Multifunctional viscosity index improvers for lubricating oils containing an EPM or EPDM polymer onto which has been grafted an unsaturated reactive monomer and thereafter reacted with amines containing sulfonamide units.

This invention relates to a novel multi-functional lubricant additive which is a dispersant, anti-oxidant and antiwear viscosity index (VI) improver additive when employed in a lubricating oil composition.
It is well known to those skilled in the art, that hydrocarbon lubricating oils must be formulated by addition of various additives to improve their properties.
In the case of lubricating oils, typified by those employed in railway, automotive, aircraft, marine etc., service, it is found that they become degraded during use due inter alia to formation of sludge which may be generated by deterioration of the oil or by introduction of undesirable components from other sources including the fuel or the combustion air. In order to maintain and improve the properties of the lubricating oil, various additives have heretofore been provided; and these have been intended to improve the viscosity index, dispersancy, oxidative stability, antiwear properties, etc.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide an additive system which imparts to lubricating oils these improved properties of viscosity index, dispersancy, oxidative stability, and antiwear properties. Other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Multifunctional viscosity index improvers based on polymers containing sulfonamides


A method includes detecting, by a camera of a mobile device, a face of a user of the mobile device. The method includes determining a sequence of video images of the face and applying three dimensional (3D) modeling to the sequence of video images of the face to create a 3D model of the face. The method includes identifying rotational movement of the mobile device. The method includes tracking the face to identify rotational movement of the face based on the 3D model of the face, and adjusting the tracking of the face based on the 3D model of the face and rotational movement of the mobile device.

Eye tracking for mobile devices is the process of measuring the point of gaze (i.e., a point at which a user is focused/looking at) or the motion of the eye relative to the mobile device. In some instances of eye tracking, the mobile device tracks the movements of the pupils. Mobile devices are known to determine an input based on the tracked gaze of the user. For example, some mobile devices include a feature that automatically scrolls text based on the position of the eyes.


A luminaire optical system comprises a ballast housing, a reflector having an upper end and a lower end, the ballast housing connected to the reflector, a plurality of lamp assemblies each having a base and a lamp portion, the lamp in electrical communication with the base at a single end, the base disposed downward and radially outward of said lamp.

High intensity discharge lamps (HID) lamps are widely used in various structures having high ceilings such as gymnasiums, warehouses, commercial buildings and the like. HID lamps typically utilize metal halide, mercury vapor, high or low pressure sodium depending on the application and lighting characteristics desired. These lamps may range from 500 to 1,000 Watts for example, so that the buildings wherein such HID lamps are utilized are well lit. However, one problem with such HID lamps is the significant energy consumption occurring in these lamps.
In order to maximize downward lighting, bell-shaped reflectors are typically utilized to fit over the base of the HID lamps. The lamps are screwed into a power supply in order to power the lamp. The reflectors are typically made of polished aluminum or similarly reflective lightweight material. The opposite lower end of the reflector may be opened or may be covered with a translucent lens to further diffuse lighting emanating from the lamp and provide a substantially attractive appearance.
As an alternative to HID lamps, some commercial applications utilize fluorescent light fixtures, which often have fluorescent tubes with a length of four or eight feet. These tubes are often placed parallel to the floor or substrate to produce a predetermined lumination pattern. Installation and replacement of these types of tubes, particularly eight foot tubes, is often difficult due to the length of the tubes and the electrical connectors being located at distal ends of the tube.
Compact fluorescent lamps have a generally "folded-over" bi-axial design which attached to a light fixture at a single end. Alternatively, such lamps may be helical or corkscrew in nature. Sales of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) have increased in volume due to improvements in the performance and reduction of prices in this type of lamp. In addition, the market for CFLs has been spurred on by the integration of lamp and electronic ballast with either a screw-in or bayonet fitting allowing easy replacement of consumable lamp.
The CFLs are produced in various shades of white including "warm white" or "soft white" providing a light very similar to an incandescent bulb; "white", "bright white" or "medium white" producing a yellowish white light, whiter than an incandescent lamp but still on the warm side; "cool white" emitting more of a pure white tone; and "day light" having a slightly bluish white appearance. Compact fluorescent lamps have two main parts. First, the CFLs utilizes a gas filled tube. Second, the CFLs typically utilize magnetic or electronic ballast. The ballast may be remote from the tube or may be connected to the tube. Electrical energy in the form of an electrical current passes from the ballast through the gas causing it to emit ultraviolet light. The ultraviolet light excites a white phosphorus coating on the inside of the tube emitting a visible light.
Prior art low-bay luminaires utilize compact fluorescent lamps generally in a base up orientation and tilted inside the reflector to extend downwardly from the base. There are several problems with prior art luminaires of this type. First, in the prior art, base-up configurations, the lamp sockets are closely spaced near the top of the reflector creating excessive heat. Accordingly, various prior art luminaires are only rated for 25 degrees Celsius ambient operating temperature. Second, there is always a desire to increase the total lumen output, the sum of light output from nadir to 180° of the luminaire. There is also a desire to increase the total efficiency of the luminaire, which is measured as a percentage of the lamp output by the luminaire. There is also a desire to decrease the amount of uplight emitted from the luminaires since such uplight is only useful with very high reflectant ceilings. Further, there is a desire to decrease the amount of lighting in the glare zone which is defined as the 60 to 90 degree area. There is also a desire to increase the light in the useful zone defined as the 0 to 60 degree area.
Given the foregoing, it will be appreciated that a luminaire optical system is needed which provides lower operating temperature and therefore increased life, high total output and efficiency, increased useful light and decreased glare.


One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that uses an index that is hash-partitioned to access a table that is not hash-partitioned. During system operation, the database receives a request to perform an operation involving a table in the database. If performing the operation involves looking up a key in the hash-partitioned index, the database applies a hash function to the key to identify a unique partition within the hash-partitioned index for the key, and uses the key to perform a lookup in the identified partition to identify zero or more rows of the table that match the key.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the process of accessing a table within a database system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for using a hash-partitioned index to access a table that is not hash-partitioned.
2. Related Art
Many database applications use automatically generated keys as column values in relation tables. In such applications, the automatically generated key typically has a monotonically increasing value. For example, the transaction identifier in an Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) environment is usually an automatically generated key that is incremented to generate successive key values. Similarly, surrogate keys that are used in star schemas of data warehousing environments also tend to be automatically generated with monotonically increasing values.
Often, these automatically generated keys with monotonically increasing values have indexes defined on them. As a result, index accesses and maintenance activities tend to occur in a highly localized area of the index (e.g., the right-most edge of the index). These localized areas are known as "hotspots." A hotspot can cause severe resource contention during periods of increased database activity, which can result in a performance degradation of the database system, such as, an increased response time for database transactions and reduced throughput.
Two methods are presently used to reduce hotspots. The first method reverses the bytes in the key and then uses the reversed key to perform operations in the index. This method largely eliminates the formation of hotspots because it disperses the reversed keys across the whole index. One of the drawbacks of this approach is that since it disperses the reversed keys in a highly random fashion, it causes continuous random movement of the disk head, which causes the disk seek-time to increase considerably because locality-of-reference is lost. Thus, although this method eliminates hotspots, it may, in fact, degrade the overall performance of the system. The second method is to use hash-partitioned tables, in which rows are mapped into partitions based on applying the hash function to the partitioning key. Since each partition of a hash-partitioned table has its own index, the index accesses and maintenance activities are equally distributed among all the partitions, thereby eliminating the formation of a single large hotspot. The drawback of this method is that it forces the user to partition tables using the hash-partitioning technique, which may not be the optimal partitioning technique for certain database applications. For example, in OLTP applications, it is quite common to use range-partitioned tables that are partitioned using the date fields for simplifying database management and for improving database performance. Thus, for such applications, we cannot use hash-partitioning to eliminate hotspots.
Hence, what is needed is a method and an apparatus for accessing a table that does not have the above-described drawbacks of the existing techniques.

Method and apparatus for using a hash-partitioned index to access a table that is not partitioned or partitioned independently of the hash partitioned index


An original check identifier in MICR format includes separator symbols that do not appear on a typical computer keyboard. When a user is entering a check identifier from a computer or a telephone, the user is instructed to replace the separator symbols with replacement symbols that appear on a typical computer keyboard. The replacement symbols indicate the separation of fields within the check identifier, such as the routing number field, the account number field and the check number field. The entered check identifier with replacement symbols is parsed to distinguish the fields. After the fields are distinguished, the routing number, the account number and the check number of the check identifier are identified.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of electronically processing financial transactions, and more particularly to the systems and methods of processing check identifiers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many customers make purchases from a computer or telephone. For example, customers select items at a web site, talk to a live telephone operator, or use automated menu entry from a telephone. Although credits cards and, in some occasions debit cards, can be used to make purchases from a computer or telephone, customers often prefer to use checks. For example, in many instances, using debit cards requires the merchants to maintain real-time communication links with the debit card banks. Since customers may use a wide variety of banks, merchants typically establish and maintain communication links with a large number of banks.
Using credit cards, on the other hand, can reduce the merchant's profit margin, because the merchant pays a percentage of the sales to the credit card company. In addition, some customers are concerned with the potential theft of credit card information. Some customers are also concerned with the monthly fees charged on credit cards with outstanding balances.
It is therefore desirable for merchants to allow customers to use checks to make purchases. In order to identify a check from a computer or telephone, customers enter a check identifier by typing on a computer keyboard or hitting the keys of a touch-tone telephone, or speak the check identifier to a telephone operator who enters the check identifier into a computer. A check identifier is typically printed on a paper check. In one example, a check identifier is the check identification data located in the Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) line printed on a paper check.
In a typical MICR line, the check identifier includes multiple fields such as the routing number field, the account number field, and the check number field. These fields are separated by separator symbols. The separator symbols are unique and typically do not correspond to regular symbols that appear on a computer keyboard. However, if the separator symbols are omitted and a check identifier is entered into a computer without any symbols, it becomes difficult to distinguish the different fields.

Systems and methods for processing check identifiers using replacement symbols


Embodiments of master station and method for high-efficiency WLAN (HEW) communication are generally described herein. In some embodiments, the master station is configured for HEW communication in accordance with an IEEE 802.11ax technique. The master station may transmit an indication to one or more of a plurality of HEW stations to indicate which one of a plurality of 20 MHz channels to monitor for a HEW signal field. The master station may configure the HEW signal field to indicate which of a plurality of subchannels of the indicated 20 MHz channel is allocated to the HEW stations for communication. The master station may transmit the configured HEW signal field in the indicated one of the 20 MHz channels and may communicate with the HEW stations on the indicated subchannels in accordance with an orthogonal-frequency divisional multiple access (OFDMA) technique.

Wireless communications has been evolving toward ever increasing data rates (e.g., from IEEE 802.11a/g to IEEE 802.11n to IEEE 802.11ac). In high-density deployment situations, overall system efficiency may become more important than higher data rates. For example, in high-density hotspot and cellular offloading scenarios, many devices competing for the wireless medium may have low to moderate data rate requirements (with respect to the very high data rates of IEEE 802.11ac). The frame structure used for conventional and legacy IEEE 802.11 communications including very-high throughput (VHT) communications may be less suitable for such high-density deployment situations. A recently-formed study group for Wi-Fi evolution referred to as the IEEE 802.11 High Efficiency WLAN (HEW) study group (SG) (i.e., IEEE 802.11ax) is addressing these high-density deployment scenarios. Once issue is that the signal field conventionally used is not suitable for efficient HEW OFDMA MU-MIMO wideband channel operation.
Thus, there are general needs for devices and methods that improve overall system efficiency in wireless networks, particularly for high-density deployment situations. There are also general needs for devices and methods suitable for HEW communications. There are also general needs for devices and methods suitable for HEW communications that can coexist with legacy devices. There are also general needs for HEW OFDMA MU-MIMO wideband channel operation.

Master station and method for HEW communication with signal field configuration for HEW OFDMA MU-MIMO wideband channel operation


A semiconductor device includes an amplifier, a slew rate regulating circuit, a detection circuit, and a control circuit. The amplifier is configured to amplify an input signal. The slew rate regulating circuit is configured to regulate the slew rate of the input signal. The detection circuit is configured to detect the slew rate of the input signal along a signal path of the input signal between the slew rate regulating circuit and the amplifier. The control circuit is configured to control the slew rate regulating circuit based on a detection result of the detection circuit.

A communication module which is used in radio communication includes, for example, a power amplifier, an impedance matching circuit, and so forth. In this power amplifier, a nonlinear power amplifier is usually used. Since the nonlinear power amplifier uses a rectangular wave signal, the power efficiency thereof is generally higher than the power efficiency of a linear power amplifier using a sinusoidal signal.
On the other hand, an output signal of the nonlinear power amplifier contains many harmonic components. In order to remove these harmonic components, a high-performance external filter is generally used; however, the filter occupies a large space in the communication module.

Semiconductor device and communication module


A method of pasteurizing dewatered sludge into valuable soil conditioners is provided. Unpasteurized dewatered sludge is introduced into a first end of an dryer and maintained under vacuum pressure. Moisture is removed using a condenser and knock out tank while a boiler provides heat to treat the dewatered sludge. An auger moves the sludge to an outlet.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of producing a soil enrichment product from dewatered sludge utilizing a vacuum-auger dryer.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Vacuum-auger dryers have appeared in at least two references: U.S. Pat. No. 4,753,016 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,516. U.S. Pat. No. 4,753,016 shows a condensation process and apparatus for water vapor that is under vacuum. As explained in the specification, this device appears to have been created for an industrial process such as drying plastic granules as explained in column 3, lines 40-42. U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,516 also appears to be directed to a drying system for an industrial process since the dryer is coupled to an industrial mixer as is shown illustrated in FIG. 2 and as described in the abstract.
These prior art driers apparently have industrial process applications. There has been no known effort made in the field of wastewater treatment to provide a similar method and apparatus for treating a particular by-product of wastewater treatment plants. Accordingly, a need exists to convert dewatered sludge into a soil enriching product such as a loam for fertilizer or top soil having carbon and nitrogen products that have not been reduced to ash which would not be particularly advantageous to assisting soil or grow vegetation.
In the process of treating raw wastewater, it is normally sent to primary tanks where heavier solids settle and are collected for additional treatment and/or disposal. The liquid is transferred from the tanks, aerated and aerobically treated so that the particulates settle out in the secondary settling process as sludge. The water may be removed from both primary and secondary sludges and this by-product is known as dewatered sludge. Normally this unpasteurized dewatered sludge is hauled to landfills where it takes up space. This costs municipalities a relatively large amount in transportation costs. Furthermore, it fills in a landfill which could be utilized for other waste products.
In order to reduce the costs associated with transporting dewatered sludges, it has been discovered that drier sludges have reduced transportation and disposal costs since moisture adds to the weight of the dewatered sludge. In order to remove moisture content the dewatered sludge is typically dried at a high temperature well over 250° F. At high temperatures, some of the dewatered sludge may be burned or otherwise oxidized so that the carbon components in the sludge forms an ash which provides limited, if any, soil enrichment properties. The ash also presents an offensive "burned coffee" odor and can give off particulate emissions that require air pollution controls. Nitrogen components may also be oxidized at a high temperature resulting in a loss of fertilizer value and possibly creating exhaust gasses which may require more extensive pollution controls. Furthermore, most high temperature drying processes pose hazards to operating personnel and may require special operator certification.
Accordingly, a need exists to convert the unpasteurized dewatered sludge into a useful product.

Method of producing a soil enrichment product from dewatered sludge


A thermal battery activated by external heat comprising an anode, e.g. composed of a lithium-aluminum alloy, a cathode, e.g. composed of iron disulfide, and an electrolyte, e.g. a lithium chloride-potassium chloride eutectic, the electrolyte being inactive at ambient temperature but being activated by melting at a predetermined temperature when exposed to external heating. The battery can be used as a sensor or to ignite pyrotechnic and power electronic devices, in a system for reducing the hazard of ordnance exposed to detrimental heating. A particular application is the use of the battery to activate a squib to function in conjunction with one or more other components, to vent an ordnance case, preventing its explosion in a fire.

This invention relates to a new and improved thermal battery, and is particularly concerned with a thermal battery which is activated by external heating such as a fuel fire.
Thermally activated electrochemical cells are well known. Standard ordnance thermal batteries are activated by igniting an electric match, squib, or percussion primer inside the battery which initiates combustion of heat generating material. Heat from combustion is retained inside the battery by thermal insulation. This heat melts the electrolyte and activates the battery.
Previous methods of reducing hazard from ordnance exposed to detrimental heating include pyrotechnic sensors that react chemically to provide heat and/or flame. Such sensors are intrinsically less reliable than sensors which provide an electrical signal or electrical energy.
Power generating devices utilizing a source of heat for activation are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,700,009 to Iden, 3,946,675 to Stalfors, 4,338,560 to Lemley, and 3,425,872 l to Levy. One object of the present invention is the provision of a thermal battery activated by heat from an external source.
Another object is to provide a thermal battery which operates without an internal initiating mechanism or heat generating materials and which may not utilize thermal insulation.
A still further object is the provision of an improved efficient thermal battery of the above type, constructed of readily available components, and particularly adapted to reduce hazards from ordnance such as missiles and rockets exposed to detrimental heating.

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


An information recording method of the present disclosure is an information recording method for recording information on a write-once information recording medium, including one or more recording layers, each of the recording layers being spiral-shaped on which a land track and a groove track are alternately repeated as recording tracks, each of the recording tracks being divided into blocks, each of the blocks being a minimum unit in which recording is performed. The information recording method includes: recording the information on the information recording medium in a unit of each of the blocks; and controlling recording on the information recording medium. In the control step, switching is performed whether to perform recording in a block to be recorded in which the information is to be recorded next among the blocks based on recording conditions of the recording tracks adjacent on both sides of the block to be recorded.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an information recording method, an information recording device, and an information recording medium that enable recording of data on the information recording medium having an information recording surface capable of optically recording information on each of lands and grooves.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, as an information recording medium that stores video, data, and the like, many types of optical discs are used, such as a digital versatile disk (DVD) and Blu-ray (registered trademark) disc (hereinafter referred to as BD). Since these optical discs have high storage reliability compared with a hard disk drive (hereinafter referred to as a HDD) and a magnetic tape, applications are expanding from conventional recording applications of audiovisual (AV) data, such as video and voice, to prolonged storage of data, that is, applications for archiving data.
However, an optical disc has only about ⅓ of data storage capacity per volume compared with a HDD or magnetic tape. From a viewpoint of space efficiency during storage, development of a technology is desired that increases data storage capacity per volume without increasing cost of a disc, and energetic research and development has been continued.
Recently, a BDXL with a recording density of about 33.4 GB per layer, which has high recording density among BDs, has been on the market as an optical disc with the highest recording density per volume. These optical discs have storage reliability of 50 years or more, and have reliability of 10 times or more compared with about five years of life of a HDD from a viewpoint of long-term storage of data. Accordingly, it is possible to achieve both long-term storage reliability and low storage cost by moving data for long-term storage currently stored in a HDD to an optical disc for storage.
Moreover, from a viewpoint of power consumption, compared with a HDD that consumes electric power during data storage, an optical disc does not need electric power during storage, and can reduce CO2 emissions as a green storage that gives consideration to global environment. Furthermore, in recent years, increase in power consumption in large-scale IT systems, such as a data center, has been a large problem; however, using an optical disc for archive applications allows reduction in power consumption.
For this purpose, in order to use an optical disc for archive applications, because of high cost reduction requirement for storage space such as a data center, improvement in recording density per volume is needed.
Technologies for improving recording density per volume of an optical disc include a land-groove recording-reproduction technology capable of improving recording density of a track, and a technology to narrow a track pitch, which is spacing between tracks.
The land-groove recording-reproduction technology is a technology used in DVD-RAMs. This is a technology to improve recording density of a track by recording data of an optical disc, which is currently recorded only on grooves or only on lands, on both grooves and lands. Usually, improvement in recording density of a track of an optical disc causes weaker diffracted light from grooves needed for performing trace control of grooves, which are tracks, with a light beam, disabling the light beam from tracing a track. When a wavelength of a laser beam used for the light beam with which the optical disc is irradiated is λ and a numerical aperture of a lens that forms the light beam is NA, limit spacing of grooves or lands, that is, limit track pitch L is as follows.L=(λ/NA)×0.6The track pitch smaller than the limit track pitch L disables detection of diffracted light from grooves and disables control to trace the track. For example, in a DVD of NA=0.6 and λ=650 nm, the limit track pitch L is 650 nm. A DVD-RAM achieves 615-nm track pitch and improves the track density by recording data on both lands and grooves (for example, refer to Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. H07-029185).
In addition, the technology to narrow the track pitch has also been employed during technical evolution from DVD to BD. In addition to 50% or more reduction of the track pitch from 0.74 μm for DVD to 0.32 μm for BD, further reduction of the wavelength of the laser beam and reduction of a size of a pit, which is a hole made on a recording surface, improves storage capacity from 4.7 GB for DVD to 25 GB or more for BD (for example, refer to "The Strategy of Panasonic for Blu-ray Disc", Nikkei Business Publications, Inc., 2006, page 30, chart 2-2).
Technology development is currently under way to improve the recording density per volume in an optical disc by further making the track pitch narrower than in BD or BDXL and by recording data on both lands and grooves. This technology development is expected to implement one optical disc with a capacity of 50 GB or more per layer on one side, and a capacity exceeding 150 GB in three layers on one side.
Generally, it is known that recording conditions of adjacent tracks have an influence on a tracking error (TE) signal and the like as the track pitch of an optical disc is reduced. Accordingly, when both lands and grooves of an optical disc are used for recording and the track pitch is reduced, the influence on the TE signal and the like further increases, which has an adverse influence on trace control of a track, recording quality, and the like.
FIG. 19A is a diagram illustrating change in an offset amount of the TE signal at an unrecorded-unrecorded boundary position during trace control of a track in a conventional optical disc that makes recording on grooves and lands of the optical disc. FIG. 19B is a diagram illustrating change in the offset amount of the TE signal at a recorded-unrecorded boundary position during trace control of a track in a conventional optical disc that makes recording on grooves and lands of the optical disc. In FIG. 19A, symmetric amplitude of a waveform of the TE signal is obtained at boundary position 1403 with adjacent unrecorded-unrecorded tracks 1401, 1402. In contrast, in FIG. 19B, the amplitude of the waveform of the TE signal obtained at boundary position 1406 with adjacent recorded-unrecorded tracks 1404, 1405 has significantly collapsed symmetry with changed TE offset amount. This means that, when the recording conditions of adjacent tracks differ from each other, symmetry of amplitude of the TE signal collapses.
When recording is made in a track of an optical disc in such a state, trace control of the track cannot be made optimally, the light beam cannot be applied to an optimal position, and recording quality may be significantly reduced to an unreproducible level. Furthermore, in a worst case, trace control of the track cannot be made at all, causing track jump or the like, which may ruin or crush data recorded on surrounding tracks. Although an optical disc allegedly has storage reliability of 50 years or more, it is apparent that a storage that fails to store data correctly cannot be used for applications including a data center.

Optical recording medium having condition management area for managing the recording condition of management information

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


A method for real-time instruction information tracing for recording the information about a plurality of specific instructions executed by a processor. The method contains the following steps. A trace count value is set to an initial value. A trigger count value is set according to the tracing start point. The trace count value is increased whenever a specific instruction executed by the processor. If the increased trace count value is equal to or larger than the trigger count value, record the instruction information about the specific instruction executed by the processor in a buffer; if the buffer is full, stop running the program and output the instruction information stored in the buffer. During this time reset the trigger count value according to the trace count value, reset the trace count value as the initial value, and then start running the program with the processor again.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to real-time instruction information tracing, and more particularly, to a method for recording instruction information of specific instructions executed by a microprocessor while the microprocessor runs a program.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order to debug a program while a microprocessor runs the program, an instruction tracing technique is commonly used. The instruction tracing technique is used for tracing and recording instruction information of some specific instructions executed by the microprocessor while the microprocessor runs the program. The instruction information can be of various forms, such as a memory address storing the specific instruction or a controlling code of the specific instruction. What kind of instruction information that needs to be recorded depends on debugging demands.
Some bugs only occur when the microprocessor executes the whole program but does not occur if the running operation is interrupted. In other words, the bugs happen only when there are no interruptions caused by tracing operations when the microprocessor runs the whole program. In order to find this kind of bug, an instruction tracing method that can trace and record the specific instruction executed by the microprocessor without interrupting the running process of the microprocessor is often used.
Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a simple block diagram of the prior art and comprises a microprocessor 120 for running a program, a filter 130 electrically connected to the microprocessor 120 for filtering instruction information about the specific instructions from those instructions executed by the microprocessor 120, the filter 130 can be either hardware or software; a buffer 140 electrically connected to the filter 130 for recording the instruction information of the specific instructions executed by the microprocessor 120; an output interface 150 electrically connected to the buffer 140 for outputting the instruction information stored in the buffer 40; and a storage device 160 electrically connected to the output interface 150 for receiving the instruction information outputted from the output interface 150.
The prior art of FIG. 1 operates as follows. As the microprocessor 120 runs a program, a buffer 140 synchronously records instruction information about the specific instructions executed by the microprocessor 120. However, the capacity of the buffer 140 is often not capable recording the instruction information about every instruction in the entire program. Therefore, an output interface 150 is employed to transmit information already stored in the buffer 140 to the storage device 160. With the information transmitted, the buffer 140 has space to record new instruction information, meaning that the real-time instruction tracing is maintained.
One caveat remains though. The capacity of the buffer 140 and the transmitting speed of the output interface 150 need to be carefully matched to each other and the microprocessor 120. In other words, the capacity of the buffer 140 and the transmitting speed of the output interface 150 must both be large enough so that the buffer never becomes full. Otherwise, not all the information regarding the specific instructions executed by the microprocessor 120 will be recorded by the tracing operation for use in debugging.
Combining this requirement with the extremely fast operational speed of the microprocessor 120 necessitates the need for both the buffer 140 of corresponding capacity and the output interface 150 of corresponding transmitting speed. Meaning, the primary drawback of the prior art is that the buffer and output interface that fit the above conditions will result in increased hardware cost.

Method for real-time instruction information tracing


A method for memory program verification includes performing a write operation on memory cells of a memory device. The method also includes identifying memory strings associated with respective memory cells of the memory cells. The method also includes identifying a first memory string of the memory strings. The method also includes disabling a portion of a write verification for the first memory string. The method also includes enabling the portion of the write verification for other memory strings of the memory strings. The method also includes performing at least the portion of the write verification operation on write verification enabled memory strings.

Non-volatile memory systems are a type of memory that retains stored information without requiring an external power source. Examples of non-volatile memory systems include flash memory, such as NAND flash or NOR flash. NAND flash memory structures typically arrange multiple memory cell transistors (e.g., floating-gate transistors or charge trap transistors) in series with and between two select gates (e.g., a drain-side select gate and a source-side select gate). The memory cell transistors in series and the select gates may be referred to as a NAND string. NAND flash memory may be scaled in order to reduce cost per bit.
Non-volatile memory is widely used in various electronic devices and in stand-alone memory devices. For example, non-volatile memory can be found in laptops, digital audio player, digital cameras, smart phones, video games, scientific instruments, industrial robots, medical electronics, solid-state drives, USB drives, memory cards, and the like. Non-volatile memory can be electronically programmed/reprogrammed and erased. Additionally, data programmed to such non-volatile memory during performance of a program operation may be verified by performing a verification operation using a read verification voltage. Typically, the verification operation equalizes channel potential of the non-volatile memory.

Systems and methods for program verification on a memory system


An antenna system includes a planar substrate, a conductive ground plane, and an upper antenna element. The conductive ground plane is on the substrate. A slot that is free of conductive material extends through the ground plane to define a lower antenna element from a portion of the ground plane. The upper antenna element is spaced apart and overlies at least a portion of the lower antenna element. A first location of the upper antenna element is electrically connected to the ground plane and a spaced apart second location of the upper antenna element is electrically connected to an antenna feed element. The upper antenna element is configured to electrically resonate responsive to a defined RF signal. The lower antenna element is configured to resonate through capacitive coupling to the resonating upper antenna element.

The present application relates generally to antennas for radio communication devices and, more particularly, to internal antennas and communications terminals employing the same.
Portable radio communications devices, such as mobile terminals, are increasingly packing more circuitry and larger displays and keypads/keyboards within small housings. As a consequence, there has been increased use of semi-planar antennas, such as a multi-branch inverted-F antenna, that may occupy a smaller space within a terminal housing. The semi-planar antenna can be printed on/mounted to the terminal's main printed circuit board, but they are placed away from a ground plane of the terminal's printed circuit board to improve performance. Constraints on the available space and location for the branches of the antenna can negatively affect the antenna performance. For example, many terminals locate the antenna on a lower side of the terminal's printed circuit board when the terminal is held with the display facing upward.

Antenna array with capacitive coupled upper and lower antenna elements and a peak radiation pattern directed toward the lower antenna element


Cyclopropanecarboxylates of lower alcohols are prepared by esterification of the corresponding cyclopropanecarboxylic acids with the corresponding lower alcohols in the presence of an acid catalyst, while maintaining a considerable stoichiometric excess of the cyclopropanecarboxylic acid with respect to the lower alcohol, keeping the temperature at from 100 to 200xc2x0 C. and distilling off the cyclopropanecarboxylate together with the water of reaction and small amounts of alcohol. Cyclopropanecarboxylates of lower alcohols are valuable intermediates in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical sectors.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a process for preparing cyclopropanecarboxylates of lower alcohols by esterification of the carboxylic acids with the lower alcohols.
2. Discussion of the Background
Cyclopropanecarboxylates of lower alcohols have recently achieved considerable significance as intermediates in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and pesticides. This has partly been due to the fact that cyclopropanecarboxylic acid has more recently become readily available by oxidation of the corresponding aldehyde (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,245) and is being produced industrially. However, there has hitherto been no satisfactory process for preparing these esters.
The esterification of carboxylic acids with an alcohol with the liberation of water is a known reaction which leads to an equilibrium. The equilibrium is usually attained more quickly using acid catalysts. Removal of the water of reaction using an entrainer and/or use of an excess of alcohol can shift the equilibrium in the direction of ester formation. This principle is applied in the process in the Patent Specification SU 322 986, in which cyclopropanecarboxylic acid is esterified at about 80xc2x0 C. using a large excess of methanol in the presence of p-toluenesulfonic acid as catalyst, and toluene or carbon tetrachloride as entrainer for the water. However, the yield of 70% is unsatisfactory. Also, the entrainer introduces a further substance into the process.
Kohlrausch and Skrabal (Monatsh. Chem 70 [1937], 377,395) prepared methyl cyclopropanecarboxylates by esterifying the acid with methanol using concentrated sulfuric acid as catalyst. However, the resulting crude ester had to be distilled several times in order to obtain a pure product. Every additional distillation increases the cost and reduces the yield.
Folmer and Weinreb (Tetrahedron Lett. [1993] 34 (17), 2737-40) achieved relatively good yields of methyl cyclopropanecarboxylate by carrying out esterification at temperatures of from xe2x88x9278xc2x0 C. to room temperature, but the auxiliaries they used, the so-called Appel salt (4,5-dichloro-1,2,3-dithiazolium chloride) and 2,6-dimethylpyridine, are expensive and difficult to dispose of.
These and other processes described in the literature operate at temperatures below 100xc2x0 C. (e.g. Saigo, Kazihiko Saigo, Masahiro Usui, Kazumori Kikuchi, Eiichiro Shimada and Teruaki Mukayama, Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn. [1977] 50 (7), 1863-6 at room temperature) and thus take into account the known thermal instability of cyclopropane compounds (see e.g. Hans Beyer, Lehrbuch der Organischen Chemie [Handbook of Organic Chemistry], publisher S. Hirzel, Leipzig, 15th/16th edition (1968), page 357). Most of the known processes operate with an excess of alcohol in the esterification zone. The processes have unsatisfactory yields, disadvantageously large numbers of stages and/or require auxiliaries which are expensive and difficult to dispose of.
It was therefor the object of the invention to provide a process which gives good yields, uses inexpensive auxiliaries and produces a product which can be purified in a simple manner.
This object is achieved by a process for preparing cyclopropanecarboxylates of lower alcohols by esterification of the corresponding cyclopropanecarboxylic acids with the corresponding lower alcohols in the presence of an acid catalyst, which comprises maintaining in the esterification zone a considerable stoichiometric excess of the cyclopropanecarboxylic acid with respect to the lower alcohol, keeping the temperature in the esterification zone at from 100 to 200xc2x0 C. and distilling off, from the reaction zone, the cyclopropane carboxylate together with the water of reaction and small amounts of alcohol. The process according to the invention produces high purity esters in yields of more than 90%, based on reacted cyclopropanecarboxylic acid. Surprisingly, it is not necessary to operate under gentle conditions, i.e. at temperatures  less than 100xc2x0 C. The cyclopropanecarboxylic acid, which is sensitive to thermal stress, particularly in an acid medium, is exposed to these stress conditions for considerably longer than the alcohol, which is unproblematical in this respect, as the cyclopropanecarboxylic acid is present in considerable excess. Despite this, there are no secondary reactions, and traces of decomposition products have never been found. Because of the high temperatures, excellent space-time yields are also obtained. The process can be carried out batchwise or, with particular advantage, continuously.
In the process according to the invention, the unsubstituted cyclopropanecarboxylic acid or its ring-substituted derivatives, e.g. the cyclopropanecarboxylic acids ring-substituted by 1 or 2 alkyl radicals having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, are reacted.
The cyclopropanecarboxylates of lower alcohols are useful in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and pesticides.
Preferred lower alcohols are those whose boiling point does not differ greatly from that of water at atmospheric pressure, i.e. in the region of 100xc2x1about 40xc2x0 C. Preferred lower alcohols are alkanols having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, such as ethanol, n-propanol, i-propanol, n-butanol and, in particular, methanol.
Suitable esterification catalysts are the known acid catalysts, such as sulfuric acid; sulfonic acid group-containing ion exchange resins; sulfonic acids, such as methanesulfonic acid, higher alkanesulfonic acids, benzenesulfonic acid, p-toluenesulfonic acid and, in particular, higher alkybenzenesulfonic acids, preferably those having branched or unbranched C10- to C13-alkyl radicals. The amount of catalysts used is generally such that their proportion in the esterification zone is from 0.1 to 10 percent by weight.
The process of the invention is advantageously carried out at a temperature of from 120 to 200xc2x0 C., preferably between 130 to 150xc2x0 C. It is generally carried out at atmospheric pressure. Elevated pressure is recommended if the process is to be carried out at a temperature at which the cyclopropanecarboxylic acid is gaseous under atmospheric pressure (un-substituted cyclopropanecarboxylic acid boils at 182xc2x0 C.). Reduced pressure can be applied when a relatively high-boiling lower alcohols, such as n-propanol, is used.
An important feature of the process according to the invention is that there is a considerable stoichiometric excess of cyclopropanecarboxylic acid with respect to the lower alcohol in the esterification zone. As a rule, the cyclopropanecarboxylic acid is present in an amount of from 2 to 1000, preferably 10 to 200, times the stoichiometric quantity. When the process is carried out batchwise, the lower alcohol can, for example, be introduced gradually on its own into the initial charge of cyclopropanecarboxylic acid, or alternatively in the form of a mixture with further cyclopropanecarboxylic acid, the proportion thereof being less than that of the ester produced in the esterification zone. In both cases, the initial charge of cyclopropanecarboxylic acid is consumed at a more or less rapid rate. Lower alcohol which distills off with the water of reaction can be returned to the esterification. When the process is carried out continuously the cyclopropanecarboxylic acid is again initially charged and a mixture of cyclopropanecarboxylic acid and lower alcohol is added to it, the mixing ratio being chosen such that the amount of cyclopropanecarboxylic acid introduced corresponds to the ester which is produced in the reaction zone and distills off, so that a steady state prevails in the reaction zone. That is generally the case when the molar ratio of cyclopropanecarboxylic acid and lower alcohol, depending on the starting substances, is in the range from 1:1.20 to 1:1.02, advantageously from 1:1.10 to 1:1.05. The slight excess of lower alcohol distills off with the ester formed and the water of reaction.
The vapor mixture is condensed, and the condensate forms two phases. The upper, aqueous phase can be partially distilled to recover the lower alcohol contained therein and the resulting lower alcohol be returned to the esterification. Further distillation of the aqueous phase produces small quantities of ester which, after separation from the water which is co-distilled azeotropically, can also be returned to the esterification or can be worked up together with the lower, organic phase. The residue is waste water with few impurities, which can easily be disposed of.
The lower, organic phase is partially distilled in a similar way and thus separated from small amounts of water and lower alcohol. The residue is very pure cyclopropanecarboxylate which does not need to be distilled further for the majority of uses.
The following examples serve to illustrate in more detail the process according to the invention, but are not intended to limit its field of application as defined in the patent claims. All contents and percentages were determined by gas chromatography.

Process for preparing cyclopropanecarboxylates of lower alcohols


In an image formation apparatus, a matching engine converts the color in image data for a color image into an output color, a specific color determining device determines whether the color in the image data is a color (specific color) indicated by a point on a straight line connecting between an origin point and a point indicating an ink color in a color space, and a color profile interpolates the image data determined as the specific color only with other specific colors on the straight line where the specific color is located.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image formation apparatus, an image formation method, and a program for allowing a computer to execute the method.
2) Description of the Related Art
Recently, there are many image formation apparatuses that form a color image, such as color copiers and color printers. Such a color image formation apparatus (for example, a color printer) often includes a powdered ink (toner) of a plurality of colors, for example, yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K). With such a color printer, a color image is digitalized, and the digitalized image data is input to the printer, and the color image is formed (printed) on a sheet of paper by each color toner or toners of a plurality of colors that are mixed, based on the image data.
Some of the color printers prints, for example, black or gray only with the K toner being the toner color. Printing only with one color toner can prevent occurrence of toner scattering or color unevenness caused by superposing the toners, and therefore an image having a neat impression can be formed. Further, in a color printer that forms images in which color continuity is valued, like a color picture, gray is often expressed by mixing each toner of C, M, Y, and K.
Color mixture by the color printer is carried out using a color conversion table. Most of the color conversion tables are a three-dimensional look-up table (LUT) for color conversion. The color conversion table is used for converting an input color determined by three elements, red (R), green (G), and blue (B), into an output color determined by C, M, Y, and K. Representative input colors (model colors) are, as shown in FIG. 11, discrete values indicated by points of intersection (black spots) of solid lines intersecting each axis of R, G, and B, and an output color corresponding to an input color (white spot) located between the model colors can be obtained by interpolation processing using some of the model colors. When the output color is determined by interpolating the model colors, the output color is adjusted taking the continuity with the model colors into consideration.
However, the output color obtained by the conversion generally changes due to a change in properties with time of the color printer and an individual difference between the color printers. Such a change occurs, for example, when a color image formed by a color printer at the time of shipment has a different hue from that of the 1000th color image formed based on the same image data, or when the hues of color images obtained by printing the same color image by a plurality of color printers are different from each other.
When the output color corresponding to each model color in the color conversion table changes, the output color obtained by interpolation using the model colors also changes. Therefore, the tone continuity between the output color obtained through interpolation and the output color corresponding to the model colors is disrupted. The disruption of the tone continuity is easily recognized by human, particularly in the gradation from a toner color to a color having the same hue (for example, from a toner color to white, or from a toner color to black), and may deteriorate the quality of the color image.

Image formation apparatus and method, and computer product


A hand-held device has access to a three-dimensional geometry database and a GPS receiver, and provides information on the one or more closest features to the device location in the three-dimensional geometry database. The system has data input devices, optionally digital cameras, and a data processor executing a location process. A multiresolution process creates one or more models of the three-dimensional geometry database. The models have a hierarchy of resolutions. The models have vertices, edges and polygons. The multiresolution process preferably associates data to the vertices, edges and polygons. A data processor executes a location process that determines a distance between the position of the hand-held device and corresponding one or more closest features on the hierarchy of resolutions of the database. The data processor produces display commands for displaying data and geometry relative to the one or more closest features. Data input devices are used to collect data that is appended to or replaces data pertaining to the one or more closest features.

Hand-held computers and personal assistants such as the 3Com PalmPilot (PaImPilot is a trademark of 3Com Corporation) are rapidly improving in performance, allowing to execute such applications as word processing, diaries, database access and management. An example of database management software is the program List version 0.93 by Andrew Low, which can be installed and operated on a 3Com PaImPilot computer.
Portable GPS receivers are being used for a variety of applications that query a database using the current location of the GPS receiver, to obtain various information dependent upon the location of the GPS receiver and time. An example of use of a GPS receiver for obtaining information dependent upon the location of the device is the Hertz NeverLost system (NeverLost is a trademark of the Hertz Corporation), used in combination with a motor vehicle to instruct the driver of the proper directions to reach a specific destination.
In the prior art, GPS receivers are used to collect data to form a database. An example of use of a GPS receiver to collect data to form or complete a database is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,244 entitled HAND-HELD GUI PDA WITH GPS/DGPS RECEIVER FOR COLLECTING AGRONOMIC AND GPS POSITION DATA by Clark et al., that is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. Clark et al. 's device comprises a probe used to collect coordinates of objects of interest in the vicinity of the device.
One example of database is a geographic database or Geographic Information System (GIS). One system for collecting data to form a geographic database is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,528,518 entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COLLECTING DATA USED TO FORM A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM DATABASE by Bradshaw et al., which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. Using the system described by Bradshaw et al., a variety of devices can be used to collect the data.
Location data as provided by a GPS receiver is also used to query a geometry database and collect geometric data used to display three-dimensional renderings of the surroundings of the spatial location specified in the location data. A three-dimensional geometry database typically comprises vertices which are connected by polygons or triangles and edges. For a more detailed description, see U.S. patent application Ser. No. 006,771 entitled COMPRESSED REPRESENTATION OF CHANGING MESHES AND METHOD TO DECOMPRESS, filed Jan. 14, 1998 by G. Taubin and A. Gueziec, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 023,757, entitled PROGRESSIVE MULTI-LEVEL TRANSMISSION AND DISPLAY OF TRIANGULAR MESHES by A. Gueziec, G. Taubin and F. Lazarus, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 976,247 entitled PROGRESSIVE COMPRESSION OF CLUSTERED MULTI-RESOLUTION POLYGONAL MODELS all of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety, as well as U.S. Patent Application XXX, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FINDING THE DISTANCE FROM A MOVING QUERY POINT TO THE CLOSEST POINT ON ONE OR MORE CONVEX OR NON-CONVEX SHAPES, and previously incorporated by reference.
A query point is a point for which it is sought to compute the distance and one or more closest features on the geometry database. A closest feature is either a point, edge or polygon. A query point generally has one closest polygon, one closest edge and one closest vertex on the geometry database. An example of a system providing access to a three-dimensional geometry database and displaying three-dimensional renderings is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,338 entitled REAL TIME THREE DIMENSIONAL GEO-REFERENCED DIGITAL ORTHOPHOTOGRAPH-BASED POSITIONING, NAVIGATION, COLLISION AVOIDANCE AND DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM by Wysocki et al., which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,781,150 entitled GPS RELATIVE POSITION DETECTION SYSTEM, by Norris et al., which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety, a device is used for displaying the geographical location of the device with respect to another object and providing an approximate direction of travel and distance to the object from the device.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,289,195 entitled POSITIONING AND DISPLAYING SYSTEM by Inoue et al., which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety, an apparatus is described for locating a current position on a map.
Chiang et al., in the publication entitled "Dynamic Algorithms in Computational Geometry" in Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol 80. No. 9, September 1992, pages 1412-1434, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety, describe a method for locating a point in a planar triangulation using data structures representing two-dimensional trees.

Hand-held device providing a closest feature location in a three-dimensional geometry database

International Business Machines Corporation


An output method executed by a computer includes: receiving compressed data encoded in a state in which a page break is identifiable in print data having a plurality of pages and an encoding dictionary used for the encoding; identifying the page break of the received compressed data and partially decompressing the received compressed data into the print data in units of pages, by using the encoding dictionary; and outputting the print data in order of the decompression.

In the related art, for example, in transferring data for a form to another base and outputting such as printing, a transfer source compresses entire data for the form and transfers the compressed data to an output base. At a transfer destination base, the compressed data is decompressed and output. For example, ZIP compression having a relatively high compression ratio is used for compression of data for the form. With this configuration, a data transfer capacity is reduced and the time from the start of transfer of the compressed data to completion of output of data for the form is shortened.
An example of the related art includes Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2010-233201.

Non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for storing program, output method, and output system


Disclosed is a method of amplifying a nucleic acid sequence, wherein the method comprises subjecting a reaction mixture to at least one amplification cycle, wherein the reaction mixture comprises a double-stranded nucleic acid and at least two primers capable of annealing to complementary strands of the double-stranded nucleic acid and amplifying at least one short tandem repeat (STR) using a Family A DNA polymerase in a Fast PCR protocol having a two-step amplification cycle in 25 seconds or less. Also disclosed are real-time PCR methods using the two-step protocol and kits for STR profiling using the Fast PCR protocol.

Since the PCR process depends greatly on the performance of the DNA polymerase used, various DNA polymerases have been searched for in nature or re-engineered in vitro. Two key properties of a DNA polymerase play important roles in determining the overall reaction time required for the PCR amplification. The first property is "elongation rate" (or "extension rate"), which is defined as the number of nucleotides polymerized per second per molecule of DNA polymerase. The second property is "processivity", which is defined as the average number of nucleotides added by a DNA polymerase in a single binding event. Both "elongation rate" and "processivity" depends on the components of the reaction media and on the DNA template sequence.
Rapid and accurate detection of DNA profiles is a key aspect of forensic sample analysis and the technique of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) plays an integral part in this process. Methods to decrease the PCR time will save on technician labor. There is an unmet need to decrease PCR time without compromising sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of results.


An apparatus provides a soft-switched voltage clamp tapped-inductor step-up boost converter that is capable of reducing voltage stress on a switch and a diode of the boost converter without using a dissipative snubber and that is capable of reducing a switching loss while maintaining a high input-to-output boost ratio.

Recently, various power supply units used to boost a low DC voltage are being developed for electronic devices based on a fuel cell or battery. In particular, a boost converter using a tapped inductor is launched in the market in order to satisfy a high boost ratio, high power conversion efficiency, and low manufacturing cost.
The boost converter using the tapped inductor is manufactured by adding the tapped inductor serving as a transformer to the boost converter. In connection with the boost converter using the tapped inductor, Korean Patent Publication No. 2010-0082084 A (laid-open published on Jul. 16, 2010) discloses a method of embodying a zero-voltage turn-on and zero-current turn-off function by using a tapped inductor of the boost converter.
In the boost converter using tapped inductor, it is possible to obtain a high boost ratio, but an inductor and a capacitor of a switch causes an occurrence of resonance when the switch is turned off. As a result, a surge voltage is generated across the switch, which incurs an excessive stress on the switch. Hence, the boost converter using tapped inductor needs to use a high withstand voltage diode and a dissipative snubber.

Soft-switched voltage clamp tapped-inductor step-up boost converter


Described herein is a locking device which integrates mechanical components in a hollow metal door frame with electronic access components. The preferred embodiment comprises a magnetic field generating device, an appropriately shaped metal solenoid housing and a cam retaining locking bar attached to a hollow stem. The electronic components override the original mechanical components of the lock to create a fail-safe situation in which the original mechanical lock may be disabled. In the preferred embodiment, my upgraded locking device can be re-installed within a hollow door frame, thereby minimizing service costs and doorframe modification costs.

My invention relates to the structure and operation of a previously installed mechanical door lock which is upgraded with override electromagnetic lock components. In particular my invention relates to electromagnetic locking components and deadbolt (or hook bolt), all of which are enclosed within a hollow doorframe casing. However, my new lock is also adaptable to other doors or other closed containers or spaces which require a fail-secure electronic locking component which overrides previously installed mechanical locking components.
In the preferred embodiment, my integrated lock is best suited to narrow stile doors, such as doors generally comprised of a glass core with a surrounding hollow metal frame. The lateral longitudinal plate comprises a longitudinal surface from which the bar or bolt extends through a rectangular opening. In addition to this lateral longitudinal plate, my invention comprises anterior and posterior plates. A longitudinal edge of each anterior or posterior plate is attached to a corresponding edge of the lateral longitudinal plate and forms a three-sided enclosure with two right angles.
In the preferred embodiment of my invention, the mechanical deadbolt operates from a fully extended position to a fully retracted position within the rectangular opening through an arc of 90 degrees. The operating mechanism comprises a rocking lever mounted perpendicular to the deadbolt. The rocking lever physically engages the deadbolt through pins and slot connections.
The cylindrical lock in my preferred embodiment is of the conventional type operable by a key. This lock cylinder carries a cylindrical extended shaft in which the key is inserted. The cylindrical extended shaft comprises a rotating cam member that attaches to the extended shaft's interior end with two screws. The operator rotates this cylindrical extended shaft clockwise or counterclockwise by turning the key within it.
The inner end of the deadbolt is bifurcated, and the legs formed therefrom contain arcuate shaped apertures. The legs are pivotally attached to the lower end of a rocking lever by a pivot pin which extends though the lower portion of the rocking lever. The rocking lever is physically positioned above the deadbolt and is adjacent to the lock cylinder.
Two opposing roller cams are mounted on a sleeve, and the sleeve ends move in a limited manner within curved apertures within each anterior or posterior plate. Each of these apertures in each plate is arcuate and at its ends each has upwardly extending grooves. In operating the rocking lever, there is engagement of each opposing roller cam within each anterior and posterior plate and within the lever, by which each roller cam moves within the limits of a keyhole shaped aperture within the rocking lever.
My invention does not change the function, purpose or intent of the prior art mechanical locking device: to secure the door against physical tampering. Instead, my new door lock provides a second level of security in addition to the conventional mechanical key method. With my new electromagnetic lock, a person (i) initially must have a card, fob or a correct code to enter onto a key pad, to (ii) subsequently release the keyed cylinder shaft for rotation.
A second level of security is important when business owners confront certain days and/or hours in which it is difficult, impossible or very expensive for a locksmith to make a service call and re-key the locks. In contrast, with my invention the business owner easily recodes an access control device without requiring a professional locksmith.
Installation of my invention alleviates this problem by addition of the following to the existing mechanical deadbolt or hook bolt:
1) solenoid or other magnetic field generating device;
2) a solenoid cylindrical casing which connects the solenoid to a prior mechanical installed lock component;
3) a hollow stem inserted in the cavity of the solenoid cylindrical casing with a locking portion attached thereto; and
4) a small spring between the hollow stem and hollow cavity within the solenoid cylindrical casing,
The access control portion of the electronic portion of my invention includes:
1) an exterior door or frame mounted reader (i.e, proximity, magnetic swipe, biometrics hand, finger or eye reader, bar code reader, Dallas touch chip reader, digital push button keypad reader, etc.);
2) a door controller device which contains a circuit board, including but limited to memory e-prompt components, relay battery and wire connectors;
3) a transformer power supply and the appropriate wire connecting components.
When combined with stand alone or audit controlled computer based systems, such an access control system enables the business owner to create a report showing authorized employee access with the appropriate time and date. The door controller device identifies, via the reader, the previous entered information as to who can or cannot gain access. The door controller device can also electronically add or delete authorized users. The authorized person inserts his key, rotates the extendible shaft or pivot pin, and gains access only after the card access system has enabled the authorized person to gain access.
When the door control time has expired, usually about five or six seconds) the power rapidly ceases, thereby preventing the key from turning within the exterior cylinder lock. To comply with relevant fire codes, the interior keyed cylinder lock (or non-keyed thumb turn) on the interior surface of the doorframe cannot be controlled by the cam retaining locking bar. The absence of cam retaining locking bar control thereby allows persons unrestricted egress from a room or building interior in emergencies.
The process of installation of the electromagnetic component is another feature of my invention. My novel process of installation provides a significant economic advantage for, but not exclusively, commercial office space or privately owned businesses within large buildings. In these buildings, locks can be simultaneously upgraded with electronic security components without replacement or modification of a door component.
In addition, with my invention no new apertures are cut into the hollow metal doorframe casing to accommodate more expensive magnetic lock or electric strike hardware. Using my process, the operator removes the lateral, anterior and posterior plates and inserts a solenoid and associated components within the hollow metal doorframe casing.
The prior art discloses numerous mechanical locks cooperating with electrical components. However, these electrical components are not designed for installation after the mechanical locking component is installed within the doorframe. U.S. Pat. No. 5,561,997 (Milman) discloses a cylindrical barrel type lock wherein rotation of the barrel is prevented by one or more armatures. These armatures in turn are actuated by an electromagnet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,274 (Thordmark et al.) discloses a cylinder lock comprising a key operated cylinder plug. A latching element is located near the boundary surface between the lock cylinder and a plug. There is also an electrical blocking element which moves between a release position and a blocking position. U.S. Pat. No. 3,733,861 (Lester) discloses an early electronic recognition door lock. Lester also comprises a solenoid which is activated to withdraw an abutment member from a laterally sliding door bolt mechanism. U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,727 (Spahn et al.) discloses an electronic lock cylinder comprising a housing with a cylindrical core.
Electronic control circuits are coupled inductively via coils for transmission of coding information. There is separate assembly of the mechanical components and of the electronic components of the lock cylinder. Spahn's electronic lock cylinder differs in part from my pending invention in that there is no disclosure of a process which integrates the electronic and mechanical components after prior installation of the mechanical component within a door frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,870 (Gartner et al.) discloses an electronic door lock. A digitally operated code input pad assembly enters a first code and a second code to open a second lock mechanism with the door spring bolt. These locks are adaptable for replacement of an ordinary deadbolt lock mechanism. However, Gartner's lock does not provide for subsequent installation within a doorframe of only the electronic lock component at a minimum cost and destruction of the doorframe.
Other early locks have even less technically in common with respect to upgrades with my present invention. U.S. Pat. No. 4,916,927 (O'Connell et al.) discloses a lock in which a solenoid can move an obstructing element entire into a recess. The presence or absence of the solenoid's magnetic field prevents turning of the shaft within a key cylinder. However, O'Connell's device must be installed with all its components simultaneously into a doorframe.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,851 (Larson) discloses a lock mechanism comprising a mechanical combination lock and an electronic lock. The mechanical combination lock serves as a fail-safe entry in case of failure of the electronic lock. However, this lock is specifically applicable to small safe deposit boxes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,745,784 (Gartner) discloses an electronic dial combination lock. U.S. Pat. No. 3,748,878 (Balzano et al.), discloses an electrically controlled manual unit for a door lock. This lock also comprises a cylinder which contains a solenoid. The solenoid is energized to engage a clutch for rotation of the knob and connecting cam. Balzon's system, however, does not comprise an electronic component which can be installed subsequent to the mechanical lock unit within a door frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,636,880 (Miller)discloses an electronic lock which comprises a dead latch assembly for narrow stile locks, but not necessarily a hollow metal door frame casing comprising a door.
No distinct solenoid housing, cylindrical solenoid casing, or cam retaining locking bar is disclosed as described by Applicant, infra.
Furthermore, the operation of Miller's lock differs from that of Applicant's as it does not comprise a free standing electronically controlled obstructing component. In contrast, Applicant's electronically controlled element (cam retaining locking bar with attached stem and spring) rises within a magnetic field, and falls vertically in zero magnetic field.
My locking devise integrates previously installed mechanical locks with electronically controlled components which override entry-authorizing mechanical lock components. In particular, my new electromagnetic lock easily replaces a previously installed mechanical deadbolt with an improved electromechanically controlled deadbolt or hookbolt. My new lock is especially suited for small business properties with numerous narrow stile deadbolts, but who require a "second level" of electronic security. My lock installation also reduces costs and installation time from conventional locks with access control.

Electromagnetic integrative door locking device


A fixing device for a table top. The table top having a profile installed into the table top. The profile can be cast-in into the table top, or the table top can be laminated around the profile. The profile includes a through bore having a number of longitudinal grooves. A shaft is arranged to be directed through the bore. A sleeve terminates the shaft at one end. The sleeve includes a number of locking lugs arranged to engage into the grooves of the profile.

It is prior known tables for computer screens, raising the screen up from the desk. The screen is placed on a small plate. The plate is mounted on a rotating arm, which again is standing on a clamp fastener gripping round the rim of the desk.
In the prior known solutions, the table top is fixed to a rotating joint or an arm by means of a small bracket which again is fixed to the desk with bolts, rivets or similar. This fixing point is a weak point mechanically speaking, requiring space and is therefore not allowing a slim mounting of the plate, and is not much satisfactory from an aesthetic point of view.
Thus, there is a demand of an improved fixing device which being more solid and stable in use, simultaneously providing an improved visual expression than existing solutions.


A method and computer-based printing system enable a user of a computer to send an image file to a host computer and subsequently to a printer for printing while ensuring that the user is able to retrieve the printed document without other individuals having access to the printed document. More particularly, in response to receiving a print request from a user terminal, stores the image data with a unique job number, sends the job number to the terminal computer and this terminal computer displays the job number to the user. The user may then enter the displayed job number and password on an operation unit of any printer selected by the user, and in response, the host computer downloads the stored image data associated with the inputted job number to the selected printer and the selected printer prints the document. Other individuals are prevented from viewing the printed document because only the intended recipient (i.e., the user who originated print job) knows the user's password and job number and because the intended recipient is located at the printer and can “guard” the printed document from being viewed by other people.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer-based network printing method and system, which enables printing from a printer connected, directly or indirectly, in a network system to a host computer, terminal computers and other printers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer networks and printers that connect to the network are not new. These network print systems include a host computer, terminal computers and printers, all of which are interconnected by way of a computer communications network. The host computer manages the terminal computers that are used by respective network users. The users are able to access various printers because the printers are connected to the network and are thus, common network resources. There are various places where the printers may be located. For example, all printers may be located in the same place, different places in one building, or distributed throughout different buildings.
As recognized by the present inventor, conventional network print systems have problems. For example, a user must select one of the network printers as a prerequisite for printing. Therefore, the print output is directed to the selected printer and not another one of the available printers. Security is another problem. Conventional network printing systems have a number of users with a number of printers, where the printed output of the respective printers are available for inspection by other users. Moreover, suppose a user prints a confidential documents on a selected printer, which is connected to a network system, other user can observe, or extract, the contents of the printed document (inadvertently, or intentionally).
Japanese patent document, JLOP 4-48323 shows a print server, which has a stacker for stacking printed documents. In this print server, the stacker has a feature that allows the user to take the printed documents only when the user inputs a correct password. Thus, the only the user who has the proper password privilege can observe or extract the printed document.
However, in this conventional print server, the user can only retrieve the printed document from the selected printer, and therefore, cannot retrieve the document from another printer. Attempting to designate multiple or all printers for printing the document gives rise to a security problem.

Computer-based network printing system and method


Methods and apparatus for guiding a mobile transportation means of a set of transportation means to a selected reconditioning station of a set of reconditioning stations, comprising determining a position of the battery, determining a condition of the battery, forecasting a consumption characteristic of the transportation means, evaluating an achievable range of mobility of the transportation means, assigning the selected reconditioning station of the set of reconditioning stations, which is located within the range of mobility of the transportation means along a path to a desired target and guiding the transportation means to the selected reconditioning station, an optimization of the assignment and/or the path is executed by a search algorithm for assigning the set of transportation means to the set of reconditioning stations and batteries, based on actual and/or forecasted information about multiple entities of the sets of transportation means, stations and batteries as well as their conditions.

The expected shortage of fossil fuels, ecological problems, climate concerns and resulting pollution restrictions are likely to increase the demand for electrically powered transportation means, further also referred to as vehicles, in the near future.
In contrast to the existing and well functioning petrol supply system, new challenges will advance out of this, since in contrast to petrol tanks, the storages for electrical energy, further also referred to by the common terms energy cell, battery or accumulator, are expensive, have a limited lifetime and require careful handling. Especially in the present state of development, in particular much longer time is needed for the regeneration of such a storage than for the refilling of a fuel tank of similar energy content. Another important drawback is the limited range, achievable with battery powered vehicles as the stored energy per weight ratio of such storages is much lower than the one of fossil fuel, whereby a desired low weight of the accumulators does result in a limited range of activity of such a vehicle which can be overcome without regeneration or exchange of the storage.
The vehicles can be expected to be dominated by wheelers comparable to the presently used passenger cars, but also other transportation means such as lorries, trucks, tractors, public buses, scooters, motorcycles, electrically powered bikes, crates, coaches or even construction machineries can in the future be equipped with electrical propulsions and therefore the herein described method and unit is also applicable on those.
To manage the consumption of energy and range of mobility of the vehicles many, more or less sophisticated, methods and means that can be implemented into the vehicles are known in the prior art. Many of them involve the task of vehicle navigation similar to the navigation devices as included in fuel powered vehicles.
The words storage, battery or energy cell represent means, which are movable and capable of supplying electrical energy. This comprises advanced technologies such as liquid batteries as e.g. presented in US 2007/0154814, energy cells which are rechargeable by exchange of electrolytes or liquid electrodes e.g. similar to the "liquid battery" presented in MIT's technology review magazine, No. 10, March/April 2009.
The storages can in general be primary cells as well as secondary cells, which signify that they do not necessarily need to be rechargeable or regeneratable. They can as well just be exchangeable, replaceable or even consumable just once, with their remains disposable after usage. Therefore, the words storage, battery, energy cell, and accumulator are used in a synonymous way to describe those means.
The document JP 10170293 concerns the search of an optimum leading route to the destination, by considering the charge of an on-vehicle battery on the basis of road map data which contains information on charging stations. A GPS receiver receives a GPS signal from a satellite and detects the present position, moving direction and moving velocity of the vehicle. A memory stores road map data which includes information on the charging station such as its position and a residual capacity of an on-vehicle battery is measured. A controller searches an optimum leading route to the destination and displays the present position and the leading route on a road map to guide a driver.
From the Japanese patent application JP 2006112932, a navigation system for an electric vehicle which can perform total time forecasting to a destination, including the charging time for a vehicle-mounted battery, is known. In addition, the system is also capable of providing information on restaurant locations, tourist spots, leisure facilities, or the like in the vicinity of charging facilities. This is done by the navigation system for the electric vehicle which comprises a display, an input section, a battery management section for measuring a remaining amount of the vehicle-mounted battery and a database section which stores position, information on charging performance and map information of the charging facilities.
An analysis section calculates charging time at the charging facility on the basis of the remaining amount of the vehicle-mounted battery, the energy consumption of the electric vehicle, the distance from the present position to the charging facility and the distance from the charging facility to the destination. The time of arrival at the destination, including the charging time calculated by the analysis section, is displayed on the display section.
The document JP 1012802 discloses a system to prevent a battery-driven vehicle from stopping due to the consumption of the remaining capacity of a battery during travelling by an alternation of the destination to a charging position, when the battery voltage arrives at a predetermined value. Therein a separate distance between the present travelling position of the battery-driven vehicle and a charging position for charging the battery is detected and a battery voltage allowable value according to the separate distance signals is set. On the other hand, when the fact is detected that the remaining capacity of the battery arrives at a predetermined battery voltage allowable value, the designation is altered to a position instructed by a destination setter and a travel controller outputs a command for the vehicle to travel to the charging position.
The therein presented method of changing the target of travel to a charging location when the battery level drops below a certain threshold might be acceptable if the recharging of the energy storage can be done within short time or the vehicle is of a kind such as an autonomous electrical lawn mower, but it is not desirable for personal transportation and time consuming regeneration or charging processes, since the unpredictability of the system and the thereof resulting unknown time of travel and stopovers would for sure not be accepted by a driver in many cases.
The publication DE 10 2008 017556 presents a navigation unit of a hydrid vehicle which records a charge-possible point and the history of travelling conditions near the charge-possible point. If a destination point on an optimum route is the charge-possible point, the navigation unit determines a continuous section where the electrically powered travelling is possible up to the charge-possible point, based on the history through state of a charge management plan preparation processing. The changing over between the hydrid powered and the electrically powered travelling is done according to this determination while travelling.
Involving the recorded history of the travelling conditions on the chosen route, as presented in DE 10 2008 017556, allows an increase of the accuracy of the expected range that is achievable with the remaining charge of the battery.
To overcome the drawback of the long regeneration or charging time, an exchange of the whole battery-package is a known solution, wherein the battery packages are charged at dedicated reconditioning locations for regeneration, similar to today's filling stations. The publication WO 2009/039454 discloses an electric vehicle network comprising such battery exchange stations.
The vehicles will in this case drop off the whole battery package at the reconditioning station and replace it with another, most likely, but not necessarily, one with a higher energy content than the previous one. The dropped off battery will be recharged at the location and then be put to another vehicle's disposal. The stopover time can thereby be reduced to the time needed for the replacement of the battery, which can, in fact, be even shorter than the time needed to fuel a state of the art car.
It is also a known concept to recondition the storage by an exchange of only some parts of the battery like some electrolytes or electrodes, which are then regenerated (or charged) at reconditioning stations instead of an exchange of the whole battery package. Thereby the longish charging can be done at those stations and the time needed for reconditioning is reduced to e.g. pumping out the used, liquid electrolyte and pumping in the reconditioned one, whereby times similar to those of petrol fuelling stops can be achieved.
Beside those dedicated public stations, also regeneration by sockets at public or private parking lots is possible, since electricity can be easily supplied without much effort by the often already present electrical networks.
But still, especially in case of longer distances, where the energy contained in one fully charged battery is not sufficient to reach the desired target, dedicated charge or exchange stations have to be considered in the planning of the best route or path of travel.
The stock of fully or partially charged batteries at such a station can only be limited and a single location can easily run out of charged batteries, while other batteries are lying around, unused for quite a while, at some other locations.
Therefore, a management of the usage of those regenerative storages and also of the availability of reconditioning stations and the stock and regeneration of the exchangeable storages is one of the challenges to overcome when the introduction of a wide-spread system for electrical transportation means for private, public and/or business use should be achieved.
The resources of storages are a limited set, which entities can be associated to transportation means or reconditioning stations. Although in a global view their number is sufficient to power the complete set of vehicles presently on the road, there can likely be a shortage of storages or a queue for regeneration slots (storages and regeneration slots are further also referred to as resources) in one area, while in another area there is a huge stock of storages or lots of unused regeneration slots.
This results in a demand to manage the assignment or allocation of the energy cells to optimize their usage and avoid shortages. This can also be expressed as management of the assignment of transportation means to reconditioning stations, since the batteries or energy cells can in general either be seen as associated to a transportation means or a reconditioning station, where they are consumed, charged or stocked.

Method and guidance-unit for guiding battery-operated transportation means to reconditioning stations


A semiconductor substrate useful as a donor wafer is a single-crystal silicon wafer having a relaxed, single-crystal layer containing silicon and germanium on its surface, the germanium content at the surface of the layer being in the range from 10% by weight to 100% by weight, and a layer of periodically arranged cavities below the surface. The invention also relates to a process for producing this semiconductor substrate and to an sSOI wafer produced from this semiconductor substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a semiconductor substrate, comprising a relaxed, single-crystal layer containing silicon and germanium which lies at the surface, as well as a process for producing this semiconductor substrate.
2. Background Art
Prior art has disclosed sSOI and SGOI substrates (strained silicon on insulator and silicon-germanium on insulator, respectively). sSOI substrates and SGOI substrates are distinguished by an electrically insulating layer or an electrically insulating support material. In the case of an sSOI substrate, a thin, single-crystal, strained silicon layer is in direct contact with the insulator. By contrast, an SGOI substrate has one or more layers containing silicon and germanium in a predetermined composition (SixGe1−x with 0<×<1) on the insulator. This layer or combination of layers is also referred to below as a "silicon-germanium layer". A thin, single-crystal, strained silicon layer can in turn be applied to the surface of the silicon-germanium layer.
In all the known processes for producing sSOI or SGOI substrates, a thin layer consisting of silicon-germanium is separated from a donor wafer by means of mechanical forces, with the free surface of the layer which is to be transferred usually being bonded to a handle wafer before the separation operation. In the case of the sSOI substrate, in addition to the silicon-germanium layer a strained silicon layer is also transferred from the donor wafer to the handle wafer.
The first step of producing an sSOI or SGOI substrate is to prepare a donor wafer. In both cases, a relaxed silicon-germanium layer must first of all be produced on a silicon wafer, and this silicon-germanium layer is in a further step transferred to the handle wafer. Two fundamentally different processes are known for this purpose:
In the first process, a plurality of silicon-germanium layers with an increasing germanium content (graded buffer layer) are deposited epitaxially on the silicon wafer, thereby producing lattice matching between silicon and silicon-germanium. A silicon-germanium layer with a constant germanium content deposited thereon serves for mechanical stress relief, so that silicon-germanium with its natural lattice constant (i.e. relaxed silicon-germanium with a composition of SixGe1−x with 0<×<1) is present at the surface. The surface roughness which is produced during this process can optionally be reduced by subsequent and/or intervening polishing steps. This process requires the epitaxial deposition of layers with a total thickness of approximately 5 μm and is very expensive on account of the long process time associated therewith. Moreover, the process requires a repeated change between epitaxial deposition and polishing, and therefore a large number of individual process steps. The process leads to dislocation densities in the region of 105/cm2.
In the second known process, the layer sequence with a gradually increasing germanium content is dispensed with, and instead a thin silicon-germanium layer of the desired composition is deposited immediately. In this case, the layer thickness is kept below the limit beyond which misfit dislocations are formed. This initially still strained silicon-germanium layer is then relaxed by the silicon-crystal bond which is present directly below the silicon-germanium layer being weakened. This is achieved by implantation of gas ions (for example hydrogen or helium ions) and a subsequent heat treatment. During heat treatment, the implanted ions form gas bubbles which break open the silicon-crystal bond and thus mechanically decouple the silicon-germanium layer and a silicon layer beneath it, which is only very thin, from the remainder of the silicon wafer, which ultimately leads to the relaxation of the silicon-germanium layer. One drawback is the complex implantation step and the formation of microcracks during the formation of gas bubbles, which leads to the destruction of the layer. This process also produces a high dislocation density. Only if an sSOI substrate is to be produced a thin, strained silicon layer is additionally deposited epitaxially on the relaxed silicon-germanium layer.
In the second step of this second process, a superficial layer of the donor wafer (a silicon-germanium layer in the case of SGOI and additionally a strained silicon layer in the case of sSOI) is transferred to a handle wafer. The handle wafer either consists entirely of an electrically insulating material or bears an electrically insulating layer at least at its surface. A number of processes are also known for this second step. The most customary is the process known under the name Smart Cute (EP533551A1). In this process, first of all hydrogen ions are implanted into the surface of the donor wafer. After bonding to a handle wafer, a layer with hydrogen-filled cavities is produced by a heat treatment at approximately 500° C. The separation of this layer is effected by an increasing gas pressure.
In all the known processes for producing sSOI or SGOI substrates, the surface roughness produced during separation of the donor wafer along the prepared separating layer is so high that the substrate cannot be used to fabricate electronic components without any further treatment, for example a polishing or a smoothing heat treatment.

Semiconductor substrate and process for producing it