A three-terminal semiconductor transistor device comprises a semiconductor base region in contact with a first electric terminal, a conductive emitter region in contact with the semiconductor base region, forming a first Schottky barrier junction at the interface of the conductive emitter region and the semiconductor base region. The conductive emitter region is in contact with a second electric terminal. The three-terminal semiconductor transistor device further includes a conductive collector region in contact with the semiconductor base region, forming a second Schottky barrier junction at the interface of the conductive collector region and the semiconductor base region. The conductive collector region is in contact with a third electric terminal. The tunneling currents through the first and the second Schottky barrier junctions are substantially controlled by the voltage of the semiconductor base region.

This application relates to a semiconductor device, specifically, a semiconductor transistor device suitable for analog and digital circuits.
For more than 30 years, the integrated circuit industry has followed a dramatic path of shrinking device dimensions and increasing chip sizes, resulting in steadily increased performance and increased functionality. New generations of devices have appeared in every two to three years, following the so called xe2x80x9cMoore""s Lawxe2x80x9d, with each new generation device approximately doubling logic circuit density, increasing performance by about 40%, and quadrupling the memory capacity comparing to the previous generation. The consistency of this advancement has led to an expectation that faster and more powerful chips will continue to be introduced on the same schedule in the foreseeable future.
The silicon semiconductor industry has charted a course for itself over the next 15 years, which attempts to continue the density and performance improvements of the past 40 years. The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductor (ITRS) has forecasted that this device scaling and increased functionality scenario to continue until 2013, at which point the minimum feature size is projected to reach 32 nm and a single chip is expected to contain more than 1011 components.
Most of the historic trend has been achieved with the same basic switching element (the MOS transistor) and the same basic circuit topology (CMOS) based on a limited number of materials (Si, SiO2, Al, Si3N4, TiSi2, TiN, W, primarily). While very substantial human and financial resources invested have improved manufacturing practices over the past 40 years, the device structures of 30-40 years ago are still quite recognizable in today""s IC industry.
A large part of the success of the MOS transistor is due to the fact that it can be scaled to increasingly smaller dimensions, which results in higher performance. The ability to improve performance consistently while decreasing power consumption has made CMOS architecture the dominant technology for integrated circuits. The scaling of the CMOS transistor has been the primary factor driving improvements in microprocessor performance. The transistor delay has decreased by more than 30% per technology generation resulting in a doubling of microprocessor performance every two years. In order to maintain this rapid rate of improvement, aggressive engineering of the MOS transistor is required.
Conventional scaling of gate oxide thickness, source/drain extension (SDE) junction depths, and the gate lengths has enabled MOS gate dimensions to be reduced from 10 xcexcm in the 1970""s to a present day size of 0.1 xcexcm. To enable transistor scaling into the 21st century, new solutions such as high dielectric constant materials for gate insulation and shallow junctions with low resistivity need to be developed.
Silicon technology has reached the point at which significant innovations will be required to circumvent the challenges associated with continued MOSFET scaling. Current performance scaling trends will not continue past the 0.1 xcexcm device technologies by using traditional scaling methods. Fundamental limits in SiO2 scaling due to tunneling current, in SDE junction depths due to large increases in external resistance, and in well engineering due to leakage constraints are currently being reached. The most apparent challenges are gate insulators with high dielectric constant and ultra-shallow junctions with low sheet resistance. At present, there are no known solutions for the MOS device technologies to continue the performance trends seen in the last 20 years. Practical and fundamental limits are being approached and substantial changes to device technologies and structures are required.
Aggressive scaling of silicon integrated devices in the deep sub-micron range presents considerable challenges to device engineers. Device performance must be preserved as much as possible, when going from one generation to the next, while the devices must be manufacturable and cost-effective. As the milestone of 32-nm gate length MOSFET is approached, alternative device structures are being considered that might allow the continuation of scaling trends when physical limits of conventional MOSFETs are eventually reached. There is therefore a need to provide a device structure to enable the continued downward scaling of transistor dimensions into the 21st century.
Implementations of the system may include one or more of the following. The invention system generally includes a three-terminal semiconductor transistor device, comprising:
a) a base region formed by a semiconductor material, the base region being in contact with a first electric terminal;
b) a conductive emitter region in contact with the semiconductor base region, forming a first Schottky barrier junction at the interface of the conductive emitter region and the semiconductor base region, the conductive emitter region being in contact with a second electric terminal; and
c) a conductive collector region in contact with the semiconductor base region, forming a second Schottky barrier junction at the interface of the conductive collector region and the semiconductor base region, the conductive collector region being in contact with a third electric terminal,
wherein the tunneling current through the first Schottky barrier junction or the second Schottky barrier junction is substantially controlled by the voltage of the semiconductor base region.
In another aspect, the invention system includes a three-dimensional three-terminal semiconductor device, comprising:
a) a first insulating substrate layer; and
b) a second substrate layer formed above the first insulating substrate layer, comprising
i) a base region formed by a semiconductor material, the base region being in contact with a first electric terminal;
ii) a conductive emitter region in contact with the semiconductor base region, forming a first Schottky barrier junction at the interface of the conductive emitter region and the semiconductor base region, the conductive emitter region being in contact with a second electric terminal; and
iii) a conductive collector region in contact with the semiconductor base region, forming a second Schottky barrier junction at the interface of the conductive collector region and the semiconductor base region, the conductive collector region being in contact with a third electric terminal,
wherein the tunneling current through the first Schottky barrier junction or the second Schottky barrier junction is substantially controlled by the voltage of the semiconductor base region.
In still another aspect, the invention system includes a three-dimensional three-terminal semiconductor device, comprising:
a) a first electric terminal formed in a lower substrate layer;
b) a middle substrate layer, comprising
i) a lower conductive region in contact with the first electric terminal in the lower substrate layer,
ii) a middle semiconductor region in contact with the lower conductive region in the lower substrate layer forming a first Schottky barrier junction at the interface of the middle semiconductor region and the lower conductive region, such middle semiconductor region being in contact with a second electric terminal; and
iii) an upper conductive region in contact with the middle semiconductor region forming a second Schottky barrier junction at the interface of the upper conductive region and the middle semiconductor region, such upper conductive region being separated from the lower conductive region by the middle semiconductor region; and
c) a third electric terminal formed over the middle substrate layer, the third electric terminal being in contact with the upper conductive region in the middle substrate layer,
wherein the tunneling current through the first Schottky barrier junction or the second Schottky barrier junction is substantially controlled by the voltage of the middle semiconductor region.
The new device structure described in the present invention is called Schottky Barrier Tunneling Transistor (SBTT). The basic device structure is a metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) sandwich structure. This structure has two Schottky diodes connected back-to-back. The SBTT transistor has three terminalsxe2x80x94emitter, base, and collector. The emitter and the collector regions are made of metals or silicides. The base region is made of a semiconductor such as silicon. The device has two complimentary device typesxe2x80x94n-channel and p-channel transistors. The base is n-type doped for an n-channel SBTT and p-type doped for a p-channel SBTT. The emitter-to-base junction and the collector-to-base junction are Schottky barrier junctions. The device is normally off because carriers are blocked by the two Schottky barriers.
The current conduction mechanism in SBTT is primarily attributed to the tunneling current through the emitter-base and collector-base Schottky barriers. The Schottky barrier widths and heights are modulated by the base voltage. When the base of an n-channel SBTT is positively biased, the Schottky barrier widths and heights are reduced, and electrons can tunnel through the Schottky barriers. If the collector is also positively biased, the injected electrons can transport through the thin base region without recombinations because electrons are the majority carriers in the n-type doped base. For a p-channel SBTT, the base is negatively biased to turn on the device.
The SBTT is a symmetric device when the emitter and the collector are made of the same material. The emitter and the collector are then interchangeable in the circuit design. The emitter and the collector can even be made of the same material for both n- and p-channel SBTTs. The device parameters, such as the base width, the base doping density, and the potential barrier heights for electrons and holes, can be properly chosen to produce symmetric Ixe2x88x92V characteristics for n- and p-channel devices. For example, if the emitter/collector metal (or silicide) work function is slightly below the mid band gap of the base semiconductor, the potential barrier height for holes is smaller than the potential barrier height for electrons. The asymmetric potential barriers can compensate the higher tunneling efficiency of electrons than that of holes because electrons have a higher effective Richardson constant and a smaller effective mass than those of holes. In the digital circuit design using SBTTs, on the same current path, the transistor sizes of n- and p-channel devices can be the same to create a compact layout design. On the other hand, in the CMOS digital circuit design, the p-channel MOSFET usually needs to be three times bigger than the n-channel MOSFET to achieve the same driving current because the electron mobility is about three times of the hole mobility. The unequal transistor sizes between n- and p-channel MOSFETs will increase the chip size and reduce the utilization efficiency on the silicon area.
The SBTT provides complete solutions for the issues with the MOS device scaling. The SBTT has better scalability than the MOSFET because of its compact geometries and structural simplicity. There are currently no known solutions for the three major challenges for the MOS device scaling, namely, the gate insulators with high dielectric constant, the source/drain shallow junctions with low sheet resistance, and the low power supply voltage. In contrast, the SBTT does not have the gate insulator issue because it is not a field effect transistor and thus does not need a gate insulator.
The emitter and the collector of a SBTT are made of low-resistance metals or silicides, which significantly reduce the emitter/collector series resistances and increase the device driving current. The SBTT is promised to be a high-speed device because of its thin base and low emitter/collector series resistances. For a MOS device, the source and drain are heavily doped semiconductors. The source/drain series resistances and the contact resistances are increased with device scaling because the contact sizes and the source/drain junction depths become smaller. The increasing parasitic resistances substantially degrade the driving current of nano-scale MOSFETs. Although the MOS device speed is improved by scaling the gate length, the delay from the parasitic resistances plays an increasingly important role. For a SBTT, the contacts between interconnect lines and the emitter/collector regions are metal-to-metal or metal-to-silicide contacts. The contact resistances are negligible compared to the contact resistances of the source/drain metal-to-semiconductor contacts.
Another advantage of the present invention is that the invention SBTT device can be operated at a low power supply voltage due to its unique current conduction mechanism. The SBTT device can operate, for example, 0.4 V or below, because the current conduction mechanism is quantum mechanical tunneling. The electrons inject from the conduction band of the emitter to the conduction band of the base through the emitter-base Schottky barrier by tunneling. The power supply voltage does not need to be large enough to induce the carrier inversion. The device can be designed so that the Schottky barrier can be modulated by a small base voltage. The device simulation shows that the turn-on behavior of a SBTT is more sensitive than that of a MOSFET. On the other hand, the current conduction mechanisms are drift and diffusion in a MOSFET. For an n-channel MOSFET, the silicon surface needs to be inverted from p-type to n-type by a positive gate voltage and forms a channel to connect the source and the drain. The required gate voltage depends on the gate insulator thickness, gate insulator dielectric constant, surface doping, and the silicon band gap. The surface doping actually increases with shrinking device dimensions in order to suppress the short channel effect. The reduction of power supply voltage in the past is primarily attributed to the gate oxide thickness reduction. To have a reasonable on/off current ratio, the power supply voltage is difficult to be smaller than 0.6 V. In the last 10 years, the MOS device scaling basically follows the constant electric field scaling rules to maintain constant electric fields inside the device. For example, the average electric field between drain and source remains the same when the technology migrates from 0.5 xcexcm (with Vdd=5 V) in 1993 to 0.1 xcexcm (with Vdd=1 V) in 2003. In the next 10 years, according to the ITRS Roadmap, the scaling of power supply voltage is slower than the scaling of MOS device geometries. For example, the power supply voltage is only reduced to 0.6 V for the 32-nm technology in 2013, which should be 0.32 V if the constant electric field scaling rules are strictly followed. The maximum electric fields in the gate insulator and in the channel will be increased for the future small geometry devices. The higher electric fields will cause the problems of higher gate leakage current, short channel effect, hot-carrier injection, gate insulator reliability, and higher power consumption. The difficulty of scaling down the power supply voltage should eventually slow down the MOS device scaling roadmap.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is that the SBTT chip will consumes less power than a comparable CMOS chip. Since the power supply voltage can be reduced with the shrinking device dimensions, the SBTT can follow the constant electric field scaling rules. The power density per unit area can he maintained as a constant for different technology generations. In contrast, the power density of a CMOS chip will be increased because the power supply voltage is higher than the value suggested by the constant electric field scaling rules. Moreover, the SBTT""s emitter/collector series resistances are significantly smaller than MOSFET""s source/drain series resistances. The SBTT""s emitter/collector metal-to-metal contact resistance is also significantly smaller than MOSFET""s metal-to-semiconductor contact resistance. The power consumption due to the parasitic components of SBTTs is much smaller than that of MOSFETs.
Still another advantage of the invention is that SBTT overcomes many of the difficulties in the fabrication of the nano-scale MOS devices. The SBTT structure requires no source/drain junctions. This property alleviates the requirement of very steep p-n and n-p junctions and extremely high doping in source/drain regions, which are significant challenges in the fabrication of small-geometry MOSFETs. The SBTT structure also requires no gate insulator. This property alleviates the requirement of a thin gate insulator with a high dielectric constant, low gate leakage, and low interface state density. The SBTT fabrication process is compatible with conventional silicon CMOS technologies. The SBTT process is simpler and costs less than a CMOS process because the SBTT process requires less photo masking steps than a CMOS process. The emitter and the collector can be made of the same metal or silicide material for both n- and p-channel SBTTs, while MOSFETs require separate implantations and photo masking steps for the n+ S/D junctions of n-channel MOSFETs and the p+ S/D junctions of p-channel MOSFETs. The metals and silicides, such as Ti, Ta, Co, Ni, W, WSi2, CoSi2, NiSi2, TiSi2, TaSi2, and MoSi2, are commonly used in the silicon CMOS technologies. The material properties of the above metals and silicides are well known. The process equipment and the process technologies are readily available. Two manufacturing processes are described below to fabricate horizontal and vertical SBTTs using the technologies compatible with the conventional silicon CMOS technologies.
Another advantage of the invention is that a SBTT is smaller than a MOSFET, allowing more SBTTs to be packed on the same chip area than MOSFETs. The MOSFET is a four-terminal device, which requires a substrate contact to provide the body bias. The SBTT is a three-terminal device and does not need the substrate contact. The substrate contacts for CMOS devices are sometimes called well taps because n-channel MOSFETs are usually built in p-wells and p-channel MOSFETs are usually built in n-wells. The p-well is normally tied to the ground and the n-well is normally tied to Vdd. Although the well tap is not required for every single transistor, however, from the latch-up concern, the well taps are preferably to be placed as close to the device as possible. The source/drain contacts of a MOSFET are metal-to-semiconductor contacts. The contact resistance increases with shrinking the contact size. Typically, it is recommended to put as many source/drain contacts as possible to reduce the total contact resistance. The emitter and the collector of a SBTT are made of metals or silicides, the contact resistances between interconnect lines and the emitter/collector regions are negligible. That means the number of emitter/collector contacts of a SBTT can be smaller than the number of source/drain contacts of a MOSFET. The conductive materials for the SBTT""s emitter/collector regions can also be used as local interconnects to connect adjacent devices. The local interconnects provide an additional degree of design freedom at no additional cost. In the silicon CMOS technologies, the following materials, such as TiN, TiSi2, polysilicon, and polycide, have been used as local interconnects, however, at the cost of one additional photo mask.
The invention SBTT devices provide Ixe2x88x92V characteristics similar to MOSFETs and bipolar transistors. The SBTT devices can be used in both digital and analog circuit designs. For digital applications, all people need is a three-terminal switch where the conductance between two terminals is strongly controlled by the third. For the MOS device, the drain-to-source conductance is controlled by the gate voltage. For the bipolar transistor and SBTT, the collector-to-emitter conductance is controlled by the base voltage. The device simulation shows that the turn-on behavior of a SBTT is strongly dependent on the base voltage, which indicates the SBTT is suitable for low-power and high-speed applications. The analog design using SBTT devices resembles the traditional analog design using bipolar transistors because both devices have exponential relationships between the collector current and the base voltage.
The details of one or more embodiments are set forth in the accompanying drawing and in the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.


An aspect includes memory error recovery in a memory system includes detecting an error condition within a memory chip of the memory system. A chip mark is applied to the memory chip to flag the error condition. An address range of the memory chip associated with the error condition is determined. Data are written from the address range of the memory chip to a cache memory. The chip mark is removed based on determining that all of the data from the address range have been written to the cache memory.

The present invention relates to computer memory, and more specifically, to memory error recovery in a computer system.
In some applications, writing to memory in a computer system includes writing to one of multiple memory devices. For example, memory in a server is comprised of a number of memory devices such as dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips. Writing data to memory of the server typically involves writing to multiple DRAM chips. To ensure that data are correctly written and retrieved, error-correcting code (ECC) bits are generally written along with the data so that the ECC bits may be verified in the read data. The ECC bits are included with stored data through an encoding process and are verified in read data through a decoding process. Processing of the ECC bits by a decoder may lead to the inclusion of a chip mark. The chip mark identifies one of the DRAMs and indicates that all data from that DRAM must be corrected. Processing of the ECC bits may also lead to the inclusion of a symbol mark. A symbol is a subset of the addresses of one DRAM. The number of addresses in a range defined as a symbol may differ based on the memory device. Thus, the symbol mark identifies that data from a subset of addresses of one of the DRAMs must be corrected. The use of a symbol mark or chip mark for a soft error (e.g., a temporary error) locks up the availability of the marking feature such that marks are unavailable for a hard error (e.g., a persistent error).

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A feeding device includes a tray for stacking sheet-like conveyance-target media, a first pressing unit, and a second pressing unit. The first and second pressing units face and apply a first and second pressing force, respectively, on a circumferential surface of a pick roller so that a first contact area and a second contact area overlap each other. The first pressing unit includes a first pressing unit separation roller, and the first contact area is defined wherein the first pressing unit and the pick roller make contact with each other. The second contact area is defined wherein the second pressing unit and the pick roller make contact with each other such that the first contact area and the second contact appear to partly overlap each other when viewed from an axial direction of the pick roller.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a feeding device that conveys a sheet-like conveyance-target medium toward, for example, an image pickup unit provided to an image reading apparatus or an image forming unit provided to an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A feeding device has been suggested that conveys a paper sheet, which is a sheet-like conveyance-target medium, toward, for example, an image pickup unit provided to an image reading apparatus or an image forming unit provided to an image forming apparatus.
In such a feeding device, among sheet-like conveyance-target media stacked on a tray, when a conveyed medium that becomes in contact with a pick roller in a rotating state is pressed onto a circumferential surface of the pick roller by a pressing unit, such as a separation roller, a conveyance force for sending the conveyed medium toward a conveyance destination, such as an imaging unit, is acted from the pick roller to the conveyed medium. With this, the conveyed medium is sent toward the imaging unit or the like. If a separation-target medium, which is placed on the conveyed medium but is not a conveyance target, is left, the pressing unit, such as a separation roller, makes contact with the separation-target medium to cause a separation force smaller than the conveyance force to be acted on this conveyed medium in a direction opposite to the conveyance force. With this, the separation-target medium is moved oppositely to the conveyed medium being sent by the pick roller in a sending direction. As a result of this opposite movement, when overlapping of the conveyed medium and the separation-target medium is eliminated, in other words, when the separation-target medium is separated from the conveyed medium, only the conveyed medium, that is, one conveyance-target medium, is conveyed to the conveyance destination, such as the imaging unit.
To improve the capability of separating the conveyed medium and the separation-target medium, a feeding device is suggested in which two separation rollers are disposed along a direction in which a pick roller rotates (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2004-75242 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2004-123359). If the conveyed medium and the separation-target medium cannot be separated by one of the separation rollers on an upstream side along a rotating direction of a pick roller, a separation force is further acted by the other one of the separation rollers on a downstream side onto the conveyed medium and a conveyance-target medium, which is the separation-target medium, to separate the conveyed medium and the separation-target medium.
However, in the feeding device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2004-75242 or Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2004-123359, the separation-target medium overlapping the conveyed medium does not receive a pressing force onto the circumferential surface between the separation roller on the upstream side and the separation roller on the downstream side along the direction in which the pick roller rotates. Therefore, if the conveyed medium and the separation-target medium are not separated by the separation roller on the upstream side, when the separation-target medium is sent to the separation roller on the downstream side, the separation-target medium receives a separation force from the separation roller on the downstream side to be bent between the separation roller on the upstream side and the separation roller on the downstream side, thereby possibly causing a conveyance jam.


A cable structure including at least one conductor, a cladding layer, a low dielectric constant (Dk) resin layer, and a shielding layer is provided. The cladding layer includes a low Dk adhesive layer and two insulation layers. The low Dk adhesive layer is coated around the at least one conductor. The two insulation layers respectively are adhered to two opposite surfaces of the low Dk adhesive layer. Each of the low Dk adhesive layers and the two insulation layers has a dielectric constant between 1.3 and 3. The low Dk resin layer is adhered to the cladding layer through a first adhesive layer. The shielding layer is adhered to the low Dk resin layer through a second adhesive layer. The at least one conductor is disposed in the low Dk adhesive layer and positioned between the two insulation layers.

In recent years, consumer electronics such as tablet computers and smartphones have been developed to be mainly thinner and lighter. Flexible flat cables (FFC) are widely used in consumer electronics due to their advantages of being flexible, bendable, small in volume, thin in thickness, and easy in connection. For example, the FFCs can be used as high speed transmission cable structures that transmit signals among electronic devices such as liquid crystal display devices and plasma display devices.
Generally speaking, high-speed data transmission is conducted through a broader bandwidth and a faster speed. The speed of data transmission usually depends on the electrical characteristics of cables. A structure of an FFC mainly includes a plurality of conductors in shapes of flat boards, an insulation layer coated around the outside of the plurality of conductors, and shielding layers that are disposed on two sides of the insulation layer. The aforementioned layers are adhered to each other with adhesives.
However, it is a characteristic of materials composing the cables that they are easily affected by the environment, causing restrictions on the quality of cable transmissions. For example, polyester resin is a material commonly used as an insulation layer of the cables, but under an environment with high temperature and humidity, the polyester resin is easily hydrolyzed, which weakens the bonding strength of the polyester resin and affects the overall structural strength of the cables. In addition, the materials composing the cables are important factors that affect the insertion loss. The insertion loss is a signal power loss caused by the insertion of devices into transmission lines, which is related to the dielectric constant and dissipation factor of the materials composing the transmission lines.
Therefore, it has become an important issue for the industry to effectively reduce the insertion loss of the cables, improve propagation delay and signal integrity under high transmission speed, and strengthen the environmental resistance.


Disk-shaped pulleys 6 arranged on entrance side IN and exit side OUT and rotated around a horizontal axis, an expansion link chain 8 endlessly wound between the disk-shaped pulleys, and a flexible handrail belt member 10 connected outside the expansion link chain and extendable/retractable in a traveling direction are provided. The expansion link chain comprises expansion links 82 connected in series. The expansion link is flexibly extendable/retractable in length direction and has a pivot 84. An acceleration/deceleration device 12 accelerates/decelerates the pivot, and has a first track chain 122 endlessly guided along a predetermined first track and a first pressing fitting 128 having a rod shape extending outwards swingably attached to the first track chain. A tip of the first pressing fitting is detachably engaged with the pivot to accelerate/decelerate the pivot by continuously changing distance between the pivots by change of swing angle of the first pressing fitting.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an acceleration and deceleration handrail driving device for an acceleration and deceleration escalator of which a moving speed is slow at a platform and is able to be accelerated or decelerated at an intermediate portion.
2. Description of Related Art
In the existing escalator, the moving speed of a stair (step) on which a person gets is constant and the maximum moving speed of the step is limited due to a slope. For this reason, the moving speed of the escalator is set to the generally allowed maximum speed. Thus, aged persons or children may accidentally fall at the platform (entrance and exit) when getting on or out the platform.
Therefore, it is proposed that an acceleration and deceleration escalator of which the moving speed at the platform is slow and is accelerated or decelerated at the intermediate portion (for example, shown in Patent documents 1 and 2).
Meanwhile, it is used that a "variable speed type moving sidewalk" which moves slowly at the entrance, is accelerated and maintains a high speed at an intermediate portion, and is decelerated and moves slowly again at the exit. In such a variable speed type moving sidewalk, a speed of a handrail for a walker should be increased, maintained and decreased in synchronization with a step surface of the moving sidewalk. As for a handrail device for the variable speed type moving sidewalk, Patent documents 3 to 8 have been proposed.
Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-326780, "VARIABLE SPEED ESCALATOR"
Patent document 2: International Patent Publication No. WO2011/138844A1, "ACCELERATION DEVICE, AND ACCELERATING ESCALATOR PROVIDED WITH SAME"
Patent document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-318961, "HANDRAIL FOR ACCELERATION/DECELERATION TYPE MOVING SIDEWALK"
Patent document 4: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-322788, "MOVING WALK OF VARIABLE SPEED TYPE AND ITS HANDRAIL"
Patent document 5: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-063767, "RAIL DEVICE OF MOVING WALK"
Patent document 6: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-226480, "HANDRAIL DEVICE OF VARIABLE SPEED MOVING SIDEWALK"
Patent document 7: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-023965, "HANDRAIL DEVICE OF VARIABLE SPEED MOVING SIDEWALK"
Patent document 8: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-241542, "HANDRAIL DEVICE FOR VARIABLE SPEED MOVING SIDEWALK"

Acceleration and deceleration handrail driving device


The present invention provides a compound represented by the formula (I):

ACC is an enzyme that converts acetyl-CoA to malonyl-CoA, and catalyzes a rate-limiting reaction in metabolism or synthesis of fatty acid. Malonyl-CoA, which is produced by an ACC-catalyzed reaction, inhibits fatty acid oxidation in mitochondria based on the feedback inhibition of carnitine palmitoyl transferase-1 (CPT-1). Accordingly, ACC plays a key role in controlling the balance between use of carbohydrate and fatty acid in the liver and skeletal muscle, and controlling insulin sensitivity in the liver, skeletal muscle and adipose tissue.
A reduced level of malonyl-CoA by ACC inhibition can promote increased fatty acid oxidation, suppression of fatty acid synthesis, decreased secretion of triglyceride (TG)-rich lipoprotein (VLDL) in the liver, regulation of insulin secretion in the pancreas, and improvement in the insulin sensitivity in the liver, skeletal muscle and adipose tissue.
In addition, long-term administration of a compound having an ACC inhibitory action can strikingly decrease the TG content of the liver and adipose tissues and selectively decrease body fat in obese test subjects taking low fat diet, by promoting fatty acid oxidation and suppressing de novo synthesis of fatty acid.
Accordingly, a compound having an ACC inhibitory action is extremely useful for the prophylaxis or treatment of metabolic syndrome, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases associated with atherosclerosis, and the like.
On the other hand, WO 2004/096757 A1 (patent document 1) has reported a compound represented by the formula:
whereinR1 is C1-6 alkyl or the like;R3 is Z—X2 wherein Z is CH2 or the like; and X2 is OH or the like;R2 is optionally substituted phenyl (the substituent is an alkoxy group or the like);X is a bond, O or the like;R4 and R5 are each independently H, optionally substituted C1-4 alkyl, acyl or the like; andring a and ring b are each independently aryl, heterocycle or the like,as an agent for the treatment of lymphocyte-mediated diseases or autoimmune diseases.
US 2012/0010247 A1 (patent document 2) has reported a compound represented by the formula:
whereinA is an acyl group or an optionally substituted 5- or 6-membered aromatic ring group;ring M is an optionally fused 5- to 7-membered ring which is optionally further substituted;for ring P and ring Q(1) ring P is an optionally further substituted 5-membered heterocycle, ring Q is an optionally further substituted 6-membered ring, and ring P and ring Q are fused to form an optionally further substituted bicyclic heterocycle, or(2) ring P is an optionally further substituted 5-membered non-aromatic ring, ring Q is an optionally further substituted 6-membered aromatic ring, and ring P and ring Q are fused to form an optionally further substituted bicyclic non-aromatic ring;R1 is an optionally substituted C1-6 alkyl group or an optionally substituted C3-6 cycloalkyl group; andL1 and L2 are(1) independently optionally substituted methylene, O, S, SO or SO2, or(2) L1 and L2 in combination form optionally substituted vinylene, or ethynylene,provided that(a) a compound wherein A is an α-aminoisobutyroyl group; and(b) a compound wherein A is a 5- or 6-membered aromatic ring group substituted bya group represented by the formula: —CO—(CH2)3—COORA1 wherein RA1 is a hydrogen atom or a C1-6 alkyl group, ora group represented by the formula: —CO—NRA2—CRA3RA4—CRA5RA6—COORA7 wherein RA2, RA3, RA4, RA5 and RA7 are each independently a hydrogen atom or a C1-6 alkyl group; and RA6 is a hydrogen atom, a C1-6 alkyl group or a hydroxy group.are excluded,as a compound having an ACC inhibitory action.
US 2011/0263562 A1 (patent document 3) has reported a compound represented by the formula:
whereinR1 is a group represented by the formula: —COR2 wherein R2 is a hydrogen atom or a substituent, an optionally substituted 5- or 6-membered aromatic heterocyclic group or an optionally substituted phenyl group;R3 is a C1-6 alkyl group optionally substituted by halogen atom(s), or an optionally substituted C3-6 cycloalkyl group;R4 is a hydrogen atom or a substituent;X is O, CO, CR5aR5b (wherein R5a and R5b are each independently a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom or an optionally substituted C1-6 alkyl group), NR5c (wherein R5c is a hydrogen atom or an optionally substituted C1-6 alkyl group), S, SO or S(O)2;ring A is an optionally further substituted 4- to 7-membered non-aromatic ring (the ring is optionally bridged);ring P is a 5-membered aromatic heterocycle, ring Q is an optionally further substituted 6-membered ring, and ring P and ring Q are fused to form an optionally further substituted bicyclic aromatic heterocycle; andR6 is an optionally substituted C1-6 alkyl group or an optionally substituted C3-6 cycloalkyl group.as a compound having an ACC inhibitory action.
US 2012/0142714 A1 (patent document 4) has reported a compound represented by the formula:
whereinR1 is a group represented by the formula: —COR2 wherein R2 is a hydrogen atom or a substituent, or an optionally substituted 5- or 6-membered aromatic ring group;R3 is a C1-6 alkyl group optionally substituted by halogen atom(s), or an optionally substituted C3-6 cycloalkyl group;R4a and R4b are each independently a hydrogen atom or a substituent;X is O, CO, CR5aR5b wherein R5a and R5b are each independently a hydrogen atom or a substituent, NR5c wherein R5c is a hydrogen atom or an optionally substituted C1-6 alkyl group, S, SO, or S(O)2;ring A is an optionally further substituted 5- or 6-membered aromatic ring;for ring P and ring Q,(1) ring P is an optionally further substituted 5-membered aromatic ring, ring Q is an optionally further substituted 6-membered ring, and ring P and ring Q are fused to form an optionally further substituted bicyclic aromatic ring, or(2) ring P is an optionally further substituted 5-membered non-aromatic ring, ring Q is an optionally further substituted 6-membered aromatic ring, and ring P and ring Q are fused to form an optionally further substituted bicyclic non-aromatic ring; andR6 is an optionally substituted C1-6 alkyl group or an optionally substituted C3-6 cycloalkyl group,as a compound having an ACC inhibitory action.
WO 2012/108478 A1 (patent document 5) has reported a compound represented by the formula:
whereinR1 is a group represented by the formula: —COR2 wherein R2 is a hydrogen atom or a substituent, or an optionally substituted 5- or 6-membered aromatic ring group;R3 is a C1-6 alkyl group optionally substituted by halogen atom(s), or an optionally substituted C3-6 cycloalkyl group;R4a and R4b are each independently a hydrogen atom or a substituent, orR4a and R4b in combination optionally form a 3-membered ring or a 4-membered ring, each of which is optionally substituted;R5a and R5b are each independently a hydrogen atom or a substituent orR5a and R5b in combination optionally form a 3-membered ring or a 4-membered ring, each of which is optionally substituted;R6 is an optionally substituted C1-6 alkyl group or an optionally substituted C3-6 cycloalkyl group;X is O, CO, CR7aR7b wherein R7a and R7b are each independently a hydrogen atom or a substituent, NR7c wherein R7c is a hydrogen atom or an optionally substituted hydrocarbon group, S, SO, or S(O)2;Y is O, CO, CR8aR8b wherein R8a and R8b are each independently a hydrogen atom or a substituent, NR8c wherein R8c is a hydrogen atom or an optionally substituted hydrocarbon group, S, SO, or S(O)2;ring P is an optionally further substituted 3- to 7-membered ring; andring Q is an optionally further substituted 5- or 6-membered aromatic ring,as a compound having an ACC inhibitory action.
JP 2012-106958 A (patent document 6) has reported a compound represented by the formula:
whereinR1 and R4 are the same or different and each is a hydrogen atom or C1-6 alkyl optionally having substituent(s);R2 is C1-6 alkyl optionally having substituent(s);R3 and R5 are the same or different and each is a cyclic group optionally having substituent(s) or C1-6 alkyl optionally having substituent(s); andring A is a heterocycle optionally having substituent(s), as an IAP antagonist which is a compound useful for the prophylaxis or treatment of cancer and the like.

Abstract: wherein each symbol is as defined in the specification, or a salt thereof.


A test controller provisions a load generation unit and instructs the load generation unit to generate a load and apply the load to a first application server instance in a cloud computing environment. The test controller measures a performance level of the first application server instance to determine if the first application server instance reaches a saturation point. If the first application server instance reaches the saturation point, the test controller records a performance statistic of the first application server instance.

Cloud computing refers to the access of computing resources over a computer network. A common shorthand for a cloud computing service (or an aggregation of all existing cloud services) is "the cloud." Cloud computing allows for a functional separation between the computing resources used and the physical machine where the user is working. The computing resources may reside in a local network or outside the local network, for example, in an internet connected datacenter. The user may access the resources in the cloud using a personal computer (PC), workstation, laptop computer, mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) or the like. The principle behind the cloud is that any computer connected to the internet is connected to the same pool of computing power, applications, and files. For example, users can store and access personal files such as music, pictures, videos, and bookmarks or play games or use productivity applications on a remote server rather than physically carrying around a storage medium such as a DVD or hard drive.
Since the cloud is the underlying delivery mechanism, cloud based applications and services may support any type of software application or service in use today. All of the development and maintenance tasks involved in provisioning the applications are performed by a service provider. The user's computer may contain very little software or data (perhaps a minimal operating system and web browser only), serving as little more than a display terminal for processes occurring on a network of computers, potentially located far away. Cloud computing frees users from certain hardware and software installation and maintenance tasks through the use of simpler hardware that accesses a vast network of computing resources (processors, servers, data storage devices, etc.). The sharing of resources reduces the cost to individuals. Users can now routinely use data intensive applications driven by cloud technology which were previously unavailable due to cost and deployment complexity.
In some systems, the cloud may spawn a new server instances (e.g., application server instances) in response to the load received from users' devices. One problem with conventional systems, however, is that since the cloud can handle relatively large loads, it may be difficult or impossible for a single user on a single user machine to generate a load large enough to cause the cloud to spawn new server instances. Thus, the cloud may not need to spawn a new server instance when tested by a single user machine, and the functionality of the cloud may not be properly tested.

Performance testing in a cloud environment


Described herein are methods for constructing optical device without the need of chemical adhesives. The methods involve performing the following steps: obtaining a first optical substrate comprising a first surface and a second optical substrate comprising a second surface; applying water to the first surface of the first optical substrate, to the second surface of the second optical substrate, or both; securing the first optical substrate to the second optical substrate, wherein the first surface of the first optical substrate is adjacent to the second surface of the second optical substrate; and applying deep ultraviolet radiation to the first optical substrate and the second optical substrate to form a bond without the use of adhesive. Also provided are optical devices constructed by the methods described herein.

Laser line and broadband beamsplitters are in wide use in optical systems, with cube beamsplitters being more common. Cube beamsplitters are generally made from pairs of triangular glass prisms that have been bonded together. Bonding may be carried out using several different methods: optical adhesive bonding, optical direct bonding, and diffusion bonding.
With optical adhesive bonding, the thickness of the adhesive can be adjusted to reflect half the light of a given wavelength incident on one face of the cube and transmit the other half; however, this technique is not without drawbacks. Optical adhesive bonding bonds two polished mirror surfaces with optical adhesive such as, for example, polyester, epoxy, or urethane-based adhesive. Optical adhesive bonding is simple and can be used to bond different materials together; however, the presence of adhesive may lead to flaws or discolorations of the surface. Additionally, it is difficult to match the refractive index of the adhesive material to that of the optical components. Light from adhesive bonded devices loses flux through Fresnel reflection. Finally, the adhesive can be deformed, softened, or degraded when used in a laser system.
Optical direct bonding occurs when two ultrasmooth surfaces are held in close contact without any adhesive. It is thought that smooth surfaces in close enough contact will be electromagnetically attracted to one another. Under the right conditions, this type of bonding can be stronger than optical adhesive bonding. However, optical direct bonding is generally only suited to bonding between two prisms of the same material, since inconsistent expansion will occur due to differences in thermal expansion coefficients when the optical devices are heated (such as, for example, upon exposure to a laser). Inconsistent expansion can lead to separation of components and is particularly common in high-powered laser systems.
Meanwhile, high-temperature diffuse bonding is similar to optical direct bonding except that contact is followed by high-temperature heat treatment so that diffusion of atoms from one interface to the other can occur. However, as with optical direct bonding, high-temperature diffuse bonding is best suited to bonding crystal materials of the same type.
Cube beamsplitters currently on the market can split wavelengths of light down to about 250 nm. Challenges in the shorter wavelength regions include the lack of existence of absorption-free adhesives as well as the porous nature of fluoride coatings currently in use, especially for the ArF laser beam line at 193 nm. Chemical substances used as adhesives or during the bonding process can be absorbed by porous layers, leading to high absorption at short wavelengths. Due to these challenges, hybrid optical devices constructed from fused silicas such as HPFS® (Corning, Inc.) and CaF2 are not currently available. However, such optical devices would be useful as ArF laser cube beamsplitters, as well as in other applications.
In the short wavelength region, standard optical bonding processes such as epoxy bonding, frit bonding, diffusion bonding, and optical contacting thus cannot be used due to absorption. One state-of-the-art bonding technology, chemically activated direct bonding (CADB), provides an epoxy-free solution assisted optical-contacting process. However, this process requires chemical soaking and thermal annealing, eliminating its applications for thermally sensitive crystal materials such as CaF2.
Typically, excimer lasers of low wavelengths must be operated at power levels lower than their maximum or, alternatively, users of these lasers had to accept shorter device lifetimes while operating at lower power levels, due to degradation of beamsplitters. Uncoated CaF2 surfaces, for example, degrade after only a few million pulses when subjected to pulse energies above 40 mJ/cm2 using 193 nm excimer radiation. Although ArF excimer lasers typically operate at lower pulse energies, local non-uniformities in the beam may be higher than the average value and thus exceed the damage threshold.
What is needed is an absorption free bonding method for constructing optical devices such as beamsplitters. Ideally, this method could be used to construct optical devices exhibiting no scatter loss or absorption loss such as commonly seen with optical adhesive bonding and could be used with thermally sensitive materials and porous coatings. Further, devices constructed by this method would be more durable than currently available technology. The present invention addresses these needs.


The present invention is directed to an anti-reflection and UV rejection coating. The coating comprises at least eight layers wherein adjoining layers alternate between high and low refractive index materials. The layer adjacent an article on which the coating is formed has a high refractive index greater than about 2.10 at a wavelength of about 520 nanometers and greater than about 2.50 at a wavelength of about 330 nanometers. The index of refraction of the low refractive index material is less than about 1.50 at a wavelength of about 520 nanometers. The two layers of low refractive index material nearest the article each have an optical thickness at a wavelength of about 330 nm of about one-quarter wavelength.

It has been known that exposure to very bright sunlight can cause damage to the retina. Thus, sunglasses should not only reduce the level of visible light entering the eye but also possess ultraviolet (UV) light blocking capabilities. Surprisingly, there is no real consensus on what is an acceptable level of UV exposure. Some may need sunglasses while others do not. Those that wear sunglasses can enjoy some protection, while others, if the warnings are correct, may sustain some damage, however slight.
It has also been known that art and photographic works deteriorate when exposed for long periods to sunlight or even to fluorescent light. Again, there are no established standards concerning the time and level of exposure. Also, different dyes and pigments held in a variety of different solvents and binders in different works will be effected differently.
Various approaches have been suggested to eliminate or reduce the unwanted effects of UV light in these applications. Certain resins and plastics have been developed which, either due to their own structure and composition, or when used as a host matrix for other substances which have the necessary properties, will block UV radiation by absorption. The plastic materials may be used in various ways such as a glazing material, as a laminated element in a multi-component glazing, or as an optical element in ophthalmic applications.
The typical performance of two different plastic materials, produced by the Rohm and Hass Company, Philadelphia, Pa., and designated UF 3 and UF 4, is shown in FIG. 1. The longer wavelength blocking material UF 3 (curve 20) imparts a slight yellow tint. The shorter wavelength blocking material UF 4 (curve 22) imparts no perceptible tint to the transmitted light.
Resin formulations are typically based on silicon siloxane resins containing appropriate additives. They are designed to be coated on glass or UV transparent plastic by spinning or roll coating and then are heat cured. The performance of such products compares with the plastic materials UF 3 and 4.
Certain special glass compositions have also been developed which through the use of oxides of cerium and other materials will effectively block UV radiation. The use of these glass compositions seems to be confined to space and military applications, such as protective covers for silicon solar cell arrays. These compositions apparently have not been used extensively for corrective spectacles, sunglasses, or as protective glazings for art and photographic works.
The present invention relates to a special thin film multilayer structure which is dispersive and absorbing in the near ultraviolet region of the spectrum. The structure may be deposited as a coating in a single operation. It provides antireflection and UV blocking properties.
It may be applied to a wide range of glasses and plastics, and it does not require any special formulations of these materials. It offers a more economical means of providing both UV and anti-glare protection than if these properties were realized by separate process steps or separate structural elements.
The present invention makes use of the fact that the refractive index and absorption coefficient of certain dielectric materials rises rapidly at wavelengths shorter than 450 nanometers (nm). It is an improvement over the type of multilayer coating described by Rock in U.S. Pat. No. 3,432,225 and Sulzbach in U.S. Pat. No. 3,565,509, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference. The coatings disclosed in those patents use two or more relatively thin films to replace the quarter wave film next to the substrate in the classical three layer "Quarter, Half, Quarter" system. This system was originally described by Lockhart and King in "Three-Layered Reflection-Reducing Coatings", J. Opt. Soc. Am., Vol. 37, pp. 689-94 (1947), which is also incorporated herein by reference.
The Lockhart and King structure comprises three films in which the outer film has an optical thickness of approximately one-quarter wavelength in the visible spectrum and a refractive index (N) less than that of a glass substrate (N=1.52). The second film has an optical thickness of one-half wavelength and a relatively high refractive index, e.g. on the order of 2.10. The third or inner film has an optical thickness of one-quarter wavelength and a refractive index less than that of the second or half-wave film but greater than the glass substrate, e.g., on which the structure is deposited.
The Rock structure, described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,432,225, replaces the inner film adjacent the substrate of the Lockhart and King structure with two films. The refractive index of the innermost film of the two films is equal to that of the half-wave film. The other film has a refractive index equal to the low index outer film. The thickness relationship of the films is altered slightly to optimize performance. Specifically, the optical thickness of the two outermost films remain about the same, while the optical thickness of the two innermost films are each about one-eighth of a wavelength at 520 nm (the design wavelength). The two-film substitution is effective not only in simulating the index of the film that has been replaced but also provides an additional reflecting boundary which extends the effective spectral range of the structure. The total optical thickness of the Lockhart and King, and Rock structures are very nearly the same.

Antireflection layer system with integral UV blocking properties


The invention relates to a mobile device comprising an apparatus for generating electric energy, which is connected to an energy distribution network containing branches to the electric loads. A switching and distribution unit connected to the energy generating system comprises a switch which is arranged upstream from the branches. The loads are connected to the switching and distribution unit by means of flexible conductors with connectors on their ends. Means are provided to ensure that the connectors can only be separated when there is no current.

This application is a U.S. National Phase Application of International Application No. PCT/EP01/11113, filed Sep. 26, 2000, which claims priority to German Patent Application No. 100 49 196.0, filed Oct. 5, 2000, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention is generally directed to a mobile device comprising an apparatus to generate electrical energy, which is connected to an energy distribution network containing branches connected to electrical loads, with at least one of the loads being intended for the propulsion of the mobile device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A mobile device, which comprises a fuel cell intended for the generation of electrical energy and which includes the distribution of energy to electrical loads that are arranged in a high-voltage network that is connected to the fuel cell, has been disclosed in German Patent Application No. 10006781.6. The mobile device, which in particular may be a motor vehicle, comprises further loads, which are arranged in a low-voltage network that contains at least one storage battery in addition to the loads and is connected to the high-voltage network via at least one dc-dc converter. Connected to the fuel cell is a central monitoring and control unit, which contains a contactor or power circuit-breaker for the fuel cell that is connected to the outputs or terminals of the fuel cell. Connected to the fuel cell power circuit-breaker are the lines of a high-voltage radial network, which contains the electrical loads. The radial branches of the network are equipped with fuses.
The central monitoring and control unit is equipped with means for measuring and monitoring the electrical variables of the networks and by opening the fuel cell power circuit-breaker disconnects the branches of the high-voltage network prior to the occurrence of operating states that are undesirable or hazardous for the network and its operation. In between the central monitoring and control unit and the electrical loads, the electrical interconnecting cables of the branches are executed as flexible conductors, e.g., cables. At their ends, the flexible conductors are equipped with plug-in connector elements that correspond to plug-in connector elements that are mounted on or in the housings of the monitoring and control unit or of the loads and these connected elements are connected in a detachable manner. The flexible conductors may, for example, be arranged in cable harnesses and during assembly are connected on or in the housings via their associated plug-in connector elements. The plug-in connector elements are disconnected for certain maintenance and repair work.
In brief, this invention is directed to a mobile device comprising an apparatus to generate electrical energy, which is connected to an energy distribution network containing branches connected to electrical loads.
In one embodiment, a mobile device comprises an energy generating system, an electrical load and an energy distribution network, which comprises a branch coupling the energy generating system and the electrical load. The energy distribution network further comprises a switching means, a switching plug-in connector element coupled to the switching means, a load plug-in connector element coupled to the electrical load, and a flexible line comprising a first plug-in connector element, adapted to engage the switching plug-in connector element, and a second plug-in connector element, adapted to engage the load plug-in connector element. Each of the plug-in connector elements have a branch contact for forming an electrical connection between the energy generating system and the electrical load, and each of the first and second plug-in connector elements have a device with a contact means for opening and closing a line section of a control circuit of the energy distribution network. When the first and second plug-in connector elements are joined to, or separated from, the switching plug-in connector element and the load plug-in connector element, respectively, the contact means close later, or open earlier, than the branch contacts and when the contact means are closed, the switching means is closed, and when the contact means are open, the switching means is open.


A lobby or other public space design process for providing an attractive appearance complementary to a building in which the lobby is installed, by                (a) Evaluating a building for determination of appropriate lobby interior design architecture and appearance,        (b) Selecting a suitable design from a series of previously prepared design proposals, and        (c) Selecting material for the decoration of the lobby interior for the design selected from a palette of previously prepared options for available material including selection of material type, color and design.

Traditional Methods of Lobby Design
Traditionally, there are three methods by which a lobby design is chosen. The method of selection is usually determined by the quality of the building: Rated from A down to C as illustrated below:
"A""B""C" orBuildingBuildingLesser1)Repair and refinish an existing40%75%Installation (existing buildingsonly)2)"Make it look like that building"40%25%(existing or new buildings)3)Hire an architect to create a100%20%new design (existing or newbuildings)
The first method of repairing and refinishing an existing installation is usually the lowest cost because most of the existing material is retained and little or no engineering and/or structural modifications are required. An architect or designer may be used to supply specifications and provide oversight of the project, but by definition there is little or no change in either the design or material. The major disadvantage of this method is that an existing design that is carried forward may contain many flaws, such as the design being in conflict with the other major public spaces in the building, the exterior or neighborhood, being dated or otherwise unattractive to a wide range of existing or potential tenants, or being expensive to maintain. Although this method may represent the simplest, fastest and least expensive method of updating a building's appearance, it often adds the least amount of value to the property and does the least to retain and attract tenants.
The primary advantage of the second method, to replicate an existing design, is that the design and cost will be fairly well known before the contract is put out to bid. This method is frequently used by property owners or managers who have purchased existing buildings or plan to construct new ones and who wish to maximize brand equity by using common design elements across their portfolio of properties. Even though an architect or designer is used to create the drawings and specifications, there are many opportunities for the buyer to get poor value for the money spent. For instance, if the original to be copied is poorly designed, the copy will be no better and may be quite expensive. Secondly, differences in the underlying space, such as dimensions and structural capacities may add additional cost to a project without enhancing the space. Finally, copying a design from one property to another may sometimes be inappropriate to the existing design elements of the building and its environs.
The third method, creating a custom design, may be the most effective way of enhancing the attractiveness of a building. As with the second method, an architect or designer is used to create the drawings and specifications. However, in this case, the architect or designer has greater flexibility in choosing both the design elements and materials for the space. This flexibility allows the designer the best chance of choosing an attractive design that is most suitable to the rest of the building and its environs. This attractive design is also useful in retaining and attracting new tenants.
There are serious drawbacks to using a custom designed lobby. For instance, the process can be very time consuming. At the outset, the owner and the designer may have completely different aesthetic and design visions for the project, a situation that is less likely to occur in the first and second methods discussed above. Without extensive, painstaking coordination, the designer's proposal may have design elements unacceptable to the project owner. Another problem is that although the designer is given a budget, there is no way to measure if the design is within the budget until most of the drawings and specifications are created and submitted to the suppliers for bids. The bids frequently come back above the budget and one or more modifications of the design and specifications may be necessary to get the project within the budget. Even if the project is within the budget, a large part of that budget may be consumed by engineering and procurement costs, rather than the purchase and delivery of the actual product. Additional time is needed with custom designs because of the necessity for suppliers to produce custom drawings and samples for approval and for custom materials to the jobsite.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for lobby and common area interior


An iridium-doped carbon nanotube has an atomic ratio of iridium to carbon on a surface thereof ranging from 1×10−4 to 3.5×10−4 as measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. A working electrode including the aforesaid iridium-doped carbon nanotube and a sensor including the working electrode are also disclosed in the present invention.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a carbon nanotube, more particularly to an iridium-doped carbon nanotube and an electrode and a sensor including the iridium doped carbon nanotube.
2. Description of the Related Art
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been widely adopted into a variety of composite materials, transistors, or sensors because of their physical properties such as light weight, superior corrosion resistance, high hardness, high melting points, as well as high electrical conductivity. For instance, Taiwanese Patent No. I276799 discloses a biosensor including an electrode which has a modified carbon nanotubes layer thereon for enhancing the sensitivity of detecting specific biological molecules.
In Anal. Chem., 2003, 75, 2075-2079, J. Wang et al. disclose an electrochemical sensor including a carbon nanotubes/Teflon composite material, which can be further modified to be a biosensor by immobilizing enzymes on a sensing area of the electrochemical sensor. However, the aforesaid carbon nanotube/Teflon composite biosensor lacks a metal dopant and thus has inferior sensitivity. L. Fang et al. disclose an electrochemical biosensor for detecting β-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) in Sens. Actuators B, 2008, 129, 818-825, including a modified carbon/iridium working electrode that is doped with 5% of iridium particles to enhance the sensitivity of the electrochemical biosensor. However, high amounts of metal particles doped in the working electrode result in a lower signal-to-noise ratio so that the selectivity of the working electrode is not sufficiently high.
Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide a composite material to modify an electrode for having high sensitivity and yet maintaining sufficiently high selectivity.

Iridium-doped carbon nanotube and electrode and sensor containing the same


A method for fabricating an apparatus comprising at least one microfluidic channel within an anisotropic composite material structure comprising multiple electrically and thermally conductive pathways, the method comprising providing an electrode within a composite material, the electrode positioned in a desired location for a microfluidic channel applying an electric field across at least a portion of the composite material using the electrode whereby to define the pathways and curing the composite material whereby to fix the pathways in position in the composite material.

Microfluidics is a discipline that enables gaseous and fluid materials to be controlled and manipulated at the sub-millimetre scale in order to enable such materials to be moved, mixed, separated or otherwise processed for numerous different applications such as biological and chemical analysis and thermal management.
Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) can be used in the fabrication of microfluidic devices. This approach is shown in FIG. 1. A photomask 100 can be created with the desired microchannel footprint and a photoresist 101 is spin-coated onto a silicon wafer 103, and cured 105 through the photomask, leaving a mould 107 of the microchannel. PDMS 109 can then be poured onto the mould, thermally cured over a number of hours and then removed from the mould. In order to seal the device, the PDMS can be bonded to a glass substrate to leave the final microfluidic device. This is a common feature in microfluidic devices, where three of the four channel surfaces are PDMS and the fourth is a dissimilar material (e.g. glass substrate). This difference in material can result in dissimilar fluid contact angles around the perimeter of the channel and as a result another processing step may be required to provide homogenous surface characteristics. The lower part of FIG. 1 shows fabrication of a device 111 which does not have any active functionality (i.e. it only creates the liquid streams for fluid transport) using this process.
To create functional microfluidic devices that can perform the various analyses listed above, there can be additional process steps. These steps 201a-g are shown in FIG. 2 for a silicon device 200. Specifically, steps 201a-c relate to the fabrication of portion 200b of device 200, and steps 201d-g relate to the fabrication of portion 200a of device 200. As can be seen, the resulting channel cross-section is rectangular and contains sharp corners which can damage biological samples that, in their natural environment, flow along circular capillaries/veins/arteries. Other silicon etching methods also suffer from the same limitations in channel cross-sectional geometry. The addition of active measurement and control functionality such as pH, concentration, phase, mass flow, reaction kinetics requires additional processing steps to include electrodes for electrical connections.
Accordingly, creation of functional microfluidic devices requires a large number of steps. The resultant apparatus can have a complex layout of different materials for sensing and/or control, and may possess channel cross-sections which are not the natural shape in biological systems. The equipment needed is specialised and expensive. Therefore it is not accessible to the broader public community.

Method for fabricating an apparatus comprising at least one microfluidic channel and an apparatus comprising a microfluidic channel


Preparing a document for transmission over a network in a manner that increases the security of URLs included in the document. A server accesses a document that contains a number of URLs. For one or more of those URLs, the server calculates a digital signature that is unique to the intended recipient client, or unique to the user of the client. The server then modifies each of those URLs by including the digital signature in the URL. The document with the modified URLs in then transmitted over the network to the client. Thus, even if a sensitive URL is discovered, that modified URL is unique to the client only or to the user of the client only. Therefore, the damage that may be caused by an unauthorized user is limited to just that client or user.

1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of network communications. More specifically, the present invention relates to improving security and safety before transmitting Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) over a network in which URLs may be used in malevolent ways.
2. The Related Art
There are a wide variety of resources available on networks such as the Internet. For example, e-mail, file transfer, instant messaging, web page, and other services are available on networks. In order to identify a desired network resource, each network resource is associated with a unique identifier called a "Uniform Resource Locator" (URL) or a "Uniform Resource Identifier" (URI) (called collectively herein, "Uniform Resource Locators" or "URLs"). A number of protocols use Uniform Resource Locators such as, for example, HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP), HyperText Transport Protocol Secure (HTTPS), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), and WebTV Protocol (WTVP) among many others.
Displayable documents are often downloaded over networks. These displayable documents often include markup language that defines the layout and content of the document as displayed. In addition, the markup language typically includes URLs that are associated with a selectable icon that is displayed. Thus, when a user selects the displayed icon, the browser generates a request for the associated URL.
The following is an example of how this association may be established using HyperText Markup Language (HTML):                E-mail
In this example, the text string "maildefault.html" is the terminal portion of the URL with the remainder of the URL determined by the context of the tag in the HTML document. The text "E-mail" would be displayed in a fashion that identifies the text string as selectable. For example, the text string "E-mail" may be underlined and/or in a different color. By selecting the string "E-mail", the browser automatically generates a request for the corresponding URL.
By including selectable URLs in displayable documents, network navigation is facilitated. Unfortunately, sometimes, malevolent individuals may discover the URLs in a displayable document. In some cases, those URLs may be used to breach the security of the server computer system that provides the service identified by the URL. For example, a malicious individual may embed the URL in a script language that includes executable instructions requesting that a server perform harmful actions on services identified by the URL. The malicious individual might then transmit the script language back to the server, which may result in the server performing the harmful actions.
Therefore, what are desired are systems, methods, computer program products, and data structures that increase network security when transferring documents containing URLs over a network.

Methods and systems for using digital signatures in uniform resource locators


A surgical scalpel incinerator an electromechanism for thermally destroying and sterilizing scalpels: a cabinet having a door through which a scalpel blade is inserted and supported by supports above several metal plates. Closing the door withdraws the supports, after which the blade contacts the plates. Closing the door closes a switch, connecting the plates to a power supply, electrifying the blade. Pressure plates on the door urge the blade against the plates. Sterilized scrap of the blade falls between the plates and into a receptacle in a drawer beneath the plates.

The present invention finds use in all medical establishments, such as hospitals, clinics, consulting offices, etc., that use surgical scalpels and are currently required to destroy them after one use.
The Mexican Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries (SEMARNAP) issued an Official Mexican Standard (NOM-087-ECOL-1995), establishing requisites for the treatment of biological or infectious material, including surgical scalpels. At present, major medical facilities have high-capacity incinerators that are used to destroy only organic biological or infectious material, whereas items such as scalpels are, in the best of cases, disposed of with conventional garbage. The standard indicates that surgical scalpels must be treated by mechanical, physical or chemical means (physical means include combustion or incineration), so that they are completely destroyed and unrecognizable and all scrap resulting from their destruction is rendered completely sterile. To prevent reuse of surgical scalpels and subsequent transmission of infections, currently exceedingly large and heavy incinerators are currently used in England, France, Germany, and the United States. These, however, bear no resemblance whatsoever to this particular invention. In fact, the only precedent for this small, portable surgical scalpel incinerator that currently exists is in Mexico, also invented by myself (File No. 9800751, Jan. 27, 1998). However, this new device is completely new and different in both size and design.
Incineration of surgical scalpels is obligatory for all medical establishments in Mexico. Large hospitals and clinics and major medical centers, have the financial means to purchase high-capacity incinerators capable of processing all kinds of infectious or biological waste in large volumes, which are costly to acquire, operate and maintain, while smaller medical establishments such as clinics, laboratories, consulting offices, etc. are unable to purchase such units, The use of large incinerators to destroy scalpels requires that procedures be established to collect, store, handle and transport them, with the risk, in the intervening time, of puncture or cut wounds, as well as the hazard of contagion, independently of the costs the necessary administrative organization entails. In order to reduce these risks, and to enable institutions to incinerate all surgical scalpels immediately after their first use, I undertook to invent a device specifically for incineration of surgical scalpels, using an electromechanism as its main internal component to achieve incineration, in combination with a transformer, an electronic circuit, and electrical elements that satisfy the requisites established by the aforementioned regulation, in addition to offering the benefits of reliable incineration, sterilization of scrap, ease of handling, simple operation, low operating and maintenance costs, reasonable price, small size, and portability.
My invention meets all the requisites and offers all the additional benefits, mentioned above, as surgical scalpels can be incinerated immediately and the unit can be set up for use in all types of medical facilities, including operating theaters.

Surgical scalpel electrical incinerating device


A value document having a security element in the form of a strip with a first polymer layer which comprises at least one embossed diffraction structure, having at least one reflection layer which visually interacts with the diffraction structure in order to form a reflection hologram as the first visually recognisable security feature, and having at least one imprint which is luminescent under UV radiation and which forms a second security feature that is visually recognisable under UV light, wherein the reflection hologram comprises at least one see-through region on the second security feature. In order to increase the level of protection against forgery of the security element, the luminescent imprint comprises a halftone print image, and the see-through region is formed by at least one recess in the reflection layer and by the polymer layer which is free in this region of the recess from the diffraction structure at least above the halftone print image of the imprint.

In order to supplement a reflection hologram with a second security feature, security elements are known from the prior art (EP 1 241 022 A1) which allow an imprint that is luminescent under UV radiation to shine through with a partly transparent reflection layer on the reflection hologram. The reflection hologram thus comprises a see-through region on the imprint that is luminescent under UV radiation, which increases the protection against forgery of the security element. Both security features, namely the reflection hologram and the imprint, visually impair each other in a disadvantageous manner, which renders the optical separability of the security features more difficult and can lead to a reduction in the level of protection against forgery.

Security element and value document having said security element


A method for processing communication traffic includes receiving an incoming stream of compressed data conveyed by a sequence of data packets, each containing a respective portion of the compressed data. The respective portion of the compressed data contained in the first packet is stored in a buffer, having a predefined buffer size. Upon receiving a subsequent packet, at least a part of the compressed data stored in the buffer and the respective portion of the compressed data contained in the subsequent packet are decompressed, thereby providing decompressed data. A most recent part of the decompressed data that is within the buffer size is recompressed and stored in the buffer.

A wide variety of methods for data compression are known in the art. Many Web servers, for example, use the GZIP algorithm to compress Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) symbol streams that they transmit. GZIP is defined in Request for Comments (RFC) 1951 of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), by Deutsch, entitled, "Deflate Compressed Data Format Specification" (1996), which is incorporated herein by reference. GZIP initially compresses the symbol stream using the LZ77 algorithm, as defined by Ziv and Lempel in "A Universal Algorithm for Sequential Data Compression," IEEE Transactions on Information Theory (1977), pages 337-343, which is incorporated herein by reference. LZ77 operates generally by replacing recurring strings of symbols with pointers to previous data within a 32 KB window. As the next stage in GZIP, the output of the LZ77 compression operation is further compressed by Huffman encoding, as is known in the art. The compressed HTTP stream is decompressed at the destination by Huffman decoding followed by LZ77 decompression.
Pattern matching algorithms are widely used in a variety of network communication applications. For example, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) use pattern matching in deep packet inspection (DPI). The packet content is typically checked against multiple patterns simultaneously for purposes such as detecting known signatures of malicious content.
The most common approach used at present in this type of multi-pattern matching is the Aho-Corasick algorithm, which was first described by Aho and Corasick in "Efficient String Matching: An Aid to Bibliographic Search," Communications of the ACM 6, pages 333-340 (1975), which is incorporated herein by reference. (The term "multi-pattern matching," as used in the context of the present patent application and in the claims, refers to scanning a sequence of symbols for multiple patterns simultaneously in a single process.) Efficient methods for multi-pattern matching in compressed data are described, for example, in U.S. Patent Application Publication 2011/0185077, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference.

Efficient processing of compressed communication traffic


A display apparatus and a method of controlling the same are provided. The display apparatus includes: a signal processing unit which processes an image signal; a display unit which displays an image thereon corresponding to the processed image signal; a communication unit which communicates with a server which stores a plurality of application programs; and a controller which requests information about the plurality of application programs from the server, determines whether the application programs can be properly performed in the display apparatus based on the information received corresponding to the request, and controls the communication unit to receive only at least one application program that can be performed properly among the application programs. Accordingly, a display apparatus is capable of receiving only at least one application program that can be performed in the display apparatus from a server.

1. Field
Methods and apparatuses consistent with the exemplary embodiments relate to a display apparatus and a method of controlling the same, and more particularly, to a display apparatus which receives only application programs performed in the display apparatus among a plurality of application programs received from a server, and a method of controlling the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A development tool, for example a software development kit (SDK), is used to create application programs performed in a software package, a software framework, a hardware platform, a computer system, a video game console, an operating system, or a similar platform. The SDK is provided for free over the Internet for the purpose of marketing or the like, and thus it may be easily used by program developers.
Recently, an application program created by the SDK is performed in a television (TV), so that various functions may be provided to a user.
However, some existing TVs may receive application programs which cannot be performed in the TV. This may cause a malfunction in the TV.

Display apparatus and method of controlling the same


A disclosed fan containment case includes a fan case fabricated from a plurality of non-metallic composite layers with an attachment flange formed of both a composite portion and a metallic backing. The disclosed metallic backing is mounted on a rearward facing surface of a composite portion of the attachment flange.

This disclosure generally pertains to an attachment flange for a composite fan case. Furthermore, this disclosure relates to a metallic attachment flange component for a composite fan case.
A gas turbine engine can include a fan section including fan blades surrounded by a fan case supported within a nacelle. The function of the fan case is to contain any fractured and separated parts of the fan blades to prevent portions from leaving the fan nacelle. Metallic fan cases can be undesirably heavy to perform this containment function. A composite fan case constructed of non-metallic materials can reduce weight and provide the same capability as a metallic fan case. However, composite fan cases can require complicated configurations to provide the desired strength and durability. Moreover, composite material manufacturing and forming techniques are limited in the range of tolerances that can be reliably obtained.

Metallic radius block for composite flange


A capacitive sensor is configured for collapsed mode, e.g. for measuring sound or pressure, wherein the moveable element is partitioned into smaller sections. The capacitive sensor provides increased signal to noise ratio.

Generally, miniature silicon condenser microphones such as capacitive MEMS, micro-electrical-mechanical system, microphones can be integrated with CMOS circuitry and can be produced by batch processing which makes the device to device variation much smaller. Further, miniature silicon condenser microphones have a form factor compatible with state-of-the-art hand held device architectures, and do not need an electret for electrical biasing which makes them easier to solder onto a printed circuit board, PCB, than conventional electret microphones.
However, it is difficult to achieve high sensitivity and low noise with very small volumes. Further, a conventional silicon capacitive microphone always needs through-wafer etching to create separation of the membrane and back plate layer, which is a time consuming and costly process.
Typically a condenser microphone system may consist of four elements; a fixed, perforated back plate, a highly compliant, moveable membrane or diaphragm (which together form the two plates of a variable air-gap capacitor), a voltage bias source, and a buffer amplifier.
FIG. 1 shows a basic structure of such a capacitive microphone 1 (left) and three possible implementations on a silicon wafer 5 (right). The microphone 1 comprises a diaphragm or membrane 2, a back plate 3, and a back chamber 4. The back chamber 4 illustrated in the left-hand drawing of FIG. 1 may be implemented in the chip-package or on the wafer5.
The membrane 2 should be highly compliant and precisely positioned relative to the back plate 3, while the back plate should remain stationary and present a minimum of resistance to the flow of air through it. Achieving all of these characteristics in microphones below 1 mm in size using integrated circuit materials is rather challenging. Typical stress levels in integrated circuit thin films, if not relieved in the finished diaphragm or membrane 2, are many times greater than the levels at which the diaphragm becomes unusable due to over-stiffening or buckling. Compliance tends to decrease very rapidly with decreasing size for a given diaphragm material and thickness.


A method for the automatic control of the longitudinal dynamics of a vehicle is provided by which vehicles traveling ahead are detected. If an upcoming traffic jam is detected, the vehicle is decelerated until a predefined distance behind the tail end of the traffic jam is reached. When the predefined distance from the traffic jam tail end has been reached, the vehicle automatically controlled in its longitudinal dynamics is able to close the remaining, predefined distance to the traffic jam tail end at a low differential velocity in comparison to the velocity of the traffic jam tail end. Using an additional rear sensor system that senses trailing vehicles, the controlled vehicle is made to close the distance to the traffic jam tail end only if a trailing vehicle was detected.

German Patent Application No. DE 10 2007 022 589 A1 describes a predictive safety device for motor vehicles, which is equipped with a near-field sensor system for locating objects in front of the vehicle, and a control unit, which analyzes the signals from the near-field sensor system in order to evaluate the risk of a looming collision, and which intervenes in the longitudinal control of the vehicle in the event of an imminent collision risk in an effort to avert the collision or to mitigate its consequences; a supplementary sensor system is provided for locating objects in the remaining environment of the vehicle, and the control unit is set up to use the data from the supplementary sensor system to calculate a longitudinal control strategy that minimizes the overall risk while taking objects in the remaining environment into account.

Method and device for the automatic control of the longitudinal dynamics of a vehicle