible light barrier performance, is imparted. In addition, the containers colored with a specific color can create a product image and can be differentiated from other products, so that it is possible to enhance buying desire of consumers for the own products.
In recent years, however, from the viewpoints of the saturation of landfill sites and resource saving, the recycle of resins has been promoted, but it is difficult to reuse the colored packages. In particular, PET bottles (bottles formed using PET (polyethylene terephthalate) as a fundamental resin) are required to be colorless at a time when they are treated as recycled materials.
Therefore, in the case of the PET bottles colored with colorant constituted of conventional chemical substances, it is difficult to decolor them, which makes their recycle severe. Although this problem is common to the whole plastic packages, it is particularly serious for the PET bottle because of its amount of usage.
As a measure therefor, packages have been decorated by covering the packages with colored labels and, during the reproduction, the packages themselves are separated from the labels and then processed.
This method satisfies recycle properties of the packages themselves, but it is necessary to peel and separate the labels from the packages after their use.
On the other hand, there are cases where coloration is made by not a chemical coloring mechanism but a physical coloring mechanism in which reflection or interference of the light is utilized.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 80928/1996 proposes a package which develops a chromatic color by providing, on an outer layer of a thermoplastic resin layer, a layer containing a scaly thin film having a high refractive index so that the scaly thin film may be oriented in a plane direction of the surface of the package.
In the package, however, a large amount of a mica/titanium pigment or the like is used as the scaly thin film, and hence, separation of the material is necessary during the recycle, which still makes their recycle severe. Therefore, the above method of the coloration by the physical coloring mechanism is not allowed in a flow of the present recycle, as in the case of the above method by the chemical coloring mechanism.
As another example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 250741/1998 (pages 1 to 4, FIGS. 1 to 10) proposes a transparent container in which a laminate film of a predetermined shape having a thin-film interference function is arranged along the inside of a main body of the transparent container.
However, since the transparent container must involve the laminate film therein, this technology is limited to bottles having a mouth part of an inside diameter smaller than that of the body part. Therefore, it is impossible to apply the technology to cups, trays, and the like molded from plastics. In addition, since the laminate film is in contact with contents, there arises a hygienic problem in a case where the contents are foods.
As described above, in the present packages employing the chemical coloring mechanism, the pigments or dyes blended in the packages cannot be removed in the process of the recycle.
Therefore, there is a problem that the packages once colored cannot be remanufactured in the form of the transparent packages.
A flow from the manufacture to the recycle of the packages, e.g., the PET bottles can be mainly classified into a manufacture process, a distribution process, and a collection/remanufacture process, as shown in FIG. 10.
Namely, the PET bottles manufactured by blow molding injection-molded preforms to stretch and orientate them are filled with contents, sold (consumed), and then collected. The collected PET bottles are separated from colored bottles, crushed, washed to separate impurities therefrom, and then reproduced in the form of flakes or pellets.
In such a flow of the manufacture and the recycle, the injection molding and blow molding are conducted in the manufacture process, and melt extrusion is conducted in a re-pelletization step in a collection/remanufacture process. In these steps, stimulations of a high temperature, a high pressure and the like are applied to the material.
However, even when passed through the steps in which such stimulations are applied, the pigments or dyes still remain without the disappearance of colors because of their high coloration stability. Namely, the pigments or dyes permanently maintain the coloration once they are mixed with the PET.
Therefore, there arises a problem that the colored PET bottles cannot be used as starting materials for the PET bottles to be re-manufactured.
In view of such present situations, in Japan and in a field of manufacture/recycle of the PET bottles, the manufacture and distribution of the PET bottles which cannot be reused are restrained. In other words, the coloration of the PET bottles is prohibited in principle from the viewpoints of the improvement of a reuse ratio of the PET bottles and the promotion of the recycle.
In Japan, it is mentioned as one item of material evaluation standards which are self-organized standards that the PET bottles should be colorless and transparent.
The material evaluation standards are guideposts established to evaluate whether or not the PET bottles once manufactured are suitable for the reuse and remanufacture, and they are self-organized agreements in the field of the manufacture/recycle of the PET bottles.
FIG. 11 shows a flow of a reuse suitability test (reuse suitability evaluation) of the PET bottles performed in accordance with the material evaluation standards.
As shown in the drawing, the reuse suitability evaluation is performed for each of reproduced flakes obtained by crushing trial bottles to be evaluated, reproduced pellets obtained by melt molding the reproduced flakes, injection molded plates obtained by injection molding the reproduced pellets, and fibers, bottles and sheets obtained by molding the reproduced pellets.
As evaluation items, there are mentioned "appearance, crush suitability" for the reproduced flakes, "IV, color tone, dry suitability" for the reproduced pellets, "appearance, haze, thermal properties" for the injection molded plates, and "moldability, mechanical properties, color tone, haze, etc." for the fibers, the bottles and the sheets.
Particularly, among these evaluation items, "the color tone" is the evaluation item which is investigated in a wide range including the reproduced pellets, fibers, bottles and sheets.
If the trial bottles are contaminated with a pigment or a dye, they remain colored with the pigment or the like even at a stage where they are molded into the reproduced pellets, and hence, they do not satisfy the evaluation standards of "the color tone". In addition, the color of the trial bottles still remains even at a stage where they are molded into the fibers, the bottles or the sheets, and therefore, the evaluation standards of "the color tone" are not satisfied herein, either.
As described above, the PET bottles mixed with the pigment or the dye do not satisfy the material evaluation standards, and for this reason, they cannot be used as starting materials for the reproduction. Therefore, the coloring of the PET bottles is voluntarily restrained in makers of the PET bottles.
As understood from the above, it is essential from the viewpoint of recycle promotion to evaluate the suitability of the PET bottles to be reused in accordance with the reuse suitability evaluation based on the material evaluation standards. On the other hand, it is also necessary that "the color tone" is evaluated in the suitability test to reject the colored PET bottles.
As mentioned above, however, the coloring of the containers molded as the PET bottles for the purpose of providing functions such as a visible light barrier and a decoration has been desirable from various viewpoints of preventing the change in quality and deterioration of contents therein, promoting the commercialization of new products, differentiating them from other products, promoting the sales of own products, and the like.
In view of such situations, in the field of the manufacture/recycle of the PET bottles, it has been required to propose a technology of providing consumers with the PET bottles which conform to the evaluation items of the reuse suitability evaluation and simultaneously have functions such as the visible light barrier and the decoration. In other words, there has been desired a technology which is capable of providing the colored PET bottles in a distribution process and simultaneously capable of decoloring the PET bottles in a collection/remanufacture process.
The present invention has been developed in consideration of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a plastic package and a method for its reproduction which permits possessing functions such as the visible light barrier and the decoration in the distribution process, satisfying the evaluation standards of the reuse suitability evaluation in the collection/remanufacture process, and improving of a reuse ratio of the packages s to promote the recycle of them.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


K data signals, or bursts, are transmitted over a shared spectrum in a code division multiple access communication format. A combined signal is received and sampled over the shared spectrum, as a plurality of received vector versions. The combined signal includes the K transmitted data signals. A plurality of system matrices and an associated covariance matrix using codes and estimated impulse responses of the K data signals is produced. Each system matrix corresponds to a received vector version. The system and covariance matrices are extended and approximated as block circulant matrices. A diagonal matrix of each of the extended and approximated system and covariance matrices are determined by prime factor algorithm-fast Fourier transform (PFA-FFT) without division of the matrix. The received vector versions are extended. A product of the diagonal matrices and the extended received vector versions is taken. An inverse block discrete Fourier transform is performed by a PFA-FFT on a result of the product to produce the estimated data of the K data signals.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a wireless communication system 10. The communication system 10 has base stations 121 to 125 (12) which communicate with user equipments (UEs) 141 to 143 (14). Each base station 12 has an associated operational area, where it communicates with UEs 14 in its operational area.
In some communication systems, such as frequency division duplex using code division multiple access (FDD/CDMA) and time division duplex using code division multiple access (TDD/CDMA), multiple communications are sent over the same frequency spectrum. These communications are differentiated by their channelization codes. To more efficiently use the frequency spectrum, TDD/CDMA communication systems use repeating frames divided into timeslots for communication. A communication sent in such a system will have one or multiple associated codes and timeslots assigned to it.
Since multiple communications may be sent in the same frequency spectrum and at the same time, a receiver in such a system must distinguish between the multiple communications. One approach to detecting such signals is multiuser detection (MUD). In MUD, signals associated with all the UEs 14, are detected simultaneously. For TDD/CDMA systems, one of the popular MUD techniques is a joint detection technique using block linear equalizer (BLE-JD). Techniques for implementing BLE-JD include using a Cholesky or an approximate Cholesky decomposition. These approaches have high complexity. The high complexity leads to increased power consumption, which at the UE 14 results in reduced battery life.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have computationally efficient approaches to detecting received data.


A gimbal dual stage actuated suspension has a microactuator attached at its distal end to the gimbal in order to effect fine movements of the head slider. The microactuator is mounted on the side of the flexure that is opposite the disk platter and the head slider, and extends in height through an aperture in the load beam. The driving voltage for the microactuator is provided through an aperture in the insulating layer of the flexure to a signal conducting layer in the flexure's electrical circuit. The electrical connection from the signal conducting layer to the microactuator can comprise an electrically conductive adhesive, or an electrically conductive adhesive that contacts an isolated island of the stainless steel support layer in the flexure which is in electrical contact with the conducting layer, which is plated all the way to the stainless steel layer or which is otherwise extended thereto.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of disk drive suspensions. More particularly, this invention relates to the field a dual stage actuated (DSA) suspension with a microactuator acting on the gimbal, and the microactuator attached to the flexure from the load beam side opposite the slider side.
2. Description of Related Art
Magnetic hard disk drives and other types of spinning media drives such as optical disk drives are well known. FIG. 1 is an oblique view of an exemplary prior art hard disk drive and suspension. The prior art disk drive unit 100 includes a spinning magnetic disk 101 containing a pattern of magnetic ones and zeroes on it that constitutes the data stored on the disk drive. The magnetic disk is driven by a drive motor (not shown). Disk drive unit 100 further includes a disk drive suspension 105 to which a magnetic head slider (not shown) is mounted proximate a distal end of load beam 107. The "proximal" end of a suspension or load beam is the end that is supported, i.e., the end nearest the base plate which is swaged or otherwise mounted to an actuator arm 103. The "distal" end of a suspension or load beam is the end that is opposite the proximal end, i.e., the "distal" end is the cantilevered end.
Suspension 105 is coupled to actuator arm 103, which in turn is coupled to a voice coil motor 112 that moves the suspension 105 arcuately in order to position the head slider over the correct data track on data disk 101. The head slider is carried on a gimbal which allows the slider to pitch and roll so that it follows the proper data track on the disk, allowing for such variations as vibrations of the disk, inertial events such as bumping, and irregularities in the disk's surface.
Both single stage actuated disk drive suspensions and dual stage actuated (DSA) suspension are known. In a single stage actuated suspension, only voice coil motor 112 moves suspension 105.
In a DSA suspension, as for example in U.S. Pat. No. 7,459,835 issued to Mei et al. as well as many others, in addition to voice coil motor 112 which moves the entire suspension, at least one microactuator is located on the suspension in order to effect fine movements of the magnetic head slider to keep it properly aligned over the data track on the spinning disk. The microactuator(s) provide much finer control and much higher bandwidth of the servo control loop than does the voice coil motor alone, which effects relatively coarse movements of the suspension and hence the magnetic head slider. A piezoelectric element, sometimes referred to simply as a PZT, is often used as the microactuator motor, although other types of microactuator motors are possible. In the discussion that follows, for simplicity the microactuator may be referred to simply as a "PZT" although it will be understood that the microactuator need not be of the PZT type.
FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the prior art suspension 105 in FIG. 1. Two PZT microactuators 14 are affixed to suspension 105 on microactuator mounting shelves 18 that are formed within base plate 11, such that the PZTs span respective gaps in base plate 11. Microactuators 14 are affixed to mounting shelves 18 by non-conductive epoxy 8 at each end of the microactuators. The positive and negative electrical connections can be made from the PZTs to the suspension's flexible wiring trace and/or to the grounded base plate by a variety of techniques including those disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 7,751,153 to Kulangara et al.
Other DSA designs have been proposed in which the microactuators are mounted near the gimbal and act on the gimbal. Such designs are sometimes referred to as gimbal-based DSA suspensions, or simply gimbal DSA suspensions, or GSA suspensions.

Gimbal based DSA suspension with microactuator attached from load beam side of flexure


A hermetic scroll compressor is disclosed including within a hermetically sealed housing a fixed scroll member, an orbiting scroll member, and a crankshaft operably coupled to the orbiting scroll member and driven by a motor. The crankshaft has an axial passageway therein that is in fluid communication with an oil sump located in a discharged pressure chamber within the housing. Upon rotation of the crankshaft, a centrifugal oil pump delivers oil through the axial passageway to the bottom surface of a plate portion of the orbiting scroll member. An oil passage extends through the orbiting scroll plate to introduce oil into a discharge compression chamber established by the intermeshing fixed and orbiting scroll members. Accordingly, oil is introduced into the compression chamber and intermediate the scroll members without the creation of an intentional pressure leak. The size of the oil passage can be varied to affect the amount of oil introduced into the compression chamber.

The present invention relates generally to a hermetic compressor and, more particularly, to such a compressor including intermeshing fixed and orbiting scroll members within a housing having an oil sump, wherein oil from the sump is used to lubricate and to help seal the scroll members.
A typical scroll compressor comprises two mutually facing scroll members, each having an involute wrap, wherein the respective wraps interfit to define a plurality of compression pockets. When one of the scroll members is orbited relative to the other, the pockets travel in a radial direction, e.g., from a radially outer suction port to a radially inner discharge port, to convey and compress a refrigerant fluid.
Several design problems are associated with scroll-type compressors of the type described herein. For example, a proper seal must be maintained at the sliding interface between the wrap tips of one scroll member and the face surface of the opposite scroll member in order to minimize leakage between compression pockets of different pressure levels. Such leakage causes reduced compressor operating efficiency. Likewise, proper lubrication is necessary at the sliding interface between scroll members in order to minimize friction. Excessive friction results in heating of the scroll members and increased drive torque requirements, both of which reduce the operating efficiency of the compressor.
It is generally recognized that the presence of oil at the sliding interface between scroll members improves sealing and reduces friction. However, several problems and disadvantages are associated with prior art compressors and associated methods for providing such oil at the interface. For example, an intentional high to low pressure leak is often created in order to draw the oil into the interface. This intentional leak between suction and discharge pressure regions reduces compressor operating efficiency. Also, oil introduced at the interface often becomes entrained in the refrigerant that is subsequently supplied to the accompanying refrigeration system. If the oil rate, i.e., the percentage of oil present in the refrigerant, becomes too high, the efficiency of the refrigeration system diminishes.
The present invention is directed to overcoming the aforementioned problems associated with hermetic scroll compressors, wherein it is desired to provide oil at the interface between scroll members in order to enhance sealing and reduce friction.

Lubrication system for a scroll compressor


A method is provided for constructing an offset, and includes constructing the capture path, which includes selecting a capture path start point on a first leg of the flight path and selecting a first capture path angle; determining whether a first capture path segment extending from the capture path start point at the first capture path angle intersects a) a first bisector or b) a first bisector backcourse; establishing, if the first capture path segment intersects the first bisector backcourse, the first capture path segment as the capture path; establishing, if the first capture path segment intersects the first bisector, the intersection as a first point; determining one or more subsequent capture path segments until the one or more subsequent capture path segments intersect a subsequent bisector; and establishing the first capture path segment and the one or more subsequent capture path segments as the capture path.

In a modern commercial aircraft, a flight crew makes flight plan entries and modifications through a Flight Management System (FMS). The FMS receives inputs related to the desired destination, and the FMS builds a flight plan based on the inputs. Referring to FIG. 1, an offset 100 is a modification to a flight plan 102 in which a parallel flight path is constructed at a given offset distance 103 either to the left or the right of the flight plan 102. Offsets 100 are primarily used by aircraft 126 to avoid terrain obstacles or weather 104. In the example shown in FIG. 1, the flight plan 102 includes five legs 106, 108, 110, 112, and 114 that connect five waypoints 116, 118, 120, 122, and 124. The offset 100 begins at a present position (PPOS) 128 and includes a capture path 130, a parallel path 132, and a return path 134. The capture path 130 extends from the flight plan 102 to the full offset distance 103. The parallel path 132 tracks the flight plan 102 at the full offset distance 103. The return path 134 extends from the parallel path 132 back to the flight plan 102. The offset 100 has a capture angle 136 and a return angle 138 of 45° with respect to the flight plan 102. The capture angle 136 and return angle 138 are fixed at 45°. This can result in an inefficient offset and/or an offset that is subject to little or no pilot modification. Moreover, the capture path 130 and return path 134 must occur within the bounds of a single leg, only include a single segment at the fixed capture and return angles 136 and 138, and are unable to traverse multiple legs, large course changes, and non-intersecting legs.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide methods and systems for constructing offsets from flight plans that minimize deviation from original flight plan and increases the efficiency of the offset. Moreover, it is desirable to provide methods and systems for constructing offsets from flight plans that enable pilot modifications, including variable capture and return angles. Additionally, it is desirable to provide systems and methods for constructing offsets from flight plans that traverse multiple legs, non-intersecting legs, and large course changes. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.

Systems and methods for constructing variable offset paths


The adjustable socket design uses a weave of cables to position six arms which are used to torque a nut. The arms have a gripping surface to torque the nut. The design also allows for a quick and easy size adjustment. When the top of the socket is separated from the bottom, the two parts are twisted relative to each other which moves the arm positions to accommodate different nut sizes. When the top and bottom of the socket are pushed together, they fix the arm positions and the socket is used as a traditional fixed sized socket.

(1) Field of the Invention
This description is directed toward sockets used in ratchet wrenches for tightening nuts and bolts. In particular, it is directed toward convenient methods to vary the size of the socket in order to adjust a variety of nut/bolt sizes without changing the tool.
(2) Description of Related Art
Others have designed variable sized tools that are adjustable for varying nut sizes. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,339,439 is an example of a varying socket that requires the user to maintain downward pressure to work. This can be an inconvenience when tightening or loosening a nut. Though this method is simple, its usefulness is limited due to the fact that downward pressure is required for it to work correctly.
Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 4,022,086 where the adjustable socket is a pivoting opening between two members that pivot about a pin. Another member adjusts the opening and torque is transferred through keys. Where this provides important flexibility, the length required does not fit well within needs of common socket parts and requires a lot of overhead distance.
Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 4,366,732 which is another gripping jaw design. Axial force onto the pressure is not needed to make the gripping force maintained. However, the resulting method requires a lot of complicated and intricately made parts.
Other existing adjustable socket patents are designs where movable sides are wedged into position so as to be able to apply torque to different sized nuts.