A cementitious composition is formed from a dry mix including a quantity of cement; a quantity of silica and a plurality of fibers. The cementitious composition further includes a quantity of water and a complex admixture of cement additives. The complex admixture includes superplasticizer, shrinkage reduction agent and a non-ionic surfactant in a predetermined quantity per hundred pounds of dry mix.

In the early 1900's, the first method was developed for spraying cementitious materials. The method was to place the dry ingredients into a hopper and then to blow the dry material out through a hose with compressed air while injecting water at the nozzle as it was released. Since the material was sprayed using a spray "gun", the process came to be referred to as "gunite". The composition was a combination of cement, sand, and gravel aggregate. This "dry mix" process was the primary process used for spraying cementitious compositions for the first half of the 20th Century. A drawback associated with gunite application using dry mix of cementitious material is the significant amount of ambient air contamination caused by dust particles being blown through the hose and failing to completely mix with the water injected at the nozzle. This resulted in a detrimental work environment for those applying the "gunite" requiring significant safety precautions to be undertaken to protect the workers thereby increasing the time and cost for using gunite. A further drawback is, due to the imperfect mixing of the dry materials and the water, gunite applications were typically associated with significant material waste due to less than desirable ability to stick to application surfaces, especially vertical or overhead surfaces.
An improvement was made in 1960's whereby a "wet mix" process was developed and used for application to substrate surfaces. This involves pumping previously prepared cementitious materials in a viscous state to a nozzle and introducing compressed air at the nozzle. The compressed air causes the viscous cementitious materials through the nozzle and onto a receiving surface. This wet mix process became known as "shotcrete". Shotcrete applications of cementitious materials provide two advantages over gunite applications of cementitious materials. A first advantage of shotcrete applications is the reduction in rebound which is defined as the waste of material when the applied cementitious material does not stick to the surface and falls to the floor. A second advancement over gunite is the reduction of dust generated during the application process. However, while rebound has been reduced by employing the wet mix process of shotcrete, the average application of shotcrete results in between 15% and 20% loss of material resulting in an increase in cost for applying the cementitious material as well as an increase in time required to fully coat the desired substrate.
Today, shotcrete has emerged as the only acceptable industry term to correctly describe the two types of "pneumatically applied concrete" and may be used to refer to either the wet or dry process. Both processes continue to use similar formulations which include some combination of cement, sand, and one or more types of larger aggregate such as rock, gravel, etc. Other industry advances include the use of concrete admixtures such as superplasticizers and/or water reducers and accelerators. However, due to the nature of the chemical admixtures, it is common for individual admixtures to intermix with one another prior to being incorporated into the cementitious material. Premature intermixing may result in the desired effects of the admixtures from being imparted to the cementitious material. To minimize the effects of premature intermixing, the admixtures are conventionally added at the nozzle of the gun and then mixed with the cementitious material flowing therethrough. A drawback associated with this manner of combining the cementitious materials with the respective admixtures is an imperfect mixing process resulting in a cementitious material have less than optimal properties.
Conventional cementitious compositions provide a compressive strength of substantially 4,000 PSI range and have relatively low tensile and flexural strength associated therewith. Typically, tensile strength is normally in the 500-1,000 PSI range and the flexural strength is approximately 200-700 PSI. However, with a weight of substantially 146 pounds per cubic foot, it is difficult for the material to be sprayed on and adhered to either vertical substrates or overhead substrates without using some type of mesh or wire overlay that aids in adherence of the cementitious material to the substrate. A drawback associated with using these overlays is the added cost and reduced ability of the cementitious material to bond directly to the substrate.
Thus, in view of the characteristics of shotcrete application of cementitious materials, there is a significant drawback with using such applications in mining and tunneling operations. In the mining and tunneling industry, the desire and need for safety encourages the use of wire mesh and steel framing structure to be installed before the shotcrete is sprayed onto the substrate. The result is an additional installation step that increases time, labor, and cost associated with the application.
Consequently, a need exists to provide a cementitious composition that can be applied by a sprayer which can minimize the above discussed drawbacks. A cementitious composition according to invention principles addresses the known deficiencies and drawbacks.


A method and apparatus are provided for placing a plurality of Stock Keeping Units (SKUs), e.g., brands in transport units wherein quantities of SKUs, not equal to standard SKU packages, e.g. cases, can be ordered. A material handling system, including a work area, robot, conveyors, and the like, is used in conjunction with a computer implemented planning method. The planning method determines the sequence for filling transport units by initially assigning transport units to the work area. Only one transport unit per order is assigned to the work area at a single time. The SKUs are then ranked depending on their difficulty in placement. If a partial package is required, it is considered more difficult that full packages and placed before the required full packages of that SKU. The planning method completes the oldest transport unit in the work area and attempts to place the most difficult SKUs first.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a system and method for automatically filling multiple orders of different quantities and types of items. More specifically, a system is provided wherein the quantities of any Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) for an order may be less than the standard package quantity for that particular SKU such that redistribution of SKU's into multiple transport units is required, A planning method is implemented for arranging orders into a plurality of transport units containing mixed SKU types, and sequencing the processing of SKU packages and transport units so that the orders are placed by a robotic workcell with a fixed quantity of transport unit fill positions.
2. Description of Related Art
Problems associated with automatically placing a plurality of different SKUs, i.e., brands of items, in a single storage unit are well known in the art. The problem becomes more difficult to solve when the types and quantities of SKUs to be placed in the storage units vary between orders. That is, a first order may require different quantities of several different SKUs and a subsequent order may call for different quantities of the same SKUs, or different quantities of completely different SKUs. Additionally, it can be seen that a problem exists when an order calls for a specific quantity of SKU that is less than the quantity in which the SKU is normally supplied. For example, an order may call for two units of a particular SKU (brand A) and four units of a second SKU (brand B), but brand A is supplied in cases of twelve units. Thus, ten additional units of brand A need to be placed before continuing on to brand B. In order to maximize use of a placing robot, the robot should complete placement of brand A prior to placing any units of brand B.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,588,349 discusses a method of automatically filling a kit with required parts. The parts are held in a container and stored in trays which are placed at a transfer location. A robot removes the selected container and empties it into a kit box. U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,095 describes a system that assembles multiple components wherein the components are placed in one of a plurality of bins and a display indicates a complete kit of parts to be subsequently assembled. U.S. Pat. No. 4,988,256 discusses an apparatus and method of compiling parts into individual kits. An apparatus wherein parts are singulated onto multiple feeders through a gate such that the required parts are transported to a workstation. IBM TDB "Dynamic Database" discusses a database used to manage the data flow through an automatic packaging and palletizing system. A packaging line is divided into zones with an associated computer for each zone. A kitting database is transferred from each computer to the subsequent computer as the items being packaged moves between zones. IBM TDB "Database Structure" describes an automatic parts inventory system. Inventory is stored on pallets that are located in aisles. Information is stored for the pallets based on data indexes in fields in the database. These fields include information such as the types of parts on the pallet, vendor that supplied the parts, date the parts were received, location of the pallet, oldest and newest location of a particular part, and the like.
It can be seen that conventional techniques do not provide any near optimal techniques for placing partial orders by ensuring that the most difficultly placed SKU (brand) is put in the oldest transport units before continuing to place subsequently desired brands.

System and method for partial order filling

International Business Machines Corporation


An optical waveguide type biochemical sensor chip includes a light beam transmittable substrate having at least a first optical element that allows light beam to be impinged to the inside and a second optical element that emits light beam from the inside, an optical waveguide layer that is formed on a main surface of the substrate on which at least one of the first and second optical elements is formed, has a thickness of 3 to 300 μm and is made of a polymer resin material having a higher refractive index than that of the substrate material, and a sensing membrane that is formed on the optical waveguide layer and creates a reaction product having the ability of absorbing the light beam or an evanescent wave of the light beam in response to an introduced specimen.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical waveguide type biochemical sensor chip and a method of manufacturing the optical waveguide type biochemical sensor chip, and particularly to an optical waveguide type biochemical sensor chip for measuring the amount and properties of the biomolecule of organisms in an aqueous solution quantitatively and to a method of manufacturing the optical waveguide type biochemical sensor chip.
2. Description of the Related Art
Planar optical waveguide type biochemical sensor chips that are provided with a grating and a sensing membrane having a biomolecule recognition function and an information transformation function and utilize an evanescent wave arising on the surface of an optical waveguide layer have been proposed as small-sized and highly sensitive biochemical sensor chips.
In, for example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 8-285851, a fluorescent immune sensor is disclosed which has a structure in which an optical waveguide layer made of a silicon oxide film having a film thickness of 620 nm is formed on a substrate by a sol-gel method and gratings are formed on both ends of the waveguide layer. There is a description in this publication that a polyimide film may be used as the optical waveguide layer. However, there is no disclosure of the details.
Also, in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 9-61346, a planar optical waveguide type biochemical sensor chip is disclosed which has a structure in which gratings are formed in the vicinities of both ends of a substrate and an optical waveguide layer is formed on the surface of the substrate including the gratings. In this publication, there is a description that this optical waveguide layer is preferably a film of silicon nitride, aluminum oxide, tantalum oxide manufactured by a sputtering method or a CVD method, or a glass film manufactured by an ion exchange method. An optical waveguide layer made of a similar material is disclosed in Jpn. Pat. No. 3236199.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2004-333250 discloses an optical waveguide sensor in which a sensing membrane having a biomolecule recognition function and an information transformation function is formed on a main surface of a glass substrate of 1 mm or less in thickness, wherein light beam is made to propagate within the substrate and to reflect on the substrate-sensing membrane interface.
Each of the optical waveguide layers described in the aforementioned three documents is formed in a thickness of about 1 μm depending on its material and forming method. On the other hand, as the wavelength of light beam from a light source, those ranging from the near ultraviolet region to the visible region are used in general. Therefore, the thickness of about 1 μm is a value once to four times the thickness of the wavelength of the propagated light beam.
In the optical waveguide layer having such a low thickness, the native mode number (eigenmode) determined by each refractive index of a core layer and a clad layer and by the wavelength of incident light beam, that is, the number of incident angles enabling the light beam to be impinged with optical elements for impinging light beam, for example, the grating, is a discontinuous value less than 10. It is therefore necessary to adjust the incident angle strictly corresponding to this discontinuous value.
Also, light beam propagated in a planar optical waveguide layer is generally attenuated, for example, by diffusion at the interface between the optical waveguide layer and the clad layer. Accordingly, the number of reflections is increased with a decrease in the film thickness of the optical waveguide layer, resulting in a decrease in the intensity of the light beam to be emitted. In a biochemical sensor with an optical waveguide layer having the above thickness, the number of reflections on the surface and interface (interface between the substrate and the sensing membrane) in the optical waveguide layer is increased. Therefore, the intensity of the emitting light beam attenuates and the emitting light beam tends to be affected by extraneous light beam and noise caused by, for example, the fluctuation of the system of measurement. As a result, the problem arises that a high power light source is required to obtain actual intensity of the emitted light beam, which renders it difficult to make the whole measuring system small-sized.
Also, in an optical waveguide in which light beam is propagated while totally reflecting within a glass substrate as described in the aforementioned Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2004-333250, the thickness of the glass substrate is set to about 0.7 mm to 1 mm in order to propagate light beam. The number of reflections on the interface between the glass substrate and the sensing membrane is decreased to a few, and detecting sensitivity is therefore lowered. If the thickness of the glass is decreased to raise the sensitivity, this reduces physical strength, bringing about handling difficulty.
In order to utilize such an optical waveguide type biosensor chip, it is desired to use a light source, such as a laser diode, that has a low power but is small and inexpensive as the light source of the light beam which is to be impinged to the chip. In order to make it possible to utilize this light source, it is necessary to make the optical waveguide layer have a proper thickness as mentioned above and also to raise the light beam impinging and emitting efficiency.
Moreover, light beam is diffused by, for example, scratches and contamination of optical elements such as a grating, leading to decreased coupling efficiency.
In the foregoing publication of Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 8-285851, there is a description of examples in which a grating is formed by lithography on the surface of an optical waveguide layer formed of silicon oxide or polyimide by a sol gel method. However, the surface of the grating is brought into contact with the air and therefore, the efficiency is not always high, and also no device to prevent damage and contamination to the grating part is shown.
Also, in the case where the substrate is removed and processed to form a grating structure as described in the example of the aforementioned Pat. No. 3236199, a difference in refractive index between the substrate and the optical waveguide layer is decreased, resulting in reduced diffraction efficiency.

Optical waveguide type biochemical sensor chip and method of manufacturing the same


In general, in one aspect, the disclosure features a method and system for imaging of samples, for example, imaging samples with charged particles.

Samples can be exposed to charged particles for a variety of applications, including sample imaging. In some embodiments, imaging of the sample includes raster scanning of a field of view to obtain an image of the portion of the sample included in the field of view. When a user desires to view a different portion of the sample, the system modifies the field of view and performs a raster scan of the new region included in the new field of view.


A lighting dome that can be used to inspect semiconductor wafers can include a small aperture, backlighting, a reflectance gradient and/or a broad spectrum light source.

Prior art lighting domes, are known to those skilled in the art of photography. There are commercial domes for viewing semiconductor wafers that have a large hole in them for the lens to view through. For instance, a conventional dome reflector is typically a hollow hemispherical shell with a reflectively coated interior. Lights located along the interior rim of the shell reflect off the interior to illuminate an object to be viewed. For shiny spherical and convex objects, dome illuminations provide a somewhat diffuse and homogeneous light with less reflection.
Conventional optical systems use a lens with a front element whose size determines the aperture on the dome required to view the wafer. As this aperture size is increased the reflection of the lens in the image of the wafer makes a significant portion of the image unusable. To overcome this and other issues, U.S. Pat. No. 5,684,530 describes a second optical arrangement over the aperture in the dome to allow the illumination of the central spot with a second light source.
However, the disadvantages of this second optical arrangement include the following difficulties. The lighting in the central part through which the camera views the object is not truly multi-directional. The lighting for the central part is from a different light source so the colors and the intensities must be matched to that of the source for the dome making it difficult to use in practice. The height of the light source is increased. The beam-splitter through which the camera views the object can introduce changes to the light passing through it and obstruct the view of the object. What is needed is lighting dome technology that addresses the above-discussed issues in a cost-effective manner.
Meanwhile, the challenges of visual inspection or macro-inspection of semiconductor wafers an applet, a servlet, a source code, an object code, a shared library/dynamic load library and/or other sequence of instructions designed for execution on a computer or computer system).
The term substantially is intended to mean largely but not necessarily wholly that which is specified. The term approximately is intended to mean at least close to a given value (e.g., within 10% of). The term generally is intended to mean at least approaching a given state. The term coupled is intended to mean connected, although not necessarily directly, and not necessarily mechanically. The term proximate, as used herein, is intended to mean close, near adjacent and/or coincident; and includes spatial situations where specified functions and/or results (if any) can be carried out and/or achieved. The term distal, as used herein, is intended to mean far, away, spaced apart from and/or non-coincident, and includes spatial situation where specified functions and/or results (if any) can be carried out and/or achieved. The term deploying is intended to mean designing, building, shipping, installing and/or operating.
The terms first or one, and the phrases at least a first or at least one, are intended to mean the singular or the plural unless it is clear from the intrinsic text of this document that it is meant otherwise. The terms second or another, and the phrases at least a second or at least another, are intended to mean the singular or the plural unless it is clear from the intrinsic text of this document that it is meant otherwise. Unless expressly stated to the contrary in the intrinsic text of this document, the term or is intended to mean an inclusive or and not an exclusive or. Specifically, a condition A or B is satisfied by any one of the following: A is true (or present) and B is false (or not present), A is false (or not present) and B is true (or present), and both A and B are true (or present). The terms a and/or an are employed for grammatical style and merely for convenience.
The term plurality is intended to mean two or more than two. The term any is intended to mean all applicable members of a set or at least a subset of all applicable members of the set. The term means, when followed by the term "for" is intended to mean hardware, firmware and/or software for achieving a result. The term step, when followed by the term "for" is intended to mean a (sub)method, (sub)process and/or (sub)routine for achieving the recited result. Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this present disclosure belongs. In case of conflict, the present specification, including definitions, will control. include the following issues. The produce can change from one batch to another, thereby changing the expectation of what a good wafer looks like. The product is highly reflective so it is difficult to illuminate without glares. A defect can be hard to define, especially when the failure mechanism is not known. These challenges make manual inspection of the wafers the industry default macro-inspection. But a disadvantage of this approach has been relatively high cost. What is needed is a wafer inspection solution that obviates the above-discussed issues in a cost-effective manner.

Lighting domes with reflective gradient and broad spectrum light source


The spinning disc centrifuge rotor includes a sample holder formed from a cylindrical disc body and a cover plate that are made from a transparent material, such as polycarbonate. The disc-shaped body has two concentric or coaxial recesses defined therein. The first recess forms a cylindrical well or sample chamber for receiving a generally cylindrical rock sample. The second recess has a larger diameter than the first recess, and is shallower, forming a fluid collection area above the sample well, the second recess forming an annular ring extending around the top edge or rim of the sample well. An O-ring snugly within the outer wall of the second recess and forms a seal between the cover plate and the floor of the second recess, preventing fluid leakage. A rotor shaft extends from the bottom face of the cylindrical disc.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for capillary pressure and relative permeability testing of rock samples to evaluate petroleum deposits, and particularly to a spinning disc centrifuge rotor having a novel sample holder for performing spinning disc-type centrifugation of a cylindrical core sample.
2. Description of the Related Art
A centrifuge is a piece of laboratory equipment, generally driven by an electric motor (although some older models were spun by hand), which puts an object in rotation around a fixed axis, applying a force perpendicular to the axis. The centrifuge works through the sedimentation principle, where the centripetal acceleration causes more dense substances to separate out along the radial direction (i.e., toward the bottom of a collection tube). By the same principle, lighter objects will tend to move to the top of the collection tube (i.e., toward the center of rotation).
The centrifugal force acts as an effective gravitational force, and increasing this effective gravitational force will more rapidly and completely cause the precipitate (often referred to as the "pellet") to gather on the bottom of the tube. The remaining solution is called the "supernate" or "supernatant". The supernatant liquid is then typically either quickly decanted from the tube (without disturbing the precipitate), or withdrawn with a Pasteur pipette. The rate of centrifugation is specified by the acceleration applied to the sample, typically measured in revolutions per minute (RPM) or as a multiple of gravitational acceleration at the Earth's surface, g. The particles' settling velocity in centrifugation is a function of their size and shape, centrifugal acceleration, the volume fraction of solids present, the density difference between the particle and the liquid, and the viscosity.
Porous solids containing liquids provide unique challenges in centrifugation. For example, performing a capillary pressure measurement during centrifugation of a solid rock sample that contains liquid petroleum products requires a substantially different centrifugation procedure than performing centrifugation on liquid solution or a mostly liquid suspension.
FIG. 2 diagrammatically illustrates an early centrifuge system 100 for studying capillary pressure and similar properties in a core sample S, which may be a core sample of rock containing petroleum products or the like. In the system 100, the core sample S is fixed at one end to a rotating arm 102, which is, in turn, fixed at its other end to a rotating axle A. As the axle A spins, as in conventional centrifugation, the liquid petroleum products within sample S migrate through the porous rock, from the inner radius R1 toward the outer radius R2.
This relatively simple arrangement, however, makes both direct measurements and calculated predictions extremely difficult. In order to properly calculate capillary pressure, for example, a model must be used in which the rock sample is assumed to be homogeneous, the sample S must be perfectly cylindrical, and centrifugal acceleration must be parallel to the cylindrical axis of the sample S at all times.
In order to make measurements easier, and also to provide for greater accuracy in calculations, an arrangement for centrifugation as shown in FIG. 3 is desirable. As shown, the cylindrical core sample in FIG. 3 is rotated about a central axis X, which is coaxial with the cylindrical axis of the sample itself. FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate a simplified prior art "spinning disc" centrifuge 200 for centrifuging a cylindrical core sample about the cylindrical axis, as in FIG. 3.
In the centrifuge 200, a sample cell 206 is mounted on a plate 202. As shown in FIG. 4, the sample cell 206 has a cylindrical sample chamber 212 formed therein for receiving a cylindrical core sample. The plate 202 may be mounted on a rotating support 204, which is coupled (via a conventional coupler 208) to a driven rotating axle 210. A plurality of collection vessels 214 are in communication with the sample chamber 212 (extending radially outwardly therefrom) to collect liquids that flow from the porous rock sample under centrifugal force.
The spinning disc centrifuge 200 provides a major improvement over the system 100, allowing for the testing of large core samples, providing validity for the assumption of zero capillary pressure at an outlet face, allowing for the measurement of local saturation at any given time, and providing the possibility of estimating drainage and spontaneous capillary pressure. These, along with consideration of radial effects and the ability to estimate relative permeability using both fluid production and saturation distribution, however, are all only within the realm of possibility with the conventional spinning disc system 200. Thus far, no spinning disc centrifuge has been produced that effectively allows for such complete measurement and testing.
Further, although such an arrangement is an improvement over the simple system 100 shown in FIG. 2, the centrifuge 200 does not allow for consolidated samples. Typically, only an unconsolidated sample could be used in system 200, with a plurality of mesh screens being provided between the sample chamber 212 and the collection vessels 214. Further, performing pressure measurements remains extremely difficult in this arrangement, since the collection vessels 214 are best used solely for collection following the completed centrifugation process.
In addition to the above, it would be desirable to be able to easily study the definition of boundary condition on the end faces of a cylindrical core plug, the gravity degradation effect at low speeds, the characterization of core sample heterogeneity, and the effect of radial centrifugal field distribution inside a core sample. Particularly, a core sample holding rotor allowing for the accurate measurement of capillary pressure and relative permeability curves would be desirable.
Thus, a spinning disc centrifuge rotor solving the aforementioned problems is desired.


The present disclosure provide a method of manufacturing a microelectronic device. The method includes forming a bonding pad on a first substrate; forming wiring pads on the first substrate; forming a protection material layer on the first substrate, on sidewalls and top surfaces of the wiring pads, and on sidewalls of the bonding pad, such that a top surface of the bonding pad is at least partially exposed; bonding the first substrate to a second substrate through the bonding pad; opening the second substrate to expose the wiring pads; and removing the protection material layer.

In wafer level packaging of a micro-electro mechanical system (MEMS) device, an eutectic bonding method is implemented. However, the broken silicon fragments generated during the dicing and grinding processes may scratch the metal pads and induce serious pad corrosion. Therefore, a method for wafer level packaging is needed to address the above issues.

Method to prevent metal pad damage in wafer level package

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


An air conditioner is provided with: a refrigeration cycle including a subcooling heat exchanger that subcools a refrigerant having heat-dissipated in a high-pressure side heat exchanger by exchanging heat with a heat medium; a blower that blows the air to an air passage in an air-conditioning casing; an air cooler disposed in the air passage to cool the air; a heater core disposed on an air flow downstream side of the air cooler in the air passage to heat the air cooled by the air cooler; an auxiliary air heater disposed on the air flow downstream side of the air cooler and on an air flow upstream side of the air heater in the air passage, to heat the air cooled by the air cooler by exchanging heat with the heat medium; and a flow-rate adjustment portion configured to adjust a flow rate of the heat medium circulating between the subcooling heat exchanger and the auxiliary air heater.

Conventionally, for example, Patent Document 1 describes an air conditioner for a vehicle that cools air using an evaporator provided in an air-conditioning duct and heats the air flowing out of the evaporator using a heater core provided on an air flow downstream side of the evaporator, thereby adjusting the temperature of conditioned air.
In the related art, a refrigeration cycle device includes a compressor, a condenser, a subcooling heat exchanger, a decompression device, and an evaporator. The condenser condenses and liquefies the refrigerant discharged from the compressor by exchanging heat with the outside air. The subcooling heat exchanger further cools the liquid-phase refrigerant condensed in the condenser. The evaporator evaporates and vaporizes the refrigerant decompressed by the decompression device.
The subcooling heat exchanger is disposed at a position on the air flow downstream side with respect to the evaporator and on the air flow upstream side with respect to a heater core in the air-conditioning duct. The heater core allows the coolant for cooling the engine to flow therethrough.


An apparatus for enlarging and printing panoramic photographs includes a light source and a negative shuttle having upper and lower parallel plates for securing and enclosing entirely a negative placed therebetween. Interposed between the light source and the negative shuttle is a focusing device for concentrating light emanating from the light source. The three above-described elements are operative to project an image from a negative secured in the negative shuttle in a direction opposite the light source. A lens is supported in an adjustable lens support for magnifying and focusing the image projected from the negative shuttle. Photosensitive material is supported on a supply spool, the photosensitive material being passed to a take-up spool adapted to receive the photosensitive material. A photosensitive material is supported in substantially parallel relation to the negative shuttle and is exposed to the image projected through the lens. The take-up spool, the support spool and the negative shuttle are each provided with a driving device. The negative shuttle driving device is operative to run the negative shuttle in a first direction, while the driving device for the take-up spool and support spool is operative to run the spools in a second direction opposite the first direction such that photosensitive material is run in the second direction, whereby the image projected through the lens may be transposed onto a part of the photosensitive material.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to enlarging printers and, more particularly, to a panoramic enlarging printer which will accommodate panoramic negatives on a negative shuttle, project light through the negative into a lens, the lens then projecting the image to a photosensitive paper which will produce an enlarged photographic print having high quality and resolution.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The development of a panoramic printer is prompted by the need to produce photograph prints of large dimension (10".times.90") from a smaller negative (approximately 2".times.18"). Conventional enlarging systems would suggest that the negatives be fixed in a holder while being fully illuminated. To evenly illuminate a negative of panoramic size is extremely difficult. Furthermore, even if illumination can be achieved, a large area is needed to project the image from the negative onto photographic paper to receive the image. The paper to be exposed would have to be fixed to a surface that closely approximates the lens perimeters to maintain a good focus, i.e., in most cases the surface would not be flat, but would be a complex curve. In most prior art devices, the lens is placed at a position between the object and image plane. The total distance from the object to the image is a direct function of the lens focal length and the magnification factor. To obtain a good focus all along the distance of the print, a long focal length lens should be used. Because of this, the resulting overall size of the system is very large. It also takes a long time to complete an exposure and is very labor intensive.
Various attempts at improving this method are found in the prior art. For example, Leash et al., U.S. Pat. No. 1,138,963, discloses a means for printing an enlargement from a negative film which projects an image from a negative roll through a lens onto a roll of photograph paper moved in the opposite direction. Of course, the main problem with this device is that the negative is mounted on rollers, and thus when the end of the negative film is reached, the feed roller releases the negative and tension on the negative is removed. This results in the last section of the image being projected at a different angle and at a different speed than the rest of the image, thus producing an image which has poor quality at the ends of the image.
Likewise, Fujitani, U.S. Pat. No. 4,238,155, discloses a similar method and apparatus to enlarge photographs, also using a negative mount on rollers. The same problems occur with this apparatus, however, as encountered in the Leash apparatus. Furthermore, on both the Leash and Fujitani devices, to run the negative through the device more than once requires rewinding the negative film and recommencing running thereof. This can be especially time consuming if the negative is released from the supply roller following each run therethrough. There is therefore a need for a device which may quickly and easily be rerun to produce multiple images on the photographic paper the image is being printed to.
Another disadvantage encountered in the prior art is that when the end of the photographic paper held on the supply spool is reached, the photographic paper loses tension and quickly feeds past the image being projected from the negative, thus resulting in an incorrectly reproduced image. There is therefore a need for a paper feed system which will generally alleviate this problem.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an improved panoramic enlarging printer.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a panoramic enlarging printer which can quickly and easily rerun a negative film placed therein to produce multiple images on photographic paper to which the image is being printed.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a panoramic enlarging printer which does not use rolled negatives to produce images for printing to photographic paper.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a panoramic enlarging printer which is of compact size and shape as compared to those prior art devices discussed above.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a panoramic enlarging printer which will reproduce very high quality and high resolution images on photographic paper.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a panoramic enlarging printer which is efficient in use of photographic paper.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a panoramic enlarging printer which will support a negative in generally flat relation for improving images projected therefrom.
Finally, an object of the present invention is to provide a panoramic enlarging printer which is relatively simple to manufacture, durable and space-efficient in construction and is safe and effective in use.

Panoramic enlarging printer with negative shuttle


Provided are methods and devices for transmitting or receiving Device-to-Device (D2D) broadcast information, and a transmission system. The method for transmitting the D2D broadcast information includes that: classification information of service information to be transmitted is acquired; control information corresponding to the classification information is acquired, wherein the control information is used for indicating resource scheduling information used during transmission and/or retransmission of the service information; and the service information and the control information are transmitted in a broadcast manner according to a preset rule.

Along with development of mobile communication service and technologies, current service modes of the wireless network become increasingly rich. Among the service modes, short-distance data sharing between users, small-scale social and commercial activities and local specific user-oriented specific services gradually become non-negligible growth points in a wireless platform of the next stage.
A public safety scenario and corresponding requirements in Long-Term Evolution (LTE)-based D2D communication are also proposed in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), and have attracted broad attentions of members of the standard group. Radio emergency and public safety communication will predictably become a hot research direction in the future.
Along with technical discussions of the standard group, applications applied to scenarios of radio emergency and public safety without network coverage are emphatically discussed in conferences, and current discussions about Radio Access Network (RAN) 1 in D2D communication have determined broadcast as a major target in stage R12. No feedback is determined as a baseline condition of broadcast according to priorities in conference discussions. Under such a condition, how to improve broadcast reliability becomes particularly important. For important broadcast messages in a public safety scenario, for example, in a severe environment scenario (such as emergencies of landslide and mine cave-in), the reception of information may be unreliable because users are distributed at different positions. Therefore, reliable reception of important messages is particularly important.
During broadcast communication, particularly D2D broadcast communication, due to the mobility and uncertainty of transmitting equipment and receiving equipment, there still exists the problem of incapability of a part of equipment terminals in reception although a lower-order transmission code rate is adopted.
Retransmission is an effective means for a wireless communication system to improve spectral efficiency, but an existing system is mainly applied in a closed loop environment, and determines whether to retransmit information or not according to an Acknowledgement/Negative Acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) which is fed back. A broadcast message is usually transmitted by adopting a lower code rate to improve performance. However, in D2D communication, both transmitting equipment and receiving equipment are mobile and do not have stable coverage, so that methods purely based on increase of the transmission power, a low code rate and the like have become inapplicable to D2D broadcast, and meanwhile, how to improve D2D broadcast reliability and system throughput in the lack of feedback mechanism has become a design bottleneck.
For the problems in a related technology, there is yet no effective solution.

Methods and devices for transmitting or receiving device-to-device (D2D) broadcast information, and transmission system


A technology which is highly safe and furthermore highly convenient in personal authentications via a mobile terminal is provided. A terminal device 200 of the present invention includes: a position determining section 271 that determines a position of the terminal device 200 at predetermined time intervals, and accumulates the position as position information; a movement history generating section 272 that generates a movement history by using the position information accumulated in a predetermined period, and stores the movement history as movement history information; a registration processing section 276 that transmits, for registration, the movement history information to a personal authentication apparatus; and an authentication requesting section 279 that makes an authentication request to the personal authentication apparatus 310 by using the movement history information stored after the transmission by the registration processing section 276 to the personal authentication apparatus 310.

There are personal authentication technologies that use position information that can be acquired at mobile terminals. For example, PATENT LITERATURE 1 discloses the following technology: "Current position information of a mobile communication device of a user is received from the mobile communication device, and information related to a movement history of the mobile communication device is collected. Then, an inquiry related to a content of the history is generated, and presented to the user. An answer received from the user, and the content of the history are compared, and if consistency between them is confirmed, the user is determined as an authenticated user (an excerpt from ABSTRACT).

Terminal device, personal authentication system and personal authentication method


A treatment apparatus for treating an effluent gas includes a combustion chamber; a burner; an inlet for receiving secondary combustion air; an exhaust gas outlet for outputting exhaust gases from the combustion chamber; and a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger is configured to exchange heat between a first fluid and a second fluid flowing through respective first and second fluid flow paths. The first fluid flow path is connected to the inlet and the second fluid flow path is connected to the outlet such that the exhaust gases received at the outlet flow into the second fluid flow path. The heat exchanger comprises a fluid flow communication path for providing a path for flow of a portion of the exhaust gases from the second fluid into the first fluid; and at least one inlet aperture for inputting the first fluid to the combustion chamber.

Effluent gases output from processes such as process chambers for processing semiconductors require treatment to reduce the amount of undesirable chemicals output. For example, the semiconductor manufacturing industry may output residual perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) and other dangerous process gases such as NH3 and NF3 in the effluent gas stream pumped from the process tool. These chemicals may be difficult to remove from the effluent gas and their release into the environment is undesirable because they may be noxious and/or have relatively high greenhouse activity. Thus, treatment or abatement apparatus are required to reduce these undesirable chemicals from being output.
Known treatment apparatus use combustion to remove the undesirable compounds from the effluent gas stream. It is desirable to improve the combustion and abatement efficiency not only to increase the removal of dangerous process gases such as NH3 and NF3 but also to reduce the emissions of combustion by-products (e.g. CO, HC and NOx).
In many such combustion chambers a mixture of fuel and air are supplied to the burner to generate a flame and secondary combustion air is added to the combustion chamber. However, adding this secondary combustion air downstream of the burner head can disrupt the flame structure on the burner head and quench the temperature of the combustion chamber shortly after the process gas has passed the burner head limiting the useful residence time of the process gas in the high temperature zone. This disruption of the flame leads to combustion of particle forming process gas (e.g. Silane) in close proximity to the burner head resulting in deposition of Silica on the head and importantly in process inlet nozzles. The disruption of the flame structure also allows process gas to bypass the flame so that emissions of process gases such as Nitrogen Trifluoride are higher than necessary. The premature quenching of the flame also leads to higher than necessary emissions of Carbon Monoxide and unburnt Hydrocarbons.
The premature quenching of the combustion zone has a supplementary effect when the abatement of Ammonia is considered. Currently a substantial flow of Hydrogen gas has to be added to a stream of Ammonia process gas to ensure that the combustion chamber temperature and high temperature zone length are sufficient to allow the thermal decomposition of all the Ammonia into Nitrogen and Hydrogen and subsequent combustion of the Hydrogen. Combustion of Nitrogen containing species such as Nitrogen Trifluoride or Ammonia can lead to the formation of significant quantities of Nitrogen Oxides via the Fuel-NOx mechanism. Environmental regulation requires that these emissions be reduced. One way of doing this may be to use depleted oxygen air in the combustion chamber and this can be provided by recirculating the exhaust gas, however, this again can lead to undue turbulence with the associated problems outlined above.
It would be desirable to provide a good mixture of flame and incoming gases without generating undue turbulence which may lead to particulates formed during the combustion process not being exhausted but fouling parts of the combustion chamber such as the burner heads. It would also be desirable to provide efficient combustion while limiting the amount of NOx compounds that are exhausted.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter. The claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any or all disadvantages noted in the background.

Effluent gas treatment apparatus and method


A shift assembly for shifting the gears of a transfer case of a vehicle as between two-wheel drive, four-wheel drive, neutral and four wheel drive range. A mounting plate rigidly mounted to the transfer case has a bottom configuration characterized by two cut out portions separated by a dependent landing portion. The shaft rod and its support housing are pivoted to the plate with a locating pin protruded from the shift rod through the housing and into the configured cut out portions of the mounting plate. The shift rod is biased upwardly relative to the support housing and is retained by the upward biasing into whichever of the cut out portions it is positioned. Repositioning is accomplished by depression of the rod against the upward biasing and pivoting of the rod to position the locating pin to the other cut out portion or on the landing portion separating the cut out portions. A depression in the landing portion identifies the neutral position. The locating pin additionally functions, due to its protrusion through the support housing, to retain the assembly of the shift rod in the support housing and prevent turning of the shift rod and locating pins.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to shift mechanisms and in particular it relates to a multiple position shift mechanism for shifting between various positions of two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive of a four-wheel drive vehicle.
2. Background Information
Four wheel drive vehicles are commonplace on the roadways today. They provide added traction when needed under adverse weather conditions where a user may encounter mud, snow, and ice. They also provide mobility in off-the-road travels where soft terrain is encountered
When traveling on the normal hard surface of the roadways the vehicle is operated in the two-wheel drive mode. The vehicle may be shifted to conventional four-wheel drive when encountering ice or snow on the roadway and then to low range four-wheel drive when driven off the road where the terrain demands both four-wheel drive and low range power. A neutral position is also desirable for towing the vehicle.
Having the ability to change or shift between the different positions as desired requires a shift mechanism to shift the gears within the vehicle's transfer case.
Shifting mechanisms in prior devices have not provided a secure neutral position or the desired operator feel when positioned in neutral. Also, the multiplicity of parts and the complexity of manufacture makes prior devices expensive to manufacture and assemble. When repairs are required, it is a major task to disassemble, replace worn or broken parts and reassemble.

Shift assembly for shifting between drive positions in a four-wheel drive vehicle


A fiber dispenser 10 which provides a bobbin 12 with an expansion ring 30 mounted on an end thereof. The expansion ring 30 is coaxial with the bobbin 12 and permits the use of a nontapered bobbin for high speed dispensation applications. In a specific embodiment, the invention includes a mechanism for adjusting the diameter of the expansion ring as the fiber is dispensed. A further, more specific embodiment includes a mechanism 42, 44 for adjusting the longitudinal position of the expansion ring 30 as the fiber 21 is wound thereon.

1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to optical fiber technology. More specifically, the present invention relates to techniques for dispensing fiber from a bobbin.
While the present invention is described herein with reference to illustrative embodiments for particular applications, it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. Those having ordinary skill in the art and access to the teachings provided herein will recognize additional modifications, applications, and embodiments within the scope thereof and additional fields in which the present invention would be of significant utility.
2. Description of the Related Art:
Certain applications require high-speed dispensation of fiber from a bobbin. One such application involves the optical guidance of missiles and other craft. In such applications, the fiber is typically dispensed from a tapered bobbin. The taper is typically on the order of two degrees and facilitates high-speed payout while mitigating multiple-turn and multiple-layer dispense. Multiple turn dispense involves the pay-out of multiple turns in the outermost layer due to the use of adhesives. Multiple-layer dispense involves the pay-out of a layer that is in the middle of the fiber cable during the payout of a surface layer. Multiple-layer dispense occurs when the cable that is being paid-out catches a section of cable in the area of an aft layer transition (optical fiber stepback) on the bobbin. Either of these anomalies may cause the cable to become entangled and break.
Unfortunately, there are several shortcomings associated with the use of a tapered bobbin. Firstly, the fiber, wound under tension, has a tendency to move down the tapered bobbin to reach a lower energy state. This necessitates the use of glues and/or other schemes to keep the cable in place. Nonetheless, gross movements of the cable pack have been experienced with tapered bobbins.
Secondly, the design and manufacture of the base layer is critical for tapered bobbins. The base layer is a layer on the surface of the bobbin on which the fiber is wound and is typically a wire having a diameter 2% larger than the cable diameter. The base layer determines the "pitch" of the fiber, that is, the spacing of each turn of the fiber and transmits the fiber pack loads to the bobbin. Tapered bobbins generally require wire base layers which are expensive to manufacture, requiring the wrapping of precision drawn wire around the bobbin.
Thirdly, tapered bobbins are difficult and expensive to manufacture. Each design is a function of such factors as the speed of dispensation, whether the bobbin is moving or stationary, and whether the bobbin is intended for operation in the air or in the water. In addition, the diameter of the bobbin and optical cable diameter impacts on the taper, thus, there is no simple technique for designing the taper of each bobbin.
In addition, the use of a taper requires the winding of the fiber with the layer transitions mentioned above. This precludes the use of certain autowinding techniques and therefore necessitates a relatively slow and costly winding operation. The required transitions also lessen the volumetric efficiency of the bobbin, i.e., lessens the amount of cable that may be wound within a proscribed volume.
As mentioned above, the tapered bobbin requires adhesives. The tapered bobbin also provides limited control of post peel point friction and provides no buffer between the peel point and paid-out fiber at the aft layer transitions.
Thus, there is a need in the art to provide an improved fiber dispenser. More specifically, there is a need in the art to provide a nontapered fiber dispenser.


A motor control system includes an inverter, and a control unit that feedback-controls the inverter. The control unit includes a voltage control unit that calculates a voltage command value indicating a voltage to be applied to the motor from the inverter based on a current deviation between a current command value and an actual current detection value, and a torque ripple compensation unit that adds a compensation value for compensating a torque ripple in the motor to a signal value on at least one of an upstream side and a downstream side in a signal flow passing through the voltage control unit. The torque ripple compensation unit calculates the compensation value based on an actual angular velocity at which the motor rotates and the target current command value, and based on advance angle control for compensating a response delay of the motor control system with respect to the compensation value.

Conventionally, as a motor control technique, a method in which a control device feedback-controls a motor using a command value is known. For example, a configuration is known in which a control device feeds back a current command value having a phase opposite to the torque ripple and adds the current command value to a basic command value. In such a configuration, a method is known in which the control device superimposes a current command value of a harmonic component of the current value on the basic command value to compensate the torque ripple.
However, the feedback control in the conventional configuration has a problem in that it functions effectively in a frequency range in which a current controller responds at a sufficient speed, but does not function in the high frequency range in which the response of the current controller is delayed. Generally, the responsivity of a current controller is designed to such a degree that the current controller can respond to a possible frequency band of the fundamental wave (sine wave) of the current, which is a practical basis. Additionally, a general torque ripple is a harmonic component of a sine wave of a basic current. For this reason, in the current controller designed as described above, the responsivity of the current controller is insufficient and torque ripple compensation cannot be sufficiently performed.
Additionally, as a design in which the above problem is taken into consideration, a design is conceivable in which the responsivity of the current controller is improved to cover even a frequency range where the torque ripple is sufficiently compensated. However, a motor has a sensor that detects the position of a rotor and the like, and if the responsivity of the current controller increases, the sensitivity to sensor noise also increases, which causes a trade-off problem of degradation of the operating noise.

Motor control system and power steering system


A microscope system comprises: a control means (18) capable of generating electric control signals (18a); a spatial modulator means (7) having an illuminated surface (7a) to be illuminated by light emitted by a light source (1), and capable of receiving the electric control signal and of spatially modulating reflection characteristic or transmission characteristic of the illuminated surface by a spatial frequency specified by the electric control signal; an illuminating optical means (8, 11) for illuminating a specimen (12) with light spatially modulated by the spatial modulator means; an image detecting means (15) for detecting a signal image formed by signal light emitted by the specimen illuminated by the illuminating optical means; and an arithmetic means (16) for processing signal images formed by using the spatial frequency of at least three different phases set by the control means and detected by the image detecting means to obtain an optical sectioned image.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microscope system and, more particularly, to a microscope system capable adjusting the thickness of an optical sectioned image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fluorescence microscopes are used widely in various fields including the medical and the biological field for detecting proteins and genes marked with fluorescent markers. Recently, multiple fluorescence detection that observes a specimen dyed with a plurality of fluorescent dyes and a specimen expressing a plurality of fluorescent proteins has become a powerful tool for the analysis of genes and intracellular structures.
A laser confocal microscope among fluorescence microscopes, in particular, differs from ordinary microscopes; the laser confocal microscope forms an image by detecting fluorescent light emitted from a point on which a laser beam is focused, removing fluorescent light emitted from parts other than the part at the focal point or scattered light with a pinhole screen placed in front of a detector. Thus, a high-contrast image of only a part at the focal point, i.e., an optical sectioned image, can be obtained.
A recently marketed laser microscope includes a detector, and a screen disk disposed in front of the detector and provided with a plurality of pinholes respectively having different diameters. The screen disk is turned to use the pinholes having the different diameters selectively. Another laser microscope has a variable-pinhole screen provided with a variable pinhole whose diameter can selectively be determined. The user of the laser microscope selects an optimum diameter for the pinhole according to the condition and shape of the specimen or according to the quantity of fluorescent dyes contained in the specimen or the amount of the fluorescent protein expressed by the specimen to adjust the thickness of an optical sectioned image of the specimen optionally.
A fringe projection method is a means for obtaining an optical sectioned image disclosed in Jpn. Pat. No. 3066874 (Patent document 1) The stripe projection method projects a light beam on a grating or the like, illuminates a specimen with a bright-and-dark periodic optical pattern having alternate arrangement of bright and dark parts formed by the grating, and takes a photograph of the thus illuminated specimen with a camera. A plurality of images obtained by using a plurality of bright-and-dark periodic optical patterns having different phases are processed, and periodic patterns are removed to obtain an optical sectioned image of a desired part.
Since the stripe projection method disclosed in Patent document 1 uses the grating for forming the bright-and-dark pattern, intervals between the elements of the periodic pattern is entirely dependent on the grating constant of the grating. Consequently, the thickness of the optical sectioned image cannot freely be adjusted according to the condition and shape of the specimen or according to the amount of fluorescent dyes contained in the specimen or the amount of expressed fluorescent proteins during observation. Such a problem may be solved by selectively using a plurality of gratings respectively having different grating constants. However, the optical system must be readjusted every time the grating is changed and hence it is difficult to change the grating quickly during observation of the specimen. Although the phase of the bright-and-dark pattern is shifted by moving the grating, an error in distance by which the grating is moved causes an error in phase shift, eventually deteriorating the optical sectioned image.


A method for replacing advertising content may include intercepting, at an edge of a network providing communication between an end user device and one or more servers capable of responding to requests from the end user device, a request from the end user device and transmitted via the network, determining whether a response to the request will include advertizing content based on a destination of the request, intercepting the response based on the determination, modifying the response to extract the advertizing content to replace the advertizing content with replacement content in a modified response, and enabling the modified response to be provided to the end user device. The replacement content may be selected based on a comparison of technical properties of the advertizing content with technical properties of the replacement content, and a correlation of affinity criteria associated with the replacement content to a user associated with the end user device.

Access service operators including owners of private networks, such as businesses, or those offering public internet access such as airlines, aircraft and airports, as well as shopping malls, coffee shops, hotels, and general access Internet service providers offer Internet access to an audience that is essentially captive. Accordingly, access service operators have the opportunity to provide better targeted advertizing to their audience, or eliminate competing ads by blocking advertizing from competitors from being visible within the operator's computer network. Replacing or removing ads can also reduce network bandwidth usage in some cases, and therefore can lower costs in operating the access service. Thus, access service operators may be expected to have an incentive to employ techniques for providing targeted advertizing to end users, or to eliminate or restrict the advertizing on their networks.
End users may also wish to eliminate advertizing altogether, finding it obtrusive to their use of the Internet. In other cases, end users may prefer to receive advertizing that is better targeted to their personal interests on an opt-in basis. While digital advertizing is theoretically targeted and, in particular the use of re-targeting (i.e., showing an advertisement for something a particular user previously expressed interest in or purchased) is commonplace, in practice targeted advertizing is often clumsy, simplistic and/or unwelcome. Even when targeted advertizing is performed in more elegant ways, such targeted advertizing typically relies upon large amounts of data captured by using tracking cookies to build a picture of individual users before it becomes remotely accurate. Moreover, end users often opt out of such tracking when given the chance.
Accordingly, it may be desirable to generate improved targeted advertizing that overcomes some of the issues described above.

Method and apparatus for advertising content management


A process for forming a carbon nanotube field effect transistor (CNTFET) device includes site-specific nanoparticle deposition on a CNTFET that has one or more carbon nanotubes, a source electrode, a drain electrode, and a sacrificial electrode on a substrate with an interposed dielectric layer. The process includes control of PMMA removal and electrodeposition in order to select nanoparticle size and deposition location down to singular nanoparticle deposition. The CNTFET device resulting in ultra-sensitivity for various bio-sensing applications, including detection of glucose at hypoglycemic levels.

1. Technical Field of the Embodiments
The embodiments are generally directed to the field of bio-sensing and the processes for forming bio-sensors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently available glucose sensor technology is limited in its efficacy for sensing low glucose concentration in individuals, also called hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia is a common complication of diabetes and it is very dangerous to people with diabetes especially for new born babies. Hypoglycemia occurs when the glucose concentration in the blood is low and leads to insufficient supply of glucose to the brain. This condition leads to numerous problems ranging from dysphoria to seizures, unconsciousness, and permanent brain damage. The condition may even result in death. Currently, the detection of hypoglycemia is still a challenge for glucose sensors on the market. Current sensors either cannot accurately detect low glucose concentration or there is lag during detection.
The embodiments described herein are directed to a glucose sensor based on carbon nanotube field effect transistor (CNTFET) technology, wherein the process for forming is novel process and includes the controlled deposition of gold (Au) nanoparticles on the carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes and Au nanoparticles possess outstanding electrical and biological properties that make them ideal materials for bio-sensing applications. Through the controlled deposition of Au nanoparticles onto carbon nanotube, the sensitivity of the glucose sensor can be tuned in order to achieve high sensitivity and therefore realizing the detection of hypoglycemia.
Current site-specific Au nanoparticle deposition method involves electrochemical dip-pen nanolithography as described in Chu et al., J. Phys. Chem. 2008, 112, 13437-13441. This method uses atomic force microscopy (AFM) to achieve site specific deposition. As shown in prior art FIG. 1, the tip of the AFM dip-pen is first immersed in a gold chloride solution, and then a voltage is applied to the tip. As the tip sweeps over the carbon nanotube, Au nanoparticles can be deposited onto the carbon nanotube through electrochemical reaction. The result of an exemplary deposition sweep is shown in FIGS. 2a and 2b. The AFM deposition process does not provide for adequate Au location, size or number control to achieve the glucose sensor efficacy required for sensing hypoglycemia.
More particularly, in the AFM deposition process, the locations of the deposition sites are controlled by the location of the AFM tip. Since there is gold chloride solution on the AFM tip, the tip has to be brought to the selected location before starting to sweep across the carbon nanotube, and the location of the tip cannot be controlled precisely. The present embodiments described herein solve this problem by using an electron beam to control the locations of the deposition sites which can easily achieve nanometer scale precision.
Further, in the AFM deposition process, the number of the Au nanoparticles cannot be controlled due to the geometry of the AFM tip. The present embodiments described herein solve this problem since individual Au nanoparticles can be deposited one at a time.
Finally, the AFM deposition process is relatively inefficient. The present embodiments described herein use e-beam lithography to create the deposition sites, which allows for particularity in the deposition patterns. For example, and as described in detailed below, the size of the PMMA opening may be controlled to achieve single Au nanoparticle deposition or multiple Au nanoparticle deposition on a carbon nanotube. Additionally, the present embodiments allow for the creation of multiple PMMA openings at a time, and deposition of Au nanoparticle(s) onto these multiple individual sites at the same time. The AFM deposition process only allows for deposition of the Au nanoparticles onto one site each time since the deposition occurs only when the AFM tip touches the carbon nanotube.
These and other advantages over the prior art sensors and processes are described herein with respect to the present embodiments directed to a novel method to realize in-situ site specific deposition of gold (Au) nanoparticles on single-walled carbon nanotube field effect transistors (CNTFETs) for ultra-sensitive bio-sensing applications, including glucose sensing.

Biosensor and system and process for forming


The three-way valve simulator (100) for a vehicle brake servo comprises: a control piston (106); and a reaction piston (140) remote from the control piston when the simulator is at rest.

The invention relates to braking systems for vehicles, provided with a three-way valve simulator and with a brake servo.
For example, document FR-2 895 958 discloses such a system which comprises: a control device serving to receive a command sent by the driver from the brake pedal; a simulator for sending into the pedal a sensation adapted to the driver; a brake servo controlled by a three-way valve of the simulator; and a master cylinder whose actuation takes place with the assistance of the brake servo.
The brake servo comprises a vacuum chamber permanently connected to a vacuum source and a working chamber connected by the three-way valve sometimes to the vacuum chamber and sometimes to an air source at atmospheric pressure. The control of the three-way valve makes it possible, as a function of the pressure prevailing in the working chamber, to move the membrane of the brake servo in order to actuate the master cylinder.
However, the regulations provide that such a system allows the vehicle to brake in the event of failure of the vacuum source. In the aforementioned document, and in such a circumstance, the driver can actuate the pedal so that a rod of the control device, after compensating for an uncoupling play, directly contacts an actuating piston of the master cylinder. Thus, the driver can directly actuate this piston in order to brake the vehicle.
However, in such an operating mode, the simulator continues to provide a sensation to the pedal. Specifically, the actuation of the control device again causes the movement of a control piston of the simulator in the direction of a reaction piston and the compression of a simulation spring interposed between the two in order to oppose them from coming together. When the driver actuates the control rod in order to bring it into contact with the master cylinder piston while compensating for the uncoupling play, he must do so against the pressure of the spring. Therefore, he must provide a specific force for this purpose which consumes some of the driver's energy available for braking. Now, this energy is all the more precious since the braking system, by hypothesis, no longer provides assistance to the driver and since it is the driver himself who must therefore make the pressure in the braking circuit rise. This is therefore a disadvantage insofar as it is preferably sought to preserve under all circumstances the energy that the driver can mobilize to accomplish braking.

Three-way valve simulator for a vehicle brake servo with play compensation

Abstract: It is arranged such that the control piston, under the effect of a command transmitted from outside the simulator, can be moved over a predetermined travel in the direction of the reaction piston without transmitting stress to the latter.


A beam irradiation device includes: a laser light source for emitting laser light; an actuator which scans a targeted area with the laser light; a servo optical system which changes a propagating direction of servo light in response to driving of the actuator; a photodetector which receives the servo light to output a signal depending on a light receiving position of the servo light; an actuator controlling section which controls the actuator based on the signal to be outputted from the photodetector; and a laser controlling section which controls the laser light source based on the signal to be outputted from the photodetector. The laser controlling section controls the laser light source to emit the laser light in a pulse manner at a timing when the light receiving position of the servo light coincides with a predetermined targeted position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a beam irradiation device for irradiating laser light onto a targeted area, and more particularly to a beam irradiation device to be loaded in a so-called laser radar system for detecting presence or absence of an obstacle or a distance to the obstacle in a targeted area, based on reflected light obtained by irradiating laser light onto the targeted area.
2. Disclosure of Related Art
In recent years, a laser radar system for irradiating laser light in a forward direction with respect to a driving direction to detect presence or absence of an obstacle or a distance to the obstacle in a targeted area, based on a state of reflected light of the laser light, has been loaded in a family automobile or the like to enhance security in driving. Generally, the laser radar system is so configured as to scan a targeted area with laser light to detect presence or absence of an obstacle at each of scanning positions, based on presence or absence of reflected light at each of the scanning positions. The laser radar system is also configured to detect a distance to the obstacle at each of the scanning positions, based on a required time from an irradiation timing of laser light to a light receiving timing of reflected light at each of the scanning positions.
Heretofore, there has been known scan mechanisms using laser light, such as a scan mechanism incorporated with a polygon mirror, and a scan mechanism incorporated with a scanning lens to be driven two-dimensionally. In addition, there has also been known a scan mechanism incorporated with a pivotal mirror for causing laser light to scan a scanning area.
In the laser radar system incorporated with the scan mechanism, a drive-control operation of a laser light source is performed based on a time elapsed from start of a scanning operation. For instance, laser light is pulse-emitted toward a targeted area at every predetermined time interval from start of a scanning operation.
It is necessary to increase the amount of computation and the number of times of computation operations to be performed by a circuit for controlling the scan mechanism to properly scan a targeted area with laser light. The processing load of a control circuit can be reduced by roughly controlling the scan mechanism. The control, however, fails to properly scan the targeted area with laser light. In this arrangement, if laser light is emitted based on a lapse of time from start of a scanning operation in the above-described manner, the irradiated position of pulse-emitted laser light may be displaced from an intended position, which may deteriorate irradiation precision of laser light with respect to the targeted area.

Beam irradiation device and laser radar system


A CPU reads out image data from a memory and sets the image data of a trial line number in a coding amount estimation device. The coding amount estimation device refers to a parameter table, generates coding parameters formed by combining parameters, and sets the coding parameters in a coder. The coding amount estimation device causes the coder to execute JBIG coding of the image data of the trial line number and estimates a coding amount. When there remains no untried parameter combination from the parameter table, the coding amount estimation device sets the coding parameters, which provide a minimum coding amount, in the coder as optimal coding parameters. After the optimal coding parameters have been set in the coder, the CPU reads out image data of all lines from the memory and causes the coder to execute JBIG coding.

The present invention relates to a coding device and a coding method for performing coding by optimizing coding parameters in facsimile communication, etc.
In the prior art, when JBIG (Joint Bi-level Image Coding Experts Group) coding is performed in facsimile communication, etc., predetermined values set by specifications of devices or empirically acquired values are used as coding parameters set as coding conditions. The compression efficiency (coded data amount) of JBIG varies depending on combinations of the various coding parameters in accordance with characteristics of image data. However, since the conventional coding uses the predetermined parameter conditions, it fails to achieve optimal coding efficiency.
Although there is a prior-art technique wherein coding efficiency is optimized by varying an AT (Adaptive Template) pixel position, which is one of parameters, the effect of this technique is not adequate.
In general terms, in the conventional facsimile system, etc., when plural image data units are coded (or decoded) by one coding section with the same or different coding schemes, the image data units are assigned to plural task processes and are coded in a time-division manner. In this case, a firm for controlling the coding process successively carries out the plural task processes (coding processes) in units of a fixed (predetermined) time. However, in order to efficiently use the process unit time, it is necessary to start the coding after setting in the coding section an estimated number of lines which can be coded in the predetermined time.
In the prior art, however, it is not possible to exactly estimate the number of lines. Thus, only the number of lines, which is less than a maximum number and is processible without fail in the predetermined time, has to be set irrespective of the content of image data. Accordingly, there arise such problems that no coding is performed in some time period within the predetermined time and as a result the task process cannot efficiently be carried out in the predetermined unit time.
An object of the present invention is to provide a coding device and a coding method for performing coding by optimizing a coding efficiency in accordance with image data.
Another object of the invention is to provide a coding device capable of efficiently performing task processes in units of a predetermined time in accordance with image data.
In order to achieve the objects, the present invention provides a coding device having a coder for coding image data, the coding device comprising: a first setting section for setting therein a predetermined amount of image data to be coded; a storage section for storing a plurality of parameters; a generating section for generating a combination of parameters using the parameters stored in the storage section; an estimation section for estimating a coding amount by setting the combination of parameters generated by the generating section in the coder and coding the predetermined amount of image data set by the first setting section; a second setting section for setting in the coder the combination of parameters, which provides a minimum coding amount, on the basis of an estimation result obtained by the estimation section; and a control section for coding all the image data to be coded, when the second setting section has set in the coder the combination of parameters, which provides the minimum coding amount.
The invention also provides a coding device having a coder for coding image data, the coding device comprising: a first setting section for setting therein a predetermined amount of image data to be coded; a storage section for storing, in an associated manner, a predetermined amount of image data having a predetermined number of kinds of characteristic images, and optimal parameter combination information for coding the predetermined amount of image data having the characteristic images; an estimation section for comparing the image data set in the first setting section with a characteristic image of each image data stored in the storage section, thereby determining the presence/absence of similar image data; a second setting section for reading out, when the estimation section has determined the presence of the similar image data that is similar in characteristic image, the parameter combination information corresponding to the similar image data from the storage section, and setting the parameter combination based on the parameter combination information in the coder; and a control section for executing a control to code all the image data to be coded, when the second setting section has set the parameter combination in the coder.
The present invention provides a coding device having a coder for coding image data, the coding device comprising: a first setting section for setting a unit time of a task process; a second setting section for setting a predetermined amount of image data to be coded; a storage section for storing a plurality of parameters; a generating section for generating a combination of parameters using the parameters stored in the storage section; an estimation section for estimating a coding size by setting the combination of parameters generated by the generating section in the coder and coding the predetermined amount of image data set by the second setting section; a first calculation section for calculating a compression ratio from a minimum coding size of the parameter combination estimated by the estimation section; a second calculation section for calculating, from the compression ratio calculated by the first calculation section, a processible amount of coding within the unit time of the task process set by the first setting section; and control means for executing a control to set a task process time for the image data to be coded, on the basis of the processible amount for coding within the unit time of the task process calculated by the second calculation section.
The invention provides a coding device having a coder for coding image data in a Huffman scheme, the coding device comprising: a first setting section for setting a unit time of a task process; a second setting section for setting a predetermined amount of image data to be coded; an estimation section for estimating a coding size by coding the predetermined amount of image data set by the second setting section; a first calculation section for calculating a compression ratio from the coding size estimated by the estimation section; a second calculation section for calculating, from the compression ratio calculated by the first calculation section, a processible amount of coding within the unit time of the task process set by the first setting section; and control means for executing a control to set a task process time for the image data to be coded, on the basis of the processible amount for coding within the unit time of the task process calculated by the second calculation section.
The present invention provides a coding method for a coding device having a coder for coding image data, the method comprising: setting a predetermined amount of image data to be coded; generating a combination of parameters using a plurality of stored parameters; estimating a coding amount by setting the generated combination of parameters in the coder and coding the predetermined amount of the set image data; setting in the coder the combination of parameters, which provides a minimum coding amount, on the basis of an estimation result; and coding all the image data to be coded.
This invention provides a coding method for a coding device having a coder for coding image data, the method comprising: setting a unit time of a task process; setting a predetermined amount of image data to be coded; generating a combination of parameters using a plurality of stored parameters; estimating a coding size by setting the generated combination of parameters in the coder and coding the predetermined amount of the set image data; calculating a compression ratio from an estimated minimum coding size of the parameter combination; calculating, from the calculated compression ratio, a processible amount of coding within the set unit time of the task process; and setting a task process time for the image data to be coded, on the basis of the calculated processible amount for coding within the unit time of the task process.


The present disclosure provides memory devices and methods for using shared latch elements thereof. A memory device includes a substrate, an interposer disposed over the substrate, and a logic die and stacked memory dies disposed over the interposer. In the logic die, the test generation module performs a memory test operation for the memory device. The functional elements stores functional data in latch elements during a functional mode of the memory device. The repair analysis module determines memory test/repair data based on the memory test operation. The memory test/repair data comprises memory addresses of faulty memory storage locations of the memory device that are identified during the memory test operation. The repair analysis module configures the latch elements into a scan chain, accesses the memory test/repair data during the test mode of the memory device, and repairs the memory device using the memory test/repair data.

The growth of the semiconductor industry has led to the drastic increase in the capacity and density of memory devices. Memory built-in self-test (BIST) techniques are often used by memory devices. In these BIST techniques, some or all of the memory storage locations are analyzed by embedded circuitry to identify faulty memory storage locations. Repair information, such as the addresses of the faulty memory storage locations, is stored in a set of latches dedicated only to the storage of test information. The repair information can then be retrieved from these dedicated latches for the purpose of repairing the faulty memory storage locations, such as by rerouting the corresponding address to a back-up memory storage location. The number of dedicated latches for storing the test information rises as the capacity of memory devices increases. However, this increase in the number of dedicated latches for storing memory test information has resulted in added size, complexity, and cost of conventional memory devices. Therefore, memory device architectures and methods for reducing the number of dedicated latches are needed.
This Discussion of the Background section is provided for background information only. The statements in this Discussion of the Background are not an admission that the subject matter disclosed in this section constitutes prior art to the present disclosure, and no part of this Discussion of the Background section may be used as an admission that any part of this application, including this Discussion of the Background section, constitutes prior art to the present disclosure.

Memory device and method for using shared latch elements thereof


The present disclosure provides a gas-phase process for producing trifluoroiodomethane, the process comprising providing a reactant stream comprising hydrogen iodide and trifluoroacetyl halide selected from the group consisting of trifluoroacetyl chloride, trifluoroacetyl fluoride, trifluoroacetyl bromide, and combinations thereof, and reacting the reactant stream in the presence of a catalyst at a temperature from about 200° C. to about 600° C. to produce a product stream comprising the trifluoroiodomethane.

Trifluoroiodomethane (CF3I), also known as perfluoromethyliodide, trifluoromethyl iodide, or iodotrifluoromethane, is a useful compound in commercial applications, as a refrigerant or a fire suppression agent, for example. Trifluoroiodomethane is a low global warming potential molecule with almost no ozone depletion potential. Trifluoroiodomethane can replace more environmentally damaging materials.
Methods of preparing trifluoroiodomethane are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,196,236 (Mukhopadhyay et al.) discloses a catalytic process for producing trifluoroiodomethane using reactants comprising a source of iodine, at least a stoichiometric amount of oxygen, and a reactant CF3R, where R is selected from the group consisting of —COOH, —COX, —CHO, —COOR2, AND —SO2X, where R2 is alkyl group and X is a chlorine, bromine, or iodine. Hydrogen iodide, which may be produced by the reaction, can be oxidized by the at least a stoichiometric amount of oxygen, producing water and iodine for economic recycling.
In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,132,578 (Mukhopadhyay et al.) also discloses a catalytic, one-step process for producing trifluoroiodomethane from trifluoroacetyl chloride. However, the source of iodine, is iodine fluoride (IF). In contrast to hydrogen iodide, iodine fluoride is relatively unstable, decomposing above 0° C. to I2 and IF5. Iodine fluoride may also not be available in commercially useful quantities.
Some known methods of preparing trifluoroacetyl iodide include liquid-phase processes. Liquid-phase processes can require solvents that must be separated out and disposed of. The extra steps required for separation and disposal may make the processes less efficient.
Thus, there is a need to develop a more efficient process that may be scaled to produce commercial quantities of trifluoroiodomethane from relatively inexpensive raw materials.

Processes for producing trifluoroiodomethane


A clock recovery circuit serves to recover a clock signal from data which does not arrive at predetermined times and which may be bursty. The clock recovery circuit operates in conjunction with a buffer which receives the data. Illustratively, the clock recovery circuit maintains a first count of the bytes of data written into the buffer and a second count of the byte of data transferred from the buffer. A subtractor substracts the second count from the first and a decision circuit utilizes the result to provide a signal indicative of the current occupancy of the buffer. Depending on the current occupancy, the frequency of an output signal of the clock recovery circuit is increased, decreased, or maintained as constant. This output signal thus serves as the recovered clock signal.

The demand for various wideband telecommunications services such as high resolution video, voice communications, and terminal and computer connections provides an impetus for the introduction of a broadband digital trunk and exchange network. One example of a broadband digital trunk and exchange network is known as the Broadband Integrated Digital Services Network (B-ISDN) (see e.g. L. R. Linnell, "A Wide-Band Local Access System Using Emerging-Technology Components," IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 612-618, July 1986; D. R. Spears, "Broadband ISDN Switching Capabilities From a Services Perspective," IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 5, no. 8, pp. 1222-1230, October 1987).
Many network issues such as packet transmission and multiplexing techniques (see e.g., H. J. Chao, "Design of Transmission and Multiplexing System For Broadband Packet Networks," IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 6, no. 9, pp. 1511-1520, December 1988), packet switching network designs (see e.g. C. Day, J. Giacopelli, and J. Hickey, "Application of Self-Routing Switches to LATA Fiber Optic Networks," in Proc. 1987 International Switching Symposium, Phoenix, Ariz., March 1987; T. T. Lee, "Nonblocking Copy Networks for Multicast Packet Switching," IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 6, no. 9, pp. 1455-1467, December 1988), and routing and flow control (see e.g. J. Y. Hui, "Resource Allocation for Broadband Network," IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 6, no. 9, pp. 1598-1608, December 1988) have been widely explored for broadband digital trunk and exchange networks such as B-ISDN.
To provide broadband telecommunications services, along with a broadband digital trunk and exchange network, a customer premises network is also utilized. The customer premises network provides interface connections between a broadband digital trunk and exchange network and individual units of customer premises equipment. The customer premises equipment includes devices such as telephones, fax machines, video display devices, and various types of computer terminals and workstations.
Information transmitted across a broadband digital trunk and exchange network such as B-ISDN may be carried using the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technique (see e.g. S. E. Minzer, "Toward an International Broadband ISDN Standard" Telecommunications, October 1987 and Chao et al, U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 118,977 filed on Nov. 10, 1987, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,306, issued Jan. 9, 1990, and assigned to the assignee hereof). In the ATM technique, data from various services are transmitted in fixed length cells, which cells are embedded in the payload envelopes of the frames which comprise the Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) STS-3c or STS-12c signals (see.e.g. Draft of American National Standard For Telecommunications Digital Hierarchy Optical Interface Rates and Formats Specifications, T1X1.4/87-505 R4, December 1987). The technique is called the Asynchronous Transfer Mode because the individual cells are not synchronously reserved for specific services, but instead individual cells are occupied dynamically by the specific services based on the availability of cells and the demand for transmission capacity by the specific services.
Typically, a customer premises network receives from a broadband digital trunk and exchange network an ATM type bit stream whose cells contain data from a plurality of different services and are destined to a plurality of different units of customer premises equipment. The customer premises network serves to direct the data from each specific service to the appropriate unit of customer premises. The data for each specific unit of customer premises equipment does not arrive at predetermined times and may be bursty. From this arriving data, each specific unit of customer premises equipment recovers a clock frequency for the particular service it is receiving.
Conventional clock recovery circuits (see Floyd M. Gardner, "Phaselock Techniques", John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1979; and D. K. Jeong et al, "Design of PLL-Based Clock Generation Circuits", IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits, Vol. SC-22, No. 2, April 1987) are not suitable for this purpose. The conventional clock recovery circuits make use of constant incoming data which embeds timing information perfectly synchronized with some master clock generator. Services with information rates different from the master clock are bit-stuffed and then transmitted. Timing information is extracted to regenerate the transmission clock by using a phase-locked loop.
In situations where the information does not arrive at predetermined times and where the information is bursty (such as in a network using ATM), the above described conventional clock recovery circuits are not suitable to recover the clock. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a clock recovery circuit which can recover a clock from information which does not arrive at predetermined times and which is bursty. It is a further object of the present invention, to provide a clock recovery circuit for use in a customer premises network using the ATM transmission technique to enable each specific unit of customer premises equipment attached to the customer premises network to recover a service clock from the data of the specific service destined to it.