The present invention generally relates to polymers and macromolecules, in particular, to polymers useful in particles such as nanoparticles. One aspect of the invention is directed to a method of developing nanoparticles with desired properties. In one set of embodiments, the method includes producing libraries of nanoparticles having highly controlled properties, which can be formed by mixing together two or more macromolecules in different ratios. One or more of the macromolecules may be a polymeric conjugate of a moiety to a biocompatible polymer. In some cases, the nanoparticle may contain a drug. Other aspects of the invention are directed to methods using nanoparticle libraries.

The delivery of a drug to a patient with controlled-release of the active ingredient has been an active area of research for decades and has been fueled by the many recent developments in polymer science. In addition, controlled release polymer systems can be designed to provide a drug level in the optimum range over a longer period of time than other drug delivery methods, thus increasing the efficacy of the drug and minimizing problems with patient compliance.
Biodegradable particles have been developed as sustained release vehicles used in the administration of small molecule drugs, proteins and peptide drugs, and nucleic acids. The drugs are typically encapsulated in a polymer matrix which is biodegradable and biocompatible. As the polymer is degraded and/or as the drug diffuses out of the polymer, the drug is released into the body.
Targeting controlled release polymer systems (e.g., targeted to a particular tissue or cell type or targeted to a specific diseased tissue but not normal tissue) is desirable because it reduces the amount of a drug present in tissues of the body that are not targeted. This is particularly important when treating a condition such as cancer where it is desirable that a cytotoxic dose of the drug is delivered to cancer cells without killing the surrounding non-cancerous tissue. Effective drug targeting should reduce the undesirable and sometimes life threatening side effects common in anticancer therapy. In addition, targeting may allow drugs to reach certain tissues they would otherwise be unable to reach without a targeted nanoparticle.
Accordingly, a need exists to develop delivery systems which can deliver therapeutic levels of drug to treat diseases such as cancer, while also reducing patient side effects.

Cancer cell targeting using nanoparticles


A free-standing, portable basketball retrieval and return apparatus for collecting and returning a succession of shot basketballs to a practicing player includes a vertically-extensible and collapsible support frame, support arms pivotally connected to the support frame, and netting material attached to the support arms for retrieving and collecting shot basketballs and a chute permanently secured to the netting material for directing retrieved basketballs therethrough to a guideway. The basketballs are then directed from the guidewall to an elongated, extensible ramp and therealong to a ramp barrier whereupon the practicing player can retrieve the returned basketballs in order to continue uninterrupted practice shooting. Means are provided, preferably in the form of wheels, which, in combination with the collapsible support frame, enables movement of the apparatus as a unit between its operative position and a storage location as a one-man operation. The apparatus is adapted for use with a pole- or wall-mounted backboard or, alternatively, with a backboard member which is removably secured to the top of the support frame in a position substantially in the same vertical plane as the support frame.

The present invention relates generally to devices used for basketball practice shooting, and more particularly pertains to apparatus for disposition beneath the basketball backboard that can retrieve and return shot basketballs to a practicing player.
The prior art discloses a number of devices which facilitate basketball practice shooting, such devices comprehending surface-supportable apparatus which returns consecutively shot basketballs to a player or players standing at various locations and distances from the basketball backboard and hoop.
Among the pertinent prior art developments are the inventions disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,697,810 (Mathison), 4,786,371 (Postol), and 4,838,549 (Woodall).
The aforementioned patents disclose surface-supportable devices for disposition beneath a basketball backboard for directing basketballs which pass through the basketball hoop to a basketball shooter. Such devices have various means to collect errant and ricocheted basketball shots and can also direct such shots to a practicing basketball player. These results are achieved in the Mathison art by a paneled enclosure, a funnel-shaped collection device, and return chute; in the Postol art by a downwardly-inclined net-carrying frame supported at its lower end by foldable legs; and in the Woodall art by a three-sided elongated paneled chute, a cradle, and an extensible ramp member.
Although each of the devices taught in the aforementioned patents are characterized by specific features generally beneficial to the avid practicing basketball player, there remains a need for a more efficient portable and collapsible basketball retrieval and return apparatus which can be relatively inexpensively manufactured and which offers certain structural and functional advantages not previously available.


A photodetector IC in an optical head device includes a four-segment photodetector (30) and a push-pull signal generator (33). The push-pull signal generator (33) generates a sum signal (A+D) of radially outer photodetector segments and a sum signal (B+C) of radially inner photodetector segments. The sum signal (B+C) is multiplied with a coefficient t entered from outside and a signal ((A+D)−t×(B+C)) is generated by a subtractor. The signal generated is output as a radial push-pull signal (R-PP). The coefficient t is a value corresponding to the ratio of the light volume of the outer rim side photodetector segments and the light volume of the inner rim side photodetector segments.

Among recordable optical discs, there is known an optical disc exploiting e.g. a phase change film. In these recordable optical discs, a spirally extending land(s) and a spirally extending groove(s) are formed. Of these, the grooves are used as recording tracks in which to record data.
Moreover, in these recordable optical discs, on the recording tracks or grooves of which data can be recorded, wobble signals or LPP (land pre pit) signals are prerecorded in edge parts of the recording tracks, that is, in boundary portions of the recording tracks with respect to the grooves.
The wobble signals are those signals recorded by meandering of boundary portions of the land(s) and the groove(s) at a preset period. The meandering shape is such that, when the disc is reproduced at CLV (constant linear velocity) or at CAV (constant angular velocity), the meandering has a preset constant period. For this reason, the wobble signals are used as clocks. The meandering frequency is sometimes modulated by e.g. addresses, in which case a reproduced signal is also used as address information.
The LPP signal is such a signal recorded by forming a pit in a portion of the land. With the LPP signals, the string of pits formed represents an address, such that reproduced signals are used as the address information.
The wobble signals and the LPP signals are detected from return light of laser light illuminated on the recording track (recording groove). In the return light of laser light illuminated on the recording track (recording groove), the wobble signal components and the LPP signal components are contained in the push-pull component (differential component) along the radial direction of the return light.
Specifically, the main laser light beam, illuminated on the recording track (groove), is detected by a four-segment photodetector 101 shown in FIG. 2. The four-segment photodetector 101 is split into two portions along a direction corresponding to the radial direction of the optical disc, while being split into two portions along a direction corresponding to its tangential direction. That is, the four-segment photodetector is split into four portions in a cross-shape. The wobble signal and the LPP signal are included in a differential component of the total light volume (A+D) of the photodetector segments A and D on one side, here on the outer rim side, of the photodetector segments divided along the direction corresponding to the radial direction, and the total light volume (B+C) of the photodetector segments B and C on the other side, here on the inner rim side, of the photodetector segments, that is, ((A+D)−(B+C)). This signal ((A+D)−(B+C)), representing the differential component, is referred to below as the radial push-pull signal.
Of course, these wobble and LPP signals need to be read out not only during readout of data from the recording track but also during recording the data.
For detecting the wobble and LPP signals during data recording, the reflected light of the laser light radiated for recording is detected to generate the radial push-pull signal.
With the phase change disc, for example, pits are recorded by radiating laser light as pulses. Hence, during recording, there is a timing during which pits are being formed on the recording track (write time) and a timing during which pits are not being formed on the recording track (bias time). Thus, in the return light during recording, the signal level during writing (pit level) and the signal level during bias time (read level) become higher and lower, respectively, as shown in FIG. 3.
For this reason, in detecting the wobble and LPP signals during recording, signal processing must be made in such a manner that changes in the light volume of return light during writing and those during bias timing will be sufficiently taken into consideration.
Meanwhile, there are occasions where, even though the light spot illuminated on the optical disc is illuminated on the center of a recording track, the center of the light spot of the return light is not coincident with the center position of the four-segment photodetector 101, as shown in FIG. 4.
There are also occasions where light volume distribution is not symmetrical but distorted relative to the center of the light spot illuminated to the four-segment photodetector 101.
Hence, a time averaged value of the total light volume of the outer rim side photodetector segments (A+D) when the four-segment photodetector 101 is divided into two portions along a line corresponding to the radial direction differs from a time averaged value of the total light volume of the inner rim side photodetector segments (B+C), such that the radial push-pull signal (A+D−(B+C)) is added by an offset.
Moreover, there is a marked difference in the power during the write timing and that during the bias timing. The result is that there is produced a large level difference between an offset E1 of the radial push-pull signal during writing, that is, the difference in the pit level during writing, and an offset E2 of the radial push-pull signal during bias timing, that is, the difference in the read level during bias timing, as shown in FIG. 5. That is, there is produced time change in the offset of the radial push-pull signal, as shown in FIG. 6.
These variations in the offset are conductive to deterioration of the slew rate or generation of ringing, when the detection signals A to D of the four-segment photodetector are transmitted to the downstream side circuitry, as a result of which reproduction characteristics of the wobbles or LPP signals, generated from the radial push-pull signal, are deteriorated.
These problems are felt more keenly when the data are recorded by multiple-speed recording on the optical disc.

Optical disc device optical head and photo-detection device thereof


The innovative apparatus is a portable and convertible golf club bag that combines the usefulness of a conventional golf club bag with that of a golf bag pull cart and a golf club stand. In each configuration, the apparatus would capably serve the function intended. The apparatus would allow a golfer to elect to place the golf bag upon a conventional riding golf cart to ride during a round, to convert it to a golf bag with a pull cart for walking the course, or to select a stationary stand position for practicing. All components necessary to convert the apparatus for each task and configuration would be integral to the apparatus.

Having attained the status as one of the leading leisure time outdoor sporting activities in America, the game of golf enlists participants of all ages. Many golfers enjoy both the fresh air as well as the physical activity of walking several miles. Many golfers, however, have trouble carrying their clubs, bag and other equipment over the golf course, being encumbered by the weight. As a result, many choose to use battery operated riding carts or wheeled pull carts to minimize the amount of exertion experienced. These devices, however, have certain drawbacks. Driving carts eliminate much of the exercise involved in playing golf and pull carts are unnecessarily cumbersome, taking up a great deal of storage space and being difficult to handle. Accordingly, there is a need for a means by which one can partake in a round of golf and gain the exercise benefits it offers, while avoiding the aforementioned drawbacks associated therewith. The development of the invention herein disclosed fulfills this need.
The new and novel apparatus combines the functionality of a conventional golf bag with that of a pull cart in a single unit that eliminates the bulk often associated with conventional pull cart designs. Having the outward appearance of a typical golf bag, the novel apparatus includes retractable wheels in combination with a telescoping handle that allow the bag to be towed along as the golfer walks. The wheels are stored within integral recesses in the body of the bag, but will fold down and out when the pull handle is extended. When in the extended pull cart configuration, the wheels, in combination with the bag, act as a tripod to support the bag allowing the apparatus to stand unassisted. Further, the innovative apparatus is provided with carrying straps, exterior pockets and other such features as normally found on any golf club bag.
No prior art was found that particularly describes an apparatus that satisfies the identified needs of a traditional golf club bag, a bag pull cart and a golf bag stand combined in a single unit that would permit a golfer the flexibility of use without the necessity of acquiring three separate devices.

Convertible and combined golf bag, pull cart and stand


An optical sensor, optical system, and proximity sensor are disclosed. An illustrative proximity sensor is disclosed to include a light source, a photodetector including a photo-sensitive area that receives incident light and converts the received incident light into an electrical signal, and a plurality of polarization layers stacked on the photodetector that limit light from becoming received incident light for the photo-sensitive area to light traveling toward the photodetector along a predetermined path.

There are many different types of sensors on the market, with each having specific capabilities, uses, and shortcomings. One particular type of sensor that utilizes light to detect objects is known as a proximity sensor.
Proximity sensors typically consist of a light source and a corresponding photodetector. The photodetector of a proximity sensor includes a number of photosensitive pixels. Proximity sensing (e.g., detecting a presence or proximity of an object near the sensor) involves transmitting light via the light source and then receiving light that reflects off an object-to-be-detected at the photodetector. The types of applications in which proximity sensors are used include mobile communication devices, industrial equipment, manufacturing equipment, etc.
Many types of proximity sensors include a cover that separates the sensor from an open environment that is potentially dusty, dirty, and capable of damaging components of the proximity sensor. While the cover is a useful tool to protect the proximity sensor from certain dangers, the cover also presents challenges to the operation of the proximity sensor. In particular, small reflections from the cover may overwhelm the photodetector due to its close proximity to the photodetector as compared to the proximity of the object being detected.

Polarizer structure to control crosstalk in proximity sensor including a cover physically separates a photodetector from an object

AVAGO TECHNOLOGIES GENERAL IP (SINGAPORE) PTE. LTD.


Methods and systems are provided for an engine. In one example, a method comprises stopping an engine via a soft-stop method in response to a likelihood of condensate forming being less than or equal to a threshold likelihood. The method further comprises stopping the engine via an exhaust gas evacuation method in response to the likelihood of condensate forming being greater than the threshold likelihood.

Modern motor vehicles may comprise a start-stop system configured to shut down an engine of the motor vehicle when the engine is not used to drive the vehicle, for example, which may occur when the vehicle is stationary at a traffic signal. Stopping the engine in this way reduces fuel consumption of the engine and the production of polluting gases, by reducing the amount of time that the engine spends idling.
Because the engine is potentially stopped and started multiple times during a single journey, it is desirable for the noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) of the engine during a stop event to be minimized, so that the driver experiences minimal vibrations or shaking of the vehicle when the engine stops.
In order to minimize undesirable shaking of the engine during an engine stop, vehicles may implement a soft-stop strategy by which the forces generated by the movement of the engine pistons are reduced. Previous examples of a proposed soft-stop strategy comprise sealing the intake manifold of the engine using a throttle and continuing to supply fuel to the engine so that the engine continues to run, until there is insufficient air being drawn into the cylinders to support combustion and the engine stalls.
Shutting the engine down in this way may reduce the pressure of air within the intake manifold, so that the pressure of the inlet air being drawn into the cylinders is reduced. This in turn reduces the magnitude of forces on the pistons of the engine, reducing vibrations of the engine.
The combustion events occurring shortly before the engine stalls can leave combustion products within the cylinders that are not expelled from the cylinders after the engine has stopped. Furthermore, because of the pressure differential across the engine between the inlet and exhaust manifolds, exhaust gases can be drawn back into the cylinders from the exhaust manifold when the engine stops.
In one example, the issues described above may be addressed by a system that comprises an engine comprising an exhaust gas recirculation passage fluidly coupled to an engine intake and a controller with computer-readable instructions stored on non-transitory memory thereof that when executed enable the controller to actuate a valve of the exhaust gas recirculation passage to a closed position and maintain an intake throttle position for a period of time based on a position of the valve prior to being actuated to the closed position in response to an engine stop request. In this way, the engine stop NVH may only be increased if it is determined that the fuel injector may collect condensate.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.

Method of operating an internal combustion engine


The device comprises an echo cancelling circuit receiving a first signal and a second signal and a real echo between channels for producing a third signal containing the second signal and a difference between the real echo and the estimated echo. Detectors detect the echo difference and the second signal in the third signal when the level of the third signal exceeds a predetermined threshold. Circuits gain-control the adaptation in the adaptive filtration of the echo cancelling circuit in such a way as to modify the adaptation gain when the second signal is not detected and to prohibit all filtration modifications as long as the second signal is detected. For instance, for an acoustic echo in a telephone set, the echo is not processed when the third signal contains a local speech signal as second signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the processing of an echo between two transmission channels with a coupling between them.
2. State of the Prior Art
In particular, the invention is destined to suppress acoustic echo in a telephone set or other telephone terminal of the hands-free type. As shown in FIG. 1, the set has one or several loudspeakers HP as well as one or several microphones MI, all fixed. The acoustic echo is the signal picked up by the microphone(s) of the set coming from the loudspeaker(s) by acoustic coupling. This coupling can be due to solid-state or aerial transmission; in the latter case, the environment of the terminal plays a decisive role.
An echo processing device DT is interconnected in the reception channel of the set receiving a received signal RECU from the subscriber telephone line LT and transmitted as a signal DIFFUSE broadcast by loudspeaker(s), and in the emission channel of the set transmitting a microphonic signal picked up by the microphone(s) and transmitted as an emitted signal EMIS in the line LT. The microphonic signal is the sum of the local speech signal coming from the local subscriber and an acoustic echo coming from the loudspeaker(s).
For transmission terminals such as hands-free set and group or teleconference terminals, the acoustic echo can cause considerable inconvenience to the far end speaker, particularly in the case of long transmission periods between the local subscriber and the speaker via the telephone network. The decrease of this echo to a satisfactory level in the emitted signal EMIS constitutes the main purpose of the echo processing device DT.
Conventionally, according to a first known embodiment, a device DT uses gains switching between the channels to considerably weaken the echo. Variable gains are applied to the reception and emission signals to globally ensure a corrective gain which reduces the value of the acoustic coupling. This introduces a hindrance into the conversation caused by the transmission of the signals in the line LT close to the half-duplex mode.
To avoid this, a second type of echo processing device uses the adaptive identification technique which carries out an echo cancellation by subtraction of an echo estimated on the basis of an estimation of an acoustic coupling pattern. The cancellation performances therefore depend directly on the quality of estimation of the acoustic coupling. The nature of the acoustic coupling requires that the pattern take into account a large number of acoustic reverberations caused by the environment of the set.
The device must estimate an important fraction of the impulse response representing the acoustic coupling. The conventional algorithms of adaptive identification do not work for "long" impulse responses of more than ten milliseconds. Local speech is seen as a noise by the algorithm and considerably perturbs identification. The algorithm can also distort local speech which should ideally be transmitted undisturbed. The environment of the set is variable, due e.g. to the movement of the people in the vicinity of the set, and the algorithm must "follow these changes" in order to remain efficient.

Device for processing echo, particularly acoustic echo in a telephone line

French State, represented by the Minister of the Post, Telecommunications and Space, (Centre National d'Etudes des Telecommunications)


The present disclosure involves systems, software, and computer-implemented methods for pre-authorizing transactions using unactivated payment instruments at specific merchants. One example method includes receiving a transaction request associated with a no card present (NCP) transaction and a first credit account. In response to determining that the first credit account is associated with an unactivated payment instrument, a determination is made as to whether the credit account is associated with at least one pre-authorization rule for authorizing NCP transactions prior to activation of a payment instrument associated with the corresponding credit account is associated with the first credit account. If it is, a set of pre-authorization criteria associated with the at least one pre-authorization rule is identified, and the set of transaction data associated with the transaction request is compared to the criteria. If the transaction request satisfies the criteria, the transaction request is authorized and an authorization is transmitted.

Online and e-commerce transactions are ubiquitous in today's society. Many merchants, including those with brick and mortar locations, have found more and more of their sales to be delivered via online or connected channels. Using merchants' online platforms, customers may use their existing payment methods to complete transactions.
New credit applications typically result in a period of time during which an initial transaction may be available or allowable in response to a credit application acceptance and usage. However, the generated card may only be available for the single usage and may not be available for future transactions. Further, any credit account may result in contingent liability on the part of the providing merchant. Still further, purchases may be delayed while the customer waits for the generated card to arrive.

Pre-authorization of non-activated payment instruments at specific merchants


Systems, delivery devices, and methods to treat to ablate, damage, or otherwise affect tissue. The treatment systems are capable of delivering a coolable ablation assembly that ablates targeted tissue without damaging non-targeted tissue. The coolable ablation assembly damages nerve tissue to temporarily or permanently decrease nervous system input.

Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to systems, apparatuses, and methods for treating tissue, and more particularly, the invention relates to systems or treatment systems with delivery devices having coolable energy emitting assemblies for eliciting a desired response.
Description of the Related Art
Pulmonary diseases may cause a wide range of problems that adversely affect performance of the lungs. Pulmonary diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ("COPD"), may lead to increased airflow resistance in the lungs. Mortality, health-related costs, and the size of the population having adverse effects due to pulmonary diseases are all substantial. These diseases often adversely affect quality of life. Symptoms are varied but often include cough; breathlessness; and wheeze. In COPD, for example, breathlessness may be noticed when performing somewhat strenuous activities, such as running, jogging, brisk walking, etc. As the disease progresses, breathlessness may be noticed when performing non-strenuous activities, such as walking Over time, symptoms of COPD may occur with less and less effort until they are present all of the time, thereby severely limiting a person's ability to accomplish normal tasks.
Pulmonary diseases are often characterized by airway obstruction associated with blockage of an airway lumen, thickening of an airway wall, alteration of structures within or around the airway wall, or combinations thereof. Airway obstruction can significantly decrease the amount of gas exchanged in the lungs resulting in breathlessness. Blockage of an airway lumen can be caused by excessive intraluminal mucus or edema fluid, or both. Thickening of the airway wall may be attributable to excessive contraction of the airway smooth muscle, airway smooth muscle hypertrophy, mucous glands hypertrophy, inflammation, edema, or combinations thereof. Alteration of structures around the airway, such as destruction of the lung tissue itself, can lead to a loss of radial traction on the airway wall and subsequent narrowing of the airway.
Asthma can be characterized by contraction of airway smooth muscle, smooth muscle hypertrophy, excessive mucus production, mucous gland hypertrophy, and/or inflammation and swelling of airways. These abnormalities are the result of a complex interplay of local inflammatory cytokines (chemicals released locally by immune cells located in or near the airway wall), inhaled irritants (e.g., cold air, smoke, allergens, or other chemicals), systemic hormones (chemicals in the blood such as the anti-inflammatory cortisol and the stimulant epinephrine), local nervous system input (nerve cells contained completely within the airway wall that can produce local reflex stimulation of smooth muscle cells and mucous glands), and the central nervous system input (nervous system signals from the brain to smooth muscle cells and mucous glands carried through the vagus nerve). These conditions often cause widespread temporary tissue alterations and initially reversible airflow obstruction that may ultimately lead to permanent tissue alteration and permanent airflow obstruction that make it difficult for the asthma sufferer to breathe. Asthma can further include acute episodes or attacks of additional airway narrowing via contraction of hyper-responsive airway smooth muscle that significantly increases airflow resistance. Asthma symptoms include recurrent episodes of breathlessness (e.g., shortness of breath or dyspnea), wheezing, chest tightness, and cough.
Emphysema is a type of COPD often characterized by the alteration of lung tissue surrounding or adjacent to the airways in the lungs. Emphysema can involve destruction of lung tissue (e.g., alveoli tissue such as the alveolar sacs) that leads to reduced gas exchange and reduced radial traction applied to the airway wall by the surrounding lung tissue. The destruction of alveoli tissue leaves areas of emphysematous lung with overly large airspaces that are devoid of alveolar walls and alveolar capillaries and are thereby ineffective at gas exchange. Air becomes "trapped" in these larger airspaces. This "trapped" air may cause over-inflation of the lung, and in the confines of the chest restricts the in-flow of oxygen rich air and the proper function of healthier tissue. This results in significant breathlessness and may lead to low oxygen levels and high carbon dioxide levels in the blood. This type of lung tissue destruction occurs as part of the normal aging process, even in healthy individuals. Unfortunately, exposure to chemicals or other substances (e.g., tobacco smoke) may significantly accelerate the rate of tissue damage or destruction. Breathlessness may be further increased by airway obstruction. The reduction of radial traction may cause the airway walls to become "floppy" such that the airway walls partially or fully collapse during exhalation. An individual with emphysema may be unable to deliver air out of their lungs due to this airway collapse and airway obstructions during exhalation.
Chronic bronchitis is a type of COPD that can be characterized by contraction of the airway smooth muscle, smooth muscle hypertrophy, excessive mucus production, mucous gland hypertrophy, and inflammation of airway walls. Like asthma, these abnormalities are the result of a complex interplay of local inflammatory cytokines, inhaled irritants, systemic hormones, local nervous system, and the central nervous system. Unlike asthma where respiratory obstruction may be largely reversible, the airway obstruction in chronic bronchitis is primarily chronic and permanent. It is often difficult for a chronic bronchitis sufferer to breathe because of chronic symptoms of shortness of breath, wheezing, and chest tightness, as well as a mucus producing cough.
Different techniques can be used to assess the severity and progression of pulmonary diseases. For example, pulmonary function tests, exercise capacity, and quality of life questionnaires are often used to evaluate subjects. Pulmonary function tests involve objective and reproducible measures of basic physiologic lung parameters, such as total airflow, lung volume, and gas exchange. Indices of pulmonary function tests used for the assessment of obstructive pulmonary diseases include the forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), the forced vital capacity (FVC), the ratio of the FEV1 to FVC, the total lung capacity (TLC), airway resistance and the testing of arterial blood gases. The FEV1 is the volume of air a patient can exhale during the first second of a forceful exhalation which starts with the lungs completely filled with air. The FEV1 is also the average flow that occurs during the first second of a forceful exhalation. This parameter may be used to evaluate and determine the presence and impact of any airway obstruction. The FVC is the total volume of air a patient can exhale during a forceful exhalation that starts with the lungs completely filled with air. The FEV1/FVC is the fraction of all the air that can be exhaled during a forceful exhalation during the first second. A FEV1/FVC ratio less than 0.7 after the administration of at least one bronchodilator defines the presence of COPD. The TLC is the total amount of air within the lungs when the lungs are completely filled and may increase when air becomes trapped within the lungs of patients with obstructive lung disease. Airway resistance is defined as the pressure gradient between the alveoli and the mouth to the rate of air flow between the alveoli and the mouth. Similarly, resistance of a given airway would be defined as the ratio of the pressure gradient across the given airway to the flow through the airway. Arterial blood gases tests measure the amount of oxygen and the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood and are the most direct method for assessing the ability of the lungs and respiratory system to bring oxygen from the air into the blood and to get carbon dioxide from the blood out of the body.
Exercise capacity tests are objective and reproducible measures of a patient's ability to perform activities. A six minute walk test (6 MWT) is an exercise capacity test in which a patient walks as far as possible over a flat surface in 6 minutes. Another exercise capacity test involves measuring the maximum exercise capacity of a patient. For example, a physician can measure the amount of power the patient can produce while on a cycle ergometer. The patient can breathe 30 percent oxygen and the work load can increase by 5-10 watts every 3 minutes.
Quality of life questionnaires assess a patient's overall health and well being. The St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire is a quality of life questionnaire that includes 75 questions designed to measure the impact of obstructive lung disease on overall health, daily life, and perceived well-being. The efficacy of a treatment for pulmonary diseases can be evaluated using pulmonary function tests, exercise capacity tests, and/or questionnaires. A treatment program can be modified based on the results from these tests and/or questionnaires.
Treatments, such as bronchial thermoplasty, involve destroying smooth muscle tone by ablating the airway wall in a multitude of bronchial branches within the lung thereby eliminating both smooth muscles and nerves in the airway walls of the lung. The treated airways are unable to respond favorably to inhaled irritants, systemic hormones, and both local and central nervous system input. Unfortunately, this destruction of smooth muscle tone and nerves in the airway wall may therefore adversely affect lung performance. For example, inhaled irritants, such as smoke or other noxious substances, normally stimulate lung irritant receptors to produce coughing and contracting of airway smooth muscle. Elimination of nerves in the airway walls removes both local nerve function and central nervous input, thereby eliminating the lung's ability to expel noxious substances with a forceful cough. Elimination of airway smooth muscle tone may eliminate the airways' ability to constrict, thereby allowing deeper penetration of unwanted substances, such as noxious substances, into the lung.
Both asthma and COPD are serious diseases with growing numbers of sufferers. Current management techniques, which include prescription drugs, are neither completely successful nor free from side effects. Additionally, many patients do not comply with their drug prescription dosage regiment. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a treatment which improves resistance to airflow without the need for patient compliance.

Delivery devices with coolable energy emitting assemblies


A system for effectively rating and/or dynamically generating one or more electronic media files with respect to information associated with a user, the user's preferences, and/or the user's past behavior with respect to electronic media.

1. Field
Example embodiments relate to personalized rating and generation of electronic media, such as personalized rating and generation of websites, emails, and voice or text messages.
2. Description of the Related Art
Dynamic generation of electronic media has become commonplace in information systems, such as in web and non-web based systems. For example, websites, such as Yahoo, have been dynamically generated for years. Often the dynamic generation of a webpage can be based on the user accessing the webpage. For example, a webpage may be generated according to the demographics of a user accessing the webpage. Also, for example, a webpage may be generated based on information a user enters into a web-based form (such as user preferences) or on the status of a user (such as where the user is a preferred member of a website).
Although some systems have achieved great success in generating electronic media that is more relevant to its viewers, there is room for improvement.


A process for forming catalysts by coating substrates with two or more catalytic components, which comprises the following sequence of steps. First, the substrate is infused with an adequate amount of solution having a starting material comprising a catalytic component precursor, wherein the thermal decomposition product of the catalytic component precursor is a catalytic component. Second, the excess of the solution is removed from the substrate, thereby leaving a coating of the catalytic component precursor on the surface of the substrate. Third, the coating of the catalytic component precursor is converted to the catalytic component by thermal decomposition. Finally, the coated substance is etched to increase the surface area. The first three steps are then repeated for at least a second catalytic component. This process is ideally suited for application in producing efficient low temperature oxidation catalysts.

The invention described herein was jointly made by employees of the United States Government and contract employees during the performance of work under a NASA contract which is subject to the provisions of 35 USC 202 in which the contractor has elected not to retain title.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the process of coating substrates with one or more catalytic components to form a catalyst. It relates particularly to the process of layering one or more catalytic components onto a honeycomb monolith to form a carbon monoxide oxidation which combines CO and O2 to form CO2, oralternatively, a volatile organic compound oxidation catalyst which combines the compound and O2 to form CO2 and H2O.
2. Description of the Related Art
The catalytic conversion of carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide in the presence of oxygen is useful to a number of fields. Applications in which CO oxidation catalysts may be successfully employed include the following:(i) catalytic removal of CO in air-purification systems, especially for enclosed spaces; (ii) removal of CO in filter canisters, and the like, for personal breathing apparatuses; (iii) removal of CO from combustion products of cigarettes; (iv) removal of CO from exhaust gases expelled from gasoline- and diesel-powered internal combustion engines; and (v) catalytic conversion of dissociation products in CO2 lasers to maximize laser power and life, and minimize laser weight, size, and engineering complexity. Each of these and other applications require a different embodiment of a CO oxidation catalyst and place a different emphasis on one or another quality. Thus, a catalyst for an air-purification system necessarily must have a high throughput, while a catalyst for an internal combustion engine requires the capacity to operate over a broad temperature range, and cost per unit takes on greater significance in the cigarette application. Improvements in CO oxidation catalysts are continually being sought to increase the versatility, effectiveness, durability, activity, and operating life of the CO oxidation catalyst.
Several patents, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,912,082 and 4,991,181 to Upchurch and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,818,745 and 4,808,394 to Kolts, disclose compositions useful to CO2 laser applications. During the operation of a CO2 laser, CO2 decomposes into CO and O2 in the laser""s electrical discharge zone. The concentration of the dissociation products increases throughout the laser""s operation, while the concentration of CO2 correspondingly decreases. Both the loss of CO2 and the build-up of O2, which scavenges electrons from the CO2 molecules, significantly reduce the lazing power and degrade the performance of the laser. This problem may be addressed either by continually replacing the dissociation products with fresh CO2 during the laser""s operation or by using an ambient temperature CO-oxidation catalyst. The former is expensive and, especially for most airborne and space applications, unworkable because of the weight penalty. Hence, the latter is preferred, but the catalyst must have an extended activity life for most applications.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,247 to Tooley and U.S. Pat. No. 5,017,357 to Kolts, CO-oxidation catalyst compositions are disclosed which are suitable for a number of applications including the minimization of CO in tobacco smoke; removal of CO for personal breathing masks, e.g., those worn by miners; and CO2 laser applications. Matsuyama, in U.S. Pat No. 4,117,082 and Harrison, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,051,393, disclose CO-oxidation catalyst compositions developed for use in minimizing carbon monoxide and/or unburnt hydrocarbons from vehicle exhaust. U.S. Pat No. 4,639,432 to Holt discloses CO-oxidation catalyst compositions directed towards the previously stated problems and also towards air-purification or ventilation systems for the removal of CO from confined spaces, especially where traditional ventilation methods are difficult or unfeasible. Examples include nuclear submarines and areas around welding equipment.
In many applications it is also highly desirable, if not necessary, to remove hydrocarbons and other volatile organic compounds from the air via oxidation to CO2 and H2O without the aid of filters and with minimal heating of the catalyst. By way of example, there has been a long-standing need for a method to remove volatile organic compounds from indoor air i.e., breathable air in enclosed spaces such as homes, automobiles, airplanes, ships, boats, and industrial plants where there may be high concentrations of said compounds. Other significant long-standing needs include the need to purify compressed air and other oxygen-containing gases, as well as the employment of personal safety masks in the removal of volatile organic compounds from the atmosphere. There has also been a need for such a method in selective chemical sensor and catalytic converters for combustion processes, including internal combustion engines which utilize gasoline, diesel, natural gas, and alcohol fuels.
Considering the range of applications and requirements specific to each, there is an ever present need to develop new, effective oxidation catalyst compositions and/or improved processes for preparing effective oxidation catalyst compositions. Any improvement which increases the versatility, effectiveness, durability, activity, and/or operating life of the catalyst or the process for making such, satisfies this need.
Supported catalystsxe2x80x94specifically, supported carbon monoxide oxidation catalystsxe2x80x94may be prepared by (i) coating a support with xe2x80x9ccatalytic paintxe2x80x9d; (ii) impregnation with precipitation agents in one or multiple steps; (iii) impregnation followed by calcination or firing; and (iv) xe2x80x9canchor coatingxe2x80x9d where a dense, less penetrable support is first coated with another non-catalytic, more penetrable substance to provide a high surface area receptive to further impregnation by catalytic components.
Coating supports with xe2x80x9ccatalytic paintxe2x80x9d is analogous to the method of pill coating employed by the pharmaceutical industry. Cores of support material are placed in a rotating drum and a xe2x80x9cpaintxe2x80x9d slurry is added to coat the cores. The thickness of the catalyst coating is determined by the amount of xe2x80x9cpaintxe2x80x9d added. A serious disadvantage of this method is that the catalyst material may peel from the support (technically termed xe2x80x9cspallxe2x80x9d) resulting in (i) a catalytically inert support and (ii) spalling powder which will likely travel and gather downstream of the catalyst bed to distort or plug the gas flow.
Impregnation methods generally include suspending the support in a solution of the catalytic material and slowly precipitating the catalytic material onto the support or impregnating the support with the precipitant and then using a technique to force precipitation of the catalytic components immediately on the surface. Three major disadvantages are associated with impregnation methods. First, impregnation via precipitating agents may leave unwanted residues. These residues can decompose to form undesirable gases in levels unacceptable for air purification applications. Second, the catalyst precursor materials used often contain catalyst poisons, e.g. chloride, which limit the activity and effectiveness of the catalyst. Third, impregnationxe2x80x94and xe2x80x9canchor coatingxe2x80x9d and washcoatingxe2x80x94often rely on high temperature firing or calcination to complete the coating process. Exposure to high temperatures will reduce the surface area and lower the activity of the resultant catalyst. In addition, impregnation methods involve extra steps which increases the cost of production.
Catalysts may also be prepared in powder form. Unsupported catalysts suffer from dusting, which is particularly vexing for high throughput applications. In addition, they provide poor dispersion of catalytic materials which both reduces the effectiveness and increases the cost of the catalyst for a given application.
There is an ever present need for new, improved processes for the preparation of effective oxidation catalyst compositions. Improvements in the process which increase the versatility, effectiveness, durability, activity, and/or operating life of the oxidation catalyst satisfy this need. There is a long-standing need for an improved, efficient process of coating substrates with catalytic materials.
The present invention is a process for forming catalysts by coating substrates with one or more catalytic components and comprises the following sequence of steps. First the substrate is infused with an excess of solution having a starting material comprising a catalytic component precursor, where the thermal decomposition product of the catalytic component precursor is a catalytic component. Second, the excess of the solution is removed from the substrate, thereby leaving a coating of the catalytic component precursor on the surface of the substrate. Third, the coating of the catalytic component precursor is converted to the catalytic component by thermal decomposition. This is achieved by heating the coated substance to approximately 300 degrees Celsius, where the rate of heating is controlled to prevent high temperature calcination of the catalytic component precursor and where any remaining starting material is thermally decomposed, oxidized, and/or volatilized without high temperature calcining, thereby leaving only the catalytic component and no residues on the substrate surface. Finally, the coated substance is etched to increase the surface area. This can be achieved by submerging and refluxing the coated substance in a dilute solution of nitric acid.
The first three steps of the above process are repeated in order to successively layer more than one catalytic component on the substrate. In addition, the first step may be improved by infusing the substrate with an excess of solution by vacuum deaeration, and the second step may be improved by removing the excess of the solution by draining away and/or evaporating off the excess of the solution. If the catalyst is xe2x80x9ccuredxe2x80x9d by heating in an atmosphere of a reducing gas prior to its use, its activity may be substantially improved even further. The potential reducing gases include, but are not limited to, carbon monoxide and hydrogen.
Beneficial results are achieved where the process is used to form a catalyst consisting of a substrate and three catalytic components; wherein the substrate is selected from the group comprising ceramics, glass, metals, and fabrics; wherein the ceramic substrate is selected from the group comprising beads, pellets, and monoliths; wherein the first catalytic component is a metal oxide selected from the group comprising manganese oxide, copper oxide, and tin oxide; wherein the second catalytic component is a metal oxide, where this metal oxide is used as a promoter to increase the activity or catalyzing rate of the catalyst, and is selected from the group comprising the oxides of vanadium, chromium, copper, cobalt, manganese, nickel, or iron; and wherein the third catalytic component is a noble metal selected from the group comprising platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, osmium, and gold. Especially beneficial results are achieved where the process is used to form a catalyst consisting of a honeycomb monolith ceramic substrate successively coated with tin oxide, iron oxide, and platinum.

Process for coating substrates with catalytic materials

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


The present invention is directed to novel tools and systems for controlling narrow band data (e.g., data communication and telecommunications) pathways through selective engagement with one or more narrow band platforms of an omni-grid system. These methods further comprise enhanced compression methods suitable to structure the data for controlled data flow in an omni-grid system. In particular, the tools and the systems of the present invention provide improved transmission to off-grid environments (e.g., stronger, faster, and stable with less latency, jitter, and/or packet loss under difficult/harsh signal conditions), including in the context of an urban environment where one may be off the grid temporarily due to an emergency, in educational settings, as well as for use in geographically remote locations not in proximity to physical network infrastructure (e.g., for Internet of Things data access).

Communication of data to off-the-grid environments has proven challenging for years, and continues to this day to be difficult in existing systems of communication. In fact, current off-the grid, or "off-grid," designs (which are typically resource-constrained), are often further limited to a specific set of interacting devices or means of communication; each of which has significant limitations. All of which, however, afford limited bandwidth for carrying voice or minimal data over these devices, resulting in poor transmission quality, speed, and stability of signal. This means any demanding data or tele-communication with remote or off-grid locations is less than viable.
Radio services, such as General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS), Family Radio Service (FRS) and Citizens Band (CB) Radio have been used for local communication in off-grid environments, but have a very limited range. Further, they are limited in many ways by different terrain as well as by the surrounding structures; for example, there are increased limitations in mountainous regions. In contrast, most all forms of communications today utilize some amount of on-grid support typically implemented using narrowband telecommunication and data communication technologies to carry voice and data on a limited number of frequency sets, e.g., that spans from 50 cps to 64 kbit/s.
As such, in the context of an urban environment where one may be off the grid temporarily due to an emergency, in educational settings, as well as for use in geographically remote locations not in proximity to physical network infrastructure (e.g., for Internet of Things data access), there is significant need for more robust tools and systems of communication that are capable of higher quality off-grid use. In particular, there is a need for new tools and systems that work both off-grid as well as on-grid to support a fluid array of communication options

Advanced narrow band traffic controller units (TCU) and their use in omni-grid systems


A switching system for interfacing a single channel test equipment with a multi-channel device under test, the switching system including: an input connection for connecting to the single channel test equipment; an N-way switch having an N-way switch input coupled to the input connection, the N-way switch having N switch outputs; N output connections coupled to the N switch outputs, the N output connections for connecting to inputs of the multi-channel device under test; a controller coupled to the N-way switch for controlling a connection between the N-way switch input and one of the N switch outputs.

Embodiments of the invention relate generally to test equipment, and in particular to a switching system for facilitating testing of multiple channels on a device.
Certain devices (e.g., oscilloscopes) require periodic testing, such as calibration. There exist in the art single-channel and multi-channel calibration systems. A single-channel oscilloscope calibrator or multi-function calibrator with an oscilloscope output option has only one output, which may be used to calibrate an oscilloscope, one channel at a time. To calibrate the next channel, the operator must physically move the coax cable from one channel to the next, even when using automation software. Using a single-channel oscilloscope calibrator with automation software, the operator is still required to move the coax cable from channel to channel during the calibration testing. Not only does this slow down the process, but it also prevents the operator from accomplishing other duties while the calibration is running. The operator must remain present to move the coax cable when prompted.
A five-channel oscilloscope calibrator has five independent outputs (with five independent signal generators) that are concurrently connected to the five inputs of the oscilloscope (Channel 1-4, Ext Trig). This equipment allows for a fully automated calibration. A five-channel oscilloscope calibrator may offer the convenience of a fully automated calibration, but its purchase cost is considerably higher than the single-channel solutions. In addition, the five-channel calibrator is generally useful for oscilloscope calibration only, leading to a low utilization versus investment cost. This is in contrast to a multi-function calibrator with a single oscilloscope output, which may be used for the calibration of a vast number of other items, such as volt meters, current meters, frequency counters, temperature monitors, etc.
A general RF multiplexer has one input and "x" outputs. This would allow routing one signal to "x" number of outputs, one at a time. A general RF multiplexer cannot properly calibrate the external trigger input of an oscilloscope, as it lacks to ability to route the incoming signal to output number one and five at the same time. Thus, some operator intervention would still be required.
Accordingly, the art would benefit from an improved testing system overcoming the drawbacks of the prior art.

Switching system for multi-channel testing


A system for managing bandwidth use in a device. In a specific embodiment, the device is a network device that includes a first data scheduler that is adapted to initially share available device bandwidth among a first type of traffic and a second type of traffic on an as-needed basis. A traffic monitor communicates with the first scheduler and causes the first data scheduler to guarantee predetermined transmission characteristics for the second type of traffic. The first data scheduler includes one or more routines for prioritizing first type of traffic above the second type of traffic when the network device is in a first operational mode, and prioritizing the second type of traffic above the first type of traffic when the network device is in a second operation al mode. The minimum transmission characteristics include a minimum service rate and a minimum latency for the second type of traffic.

This invention is related in general to networks and more specifically relates to systems and methods for managing or controlling bandwidth allotment in a network device, such as a switch or router.
Network devices, such as switches and routers, are employed in various demanding applications, including the Internet and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). Such applications often demand efficient devices that optimize resource usage, such as bandwidth usage.
Systems for efficiently using device resources are particularly important in network tunneling applications, where additional bandwidth requirements complicate resource management. For the purposes of the present discussion, tunneling may be any transmission of private data through a public network.
Private networks, such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), employ tunneling methods to send private data over a public network. Tunneling methods may involve encapsulating private data so that routers in a public network are unaware that the data is associated with a private network. Private data is insulated and associated with private protocol information within packets employed by the public network so that the private protocol information appears to the public network as data.
Various tunneling protocols, such as Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) or Generic Route Encapsulation (GRE), may facilitate securely encapsulating private data to facilitate transmission over a public network. Tunneling protocols are often employed to send data in Internet-based VPNs. For the purposes of the present discussion, a VPN may be a private network that employs a public network, such as the Internet, to connect remote sites or users.
To encapsulate a packet, tunneling protocols may add an outer tunnel header. Network routers and/or switches examine the header to determine how to route the header through a network. Conventionally, a router or switch examines the outer header of a packet to determine how to route or switch the packet. Routers and switches may also modify packet headers. Examples of common header modifications include stripping, adding, replacing, rewriting, and swapping outer tunnel headers.
Packets that need to be switched or routed after modification of a header are often recirculated passed through the switch or router again in a process called recirculation. Packets that are passed through a switch plural times are called recirculated packets. Other data or packets, such as data or packets exchanged with devices outside of the switch, are called external-link data or packets.
For the purposes of the present discussion, the term traffic may represent the flow of packets or the packets themselves. Hence, the flow of recirculated packets may be called recirculation traffic, and the flow of external-link packets may be called external-link traffic. Furthermore, the terms traffic and packets may be employed interchangeably herein. Bandwidth used to accommodate recirculation traffic at a certain recirculation rate is called recirculation bandwidth or internal bandwidth. Bandwidth used to accommodate external-link traffic, i.e., the flow of external-link packets, at a given external-link rate is called external-link bandwidth or external bandwidth. Used switch bandwidth is the sum of the external link bandwidth and the recirculation bandwidth.
In certain situations, packet recirculations consume switch bandwidth that is required for other operations, such as forming external links via external switch ports. The switch or router is said to be oversubscribed when the switch or router lacks sufficient bandwidth to accommodate all bandwidth demands including recirculated bandwidth and external-link bandwidth demands.
In certain applications, some recirculation ports in an oversubscribed switch are treated like external ports, i.e., recirculation bandwidth and external-link bandwidth is pooled or equally prioritized, so that any excess bandwidth previously reserved for recirculation may be readily employed to accommodate external connections. Unfortunately, in these applications, large memory buffers are required to accommodate bursts of traffic for both the external links and recirculation ports.
Alternatively, recirculation traffic is serviced at lower priority than external-link traffic so that allotted recirculation bandwidth decreases as external-link traffic demands increase. Unfortunately, in cases of sustained oversubscription, the recirculation traffic is dropped after the full switch bandwidth is consumed. If the external link bandwidth consumes all of the switch bandwidth, internal recirculation bandwidth throughput, and consequently tunnel-traffic throughput, ceases.

System and method for managing bandwidth


To obtain a conductive metal film having superior step coverage, adhesiveness, and high productivity. A conductive metal film or metal oxidized film suitable as a capacitor electrode is formed on a substrate by performing an excited-gas supplying step after a source gas supplying step. In the source gas supplying step, gas obtained by vaporizing an organic source is supplied to the substrate, and the gas thus supplied is allowed to be adsorbed on the substrate. In the excited-gas supplying step, oxygen or nitrogen containing gas excited by plasma is supplied to the substrate to decompose the source adsorbed on the substrate, thus forming a film. An initial film-forming stop is a step of forming the film by repeating the source gas supplying step and the excited-gas supplying step once or multiple times. A desired thickness can be obtained by one step of the initial film-forming step. However, thereafter, in addition to the initial film-forming step, the film-forming step may be two steps by performing the main film-forming step of simultaneously supplying the gas obtained by vaporizing the organic source and oxygen containing gas or nitrogen containing gas not excited by plasma by using a thermal CVD method.

In order to obtain a storage charge capacity for a DRAM capacitor associated with its microminiaturization, increase in a dielectric constant of a capacitor insulating film and metallization of a lower or upper electrode have been actively studied. Candidates of materials therefor may include Ta2O5, BST ((Ba, Sr)TiO3), and PZT ((Pb, Zr)TiO3), which have high dielectric constants, as a capacitor insulating film, and precious metal such as Ru, Pt and/or Ir, which are resistant to oxidizing and exhibit conductivity even when oxidized, or the oxide thereof as an electrode. In order to obtain a high storage charge capacity, a cylinder type capacitor electrode having high aspect ratio is currently a main stream. Therefore, all of the films containing TiN and/or TaN, which are barrier metal films, are required to be excellent in step coverage. As a method for forming a film, trend is toward thermal CVD excellent in step coverage from conventional sputtering. In the thermal CVD, reaction of an organic metal liquid source and oxygen-containing gas or nitrogen-containing gas is used.
Generally, when a conductive metal film is formed by thermal CVD by using gas obtained by vaporizing an organic source for further improving step coverage, a manufacturing process needs to be conducted at lower temperature. However, by lowering temperature, a large amount of carbon and/or oxygen in the organic source remains as impurities in the metal film, which deteriorates the electric characteristic. Furthermore, due to heat treatment (annealing) in a later process to be performed for crystallization, for example, gas disorption of the impurities may occur, which may cause film-peeling. Furthermore, as for several organic sources such as an Ru source, there is a report that incubation time is increased, thereby posing a problem that productivity is inferior. Furthermore, manufacture of a conductive metal film having a good characteristic by using an existing substrate processing apparatus is not easy.
In order to overcome the problems of the above-described conventional technologies, an object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a semiconductor apparatus having a good characteristic and high productivity and a substrate processing apparatus capable of forming a conductive metal film having good characteristics by easy manufacture.

Method for manufacturing semiconductor device and substrate processing apparatus


A vehicle suspension system is provided for coupling elongated frame rails to first and second axles, the axles extending in a direction transverse to the frame rails. Each axle has opposed outer end portions projecting outwardly beyond the frame rails. At each side of the vehicle, in proximity to the frame rail at the respective side of the vehicle, a vehicle suspension is provided which includes a leaf spring assembly comprised of one or more leaf springs. The leaf spring assembly has first and second end portions and a central portion. The leaf spring assembly extends from the outer end portion of the first axle to the outer end portion of the second axle. A bushing is coupled to the frame rail. The bushing includes at least three arcuate reinforcing plates with elastomeric material disposed between the plates. The leaf spring assembly is coupled to the bushing, most preferably by a clamp, to thereby couple the central portion of the leaf spring to the frame rail through the bushing. A first leaf spring mount couples the first end portion of the leaf spring assembly to the outer end portion of the first axle, and a second leaf spring mount couples the second end portion of the leaf spring assembly to the outer end portion of the second axle. The mounts move in shear relative to the axles and leaf spring assembly during relative articulation of the axles.

The present invention relates to vehicle suspension systems and, more specifically, to suspension systems for tandem axles which are particularly useful in rugged environments, such as at off-road construction sites.
Numerous suspension systems exist for supporting the weight of trucks together with the payload being carried by the truck.
A number of known designs utilize so-called walking beams, one on each side of a vehicle and positioned below the axles in combination with a cross-tube extending between the walking beams at a low point of the suspension. These designs suffer from a number of disadvantages, such as increased weight and low ground clearance.
Other designs utilize mechanically complex constructions which add to the expense of the designs.
In certain designs, to provide adequate clearance for the suspension system, the frame rails are supported at a relatively high elevation resulting in a vehicle with an increased ride height. This tends to adversely affect the stability of the vehicle.
In some known designs, it is difficult to replace components of the designs. In other designs, entire subassemblies must be replaced even though only a few components of the subassembly have worn out. This makes repairs more difficult and/or more expensive.
It is also often desirable in vehicles operated in rugged environments to provide reduced resistence to cross articulation and vertical articulation of the axles. Cross articulation is a condition where one axle is angled at one angle relative to horizontal, and the other axle is angled at an opposite angle relative to horizontal. Vertical articulation is where one axle is at a higher elevation than the other axle of the tandem pair.
The present invention relates to a vehicle suspension system and method which is directed toward overcoming these and other disadvantages of the prior art. The invention is not limited to a vehicle suspension system which overcomes all of the above disadvantages of known systems, as the present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the disadvantages of known systems.


The present invention proposes an apparatus and method for characterizing a tissue in a first region of a subject. The apparatus comprises a receiving unit (210) for receiving ultrasound data of the tissue in the first region and ultrasound data of a predetermined target reference tissue of said subject; a deriving unit (220) for deriving a subject-specific model of the target reference tissue on the basis of the ultrasound data of the target reference tissue; and a characterizing unit (230) for determining a match between tissue in the first region and the target reference tissue on the basis of the subject-specific model and ultrasound data of the tissue in the first region. Unlike conventional tissue characterization based on a large cohort of patient data, the proposed subject-specific model is personalized for the specific subject without any generalization, resulting in higher sensitivity and/or accuracy. Preferably, the subject-specific model of the target reference tissue is derived on the basis of both the ultrasound data of the target reference tissue and the ultrasound data of a background reference tissue of a different type than the target reference tissue.

Medical imaging technologies such as CT, MRI and Ultrasound are widely used in the detection of abnormal tissue such as tumors. There are various types of abnormal tissue. For example, tumors in the same organ can be benign or malignant.
Ultrasound is especially suitable for immediate assessment pre or post tumor resection before closing the chest in the surgery. In the case of a liver tumor, for example, before and/or after resecting the tumor identified, the surgeon may use intraoperative ultrasound (IOUS) to search the whole liver to identify any undetected suspicious small tumor (for example: diameter less than 5 mm) which has been previously missed by conventional trans-abdominal ultrasound examination, or a residual tumor. In comparison with trans-abdominal ultrasound, IOUS has several advantages, including: IOUS does not suffer from the acoustic attenuation caused by the abdominal wall and thus may utilize a higher frequency to obtain a higher spatial resolution; the liver has to be "spied" on within the acoustic windows (e.g. trans-costal) in the trans-abdominal ultrasound, whilst the IOUS probe can be placed in contact with the anterior, superior, inferior or posterior liver surface and the tissue of interest can be studied from different points of view; during IOUS, information obtained by means of the ultrasound and information obtained by inspection and palpation can complement each other.
However, IOUS has the same drawback as trans-abdominal ultrasound, namely that visual observations of ultrasound images are highly dependent on an operator's experience. Surgeons are often not equipped with the same level of ultrasound skills as their surgical skills. In practice, ultrasound doctors with sophisticated ultrasound skills are often asked by surgeons to come to the operating room to evaluate the ultrasound images. Even for ultrasound doctors, the evaluation of ultrasound images is not easy due to the limited time available for IOUS. Therefore, highly specialized training is required for this task. Even so, the evaluation results are operator-dependent.
U.S. 2014/0288424 A1 discloses a method and a device to image and characterize human tumors, ad to classify the tumors as either malignant or benign. The method includes using a multi-compression technique upon the tissue or organ combined with a 3 ultrasound strain imaging of the compressed tissue or organ for acquiring raw data and analyzing the raw data using a computer processing unit equipped with a nonlinear biomechanical tissue model for tumor classification.

Apparatus and method for characterizing a tissue of a subject


Methods and apparatus are disclosed for maintaining and using entries in one or more associative memories. A last bit of a prefix is checked, and based on this result, the entry is placed into one of two classes of associative memory entries. The entry can then be identified within the associative memory by performing a lookup operation using the prefix padded with ones if the last bit of the prefix is zero or with zeros if the last bit is one to fill out the remaining bits of the lookup word. Entries of different classes of entries are typically either stored in different associative memories, or in the same associative memory with each of these entries including a class specific identifier. Among other applications, these entries can be used to locate a prefix and to store a tree data structure in the one or more associative memories.

The communications industry is rapidly changing to adjust to emerging technologies and ever increasing customer demand. This customer demand for new applications and increased performance of existing applications is driving communications network and system providers to employ networks and systems having greater speed and capacity (e.g., greater bandwidth). In trying to achieve these goals, a common approach taken by many communications providers is to use packet switching technology. Increasingly, public and private communications networks are being built and expanded using various packet technologies, such as Internet Protocol (IP).
A network device, such as a switch or router, typically receives, processes, and forwards or discards a packet based on one or more criteria, including the type of protocol used by the packet, addresses of the packet (e.g., source, destination, group), and type or quality of service requested. Additionally, one or more security operations are typically performed on each packet. But before these operations can be performed, a packet classification operation must typically be performed on the packet.
Packet classification as required for, inter alia, access control lists (ACLs) and forwarding decisions, is a demanding part of switch and router design. The packet classification of a received packet is increasingly becoming more difficult due to ever increasing packet rates and number of packet classifications. For example, ACLs require matching packets on a subset of fields of the packet flow label, with the semantics of a sequential search through the ACL rules. IP forwarding requires a longest prefix match.
Known approaches of packet classification include using custom application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), custom circuitry, software or firmware controlled processors, binary and ternary content-addressable memories (CAMs). The use of programmable software or firmware have advantages as they provide some level of flexibility, which becomes especially important as new protocols and services are added to existing network. Customers typically desire to use their existing hardware (e.g., routers, switches etc.) to support these new protocols and services. However, known software and firmware implementations are relatively slow, and typically place a performance bound which may be incompatible with new requirements.
A ternary CAM (TCAM) is a special type of fully associative memory which stores data with three logic values: '0', '1' or '*' (don't care). Each TCAM entry includes a value and a mask. These entries are stored in the TCAM in decreasing order of priority, such as in a decreasing order of the length of prefixes. For a given input, the TCAM compares it against all of the entries in parallel, and returns the entry with the highest priority that matches the input lookup word. An entry matches the input lookup word if the input and the entry value are identical in the bits that are not masked out.
When performing prefix inserts, deletes, and route updates, the exact location of the prefix in the TCAM must be known as the location cannot be determined by simply looking up the prefix in the TCAM, because the TCAM in this application is configured to produce a longest prefix match, so there is no guarantee that a lookup operation will produce the desired entry. For example, if a TCAM contains the three entries of "10101011", "10101010", and "1010101*" and the entry "1010101*" is to be deleted, a lookup operation will match either "10101011" or "10101010" rather than produce the location of the desired "1010101*" entry. Thus, a Patricia tree (or another variation of the tree/trie data structure) for prefix updates is stored in memory of the programming mechanism.
Thus, in current implementations, the central processor managing these entries typically maintains a Patricia tree (or trie or some variation thereof) in a memory separate from the TCAM or other associative memory. When a prefix entry is inserted to the TCAM, a pointer is created in the Patricia tree node that points to the TCAM location of the prefix. While deleting a prefix, the Patricia tree is traversed to locate the prefix and find its location in the TCAM. This scheme requires up to L operations and a trie data structure needs to be maintained; where L=maximum prefix length (e.g., L=128 for IPv6). Moreover, it may be expensive to realize this in hardware. For example, in some switches, this scheme requires all TCAMs in the system to have identical prefix entries in each location. Otherwise, for each TCAM, the central processor maintains a pointer to the location of a prefix in that TCAM. In the first case, if there are several line cards with different size TCAMs (say, 64K, 128K, 256K and 512K), then they are all limited to contain only 64K prefix entries. In the second case, in order to delete a route table entry from the system, the central processor sends a message specifically for each TCAM. Alternatively, a trie data structure needs to be maintained with each TCAM.
For the reasons presented herein and/or other reasons, new methods and apparatus are needed for using and updating associative memory entries.

Assigning prefixes to associative memory classes based on a value of a last bit of each prefix and their use including but not limited to locating a prefix and for maintaining a Patricia tree data structure


An apparatus includes a track, a carriage displaceable along the track, a storage and seating module and a swivel. The swivel connects the storage and seating module to the carriage. The swivel allows the storage and seating module to be selectively oriented in a first position or a second position on the carriage.

This document relates to a new and improved apparatus for configuring the passenger compartment of a motor vehicle in a wide range of configurations particularly suited to meet the ever-changing needs of the user. Advantageously, the apparatus has sufficient versatility to provide more efficient and effective utilization of the passenger cabin under substantially any foreseeable operating conditions. This is true whether or not the apparatus needs to accommodate an extra passenger within any of the standard seating rows or at an intermediate position. The apparatus also allows the extra seating to be forward facing or rearward facing depending on how the user wishes to configure the passenger compartment. The apparatus may also be configured as a work station to provide a table top for reading or writing or a conveniently located view screen such as a touch screen having internet connectability. The apparatus also provides additional, conveniently located storage space and is easily displaceable from position to position within the motor vehicle by means of a track.
Advantageously, the apparatus enhances the versatility of the passenger compartment for many wide ranging applications and is very easy to utilize. Accordingly, the apparatus enhances customer satisfaction with the motor vehicle and represents a significant advance in the art.

Apparatus including a storage and seating module providing enhanced versatility


The invention relates to an apparatus for dispensing of protection sheets. The protection sheets are meant for single use and are shaped to cover and protect a designated part of user's body or article, such as a palm or a finger. The apparatus is robust and easy to use. A protection sheet is dispensed as per user's requirement, which can be taken up and worn by a user to cover and prevent possible contact with a contaminated or pathogenic surface.

Several apparatus for automatic dispensing of tissues, towels and sheets have been in use. These apparatus focus on dispensing required tissues, or sheets as per a user's requirement, but do not ensure that the apparatus safely dispenses protective sheets for single-time use to a user on the go, without compromising on chances of contamination to the user by a pathogen such as a virus, bacterium, protozoan, prion, viroid, or fungus.
Below are given some of the known prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,527,215 titled "Automatic tissue dispenser apparatus" describes an automatic tissue dispenser apparatus that provides for user-determined tissue length to be dispensed. The motion sensor activates and deactivates dispensing to provide user control. A cutting edge is provided for tearing tissue as chosen. A hand crank is optionally provided to negate dysfunction in the event of power or component failure. A stanchion with base is optionally provided for a free-standing dispenser.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,009,604 titled "Flexible sheet dispenser" utilizes a utilizing pulley drive means for dispensing of paper towels, napkins, wrapping material and other flexible sheet members. The apparatus is capable of dispensing individual flat sheets from a stack.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,375,034 titled "Glove dispenser" discloses an improved glove dispenser that permits a user to don gloves without first touching their exterior. The disclosed device includes a plurality of gloves attached by their cuffs to a filament, with the filament and cuffs being dispensed from an exchangeable glove cartridge. The invention provides a new method for donning gloves that can prevent user contamination of the gloves by touching the exterior of the gloves during the donning process.
Despite various improvements and progress in the field, some of the major obstacles that still exist are presented herein below. The existing devices are unable to overcome the limitations of providing a safe, contact free, simple to use apparatus for dispensing single time use protection sheets such as wearable covers for protecting palm or fingers of a user while working in a public place such as for example, a fuel refilling pump station, handles of doors, key pads of machines and payment terminals such as bank ATM, credit card machines, in order to restrict the transmission of virus, microbes and other such pathogens.
When people try to wear protective clothing such as disposable sterilized gloves in order to prevent the transmission of bacteria or other contaminants to themselves and to others, they generally access these gloves to be dispensed from a common box similar to those used to dispense disposable facial tissues. Normally, the individual typically grabs a glove and pulls it from the box using an uncovered hand. Using one ungloved hand, the user slips the glove on to the other hand, after which the gloved hand is used to grab the second glove from the box and then to don it upon the ungloved hand. This method requires that the first glove and the glove dispenser have to be touched by ungloved hands. Thus neither the first glove can be expected to be clean, nor the second one. Such a chain of actions leads to unknowing spreading of infectious diseases and pandemics.
Accordingly, improvements are needed in the existing devices that negate the above shortcomings. It is observed that the purpose and methodology of all the above inventions that are part of prior art do not envisage the unique embodiment of a easy to use, convenient and safe apparatus for dispensing protective, wearable, disposable protection sheets or covers for palm, fingers, footwear and the like, as described in the present application. The scope of the invention is to be determined by the terminology of the following description, drawings and the legal equivalents thereof.


Vehicle seat having a pitching spring unit, a vehicle seat upper part and a vehicle seat lower part of the vehicle seat being connected such that they can be moved relative to one another by means of a scissor frame arrangement, comprising a first scissor arm and a second scissor arm which cross in a first region as viewed in a vehicle seat width direction, the pitching spring unit comprising a spring element carrier and a spring element, the spring element being connected on one side to the vehicle seat upper part, the vehicle seat lower part or the scissor arms and on the other side to the spring element carrier which is connected to the first scissor arm such that it can be rotated about a second rotational axis and to the second scissor arm such that it can be rotated about a third rotational axis.

Vehicle seats having pitching spring units are known from the prior art, such as, for example, from DE 2010 034 857 A1. Pitching spring systems of this type are difficult to realise, however, and need a considerably increased space requirement both in the X-direction and in the Y-direction on account of their configuration in the case of a pitching movement.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle seat having a pitching spring unit which is of structurally simpler configuration than that shown in the prior art.


The present application relates to a method for permanently repairing defects of absent material of a photolithographic mask, comprising the following steps: (a) providing at least one carbon-containing precursor gas and at least one oxidizing agent at a location to be repaired of the photolithographic mask; (b) initiating a reaction of the at least one carbon-containing precursor gas with the aid of at least one energy source at the location of absent material in order to deposit material at the location of absent material, wherein the deposited material comprises at least one reaction product of the reacted at least one carbon-containing precursor gas; and (c) controlling a gas volumetric flow rate of the at least one oxidizing agent in order to minimize a carbon proportion of the deposited material.

As a consequence of the constantly increasing integration density in microelectronics, photolithographic masks have to image structure elements that are becoming ever smaller into a photoresist layer of a wafer. In order to meet these requirements, the exposure wavelength is being shifted to ever shorter wavelengths. At the present time, argon fluoride (ArF) excimer lasers are principally used for exposure purposes, these lasers emitting at a wavelength of 193 nm. Intensive work is being done in regard to light sources which emit in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelength range (10 nm to 15 nm), and corresponding EUV masks. In order to increase the resolution capability of wafer exposure processes, a number of variants of the conventional binary photolithographic masks have been developed simultaneously. Examples thereof are phase masks or phase shifting masks and masks for multiple exposure.
On account of the ever decreasing dimensions of the structure elements, photolithographic masks, photomasks or simply masks cannot always be produced without defects that are printable or visible on a wafer. Owing to the costly production of photomasks, defective photomasks, whenever possible, are repaired. Two important groups of defects of photolithographic masks are, firstly, dark defects. These are locations at which absorber or phase shifting material is present, but which should be free of this material. These defects are repaired by removing the excess material preferably with the aid of a local etching process.
Secondly, there are so-called clear defects. These are defects on the photomask which, upon optical exposure in a wafer stepper or wafer scanner, have a greater light transmissivity than an identical defect-free reference position. In mask repair processes, these defects can be eliminated by depositing a material having suitable optical properties. Ideally, the optical properties of the material used for the repair should correspond to those of the absorber or phase shifting material. The layer thickness of the repaired location can then be adapted to the dimensions of the layer of the surrounding absorber or phase shifting material.
The material deposited for the repair should satisfy at least two further requirements. Firstly, it should withstand a predefined number of mask cleaning cycles substantially without alterations to its constitution, i.e. the optical properties and size. Secondly, a given number of wafer exposures should be able to be carried out with the deposited material, without the stated properties of the deposited material experiencing a significant change with regard to the adjacent absorber or phase shifting material.
WO 2012/146647 A1 describes the deposition of a reference marking on a photomask with the aid of a particle beam, a process gas and an additional gas, which may be an oxidizing gas.
WO 2005/017949 A2 describes the deposition of material on a photomask by use of an electron beam and TEOS (tetraethyl orthosilicate) or an organic or inorganic precursor gas.
The US patent having the number U.S. Pat. No. 7,727,682 B2 describes the repair of a phase shifting layer with the aid of an electron beam and the deposition gas TEOS. In order to protect the repaired location, in a second process step, a chromium protective layer is deposited on the phase shifting photomask over the whole area with the aid once again of an electron beam and of chromium hexacarbonyl.
The applicant has established that repaired locations of clear defects may be subject to a change in the course of the use of repaired photomasks. The document cited last reveals that a location repaired by the deposition of a suitable material has to be provided with a protective layer.
However, applying a whole-area protective layer on a repaired mask in order to cover one or more repaired locations is a time- and cost-intensive additional process step. Moreover, depositing this additional layer entails the risk that a layer that is not perfectly uniform will produce a new defect of the repaired photomask.
The present invention therefore addresses the problem of specifying a method and a device which enable a permanent repair of defects of absent material of a photolithographic mask and avoid at least some of the disadvantages discussed above.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and device for permanently repairing defects of absent material of a photolithographic mask


A power supply apparatus to supply power to an image forming device, the power supply apparatus includes an amplifier to amplify an input AC power by a general amplification or a double amplification, a converter to receipt the input AC power amplified by the general amplification or the double amplification and output a DC power with a determined size. A controller control applying the general amplification or the double amplification to the converter, in response to an operating mode of the image forming device.

An image forming device is an apparatus which performs generation, printing, reception, and transmission of image data, and representative examples thereof may be a printer, a scanner, a copier, a facsimile, and a multifunction peripheral (MFP) in which functions of the above-described devices are combined.
Such image forming device is provided with a power supply apparatus for supplying power required for each component inside the image forming device.

Power supply apparatus for selectively changing power amplification method based on power mode of image forming device

HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, L.P.


A method is provided for producing a hybrid multi junction photovoltaic device. The method begins by providing a plurality of planar photovoltaic semi-transparent modules. Each of the modules is a fully functional, thin-film, photovoltaic device and includes first and second conductive layers and at least first and second semiconductor layers disposed between the conductive layers. The first and second semiconductor layers define a junction at an interface therebetween. The method continues by disposing the modules one on top of another and hybridly adhering them to each other. At least one of the modules is configured to convert a first spectral portion of optical energy into an electrical voltage and transmit a second spectral portion of optical energy to another of the junctions that is configured to convert at least part of the second spectral portion of optical energy into an electrical voltage.

1. Field
The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for manufacturing electro-optic devices and more particularly to a method and apparatus for manufacturing electro-optic devices that have multiple layers and which can be produced by laminating or otherwise integrating two or more discrete electro-optic units or modules.
2. Related art
Photovoltaic devices represent one of the major sources of environmentally clean and renewable energy. They are frequently used to convert optical energy into electrical energy. Typically, a photovoltaic device is made of one semiconducting material with p-doped and n-doped regions. The conversion efficiency of solar power into electricity of this device is limited to a maximum of about 37%, since photon energy in excess of the semiconductor's bandgap is wasted as heat. A photovoltaic device with multiple semiconductor layers of different bandgaps is more efficient: an optimized two-bandgap photovoltaic device has the maximum solar conversion efficiency of 50%, whereas a three-bandgap photovoltaic device has the maximum solar conversion efficiency of 56%. Realized efficiencies are typically less than theoretical values in all cases.
Multi-layered or multi junction devices are currently manufactured as monolithic wafers, where each semiconductor layer is crystal-grown on top of the previous one. As a result, the semiconductor layers are electrically connected in series and have to be current-matched, in order to obtain maximum conversion efficiency.

Method and apparatus for manufacturing multi-layered electro-optic devices