A charged particle guide adapted to be coupled with a charged particle detector, such as a secondary electron detector. The charged particle guide, in one example, comprising two wires extending from the charged particle detector toward a source of charged particles, such as secondary electrons emitted from an IC upon application of a focused ion beam. Upon application of a bias voltage, the charged particle guide introduces a collecting electric field that attracts charged particles and directs the charged particles to the charged particles detector.

Charged particle beam systems, such as focused ion beam ("FIB") systems, have found many applications in various areas of science and industry. For example, in the semiconductor industry, FIB systems are used for integrated circuit ("IC") probe point creation, circuit editing, failure analysis, and numerous other applications. A FIB tool typically includes a particle beam production column designed to focus an ion beam onto the IC at the place intended for the desired intervention. Such a column typically comprises a source of ions, such as Ga+, produced from liquid metal. The Ga+ is used to form the ion beam, which is focused on the IC by a focusing device comprising a certain number of electrodes operating at determined potentials so as to form an electrostatic lens system. Other types of charged particle beam systems deploy other arrangements to produce various charged particle beams.
Successful use of a FIB tool depends, in varying degrees, on obtaining high resolution images of the IC or other sample. The images allow the user to view the IC during use of the FIB tool. Various phenomena, such as secondary electrons, ions, neutrons and photons, are available for monitoring FIB editing and generating images. Secondary electrons, in particular, are emitted as a result of the ion beam incident upon the IC. A common type of the secondary electron detector ("SED") in FIB systems involves an Everhart-Thornley type design using scintillator. A scintillator typically includes a thin glass disk coated with a phosphor that converts energy from secondary electrons into light photons. The scintillator collects some of the secondary electrons emitted from the IC and generates photons responsive to the secondary electrons. In the photomultiplier tube, each photon generates multiple electrons, which are then used to generate an image.
Different material characteristics provide different numbers of secondary electron emissions. For example, with regard to an IC, a dielectric emits substantially less electrons than a metal. Typically, the greater the number of electrons, the brighter the image. Lack of electrons provides a dark image. By rastering the ion beam in a grid-like pattern, the contrast differences are used to generate an image of the target portion of the IC. To generate a clear and accurate image, the secondary electron collection efficiency is an important aspect of any FIB tool. Oftentimes, a large portion of the secondary electrons are emitted away from the SED, making collection difficult.
A practice referred to as "circuit editing" is one example of a use for a FIB tool. Circuit editing involves employing an ion beam to remove and deposit material in an IC with precision. Through removal and deposit of material, electrical connections may be severed or added, which allows designers to implement and test design modifications without repeating the wafer fabrication process. Due to the small scale of the circuit editing process, its success depends strongly on FIB image quality, which, as discussed above, is directly linked to the number of secondary electrons detected by the secondary electron detector.
Circuit editing success also depends on a process referred to as "endpointing." Endpointing involves determining when to stop the FIB milling operation. It is the objective of the operator to stop the milling process at an interface at which the secondary electron signal changes. In one example, endpointing involves detecting the secondary electron signal as the ion beam drills down into the IC. The emission volume is dependent on the material the beam is milling. As mentioned above, metal emits a greater number of secondary electrons than a dielectric. Thus, if the electron emission characteristics are detectable, then boundaries between dielectrics and metals are detectable. The current used to generate an ion beam determines the power of the beam and the size of the hole generated by a beam. As vertical interconnects in an IC get laterally smaller, the ion beam etching current must be decreased. Besides reducing the hole size, the secondary electron signal also decreases. Thus, endpointing becomes more difficult as the secondary electron emission decreases. Further, as the depth of a milling operation increases, the number of secondary electrons that escape the hole becomes less. As such, with less secondary electrons to detect, high collection efficiency becomes more important.
One way to improve the collection efficiency of a SED involves the application of a high voltage (˜10 kV) to the scintillator surrounded by a grounded cap to produce a collection electric field that attracts the secondary electrons. One such system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,630,667 titled "Compact, High Collection Efficiency Scintillator for Secondary Electron Detection," to Wang et al. and issued Oct. 7, 2003, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein. Through the generation of such an electric field, some of the secondary electrons initially emitted in directions away from the SED, are attracted to the scintillator thereby increasing the collection efficiency. Such a system has been successfully employed in Credence Systems Corporation's IDS P3X® FIB system.
However, in FIB systems where it is difficult or impossible to introduce such an collection field proximate the sample, improving secondary electron collection efficiency and its attendant image improvements remains a problem.
Moreover, in some instances, when a high voltage is applied to the SED, the SED behaves as a focusing lens causing secondary electrons to strike the scintillator disc within a very small discrete spot. Over time, a "burn" spot will result with much or all of the phosphor burned from the scintillator disc, leading to reduced detection and a reduced lifetime of the disc. The lifetime of the scintillator disc is further shortened when too many secondary electrons strike the disc as is the case when the primary ion beam current is high. In many instances, a less powerful ion beam might be employed for a particular operation. However, because of the need to detect secondary electrons, a higher beam current is employed to cause the emission of a greater number of secondary electrons.
It is with this background in mind that the inventors developed the various embodiments of the invention described below.


A device for introducing a static magnetic null field is disclosed. The device is comprised of a holder for magnets, wherein the magnets are arranged so that the null field is generated in the area of a sample of cells, tissue or other cellular material. The device is configured to maintain the magnetic null field for long periods of time. The device can function with bar magnets or certain electromagnets.

Cell motility and maintenance of cells in storage are two factors that are highly important to processes for keeping cells viable, or improving viability in cells for a variety of biologic and medical purposes. An important application for maintaining cell motility and for encouraging cell motility is the practice of artificial insemination. In vitro fertilization and artificial insemination both require a large proportion of viable motile sperm to ensure fertilization.
Cell viability must also be maximized in cell and tissue culture. Generally, in cell or tissue culture procedures the media is changed at least every 48 to 72 hours to ensure ongoing viability of the culture. This may result in disruption of the culture and minimally may cause an interruption in constant incubation temperature and other constant conditions, which may be undesirable to certain sensitive cell cultures. In certain cell and tissue cultures, cellular metabolism releases lactic acid which can build up to undesirable quantities in the media. In other circumstances, it is desirable to prevent or diminish cell growth by affecting the metabolism of a cell strain or cell type on a mixed culture. In addition, it is also often a desirable goal to be able to control the metabolic and growth rates of cells in culture. The measurement of metabolic rate of cell cultures can be made by e.g. measurement of lactic acid present in the media. Over production of the products of metabolism can alter conditions significantly within the culture. Control over the metabolic rate allows the practitioner to control the cell population. In addition, inter-cellular communication may be affected by the presence or absence of certain metabolic products.
The present invention involves the induction of static magnetic field null field which is directed to intersect with cells in media rates, to promote effects on the cell involving growth, motility, viability, inter-cellular communication and cell clumping.
In artificial insemination the general standard for viable sample is to have between about 20 to about 60 million viable sperm per cc of sample. For certain artificial insemination procedures in humans, the acceptable range for artificial insemination is between about 5 and about 20 million viable sperm per cc. This range is effective for routine use in artificial insemination. Viability is determined based upon motility.
In normally fertile males, the collection of semen is done through obtaining ejaculate, measuring the number of viable sperm and injecting the sperm into the uterus. In some instances, a split sample is obtained to maximize the number of viable sperm in the inoculate. The split sample has the longest number of viable sperm in the first portion of the ejaculate, generally. However, viability is measured solely on visual observation of members of sperm that are motile.
In decreased fertility, the first portion of the split sample of ejaculate may have 60 million viable sperm while the second ⅔ of the sample may have only 5 million viable sperm. For this reason, the first portion of the ejaculate is collected for use in normal artificial insemination or by injection of the sperm into the uterus.
In situations of decreased fertility, particularly those resulting by non-motile or clumped sperm, the application of the invention of this patent will result in awakening of dormant ions motile sperm and decreased clumping. Therefore, the effective number of viable sperm will be improved.
This device can also be applied to improve activity in sperm in a variety of breeding animals. The application of this invention for increasing the count of viable sperm is applicable to horses and to other farm animals. In certain situations, the use of the device of this invention may increase the number of viable sperm available for artificial insemination. This could vastly improve the breeding possibilities for many farm animals, and in certain instances may improve the outcome of insemination particularly in the breeding of standard bred and saddled bred horses. Restrictions of various horse breeding organizations will have to be modified prior to the universal use of the device in artificial insemination of thoroughbred horses due to the rule restrictions on artificial insemination for breeding purposes.
In particular, protocols for artificial insemination require that at least 1 million sperm per cc. inoculated during this procedure be viable. It is also desired that the sperm not form clumps as clumping reduces the ability of sperm to fertilize ova. Furthermore, in certain instances a microscopic evaluation of a sperm sample may yield a false reading of non-viability due to low evident motility. The practice of this invention, by application of the device disclosed herein, results in higher visible motility and lessened cell clumping, yielding a better result of artificial insemination.
A variety of effects have been documented pertinent to electric and magnetic fields. Several in vitro studies have been used to document responses of selected cell systems to chemical and physical agents. A substantial number of experiments have been conducted to determine the magnetic field effect on a variety of cell systems, both in vitro and in vivo systems. Magnetic field exposures of 50 to 60 Hz, delivered at strengths similar to those measured in standard residential exposure (which ranges between 0.01 to 1.0 μTesla (μT) do not produce any significant in vitro effects that are replicatable by independent studies.
Magnetic field strength greater than 500 μT (5G) have been implied to induce changes in intracellular calcium concentrations and general patterns of gene expression as well as in several components of signal transduction. The general conclusion in the scientific community is that in vitro experimentation involving magnetic field exposures between 50 to 60 Hz have been shown to induce changes in cultured cells only at field strengths that exceed average residential exposures by factors of 1,000 to 100,000.
Magnetic field effects can be induced both through the exposure to a magnetic field and by placement of a cell culture within the null area of the magnetic field. The effects of null field exposure have not been measured as widely as the effect of electric and magnetic fields to date. In particular, exposure to static magnetic fields has not been as extensively evaluated as have the effects of magnetic fields generated by power lines and appliances. These fields are generally not static (as the fields generated by magnetic are) nor are they of the strength of magnetic field as can be produced using magnetite or lodestone.
The evaluation of cellular effect of exposure to an agent can be measured via genetic effect or via mechanical effect. Cultured cells and cell populations have been used to detect the genotoxicity of different environmental agents. Those agents which cause induction of heritable genetic changes directly and those changes which are indicative of heritable changes, such as induced DNA damage, DNA repair, non-heritable chromosomal aberrations and sister chromaid exchanges have been measured. Far short, however, of genotoxic effects, are the effects of physical manipulation upon cell systems. That is, not all electromagnetic or magnetic effect will be seen in genotoxic effects. (These effects are generally transient.)
Transient changes in cell expression have been noted upon exposure of cells in vitro to electric and magnetic fields. These have been postualted as membrane mediated signal transduction by hormones and other signaling agents involving the transmission of signals across the plasma membrane. Low frequency electric or magnetic fields have been postulated to act on intra-cellular processes by influencing only the initial extra-cellular steps of signal transduction. Low frequency, low energy electric and low energy magnetic field interactions with biological systems including cells animals and humans have been conducted. Signal transduction effects have generally been seen as transient.
Although there are a great variety of signals that can be found in biologic systems, the mechanisms for transmitting the information in those signals across the plasma membrane are relatively few. Signal transduction may be a factor in cell mediated movement, cell-cell iterations and intra-cellular communications. In all known signal transduction systems, a signal interacts with an intra-cellular protein (a receptor or voltage sensitive ion channel) and triggers conformational changes in the protein that results in other signals or modifications of cellular metabolism. Signaling agents with limited ability to cross the cell membrane interact with receptor proteins that span the cell membrane. These ligand-activated receptors have an extra-cellular domain that is exposed to the medium surrounding the cell and signaling agents interact with this extra-cellular domain. Interaction of the signal with the extra cellular portion of the receptor produces conformational changes which are then transmitted across the membrane to the intra-cellular portions of the receptor molecule. Interaction of the intra-cellular portion of the receptor with other intracellular molecules causes changes in the activities of cellular pathways. The same receptor pathways may also function to affect the motility of cellular structures such as flagella and/or cilia.
Magnetic fields may interact with atoms, ions, or molecules in the plasma membrane or within the intra-cellular material or the nucleus of the cell. Any of these possible interaction methods may function in a signal transduction event leading to further changes in the function of the cell, or in the behavior of a cellular organism. Magnetic field exposures could cause changes in affinity of receptors for the ligand or in the effectiveness of transaction processes at low field strengths.
One area that has not been extensively studied is the effect of magnetic fields upon cell cultures and cell populations of induced magnetic fields exposure. The changes in response of these systems can be evaluated by comparison of the metabolism of the cells, motility of cells, and general physical condition of the cells during the evaluation. It may also be possible to show in the future that low level magnetic in electric fields may affect the ion uptake systems mediated by the plasma membrane. Alternatively, transmitters produced by various cell types may be affected by the induction of electrical or magnetic fields.
The literature remains consistent in the finding that low level electric and electro-magnetic fields have no substantiated effect, such as would cause adverse effects, cause cancer, affect reproduction or neurobehavoiral responses. Generally, studies of electro-magnetic fields have concentrated on field levels as are observable at or near high voltage transmission lines. These structures presented great concern for individuals owning property traversed by these high voltage lines in the 1970's. The general finding has been that there is little evidence of adverse effects upon animals from either power transmission line induced electric or electromagnetic fields.
The intra-cellular structure and sub-cellular structures such as the agents of cell motion (cilia or flagella) may be affected by the signal transduction pathway of inter-cellular communications. Microtubule, centromers and other intra-cellular structures may also be effected by the application of relatively high intensity magnetic field (greater than 100 Gauss). No effect of magnetic field exposure has been found at the lower level where lower magnetic field intensities as are found near high voltage transmission lines and the like.
There are many ways to evaluate systems used to measure effects upon cells. Measurement of metabolism by lactic acid output in cell culture, cell motility, cell division, uptake of nutrient, and other various effects are used to determine the impact of an environmental gent upon a cell population.
In addition, during certain procedures for infertility treatments or during procedures for measurements of sperm viability, the exhibited motion of spermatocyes is measured to determine viability of the sample. In certain instances, non-viability may be indicated due to dormancy of cell as opposed to actual non-viability of cells. Thus, it is desirable to choose a method for inducing dormant cells to exit their dormant phase and to exhibit viability to that a true measure of sample viability can be determined.
Cells that are dormant, (thus non-motile) are often counted as non viable cells, when in fact they are not motile at the time of observation, but may become motile if environmental conditions are appropriate. The environmental conditions at issue include zinc or potassium ion concentration and amount of fructose present in the semen.
To date, there have been few processes or devices available to the practitioner to accurately determine the actual viability of cell populations where cell viability is measured by cell motility and may be affected by dormancy. The present device allows the practitioner to determine with accuracy, cell motility and/or viability.
The present invention improves cell motility without chemical addition to or modification of the media containing the cells being evaluated. In addition, the utilization of the subject invention resulted in no alteration of ultimate cell functionality and has no discernable effect upon the viability of the cells so treated.
The present invention applies directly to improved accuracy of measurement of viable flagellated cells and to improving flagellated cell viability, without any lasting adverse effect. Any improved motility may be due to effects on calcium channels in the plasma membrane. In certain cell collection procedures such as those undertaken to conduct artificial insemination, or in those measurements for determining sperm count in semen, it has been found that count of viable cells may be artificially low due to visualized inactivity of sperm cells. The within invention allows the practitioner to obtain an accurate measurement of sperm viability in a given sample by insuring that dormant sperm are not counted as non-viable. It further provides that sperm cells that are in a dormant state are not improperly attributed to a non-viable count of sperm cells but in fact are included in the count of viable sperm. Application of the within invention to cell collection media provides for accurate determination of viable cell count. This will allow medical practitioners to accurately counsel patients as to likelihood of conception in cases of previously determined low sperm count that may not result of non-viable sperm but are existent as a result of counting dormant sperm is non-viable. In addition, during artificial insemination, the within invention will allow the practitioner to perform the artificial insemination procedure using cells with a greater proportion of a sperm in the activated functional state. This result should improve the likelihood of conception as a result of the artificial insemination procedure.
The use of the device with an invention also has a demonstrated effect upon the metabolic rate of certain cell cultures. The ability to influence cell metabolic rate is important in regulation of processes where cellular metabolism runs in uncontrolled fashion, as is evident in cancer and certain infectious processes. The effect observed by applying the device of this invention is a decrease cell culture metabolism. Thereby cell culture viability and nutrient uptake may be affected. This effect may be important for sustaining cell culture populations, maintaining viable cell cultures in the laboratory.

Device and method for increasing viability in cell types


A magnet system (100) for an electromechanical transducer has a first set (2) of magnets and a second set (4) of magnets. The first set (2) of magnets has a first, inner annular magnet (6) and a first outer, annular magnet (8), and the second set (4) of magnets has a second, inner annular magnet (10) and a second, outer annular magnet (12). The first, inner annular magnet (6) is arranged in the interior of the first outer annular magnet (8), and the second inner annular magnet (10) is arranged in the interior of the second outer annular magnet (12). The magnetic polarity in respect of the first, inner annular magnet (6), the first, outer annular magnet (8), the second, inner annular magnet (10), and of the second, outer annular magnet (12) has a direction (Y) corresponding to a direction perpendicular to the annular extension (X) of the magnets.

Electromechanical transducers are devices which provides for producing a mechanical movement in a response to an electric signal being provided thereto. Accordingly, electromechanical transducers find application in all sorts of technology where it is desired to control a mechanical actuation with an electric signal.
Many types of electromechanical transducers exploit the phenomenon that when an electric wire is conducting an electric current in the vicinity of a magnetic field, the wire experiences a force being exerted on the wire.
As the force exerted on the wire will have a magnitude commensurate with the magnitude of the current flowing in the wire and with the magnitude of the magnetic field, it is clear that for some applications it is desirable to provide the magnetic field as strong as possible.
One type of technology in which electromechanical transducers have found widely use is the field of loudspeakers.
A loudspeaker includes a magnetic system typically including one or more magnets in combination with iron elements arranged in a configuration so that an air gap is provided through which magnetic flux from the magnets is directed. In the air gap is arranged a voice coil which is provided with the electric signal to be transformed into sound, optionally via a cross-over filter.
A diaphragm is connected to the voice coil. As the diaphragm includes a relatively large area, an electric signal provided to the voice coil will by virtue of induction translate into a movement of the diaphragm, the magnitude of which will mimic the electric signal being provided to the voice coil. Thereby the electric signal provided to the voice coil will translate into sonic waves propagating through the air from the diaphragm.
The design of magnet systems for loudspeakers has for many years adhered to rather conservative concepts.
These concepts generally follow the following principles. The magnet systems of prior art loudspeakers include an annular magnet being arranged between a T-yoke and a top plate. The T-yoke includes a base plate and a cylindrical extension, extending therefrom. The top plate includes a circular central hole. In this way an air gap for a voice coil is formed between the cylindrical extension of the T-yoke and the hole in the top plate.
The annular magnet is having its magnetic polarity aligned in a direction parallel to the extension of the T-yoke. Hereby magnetic flux follows from the magnet to the top plate through the air gap and into the extension of the T-yoke, further through the base plate of the T-yoke and back to the magnet.
This conservative design current used in the design of the magnet system for loudspeakers in turn suffers from a number of drawbacks.
One of these drawbacks is that the design itself of the magnet system does not allow attaining a desirable high magnetic flux density in the air gap between the top plate and the pole of the T-yoke. A non-optimum magnetic flux density in the air gap of the pole piece implies a inefficient speaker in the sense that only a small amount of power being supplied to the voice coil translates into mechanical movement of the diaphragm of the speaker.
Another drawback of the prior art T-yoke type magnet systems is the inherent asymmetric magnetic field encountered in the air gap and especially in the vicinity of the borders of the air gap. Such asymmetry implies various types of undesirably distortion of the movement of the voice coil, in relation to the electric signal supplied thereto.
Yet another disadvantage of the above type of magnet systems for loudspeakers is that an undesirably high inductance of the voice coil, is encountered in the air gap of the magnet system. Such high inductance leads to a non-linear response of the voice coil in relation to the electric signal supplied thereto.
Accordingly, a need persists to improve the design of magnet systems for electromechanical transducers and in particular in relation to uses in acoustic drivers for loudspeakers.
The present disclosure in its various aspect seeks to meet this need.
Accordingly, it is an objective of the present disclosure to provide devices and uses which meet these needs.

Magnet system for an electromechanical transducer


An apparatus and method for monitoring the status of one or more pilot flames or of the main flame in a flare system. A collimator, quartz light tube, or other receiver is positioned near the combustion zone and receives an image which is transmitted via a fiber optic line to an analyzing sensor which is located at a safe distance from the flare system. The fiber optic line preferably extends through a pilot gas line, a flame front generator line, or other protective conduit so that the fiber optic line can be cooled and purged by pilot gas, instrument air, or other cooling gas media which is continuously delivered through the conduit.

Process flare systems are widely used in the refining, chemical, petrochemical, petroleum production, and other industries for burning flammable and/or toxic materials which are released due to upset or startup conditions, or which are released simply as a result of the process itself. Flare stacks and other flare systems typically include one or more flare pilot burners which must remain in continuous operation in order to ignite the materials which are disposed of through the flare system.
A need exists for an apparatus and method for monitoring process flares and flare pilot burners which (a) provide reliable, instantaneous feedback, (b) are capable of identifying and monitoring each individual pilot burner in the flare system, as well as the flare itself, and (c) can be repaired, maintained or replaced without taking the flare system out of operation.
In order to prevent serious injury or illness resulting from the release of toxic substances, and to protect the plant personnel and the processing facility itself from harm due to fire and/or explosion, it is imperative that the operating status of the pilot burners used in the flare system, as well as the flare itself, be known or instantaneously determinable at all times. The systems heretofore available in the art for monitoring flares and flare pilot burners have involved (a) the use of long distance optics, (b) the use of thermocouples positioned in the combustion flames, or (c) flame rod ionization. Unfortunately, these existing systems and techniques have significant shortcomings and are not entirely reliable.
The optical monitoring systems currently employed in the art require the use of long distance lenses which are mounted at grade at a safe distance from the flare. Because of the distance involved, the viewing lens can be obstructed by fog, rain, snow, dust, smoke, or other conditions. The long distance viewing systems are also difficult to aim and are subject to movement over time. Further, the long distance viewing systems must be set to view an area large enough to account for significant differences in the actual position of the flame which can be caused by changing wind conditions. Consequently, for these and other reasons, the long distance viewing systems typically cannot adequately distinguish, for example, between the flame produced by a flare pilot burner versus the flame produced by the flare itself.
Thermocouple and flame rod ionization systems, on the other hand, require that the thermocouple or ionization rod be positioned in or substantially in the flame itself, thus causing rapid degradation which severely limits the useful life of these components. The replacement of such components is costly and is typically difficult, or sometimes impossible, to accomplish without taking the flare out of operation. Moreover, thermocouple and ion rod systems are also deficient in that (a) thermocouples do not provide sufficiently rapid temperature responses for instantaneous flame recognition and (b) ionization rods are viewed to be unreliable and prone to operational problems and difficulties in open environments.

Apparatus and method for monitoring flares and flare pilots


A display substrate and a preparation method thereof, and a display device are provided. The display substrate includes a display region and an opening region, the display region surrounds the opening region, a first barrier wall is between the display region and the opening region, and the first barrier wall surrounds the opening region; the first barrier wall includes a first metal layer structure, and at least one side surface, surrounding the opening region, of the first metal layer structure includes a recess.

At present, a display screen of a display device is developing towards large screen and full screen. Generally, a display device (e.g., a mobile phone, a tablet computer, etc.) has a camera device (or an imaging device), which is usually disposed on a side outside the display region of the display screen. However, installation of the camera device requires a certain position, which is not beneficial to a design of full screen and narrow frame of the display screen. For example, the camera device may be combined with the display region of the display screen, and a position is reserved for the camera device in the display region, so as to maximize the display region of the display screen.

Display substrate, preparation method thereof and display device

CHENGDU BOE OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY GO., LTD.


Disclosed is a disk drive that determines dynamic fly height (DFH) head non-linearity. A processor of the disk drive controls operations in the disk drive including: estimating a first and second set of head media spacing (HMS) actuation data for a DFH head at a first and second data frequency by commanding the application of power to the DFH head across a pre-defined power range; determining a first and second HMS value based upon the first and second sets of HMS actuation data; calculating a difference value between the first and second HMS values; determining whether the difference value exceeds a threshold.

A huge market exists for disk drives for mass-market computing devices such as desktop computers and laptop computers, as well as small form factor (SFF) disk drives for use in mobile computing devices (e.g. personal digital assistants (PDAs), cell-phones, digital cameras, etc.). To be competitive, a disk drive should be relatively inexpensive and provide substantial capacity, rapid access to data, and reliable performance.
Disk drives typically employ a moveable head actuator to frequently access large amounts of data stored on a disk. One example of a disk drive is a hard disk drive. A conventional hard disk drive has a head disk assembly ("HDA") including at least one magnetic disk ("disk"), a spindle motor for rapidly rotating the disk, and a head stack assembly ("HSA") that includes a head gimbal assembly (HGA) with a moveable head for reading and writing data. The HSA forms part of a servo control system that positions the moveable head over a particular track on the disk to read or write information from and to that track, respectively.
Typically, a conventional hard disk drive includes one or more disks in which each disk has a plurality of concentric tracks. Each surface of each disk conventionally contains a plurality of concentric data tracks angularly divided into a plurality of data sectors. In addition, special servo information may be provided on each disk to determine the position of the head.
The head typically comprises a read/write transducer formed on the trailing surface of a slider. When the disk media is rotated, a thin film of air forms between the disk and an air bearing surface (ABS) of the slider. During operation of the disk drive, the head is said to "fly" over the surface of the disk, with the ABS being disposed just above the disk's surface. The thin film of air formed between the ABS and the disk surface is known as the air bearing. The very small separation distance between the transducer of the flying head and the surface of the disk is referred to as the "fly height". When the flying head is suspended above the disk in this manner, it is moved by the servo control system over a desired concentric track of the disk to access data stored on that track.
The fly height of the head is a factor affecting the density of magnetic data that can be stored on the disk. In recent years, the magnetic recording industry has strived to increase data storage density by employing various techniques aimed at decreasing the average fly height of the head over the rotating disk. Dynamic fly height (DFH) heads are utilized to fly at increasingly smaller fly heights to increase data storage capacity.
Typically, to control the fly height of a DFH head relative to a disk, power is applied in the form of current to a heater element of the DFH head which causes the DFH head to move closer to the disk. In this way, the DFH head is able to fly at a predetermined distance from the disk in order to read and write magnetic patterns to the disk. As storage capacity has increased, DFH heads are required to fly closer to disks and to maintain smaller more precise distances from the disks.
In order to characterize a DFH head to determine an optimal fly height, characterization testing is performed to characterize the fly height of the DFH head across an applied power range. These characterization methods typically rely on spacing models that are utilized to estimate head media spacing (HMS) in terms of an HMS curve. Typically, a Wallace spacing model is used. The Wallace spacing model or Wallace spacing loss equation, expresses a relationship between the read-back voltage from the head and head/disk spacing.
In particular, the Wallace spacing loss equation describes the amplitude of the read-back signal to the spacing of the head above the recording medium (HMS), as follows:
      HMS    =                  λ                  2                    π                    *              ln                          (                                    V              1                                      V              0                                )                      ;wherein HMS is the fly height of the head above the disk; λ is the wavelength in distance between two magnetic data transitions; V1 is the amplitude of the read-back signal at distance HMS; and V0 is the amplitude when the head is very close to the disk or if the head is making contact with the disk (i.e., the touchdown voltage).
A typical assumption for the Wallace spacing loss equation for the generation of HMS curves is that the measured head voltage is a linear function of the magnetic field sensed by the DFH head. Unfortunately, if the linearity assumption between the magnetic field and the read-back voltage is incorrect, the spacing measurements may lead to an erroneous determination of head/disk spacing (i.e., the fly height).
The Wallace spacing loss equation is typically utilized in the testing of DFH heads to develop an HMS actuation curve for a group of heads to determine a proper operating fly height for the DFH heads. However, the reliability of this method is premised upon the fact that the DFH heads act in a linear fashion. If a DFH head has non-linear characteristics, then the Wallace spacing loss equation may not accurately describe the DFH head and the HMS actuation curve that allegedly describes the fly height characteristics of the DFH head may likewise be inaccurate.
Unfortunately, if the fly height for non-linear DFH heads is inaccurately determined, head-disk interactions and damage to the heads and/or disks may occur during operation. It is therefore desirable to identify non-linear DFH heads.

Determining head non-linearity in a disk drive


Methods, apparatus, systems, and computer-readable media are provided for optimizing robot-implemented tasks based at least in part on historical task and location correlated duration data collected from one or more robots. Historical task and location correlated duration data may, in some implementations, include durations of different tasks performed in different locations by one or more robots in one or more particular environments, and knowledge of such durations may be used to optimize tasks performed by the same or different robots in the future.

An autonomous or semi-autonomous robot may be called upon to handle a wide variety of tasks in a wide variety of environments. Assessing performance of a robot in connection with the performance of such tasks, however, can be difficult, particularly in applications where the nature of the tasks performed by a robot are such that the tasks are not repeatable using the exact same sequence of operations each time. In an illustrative example of a multipurpose residential cleaning robot, for example, cleaning tasks may differ each time they are performed due to the presence of different obstructions, differing degrees of cleanliness or uncleanliness, etc. Adapting the operation of a robot to better accommodate differing environments and conditions is generally desirable, so a need generally exists for improved manners of optimizing robot tasks in such variable environments.

Robot task optimization based on historical task and location correlated durations


Disclosed are systems and methods for providing improved rendering of graphical user interfaces for remote applications executing within remote sessions. A remote session client that renders the graphical user interface (GUI) for a remote application is configured to detect certain mouse events that would trigger window move events. In doing so, the remote session client may handle rendering the window GUI locally rather than wait for window move events from the remote application. The remote session client may be further configured to predict using calculated resize patterns how the window content image changes while the remote application's window is being resized.

Remote desktop technologies (also referred to as "remote access") allow a local user interacting with a local computing device to control and view a remote desktop session originating from a remote computer or host. A remote desktop client application running on the client computer and a remote desktop server application running on the server computer together facilitate "remoting" a desktop session. The remote desktop client application receives user input, such as keyboard and mouse input, and converts the input into a network-compatible representation to be transmitted to the server computer. The remote desktop server application running on the server computer receives the network-compatible representation of the user input, and converts this representation into actual input messages. The input messages are then sent to the server computer's message queue and processed as if the input was generated at the server computer. Therefore, applications running on the server computer respond to the input as if the input was generated at the server computer.
However, the latency between a local computing device and the remote host can cause poor user experiences during certain dynamic interactions with the remote desktop session. For example, a user moving windows within the remote desktop session might experience stuttered motion or graphical artifacts due to the delay in receiving updates from the remote sessions. This degradation of user experience is particularly pronounced in mixed (e.g., seamlessly integrated) local and remote environments, where the user experience of moving the windows of the remote application is perceptively worse than the user experience of moving the window of a locally executing application.

Enhancing user experience on moving and resizing windows of remote applications


A moulding press for a moulding device which comprises two mould halves movable relative to each other. The mould halves are connected by a pair of spaced joint linkages located opposite one another. Each joint linkage includes two pivotable arms which are connected in a hinge-like manner to each other and to a respective first and second plate. Control arms engage the joint linkages and are movably coupled to a control element. Movement of the control element will result in link motion of the control arms and cause movement of the mould halves toward each other or away from each other.

The present invention relates to a moulding press for a transfer- or injection-moulding machine, comprising two mould halves which can be moved relative to each other, in which the connection between said mould halves comprises joint lever means consisting of two arms which are connected in a hinge-like manner to each other, the free ends of which are connected in a hinge-like manner to the upper and lower mould halves and in which a control arm engages on the hinge point of the arms, the other end of which control arm engages on a cam track of a cam disc, the cam disc being mounted rotatably on the frame of the moulding press.
Such a moulding press is disclosed in the German Offenlegungsschrift 2,252,953. In this moulding press, a joint lever means is present and the cam disc is provided with a closed track. To prevent movement of the end of the control arm which engages on the cam track, said arm is connected in a hinge-like manner to a rod which is connected to the frame of the device. There is a horizontal guiding for the control arm, which guiding permits a deflection with respect to the horizontal position with the aid of a spring construction.
If relatively large forces, such as occur, for example, in transfer- or injection-moulding devices, have to be transmitted by means of such a device, a construction of this kind becomes very inefficient. After all, the cam disc is subjected to a high one-sided load and therefore the disc will have to be of a correspondingly robust design. This means that a relatively large drive will have to be installed adjacent to the transfer- or injection-moulding device. In addition, the various arms of the construction will have to be of a correspondingly robust design.
The object of the present invention is to provide a control mechanism for the above mentioned moulding press, which does not have these disadvantages.

Moulding press for an injection moulding device


An apparatus and method for supporting common channel packet data (CCPD) services in a cdma2000 random access network without using a traffic channel. A CCPD device requests CCPD service from the network by sending an Origination message to the BS with the SDB_DESIRED_ONLY bit set to 1 and the FCH_SUPPORTED bit and DCCH_SUPPORTED bit set to 0. Upon successful authentication of the device, PPP connection setup and Mobile IP Registration are performed using SDBs over common channels to exchange messages. The first SDB sent to the CCPD device by the BS acknowledges the device's request for CCPD service. If the BS is unable to support the CCPD service request, no SDB will be sent and the call attempt will fail. A CCPD MS may request CCPD service from the network by sending an Origination message to the BS with the SDB_DESIRED_ONLY bit, FCH_SUPPORTED bit and DCCH_SUPPORTED bit set to 1. If the BS denies the request for CCPD services, normal packet data procedures are performed.

Data services are generally grouped into two categories: circuit-oriented (which includes Asynchronous Data and Group-3 Fax services) and packet. For calls that support packet data services, a Packet Data Serving Node (PDSN) serves as an interface between the transmission of data in a fixed network and the transmission of data over an air interface. The PDSN interfaces to a base system (BS) through a Packet Control Function (PCF), which may or may not be co-located with the BS.
As defined in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2; 3GPP2 Access Network Interfaces Interoperability Specification (hereinafter referred to as 3GPP2 A.S0001-A), which is herein incorporated by reference, there are three packet data service states: Active/Connected, Dormant, and Null/Inactive. (The 3GPP2 specification is the same in content as TIA/EIA/IS-2001-A June 2001.) When a MS station (MS) originates a packet data call to the current cdma2000 Radio Access Network (RAN), a traffic channel is allocated to establish a point-to-point protocol (PPP) connection and perform Mobile Internet protocol (IP) Registration procedures. Upon successful completion of these procedures, the MS's packet data service transitions from a Null to an Active/Connected state and the network and MS exchange packet data over a traffic channel. After a predefined period of inactivity, the MS's packet data service transitions from an Active to a Dormant state, however it may become Active again if the MS or network has data to send. Inter-PDSN Dormant mode handoffs also require the allocation of a traffic channel to support the setup of a new PPP connection and Re-Registration.
In the Active/Connected State, a physical traffic channel exists between a MS and a BS, and either unit may send data. In the Dormant State, no physical traffic channel exists between the MS and BS, but the PPP link between the MS and the PDSN is maintained. In the Null/Inactive State, there is no traffic channel between the MS and BS and there is no PPP link between the MS and the PDSN.
A1 through A11 interfaces are defined in Section 1.7.2 of 3GPP2 A.S0001-A. A1 and A8 connections are maintained during the Active/Connected state and released during transition to Dormant or Null/Inactive state. The A10 connection is maintained during the Active/Connected and the Dormant State. As part of the support for the Dormant State, the cdma2000 air interface (TIA/EIA-IS-2000) supports a Data Ready to Send (DRS) indicator that is used on Origination. When a MS sends an origination request with a packet data service option specified, the request includes the DRS bit. This indicator is set to 1 on initial call setup when the MS wishes to transition from Dormant to Active because it has data to send and is requesting the establishment of a traffic channel. Subsequently, the DRS bit is set to 0 to indicate that the MS has transitioned a packet zone boundary (see section 2.14.1 of 3GPP2 A.S0001-A) while Dormant, and is sending the origination request to update the network as to its current location.
Upon receipt of an origination request with the DRS bit set to 1, the BS initiates the call setup procedure as shown in Section 184.108.40.206 of 3GPP2 A.S0001-A, which normally results in the establishment of a traffic channel and in the A8 and A10 bearer connections being established. The procedures for the A8 and A10 bearer connections are defined in 3GPP2 A.S0001 -A, Sections 2.14 and 2.15, respectively. When the BS receives an origination with the DRS bit set to 0, the BS delays the establishment of a traffic channel until after the A8 and A10 bearer connection establishment procedures are complete. During the A8 bearer connection establishment procedure, the BS indicates to the PCF that a DRS=0 has been received through the use of the Data Ready Indicator element in the A9-Setup-A8 message (as defined in Section 126.96.36.199.1. of 3GPP2 A.S0001-A). If the PCF has data from the network to deliver to the MS, it indicates this by setting the cause element in the A9-Connect-A8 message (as defined in Section 188.8.131.52.2 of 3GPP2 A.S0001-A) to the Data Ready to Send value. The BS then establishes a traffic channel to the MS and completes a normal call setup procedure as specified in Section 18.104.22.168 of 3GPP2 A.S0001-A. If the PCF does not have data, it indicates that the A8 connection is not being established by sending the A9-Release-A8 Complete message (as defined in Section 184.108.40.206 of 3GPP2 A.S0001-A) to the BS. The BS then returns an Assignment Failure message to the MSC with the cause value set to Packet Call Going Dormant. Upon receipt of the Assignment Failure message, the MSC returns a Clear Command to the BS with the cause value set to Do Not Notify Mobile. The BS sends a Clear Complete message to the MSC upon receipt of the Clear Command message.

Apparatus and method for supporting common channel packet data service in a CDMA2000 RAN


A valve assembly includes a valve housing having an internal generally cup-shaped bore, a valve control cartridge inserted into the bore and having a rotatable control stem extending upwardly therefrom, and a bonnet nut having a through-bore. The bonnet nut is threaded to the valve housing such that the control stem extends through the through-bore. Flexible fingers are provided along the through-bore to control a level of resistance to a rotation of the rotatable control stem. The stem is positioned to frictionally engage the flexible fingers as the stem is rotated.

The present invention relates to valve assemblies having improved disk, bonnet, and hose attachment features.
A variety of fluid control valves are known. One type of fluid control valve is a rotational, non-rise valve. This type of valve is commonly used to control a flow of a single particular fluid, such as a hot or cold water supply, to a faucet, spout, or other plumbing fitting. Some such valves have a handle that drives a rotatable valve stem, with the stem in turn rotating an apertured disk over an apertured stationary disk, to control the flow of a fluid up from the bottom of a valve cartridge and out the side. This type of valve is commonly used in a "widespread" arrangement where one such valve is positioned about six inches to the right of a spout, another such valve is positioned about six inches to the left of a spout, and the linkages between the valves and the spout are below a countertop or the like.
While such valves have many desirable features, there is still room for improvement. For example, the flow path of some such valves brings the water into substantial contact with a brass housing. Because many conventional brasses contain some lead, and because long term use of such valves has therefore raised some regulatory concerns about contact of potable water with leaded brass, it is desirable to find ways of configuring such valves to minimize contact between the potable water and leaded brass housings.
In some approaches to address this problem suppliers have attempted to remove lead from their housing brasses (e.g. by substituting bismuth for the lead). However, this can add cost and/or make machinability more complex when forming the housing.
Another approach is to link plastic or copper tubing to the valve, and place the tubing inside an outer housing, to minimize the time that the potable water is in contact with the leaded brass. However, this may still leave considerable contact between the valve housing and the potable water, particularly in widespread configurations.
There have been some attempts to redirect flow downward rather than sideways in connection with mixing valves. For example, in the valve disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,242 a movable disk redirects mixed water downward, rather than sideways. This is not in connection with a single flow control valve, and in any event still requires substantial contact between the valve housing and potable water.
Further, conventional single control valve configurations often rely on multiple O-ring seals or other techniques to avoid leakage out of the valve. See e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,770. Given that such valves can be expected to be used for decades once installed, there is an interest in reducing the number of such O-rings needed, and the incidence of needed maintenance relating thereto.
Moreover, there is a continued interest in reducing the complexity of assembling such valves, to lower cost relating thereto. A particular area of interest is how to reduce the labor costs relating to assembling the water supply and/or outlet connections to the valve cartridge, without compromising reliability of the connection.
Another area of such valves where there is a desire for improvement relates to optimizing the level of rotational resistance to control handle movement while supporting the rotational stem against wobble. Without some amount of resistance when turning a valve, it may appear to a consumer that the valve is broken or improperly functioning. Too much resistance can make the valve undesirable insofar as use by persons who have arthritis or otherwise are unable comfortably supply the needed force. Further, whatever solution is developed must impede excess amounts of wobble when the handle forces reach the rotational stem.
In some prior art configurations, tightening an outer bonnet too much or too little can impact on the appreciated resistance. Even where the resistance is determined in other ways, manufacturing variability can lead to undesirable variations in perceived resistance.
Hence, a need exists for improvements in these areas with respect to valve assemblies.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Valve assembly having improved rotational feel


A lens-fitted photo film unit contains a cartridge shell into which an IC memory is incorporated, and a roll of photo filmstrip having a magnetic recording layer. Unit ID data and date-of-manufacture data are written in the IC memory in the factory. A data recording circuit is provided on a flash circuit board. The data recording circuit is connected to the IC memory through a printed circuit board mounted to a cartridge chamber of the film unit. A finder mask and a photo sensor for detecting the position of the finder mask are mounted in the film unit. The photo sensor is connected to the data recording circuit, to write photographic data corresponding to the output of the photo sensor in the IC memory at each exposure. Before printing, the data written in the IC memory is read to be recorded on the magnetic recording layer of the photo filmstrip by use of an external recording device which is connectable to the IC memory through an interface terminal which is exposed to an exterior of the film unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data recording method for recording photographic data in an IC memory during photography, and on a magnetic recording layer formed on a filmstrip. The present invention relates also to a lens-fitted photo film unit having a data recording device for recording photographic data in an IC memory during photography.
2. Background Arts
A new type photo film cartridge, called IX 240 type or Advanced Photo System type, has recently been put on the market. The IX 240 type film cartridge contains a photo filmstrip having a transparent magnetic recording layer, as is disclosed in December 1994 issue of SHASHIN KOGYO, p.11, published by Shashin Kogyo Shuppan Co. Ltd., International Patent Publication WO 90/04214, and so forth. The magnetic recording layer is used to record photographic data or the like which is produced by the camera, and read it to utilize for printing and other purpose.
The photographic data written on the magnetic recording layer may include exposure data such as shutter speed, aperture size and light source, print format data designating one of standard, panoramic and cine size. If the camera has a device to designate a trimming or clopping range, as disclosed in JPA 54-26721, the trimming range may be included in the print format data. Also, date data or optional character data for printing the date of photograph or the title or comments in addition to the photographed scene.
The photographic data can be read out in a photo-lab. For example, the exposure data is utilized for controlling exposure in printing. The print format data is utilized for automatic setting of the print magnification, the film mask and the paper mask, so that it is possible to automatically make prints in the different formats according to the photographer's request even when the original frames on the filmstrip have a constant size. Since the date data or the character data read out from the magnetic recording layer makes it possible to photographically print character information on the photo paper concurrently with the image printing, those optical data recording devices incorporated in conventional cameras are not necessary. The character data may include data of printing position, printing posture, printing size and printing color, so that it can innovate in the optical data recording for photo-prints.
Camera type data on the magnetic recording layer may be utilized for determining whether print-exposure correction is necessary or not. Recording number-of-print data with such a frame from which a known plural number of prints are to made, permits obtaining the necessary number of prints immediately after the development, so that the photographer need not order extra printing. The magnetic recording layer may be used for recording data in the photo-lab, such as the number of extra prints, print-exposure correction data, and the reception date and reception number of print order.
For the magnetic recording on the photo film, the camera must have a magnetic recording device comprised of a magnetic head and a magnetic head driving circuit. Because the photo film is certainly stiffer than ordinary magnetic audio or video recording tapes, it is necessary to support the magnetic head or the photo film in a specific fashion to maintain the head in proper contact with the magnetic recording layer during the recording. Moreover, because the magnetic recording should be accomplished while the photo film is advanced one frame after each exposure at changeable or unstable speed, it is necessary to adjust the data recording speed to the film advancing speed. Accordingly, the magnetic head driving circuit have to be complicated and expensive.
For the reasons as above, it is commercially impossible to incorporate a magnetic recording device for the photo film into economy type cameras or single-use cameras including lens-fitted photo film units preloaded with unexposed photo film. Hereinafter, the lens-fitted photo film units will be referred to as film units. Without the magnetic recording, the photographer cannot make the best of the IX 240 type film cartridge, though the IX 240 type is preferable for the compact cameras and the film units because it is smaller and lighter than conventional film cartridges.
On the other hand, JPA 56-154720 and JPA 2-217829 disclose a photo film cartridge with an IC memory or semiconductor memory, and a system for recording photographic data as above in the IC memory so as to permit the photographer or the photofinisher to utilize the photographic data. This IC memory system functions substantially in the same way as the above magnetic recording system, and the cost can be lower than the magnetic recording system. Accordingly, it has been studied to introduce the IC memory system into the cheap cameras and the film units.
For example, a data recording circuit for recording data in the IC memory may be provided on the same printed circuit board as the flash circuit of the film unit, and may be supplied from the battery for the flash circuit. In that case, however, it is necessary to wire from the data recording circuit on the flash circuit board to a data recording terminal in a cartridge chamber, to access the IC memory of the photo film cartridge. Wiring is so hard to automate, that it would require manual assembly steps, and raise the manufacturing cost of the film unit. Since the flash circuit board is determined to be reused, the circuit board must be easy to dissemble even if it has the data recording circuit connected to the IC memory. Furthermore, the wiring from the flash circuit board to the cartridge chamber should not remarkably enlarge the size of the film unit.
There is another problem in the IC memory system. Once the photo film is separated from the cartridge shell with the IC memory, it is impossible to correlate the photo film with the photographic data written in the IC memory. For correlation, JPA 2-217829 discloses recording identical or corresponding indicia on both the photo film and the cartridge shell. If the indicia on the photo film or the portion having the indicia is damaged, the correlation becomes impossible. Also, it is necessary to correlate the respective frames on the photo film with the photographic data with reference to other indicia provided for indicating the position or the serial number of each frame, such as notches or bar code.
JPA 4-306628 discloses a film unit attached with a date memory device for storing the date of photographing in an IC memory such as SRAM or EEPROM. The date memory device is removable from the film unit, and includes a clock section and a control section besides the IC memory. The date memory device and the used photo film cartridge are removed from the film unit in the photo-lab. The exposed photo film is developed, and the date memory device is set in a specific photo printer along with the corresponding photo film, so that the date data is read from the IC memory, to print the date of photography in an appropriate position of the photo paper in association with each image. Alternatively, the date of photography is optically recorded on the photo film before development, based on the date data written in the IC memory. Thereby, the date of photography will always be printed with the image.
It may be possible to provide a memory device in the film unit to write not only date data but also other photographic data in an IC memory of the memory device. However, it is hard to optically record all pieces of photographic data on the photo film before development. Therefore, it is desirable to permit recording the photographic-data read from the IC memory on the magnetic recording layer of the photo film.

Lens-fitted photo film unit and data recording method therefor


A storage system is disclosed for performing control to match data among cache memories corresponding to shared volumes when multiple disk controllers containing cache memories are accessing shared volumes formed in the storage device. The storage system contains a switch for switching and connecting the multiple disk controllers containing cache memories, with a disk array containing the shared volumes capable of being commonly accessed from the multiple disk controllers. The switch performs exclusive access control of the multiple disk controllers' writing on the shared volumes, and performs control to match data other than modified data among the cache memories.

The present invention relates to a storage device and relates in particular to control for accessing storage areas shared among multiple disk controllers (DKC) containing cache memories in storage systems.
Current high-performance computer systems contain large-capacity secondary storage devices. Data required by the host device such as the CPU (central processing unit) is stored in the secondary storage device and is written into or read from the CPU (or other device) whenever needed. An nonvolatile storage medium is generally used as the secondary storage device. Typical secondary storage devices, for example, are disk devices such as magnetic disk devices or optical disks, etc.
In recent years, higher performance is being required of these disk devices due to advances in information processing. In response to higher performance, disk devices in particular need higher data input/output throughput and more disk drive units must be connected.
One method for improving the throughput in disk devices is to connect multiple disk controllers to a disk array, and to increase the number of ports connecting the host device with the cache memory capacity of the disk device.
One disk device of this type is disclosed for example in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2001-344188 wherein a disk array device with multiple disk drives shared among multiple controllers. This disclosed related art is hereinafter called the First related art.
Another method of the related art attempted in particular to increase the number of connected disk drive units is by means of the switch connection at the disk array connections to the disk controller within the disk device.
A switch for this type of switching connection is disclosed for example in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2003-196140. In this technology, the switch for accessing the storage area shared among multiple computers connected to that switch is an exclusive access control switch. Moreover, when a mismatch has occurred in the write-through cache memories within the multiple computers, the switch sends an instruction to the computers to invalidate the mismatch data. This disclosed related art is hereinafter called the Second related art.
FIG. 19 is a block diagram of the disk device of the related art containing multiple disk controllers. The disk device in FIG. 19 is made up of two units; two disk controllers DKC0, DKC1 and a disk array DA. The disk controller structure is described using DKC0 as an example. The disk controller DKC0 is made up of a channel adapter CHA0 for connecting the host CPU (not shown in drawing) with the disk device, a cache memory CM0 for temporarily storing the data to read and write on the disk array DA, and a disk adapter DKA0 for connecting the disk controller DKC0 and the disk array DA. A bus or a switch interconnects the channel adapter CHA0, and the cache memory CM0 and the disk adapter DKA0. The channel adapter CHA0 connects to the CPU via a channel C00. The disk adapter DKA0 connects to the disk array DA via a channel D00.
The write data inputted from the host CPU via the channel C00 is temporarily stored in the cache memory CM0. When the cache memory operation is set in the write-back, the disk controller DKC0 informs the host device that writing is complete when the write data has been stored in the cache memory. The disk controller DKC0 later sends the write data stored in the cache memory CM0 from the disk adapter DKA0 to the disk array DA via the channel D00.
When reading data, a check is made first of all whether the data is stored within the cache memory CM0. If the data is present, the stored data within the cache memory is sent from the cache memory CM0 via the channel adapter CHA0, to the host CPU. If there is no matching data within the cache memory CM0, the disk adapter DKA0 reads data from the disk array DA by way of the channel D00. The disk adapter DKA0 sends this read data via the channel adapter CHA0 to the host CPU. The disk controller DKC1 is made up of a channel adapter CHA1, a cache memory CM1, and a disk adapter DKA1, the same as the disk controller DKC0. The disk controller DKC1 is connected via channel C10 to the CPU (not shown in drawing) and connects to the disk array by way of a channel D10. The operation is the same as that of the disk controller DKC0.
The case where the disk array DA contains a shared volume is assumed next. The shared volume is a disk area capable of being commonly accessed from the multiple disk controllers. In the example in FIG. 19, the shared volume is a disk area capable of reading and writing (data) from either the disk controller DKC0 and DKC1.
One of the main problems with using this shared volume is that exclusive access control prohibits simultaneous writing by multiple disk controllers. Multiple disk controllers simultaneously writing on the same disk area might disable the data writing by any of the controllers so exclusive access control of writing onto the shared volume is required.
Another problem is maintenance of coherency (matching) among the cache memories within the multiple controllers. A cache memory mismatch may be considered as the following state. For example, when the disk controller DKC0 writes on the shared volume, the most recent data is stored inside the cache memory CM0 within the disk controller DKC0. However, that data is not stored within the cache memory CM1 inside the disk controller DKC1 so that a data mismatch occurs in the cache data of the area corresponding to the shared volume of the cache memory CM0 and the cache memory CM1.
An exclusive access control part is installed in each disk controller in the disk array device of the First related art. Signal lines for exclusive access control between each disk controller and for cache coherency control are installed between each disk controller. However, when there are an increased number of disk controllers accessing the shared volume, this method for installing exclusive access control parts in each of the disk controllers makes control more complex and causes higher costs because a larger number of parts are used.
No consideration was ever given in this storage system, to connecting a switch between the multiple disk controllers and the disk array, and using this switch to control the shared volume commonly used by the multiple disk controllers.
When the switch of the second related art is utilized to connect with the multiple disk controllers with the disk array, the exclusive access control is easier than in the first related art because exclusive access control by the switch is concentrated. However, consideration was only given to using the write-through type of cache memory for coherency control of the cache memory. Therefore, when using the method of the second related art, it is impossible to apply coherency (match) control in cache memories for disk controllers using the normal write-back method. The coherency control for the cache memory of the second related art discloses a method for invalidating non-matching data. However no method is disclosed for matching data among the cache memories.


Systems and methods are provided for scoped credentials within secure execution environments executing within virtual machines instances in an on-demand code execution system. In the on-demand code execution system, the execution environments are reset after every request or session. By resetting the single execution environment after each request or session, security issues are addressed, such as side-channel attacks and persistent malware. Additionally, the use of scoped credentials improves security by limiting the access rights for each code execution request or session to the smallest atomic level for the request or session. Following the request or session, the scoped credential is invalidated.

Computing devices can utilize communication networks to exchange data. Companies and organizations operate computer networks that interconnect a number of computing devices to support operations or provide services to third parties. The computing systems can be located in a single geographic location or located in multiple, distinct geographic locations (e.g., interconnected via private or public communication networks). Specifically, hosted computing environments or data processing centers, generally referred to herein as "data centers," may include a number of interconnected computing systems to provide computing resources to users of the data center. The data centers may be private data centers operated on behalf of an organization, or public data centers operated on behalf of, or for the benefit of, the general public.
To facilitate increased utilization of data center resources, virtualization technologies allow a single physical computing device to host one or more instances of virtual machines that appear and operate as independent computing devices to users of a data center. With virtualization, the single physical computing device can create, maintain, delete, or otherwise manage virtual machines in a dynamic manner. In turn, users can request computing resources from a data center, such as single computing devices or a configuration of networked computing devices, and be provided with varying numbers of virtual machine resources.
In some scenarios, a user can request that a data center provide computing resources to execute a particular task. The task may correspond to a set of computer-executable instructions, which the data center may then execute on behalf of the user. The data center may thus further facilitate increased utilization of data center resources.

Single use execution environment with scoped credentials for on-demand code execution


A fuel conversion reactor includes a shell-and-tube heat exchanger for controlling the temperature of a hot gaseous mixture produced by catalytic or non-catalytic reaction of a fuel with a gaseous fluid, and for controlling the temperature of the gaseous fluid and/or the fuel prior to the reaction. The reactor is either a catalytic or non-catalytic burner, or a fuel reformer for converting a fuel to hydrogen. A preferred reactor includes an outer shell having first and second ends and an inner surface, a primary inner shell extending into the outer shell, the primary inner shell defining a heat exchanging chamber and having primary and secondary ends, and a secondary inner shell having a first end located adjacent the secondary end of the primary inner shell. One or more outlet apertures are formed between the two inner shells for passage of the gaseous fluid out of the heat exchanging chamber. There are also a plurality of heat exchange tubes extending through the heat exchanging chamber between first and second tube sheets and connected to same. The first tube sheet is mounted in the primary inner shell while the second tube sheet is connected to the secondary inner shell. The tubes form passages for flow of the hot gaseous mixture in heat exchange contact with the gaseous fluid through the heat exchanging chamber, thereby preheating the gaseous fluid prior to reaction with the fuel. The adjacent ends of the inner shells form a disconnected joint and the secondary inner shell is free to move relative to the primary inner shell upon thermal expansion of the tubes.

The use of fuel cells has become of increasing interest in recent years for the application of power generation by means of a stationary installation and for purposes of transportation where the fuel cell is transported with the vehicle. The fuel of these fuel cells is commonly hydrogen that has been produced by reacting a hydrogen-containing fuel, usually a hydrocarbon or a low molecular weight alcohol, over one or more catalysts in a fuel reformer.
There are a number of known processes for generating hydrogen from hydrogen-containing fuels in a fuel reformer. A first known process for conversion of hydrogen-containing fuels to hydrogen is known as "steam reformation", which is conducted at elevated temperatures. In the case of a hydrocarbon fuel, steam reformation proceeds via the following reaction, which is generally endothermic:CnHm+nH2O→nCO+(m/2+n)H2.One difficulty with steam reformation is that external heat may be required to drive the reaction forward to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide. External heat can be supplied to the steam reformation catalyst from a number of sources, and is transmitted to the catalyst bed using heat exchangers. Some of the external heat may be supplied by passing the high temperature reformate produced by the catalytic steam reformation through a regenerative heat exchanger, thereby returning some of the heat of the high temperature gas to the endothermic reforming reaction. Alternatively, the external heat may be generated by combustion of anode off-gases and/or other fuels in a burner. The combustion reaction taking place in the burner can be catalyzed or non-catalyzed. Examples of catalytic and non-catalytic burners are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,232,005 issued to Pettit.
A second known process for converting hydrogen-containing fuels to hydrogen is known as "partial oxidation", which proceeds via the following exothermic reaction:CnHm+n/2 O2→nCO+m/2 H2.Partial oxidation can be performed at high temperatures (about 1200 to 1500° C.) without a catalyst, or can be performed with a catalyst at much lower temperatures, typically about 500 to 800° C. One disadvantage of partial oxidation is that it produces less hydrogen per molecule of hydrogen-containing fuel than steam reformation, since some of the fuel is consumed by oxidation. Since the oxidation is exothermic, there is no need for the provision of external heat through a heat transfer surface.
A third known process for converting hydrogen-containing fuels to hydrogen is "autothermal reformation", in which fuel, water and oxygen, usually in the form of air, are reacted in the presence of a catalyst to generate a hydrogen-rich fuel gas. Autothermal reformation can be viewed as a combination of two reactions, an exothermic partial oxidation and an endothermic steam reformation, with the net heat of reaction being determined by the ratios of oxygen to fuel and water to fuel. Generally, these ratios are established so that the net heat of reaction is slightly exothermic, thereby eliminating the need for application of external heat, resulting in a relatively simple system design which makes autothermal reforming attractive for practical applications.
As can be seen from the chemical reactions depicted above, considerable amounts of carbon monoxide are produced during conversion of the hydrogen-containing fuel. To avoid poisoning of the fuel cell, the level of carbon monoxide in the reformate must be reduced to a low level. This is particularly true for proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, which have a low tolerance for carbon monoxide. Thus, the reformate is typically subjected to at least one "carbon monoxide cleanup" reaction, which preferably comprises one or more water/gas shift reactions and/or a preferential oxidation reaction, in which carbon monoxide present in the reformate is consumed in a catalytic reaction with oxygen or water (steam).
Regardless of the specific conversion process utilized, significant thermal stresses are exerted on fuel conversion reactors, which can have a detrimental effect on durability. Designers of such reactors have therefore sought to reduce thermal stresses in the mechanical design of these units.
There are two conventional design approaches to overcome the problem of thermal stress in a fuel conversion reactor. The first is to reduce the stress levels by permitting thermal expansion of components of the reactor, and the second is to increase the strength of the reactor structure or the materials used in the structure so that the maximum operating stress will not exceed the maximum design strength.
One well known type of heat exchanger that is used in a wide variety of applications including boilers and other high temperature heat exchangers is known as the "tube bundle" structure, also called a "shell and tube" heat exchanger. Reference can be made to sections 3.1.2. and 4.2.3 of the Heat Exchanger Design Handbook, 1998, by G. F. Hewitt for a discussion of this type of heat exchanger. There are a variety of such heat exchangers including a fixed tube sheet or fixed head type. In this type there is an exterior metal shell which can, for example, be cylindrical and mounted within this shell are two spaced apart tube sheets on which a number of tubes are mounted. There are head covers or complete heads or channel covers at each end, which serve as fluid manifolds. With such a heat exchanger, the thermal expansion coefficients of the shell and the tubes during operation can cause a differential movement between them. Excessive movement of this type can cause the tubes to loosen in the tube sheets. One known way for overcoming the problem of differential movements is to provide a shell expansion bellows.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,271 issued Jan. 17, 1995 to Industrial Technology Research Institute, describes a compact tube and shell structure for hydrogen generation where a catalyst is used in the water-shift reaction in order to reduce the level of carbon monoxide in the outflowing gases. Two tube sheets are mounted near opposite ends of a cylindrical shell and first and second sets of partition plates are mounted between the tube sheets. A plurality of tubes extend between the tube sheets and through the partition plates. There is a porous metal layer arranged immediately below the upper tube sheet and then catalyst material is arranged below this layer. There is an exhaust gas chamber and an exhaust outlet provided below the bottom tube sheet. Combustible gas flows into the shell body by means of an inlet in the upper end. A feed inlet is located in one side of the shell body just below the upper tube sheet. For certain types of hydrocarbons, a catalyst used for the steam reforming step is placed in the middle section while another catalyst used in the last section just above the bottom tube sheet is for the water-gas shift reaction.
With this known device, combustible gas enters the upper chamber formed in the shell above the upper tube sheet and, after combustion, the exhaust gas at a very high temperature passes through the tubes in order to enter an exhaust gas chamber at the bottom. The heat of the exhaust gas is transferred to the porous metal layer and the catalyst(s) while the exhaust gas passes through the tubes. This heat exchange also decreases the temperature of the exhaust gas. With this known hydrogen generator structure, there can be a thermal expansion problem if the tubes expand at a different rate than the shell as the tubes are apparently rigidly mounted in the tube sheets which in turn are rigidly mounted in the shell.


A vehicle body structure is described that includes a pair of rear rails, a bumper beam and a spare tire compartment including a spare tire. The rear rails have a rear segment aligned with the bumper beam, a middle segment disposed above the rear segment and a front segment that extends downwardly from the middle segment. After a 50 mph 70% Movable Deformable Barrier rear impact test, the spare tire compartment including the spare tire hinges downwardly to create added crush space and the middle section is raised upwardly to reduce the extent of intrusions into the passenger compartment.

Under current motor vehicle safety standards automotive vehicles are tested in a 50 MPH 70% offset Moving Deformable Barrier (MDB) rear impact test. The test is intended to test fuel system integrity in a rear-end collision. In the test procedure, 70% of the rear of the vehicle is impacted by a 1,368 kg deformable barrier at 80 km/h.
An important factor in passing the MDB test is providing sufficient crush space in the vehicle to absorb the force of the impact. One possible solution is to reduce the volume of the fuel tank but this is undesirable because it reduces the range of the vehicle between refueling. In many vehicle designs a spare tire is attached to the vehicle below the rear trunk floor. The spare tire reduces the available crush space and results in additional deformation, higher plastic strain and increased pressure applied to the fuel tank. The spare tire is usually laterally squeezed in the crush zone in the MDB test and reduces the available crush space.
Referring to FIG. 1, a rear rail "R" of a vehicle is illustrated in a side elevation view. The rear rail is aligned at the same height as the crush cans "C" and rear bumper "RB" and is approximately 137 mm above the frame "F" at the passenger compartment. This arrangement causes the spare tire to be laterally squeezed in the MDB test.
This disclosure is directed to solving the above problems and other problems as summarized below.

Rear rail adapted to induce spare tire rotation in a rear-end collision


To suppress the overall length of a camshaft including the length of a decompression device provided in an engine and also to suppress an increase in number of parts of the decompression device, an engine includes a decompression device having a decompression weight pivotably supported through a pivot shaft to a camshaft and adapted to be rotated at a predetermined angle by a centrifugal force generated during the rotation of the camshaft. A weight accommodating portion for pivotably accommodating the decompression weight is formed between the opposite end portions of the camshaft. The outer diameter of the decompression device mounted to the camshaft is smaller than that of a ball bearing. The decompression weight is directly engaged with one end of a decompression camshaft to thereby rotate the decompression camshaft.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an engine with a decompression device for relieving a compression pressure at starting.
2. Background of the Invention
A conventional engine with such a decompression device includes a camshaft having opposite end portions between which intake and exhaust cams are formed. The camshaft is supported at the opposite end portions by cam supporting portions of an engine body. A decompression weight is pivotably supported through a pivot shaft to the camshaft and is adapted to be rotated at a predetermined angle by a centrifugal force generated during the rotation of the camshaft (see Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2005-307840, for example).
In this engine, the decompression weight is located axially outside of one supported end portion of the camshaft, and a decompression camshaft located in the vicinity of the exhaust cam extends axially on the side of the one supported end portion of the camshaft. One end of the decompression camshaft is engaged with a connecting portion of the decompression weight through an intermediate member.
In the above configuration according to the background art, the decompression weight is located axially outside of one end of the camshaft, so that the overall length of the camshaft including the length of the decompression device is increased.
Furthermore, the intermediate member is interposed between one end of the decompression camshaft and the decompression weight, so that the number of parts of the decompression device is increased.


A technology enabling reduction of the size of a semiconductor device including a micro and a power MOSFET is provided. The semiconductor device is obtained by single packaging a first semiconductor chip with a micro formed therein and second semiconductor chips with a power MOSFET formed therein. This makes it possible to reduce the size of the semiconductor device as compared with cases where a first semiconductor chip with a micro formed therein and second semiconductor chips with a power MOSFET formed therein are separately packaged.

The present invention relates to semiconductor devices and manufacturing technologies therefor and in particular to a semiconductor device provided in one package with a microcomputer (hereafter, referred to as micro) and a power device typified by MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) and a technology effectively applicable to the manufacture thereof.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-281443 (Patent Document 1) discloses a technology for single packaging a semiconductor chip with IGBT formed therein and a semiconductor chip with a diode formed therein. In this technology, specifically, the semiconductor chip with the IGBT formed therein and the semiconductor chip with the diode formed therein are placed over the main surface of a multilayer wiring board (ceramic substrate) with solder bump electrodes in between.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-227416 (Patent Document 2) and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-91945 (Patent Document 3) disclose technologies related to switching regulators (DC-DC converters). Specifically, these patent documents disclose a package structure for single packaging a control IC together with a high-side MOSFET and a low-side MOSFET comprising switching elements.
[Patent Document 1]    Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-281433
[Patent Document 2]    Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-227416
[Patent Document 3]    Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-091945

Semiconductor device package having a semiconductor chip on wiring board connected to plurality of leads including power MOSFETs


An ink jet head comprises a discharge opening for discharging ink, an electro-thermal transducer for generating thermal energy used for discharge of the ink, and a substrate for supporting the electro-thermal transducer through a heat-accumulating layer, the electro-thermal transducer being applied a voltage to supply the thermal energy to the ink so as to generate a bubble in the ink, thereby discharging the ink by pressure upon generation of bubble, wherein the substrate is a substrate obtained by bonding a metal plate being machinable and having higher corrosion resistance than Al, onto a main metal substrate a main component of which is Al, by clad bonding.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the structure of ink jet head and, more particularly, to the structure of ink jet head of a type using an electro-thermal transducer. The present invention provides a cheap and highly reliable head.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years use of metal substrate is under research as a substrate for ink jet heads of the type to eject ink by use of the electro-thermal transducer. This is from the following reason. The silicon substrate has been used heretofore as the substrate for the ink jet heads of this type. However, when the print width of ink jet head is intended to be set wide, the silicon substrate has a limit of increase in the size of substrate, because it is normally provided in the form of wafer. Therefore, desires exist for a substrate material excellent in workability. The ceramic substrate, which has been used in the conventional thermal heads and the like, is also one of substrate materials excellent in workability, but it is normally made in the structure provided with a glass-coat-baked layer (glaze layer) on a partial or entire surface because of its poor smoothness of substrate surface. In the case of the ink jet head of the type using the electro-thermal transducer, however, the head experiences such driving that the heater portion of electro-thermal transducer reaches temperatures near 1000.degree. C. within a very short period, and it is thus difficult to apply the ceramic substrate to the ink jet head of the type using the electro-thermal transducer in terms of durability and heat-radiating characteristics of the glaze layer.
On the other hand, when the metal substrate is used as a substrate of ink jet head, surface roughness on the substrate also affects the durability of heat-generating resistor provided on the substrate, and thus metals the surface roughness of which can be readily decreased are used. Metals excellent in machinability, including Ni, SUS, and Al, have been used as such metals.
However, when Ni or SUS is used, the substrate thereof exhibits poor thermal characteristics (heat conductivity) and radiation of heat is not sufficient in applications of wide print width of ink jet head as described above. Therefore, such substrates are not suitable for high-speed printing.
Therefore, Al has been used heretofore as a material of the metal substrate. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 9-1806 discloses such structure that a heat-accumulating layer is provided through Cr on the metal substrate of Al in order to enhance adhesion between the metal substrate and the heat-accumulating layer. However, Al is poor in chemical stability and might be corroded by chemicals used during fabrication of head or components in the ink. The structure described in the above application resists corrosion from the surface of substrate, but in the structure Al is not protected by Cr at the end face of substrate where discharge openings are provided, and Al will be thus corroded by the ink intruding from the portion of discharge opening to the end face of substrate, which Could result in partial peeling of the Cr layer and the heat-accumulating layer. If the corrosion causes an impurity to be mixed in the ink, this impurity will form burnt deposits (scorches) on the heat-generating portion.

Ink jet head and method for fabricating the ink jet head