A networked computing system capable of mitigating interference amongst neighboring base stations. The networked computing system includes multiple base stations, user equipment, a network resource controller, and a data communications network facilitating data communications amongst all network devices. A serving base station is configured to acquire interference metrics from its local user equipment and then generate an aggregate representation from the acquired interference metrics. The network resource controller is configured to acquire the aggregate representation, determine an interference reduction associated with a neighbor base station for each of the user equipment serviced by the serving base station, determine a power schedule for the first base station based on the aggregate representation and the determined interference reduction, and then modify a power schedule for the neighbor base station based on the determined interference reduction.

In modern homogeneous and heterogeneous cellular network topologies, large numbers of base stations, operating on similar licensed frequency spectra, are being utilized by network access providers to accommodate a growing demand for increased network capacity. In networks where neighboring network cells have overlapping wireless coverage areas, it is particularly important for service providers to be able to accurately determine which network communications resources should be allocated during various scheduling tasks in order to most efficiently facilitate communications for network service subscribers located within the overlapping regions. Generally, subscriber diversity in these cell areas can lead to unique network resource consumption and co-channel interference patterns. Traffic densities in these localities may vary widely throughout the course of any particular day, on a time-varying basis. Accordingly, compensating for these phenomena becomes more challenging as wireless communications technologies evolve in response to increased consumer demand.
Today, commercial cellular deployments are utilized to provide a larger breadth of digital communications services to varying types of distributed network clientele communicating with both dated and cutting-edge wireless computing devices. For example, many users residing within metropolitan regions of a cellular network have access to relatively high network throughput service. This service may be associated with enhanced data-rate plans that can include high bandwidth service offerings. Relatively high usage subscribers (e.g., those consuming a disproportionate percentage of available network bandwidth) may utilize local network resources to transfer large amounts of Internet-based data to and from their cellular communications device(s) over the course of a single day. Conversely, other wireless subscribers, with lesser network service (e.g., those with lower bandwidth data rate plans or dated communications devices), may use local network resources primarily for voice data communications. As would be understood by those skilled in the Art, network throughput is generally defined as an average rate of successful data communications delivery over a particular network communications channel per unit of time. This throughput is usually measured in bits per second (bps) or alternately in data packets per second. Generally, service providers wish to maximize network throughput to ensure that they can reliably accommodate consumer demand in accordance with defined communications quality levels.
As the number of active users in a particular wireless communications network increases, the problem of intercell interference (co-channel interference amongst neighboring network cells) increases, and it becomes more and more important for service providers to be able to properly manage radio frequency resources that are shared amongst regional network cells, particularly in networks employing frequency reuse assignment. By way of example, neighboring cells having overlapping coverage areas might share a fixed number of wireless communication channels, and on any given day, a particular network cell may experience detrimentally reduced network capacity and/or quality, based on heavy subscriber usage of its limited, available network resources (e.g., available communications channel bandwidth) and on intercell interference emanating from neighboring cells. Generally, intercell interference most significantly impacts users communicating near the edge or periphery of a serving cells coverage area.
Modern channel allocation schemes generally allocate full downlink transmit power to distributed user equipment, regardless of their position within a serving cell. Accordingly, these resource allocation schemes fail to adequately account for the conservative, sufficient power levels actually required to successfully close radio links between base stations and their locally served user equipment. Systems such as these generally operate in either full power mode or zero power mode, without any power scaling mechanism or dimension of power weighting. In this environment, scheduled channel resources that facilitate user equipment communications are generally either ON or OFF. When full power mode is employed in adjacent edge regions of neighboring cells, power levels may generally be considered to be overpowered. A problem arises when a serving cell's neighbor cells employ the same overpowered scheduling technique. In this scenario, uncoordinated, non-weighted scheduling gives rise to the problem of co-channel interference and it typically results in wasted network resources and decreased communications throughput.
In recent years, OFDMA (orthogonal frequency division multiple access) has emerged as an evolving physical layer technology for 4G wireless networks. 4G wireless networks have created an increased demand for higher system capacity and improved QoS, and as a result, the problem of poor cell edge performance due to co-channel intercell interference has become an even larger problem than it was for 3G and 3GPP LTE networks. In modern wireless cellular communication systems, cell edge users (users having low carrier to interference plus noise ratio or CINR) regularly suffer from severe intercell interference, and as a result, they generally achieve far lower throughput than users located in the central regions of a network cell (users having high CINR). This not only degrades overall system throughput, but it also causes a wide variation in the QoS levels among varying user types residing in different regions of a serving network cell.
As previously discussed, cell power scheduling in modern OFDMA systems is most often employed independently of similar scheduling performed at neighboring network cells. What is needed are improved solutions for coordinating power scheduling (particularly on the downlink) amongst neighboring network cells to effectively reduce the impact of inter-cell interference and to improve cell edge performance for peripheral network users. Several interference mitigation solutions have been proposed in an attempt to solve these problems. Unfortunately, these solutions have inherent deficiencies that hinder system performance and/or efficient network resource utilization.
One previously proposed solution is intercell interference randomization. This technique essentially randomizes interfering signals, and thereby facilitates interference suppression. As would be understood by those skilled in the Art, this approach may include: interleave division multiple access and slow frequency hopping. These techniques merely randomize intercell interference into noise and accordingly intercell interference randomization techniques fail to achieve substantial performance improvement. Another proposed solution is interference cancellation. This technique demodulates and cancels interference via multi-user detection methods at the receiver. However, these techniques generally suffer from high complexity and detrimentally increased consumer resource overhead. As a result, from a practical perspective, this solution can only result in a limited amount of interference being cancelled in a typical wireless communications network. Accordingly, the effect of interference cancellation alone is insufficient as it cannot solve intercell interference problems associated with modern cellular networks.
Another proposed solution is a type of interference coordination, known as fractional frequency reuse (FFR). FFR aims at using orthogonal frequency resources among neighboring cells' edge users to actively mitigate intercell interference. Implementation of this approach has a low complexity and FFR can improve performance. However, FFR has several key deficiencies. Depending on the specific implementation, since a cell-edge user can only use part of a frequency band, the user can suffer from loss of frequency selectivity gain. Additionally, since FFR schemes are in general statically configured, they do not react to networks with non-uniform loading across the network. This generally leads to a non-optimal system throughput. As would be understood by those skilled in the Art, there are also several other inherent problems associated with using FFR as a solution for modern intercell interference problems that make alternative solutions desirable.
As existing intercell interference solutions fail to adequately solve the problem of intercell interference amongst neighboring network cells, it would be beneficial to be able to more efficiently allocate network resources amongst nearby cells having overlapping coverage areas. This would help to improve network resource utilization amongst regional network cells and it would also improve QoS levels experienced by users communicating at a particular cell's edge. Negative effects associated with poor QoS (e.g., conditions commonly caused by co-channel interference), which can be mitigated by optimizing network resource allocation using improved network resource scheduling, may include: queuing delay, data loss, as well as blocking of new and existing network connections for certain network subscribers.
Accordingly, there remains a need for systems and methods that employ improved network resource allocation solutions to better compensate for intercell interference problems amongst neighboring network cells. It would be helpful if these solutions offered robust power scheduling solutions that emphasized coordinated scheduling while requiring minimal operational overhead. In this way, it would be easier for service providers to readily allocate network resources to network service subscribers in a time efficient manner, in the presence of dynamically changing network environments. It would also be helpful if these solutions took advantage of existing network resources, such that various network cells could independently determine their own downlink data schedules with minimal input from neighboring cells and/or centralized controlling entities. These improved network optimization solutions would effectively reduce the level of required human intervention for successful network resource allocation operations. This in turn would result in operational savings for service providers, and it would provide for many other performance, quality, and operational benefits. The importance of these benefits would be readily understood by those familiar with the multitude of benefits commonly associated with self-organized network (SoN) solutions.

Systems and methods for mitigating intercell interference by coordinated scheduling amongst neighboring cells


Apparatuses with a signal line in a semiconductor device are described. An example apparatus includes one or more power supply voltage lines in a first conductive layer, a plurality of transistors and a signal line in a second conductive layer. Each transistor of the plurality of transistors includes an active region disposed in a substrate and a gate electrode above the active region. The signal line in the second conductive layer is below the first conductive layer and above the active regions of the plurality of transistors. The signal line is coupled to the gate electrodes of the plurality of transistors. The signal line has electrical resistance higher than electrical resistance of the power supply voltage line.

Reduced chip size, high data reliability, reduced power consumption and efficient power usage are features that are demanded from semiconductor memory. In order to reduce chip size, while enhancing current driving capability, a circuit in a conventional semiconductor device includes a plurality of transistors parallel-coupled to each other.
In a semiconductor memory device, a control signal may be distributed to multiple circuits. For example, a data transmission circuit between a data input/output (IO) circuit and a read/write amplifier circuit may receive timing control signals to control data register input and output timings from global control signal lines. The timing control signals are provided to logic circuits and buffers in the data transmission circuit to control data input/output timings from local control signal lines. Providing the received control signal directly to the logic circuits and buffers in the data transmission circuit may result in an undesirable load to the global control signal line. To prevent the undesirable load, a buffer may be provided for each block (e.g., each data queue DQx). The buffer receives the control signals from the global control signal lines and provides the control signals to the local control signal lines. However, high power consumption among the local control signal lines may be caused due to parasitic capacitance between the local control signal lines in a metal layer.


Various embodiments, in the form of at least one of systems, methods, and software, are provided that include security solutions for use of collaboration services. Some embodiments include encrypting data to be sent to and stored by a collaboration service. These and other embodiments include capturing, within a computer application used to post data to a collaboration service, data to be sent to the collaboration service, encrypting the captured data, and returning the data in an encrypted form to the computer application for posting to the collaboration service.

Various collaboration tools have become a new standard for communication and collaboration over the internet. Examples are social networks such as the FACEBOOK website and services of Facebook, Inc., the TWITTER website and services of Twitter, Inc., and GOOGLE WAVE of Google, Inc. Other examples are non-social networks such as the collaboration services available with the ACROBAT® product of Adobe, Inc. These products and services offer capabilities that have the potential to be very useful for business purposes. However, these tools include an important drawback in that information communicated through such communication and collaboration services is disclosed and can be at risk to be compromised. The potential for exposing organizational confidential information is too great of a risk for organizations to utilize such products and services for organizational communication and collaboration. Further, information shared via such products and services is subject to privacy and usage agreements of these products and services. The terms of the privacy and usage agreements are subject to change. Although such products and services offer certain security features, the risks involved in using these products and services are too great. To mitigate potential exposures, organizations do not allow for the use of these communication and collaboration services over the Internet.


A magnesium-based thermoelectric conversion material includes a first layer formed of Mg2Si and a second layer formed of Mg2SixSn1-x (here, x is equal to or greater than 0 and less than 1), in which the first layer and the second layer are directly joined to each other, and within a junction surface with the first layer and in the vicinity of the junction surface, the second layer has a tin concentration transition region in which a tin concentration increases as a distance from the junction surface increases. The junction layer is regarded as a site in which a tin concentration is found to be equal to or lower than a detection limit by the measurement performed using EDX.

A thermoelectric conversion element is an electronic element which can carry out interconversion between heat and electricity, known as the Seebeck effect or the Peltier effect. The Seebeck effect is an effect of converting heat energy into electric energy. The Seebeck effect is a phenomenon in which an electromotive force is produced in a case where a temperature difference is caused between both ends of a thermoelectric conversion material. The electromotive force depends on the characteristics of the thermoelectric conversion material. In recent years, thermoelectric generation using the effect has been actively developed (for example, see PATENT DOCUMENT 1).
As an indicator showing the characteristics of the thermoelectric conversion element, a dimensionless figure of merit (ZT) is known. The dimensionless figure of merit (ZT) is represented by the following Equation (1).ZT=S2σT/K  (1)
Here, S represents a Seebeck coefficient, σ represents an electric conductivity, T represents an absolute temperature, and K represents a thermal conductivity.
As is evident from Equation (1), a temperature factor is included in the dimensionless figure of merit, and the thermoelectric conversion performance is greatly affected by temperature.
The temperature at which the performance of the thermoelectric conversion element is maximized varies with the material constituting the element.
Accordingly, in a case where the thermoelectric conversion element is prepared using one kind of constituent material, the total amount of power generated due to the temperature distribution caused between a high-temperature side and a low-temperature side becomes the amount of power generated by the thermoelectric conversion element. Consequently, unfortunately, even though the thermoelectric conversion element is formed using a material with high ZT, because the thermoelectric conversion efficiency of the low-temperature side is low, the amount of power generated by the whole thermoelectric conversion element is not necessarily high.
As a measure for improving the decrease in the thermoelectric conversion efficiency resulting from the temperature distribution in one thermoelectric conversion element, a thermoelectric conversion element having a multilayer structure is known in which two or more kinds of different thermoelectric conversion materials are laminated. The thermoelectric conversion element having a multilayer structure is obtained by disposing a thermoelectric conversion material whose ZT is maximized in a high-temperature state on a high-temperature side and a thermoelectric conversion material whose ZT is maximized in a low-temperature state on a low-temperature side, and joining these thermoelectric conversion materials to each other through a conductive junction layer.

Magnesium-based thermoelectric conversion material, magnesium-based thermoelectric conversion element, thermoelectric conversion device, and method for manufacturing magnesium-based thermoelectric conversion material


The present invention provides an apparatus, system, and method of utilizing a Home Power Unit (xe2x80x9cHPUxe2x80x9d) which functions as a battery charger for a Hybrid Electric Vehicle (xe2x80x9cHEVxe2x80x9d) or as a generator, utilizing the HEV""s electrical power to operate external electrical devices. In its simplest form, the HPU comprises a Transformer, inverter means, rectifier means, a control unit, connection means to the HEV and external electrical loads or sources and switching means to change operation between charger and generator function. Alternative embodiments of the present invention utilize the HEV""s existing components thereby avoiding component redundancy within the HPU. Specifically, in the first alternative embodiment, the inverter means are utilized within the vehicle, therefore, requiring only filter and transformer to be added to the vehicle. In the second alternative embodiment, the vehicle""s DC-to-DC Converter is utilized as opposed to implementing a transformer. Therefore, only an inverter and filter are added to the system.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a Home Power Unit for Hybrid Electric Vehicles (xe2x80x9cHEVsxe2x80x9d) that acts as a general charger for the vehicle""s battery and as a generator to operate external electrical devices, such as power tools.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
The need to reduce fossil fuel consumption and pollutants of automobiles and other vehicles powered by Internal Combustion Engines (xe2x80x9cICEsxe2x80x9d) is well known. Vehicles powered by electric motors have attempted to address these needs. However, electric vehicles have limited range and limited power coupled with the substantial time needed to recharge their batteries. An alternative solution is to combine both an ICE and electric traction motor into one vehicle. Such vehicles are typically called Hybrid Electric Vehicles (xe2x80x9cHEVsxe2x80x9d). See generally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,343,970 (Severinsky).
The HEV has been described in a variety of configurations. Many HEV patents disclose systems where an operator is required to select between electric and internal combustion operation. In other, the electric motor drives one set of wheels and the ICE drives a different set.
Other configurations have developed. A Series Hybrid Electric Vehicle (xe2x80x9cSHEVxe2x80x9d) is a vehicle with an engine (most typically an ICE) which powers a generator. The generator, in turn, provides electricity for a battery and motor coupled to the drive wheels of the vehicle. There is no mechanical connection between the engine and the drive wheels. A Parallel Hybrid Electrical Vehicle (xe2x80x9cPHEVxe2x80x9d) is a vehicle with an engine (most typically an ICE), battery, and electric motor combined to provide torque to power the wheels of the vehicle.
A Parallel/Series Hybrid Electric Vehicle (xe2x80x9cPSHEVxe2x80x9d) has characteristics of both a PHEV and a SHEV. The PSHEV is also known as a torque (or power) splitting powertrain configuration. Here, the torque output of the engine is given in part to the drive wheels and in part to an electrical generator. The electric generator powers a battery and motor that also provide torque output. In this configuration, torque output can come from either source or both simultaneously. In this configuration the vehicle braking system can even deliver torque to drive the generator to produce charge to the battery.
As the HEV continues to develop, new challenges are encountered and new uses are developed. One of the main challenges associated with all HEVs is insuring enough battery charge to start and operate the vehicle. All batteries lose charge as a result of use or lapse of time. Generally, the HEV battery is charged by an ICE Generator in the vehicle; however, during unusual conditions or emergencies, external battery charging may be necessary.
A potential use for the HEV is to utilize its battery and generator as a source of electrical power to operate electrical devices such as power tools. This type of vehicle use for auxiliary electrical power is well known for conventional ICE vehicles. Specifically, many patents have been issued utilizing the components of ICEs as a power source for electrical devices. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,824,404 (Leonard Ghere); U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,740 (Charles Seiter, Jr.); U.S. Pat. No. 4,074,145 (P. Laffoon, et al.); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,066,866 (William Hallidy), disclose various methods of utilizing a vehicle""s alternator to generate AC voltage to power electrical devices. However, these patents do not apply to HEVs because the HEV does not require an alternator. The HEV already has a ready source of electrical power within its battery and can generate additional power with an onboard generator. However, the HEV""s electrical power, needs to be converted for external use by electrical devices.
It is beneficial, economical, and efficient to have an apparatus, system and method that incorporates an HEV charging system with the ability to harness the vehicle""s electrical power system for auxiliary electrical applications.
The present provides a method, system, and apparatus for charging an HEV battery and utilizing the HEV as a generator to operate external electrical devices. The apparatus is called a Home Power Unit (xe2x80x9cHPUxe2x80x9d) and combines these two functions into one apparatus or system. This provides efficient and easy use of the invention.
The HPU, as a charger, provides the user with the ability to charge the HEV""s battery during emergency or unusual conditions. Generally, the battery is charged through the operation of an onboard generator in combination with the engine. If the onboard high voltage battery charge depletes completely, the engine would not be able to start. Therefore, it is necessary to have a way to charge a HEV battery. The present invention provides just such a means.
The HPU also operates as a generator allowing a user to draw upon the vehicle""s electrical power to run external electrical devices. The HPU draws power from the HEV""s generator and to some extent, its battery. The HPU converts this power to a useable form for external electrical devices such as power tools.
In both modes, the HPU functions as a conversion device to convert external AC electrical power sources to DC power for charging the REV battery (charger function) or convert on board DC electric power to AC electric power (generator function). In both modes the HPU is also capable of converting from one desired voltage to another (i.e., from low 110 to high 300 or reverse). In its simplest form, a HPU apparatus comprises a Transformer to convert electrical voltages, inverter means to convert DC to AC, rectifier means to convert AC to DC, a control unit, a connection means to the HEV and external electrical loads or sources, and a switching means to change operation between the charger and the generator functions. The apparatus typically connects to external loads or services through connection means with the Transformer. The HPU then connects to the HEV""s High Voltage DC Bus and system controllers, specifically, the Battery Electronic Control Unit. The switching devices for the HPU may comprise a momentary two position switch on the instrumental panel, a menu selection from an on-screen display mounted in the instrumental panel or a two position switch mounted on the HPU.
In an alternative embodiment, the HPU is incorporated directly into the components of the HEV. In this manner, redundant components are avoided. Particularly, in the first alternative embodiment, the HPU inverter means are already within the vehicle, specifically a traction inverter. A contactor is implemented between the traction inverter and the motor to switch the power source from the vehicle function (going to the motor) to the HPU function (operating as a generator and proceeding to the filter).
In another alternative embodiment, HEV components are again implemented as opposed to installing a separate HPU unit to avoid redundancy. In this second alternative embodiment, the DC-to-DC Converter is utilized as opposed to the Transformer. The inverter/rectifier means are then implemented after the DC-to-DC Converter to provide the appropriate current changes.


An electronic mirror apparatus includes an imaging part mounted at one-side or each of both-side surfaces of a vehicle and taking an image in a rear-and-side directions of the vehicle; and a display part mounted in the vehicle interior and displaying an image taken by the imaging part or an image acquired through a predetermined transform process on the image taken by the imaging part. The display part displays the image corresponding to an imaging range that is different between a case where a shift position of the vehicle is a forward position and a case where the shift position is a reverse position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic mirror apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related art, an electronic mirror apparatus is known which has respective imaging parts taking images in rear-and-side directions on left and right sides (left rear-and-side directions and right rear-and-side directions) of a vehicle, and a display part mounted at such a position that a driver can easily see it and displaying the images taken by the imaging parts (for example, see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2009-083618).
By thus installing such an electronic mirror apparatus in a vehicle, it is not necessary to install door mirrors, fender mirrors, or so, for a driver to check rear directions on left and right sides. As a result, it is possible to reduce the fuel consumption by reducing resistance to air of the vehicle, improve the degree of freedom of designing the vehicle, and so forth.


The invention refers to a can lid for an aluminum beverage can. The can lid has a pull tab, a chuck wall defining a plug diameter, a countersink and central panel having a panel radius. On the central panel, a score line defining a tear panel and a rivet for connecting a pull tab to the can lid are arranged. The rivet extends through a rivet island that is arranged between an opening part of the pull tab and a handle part of the pull tab. The lid has lid plug diameter of between 45 to 49 mm, an outside diameter of between 52 to 55 mm and a weight of less than 1.9 grams. The central panel has a thickness of less than 0.19 mm. The score line defines an area of between 300 mm2 to 350 mm2 and the score line has a shortest distance from the panel radius of less than 3 mm.

Two piece beverage cans comprise a can body made from one piece of aluminum sheet metal and a can lid with a pull tab affixed to the can lid. A score line in a panel of the can lid defines a tear panel that can be opened by means of the pull tab. The pull tab can be a stay-on-tab that opens a hinged tear panel. In prior art cans, the pull tab is affixed to the can end by a rivet that is formed from the sheet metal of the can lid. Can lids are also known as can ends.
The can body is a drawn and ironed (DWI: drawn and wall-ironed) can body that is produced by first drawing an aluminum blank into a cup and then ironing the walls of the cup to form the can body. The can body has an open end with a reduced diameter. The reduced diameter of the can body's open end is achieved by way of necking the can body in a necking machine in which the diameter of the open end is reduced in several stages.
Prior art cans often have a body that is cylindrical along the largest portion of its longitudinal extension. A typical diameter of prior art aluminum beverage cans is 66 mm. These cans are named 211 cans in the industry.
After filling of a can body e.g. with a carbonated beverage, a respective can lid is attached to the can body by way of a folded double seam. The can lid has a smaller diameter than the can body.
To match a respective can lid, the can body diameter at the can body's open end is reduced from 66 mm to the fitting diameter for the can lid, e.g. ˜57 mm (206), 55 mm (204), 52 mm (202) or 50 mm (200) by way of necking.
A typical can body has a base and a cylindrical sidewall that extends upwardly from the base and that has a wall thickness in the order of 94 to 97 μm for a can having a diameter of 66 mm. A can having a diameter of 58 mm typically has a wall thickness in the order of 90 to 94 μm. The can body further has a tapering neck that extends upwardly from the cylindrical sidewall and that defines the reduced diameter open end of the can body prior to seaming. The can body's open end has a smallest internal diameter called plug diameter, which approximately matches the metrical dimension of the can lid, e.g. 52 mm.
The ratio between the can maximum diameter and the plug diameter that is achieved by way of necking is called the necking ratio. The base includes a standing ring and a dome arranged within the standing ring.
The can lid is made from sheet metal aluminum and has a central panel wherein the rivet and the tear panel are arranged. The central panel is circumferentially surrounded by a countersink that in turn is circumferentially surrounded by an upwardly extending leg, e.g. a chuck wall. At the outer end of the upwardly extending leg, a curl is arranged that eventually is folded to form the seam that connects can body and can lid and that defines the lid outside diameter. The can lid's chuck wall defines a plug diameter of the can lid.
On the central panel, a rivet for connecting a pull tab and a tear panel defined by a score line are arranged. The tear panel can be opened by means of the pull tab that breaks the score line, when a handle part of the pull tab is lifted and thus an opening part of the pull tab is pressed on the tear panel next to the score line. Between the handle part and the opening part of the pull tab a rivet island is arranged. The rivet island is connected to the central panel by means of the rivet and that serves as a bending hinge for the pull tab.
It is an object of the invention to provide a can lid for an improved two-piece aluminum beverage can.


A device for generating infrared radiation includes at least one heating element and at least one radiating element for irradiating the infrared radiation. The heating element is a micromechanical, two-dimensional heater structure. The heating element may be applied on the radiating element using hybrid technology such that the radiation element has at least one side facing the heating element and at least one side facing away. The radiating element may be ceramic substrate.

A spectroscopic measurement is used as a long-term stable and reproducible measuring principle in, for example, carbon dioxide sensors. The radiation of an infrared source in the MIR (mean infrared range) on a typical CO2 absorption wavelength (e.g., 4.3 μm) is compared with the radiation of the infrared source for a reference wavelength (e.g., 4 μm). Information on whether and in what concentration CO2 is present in the absorption path between the radiation source and the detector results from the comparison of the radiation intensity for the absorption wavelength and the reference wavelength.
Because of economic reasons, incandescent lamps, the irradiation spectrum of which reaches into the MIR range, are frequently used as the radiation source. The main limitation for the usability of the lamps is the MIR absorption of the lamp glass which limits the utilization of the incandescent lamps to the IR wavelength range<4.5 μm. Special glass qualities also absorb a large portion of the IR radiation in the wavelength range of just 4 μm. Due to the irradiation maximum of the incandescent filament of the lamp in the range of visible light (wavelength<1 μm), the largest portion of the generated radiation additionally represents a power loss which may also have a detrimental effect on the measuring accuracy.
Ceramic infrared radiators, special incandescent lamps made of silica glass, or devices known in the laboratory field as black-body radiators may represent alternatives to an incandescent lamp as an infrared source. If one intends to detect other gases, such as CO for example (absorption at 4.6 μm), using the above-mentioned spectroscopic measuring principle, one has to resort to these IR sources which are much more expensive and more complex.
An electrically operable tubular infrared radiator which is situated in a reflector is described in German Patent document No. 198 12 188. The ceramic infrared radiator has a carrier tube made of sintered Al2O3 and a heater coil made of resistor wire which is wound on the carrier tube, the resistor wire being enclosed and held by a cover layer made of a ceramic compound which, at least on its surface, is dyed black. The reflector is designed as a molded body made of ceramic material having a focal line, the reflector being gold-plated on its side facing the carrier tube including the heater coil. The carrier tube including the heater coil is situated in the area of the reflector's focal line.
A carbon dioxide sensor having a substrate carrier with a heating element including power terminals attached to its bottom side is described in detail in German Patent document No. 44 37 692. Interdigital electrodes with a carbon dioxide-sensitive material on top are situated on the top side.


A method of reducing the size of a simpleType element in an Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) schema document may include modifying each simpleType element in an XSD document by eliminating one or more facets from each simpleType element. The method may also include encoding the XSD document into an EXI schema document by transforming each modified simpleType element in the XSD document from an XSD simpleType element with start and end tags to an encoded EXI simpleType element expressed as a sequence of bits.

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a plain-text format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. One version of XML is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and dated Nov. 26, 2008, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The XML 1.0 Specification defines an XML document as a text that is well-formed and valid.
An XML schema is a description of a type of XML document, typically expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type, above and beyond the basic syntactical constraints imposed by the XML 1.0 Specification itself. These constraints are generally expressed using some combination of grammatical rules governing the order of elements, boolean predicates associated with the content, data types governing the content of elements and attributes, and more specialized rules such as uniqueness and referential integrity constraints. One example schema language in widespread use is the XML Schema Definition (XSD) language as defined in the XSD 1.1 Specification produced by the W3C and dated Apr. 5, 2012, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The process of checking to see if an XML document conforms to an XSD document is called validation, which is separate from XML's core concept of syntactic well-formedness. All XML documents are defined as being well-formed, but an XML document is on check for validity where the XML processor is "validating," in which case the document is checked for conformance with its associated XSD document. An XML document is only considered valid if it satisfies the requirements of the XSD document with which it has been associated.
Although the plain-text human-readable aspect of XML and XSD documents may be beneficial in many situations, this human-readable aspect may also lead to XML and XSD documents that are large in size and therefore incompatible with devices with limited memory or storage capacity. Efforts to reduce the size of XML and XSD documents have therefore often eliminated this plain-text human-readable aspect in favor of more compact binary representations.
EXI is a Binary XML format. EXI is one of the most prominent binary XML efforts to encode XML documents in a binary data format rather than plain text. In general, using a binary XML format reduces the size and verbosity of XML documents, and may reduce the cost in terms of time and effort involved in parsing XML documents. EXI is formally defined in the EXI Format 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C and dated Mar. 10, 2011, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. An XML document may be encoded in an EXI format as a separate EXI document. An XSD document may also be encoded as a separate EXI schema document.
When an XSD document is encoded as an EXI schema document, the EXI schema document generally includes various encoded data fields that are employed in validation tasks. Unfortunately, however, the inclusion of these various encoded data fields may cause the size of the EXI schema document to remain relatively large in size. This relatively large size may be problematic where the EXI schema document is transferred to an EXI processor that is employed in a device with limited memory or storage capacity.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one example technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.

Efficient XML interchange schema document encoding


A hydraulic accumulator has a first housing shell (2) and a second housing shell (3). The opening edges (5, 6) of the shells overlap in relation to the longitudinal axis (4) of the hydraulic accumulator (1) such that they define a partial volume of the hydraulic accumulator (1). The accumulator also has a separating element (7) separating inner working chambers (9, 10) from each other within the accumulator housing (8) in a medium-tight manner. The housing is formed by the housing shells (2, 3). The opening edge (5) of the radially outer-lying housing shell (2) is positively coupled to the circumference of the radially inner-lying housing shell (3) by reshaping.

Hydraulic accumulators in hydraulic systems serve, among other purposes, to receive a defined volume of pressurized fluid and to deliver it back again, as needed, to the system. Especially popular are hydraulic systems with hydropneumatic accumulators exhibiting a separating element configured as a diaphragm. The diaphragm separates, in particular, a fluid chamber acting as the working chamber from a gas chamber acting as the additional working chamber. The working gas used is preferably nitrogen. The diaphragm decouples or separates the gas and fluid chambers. The fluid chamber is connected to a hydraulic circuit of the system. As the pressure increases, the hydraulic accumulator absorbs the pressure medium, causing the gas to be compressed. As the pressure decreases, the previously compressed gas expands and at the same time forces the pressure medium (hydraulic fluid) back into the hydraulic circuit.
In general, a hydraulic accumulator is formed from two housing shells abutting each other with their free opening edges and, in doing so, defining in each case a partial volume or a working chamber of the hydraulic accumulator with the interpositioning of the diaphragm. The housing shells abutting each other at their face sides are usually welded together at the pertinent butt joint by a variety of welding methods. Depending on the welding method, it cannot be ruled out, in principle, that the hot metal beads or metal particles in the interior of the hydraulic accumulator will result in the diaphragm being damaged during the welding process. Such damage can have a negative impact on the strength of the diaphragm.


A reversible electrochemical system includes a first electrode comprising liquid silver metal and a second electrode, said first and second electrodes separated by a oxygen ion-conducting solid electrolyte; a conduit for directing a first reactive material across the second electrode; and a conduit for contacting second reactive material with the first liquid silver electrode, wherein the cell is capable of steam electrolysis when the polarity of the electrodes is selected such that the liquid silver is an anode and the cell is capable of electrical energy generation when the polarity of the electrodes is selected such that the liquid silver is a cathode.

This invention relates to methods and systems for steam electrolysis. In particular, the invention relates to the conversion of waste materials into hydrogen. This invention further relates to reversible systems and methods for steam electrolysis and energy generation using solid oxide technology.
Steam reforming is a process that involves reaction of methane and/or other hydrocarbons with steam at temperatures between 700-1300K over a nickel catalyst on a ceramic substrate. The reaction results in producing primarily carbon monoxide and hydrogen with small amounts of residual hydrocarbons and impurity reaction byproducts such as oxides of sulfur and nitrogen. The primary reaction in the steam reforming process is:CH4((g))+H2O((g))=CO((g))+3H2((g))
The traditional steam reforming process does not allow clean separation of hydrogen from carbon monoxide and the other impurity oxides that are generated in the process in a single step.
A higher purity hydrogen gas may be formed using steam electrolysis processes. In the electrolysis process hydrogen is generated by applying electrical energy to split water or steam. Typically two electrodes are used, hydrogen is generated at the cathode and oxygen at the anode. This process is energy intensive and expensive but can produce clean and pure hydrogen.
Mixed ionic and electronic conducting (MIEC) membranes have recently been considered for a wide variety of gas separation applications including oxygen separation, partial oxidation of methane, and hydrogen separation. In one example of this process, one side of an oxygen ion and electron conducting MIEC membrane is exposed to steam and the other side to a hydrocarbon such as methane. This sets up a chemical potential gradient in O2 across which transport of oxygen occurs from the steam side to the hydrocarbon side leaving behind a H2 rich product on the steam side and a product rich in synthesis gas (syn-gas) on the hydrocarbon side of the membrane. Hydrogen separation and purification using MIEC membranes are described in published PCT application WO 03/089117, which is incorporated in its entirety by reference. This process produces pure hydrogen and syn-gas from a source of steam and hydrocarbon fuel, however, additional processing is required to obtain the syn-gas used in this process.
Synthesis gas (syn-gas) is the name given to gases of varying composition that are generated in coal gasification and consists primarily of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Syn-gas is typically prepared using a gasification process.
Gasification is a process that converts carbon-containing materials, such as coal, petroleum, petroleum coke or biomass, into carbon monoxide and hydrogen. In a gasifier, the carbonaceous material undergoes three processes, pyrolysis, combustion and gasification. During pyrolysis, the volatiles from the carbonaceous particle are removed by heating and the residue remaining forms the char. During combustion, the volatiles and some of the char react with oxygen to form carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. This reaction also produces heat. During gasification, the char and carbon dioxide react with steam to produce carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Pyrolysis, combustion and gasification process releases large amounts of environmental pollutants that are present in coal including heavy metals and oxides of nitrogen, sulfur, hydrocarbon and carbon. Clean separation of hydrogen from other gases and impurities is a complex, difficult, and expensive process.
Another way to generate hydrogen is through incineration, which converts waste matter to other more acceptable forms of matter by heating it to a very high temperature (greater than thousand degrees centigrade). The process can decompose the waste matter or can selectively remove certain constituents in the matter by taking advantage of different boiling and flash points. In the incinerator the waste undergoes combustion reactions producing ash and combustion gases. The products of incineration are often further treated before release to meet regulatory standards for waste disposal. The incineration process is usually used as an alternative to landfilling and bioremediation, because it drastically reduces the volume of solid waste. The thermal energy released in the incinerator is often utilized in other processes. The waste incineration process however does not produce pure hydrogen and/or syn-gas. It does, however, serve to generate thermal energy that can be used in other processes, e.g., steam generation.
A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that converts the chemical energy in fuels (such as hydrogen, methane, butane or even gasoline and diesel) into electrical energy by exploiting the natural tendency of oxygen and hydrogen to react. Much development has focused on solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC), both because they are able to convert a wide variety of fuels into energy and because they do so with high efficiency. High efficiency and fuel adaptability are not the only advantages of solid oxide fuel cells. SOFCs are attractive as energy sources because they are clean, reliable, and almost entirely nonpolluting. Because there are no moving parts and the cells are therefore vibration-free, the noise pollution associated with power generation is also eliminated.
There is a great present and future need for pure hydrogen to power fuel cells for transportation, defense, and consumer electronic applications. There is also a large demand for syn-gas for stationary and distributed power generation. There remains an unmet need to generate efficient, low cost methods for generating high purity hydrogen.

Waste to hydrogen conversion process and related apparatus


Disclosed herein are methods and materials for producing a more developmentally potent cell from a less developmentally potent cell. Specifically exemplified herein are methods that comprise introducing an expressible dedifferentiating polynucleotide sequence into a less developmentally potent cell, wherein the transfected less developmentally potent cell becomes a more developmentally potent cell capable of differentiating to a less developmentally potent cell of its lineage of origin or a different lineage.

The use of stem cells for the treatment of neurodegenerative conditions offers the hope of curing diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's by means of transplantation [1]. However, major obstacles regarding cell procurement, directing cell fate and avoiding immune response hinder clinical development [2-4] Research has focused on both adult and embryonic stem cells and attempted to balance limitations in regulating their development and preventing immune response. Increased potency of stem cells can be achieved by epigenetic modifications through nucleotide derivatives [5] and their lineage can be directed by gene transfection [6,7].
Patients currently suffering from neurodegenerative conditions have limited treatment options. Conventional drug therapy helps delay or reduce the symptoms of disease but is unable to restore complete functionality of the brain or repair damaged tissue. Through stem cell-based therapies, scientists aim to transplant cells in order to regenerate damaged tissue and restore proper function. However, the best source of stem cells for transplantation remains an unresolved issue; with debate focusing around embryonic or adult derived stem cells. Embryonic stem cells can be readily differentiated to multiple neuronal fates but pose the risk of tumor formation or immune response; whereas adult stem cell technology is easily accessible, but provides limited capacity for transdifferentiation. An optimal approach may be to increase cellular plasticity of adult stem cells for use in autologous transplantation.

Mesenchymal stem cells with increased developmental potency by expressing Nanog

University of Central Florida Research Foundation, Inc.


A sample analyzer includes a marking unit containing a marker for marking a container containing a sample, and a controller for controlling the marking unit based on sample information. A sample analyzing method includes a) providing a container containing a sample, b) obtaining the sample from the container, c) detecting a signal from the obtained sample, d) analyzing the detected signal, e) determining whether marking the container is needed or not based on sample information; and f) automatically marking the container if marking is needed.

The present invention relates to sample analyzers, for example, blood analyzers, biochemical analyzers, urine analyzers, industrial particle analyzers, and the like.
Sample analyzers such as conventional blood analyzers incorporate a body for analyzing samples, and a conveyor for conveying a rack. A row of sample containers containing sample material are arrayed on the rack. A bar code representing an identification number (ID) is affixed to the sample container to identify the sample material. The conveyor is provided with a rack conveying mechanism and a stock unit (rack recovery part) The rack conveying mechanism accommodates the rack, and conveys the rack to the stock unit (rack recovery part). The body is provided with a bar code reader, suction unit, and analysis unit. The body reads the ID of the sample container conveyed by the rack conveying mechanism, suctions the sample material from within the sample container, and analyzes the suctioned sample material.
Analyzed samples may need re-examination when analysis results are anomalous, and particular care must be exercised in handling because the sample materials housed in the internal units may be infected with an infectious virus. Accordingly, the users of the sample analyzer must recognize whether re-examination of the sample is needed and the sample is infected with an infectious virus.
In conventional sample analyzers, however, a user must read the ID from a sample container accommodated in the rack recovery unit, and compare the ID, analysis result, and virus infection status in order to recognize whether re-examination is needed and the sample is infected. This operation is extremely complex.
A conventional specimen sorting apparatus has a path of conveyance including a rack transporting conveyor and a rack sorting conveyor connected to the downstream end of the rack conveyor, a rack supply conveyor provided at one side of the rack transporting conveyor, a first specimen bar code reader disposed in the vicinity of the rack supply conveyor, a printer disposed near the downstream end of the rack transporting conveyor and adapted to operate in accordance with instructions given by a host computer, a rack bar code reader and a second specimen bar code reader disposed along the path of conveyance between the rack supply conveyor and the printer, a table disposed at one side of the rack sorting conveyor and having a predetermined number of storage sections defined thereon and a plurality of pusher mechanisms arranged along the rack sorting conveyor and associated with the respective storage sections (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,150,795).
A conventional specimen-container transfer apparatus has a conveyance unit for transferring specimen-container racks, a specimen-container ID reader for reading specimen-container identification signals from the specimen-container racks transported by the conveyance unit; a specimen-container housing rack table on which specimen container housing racks for housing specimen containers can be set up; specimen-container transfer means for taking specimen containers out of specimen-container racks and putting them into specimen-container housing racks; and a control unit for controlling the order in which the specimen containers are put into the specimen-container housing rack (see U.S. Pat. No. 6,255,614).
For example, although specimens needing re-examination and samples not needing re-examination can be sorted in the above mentioned specimen sorting apparatus and specimen-container transfer apparatus, these apparatuses are disadvantageously large and complex.


A soldering apparatus is disclosed which includes a longitudinally extending, air-tight housing having four contiguous, first through fourth zones and and inlet and outlet openings at both longitudinal ends thereof, a conveyer for conveying an article to be soldered along a predetermined path extending through the inlet opening, the first to fourth zones and the outlet opening, a soldering device provided in the second zone for applying a molten solder to the article traveling through the second zone, a plurality of upper and lower partition plates disposed in each of the first, third and fourth zones to partition each zone into a plurality of open ended chambers, an inert gas diffuser provided within at least one of the chambers of the third zone, and an air diffuser provided within at least one of the chambers of the fourth zone, so that the diffusion of air from the fourth zone to the third zone is substantially prevented while the diffusion of the inert gas from the third zone to the outlet opening through the fourth zone is reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a soldering apparatus and, more specifically, to an apparatus for soldering an article, such as an electrical part-bearing printed wiring board, in an inert atmosphere.
2. Description of Prior Art
Because solder and metal portions to be soldered are susceptible to oxidation, it is desirable to perform a soldering operation in an inert gas atmosphere. JP-A-60-124464 discloses a soldering apparatus including a housing defining therein a soldering zone and having inlet and outlet openings positioned at positions lower than the soldering zone. An inert gas feeding port is provided in the top of the housing. The feeding port is connected to a source of the inert gas through a heater. Thus, the inert gas is heated in the heater and is fed to the top of the soldering zone. An article to be soldered is introduced through the inlet opening into the housing, conveyed upward to the soldering zone and, then, downward to the outlet opening. Since the soldering zone is positioned at a level higher than the inlet and outlet openings, the inert gas introduced into the soldering zone has a higher temperature (i.e. lower specific gravity) than the outside atmosphere, air is prevented from entering the soldering zone, so that the soldering operation can be performed in the inert gas atmosphere.
The known apparatus has, however, a drawback because it is necessary to provide a long vertical distance between the soldering zone and the inlet/outlet openings in order to prevent the outside air from entering the soldering zone. It is also necessary to slowly convey the article through the inside of the housing in order to suppress the creation of turbulent flows. Additionally, with the conventional apparatus, a large amount of the inert gas should be consumed to obtain satisfactory results.


Colorant composition consisting essentially of one or more cholesteric liquid-crystalline polymers having a pitch of the helical superstructure of between 760 nm and 500 .mu.m, and of at least one colorant which absorbs light in the visible wavelength range. Suitable colorants are organic or inorganic pigments or dyes. Coatings featuring such colorant compositions are notable for heat insulation properties.

Cholesteric liquid-crystalline main-chain polymers (cLCPs) whose color effect is dependent on viewing angle are known and can be prepared in analogy to nematic main-chain polymers by using an additional chiral comonomer (U.S. Pat. No. 4,412,059; EP-A-0 196 785; EP-A-0 608 991; EP-A-0 391 368) or by reacting nematic main-chain polymers (LCPs) with chiral comonomers (EP-A-0 283 273). Cholesteric main-chain polymers possess a helical superstructure and are distinguished by pronounced color effects that are based on selective reflection at the helical superstructure. The precise reflection wavelength in this instance depends in particular on the pitch of the helix. The helical pitch which develops depends essentially on the proportion of the chiral comonomer, on the nature of its incorporation into the polymer, on the degree of polymerization, and on the structure of the chiral comonomer. Furthermore, many systems also show a temperature dependence of the pitch in the cholesteric phase.
Heat-reflecting platelet-shaped particles are known. They generally consist of coated mica platelets. In this case the coat thickness is selected so that the reflection is within the IR range and the platelets are colorless and transparent. Owing to the dependency of the reflection on viewing angle, such platelets do not appear colorless at every viewing angle. When viewed obliquely, they generally show an unwanted greenish color shimmer. Platelets which in addition to their IR reflection exhibit a homogeneous, hiding color effect have not been described to date.


A magnetoresistance element includes: a first magnetoresistance subelement including a first free magnetization layer, a first tunnel insulating layer and a first fixed magnetization layer, the first tunnel insulating layer interposed between the first free magnetization layer and the first fixed magnetization layer; and a second magnetoresistance subelement including a second free magnetization layer, a second tunnel insulating layer and a second fixed magnetization layer, the second tunnel insulating layer interposed between the second free magnetization layer and the second fixed magnetization layer, wherein the first and second magnetoresistance subelements are stacked each other, and an order of the first free magnetization layer and the first fixed magnetization layer is opposite to an order of the second free magnetization layer and the second fixed magnetization layer in a thickness direction of the magnetoresistance element.

Active efforts have been made for development of storage cells that contain a magnetoresistance element consisting mainly of a tunnel insulating layer interposed between a free magnetization layer and a fixed magnetization layer. The magnetization direction of the fixed magnetization layer is fixed while that of the free magnetization layer is variable. Accordingly, a low resistance state where the magnetization direction of the fixed magnetization layer and that of the free magnetization layer coincide with each other and a high resistance state where the magnetization direction of the fixed magnetization layer and that of the free magnetization layer are in opposite directions can be switched by changing the magnetization direction of the free magnetization layer.
The known methods for changing the magnetization direction of a free magnetization layer include the use of an external magnetic field (for instance, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2009-152594), and the use of the spin torque effect of an electric current flowing through a magnetoresistance element.

Magnetoresistance element and semiconductor memory device


A high-speed universal motor running at over 10,000 or even over 20,000 rpm includes a non-rubbing water repellent sleeve that protects the bearings from moisture damage. Rather than having a sliding contact seal that can quickly wear out under such high speeds, the sleeve is made of material having a low solid surface energy so that the seal material itself repels waters on its own. TEFLON is the preferred material, which is relatively soft, so to prevent the compressibility of the seal from affecting the axial positioning of parts on the motor shaft, the seal is installed such that the seal does not contribute to the critically precise positioning of the shaft and the parts mounted to it. In some embodiments, for example, the relatively soft seal simply overlies a much stiffer, accurately machined metal spacer.

1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention generally pertains to electric motors and more specifically to a device for protecting a motor's bearings from moisture contamination.
2. Description of Related Art
The motors of some vacuum cleaners, particularly water extractor appliances such as carpet cleaners and wet/dry vacuums, are exposed to a significant amount of moisture-laden air. To protect the motor's bearing from being damaged by the moisture, a seal can be installed between the bearing's inner and outer races or somewhere between the motor's rotating shaft and the motor's stationary housing. As the motor turns, such seals rub against a sealing surface, which can eventually wear out the seal or wear out the surface against which the seal rubs.
Nonetheless, such rubbing style seals can have an acceptably long life when applied to induction motors that run at 1800 rpm or some other relatively low speed tied to the line frequency of the motor's supply current.
Lightweight vacuum cleaners and other portable appliances, on the other hand, preferably have a more lightweight motor, such as a universal or series motor. The rotational speed of universal motors are not limited by the frequency of the motor's electric supply, so they may run at over 20,000 rpm. Thus, rubbing style seals for universal motors may need exceptionally high wear resistance (both the seal itself and the surface against which it rubs). Moreover, universal motors need to me manufactured to very close tolerances to run at such high speeds.
Consequently, seals for universal motors preferably have high wear resistance, sufficient flexibility to provide a shape conforming seal, sufficient rigidity to meet the motor's tolerance requirements, and low coefficient of friction to avoid generating heat. It can be difficult, however, to provide a single seal having all of those qualities.


Methods of producing gratings with trenches having variable height are provided. In one example, a method of forming a diffracted optical element may include providing an optical grating layer over a substrate, patterning a hardmask over the optical grating layer, and forming a sacrificial layer over the hardmask, the sacrificial layer having a non-uniform height measured from a top surface of the optical grating layer. The method may further include etching a plurality of angled trenches into the optical grating layer to form an optical grating, wherein a first depth of a first trench of the plurality of trenches is different than a second depth of a second trench of the plurality of trenches.

Optical elements such as optical lenses have long been used to manipulate light for various advantages. Recently, micro-diffraction gratings have been utilized in holographic and augmented/virtual reality (AR and VR) devices. One particular AR and VR device is a wearable display system, such as a headset, arranged to display an image within a short distance from a human eye. Such wearable headsets are sometimes referred to as head mounted displays, and are provided with a frame displaying an image within a few centimeters of the user's eyes. The image can be a computer-generated image on a display, such as a micro display. The optical components are arranged to transport light of the desired image, where the light is generated on the display to the user's eye to make the image visible to the user. The display where the image is generated can form part of a light engine, so the image generates collimated light beams guided by the optical component to provide an image visible to the user.
Different kinds of optical components have been used to convey the image from the display to the human eye. To properly function in an augmented reality lens or combiner, the geometries of an optical grating may be designed to achieve various effects. In some devices, multiple different regions, such as two or more different regions, are formed on the surface of a lens, wherein the grating geometries in one region are different from the grating geometries in other regions.
Angled surface relief optical gratings can be produced by the direct etching of angled trenches into a substrate or a film stack on a substrate. One of the parameters controlling the efficiency of the optical grating is the trench depth. Unfortunately, current approaches of forming optical gratings with varied heights, widths, and/or shapes across diffracting and viewing fields have proved challenging.
Therefore, there is a need for improved methods of producing gratings having trenches with variable depth.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods of producing slanted gratings with variable etch depths


A system and method for parallel processing of semantically grouped data in data warehouse environments is disclosed. A datastore object having a number of records is generated in a data warehouse application. A hash value is added to each record. The hash value has an integer domain, and is uniformly distributed over the integer domain across the datastore object. A selection table is generated to create a number of tasks based on discrete ranges of the hash value. Then, a transformation routine is executed on each of the number of tasks in parallel to generate an infocube of data that corresponds to each range of the discrete ranges of the hash value.

Enterprise Data Warehouses serve as a vital platform on which various applications of several companies are embedded. The applications can include Business Intelligence (BI), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), for example. As they are embedded in an enterprise-wide (or even world-wide) system landscape, there are often conflicting problems of high volumes of data and a well-defined, narrow time slot for processing the data.
Effective data processing in terms of utilizing available hardware is a key requirement to improve the performance of a data warehouse and to reduce times for providing the data.
As shown in FIG. 1A, a data warehouse application platform 100 will often have a two-tier architecture: one or more application servers 102 of an application layer 101 each host one or more data warehouse applications. The application servers 102 are connected to a database management system (DBMS) 104 of a database layer 103, and different (parallel running) tasks 106 running on each application server 102 have to process data reads from the tables 108 stored on the DBMS 104. The DBMS 104 can include one or more servers. Meanwhile, data targets, such as InfoCubes, DataStore objects, etc., are modeled by data warehouse users to support different applications and decision making. The data to be processed is most often structured and the metadata is composed from data models, in what is known as a model driven architecture. Thus, the semantics of the data is unknown from the perspective of the generic data warehouse application.
The data to be processed is often time dependent. For instance, as illustrated in FIG. 1B, if the data warehouse application extracts billing items from a source system, the order of modifications in the source system for one specific item have to be adhered to in order to calculate the right delta values. To support this requirement, technical keys (e.g. REQUEST, RECORDNUMBER) are used in addition to the semantic keys (e.g. billing number).
Data processing steps (e.g. data activation in a DataStore object, data loads from one data target into another one, etc.) are critical for performance. To be able to deal with mass data, the data processing steps have to be distributed over multiple application servers using different tasks 106, and the data has to be split accordingly. Typically, one task 106 processes only a subset of the data, known as a data package, as shown in FIG. 2. To control the server workload, the number of records to be processed by one task has to be maintained by the user (package size). Furthermore, to avoid data loss due to concurrent tasks, records for one specific semantic key must be in the same package. If the records were processed by different tasks in parallel the precondition mentioned in 005 could be violated. As an example, as shown in FIG. 1B, records with record number 1, 2, 3 and 5 have to be processed by one task; while record number 4 can be processed by a different task.
In current data warehouse environments, task handling according to the conditions described above is one of the limiting factors. A task itself cannot determine the data package to be processed since, due to the model driven architecture, there is no selection criterion which ensures that all records for one specific semantic key are read, that records of any package size are processed, and that each record is processed by exactly one process.
Since a task is not able to select its data, the degree of parallelization is restricted since all tasks are dependent on the main process. Accordingly, there needs to be one main process which creates the data packages and passes the result to a task.

Parallel processing of semantically grouped data in data warehouse environments


A mobile station apparatus has established a first bearer that communicates with a home network and a second bearer that communicates with a core network. In the transmission of a multicast join request, the mobile station apparatus transmits the multicast join request by selecting the first bearer if the multicast join request is addressed to the home network, or by selecting the second bearer if the multicast join request is addressed to the core network. In this way, a mobile communication system is provided where the mobile station apparatus connected to a home base station apparatus determines whether a multicast group is based on a Local IP Access and then transmits the multicast join request, and the home base station apparatus appropriately establishes a multicast session to the home network or the core network in response to a determination of the mobile station apparatus.

In the 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project), standardization organizations of a mobile communication system are formulating specifications of EPS (Evolved Packet System) described in NPL 1 as a next-generation mobile communication system, and are studying an apparatus in the EPS, namely, HeNB (Home eNodeB: Home Base Station) as a compact base station that is installed at home.
In the HeNB, a small-scale wireless cell called femtocell is constructed, and a UE (User Equipment: mobile terminal apparatus) is included using the same radio access technique as that of a standard base station. The HeNB is then connected to a core network of a mobile communication system via broadband line, and relays communication data of the included UE.
NPL 2 listed below discloses an architecture candidate to implement a Local IP Access through the HeNB. The Local IP Access refers to a function to provide direct connectivity to a network such as a home IP network (hereinafter referred to as a "home network") to which the HeNB is directly connected. The UE is thus able to communicate with another information terminal (such as a digital video recorder or a printer) connected to the home network without being via the core network of the mobile communication system.
On the other hand, in the EPS, MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service) specifications have been formulated as a method of providing multicast service to the UE via the core network (for example, reference is made to NPL 3).
In MBMS, BM-SC (Broadcast-Multicast Service Centre) and MBMS-GW are installed in the core network of the mobile communication system, and the UE is able to receive multicast data when BM-SC, MBMS-GW, and a base station establish a delivery path of multicast data.
Also available is a service discovery protocol, employing multicast of UPnP (Universal Plug and Play), as a method of automatically finding services (such as a "print service" provided by a printer device) which apparatuses in a Local Area Network (LAN) such as a home network mutually provide to each other (for example, reference is made to NPL 4).
In terms of user convenience, a function implemented at UPnP is preferably available on the UE connected via a Local IP Access. Although NPL 2 describes a request condition on the use of multicast service through the Local IP Access, but fails to describe specific implementation means of the function. The function cannot be implemented.

Mobile communication system, mobile station apparatus, home base station apparatus, and communication method


A chuck assembly for a dental handpiece includes a hollow cylindrical tube portion having a first internal bore, and a chuck portion having a second bore. The chuck portion is supported within the first bore co-rotational with the tube portion about a common axis. The chuck portion has an annular body portion defining the second bore for supporting a cylindrical tool therein. A drive element comprising a drive pin inserted in a first end of the tube portion traverses the first internal bore at a first end of the tube portion. The drive pin cooperates with a distal end of a rotary tool insertable into the second bore to transfer torque to the tool. The tool has an elongated body portion having a driven portion and a working portion. The driven portion includes a shank portion with channels for receiving the drive pin.

Various dental handpieces are known in the dental art. Turbine driven handpieces are widely used by dentists. Dental handpieces include a handle and drive head for supporting the rotating components dental bur. A connector, e.g., a swivel connector, connects the handpiece to various air, water, light and power supply conduits, generally combined in a singular flexible cord. The drive head houses a dental bur drive arrangement that is typically composed of a dental bur-retaining mount or chuck, and a motor or turbine rotatably mounted in the head for driving the chuck. The chuck holds the dental bur for rotation.
The dental bur is removable from the chuck and interchangeable with other dental burs for providing various sizes and dental operations. In known handpieces, the dental bur is maintained by the chuck against axial and radial movement and slippage in the drive arrangement. Screw lock or pushbutton lock arrangements may be provided for the manual locking and releasing of the dental bur in and from the chuck.
Manufacturers of dental handpieces have increased the power wattage that may be output from a dental handpiece. The higher power of the dental handpiece may reduce the percentage of the total power that is delivered to the dental bur. Bur slippage may occur in the chuck during heavy cutting operations, resulting in loss of control of the operation, chatter of the bur during cutting operations, and loss of precision that is essential in dental operations. Slippage of the bur may cause the chuck to wear grooves on the bur shank, causing interference between the bur and the chuck and making removal of the bur from the chuck difficult. Also, unsafe patient conditions may occur due to burs "walking out" of the chuck, i.e., displacing the bur axially out of the chuck due to wear in the chuck.
Further, high frequency or ultrasonic vibrations may cause welding of the bur shank to the chuck. Such unintentional welding requires very high axial applied force to a push button type chuck to release the bur, and may result in chuck or turbine damage, and may require removal of the bur using pliers or forceps.
Prior art chucks of dental handpieces are almost exclusively designed to hold the dental bur by way of friction fit only. Examples of such constructions are found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,869,796, U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,363, U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,558, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,474. Only low torque transmission is possible between the chuck and the bur in such constructions, high torque leading to slippage of the bur. At the high rotational speeds achieved and high torque achieved by modern dental handpieces, bur slippage, in both the axial and rotational directions, can become a problem. Rapid deceleration of the bur can also lead to rotational slippage, for example, when the drive continues to rotate while the bur is locked or snagged. Friction between the drive assembly and the dental bur during rotation leads to significant wear of both elements overtime. Friction heat can cause permanent damage to the drive spindle components, especially the flexible friction arms of the chuck, which are normally made of heat tempered material. The damage can lead to rotational slippage and even axial slippage of the dental bur, possibly resulting in an accidental release of the dental bur from the handpiece. Accidental release of a dental bur during high speed rotation can pose a threat to both the patient and the dentist. Continued wear of the bur and drive assembly during operation necessitates routine maintenance and repair of expensive handpiece components.
Thus, a dental handpiece and rotary dental instrument system is desired that reduces slippage and walk out while providing complete power and torque transfer from the dental handpiece and rotary dental instrument and increasing cutting efficiency.
Intended advantages of the disclosed systems and/or methods satisfy one or more of these needs or provide other advantageous features. Other features and advantages will be made apparent from the present specification. The teachings disclosed extend to those embodiments that fall within the scope of the claims, regardless of whether they accomplish one or more of the aforementioned needs.

Positive drive chuck and bur arrangement for a dental handpiece


Provided is a cap device for home use to temporarily cover the stoma resulting from a urostomy, colostomy or ileostomy procedure. It provides a favorable means of preventing leakage during routine cleaning around the stoma during the ostomy pouch replacement process. The device may include, in any combination, use of a flexible elastomeric material for creating low suction to assist with retention, a shaped lip for comfort and sealing, a disposable liner, or internal absorption material to help avoid spillage and leakage.

The subject matter is in the medical field of devices for home care use. It helps prevent leakage of effluent from the stoma during the cleaning and pouch replacement processes associated with an ostomy. An ostomy procedure is necessary to produce an alternate outlet for waste from the body when the normal path is damaged or must be avoided for medical reasons. This new outlet is a portal constructed of the patient's own body tissue, presenting an opening called a stoma. The stoma typically has a rim approximately one inch in diameter slightly protruding from the abdomen. Being constructed of internal tissue, it is vulnerable to abrasion injury. Normal effluent is collected in a pouch appliance adhesively attached to the skin around the stoma. In some configurations, the pouch may be detachable from a pouch-holder component, called a flange, which is adhesively attached to the skirt. The collection pouch may be emptied multiple times by such detachment or through a valved outlet portion of the pouch.
Periodically, with an interval usually in the 3- to 5-day range, the flange and pouch adhesive interface must be replaced. For appliances with the detachable pouch, such renewal typically involves the following steps:
Remove the old flange and pouch,
clean an dry the skin around the stoma where the adhesive interface will contact it,
apply a new layer of protective skin barrier and allow it to become tacky,
attach a new adhesive flange to peristoma area, and
attach a new pouch.
For one-piece pouch appliances, the procedure is similar except for the separate removal and replacement of the flange.
During this replacement process, effluent continues to leak from the stoma and must be collected or prevented from interfering with the tasks. Furthermore, if the peristoma area is not dry when applying the adhesive component, the adhesive will not hold securely, and/or the skin may become irritated and erode with time.
Previous methods to prevent leakage such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,556, U.S. Pat. No. 4,258,704, U.S. Pat. No. 4,950,223, U.S. Pat. No. 5,045,052, U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,424, U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,916, U.S. Pat. No. 6,569,081, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,258,661, for instance, involve the less desirable process of inserting something into the stoma.
Other previous methods known to have been suggested by medical professionals to mitigate consequences of leakage include physical obstruction by hand with non-purpose designed objects lacking sealing surfaces, other forms of plugging with penetrating objects, or frequent mechanical wiping, all options with less effectiveness, comfort, or desirability than the current invention.

Stoma cap device for ostomy maintenance assistance


An active region includes a body region in which first and second transistors are formed, a connection portion to which a potential of the body region is connected, and a lead portion that connects the body region and the connection portion. Source regions or drain regions of the first and second transistors formed in the body region are provided in a common region. Each of the lead portions extends from a corresponding channel region such that the lead portions are isolated from each other, and a gate electrode extends thereon. A width of the lead portion is narrower than a distance between corresponding ones of contact portions of the source regions and the drain regions of the first and second transistors. A width of the connection portion is equal to or narrower than a gate width of the gate electrode extending on the lead portion.

In recent years, since performance of semiconductor integrated circuits has been improved and power consumption of semiconductor integrated circuits has been reduced, it has been examined to use a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. An SOI substrate is a substrate in which a thin semiconductor layer is formed on an insulation layer, and complete isolation between elements is enabled by forming an element isolation film that reaches the insulation layer. Moreover, a junction leakage current or a junction capacitance can be largely reduced by forming an impurity diffusion layer in a region that extends to the insulation layer. Therefore, SOI substrates are suitable for semiconductor devices that are required to operate at high speed operation.
On the other hand, in a MOSFET using an SOI layer, a potential of a body region is in a floating state, and therefore, change in the potential of the body region influences an operation of the MOSFET. Fluctuations of the body potential (a floating body effect) cause variations of element characteristics and makes margin design of circuits difficult. Various measures have been considered to cope with the floating body effect, and a method in which an electrode is provided in the body region to fix a potential is a most reliable measure and has been commonly used.
As a method for forming a contact in the body region, a method in which a region (a body contact region) of a conductivity type reverse to a conductivity type of source/drain regions of the MOSFET is provided in the same element region in which the MOSFET is formed and a boundary therebetween is covered by a gate electrode formed into a T-shape, an L-shape, or an H-shape to isolate the element region and the body contact portion from each other is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-134755 (Patent Document 1).
FIG. 45 is a diagram illustrating a configuration called T-shaped configuration described in Patent Document 1. In the configuration illustrated in FIG. 45, one element region 100 is divided into a source region 102, a drain region 104, and a body contact region 106 by a T-shaped gate electrode 108 such that the source region 102, the drain region 104, and the body contact region 106 are isolated from each other. The element region (a body region: a region of a channel portion of a transistor) under the gate electrode 108 is formed of a semiconductor layer of the same conductive type as a conductive type of the body contact region 106 and is electrically connected to the body contact region 106.
In the semiconductor device described in Patent Document 1, the gate electrode 108 extends to isolate the source region 102 or the drain region 104 from the body contact region 106 in consideration of salicide (self aligned silicide) process. That is, when the salicide process is employed, in a region in which the gate electrode 108 and a sidewall insulation film formed on side walls of the gate electrode 108 are not provided, an upper surface of the element region 100 is covered by a silicide film. Therefore, unless the gate electrode 108 is formed so as to isolate the source region 102 or the drain region 104 from the body contact region 106, these regions are electrically connected to each other via the silicide film. As described above, the body contact region can be isolated from the source region or the drain region by providing the gate electrode extending in the above described manner.
In the semiconductor device described in Patent Document 1, each of a width W1 of the connection portion with the body contact region 106 and a width W2 of the body contact region 106 is larger than a distance L between contact portions of a source and a drain of the transistor, and furthermore, a width W3 of a gate portion 108b that isolates the body contact region 106 from the source and the drain is larger than the widths W1 and W2.
FIG. 46 is a view illustrating a case in which a three-input NAND circuit is laid out using a transistor with the T-shaped gate illustrated in FIG. 45, which is not described in Patent Document 1. Three transistors in an upper portion are P-channel transistors and three transistors in a lower portion are P-channel transistors. In this case, a lateral portion 108b of a T-shaped gate electrode that isolates the body contact region 106 protrudes from an active region of the corresponding transistor. Therefore, it is needed to ensure an adjacent one of the transistors next thereto to be isolated from the gate portion 108b, and the gate portion 108b limits a layout area.
As another method for forming a contact in a body region, a semiconductor device having a configuration in which a body contact region is led out from a body region of a transistor is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H09-252130 (Patent Document 2).
FIG. 47 is a view illustrating the semiconductor device descried in Patent Document 2 in which a body contact region 203 is connected to a body region 201 of a transistor via a lead portion 202. In the semiconductor device illustrated in FIG. 47, a width W2 of a gate 206 that isolates the body contact region 203 from a source 204 and a drain 205 is smaller than a distance L between contact portions of the source 204 and the drain 205 and is three times wider than a width W1 of the lead portion 202 or more. A width W3 of the body contact region 203 is about the same as the width W2 of the gate 206.
In a circuit used for a switch circuit or the like, a configuration in which transistors are connected in series in order to increase its breakdown voltage is used. An example of the configuration is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2011-249466 (Patent Document 3). A circuit configuration is illustrated in FIG. 6 of Patent Document 3 and, as illustrated in FIG. 19 of Patent Document 3, a layout configuration in which respective sources and drains of transistors connected in series are connected via interconnects and which is not formed of one active region is employed.


A tunable filter element comprises a resonator unit that defines a longitudinal axis, the resonator unit includes an inner conducting portion defining an inner shorting end along the longitudinal axis and an inner capacitive end opposing the inner shorting end, an outer conducting portion arranged around the inner conductor defining an outer shorting end along the longitudinal axis and an outer capacitive end opposite to the outer shorting end. The inner and the outer conductors maintain an annular gap there-between, and are coupled to form a shorting end at one end and a capacitive end at the other. The filter element further comprises a ferrite insert disposed between the inner and the outer conducting portions and substantially filling the annular gap, the ferrite insert being configured to receive a bias magnetic field in a direction substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis.

Band-pass and band-rejection filters have been widely used to control the flow of signals that propagate in electronic circuits. A band-pass filter is an electrical filter that allows a band of frequencies comprising a signal to pass through the circuit with minimal loss. A band-rejection (band stop) filter, on the other hand, is an electrical filter that rejects or suppresses a band of frequencies.
Resonators are essential components found in filter devices. Conventional resonators frequently utilize air gaps in their structure. However, resonators can be built with ferrites to improve their loss characteristics. Resonators having ferrite components may be built in several configurations. Given a similar geometrical structure, it is a perspective view of a filter device utilizing a single resonator possible to obtain different propagation characteristics in ferrites by using different bias configurations.

Low-loss continuously tunable filter and resonator thereof