A multiband base station antenna for communicating with a plurality of terrestrial mobile devices is described. The antenna including one or modules, each module including a low frequency ring element; and a high frequency dipole element superposed with the low frequency ring element. The element includes a ground plane; and a feed probe directed away from the ground plane and having a coupling part positioned proximate to the ring to enable the feed probe to electromagnetically couple with the ring. A dielectric clip provides a spacer between the feed probe and the ring, and also connects the ring to the ground plane. An antenna element is also described including a ring, and one or more feed probes extending from the ring, wherein the ring and feed probe(s) are formed from a unitary piece.

In some wireless communication systems, single band array antennas are employed. However in many modern wireless communication systems network operators wish to provide services under existing mobile communication systems as well as emerging systems. In Europe GSM and DCS1800 systems currently coexist and there is a desire to operate emerging third generation systems (UMTS) in parallel with these systems. In North America network operators wish to operate AMPS/NADC, PCS and third generation systems in parallel.
As these systems operate within different frequency bands separate radiating elements are required for each band. To provide dedicated antennas for each system would require an unacceptably large number of antennas at each site. It is thus desirable to provide a compact antenna within a single structure capable of servicing all required frequency bands.
Base station antennas for cellular communication systems generally employ array antennas to allow control of the radiation pattern, particularly down tilt. Due to the narrow band nature of arrays it is desirable to provide an individual array for each frequency range. When antenna arrays are superposed in a single antenna structure the radiating elements must be arranged within the physical geometrical limitations of each array whilst minimising undesirable electrical interactions between the radiating elements.
US 2003/0052825 A1 describes a dual band antenna in which an annular ring radiates an omni-directional "doughnut" pattern for terrestrial communication capability, and an inner circular patch generates a single lobe directed towards the zenith at a desired SATCOM frequency.
WO 99/59223 describes a dual-band microstrip array with a line of three low frequency patches superposed with high frequency crossed dipoles. Additional high frequency crossed dipoles are also mounted between the low frequency patches. Parasitic sheets are mounted below the crossed dipoles.
Guo Yong-Xin, Luk Kwai-Man, Lee Kai-Fong, "L-Probe Proximity-Fed Annular Ring Microstrip Antennas", IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 49, No. 1, pp 19-21, January 2001 describes a single band, single polarized antenna. The L-probe extends past the centre of the ring, so cannot be combined with other L-probes for a dual-polarized feed arrangement.

Antenna element, feed probe; dielectric spacer, antenna and method of communicating with a plurality of devices


An air pump includes a cylinder, a piston rod, and an upper cover. The cylinder forms an opening at a top end thereof and at least one retaining hole adjacent to the opening. The piston rod is configured to be movable within the cylinder and provided with a piston forming a conical lateral face at one end thereof. The upper cover has a top portion forming a hole for the piston rod to penetrate therethrough, at least one extension portion extended from the top portion, and at least one retaining portion extended from the extension portion. The least one extension portion has an abutting edge selectively abutted against the conical lateral face. The retaining portion is engaged with the retaining hole.

The present invention relates to a quickly assembled air pump.
Taiwan Patent No. TWI353417 discloses floor pump including a cylinder member, an outer cylinder, a valve stem set, and a hose. The cylinder member includes a body, a base and a cover. The body includes a first end and a second end threaded connected to the cover. With reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, an inner periphery of the cover and an outer edge of the second end of the body must be respectively provided with corresponding threads in order to assemble the cover to the second end of the body in a threaded manner.
However, assembling the cover to the body in a threaded manner causes the cover must be rotated during assembly, which increases the assembly time. In addition, the provision of threads on the body results in that a body wall of the body must be thick enough and not too thin. Generally, the thickness of the body wall needs to be more than 2 mm. Thus, the material cost is higher and cannot provide an aesthetic appearance.
In view of the above, a need exists for a novel air pump that mitigates and/or obviates the above drawbacks.

Quickly assembled air pump comprising a cylinder with a retaining hold adjacent to an opening for a position rod wherein a retaining portion of an upper cover is engaged with the retaining hole and a conical lateral face of a piston is selectively abutted against an extension portion of the upper cover


A process for the preparation of a solution of a quaternary cation and an anion from a deprotonated hydroxy aromatic in an organic solvent by means of a reactive extraction of a quaternary salt in the presence of an aqueous hydroxide solution, a hydroxy aromatic and an organic solvent is disclosed. Also disclosed is a process for the recycling of a quaternary salt phenolate solution from a reaction mixture.

The invention concerns a process for the preparation of organic solutions and in particular solutions containing a quaternary cation and an anion from a deprotonated hydroxy.
A process for the preparation of a solution of a quaternary cation and an anion from a deprotonated hydroxy aromatic in an organic solvent by means of a reactive extraction of a quaternary salt in the presence of an aqueous hydroxide solution, a hydroxy aromatic and an organic solvent is disclosed. Also disclosed is a process for the recycling of a quaternary salt phenolate solution from a reaction mixture.
Salts of quaternary cations and anions from deprotonated hydroxy aromatics, particularly quaternary salt phenolate solutions, may be used in a variety of organic reactions as bases, catalysts or reaction components. Since such salts are not commercially available and their educts are relatively expensive, methods of synthesising these salts and of recovering them from reaction mixtures are required.
DE A 19858967 describes a process for preparing liquid formulations of tetrabutyl ammonium phenolate. Phenolic solutions of tetrabutyl ammonium bromide and sodium phenolate are combined, excess phenol is distilled off and sodium bromide removed by filtration.
The disadvantage of this process is firstly that phenol must be distilled off, requiring a considerable amount of energy, and secondly that the sodium bromide, which may occur as a very finely crystalline deposit, may possibly be difficult to isolate. It is therefore desirable to work out a simpler process that requires less equipment. A further object concerns the recovery of quaternary cation phenolate salts from reaction mixtures. The process should therefore also offer the possibility of reprocessing reaction mixtures in such a way that the quaternary cation phenolate solutions may be recycled.
In working on this object a very simple reactive extraction process was found, with which surprisingly an almost quantitative conversion with surprisingly high extraction yields of organic quaternary salt phenolate solutions are produced, even in a single-stage extraction, with no troublesome by-products.
The invention therefore provides a process for the preparation of organic solutions of salts (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R]n from a quaternary cation (Qn+) and a hydroxy aromatic (R1xe2x80x94(OH)k), characterised in that an aqueous solution of a hydroxide Mr+(OHxe2x88x92)r, at least one quaternary salt (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n, R1xe2x80x94(OH)k and at least one solvent that is not completely miscible with water are brought into intimate contact and the aqueous phase is then separated off from the organic phase containing (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n and optionally R1(OH)k and/or (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n.
The invention also provides a process for the recovery of quaternary salts from reaction mixtures and their recycling as organic solutions of mixtures of salts (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n and (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n. In the process a mixture that comprise
1. one or more quaternary salts (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n
2. a hydroxy aromatic R1xe2x80x94(OH)k and optionally
3. one or more organic solvents is reacted as follows:
a) an aqueous solution of a hydroxide Mr+(OHxe2x88x92)r and an organic solution containing the quaternary salt (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n are brought into intimate contact and the aqueous phase is then separated from the organic phase containing (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n and (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n and/or R1xe2x80x94(OH)k.
b) The (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n contained in this organic solution along with the R1(OH)k and/or (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n that are optionally present is returned to the reaction after optional additional reprocessing steps.
The present invention also provides a process for the preparation of organic solutions of salts (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n and (Qn+)m[Y(1)mxe2x88x92]n from a quaternary cation (Qn+) and a hydroxy aromatic (R1xe2x80x94(OH)k), characterised in that an aqueous solution of a hydroxide Mr+(OHxe2x88x92)r having at least two different quaternary salts (Qn+)m[Y(1)mxe2x88x92]n and (Qn+)p[Y(2)pxe2x88x92]n and at least one solvent that is not completely miscible with water are brought into intimate contact and the aqueous phase is then separated from the organic phase containing (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n and (Qn+)m[Y(1)mxe2x88x92]n. (Qn+)m[Y(1)mxe2x88x92]n and (Qn+)p[Y(2)pxe2x88x92]n are two different members of the large number of compounds defined by (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n, where m and p are natural numbers which may be the same or different. m is preferably smaller than p. Halide (Xxe2x88x92) and sulfate (SO42xe2x88x92) are a preferred combination of Y(1)mxe2x88x92 and Y(2)pxe2x88x92, where bromide (Brxe2x88x92) and sulfate are particularly preferred.
The quaternary salts used in connection with the present invention are typically compounds having the formula (XRo+)n, whereby X stands for an atom from group Va or VIa, o for a whole number between 0 and 4 and R mutually independently for C6 to C18 aryl, C7 to C18 aralkyl or C1 to C20 alkyl radicals, and n stands for a natural number.
These include ammonium, guanidinium, phosphonium or sulfonium salts substituted with organic radicals, and optionally also mixtures thereof. The letter n stands for a natural number. Oligomers having n greater than 1 may also be used (in which case (nxe2x88x921) R radicals act as bridges between two X), but monomeric ions (n=1) are preferred.
Ammonium, guanidinium, phosphonium, sulfonium and sulfoxonium ions having C6 to C18 aryl, C7 to C18 aralkyl or C1 to C20 alkyl radicals as organic radicals are suitable for use in the process according to the invention. The radicals in each case may be all the same or different and may themselves be substituted. Any two substituent radicals may be replaced by a ring, and mixtures of several quaternary cations may optionally also be used.
The following ions may be listed by way of examples: tetramethyl ammonium, tetra-n-ethyl ammonium, tetra-n-propyl ammonium, tetra-n-butyl ammonium, di-n-decyl dimethyl ammonium, di-n-octadecyl dimethyl ammonium, tri-n-decyl methyl ammonium, N-methyl-N-decyl morpholinium, N-methyl methyl pyrrolidinium, N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-N-ethyl piperidinium, benzyl tributyl ammonium, phenyl trimethyl ammonium, tetraphenyl ammonium, tetramethyl phosphonium, tetra-n-ethyl phosphonium, tetra-n-propyl phosphonium, tetra-n-butyl phosphonium, di-n-decyl dimethyl phosphonium, di-n-octadecyl dimethyl phosphonium, tri-n-decyl methyl phosphonium, benzyl tributyl phosphonium, phenyl trimethyl phosphonium, tetraphenyl phosphonium, hexaethyl guanidinium, tetramethyl bishexyl guanidinium.
Tetraalkyl ammonium ions, tetraaryl ammonium ions, tetraalkyl phosphonium ions, tetraaryl phosphonium ions and hexaalkyl guanidinium ions are preferably used. Tetrabutyl or tetraphenyl ammonium ions or tetrabutyl or tetraphenyl phosphonium ions are particularly preferably used, whereby tetrabutyl ammonium ions or tetraphenyl phosphonium ions are most particularly preferably used.
Halides, nitrates, sulfates, hydrogen sulfates, carbonates, hydrogen carbonates, phosphates, hydrogen phosphates, dihydrogen phosphates, tetrafluoroborates, perchlorates, carboxylates or hexafluorophosphates, for example, may be used as the counter-anion Ymxe2x88x92 of the quaternary cations. The letter m stands for a natural number. Mixtures of different anions are possible. Halides are preferred, particularly preferably bromide.
Hexaalkyl guanidinium halides, tetraalkyl ammonium halides and tetraaryl phosphonium halides are preferred, whereby tetrabutyl ammonium bromide, tetrabutyl ammonium chloride, tetraphenyl phosphonium bromide and tetrabutyl phosphonium bromide are particularly preferred. The amount of such a quaternary salt may be 0.01 to 30 wt. %, for example, relative to the weight of the reaction mixture. This amount is preferably 0.5 to 15 wt. %, particularly preferably 1 to 5 wt. %.
In the aromatic hydroxyl compounds R1xe2x80x94(OH)kR1 stands for an aromatic radical and k for a whole number from 0 to 4. These include monohydroxylated aromatic compounds (k=1), dihydroxylated aromatic compounds (k=2), polyhydroxylated aromatic compounds (2 less than k less than =4) and bisphenols (k=2), which may have 0 to 4 substituents including C1-C18 alkyl or cycloalkyl, C6-C18 aryl, C7-C18 aralkyl, C1-C18 alkoxy, fluorine, chlorine or bromine. The alkyl, aryl and aralkyl substituents may themselves likewise be substituted or may carry functional groups such as ether, thioether, keto, epoxy groups, halogens, heterocyclic rings. Aromatic substituent rings may be annelated or bridged, and several residual radicals may be combined to form cyclic compounds.
Examples are monohydroxyl compounds such as phenol, o-, m- or p-cresol, o-, m- or p-chlorophenol, o-, m- or p-ethyl phenol, o-, m- or p-propyl phenol, o-, m- or p-tert.-butyl phenol, o-, m- or p-isooctyl phenol, o-, m- or p-stearyl phenol, mesitol, o-, m- or p-phenyl phenol, o-, m- or p-cyclohexyl phenol, o-, m- or p-methoxyphenol, 2,6-dimethyl phenol, 2,4-dimethyl phenol, 3,4-dimethyl phenol, 1-naphthol, 2-naphthol or dihydroxyl or polyhydroxyl compounds such as resorcinol and hydroquinone, and bisphenols such as 2,2-bis-(4-hydroxyphenyl)propane (bisphenol A), 2,2-bis-(3,5-dimethyl-4-hydroxyphenyl)propane, 1,1-bis-(4-hydroxyphenyl)cyclohexane, 1,1-bis-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-3,3,5-trimethyl cyclohexane (bisphenol TMC), -bis-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-m-diisopropyl benzene, 6,6xe2x80x2-dihydroxy-3,3,3xe2x80x2,3xe2x80x2-tetramethyl-1,1xe2x80x2-spiro(bis)indane, 4,4xe2x80x2-dihydroxybiphenyl, or 2,4xe2x80x2-dihydroxybiphenyl.
Mixtures of different aromatic hydroxyl compounds may also be used. Monohydroxyl compounds are preferably used, particularly preferably phenol.
Individual substances or mixtures of substances that are only partially miscible with water and are inert with respect to the substances used are utilized as organic solvents. Solvents having a boiling point of between around 40 and 200xc2x0 C. are preferred. Also preferred are solvents whose dielectric constants are below around 25, particularly preferably solvents having dielectric constants  less than 15. The inert solvent may be contained in the mixture in a proportion of 0 to 99 wt. %, preferably 20 to 98 wt. %, particularly preferably 40 to 98 wt. %, relative to R1xe2x80x94(OH)k. If the amount used is markedly hyperstoichiometric in comparison to the reaction yield, R1xe2x80x94(OH)k may itself be used as a component of a blend of solvents.
Hydrocarbons, halogenated hydrocarbons and aromatic solvents such as chlorobenzene, dichlorobenzene, fluorobenzene, benzene, toluene, the xylenes, anisole, cyclohexane, petroleum ether, methylene chloride, chloroform or 1,2-dichloroethane, dipolar aprotic solvents such as dimethyl acetamide, acetonitrile, N-methyl pyrrolidone, esters, ethers such as dioxan, tetrahydrofuran, t-butyl methyl ether and etherified glycols, for example, may be used as solvents, particularly preferably chlorobenzene.
Mr+(OHxe2x88x92)r stands for one or more hydroxides from group Ia (r=1) or IIa (r=2) of the periodic table. Examples are lithium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, calcium hydroxide. Potassium, sodium and calcium hydroxide are preferred, with sodium hydroxide being particularly preferred. Mr+(OHxe2x88x92)r may be added to the extraction mixture as an aqueous solution or suspension, alternatively it may be added as a solid together with water, whereby the former is preferred. A process is preferred in which the aqueous phase has a pH of 7 to 14, particularly preferably a pH of around 9 to 13.5, before the extraction is performed.
Embodiments making use of the parameters, compounds, definitions and explanations that are cited as being preferred, particularly preferred or most particularly preferred are preferred, particularly preferred or most particularly preferred.
The definitions, parameters, compounds and explanations cited above in general terms or in preferential ranges may also however be combined with one another in any way, in other words across the individual ranges and preferential ranges.
The manufacturing process according to the invention for (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n is preferably performed with a molar ratio of [R1xe2x80x94(OH)k]/[Mr+(OHxe2x88x92)r] of greater than around 1.1 [r/k], since surprisingly it was found that a hyperstoichiometric addition of R1xe2x80x94(OH)k has a positive influence on the yield of the reactive extraction. It is particularly preferably performed with a molar ratio of [R1xe2x80x94(OH)k]/[Mr+(OHxe2x88x92)r] of greater than around 3.1 [r/k].
Depending on the requirements of the organic solutions, around 1 to 99.9% of (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n may be reacted to (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n. Surprisingly it was found that the unreacted (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n may likewise be co-extracted into the organic phase. This may be entirely desirable, for example if (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n acts as a phase transfer catalyst or support electrolyte in a subsequent reaction. The invention therefore also provides organic solutions containing both (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n and (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n.
Depending on the desired ratio of (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n and (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n in the organic phase, the ratio of hydroxide Mr+(OHxe2x88x92)r/(Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n may be around 0.05 [m/r] to 5 [m/r]. If the ratio is increased, the amount of (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n that is formed increases, provided that an excess of R1xe2x80x94(OH)k is present. Surprisingly a ratio of around 1 [m/r] is mostly adequate for an almost complete conversion. Higher ratios then lead to a mostly undesirable higher Mr+ content in the organic solution.
High Mr+ contents may be troublesome in industrial processes since the salts containing Mr+ are generally poorly soluble in organic solution and may precipitate out uncontrollably in reactors.
Surprisingly it was found that the Mr+ content of the solutions prepared by the process according to the invention is below around 20 ppm. Solutions having an Mr+ content of below around 10 ppm are preferred, particularly preferably organic solutions having an Mr+ content of below around 5 ppm. Surprisingly, even in cases where the hydroxide is used hyperstoichiometrically, i.e. Mr+(OHxe2x88x92)r/(Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n greater than around 1 [m/r], no significant amounts of (Mr+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R]r are extracted into the organic phase.
After extraction the organic solutions obtained are saturated with water according to their water absorption capacity. If they are to be used in reactions in which water has a disruptive effect, they must be dried before use. The processes known to the person skilled in the art, such as e.g. drying over anhydrous salts, stripping, molecular sieves, azeotropic distillation, may be used.
Organic solutions of (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R]n and (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n are required e.g. in the direct carbonylation of phenol with carbon monoxide and oxygen to diphenyl carbonate. The invention therefore provides the use of the organic solutions according to the invention in oxidative carbonylation reactions.
The volume ratios of organic to aqueous phase may be selected within a broad range; for reasons of phase contact and practicality they are not too different; volume ratios of organic to aqueous phase of around 0.01 to 100 are therefore preferred. It has been found that smaller volumes of water have a positive influence on extraction into the organic phase as well as minimising the quantity of waste water. A phase ratio of organic to aqueous phase of around 0.5 to 80 is therefore particularly preferred, most particularly preferably around 2 to 50.
The aqueous phase may contain additional electrolytes, e.g. an alkali or alkaline-earth halide salt. As was surprisingly found, the presence of (Mr+)m(Ymxe2x88x92)r may even have a positive influence on the yield of (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n solutions. A preferred variant is therefore performance in the presence of an additional electrolyte, whereby performance in the presence of a metal salt of the anion Ymxe2x88x92 is a particularly preferred variant and performance in the presence of (Mr+)m(Ymxe2x88x92)r a most particularly preferred variant.
In the process according to the invention for the reprocessing and recycling of organic solutions of salts (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n and (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n, the commercial availability of e.g. tetrabutyl ammonium bromide may be used for the synthesis of tetrabutyl ammonium phenolate.
In the oxidative direct carbonylation of phenol, tetrabutyl ammonium phenolate for example is used as this phenolate base (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n and tetrabutyl ammonium bromide as the quaternary salt (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n. Since phenolate is consumed during the reaction, e.g. by the carbon dioxide produced as a by-product, or partial or complete protonation may occur during reprocessing steps, a regeneration of the phenolate base (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n is an important object in this process. A stream formed during reprocessing and generally containing, in addition to other components, unreacted hydroxy aromatic (R1xe2x80x94(OH)k), quaternary bromide (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n and a solvent, may be wholly or partially reacted to the quaternary phenolate by the process according to the invention.
The process may be executed in such a way that the stream is divided and only a split stream is wholly or partially reacted for regeneration of the base. Alternatively the entire stream may also be reacted with the quantity of Mr+(OHxe2x88x92)r required for the desired amount of phenolate. Since surprisingly it was found that especially in a hypostoichiometric state, i.e. with ratios of Mr+(OHxe2x88x92)r/(Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n of below 1 [m/r], the reaction occurs almost quantitatively with the amount of Mr+(OHxe2x88x92)r, the desired amount of quaternary salt phenolate is relatively simple to adjust. The process may then be controlled in such a way that only (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n is added in the reaction feed to compensate for the losses and the losses of (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n are entirely made up by the reaction according to the invention.
Since after extraction the solutions are saturated with water, it may be useful to dry them in step b) before using them for reactions in which water is disruptive. Other types of reprocessing, such as e.g. removal of the solvent by distillation, isolation of R1xe2x80x94(OH)k, removal of the residual metal content e.g. by ion exchange or precipitation, evaporation, sedimentation or recrystallisation of the (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n salts, may likewise occur before recycling back into the reaction.
In step a) an aqueous phase containing the reacted portion of the Ymxe2x88x92 is accumulated. If this is a valuable anion such as e.g. PF6xe2x88x92 or bromide, it may be useful to recover this anion too, e.g. by precipitation, reaction to volatile species and subsequent distillation, evaporation of the solution or other methods.
If the reaction mixture contains partially water-soluble by-products, the process according to the invention may additionally be useful for depleting these components. Furthermore, metal salts such as may be present as catalyst components in the reaction mixture may be separated off into the aqueous phase during this extraction, allowing them to be recovered, which may be useful for ecological or economic reasons. Precipitation methods may also be used to isolate these metal salts. A considerable number of metal ions are precipitated out as hydroxides under the extraction conditions. Precipitations with Ymxe2x88x92 or, if Ymxe2x88x92 represents anions of polybasic acids, with the Y(m+1)xe2x88x92 or Y(m+2)xe2x88x92 produced by deprotonation thereof (e.g. Ymxe2x88x92=dihydrogen phosphate, m=1, Y(m+1)xe2x88x92=hydrogen phosphate, Y(m+2)xe2x88x92=phosphate), are also possible and are optionally used for isolating metals. The volume ratios of organic to aqueous phase may be selected within a broad range; for reasons of phase contact and practicality they are not too different; volume ratios of organic to aqueous phase of around 0.01 to 100 are therefore preferred. For the cited reasons a phase ratio of organic to aqueous phase of around 0.5 to 80 is preferred, particularly preferably around 2 to 50.
The aqueous phase may contain additional electrolytes, e.g. an alkali or alkaline-earth halide salt. This may have a positive influence on the yield of (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n solutions and is therefore a preferred variant. Particularly preferred is the use of (Mr+)m(Ymxe2x88x92)r, which is also formed as a product, as the additional electrolyte. After extraction the aqueous phase is preferably used in part for the extraction feed stream by being recirculated, or the same aqueous phase is continually used, from which only a purge stream containing (Mr+)m(Ymxe2x88x92)r is continually removed and a compensating Mr+(OHxe2x88x92)r stream added. The distribution equilibria of R1(OH)k, (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n and (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n are positively influenced by the resulting hold-up of (Mr+)m(Ymxe2x88x92)r in the extraction and losses in the aqueous phase along with the amount of waste water are minimised.
Alternatively the (Mr+)m(Ymxe2x88x92)r formed as a product may be separated off as a solid and discharged if the solubility product is exceeded.
The recovery process according to the invention for (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n is preferably performed with a molar ratio of [R1xe2x80x94(OH)k]/[Mr+(OHxe2x88x92)r] greater than around 1.1 [r/k], since surprisingly it was found that a hyperstoichiometric addition of R1xe2x80x94(OH)k has a positive influence on the yield of the reactive extraction. It is particularly preferably performed with a molar ratio of [R1xe2x80x94(OH)k]/[Mr+(OHxe2x88x92)r] greater than around 3.1 [r/k].
The ratio of hydroxide to quaternary salt Mr+(OHxe2x88x92)r/(Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n may be around 0.01 [m/r] to 5 [m/r], depending on the desired ratio of (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n and (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n in the organic phase. If the ratio is increased, the amount of (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n that is formed increases, provided that an adequate amount of R1xe2x80x94(OH)k is present. Surprisingly a ratio of around 1 [m/r] is mostly adequate for an almost complete conversion. Ratios of Mr+(OHxe2x88x92)r/(Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n of around 0.1 [m/r] to 1.5 [m/r] are therefore preferred. Higher ratios then lead to a mostly undesirable higher Mr+ content in the organic solution and to a high loss of R1xe2x80x94(OH)k.
The process requires the presence of R1xe2x80x94(OH)k to form the product; excess R1xe2x80x94(OH)k facilitates the preparation of the solutions. Although the process may be used with a large number of reactions, reactions in which R1xe2x80x94(OH)k is used as educt are preferred. Also preferred are reactions in which the reaction product is an organic ester, e.g. an ester of R1xe2x80x94(OH)k. Esters of carbonic acid with R1xe2x80x94(OH)k, e.g. diphenyl carbonate, are particularly preferred.
Surprisingly it was found for the recovery process according to the invention that the Mr+ content of the solutions prepared by the process according to the invention is below around 20 ppm. Solutions having an Mr+ content below around 10 ppm are preferred, particularly preferably organic solutions having an Mr+ content below around 5 ppm.
The invention thirdly provides a process for the selective preparation of organic solutions of salts (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n and (Qn+)m[Y(1)mxe2x88x92]n, since surprisingly it was found that in a mixture of two quaternary salts (Qn+)m[Y(1)mxe2x88x92]n and (Qn+)p[Y(2)pxe2x88x92]n, (Qn+)p[Y(2)pxe2x88x92]n may be reacted very selectively with the hydroxide Mr+(OHxe2x88x92)r. (Qn+)m[Y(1)mxe2x88x92]n and (Qn+)p[Y(2)pxe2x88x92]n are two different elements from the large number of compounds defined by (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n, whereby m and p are natural numbers which may be the same or different. m is preferably smaller than p. Halide (Xxe2x88x92) and sulfate (SO42xe2x88x92) are a preferred combination of Y(1)mxe2x88x92 and Y(2)pxe2x88x92, whereby bromide (Brxe2x88x92) and sulfate are particularly preferred.
Depending on the selected stoichiometry of the compounds, organic solutions containing (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n, (Qn+)m[Y(1)mxe2x88x92]n and (Qn+)p[Y(2)pxe2x88x92]n may be prepared, whereby the molar ratio of (Qn+)m[Y(1)mxe2x88x92]n/(Qn+)p[Y(2)pxe2x88x92]n may significantly increase in comparison to the starting ratio. A further option is to prepare solutions displaying virtually no (Qn+)p[Y(2)pxe2x88x92]n and composed only of the quaternary salts (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n and (Qn+)m[Y(1)mxe2x88x92]n. Almost the entire amount of (Qn+)m[Y(1)mxe2x88x92]n that is used may be extracted into the organic phase, or part of the (Qn+)m[Y(1)mxe2x88x92]n may equally be reacted with Mr+(OHxe2x88x92)r to form (Qn+)k[(xe2x88x92O)kxe2x80x94R1]n.
The process for the selective preparation of quaternary salt phenolate may also advantageously be used in the reprocessing of reaction mixtures. In reactions requiring an organically soluble bromide source and phenolate base, for example, the loss of phenolate may be compensated by the process according to the invention. This does not require the use of the expensive bromide as educt; instead a sulfate may additionally be added, which reacts selectively to the phenolate without the loss of significant amounts of the bromide source.
The extractions according to the invention may be performed in a single step, in several steps or continuously. Continuous extraction, e.g. countercurrent extraction, is generally preferred.
The preparation or recovery processes according to the invention are performed at a temperature of xe2x88x9210 to 200xc2x0 C., preferably 10 to 130xc2x0 C., particularly preferably 20 to 90xc2x0 C., and under a pressure of 0.1 to 200 bar, preferably 0.5 to 50 bar, particularly preferably 1 to 10 bar.
Extraction processes may be used for the processes according to the invention such as are described for example in KIRK-OTHMER, Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, Fourth Edition, Volume 10, 1993, pages 125-181 and in Ullmann""s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, Fifth Edition, Volume B3, Unit Operations II, 1988, chapter 6, Liquidxe2x80x94liquid extraction, pages 6-1 to 6-61.
Extraction equipment from the following classification groups may be used to perform the processes according to the invention, such as e.g. columns without energy input, columns with pulsed liquid or pulsed baffles, columns with rotating baffles, mixer-settlers, mixing nozzles and settlers as well as centrifugal extractors.
Examples of columns without energy input that include spray columns, packed columns and sieve-plate columns, which differ in the dispersion of the phases.
Examples of columns with pulsed liquid or pulsed baffles that include pulsed sieve-plate columns, pulsed packed columns, with piston pump, with pulsing devices according to Misek or Wepuko, columns with vibrating sieve plates according to Prochazka or Karr.
Examples of columns with rotating baffles that include the rotating disc contactor (RDC), asymmetric rotating disc extractor (ARD), Oldshue-Rushton multiple-mixer column, Kxc3xchni extractor, Scheibel column, SHE extractor and Graesser contactor.
Examples of mixer-settler extractors that include the Davy McKee mixer-settler, Lurgi tower extractor, IMI, General Mills and box-type mixer-settler according to Denver.
Examples of centrifugal extracts that include the Podbielniak centrifugal extractor and the Robatel centrifugal extractor.
The extractors may be operated as single extractors, parallel extractors or as cascades of extractors. If cascades of extractors are used, equipment from one or more classification groups may be operated simultaneously in one cascade. Phase control in a cascade may be performed cocurrently or preferably countercurrently.
It is likewise known to the person skilled in the art that the process depends on the chemical nature of the R1xe2x80x94(OH)k, (Qn+)m[Ymxe2x88x92]n species and of the solvent, and that depending on the distribution coefficient and the desired separation efficiency the extraction must display a suitable number of theoretical separation stages for the specific separation problem and a contact time adjusted to the kinetics of the reactive extraction.
Generally, however, the extraction is preferably performed in a single mixer-settler, since the extraction yield is usually adequate.

Process for the preparation of organic solutions


A semiconductor integrated circuit includes cells, cell rows and potential feeders. Each cell includes a partial trunk that is used to constitute a power supply trunk and/or a ground trunk, and that is electrically isolated from the remaining components within the cell. Each cell row includes a plurality of cells placed adjacently, and the power supply trunk and/or ground trunk composed of the partial trunks. The potential feeders selectively connect one of the power supply trunk and ground trunk of any one of the plurality of cell rows to the components within the cells to supply them with the potential of the power supply trunk and/or ground trunk. This enables the components in the adjacent cells to be supplied with different potentials.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit, and particularly to improvement in a cell structure primarily used in the automatic placement and routing in the layout design of a semiconductor integrated circuit.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 8 is a plan view showing a cell structure used for designing a conventional semiconductor integrated circuit. In FIG. 8, the reference numeral 100 designates a cell, which is an inverter in this case. The reference numeral 101 designates a power supply trunk placed in the cell 100, and 102 designates a ground trunk placed in the cell 100. The reference numeral 103 designates a metal line of the source electrode of a PMOSFET placed at a power supply side; and 104 designates a contact connecting the metal line 103 to the active region 105 of the PMOSFET. The metal line 103 is also connected to the power supply trunk 101. The reference numeral 106 designates the active region of an NMOSFET; and 107 designates a metal line of the source electrode of the NMOSFET placed on the ground side. The metal line 107 is connected to the active region 106 via the contacts 104. The reference numeral 108 designates a gate electrode of the PMOSFET; 109 designates a gate electrode of the NMOSFET; and 110 designates a metal line for interconnecting the gate electrodes 108 and 109. The metal line 110 functions as an input pin of the inverter. The reference numeral 111 designates a metal line at the output side; and 112 designates a contact for connecting the metal line 111 to the active regions 105 and 106.
Next, the outline of the conventional cell will be described.
As shown in FIG. 8, the cell used for the conventional automatic placement and routing is configured such that the power supply trunk 101 is connected to the metal line 103 of the source electrode on the power supply side in advance, and the ground trunk 102 is connected to the metal line 107 of the source electrode on the ground side in advance. Thus, the cell 100 constituting the inverter operates at the power supply potential fed via the power supply trunk 101.
When a plurality of cells 100 are automatically placed adjacently, the cells 100 are connected to the power supply trunk 101 and ground trunk 102 that supply the common potential because of the routing structure described above. Accordingly, two adjacent cells 100 are connected in common to the power supply and ground with the same potentials without exception.
With the configuration as described above, the conventional semiconductor integrated circuit has the following problem. Because the power supply trunk 101 is connected to the metal line 103 of the source electrode on the power supply side, and the ground trunk 102 is connected to the metal line 107 of the source electrode on the ground side within the cell 100 in advance, and hence the power supply trunk and ground trunk are used in common, it is unavoidable that the adjacent cells 100 have the same potential. Accordingly, it is impossible to connect the power supplies with different potentials to the adjacent cells 100. As a result, to control the power supply voltage individually for each cell 100, the cells 100 that are connected to power supplies with different potentials must be separated, thereby complicating the layout.
The present invention is implemented to solve the foregoing problem. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor integrated circuit capable of connecting the adjacent cells to a plurality of power supplies with different potentials.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor integrated circuit including cells and potential feeders. Each cell includes a partial trunk which is used to constitute a power supply trunk and/or ground trunk, and is electrically isolated from remaining components within the cell. The potential feeders are selectively connected to the power supply trunk and/or ground trunk of any one of cell rows, and supply the components within the cells with a potential fed via the power supply trunk and/or ground trunk. Thus, the semiconductor integrated circuit can supply the adjacent cells with different potentials, thereby offering an advantage of being able to control the potentials to be supplied to the cells on a cell by cell basis with ease.


A method, management method and system for performing cell combination on a plurality of small cells are provided. In the combination method, a signal node (SN) receives position information sent from each small cell connected to the SN, and groups the small cells under a preset algorithm according to the received position information, such that small cells in a same group share a local cell serial number; a radio network connector (RNC) acquires all of the local cell serial numbers from the SN and maps each of the local cell serial numbers to a respective logical cell serial number.

A UMTS wireless access system contains two main network elements: a radio network controller (RNC) and a Node B The RNC and the Node B communicate with each other using an Iub interface. In view of general network establishment mode, the main coverage is implemented in one of following manners: an RNC and an integrated macro cell with multiple sectors, or a RNC together with a distributed base station indoor building baseband unit (BBU) and a macro radio remote unit (RRU). In addition, there are a few femto cells for blind area compensation or hotspot coverage. In conclusion, entire network coverage is implemented by a combination of macro cells and a few femto cells.
With the rapid development of the mobile broadband services in recent years, the enormous applications of data services of various user equipments (UEs) in 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) mode, such as cell phone, data card, tablet PC, directly lead to an explosive increase of data traffic in hotspot areas (various indoor and outdoor scenes). The data traffic requirement cannot be meet only by improving performance of traditional macro cells. Thus, at present, the dramatically increasing requirement for data traffic is met by using small cells. In terms of power, small cells are classified into micro cell adapted to a power of 2×5 w to 2×10 W, metro cell adapted to a power of 2×1 w, pico cell adapted to a power of 2×250 mw.
Small cells may be applied to outdoor hotspot or hot zone coverage, indoor hotspot or deep hot zone coverage, of which the number would be large, and several times and even tens times with respect to the number of macro cells. The number of metro cells and pico cells with small power is particularly large. If a wide deployment of small cells is still realized in traditional small cell form, the following problems will arise:
1. Each deployment of a small cell requires an engineer to configure a small cell connection on the RNC side, making the network deployment time-consuming and laborious.
2. The continuous increase in capacity of an existing RNC with the increase of deployed small cells makes the cost increased and is disadvantageous to the maintenance and management.
3. The RNC is required to allocate cell resources and processing capability to a small cell, just like those required to be done for a macro cell, though the cell capacity of a small cell is small. For example, for a base station with three sectors each having four carriers, each cell may contain 64 to 96 HSPA+ users on average, and each sector with four carriers contains 256 to 384 (=4*64 to 4*96) HSPA+ users in total, whereas, each cell of a small cell only has 16 to 32 HSPA+ users. In terms of the capacity concerning the number of users, the capacity of a macro cell is 2 to 6 times higher than the capacity of a femto cell.
4. The mobility between small cells leads to the generation of a large number of soft handover signalling on the Iub interface. Furthermore, since small cells and macro cells are logically connected to different RNCs, the handover of a UE between a small cell and a macro cell requires a cross-RNC Iub soft handover signalling, excessive signalling interactions increase the resource consumption and a long handover delay leads to a high call drop rate.

Method, management method and system for performing cell combination on a plurality of small cells


A journaled database system may comprise data nodes that collectively maintain a collection of data and provide clients with read and write access to the collection. Correlated classification functions may be associated with read and write operations, such that items affected by a write operation are classified similarly to items accessed during a read operation. Read and write signatures may be formed based on the classification. Conflicts may be detected by comparing the read and write signatures for equivalent or overlapping classifications.

Recently, distributed computing systems have been employed to maintain collections of data. Multiple computing nodes, potentially distributed across various geographic regions and data centers, may be employed to collectively provide applications with an efficient mechanism for storing and retrieving data.
A distributed computing system may provide services to a potentially large number of users, and may process a large volume of requests to access data maintained by the system. In some instances, requests to read and write data may cause conflicts with other such requests. It may be challenging to detect conflicts while maintaining the efficiency of the system.


Disclosed is a mold-BGA-type semiconductor device which has: a semiconductor chip which includes insulating resin film formed on at least a part of the surface of the semiconductor chip except a pad; a conductive layer formed in a region on the insulating resin film, the region including at least part corresponding to a position where a solder ball is mounted; a first metal thin wire which is wire-bonded between the pad and the conductive layer; a second metal thin wire which is wire-bonded on the conductive layer; resin part which seals the semiconductor chip, the resin part including a hole to expose part of the second metal thin wire; and a solder ball which is mounted on the hole.

A conventional mold-BGA-type semiconductor device is, as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, structured by adhering a buffering elastic material called elastomer 10 onto the surface of a chip 1, thermo-compression-bonding a copper wiring 12 to a pad 2 of the chip 1, sealing with a sealant 13. FIG. 1A shows a state that the pad 2 is disposed at the center of the chip 1, and FIG. 1B shows a state that it is disposed peripherally.
Also, Japanese patent application laid-open Nos. 3-94438 (1991) and 8-204062 (1996) disclose examples of mold-BGA-type semiconductor devices where solder balls are disposed on the surface of resin package on the front-face side of semiconductor chip.
As one example of them, the semiconductor device disclosed in Japanese patent application laid-open No. 3-94438 (1991) is shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B. FIG. 2A is a cross sectional view showing the semiconductor device before forming the solder balls, and FIG. 2B is a cross sectional view showing the semiconductor device after forming the solder balls.
As shown in FIG. 2A, it is fabricated by forming a dummy support 15 uniting with a die pad 14 on which a semiconductor chip 1 is to be mounted, adhering the semiconductor chip 1 onto the die pad 14, bonding between the pad 2 of the semiconductor chip 1 and the dummy support 15 through a wire 5 (metal thin wire), resin-sealing the whole members. After resin-sealing, as shown in FIG. 2B, outsides from the line B-B' and line C-C' in FIG. 2A are cut down and separated, thereby allowing part where the semiconductor chip 1 is mounted to be remaining. The surface of the remaining part and the wire 5 are polished to expose the surface of wire 5 until having a predetermined thickness. Solder balls 6 are formed on the exposed and polished part of the wire 5.
However, in the BGA-type semiconductor device in FIGS. 1A and 1B, there are the problems that the cost for material becomes expensive because the wiring structure from the pad 2 to the solder ball 6 uses a polyimide tape 11 and the elastomer 10, and that the fabrication process is complicated because of the adhering structure.
Also, in the BGA-type semiconductor device in FIGS. 2A and 2B, there is the problem that the cost for material becomes expensive because the dummy support 15 is used.

Mold-BGA-type semiconductor device and method for making the same


Cancer patients make antibodies to tumor-derived proteins that are potential biomarkers for early detection. Twenty-eight antigens have been identified as potential biomarkers for the early detection of basal-like breast cancer (Tables 1, 2). Also, a 13-AAb classifier has been developed that differentiate patients with BLBC from healthy controls with 33% sensitivity at 98% specificity (Table 3).

Despite significant improvement in early detection by routine mammography, breast cancer remains a global challenge. Current screening mammography only detects 70% of breast cancers. Breast tumors associated with high breast density and highly proliferative cancers are frequently not detected by screening. Therefore, there is an urgent need for biomarkers that can detect potentially invasive breast cancer in their early stages.
Like other cancers, breast cancer is heterogeneous, comprising multiple molecular subtypes with unique characteristics of prognosis, response to treatment and risk of recurrence. This heterogeneity affects the biomarker discovery, requiring both larger sample sizes and different statistical approaches from traditional methods of evaluation. A biomarker (or panel) may perform well for one molecular subtype but not another.
Current screening mammography also has limitations in detecting the basal-like subtype cancers. The fraction of BLBC within all breast cancer cases detected by mammography is less than its natural frequency in the general population, indicating that BLBC was under-diagnosed by routine mammography and more frequently detected as interval breast cancer. Early detection of BLBC by screening mammography is compromised partly by its high proliferation rate and lack of suspicious features of regular breast malignancy, such as microcalcifications, irregular spiculated masses or pleomorphic microcalcifications. Moreover, BLBC is often present in women less than 50 years old, who are not recommended for routine mammogram by US Preventative Service Task Force mammogram guidelines.
Considering the high frequency of disease in women younger than 50 years old, a potentially large population with BLBC does not benefit from present breast cancer screening and would benefit from a molecular test for the disease. Therefore, there is an urgent need for biomarkers that can detect potentially invasive basal like breast cancer in their early stages.

Plasma autoantibody biomarkers for basal like breast cancer

ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS ON BEHALF OF ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AS REPRESENTED BY THE SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES


Combustion is enhanced by positioning plural magnetrons around a burner, and directing microwaves into a combustion zone as air and fuel or air fuel and oxygen are swirled into the combustion zone. The microwaves excite carbon atoms in the fluidized fuel mixture and improve complete oxidizing of the fuel with increased flame temperatures and reduced noxious emissions.

It has long been known that incomplete combustion during the combustion process results in lower flame temperatures and inadequate vaporization and ignition of fuel, resulting in less efficient combustion of fuel, which greatly increases the output of carbon monoxide and other hazardous emissions.
A long felt need exists for a new and improved method and apparatus for greater efficiency in fuel usage and for reduction or elimination of hazardous products of combustion of fossil fuels during the ignition and combustion process of fuels when used in an industrial process. The enactment and more stringent enforcement of regulations governing the emission of hazardous compounds into the atmosphere have required technological improvement of the air cleansing devices heretofore used in industrial processes. Industries that consume fossil fuels include the cement and lime industry (kilns), the electric generating utilities (coal and fuel fired boilers), the asphalt industry (fuel fired aggregate dryers), and any other industry using fossil fuels in their industrial process. Many exhaust cleansing system now available to these industries do not have the efficiency that new air quality regulations will require.
A need exists for a burner system to reduce or eliminate the undesirable products at their source by improving the combustion process to a sufficient degree that these compounds are not generated by the combustion process.


A unified web-based voice messaging system provides voice application control between a proxy browser having a web browser, and an application server via an hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) connection on an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The proxy browser serves as an HTTP interface for a user device that lacks HTML and HTTP processing capabilites, such as an analog telephone, a cellular telephone, a voice over IP telephone, and the like. The web browser receives an HTML page from the application server having an XML element that defines data for an audio operation to be performed by an executable audio resource within the proxy browser. The audio resource, also referred to as a media resource, selectively executes the HTML tags and the audio operation based on the determined capabilities of the user device. If the user device does not have audio capabilities, the media resource ignores the audio operation, and merely presents the HTML information, assuming the user device has a display. If the media resource determines that the user device has at least a speaker and possibly a microphone, the media resource executes the audio operation based on enhanced audio control specified by the XML element. Similarly, if the media resource determines that the user device does not have a display, the HTML tag information is discarded by the media resource. Hence, a proxy browser can be used by user devices to access enhanced voice control for voice enabled web applications.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to web browser control of audio operations for voice enabled web applications within a hypertext markup language (HTML) and hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) framework.
2. Description of the Related Art
The evolution of the public switched telephone network has resulted in a variety of voice applications and services that can be provided to individual subscribers and business subscribers. Such services include voice messaging systems that enable landline or wireless subscribers to record, playback, and forward voice mail messages. However, the ability to provide enhanced services to subscribers of the public switched telephone network is directly affected by the limitations of the public switched telephone network. In particular, the public switched telephone network operates according to a protocol that is specifically designed for the transport of voice signals; hence any modifications necessary to provide enhanced services can only be done by switch vendors that have sufficient know-how of the existing public switched telephone network infrastructure.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the existing public switched telephone network. As shown in FIG. 1, the public switched telephone network 10 includes a wireline subnetwork 12, a wireless subnetwork 14, and a time division multiplexed (TDM) backbone subnetwork 16 configured for transporting voice data and other data between user devices 18 according to the existing public switched telephone network protocols. The subnetwork 16, for example, includes interexchange trunks for transporting voice data between interexchange carriers and/or local exchange carriers.
As shown in FIG. 1, the wireline subnetwork 12 includes telephony application servers 20 configured for providing voice applications 22 such as subscriber profile management, voice mail, call forwarding, etc. for the user devices 18a, 18b, and 18c coupled to the wireline subnetwork 12. As recognized in the art, the telephony application servers 20 include advanced intelligent network (AIN) components such as services control point (SCP) directories and service nodes (SN) configured for controlling the telephony applications 22. The wireline subnetwork 12 also includes telephony access services 24 configured for providing the user devices 18a, 18b, and 18c access to the wireline subnetwork using, for example, analog twisted pair connections or ISDN connections to a central office. The user devices 18a, 18b, and 18c, illustrated as a cordless telephone 18a, a fax machine 18b having a connected telephone, and an analog telephone 18c, are referred to herein as xe2x80x9cskinny clientsxe2x80x9d, defined as devices that are able to interface with a user to provide voice and/or data services (e.g., via a modem) but cannot perform any control of the application 22 or the protocol used to interface with the wireline subnetwork 12.
The wireless subnetwork includes wireless application servers 26, and wireless access services 28 for providing wireless voice and data services to the wireless user devices 18d, 18e, and 18f. The wireless user devices 18d, 18e, and 18f, illustrated as a cellular telephone (e.g., AMPS, TDMA, or CDMA) 18d, a handheld computing device (e.g., a 3-Com Palm Computing or Windows CE-based handheld device) 18e, and a pager 18f, interact with the wireless application 30 based on respective wireless protocols controlled by the wireless access services 28. The wireless application servers 26 control wireless services such as home location register (HLR) management, and service node (SN) telephony applications. xe2x80x9cTiny clientsxe2x80x9d are distinguishable from skinny clients in that the tiny clients tend to have even less functionality in providing input and output interaction with a user, and may not be able to send or receive audio signals such as voice signals at all. Examples of tiny clients include wireless user devices 18d, 18e, and 18f, as well as function-specific terminal devices. Note that tiny clients tend to be one-way (receive-only or transmit-only) devices.
In both cases, however, both skinny clients and tiny clients have no control of the respective applications 22 and 30 that are running within the respective networks. Rather, the applications 22 and 30 are executed exclusively by the servers 20 and 26. Moreover, both skinny clients and tiny clients have no control of the access protocol used to access the respective subnetworks 12 and 14; hence, the skinny clients and tiny clients are currently incapable of initiating access to another network using an alternative protocol, for example Internet protocol (IP). Consequently, the skinny clients and tiny clients rely exclusively on the service nodes of the servers 20 and 26 to provide the voice application services programmed in the applications 22 and 30, respectively. Although this exclusive control of the applications 22 and 30 by the servers 20 and 26 is advantageous in maintaining control over quality of service and reliability requirements, the applications 22 and 30 can only be developed and maintained by programmers having sufficient know-how of the public switched telephone network infrastructure. As a result, programmers familiar with open standards such as IP are unable to provide contributions in enhancing the applications 22 and 30 due to the limitations of the public switched telephone network paradigm.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the web client-server paradigm of an open standards-based IP network 40, such as the World Wide Web, the Internet, or a corporate intranet. The IP network 40 provides client-server type application services for clients 42a and 42b by enabling the clients 42 to request application services from remote servers using standardized protocols, for example hypertext transport protocol (HTTP). For example, the client 42a is a stand-alone personal computer or workstation that has its own application 44 for providing its own application services. The client 42a can access a remote web application server 46 that executes a different set of application services 48 via an IP-based packet switched network 50 using either remote access services 52 or local area network access services 54, if available. Similarly, the client 42b having only a browser 56 can also enjoy the services of the applications 44 and 48 by accessing the respective computers 42a and 46.
The clients 42a and 42b, referred to herein as xe2x80x9cfat clientsxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cthin clientsxe2x80x9d, respectively, have the distinct advantage that they can initiate requests using IP protocol to any connected web server 46 to execute part or most of the applications 48 on behalf of the clients. An example of a fat client 42a is an e-mail application on a PC that knows how to run the application 44 and knows how to run the IP protocols to communicate directly with the messaging server via the packet switched network 50. An example of a thin client 42b is a PC that has a web browser; in this case, the web browser 56 can use IP protocols such as HTTP to receive and display web pages generated according to hypertext markup language (HTML) from server locations based on uniform resource locators (URLs) input by the user of the PC.
Hence, the web server paradigm enables the clients 42 to access any web server on the IP network 40. Moreover, the use of open protocols such as HTTP and HTML enable any client 42, regardless of its configuration, to access an HTML web page from a server that has no knowledge of the configuration of the requesting client; if the HTML web page received by the client includes information such as a specific HTML tag that is not recognizable by the browser 56, the browser 56 can merely ignore the unrecognized HTML tag.
Efforts at extending the voice applications 22 and 30 from the public switched telephone network to the IP network 40 have had limited success, primarily because the telephone protocols used in development of the applications 22 and 30 do not operate under the same paradigm as the IP network 40. For example, the telephony applications 22 and 30 are state aware, ensuring that prescribed operations between the application servers 20 or 26 and the user devices 18 occur in a prescribed sequence. For example, operations such as call processing operations, voicemail operations, call forwarding, etc., require that specific actions occur in a specific sequence to enable the multiple components of the public switched telephone network to complete the prescribed operations.
The applications 44 and 48 running in the IP network 40, however, are state-less: the applications 44 and 48, in response to reception of a specific request in the form of a URL from a client 42, instantiate a program configured for execution of the specific request, send an HTML web page back to the client 42, and end the program that executed the specific request. Although state information may be passed between the browser 56 and a web application 48 using a data file referred to as a xe2x80x9ccookiexe2x80x9d, some users prefer not to enable cookies on their browser 56; in addition, the passing of a large amount of state information as would normally be required for voice-type applications between the browser 56 and the web application 48 would substantially reduce the bandwidth available for the client 42.
In addition, HTML does not provide the type of control that is necessary to support voice applications. Specifically, HTML was designed as a set of specifications for embedding instructions within text that specifies to a browser how the text should be presented to the user. Hence, HTML is particularly effective for presenting on a browser a web page having text and image data, or forms data. However, HTML does not provide good media control: if instructions are embedded within an HTML page, there is no guarantee that a browser will execute the embedded instructions as intended by the web page designer.
Hence, efforts have been made to integrate the telephony applications 22 and 30 directly onto the IP network 40 by developing protocol translators that provide a termination between the telephony applications servers 20 and 26 and the web application servers 46. One such proposal is referred to as voice over IP, where telephony data from the telephony applications 22 and 30 are repackaged into IP packets for transmission across the IP network 50. These efforts, however, still require programmers who have substantial know-how of the telephony applications 22 and 30 and the public switched telephone network infrastructure. Moreover, the repackaging of telephony data into IP packets creates substantial problems in transmission of the telephony data, since the transport of IP data packets is not sequential and synchronous, as required for the voice applications.
Another attempt at performing voice applications over an IP network involves rewriting the telephony applications 22 and 30 as scripts in extensible markup language (XML), and sending the XML scripts over the IP network to an interpreter that is coupled to a telephone. The interpreter then plays the received XML scripts for the telephone. However this approach merely transfers some application functionality from the telephony applications 22 and 30 to the interpreter, and still requires telephony application engineers to write XML scripts of the applications 22 and 30. Hence, the IP network is used only for transporting the XML scripts, and does not take advantage of the open standards-based flexibility of the IP network that has provided enormous growth in web infrastructure and Internet commerce.
An additional concern in attempting voice applications over an IP network involves providing backwards compatibility for the existing devices 18 configured for communication via the public switched telephone network 10. Unlike the clients 42 in FIG. 2, the skinny clients 18a, 18b, and 18c and the tiny clients 18d, 18e, and 18f cannot perform any application control functions. Hence, any proposed system that extends the voice applications 22 and 30 to the IP network 40 will have limited success in the marketplace unless the skinny clients and the tiny clients are able to enjoy the same type of services as the clients 42.
There is a need for an arrangement that enables voice applications to be implemented on an IP packet switched network using the open standards-based flexibility of the IP network.
There is also a need for an arrangement that enables voice applications to be implemented using HTTP and HTML open standards, enabling development of voice applications by individuals that do not have expertise in the public switched telephone network. For example, there is a need for arrangement that enables voice applications to be designed by web programmers.
There is also a need for an arrangement that enables voice applications to be implemented using an IP network, without the necessity of the public switched telephone network.
There is also a need for an arrangement that enables unified voice messaging services to be provided via an IP network to any device having a browser, regardless of the configuration of that browser.
There is also a need for an arrangement that enables a web browser to provide advanced audio control features to enable voice enabled web applications from a web server to be presented to a user of the web browser.
There is also a need for an arrangement that enables user devices that lack application control functionality to enjoy voice application services using an IP network, without substantial modification to the user devices.
These and other needs are attained by the present invention, where a web browser receives an HTML page having an XML element that defines data for an audio operation to be performed by an executable audio resource. The web browser selectively executes the audio operation based on whether the web browser detects the presence of the executable audio resource. If the web browser does not have the executable audio resource, then the web browser ignores the XML element, and merely presents any other recognized HTML tags. However if the web browser has access to an executable audio resource that understands the XML element, then the web browser executes the audio operation based on enhanced audio control specified by the XML element. Hence, a web browser can be used to provide enhanced voice control for voice enabled web applications, merely by possession of an executable audio resource that recognizes the XML element that specifies the enhanced audio control required for the audio operation to be performed.
In addition, the web browser provides voice services for user devices that lack application control functionality by acting as a proxy browser for the user devices. In particular, the proxy browser is executable within an interface between a public switched telephone network component and the IP network. The proxy web browser, based on capabilities information for a corresponding user device, is configured for selectively ignoring received HTML tags that specify media content to be displayed, and selectively executing the audio operations specified by the XML element. Hence, the proxy browser supplies to a user device only the content that the user device is capable of interpreting, for example audio signals for an analog telephone, or text for a pager or a facsimile machine.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a method is provided in a proxy browser for executing a web browser according to hypertext transport (HTTP) protocol. The method includes receiving a hypertext markup language (HTML) page by the web browser, from an HTTP connection, having an HTML tag and at least one extensible markup language (XML) element defining data for an audio operation to be performed by an executable media resource, determining capabilities of a user device configured for receiving prescribed media information from the device, and selectively executing by the executable media resource at least one of the HTML tag and the audio operation for delivery of the prescribed media information to the user device, based on the determined capabilities of the user device. The reception of an HTTP page that includes XML element defining data for an audio operation to be performed enables the web browser to receive advanced audio control functions from a web server via an HTTP connection, without any modification to the web browser. Moreover, the selective execution of the HTML tag and the audio operation based on determined capabilities of the user device ensures that user devices receive as much media content as the devices are configured to receive; hence, if a user device does not have a certain capability, the corresponding operation is disregarded, ensuring that the user device has access to the media services without suffering from incompatability problems. Another aspect of the present invention provides a processor-based device configured for executing audio operations based on a hypertext markup language (HTML) page received from a server according to hypertext transport protocol (HTTP). The device includes a web browser configured for selectively interpreting the HTML page, the HTML page including at least one of an HTML tag and an XML element that defines data for an audio operation to be performed for a user device. The device also includes a media resource configured for selectively executing at least one of the audio operation and the HTML tag based on determined capabilities of the user device. The web browser provides an HTTP connection for the user device, enabling the user device to access application services that previously were not available to the user device, including web-based audio services such as voice messaging. Moreover, the media resource ensures that the user device does not receive information from the HTML page that the user device cannot process, ensuring that any user device can access an HTTP connection, regardless of its corresponding capabilities.
Additional advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned by practice of the invention. The advantages of the present invention may be realized and attained by means of instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

Proxy browser providing voice enabled web application audio control for telephony devices


A chisel system for harvesting an implantable graft from an area of a human having a cartilage overlying a condyle, according to which a module is provided that has one end connected to a handle. A cutting surface is formed at the other end of the module that cuts through the cartilage and condyle.

This invention relates to a chisel system and, more particularly, to an improved modular chisel system for cutting an opening to receive an implant in an osteochondral implant procedure.
In the human body, the knee consists of three articulating components—a femur, a tibia, and a patella—that are held in place by various ligaments. The corresponding chondral areas of the femur and the tibia form a hinge joint, and the patella protects the joint. Portions of the latter areas, as well as the underside of the patella, are covered with an articular cartilage, which allow the femur and the tibia to smoothly glide against each other without causing damage.
The articular cartilage often tears, usually due to traumatic injury (often seen in athletics) and degenerative processes (seen in older patients). This tearing does not heal well due to the lack of nerves, blood vessels and lymphatic systems; and the resultant knee pain, swelling, and limited motion of the bone(s) must be addressed.
Damaged adult cartilages have historically been treated by a variety of surgical interventions including lavage, arthroscopic debridement, and repair stimulation, all of which provide less than optimum results.
Another known treatment involves removal and replacement of the damaged cartilage with a prosthetic device. However, the known artificial prostheses have largely been unsuccessful since they are deficient in the elastic, and therefore in the shock-absorbing, properties characteristic of the cartilage. Moreover, the known artificial devices have not proven able to withstand the forces inherent to routine knee joint function.
In an attempt to overcome the problems associated with the above techniques, osteochondral transplantation, also known as "mosaicplasty" or "OATS" has been used to repair articular cartilages. This procedure involves removing injured tissue from the articular defect and drilling cylindrical openings in the base of the defect and underlying bone. Cylindrical plugs or grafts, consisting of healthy cartilage overlying bone, are usually obtained by using a chisel to punch them out from another area of the patient, typically from a lower load-bearing region of the joint under repair, or from a donor patient. The harvested grafts are then implanted in the openings.
in these cases, the chisels used to harvest the grafts are, for the most part, one-piece designs that consist essentially of a blade portion extending from a handle portion. Thus, once the grafts are harvested, they remain in the hollow, distal end portion of the chisel and must be removed from that end. This often causes damage to the graft, and in most cases to the cartilage portion of the graft.
Also, the cutting end of the chisels are blunt and thus can cause damage, in the form of high mechanical deformation, as the cartilage portion of the graft is punched out during the harvesting procedure. Further, each chisel can cut only one size graft, which requires a series of chisels for cutting a series of grafts having different dimensions. However, to provide a separate chisel for each size graft is expensive.
Therefore what is need is a chisel system that overcomes the above problems.

Chisel system for osteochondral implants and a surgical procedure involving same


A secondary battery having good performance especially in a high-temperature environment can be obtained by using an electrolyte solution for secondary batteries, which is characterized by containing an ionic liquid represented by formula (1) and a lithium salt.

In recent years, the spread of portable electronic devices such as digital cameras, smart phones and tablet devices has been remarkable. This has been accompanied by a large growth in demand for secondary batteries that can be charged and repeatedly used, as well as an increasing desire for higher capacity and higher energy density in such batteries.
Of these, lithium-based secondary batteries with a high cell voltage of 3V or more and a large energy density per unit weight have attracted particular attention and are today the subject of vigorous development efforts.
An electrolyte solution obtained by dissolving an ion-conductive salt such as LiBF4 or LiPF6 in an aprotic organic solvent is generally used in these lithium-based secondary batteries.
Most lithium-based secondary batteries are designed so as to charge and discharge within the voltage range between a fully charged cell voltage of 4.2 V and an end-of discharge voltage of about 2.7 V. However, in high-voltage secondary batteries having a voltage of 4 V or more, the organic solvent and electrode active materials used are sometimes exposed to high voltages and electrically decompose.
Various improvements in the materials making up lithium-based secondary batteries have been attempted to date in order to solve such problems. One such technology involves the use of an ionic liquid as a component of a liquid electrolyte.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a secondary power supply which uses an electrolyte that includes a lithium salt, an ionic liquid and an organic solvent. More specifically, this publication discloses a secondary power supply in which 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (abbreviated below as EMIBF4) is used as the ionic liquid and the molar ratio thereof with respect to lithium salt is set in a specific range. However, a drawback of EMIBF4 is that, although it has a relatively low viscosity, because the withstand voltage is low, the charging voltage cannot be raised, making use in a high voltage region impossible.
Patent Document 2 discloses a liquid electrolyte which includes both an ionic liquid containing an alicyclic ammonium cation having a specific alkoxyalkyl group on a nitrogen atom, and an ion-conductive salt that is a solid at room temperature. Specifically, a liquid electrolyte containing N-methoxyethyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium tetrafluoroborate (MEMPBF4) and the like as the ionic liquid, and an electrical double-layer capacitor that uses the same are disclosed. However, MEMPBF4 does not have a sufficient ability to dissolve lithium salts, and so increasing the lithium salt concentration is difficult. In addition, because it has a high viscosity, when the ionic liquid alone is used as a liquid electrolyte, the internal resistance of the battery rises.
Patent Document 3 discloses a lithium-ion capacitor which uses a liquid electrolyte that includes both a lithium salt and an ionic liquid, wherein the lithium salt and the ionic liquid have the same anion. Specifically, a capacitor is disclosed in which a compound such as N-methyl-N-butylpyrrolidinium bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide (MBPYFSA) is used as the ionic liquid and lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide is used as the lithium salt. However, in the case of a compound such as MBPYFSA, because the ionic liquid itself has a higher viscosity than EMIBF4, adding a lithium salt further increases the viscosity, lowering the charge-discharge characteristics when such an electrolyte is included in a lithium-ion battery.
Patent Document 4 discloses various bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide anion-containing ionic liquids and methods for their synthesis, and also discloses that these ionic liquids can be used as electrolyte materials in secondary batteries and the like. Although N-methoxyethyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium bis(fluorosulfonyl)amide (MEMP.FSA) is disclosed here as a specific ionic liquid, no mention is made of the characteristics of secondary batteries in which this is used.
Because there are cases in which, depending on the service environment and conditions, electrical energy storage devices such as secondary batteries are exposed to elevated temperatures, stability under such elevated temperatures is also demanded. However, none of the foregoing literature makes any mention of findings relating to the performance of secondary batteries in high-temperature environments.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Electrolyte solution for secondary batteries, and secondary battery

Abstract: (In the formula, each of R1 and R2 independently represents an alkyl group having 1-5 carbon atoms; and n represents 1 or 2.)


A support apparatus includes a main element supported by lanyard. The main element includes one or more channels for supporting an object such as a firearm in a substantially vertical position. The support apparatus may include a hook or other fastener for removably coupling to a vehicle or other fixed object. In some embodiments, channel dividers are semi-spherical in shape, and may be generally semispherical with a teardrop (i.e., drooping) shape. The channel dividers may be sacks or vessels filled with an elastic type substance (e.g., silicon) and be firmed to elastically grip the firearm and provide a firm support.

if a hunter is preparing for a hunt while unloading a vehicle, the hunter may lean a firearm (e.g., long rifle) against a vehicle. A vehicle surface is an undesirable surface to lean the firearm because the firearm is often subject to sliding across the surface and may fall. If leaned against a painted surface, the firearm may scratch the vehicle.


A mine assembly comprises at least one charge module having a cylindrical shape, and an upper and lower circular surface end. An activating module for detonating the at least one charge module is operatively connected thereto. The activating module has at least a lower cylindrical end and interconnecting means provided at the upper circular end of the charge module. The interconnecting means includes a ring-shaped element having an inner diameter which corresponds to an outer diameter of the lower end of the activating module and to a diameter of other charge modules. The ring-shaped element forms an upwardly extending projection along the circular upper end surface of the charge module to provide a space thereon adapted for receiving a cylindrical end of one of the modules.

Today's mines are constructed depending on the various areas of use for the mines. Examples of different mines are ground clearance mines, floating mines, harbour mines, and the like. The ground clearance mines can be of a controlled or uncontrolled type. The floating mine comprises a so-called mine anchor as the bottom part and a floating part which contains the activating means and explosive. The harbour mines are smaller mines for the mining of harbours and harbour inlets with relatively shallow water.
As a result of the many different types of existing mines with varying amounts of explosives, the costs for development, production and storage are extremely high. Moreover, large storage spaces are required. In addition, different test equipment and servicing intervals are required for maintenance.


Turbine systems for extracting energy from water traveling relative to the turbine system can include a rotor assembly for extracting the energy, a turbine shroud having a turbine shroud inner volume within which at least a portion of the rotor assembly is disposed, and an ejector shroud disposed adjacent to the turbine shroud. The turbine shroud and the ejector shroud can each have a terminus comprising a plurality of turbine shroud mixer elements or ejector shroud mixer elements, respectively. One or more of the mixer elements and ejector shrouds comprise a mixer/ejector pump which increases the energy extraction potential of the turbine system. One or more of the turbine shroud mixer elements, ejector shroud mixer elements, and ejector shroud and turbine shroud inlets can be asymmetric along a plane passing through the axis of rotation of the rotor assembly.

Axial flow water turbine systems that extract energy from flowing water are referred to herein as "current turbines." Current turbines usually contain a propeller-like device or "rotor," that is directed to receive a moving stream of water. As depicted in FIG. 1, a rotor can be either unshrouded or contained in a shroud. As the current hits the rotor, the current produces a force on the rotor in such a manner as to cause the rotor to rotate about its center. The rotor can be connected to either an electric generator or mechanical device through linkages such as gears, belts, chains or other means. Such turbines can be used for generating electricity and/or to drive rotating pumps or moving machine parts. They may also be used in large electricity generating "current turbine farms" (also termed "current turbine arrays") containing multiple such turbines in a geometric pattern designed to allow maximum power extraction with minimal impact of each such turbine on one another and/or the surrounding environment.
The ability of an unshrouded rotor to convert fluid power to rotating power, when placed in a stream of width and depth larger than its diameter, is limited by the well documented theoretical value of 59.3% of the oncoming stream's power, known as the "Betz" limit which was documented by A. Betz in 1926. This productivity limit applies especially to the traditional multi-bladed axial current and tidal turbines shown in FIG. 1A. Attempts have been made to try to increase current turbine performance potential beyond the "Betz" limit. Properly designed shrouds can cause the oncoming flow to speed up as it approaches the rotor compared to what is experienced by an unshrouded rotor. The oncoming flow is thereby concentrated into the center of the duct. In general, for a properly designed rotor, this increased flow speed over that of an unshrouded rotor causes more force on the rotor and subsequently higher levels of power extraction than the same size unshrouded rotor. Previous shrouded current turbines such as those shown in FIG. 1B have employed entrance concentrators and exit diffusers to increase the flow velocities at the turbine rotor. Diffusers, which typically include a pipe-like structure with openings along the axial length to allow slow, diffusive mixing of water inside the pipe with that outside the pipe, generally require long lengths for good performance, and tend to be very sensitive to oncoming flow variations. Such long, flow sensitive diffusers are impractical in many installations. Short diffusers can stall and thereby reduce the energy conversion efficiency of the system.


An apparatus for ultrasensitive long-wave imaging cameras is provided. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a filter configured to allow high frequencies of interest to pass through the filter. The apparatus also includes an antenna that is configured to receive the high frequencies of interest. The apparatus further includes a plurality of bolometers that are configured to measure data regarding the high frequencies of interest.

Terahertz (THz) imaging is a compelling and competitive area of research for building next generation instruments. There are two methods researchers have developed for optical coupling to ultrasensitive devices at THz frequencies. The first method is absorber coupling to detectors, which can be realized for example with a thermometer that measures heat and temperature changes in an electromagnetic absorbing media in the signal band. However, it is difficult to find materials that absorb frequencies uniformly across the THz frequencies that are stable and absorb at high efficiency. The second method is to antenna couple to detectors. However, antenna coupling has inefficiencies similar to the first method (broadband bolometer) and in its simplest implementation can only detect a single color. However, it should be appreciated that at microwave and millimeter frequencies, a frequency diplexor can be used to detect multiple colors. But, at THz frequencies, the ohmic loss and required tolerances make direct implementation of this solution prohibitive from a practical perspective.
The high-resolution airborne wideband camera (HAWC) currently takes images in separate THz bands with a mechanical filter wheel, requiring temporal separation of the maps of different bands on a moving aircraft. For example, HAWC consists of a large format THz imager that selects one of its four frequency bands by rotating the filter wheel. The need to image each wavelength separately sets an upper limit to the mapping speed and spectral throughput of the instrument.
Furthermore, on a moving airplane, fast mapping speed is critical for obtaining good spectral data because of the Earth's changing atmospheric conditions during flight and the integration time available during the relatively short flight duration. The imager's large pixels do not allow, for example, Nyquist sampling of the sky with the stratospheric observatory for infrared astronomy (SOFIA) telescope, and the technology currently employed is unable to fill the entire SOFIA focal plane.

Apparatus for ultrasensitive long-wave imaging cameras

The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics Space Administration


Methods and algorithms for generating identical symmetrical cryptographic keys. In a method for generating a symmetrical cryptographic key, a first profile is generated, the first profile comprising a series of data points collected over a first period of time. A start time of the first profile is identified and the first profile divided into a sequence of time-based segments, each time-based segment comprising at least one data point. A first symmetrical cryptographic key is calculated from the sequence of time-based segments, and the first symmetrical cryptographic key is stored for at least one of encrypting and decrypting data in cooperation with a second symmetrical cryptographic key substantially identical to the first symmetrical cryptographic key.

To improve safety and security, communications between devices can be cryptographically encoded. Cryptographic encoding can serve multiple purposes. For example, encryption can protect the message from eavesdropping and maintain the integrity of the content of the message. Encryption can also assist in verification of the identity of a party involved in the transmission or receipt of a message.
The safety and security of communications themselves can additionally be improved by safe and secure use and control of the devices used to transmit and receive the communications. This can be of particular importance when communications are exchanged wirelessly between devices. One device-level procedure is symmetrical coding, in which a transferable common key is used for both coding and decoding of messages. In symmetrical coding, however, all communication participants need the same key in order to encode and decode, requiring transfer of the symmetrical key to other devices. There exist safe but calculation-intense methods for these transfers, such as Diffie-Hellman. These methods are therefore not practical if the devices are not able to carry out the necessary calculations because of insufficient arithmetic capability or energy consumption limitations. These concerns can be relevant, for example, to small, portable electronic devices.
Other procedures used in which a first public key is available, such as on a network, and a second private or secret key is stored locally on a participating device. No exchange of keys is required in such a configuration. The coding and decoding of communications according to such procedures, however, is calculation-intense and again impractical or impossible to use in devices with limited calculation capability or energy consumption concerns. Further, communications can only be exchanged between two devices having the necessary and corresponding keys. Only with additional configurations can coded communications among several devices be exchanged.
Another procedure for the exchange of symmetrical keys involves generating identical cryptographic keys by disparate but similarly situated devices from a common physical characteristic, and different keys from differently situated devices. An assumption in such a procedure is that the devices that will exchange encoded communications are exposed to the same physical characteristic, thereby enabling each to independently and accurately generate an identical key to be used in the encoding and decoding of messages. The identification of the common physical characteristic and the subsequent generation of the identical symmetrical keys are carried out external to the device transmission unit, with the measurement or other determination of the physical characteristic carried out by one or more external sensors or transducers and the subsequent cryptographic key generation by a microcontroller. The microcontroller can then encode the message or information to be transmitted using the generated key and pass the encoded information to the transmission unit. With this procedure external components, with respect to the transmission unit, are used to measure the physical characteristic, adding to the cost, size, and general complexity of the device.

Methods for the generation of identical symmetrical cryptographic keys