Intelligent computer implemented agents are associated with computer user interface tasks by dividing the tasks into statistically distinct clusters based on sampled user assessments. The assessments collect data on multiple user variables. Multivariate statistical analysis is used to divide the tasks into distinct clusters. The clusters are validated using univariate analysis on each of the measured variables. Intelligent agents are associated based on the measured variables to ensure that agents are effective. The objective assessment and association avoids costly creation and overhead of agents applied where not effective.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and process for creating computer systems with intelligent agent capability. In particular, the present invention relates to a system and process for applying intelligent agent technology to human-computer interaction tasks in a computer system.
2. Background and Related Art
Intelligent agents in computer systems help the system user perform system tasks with increased accuracy. User interface intelligent agents assist the system user in performing user interface tasks. These agents attempt to enhance the human computer interface by intelligently interacting with the user in the performance of a specific task.
Intelligent agents can be classified according to their levels of "intelligence" and "agency." The characteristics of a particular agent can be described using a two dimensional graph as shown in FIG. 1. "Intelligence" measures the level of inference applied by the agent. Highly inferential agents apply artificial intelligence (AI) principles to exhibit adaptable behavior, reasoning, learning and non-algorithmic problem solving. "Agency" measures the degree of autonomy an agent exhibits. As agency increases the agent becomes more autonomous and authoritative; the agent can perform more of the tasks without specific user direction.
The most common user interface agents are commonly called "wizards." Wizards assist the user in performing a task by breaking down the task into a linear series of steps that are presented to the user one at a time. Ideally, each step can be completed by the person and the selected sequence of steps guarantees success. Wizards replace a standard graphical user interface that offers a multitude of possible behaviors with a more restricted view that presents each step of a task in order. Wizards exhibit very little "intelligence" because they do not apply any AI techniques to the task. Instead, wizards are used to direct the user in the performance of a specific task. A wizard "knows" a specific task and can direct performance of that task according to the known algorithm for that task. Wizards are autonomous because they carry out much of a task for the user. A well-designed wizard autonomously completes the steps of the task that do not require the user's attention.
"Guides" are another kind of user interface agent. Guides monitor a user's interaction with the information system and present information appropriate to the particular user and information system state. A guide can annotate the user interface to communicate how to perform the next step and to draw the user's attention to where the next step will occur. Guides apply artificial reasoning to note those areas of the interface where annotation would be useful. The annotation can be adaptively altered to respond to the user's level of experience. Guides provide procedural direction to the user, but they have less autonomy than wizards. Guides annotate existing interfaces helping the user to learn the interface and help the user in learning the use of the raw interface. Wizards, in contrast, replace existing interfaces with a new interface tailored to accomplish the specific task.
The coverage of a particular set of agents and guides can be shown graphically. FIG. 1 at 102 illustrates the characteristics of wizards: low on inference and high on autonomy. Guides are characterized at 104 with high intelligence and low autonomy. Other categories of user interface agents can exist in different sectors with different levels of agency and intelligence.
The application of guides and wizards to information system tasks has historically been made based on the designers' opinions of their usefulness. Thus, a wizard may be provided for a task because a designer believes such assignment to be helpful to the user. There is no objective means to decide the best type of agent to assign, e.g., whether to assign a wizard, a guide, or no agent. Intelligent user interface agents are costly to develop and consume system resources when used. Inappropriate application of intelligent agents wastes both development and execution resources. In addition, inappropriate application may hinder rather than enhance the user interface by getting in the way of task performance where the user knows how to perform the task or by providing insufficient direction to complete the task successfully.
Thus, the technical problem exists of determining the optimal assignment of intelligent agents to human-computer interaction tasks so that tasks provided with agents need them and the appropriate class of agent is assigned to those tasks.

Selection of graphical user interface agents by cluster analysis


The treatment of tinnitus may include a tinnitus therapy including generating a tinnitus therapy sound that is similar to a patient's perceived tinnitus sound. In one example, a method for tinnitus therapy may include tracking a tinnitus therapy over a duration, the tinnitus therapy including a tinnitus therapy sound matching a patient's perceived tinnitus played over the duration and presenting each of a volume evolution of the tinnitus therapy sound and usage data of the tinnitus therapy over the duration.

Tinnitus is the sensation of hearing sounds when there are no external sounds present and can be loud enough to attenuate the perception of outside sounds. Tinnitus may be caused by inner ear cell damage resulting from injury, age related hearing loss, and exposure to loud noises. The tinnitus sound perceived by the affected patient may be heard in one or both ears and also may include ringing, buzzing, clicking, and/or hissing.
Some methods of tinnitus treatment and/or therapy include producing a sound in order to mask the tinnitus of the patient. One example is shown by U.S. Pat. No. 7,850,596 where the masking treatment involves a pre-determined algorithm that modifies a sound similar to a patient's tinnitus sound.
However, the inventors herein have recognized issues with such approaches. For example, the modified sound used in the treatment is generated using a masking algorithm that only partially modifies the spectral qualities of the tinnitus sound. As such, the modified tinnitus sound includes the tinnitus sound of broad band noise only. Thus, an individual patient's tinnitus sound may not be completely masked by the modified tinnitus sound. Additionally, such systems of masking a patient's tinnitus sound may not offer the ability to adjust the sound based on the evolution of a patient's tinnitus over time.
In one example, a method for tinnitus therapy may include tracking a tinnitus therapy over a duration, the tinnitus therapy including a tinnitus therapy sound matching a patient's perceived tinnitus played over the duration and presenting each of a volume evolution of the tinnitus therapy sound and usage data of the tinnitus therapy over the duration. In this way, changes to a patient's tinnitus therapy may be tracked over a period of treatment.
It should be understood that the brief description above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.

Systems and methods for tracking and presenting tinnitus therapy data


The invention relates to a process for forming a carboxylic benzyl ester comprising reacting a dibenzyl ether with a carboxylic acid in the presence of a heteropolyacid and forming a carboxylic acid benzyl ester.

The invention relates to a process for the preparation of carboxylic acid benzyl esters from dibenzyl ethers.
Benzyl acetate, the main component of jasmin oil, is an important fragrance for the preparation of scent compositions and starting material for the preparation of fruit ethers.
The preparation of benzyl acetate has already been widely reported. Thus, for example, the preparation of benzyl acetate by reacting benzyl alcohol with acetic acid has been known for a long time. Benzyl acetate can also be prepared by reacting benzyl chloride with alkali metal acetates, optionally in the presence of phase transfer reagents (Wang et al., Chem. Eng. Commun. 100, (1991), 135-147). A disadvantage is the formation of salts which have to be disposed of and thus reduce the costefficiency of this process.
DD-A5-286 577 describes the preparation of benzyl acetate by reacting dibenzyl ether with acetic anhydride. Disadvantages are the drastic reaction conditions (300xc2x0 C./20 MPa) and the only moderate yields.
The object of the invention was therefore to provide a process for the preparation of dicarboxylic acid benzyl esters starting from dibenzyl ethers, which can be carried out under mild reaction conditions and leads to good yields.
Surprisingly, we have now found a process for the preparation of carboxylic acid benzyl esters and dibenzyl ethers which is characterized in that dibenzyl ethers are reacted with carboxylic acids in the presence of heteropolyacids as catalysts.
The invention relates to a process comprising reacting a dibenzyl ether with a carboxylic acid in the presence of a heteropolyacid and forming a carboxylic acid benzyl ester. These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description and appended claims.
The invention relates to a process comprising reacting a dibenzyl ether with a carboxylic acid in the presence of a heteropolyacid and forming a carboxylic acid benzyl ester.
The dibenzyl ether used in the process according to the invention is an unsubstituted or substituted dibenzyl ether which can, for example, carry one or more substituents from the series branched or straight C1-C6-alkyl, C1-C6-alkoxy, CN, CO(C1-C6)-alkyl, NO2 or halogen. Preferred substituents are methyl, methoxy or chlorine. Particular preference is given to using unsubstituted dibenzyl ether.
In the process according to the invention, dibenzyl ethers or dibenzyl ether/benzyl alcohol mixtures, as are produced, for example, during the preparation of benzyl alcohol from benzyl chloride, can be used. The content of dibenzyl ether in dibenzyl ether/benzyl alcohol mixtures may, for example, be from about 50 to about 100% by weight, preferably from about 60 to about 100% by weight, particularly preferably from about 70 to about 100% by weight.
The carboxylic acids used in the process according to the invention are straight-chain or branched alkyl-, aryl- or aralkylcarboxylic acids which are saturated or unsaturated and contain 1 to 50 carbon atoms, preferably 2 to 30 carbon atoms, particularly preferably 2 to 10 carbon atoms. In the process according to the invention, it is possible to use acids such as formic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid, isobutyric acid, valeric acid, isovaleric acid, caproic acid, caprylic acid, lauric acid, myristic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, acrylic acid, cinnamic acid, phenylacetic acid, benzoic acid or salicylic acid. Very particularly preferred carboxylic acids are acetic acid and propionic acid.
The process according to the invention is preferably carried out with removal of water that forms during the process. It is appropriate to remove the water by distillation or by passing through an inert gas such as nitrogen. To remove the water formed, preference is given to using dehydrating agents such as zeolites, aluminium oxides or clay earths. Particular preference is given to removing the water formed by carrying out the reaction in the presence of the corresponding anhydride of the carboxylic acid used as dehydrating agent. Very particularly preferred anhydrides are acetic anhydride and propionic anhydride.
In the process according to the invention, from about 2 to about 50 equivalents of carboxylic acid, preferably from about 3 to about 30 equivalents, particularly preferably from about 4 to about 20 equivalents, based on dibenzyl ether, are used.
If the process according to the invention is carried out in the presence of the corresponding anhydride of the carboxylic acid used, then from about 0.1 to about 10 equivalents of anhydride, preferably from about 0.5 to about 7.5 equivalents, particularly preferably from about 1 to about 5 equivalents, based on dibenzyl ether, are preferably used. Since one molecule of anhydride used reacts with the uptake of water to give 2 molecules of carboxylic acid, it is possible to use smaller amounts of carboxylic acid in the process according to the invention. From about 1 to about 25 equivalents of carboxylic acid, preferably from about 1.5 to about 15 equivalents, particularly preferably from about 2 to about 10 equivalents of carboxylic acid, based on dibenzyl ether, are then preferably used.
In the process according to the invention, the heteropolyacids used are preferably those of the formula (I)
AaXbMcOdxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(I)
in which
A represents protons and/or metal cations
X is P, Si, B, Ge, As, I, Se or Te
M is W, Mo, V or Cr
a is 3, 4, 5 or 6, such that the heteropolyacids or salts thereof are electrically neutral
b is 1 or 2
c is 12 or 18 and
d is 40 or 62.
Suitable cations A which are to be mentioned are, for example, cations of the alkali metals, such as lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium or caesium, or cations of the metals manganese, nickel, cobalt, copper or lanthanum or protons.
Preferred heteropolyacids are phosphomolybdic acid, phosphotungstic acid, phosphovanadic acid, silicomolybdic acid, silicotungstic acid, silicovanadic acid, and particularly preferred heteropolyacids are phosphomolybdic acid, phosphotungstic acid, silicomolybdic acid and silicotungstic acid.
Preferred heteropolyacids are also those of the Keggin type, i.e., compounds of the formula (I) in which b is 1, c is 12 and d is 40, and those of the Dawson type, i.e., compounds of the formula (I), in which b is 2, c is 18 and d is 62. Particularly preferred compounds are A3[PMo12O40], A3[PW12O40], A3[SiMo12O40] and A3[SiW12O40].
Methods for the preparation of the heteropolyacids are known and described, for example, in Rxc3x6mpp, Lexikon der Chemie volume 3, 10th edition, Stuttgart/New York 1997, p. 1741; Chemical Reviews 98, 1998, 1ff or Catal. Rev. Sci. Eng. 37, 1995, 311ff.
The heteropolyacids can also be used in the form of their hydrates. It is also possible to use mixtures of heteropolyacids in the process according to the invention.
In the process according to the invention, the heteropolyacids may be used or may be present as homogeneous catalysts or as heterogeneous catalysts. Whether the heteropolyacids are present as homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysts depends on the type and amount of the heteropolyacid used. Furthermore, the heteropolyacids can be used as heterogeneous catalysts applied to an inert support. Suitable support materials are, for example, activated carbon, silica gel, aluminium oxide, alumosilicates, such as zeolites, or phyllosilicates, clay earths, titanium oxides or zirconium oxides.
If supported heteropolyacids are used in the process according to the invention, then these are preferably used in dried form. The drying can be achieved by heat and/or reduced pressure. Furthermore, drying may take place by washing with hydrophilic liquids such as the carboxylic acid used in the process or the corresponding carboxylic anhydride, or by azeotropic distillation with organic solvents, e.g., toluene, xylene or methylene chloride.
The supported heteropolyacids can be used as powders or molded bodies, e.g., balls, cylinders, wads, hollow cylinders or rings. In this connection, the supported heteropolyacids can be used in the process according to the invention in suspended form or as a fixed bed catalyst.
If the optionally supported heteropolyacid is used in suspended form or if the heteropolyacid is present in homogeneous form, then it is preferably used in an amount of from about 0.1 to about 100% by weight, preferably from about 0.5 to about 90% by weight, particularly preferably from about 0.1 to about 80% by weight, based on dibenzyl ether. The process is preferably carried out with intensive thorough mixing of the reactants. Intensive thorough mixing can be achieved in various ways known to the person skilled in the art, for example, by stirrers, nozzles, baffles, static mixers, pumps, turbulent flows into narrow tubes or by ultrasound.
In a preferred embodiment of the process according to the invention, the optionally supported heteropolyacid is suspended in the carboxylic acid used, preferably in a mixture of carboxylic acid used and the corresponding carboxylic anhydride, or is mixed with said acid, and then dibenzyl ether is metered in. When the reaction is complete, the suspended optionally supported heteropolyacid can be separated off, for example, by filtration or centrifugation. If the heteropolyacid used is present in homogeneous form, then it is preferably neutralised by adding a base and the reaction product is isolated by subsequent distillation.
If the supported heteropolyacid is used as a fixed bed catalyst, then space velocities of from about 0.05 to about 5000 g of dibenzyl ether per liter of catalyst per hour, preferably of from about 0.1 to about 4000 g of dibenzyl ether per liter of catalyst per hour, particularly preferably about 1.0 to about 3000 g of dibenzyl ether per liter of catalyst per hour, are preferably used.
In a preferred embodiment of the process according to the invention, the supported heteropolyacid is in the form of a fixed bed catalyst and is preferably arranged as catalyst packing in a tube. The starting materials dibenzyl ether and carboxylic acid, preferably in a mixture with the corresponding carboxylic anhydride, can be brought into contact with the catalyst in cocurrent or countercurrent by flooding.
In a further preferred embodiment of the process according to the invention, this is carried out in the trickle phase and the supported heteropolyacid is in the form of a fixed bed catalyst. Preferably, the catalyst packing is situated in a vertical tubular reactor which preferably contains intermediate plates to better distribute the stream of liquid and to better wet the catalyst packing. The starting materials are preferably applied to the catalyst packing in cocurrent, for example, from the top downwards. At the end of the tube, the reaction products can be drawn off.
Both in the case of the presence of a heterogeneous suspended heteropolyacid, which is optionally supported, and also in the case of the fixed-bed process variant, the work-up can be carried out such that a water-immiscible solvent, preferably toluene, is added to the reaction products. Following removal of the organic phase, which comprises the crude carboxylic acid benzyl ester, it can be further purified, for example by distillation.
The process according to the invention can be carried out batchwise, semi-continuously or continuously.
The temperature at which the process according to the invention is carried out is preferably from about 15 to about 200xc2x0 C., particularly preferably from about 25 to about 190xc2x0 C., very particularly preferably from about 30 to about 180xc2x0 C.
If the process according to the invention is carried out above about 115xc2x0 C., it is necessary to work under increased pressure corresponding to the vapor pressure. The gauge pressure required is then at least equal to the vapor pressure of the reaction mixture. It may be up to about 50 bar, preferably up to about 25 bar.
Where appropriate, the process according to the invention can be carried out under a customary protective gas, e.g., nitrogen, helium or argon.
The process according to the invention gives carboxylic acid benzyl esters in good yields coupled with high conversion and good selectivity. The process according to the invention can be carried out easily without high expenditure on apparatus.
The invention is further described in the following illustrative examples in which all parts and percentages are by weight unless otherwise indicated.

Process for the preparation of carboxylic acid benzyl esters


A method for fabricating an active metal electrode involves depositing lithium or other active metal electrode on a protective layer. The protective layer is a glassy or amorphous material that conducts ions of the active metal. It may be deposited on a releasable web carrier or other substrate such as polymer electrolyte layer. Lithium is then deposited on the protective layer. Finally, a current collector is attached to the lithium.

This invention relates to negative electrodes for use in batteries (e.g., lithium electrodes for use in lithium-sulfur batteries). More particularly, this invention relates to methods of forming alkali metal electrodes having a thin glassy or amorphous protective layer.
In theory, some alkali metal electrodes could provide very high energy density batteries. The low equivalent weight of lithium renders it particularly attractive as a battery electrode component. Lithium provides greater energy per volume than the traditional battery standards, nickel and cadmium. Unfortunately, no rechargeable lithium metal batteries have yet succeeded in the market place.
The failure of rechargeable lithium metal batteries is largely due to cell cycling problems. On repeated charge and discharge cycles, lithium "dendrites" gradually grow out from the lithium metal electrode, through the electrolyte, and ultimately contact the positive electrode. This causes an internal short circuit in the battery, rendering the battery unusable after a relatively few cycles. While cycling, lithium electrodes may also grow "mossy" deposits which can dislodge from the negative electrode and thereby reduce the battery's capacity.
To address lithium's poor cycling behavior in liquid electrolyte systems, some researchers have proposed coating the electrolyte facing side of the lithium negative electrode with a "protective layer." Such protective layer must conduct lithium ions, but at the same time prevent contact between the lithium electrode surface and the bulk electrolyte. Many techniques for applying protective layers have not succeeded.
Some contemplated lithium metal protective layers are formed in situ by reaction between lithium metal and compounds in the cell's electrolyte which contact the lithium. Most of these in situ films are grown by a controlled chemical reaction after the battery is assembled. Generally, such films have a porous morphology allowing some electrolyte to penetrate to the bare lithium metal surface. Thus, they fail to adequately protect the lithium electrode.
Various pre-formed lithium protective layers have been contemplated. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,314,765 (issued to Bates on May 24, 1994) describes an ex situ technique for fabricating a lithium electrode containing a thin layer of sputtered lithium phosphorus oxynitride ("LiPON") or related material. LiPON is a glassy single ion conductor (conducts lithium ion) which has been studied as a potential electrolyte for solid state lithium microbatteries that are fabricated on silicon and used to power integrated circuits (See U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,597,660, 5,567,210, 5,338,625, and 5,512,147, all issued to Bates et al.).
In both the in situ and ex situ techniques for fabricating a protected lithium electrode, one must start with a smooth clean source of lithium on which to deposit the protective layer. Unfortunately, most commercially available lithium has a surface roughness that is on the same order as the thickness of the desired protective layer. In other words, the lithium surface has bumps and crevices as large as or nearly as large as the thickness of the protective layer. As a result, most contemplated deposition processes cannot form an adherent gap-free protective layer on the lithium surface.
Thus, lithium battery technology still lacks an effective mechanism for protecting lithium negative electrodes.

Method for forming encapsulated lithium electrodes having glass protective layers


An initial voltage generation circuit includes a reference voltage generator, a reference voltage selector, at least one initial voltage level regulator, and a plurality of stabilization capacitors. The reference voltage generator generates a plurality of reference voltage candidate groups. The reference voltage selector includes a plurality of selection switch groups and a plurality of switch control circuits. Each selection switch group includes a plurality of parallel switches. Each switch control circuit corresponds to a selection switch group for generating a switch signal to control the selection switch group to output a reference voltage candidate of a corresponding reference voltage candidate group. Each initial voltage level regulator generates an inner reference voltage according to a power-up signal, and a stabilization capacitor corresponding to the initial voltage level regulator is used for stabilizing the inner reference voltage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an initial voltage generation circuit and a method of generating an initial voltage, and particularly to an initial voltage generation circuit and a method of generating an initial voltage that can utilize an initial voltage level regulator to quickly regulate a voltage level of an inner reference voltage outputted by the initial voltage generation circuit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an initial voltage generation circuit 100 according to the prior art. The initial voltage generation circuit 100 includes a reference voltage generator 102, a reference voltage selector 104, and N stabilization capacitors C1-CN, where the reference voltage selector 104 includes N selection switch groups S1-SN and N switch control circuits SC1-SCN, and N is a positive integer. As shown in FIG. 1, the reference voltage generator 102 generates N reference voltage candidate groups, and each reference voltage candidate group corresponds to a selection switch group, where a selection switch group includes M parallel switches, and M is a positive integer. Then, each switch control circuit can generate a switch signal to control a selection switch group to output a reference voltage candidate of a reference voltage candidate group. For example, a first reference voltage candidate group VR11-VR1M of the N reference voltage candidate groups corresponds to the first selection switch group S1, where the first selection switch group S1 includes M parallel switches S11-S1M. Then, the switch control circuit SC1 can generate a switch signal SS1 to control the first selection switch group S1 to output a reference voltage candidate (e.g. a reference voltage candidate VR11) of the first reference voltage candidate group VR11-VR1M. In addition, the stabilization capacitor C1 is used for stabilizing the reference voltage candidate VR11.
Please refer to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating variation of the reference voltage candidate VR11 within a period of time T. As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, because the reference voltage candidate VR11 needs to pass through the first selection switch group S1 before the reference voltage candidate VR11 is outputted, when the first selection switch group S1 outputs the reference voltage candidate VR11, the reference voltage candidate VR11 needs the period of time T to be increased to a target value VRT. Therefore, because the reference voltage candidate VR11 needs the period of time T to be increased to the target value VRT during power-up of a system, some circuits within the system may fail to power up. In addition, when the first selection switch group S1 is coupled to a large load, the large load may spend much time to power up because the reference voltage candidate VR11 needs a longer period of time to be increased to the target value VRT. Therefore, the initial voltage generation circuit 100 is not a good initial voltage generation circuit for the system.

Initial voltage generation circuit and method of generating an initial voltage


In an electronic musical instrument apparatus is provided for producing a noise-like signal suitable for a variety of musical effect such as the imitation of percussive musical instruments. A noise master data set is created repetitively and independently of tone generation by computing a Fourier algorithm using random values for the Fourier coefficients. The noise master data set is transferred to a noise tone register whose output is sequentially and repetitively read and converted to an analog noise signal. Formant circuitry is used to vary the noise signal's spectrum in a time variant manner and the frequency of an assigned variable frequency clock can be used to vary the spectral bandwidth of the output noise signal.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates broadly in the field of electronic musical tone generators and in particular is concerned with the provision for a noise generator in a polyphonic tone synthesizer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
While the majority of musical tones are characterized by a well-defined pitch, there exists a large group of musical instruments which have no clearly defined pitch characteristic. Such instruments include the percussion family. For example, drums, cymbals, maracas, wood blocks, and tamborines. It is well known in the electronic music art that these "unpitched" musical sounds can be imitated using a random noise generator as the primary signal source. Examples of the application of random noise generators in an electronic musical instrument are contained in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,247,307 entitled "Electronic Musical Instrument."
The most common characteristic of noise generators is that they generate a noise signal which is called by the generic name of "white noise." White noise can be defined as a signal which is uniformly and randomly distributed in amplitude and has a power spectrum which is constant per unit bandwidth over the entire frequency region. No musical instrument, or in fact any real physical device, has a signal characteristic that approaches that of a white noise signal type. Instead, the musical instrument's spectrum tends to fall off at high frequencies in a manner similar to the response of a low-pass filter.
Noise signal sources having a spectrum that is not white are frequently called by the generic name of "pink noise." A more limited use of the term pink noise has been applied to a noise signal whose spectrum contains constant power per percentage bandwidth for all frequencies. The broader generic definition of pink noise will be used in the following.
Pink noise generators have been used in conjunction with the analog variety of tone generators, and it is evident that pink noise generators are also desirable adjuncts to digital musical tone generators. A method of generating an analog noise signal is described in the technical article; D. B. Keele, Jr., "The Design and Use of a Simple Pseudo Random Pink-Noise Generator," J. Audio Engineering Society, Vol. 21 (January/February 1973) pp. 33-41. The described system starts with a conventional shift register variety of a binary white noise generator. The output random sequence of "0" and "1" signal states are transformed by an analog filter to produce the desired pink noise signal.
It is obvious to those skilled in the art that the binary white noise generator output signals can be processed by a digital filter to produce a source of digital pink noise. One disadvantage to this conventional and straightforward approach is that a digital filter is not a simple and low clost implementation because it requires the use of one or more digital data multipliers.
The present invention provides a novel means for producing pink noise with adjustable spectral responses without using conventional digital filters in a digital tone generator of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,085,644 entitled "Polyphonic Tone Synthesizer." It is a feature of the present invention that a flexible source of a pink noise signal is generatated without the use of either digital or analog filters.

Noise generator for a polyphonic tone synthesizer


A method of assessing the value of tags in a collaborative tagging system can include monitoring user interaction with each of a plurality of tags and/or artifacts associated with tags, wherein each of the plurality of tags has been previously associated with at least one artifact of the collaborative tagging system. For each of the plurality of tags, a measure of value for the tag can be determined according to user interaction with the tag. A list comprising at least one tag and an indication of the measure of value of the tag can be output.

A social network generally refers to a group of individuals related to one another based upon some shared value, idea, need, financial exchange, family relation, etc. Social networks have existed in various forms in everyday life. With the continued development of the Internet, social networks have migrated into the online world. One example of a social network is an Internet-based bulletin board or discussion forum. Such sites allow the posting of comments and/or files relating to a subject of common interest to the member users, e.g., the members of the "social network" or community.
Online social networks allow users to post personal profiles with personal data, shared interests, pictures, music, video, and a variety of other user relevant information. To help organize, categorize, and navigate these large expanses of data, some systems have come to use collaborative tagging. In general, "collaborative tagging" refers to a system in which users associate keywords, known as "tags," with various objects or references to objects, e.g., data. Each tag can be user-defined and is usually descriptive of some aspect of the object(s) to which the tag is associated. A tag can be viewed as a form of metadata in that each tag provides information about the data to which the tag is associated.
Unlike typical taxonomies used for large digital libraries, the tags used to describe content in a collaborative tagging system are not defined by a rigid classification system. Rather, users may freely create tags and freely associate those tags with objects or references to objects, depending upon the particular type of collaborative tagging system. This results in a "flatter" structure for classifying data. By comparison, a taxonomy is hierarchical in nature. Navigating from one item of information to another within a taxonomy requires traversal of the hierarchy. While collaborative tagging systems provide a level of openness that is welcome and useful, such systems frequently have a very large number of descriptive tags that a user must navigate to find information of interest.

Tag valuation within a collaborative tagging system

International Business Machines Corporation


A polymeric woven bag has a first panel and a second panel and an open end of the bag to be pinched closed. A first layer of heat activated adhesive material is on a portion of the bag to form an adhesive-to-adhesive seal by contact with a second layer of heat activated adhesive material on a portion of the bag, wherein a chemical family of the adhesive layers comprises polyolefin thermoplastic components, and wherein the first adhesive layer and the second adhesive layer have respective heat activation temperatures below the softening point temperature of the polymeric bag material.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,380,646 discloses a container of thermally weldable, plastic material and a method of producing the container by welding together multiple strips or sheets of plastic material to form a container having a welded closed, bottom part of the container. An open top of the container is collapsed and flattened to provide a pinch closed top.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,048,692 discloses a bag folded one or more times to form a primary closure. A flap seal extends across the folded configuration. A string underneath the flap seal is used to tear open the flap seal and permit the bag to unfold. A zipper closure provides a secondary enclosure.
US 2007/0292053 A1 discloses a bag of paper material and a paper tape coated with a hot melt adhesive, wherein the tape is folded to adhere the hot melt adhesive against a front panel of the paper bag to provide a glued paper-to-paper section. The tape substitutes for a stepped end of a multi-wall paper bag. The stepped end provides a sealing flap coated with hot melt adhesive, wherein the sealing flap can be folded over and sealed to the front panel of the paper bag.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Heat activated adhesives for bag closures


In on form, a TEOS based spin-on-glass is made having on the order of 10% to 25% by volume of tetraethylorthosilicate, the equivalent of on the order of 0.1% to 3.0% by volume of 70% concentrated nitric acid, on the order of 60% to 90% by volume of alcohol, and the balance water. The spin-on-glass is applied to a semiconductor substrate and heated in order to densify the spin-on-glass.

Spin-on-glasses (SOGs) are known materials used in the fabrication of semiconductor devices. SOGs are primarily used to planarize a semiconductor wafer, but are also used as interlayer dielectrics, passivation layers, and sacrificial etch-back layers. As the name "spin-on-glasses" suggests, SOGs are deposited onto a semiconductor substrate and the substrate is spun at high speeds to distribute the SOG uniformly across the substrate surface. SOGs are initially in a viscous liquid state, which allows the SOG to fill any open spaces, crevices, or voids which might be on the substrate surface. The coated substrate is then baked to remove water and solvents and to densify the SOG into a solid, glass-like film.
Conventional SOGs can be classified into two general categories, silicate SOGs and siloxane SOGs. Silicate SOGs are polymer networks containing primarily Si-O bonds. Silicate SOGs have an advantage of forming highly pure SiO.sub.2 films, without organic contaminants. A disadvantage associated with silicate SOGs is that upon baking, the films shrink considerably, creating high stresses in the films and in an underlying substrate. Another disadvantage is that silicate SOGs have poor step coverage, or in other words do not planarize uniformly or sufficiently. For example, a silicate SOG may planarize a small space between two structures, but as the size of the space increases the planarization capability is reduced. Siloxane SOGs, on the other hand, are polymer networks containing Si-O bonds and either Si-C bonds or Si-O-C bonds. Siloxane SOGs are an improvement in that siloxane SOGs shrink less upon baking and provide better step coverage than silicate SOGs. However, siloxane SOGs have a disadvantage of having a high organic content due to the presence of Si-C and Si-O-C bonds. The presence of organics in a SOG is unfavorable because organics can contaminate the film and affect performance and reliability of the film. While some of the organics can be removed by baking the film at higher temperatures or for longer periods of time, these remedies are also unfavorable because stresses in the film are consequently increased.
In an effort to improve planarization capabilities of SOGs, semiconductor manufacturers have used several techniques. One technique used is to apply a very thick SOG film. However, very thick films have a greater tendency to crack at points of high stress, particularly upon baking. Another technique is to apply multiple, thin SOG films to improve planarity without experiencing cracking problems. While several thin films can improve planarity with greater resistance to cracking, using multiple films significantly increases manufacturing time. In addition, multiple layer films tend to peel due to poor adhesion between the various layers. Another way to improve crack resistance of a SOG is to add dopants, such as boron or phosphorus, to the film. The bonding structure of a doped SOG seems to improve film strength, thereby reducing the susceptibility to cracking. However, there are applications in semiconductor devices in which doping a SOG is not appropriate.
Therefore a need exists for an improved spin-on-glass (SOG), and more specifically for an improved SOG for use in semiconductor fabrication which contains essentially no organics, provides good step coverage with minimal shrinkage after baking, is resistant to cracking, and can planarize sufficiently with one or more application.

TEOS based spin-on-glass and processes for making and using the same


Embodiments of the present invention provide methods for measuring a wafer surface. A portion of the wafer surface is measured using a particle counter to provide first measurements corresponding to a plurality of points on the wafer surface. A selected area of the wafer surface including one of the plurality of points is measured using an atomic force microscope (AFM) to provide a microroughness measurement of the selected area. The selected area is a localized area of the portion of the wafer surface measured using the particle counter. The first measurements and the microroughness measurement are provided as a measurement of the wafer surface. The portion measured using a particle counter may, for example, be substantially the entire wafer surface.

This application is related to Korean Application No. 9948174, filed Nov. 2, 1999 the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a wafer surface evaluation, and more particularly, to methods and systems for measuring the microroughness of a semiconductor wafer surface.
Semiconductor devices are generally fabricated on the surface of an underlying silicon wafer substrate. Accordingly, it is generally desirable for regions on a wafer surface which will be fabricated to become an active region including such devices to have a high degree of surface flatness. The move towards semiconductor devices having a high integration density and a small feature size further increases the desirability of providing a semiconductor wafer having a high degree of surface flatness also referred to as a low microroughness. It is further desirable for semiconductor wafers used in the manufacture of semiconductor devices to have both a generally uniform degree of surface flatness over the wafer and a reduced average size of roughness.
By way of example, with the reduction in size of devices, such as transistors, which are formed on a semiconductor wafer, a thinner gate dielectric film is generally needed between a gate electrode and the wafer to achieve a desired performance of the transistor. More particularly, even though the thickness of the gate dielectric film typically must be reduced, it is desirable to maintain the electrical properties thereof, such as breakdown voltage strength. In order to meet these design requirements, there is a generally a need to minimize the microroughness of the surface of the semiconductor wafer, especially at the interface between the gate dielectric film and the semiconductor wafer. For example, for a gate dielectric film having a thickness of 50 angstroms (xc3x85) to achieve a desired performance, any roughness that is on the order of a few xc3x85 is generally not acceptable and must be removed. To provide such control, methods and systems which provide for effective measurement and controlling of the microroughness of the surface of a semiconductor wafer are desirable.
Atomic force microscopes (AFMs) are often used to measure the microroughness of wafer surfaces. An AFM generally measures the microroughness of a wafer surface by moving an atom-sized measuring probe along the surface of the wafer for detecting microscopic forces, typically Van der Waals forces, exerted between atoms of the wafer surface and the probe, and detecting changes in such forces due to minute differences in the distances between the atoms and the probe. For microroughness measurement using a typical AFM, a predetermined fixed dimension of a sample, for example, 0.1 micrometer (xcexcm) by 0.1 xcexcm, 1 xcexcm by 1 xcexcm, or 10 xcexcm by 10 xcexcm, is determined as a scanning area and several points are detected within the scanning area. The microroughness obtained by the AFM is usually represented by the root mean square (RMS) average of the detected points.
The use of the AFM in measuring the microroughness of a wafer surface may provide a highly accurate result without destruction of the wafer surface. However, the RMS value may vary depending on the dimension of scanning area and the kind of atoms present on the wafer. That is, the results of an AFM measurement may vary according to the dimensions of the scanning area. In addition, because the dimensions of the scanning area are typically very small relative to the wafer size, the measurement result may not represent the microroughness with respect to the entire wafer which may limit the correspondence of the measured results to the overall wafer surface configuration. Further, because this method is typically slow, microroughness measurement by the AFM may not be suitable for real-time (during manufacture) controlling of the microroughness of a semiconductor wafer.
Another existing technique available for measuring the microroughness of a wafer surface is to measure haze levels using a particle counter. Particle counters typically use a light source to reflect light off the wafer surface and measure the scattering of the light resulting from the microroughness of the wafer surface. Such a measure of the scattering of the light may be used as a measure of the microroughness of the wafer surface. Thus, haze levels from a particle counter may be used as an indicator of microroughness using optical methods. A higher haze level generally indicates that the wafer surface is more rough.
In the measurement of haze levels with a particle counter, the wafer surface is typically not in direct contact with a measuring device, and the measuring speed may be faster compared to measuring using an AFM. Typically, for haze level measurement of a wafer surface, a plurality of haze levels are measured for a particular area over the wafer and the average haze level is calculated to represent the haze level for the particular area. In other words, the haze level for a particular area may be expressed as one average value which limits the haze level output with respect to the particular area to a single value. Also, the haze level for a localized area of selected dimensions within the particular area may not be separately characterized by a measurement. Thus, the haze level obtained may not provide a complete characterization of the microroughness of the wafer surface during the manufacture of semiconductor devices.
Embodiments of the present invention provide methods for measuring a wafer surface. A portion of the wafer surface is measured using a particle counter to provide first measurements corresponding to a plurality of points on the wafer surface. A selected area of the wafer surface including one of the plurality of points is measured using an atomic force microscope (AFM) to provide a microroughness measurement of the selected area. The selected area may be a localized area of the portion of the wafer surface measured using the particle counter. The first measurements and the microroughness measurement are provided as a measurement of the wafer surface.
In other embodiments of the present invention, operations further include formatting the microroughness measurement of the selected area as a 3-dimensional image. The 3-dimensional image is provided as a measurement of the wafer surface. The portion of the wafer surface measured by the particle counter may be substantially all of the portion of the wafer surface to be used as active regions. The first measurements may be provided as a measurement of the microroughness of the entire wafer surface and the 3-dimensional image may be provided as a microroughness uniformity measurement of the wafer surface.
In further embodiments of the present invention, the AFM measurement operations are preceded by mapping the selected point from a first coordinate system associated with the particle counter to the selected area in a second coordinate system associated with the AFM. Mapping operations may include determining a coordinate value in the first coordinate system of the one of the plurality of points and identifying, by a plurality of defining second coordinate values in the first coordinate system, a 2-dimensional localized area enclosing the first point. The plurality of second coordinate values in the first coordinate system are converted to corresponding coordinate values in the second coordinate system to define the selected area. The first coordinate system may be a X-Y stage coordinate system of the particle counter and the second coordinate system may be a X-Y stage coordinate system of the AFM.
In other embodiments of the present invention, the particle counter measurement operations include irradiating light onto the wafer surface. Light scattered from the wafer surface is measured. A haze level is calculated over the wafer surface as the first measurements based on a variation in an amount of light scattered from the wafer surface. The measured light may be light scattered from a dark field section of the irradiated light.
In further embodiments, the selected area is about 5 micrometers by 5 micrometers. The AFM measurement operations may include determining either a root mean square (RMS) or a peak-to-valley (P-V) output value as the microroughness measurement.
In yet further embodiments of the present invention, systems are provided for measuring a wafer surface. A particle counter measures a portion, such as substantially the entirety, of the wafer surface to provide first measurements corresponding to a plurality of points on the wafer surface. An atomic force microscope (AFM) measures a selected area of the wafer surface including one of the points to provide a microroughness measurement of the selected area. The selected area is a localized area of the at least a portion of the wafer surface measured by the particle counter. A controller maps the selected point from a first coordinate system associated with the particle counter to the selected area in a second coordinate system associated with the AFM. The controller further provides the first measurements and the microroughness measurement as a measurement of the wafer surface.
In other embodiments of the present invention, methods are provided for measuring the microroughness of a wafer surface. A haze map of the wafer surface is prepared using a particle counter having a X-Y stage coordinate system. A first coordinate value associated with a position of a first point selected from the haze map is determined. A 2-dimensional localized area enclosing the first point is determined. A plurality of second coordinate values which define the localized area are determined. The first coordinate value and the plurality of second coordinate values are converted into corresponding coordinate values on a X-Y stage coordinate system of an atomic force microscope (AFM) by coordinate linking. The corresponding coordinate values enable the X-Y stage coordinate system of the AFM to locate the 2-dimensional localized area enclosing the first point. The microroughness of the wafer surface of the 2-dimensional localized area enclosing the first point is measured using the AFM based on the corresponding coordinate values input to the X-Y stage coordinate system of the AFM.
Using the microroughness measurement methods and systems of the present invention, the microroughness within a localized area of a wafer may be accurately measured and, in various embodiments, may be shown as a 3-dimensional image. Thus, the inventive method may be utilized in the manufacture of high density integrated circuits, where tight and accurate microroughness control is desired.

Methods and systems for measuring microroughness of a substrate combining particle counter and atomic force microscope measurements


A filter device for fluids includes a housing (1) accommodating a filter element (5). The housing has an inlet (47) for the supply of fluid to be purified to a non-filtrate chamber (49) of the housing (1) and has an outlet 42 for the filtrate. The non-filtrate chamber is separated from a filtrate chamber (46) of the housing (1) by the filter medium (33). A magnetic field-generator unit (57) is arranged inside the non-filtrate chamber (49). An adhering surface a sleeve or casing (51) attracts ferromagnetic particles by a magnetic force effect. In the non-filtrate chamber (49), the sleeve (51) extends outside of the respective filter element (5) parallel to the inlet (47) and transversely to the outlet (42). The non-filtrate chamber (49) at least partially encompasses the outlet (42) at the point of transition to the filtrate chamber (46).

Pre-scalping of ferromagnetic contaminants from the fluid to be filtered using magnetic force is prior art for filter devices. Plant machinery that employs a fluid circuit for lubrication and/or cooling of mechanical equipment, such as transmissions or pumps, always have metal particles present in the fluid through friction during operation, in particular in the instance of transmissions that are under high load in heavy machinery such as wind turbines or cement mills. Ferromagnetic contamination of the fluid also occurs in other kinds of process fluids to a varying degree. In particular in detergent solutions often used in plants for the automatic manufacture of parts, a high concentration of ferromagnetic particles can be found in the fluid. The separation of particles significantly increases the service life of the filter elements, particularly in fluids with high contaminant concentrations.
DE 10 2006 062 807 B4 and DE 10 2013 014 453 A1 disclose examples of known devices. As a device that generates a magnetic field, these known filter devices use a magnetic rod with permanent magnets, also called a magnetic core. The magnetic core extends in those devices into the inner space of the respective filter element and is attached to a housing lid of the filter device. The outside of the magnetic rod forms the adhering surface on which the metallic particles are deposited in operation. In order to dispose of the deposits in the known device, the housing lid has to be unscrewed to be able to remove the magnetic rod together with the filter element from the housing. The magnetic rod must then be removed from the filter element to be able to remove the particles that adhere to the outside of the magnetic rod. The removal of these particles is rather difficult since they are retained by the magnetic force on the outside of the magnetic rod. The use of the known filter devices then requires a correspondingly large effort in terms of maintenance and time.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,636,907 B1 discloses a filter device of this kind for fluids, comprising a housing for at least one filter element. The housing has an inlet for supplying the fluid to be cleaned into an unfiltrate chamber of the housing. The unfiltrate chamber is separated by the filter medium of the filter element from a filtrate space of the housing. The filter space is provided with an outlet for filtrate. A magnetic field-generating device is disposed inside the unfiltrate chamber and provides an adhering surface for ferromagnetic particles that adhere thereto due to the magnetic force. At least one casing envelopes the associated magnetic field-generating device. The casing extends from at least one opening in the housing wall into the unfiltrate chamber and in which the respective magnetic field-generating device may be movably accommodated in such a way that it can be inserted into the casing and at least partially removed from it.
In the known solution, the respective casing of the magnetic field-generating device protrudes into the respective filter element itself or between the elements. On the one hand, it impairs the filtration of the unfiltrate supplied via the inlet. On the other hand, it makes it more difficult to remove the respective filter element and replace it with a new one.


Friction clutches 203, 204 and engaging clutches 19, 20, 21 are arranged between an input shaft and an output shaft of a gear type transmission having a plurality of gear trains. A power train unit 100 controls an output shaft torque and an input rotation speed of the transmission during changing speed by estimating or detecting input a torque to the transmission, and detecting an output rotation speed of the transmission, and setting a target shift torque during shifting gear, and setting a command value to the friction clutches 203 and 204 from the target shift torque and the input torque.

The present invention relates to a method of controlling a vehicle and a system of controlling a vehicle, and particularly to a method of controlling a vehicle and a system of controlling a vehicle having an automatic transmission in the vehicle.
A vehicle of a manual transmission type is excellent in fuel economy compared to a vehicle mounting a transmission using a torque converter. However, coordination of the clutch and the accelerator at starting is difficult to be operated. If the coordination of the clutch and the accelerator at starting is not operated well, a large shock is generated at engaging the clutch, or rotation speed of the engine may be rapidly increased when the clutch pressure is insufficient, that is, what is called as a blowing-up phenomenon occurs. Further, when the clutch is suddenly engaged while rotation speed of the engine is insufficient, or when the vehicle is started to run on an uphill, the engine may be stopped, that is, what is called as engine stopping occurs.
In order to solve these problems, a system automatizing clutching and shifting using a mechanism of a manual transmission, that is, an automatized MT (an automatized manual transmission) has been developed. However, a driver sometimes feels incongruity because suspension of driving torque occurs by disengaging and engaging of the clutch in the control at shifting gear in the conventional automatized MT (the automatized manual transmission).
A system disclosed in, for example, the Japanese Patent No. 2703169 is known. In the system, an assist clutch of a friction transmission means is added to the conventional automatized MT (the automatized manual transmission) to perform rotation speed synchronization and torque transmission for shifting gear by controlling the assist clutch when shifting is performed.
Further, a system disclosed in, for example, the Japanese Patent No. 2898405 is known. In the system, in order to rapidly perform rotation speed synchronization in a vehicle of such a kind, a target value of an input rotation speed of the transmission is set depending on a driving condition of the vehicle, and a torque of the assist clutch is set so that the input rotation speed of the transmission is operated according to the target rotation speed.
In the vehicles of such a kind, a feeling of shifting strongly depends on a waveform of the output shaft torque of the transmission in what is called as an inertia phase in which using the assist clutch, the rotation speed of the input shaft of the transmission is synchronized with the rotation speed of a gear train next engaged with an engaging clutch. Therefore, in the case of setting a target input shaft rotation speed first, and then controlling the clutch torque so that the input shaft rotation speed may follow the target rotation speed, as disclosed in Patent No. 2703169 or Patent No.2898405, the torque of the assist clutch generated as the result is not always formed in a desired waveform as a shifting feeling.

Method of controlling a vehicle and system of controlling the same


A queue management method of an access network device includes receiving a packet, determining feasibility of a packet transmission within a delivery deadline allowed from a destination if the received packet is for real-time transmission, storing the packet in the transmission queue and transmitting the packet in sequential order of the storage when the packet transmission within the delivery deadline is feasible, and dropping the packet instead of storing the packet in the transmission queue when the packet transmission is determined infeasible. Accordingly, resources required for the packet transmission are saved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an access network device and a management method thereof. Particularly, the present invention relates to an access network device for managing queue by determining feasibility of real-time transmission within a predetermined time in advance and dropping a packet determined to be infeasible to transmit, and a method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Internet is prevalent all over the world thanks to developments of computer and communication technologies. Much research has been made on wireless Internet systems for active uses of the Internet and computers. The wireless Internet is briefly classified into a wireless stationary Internet and a wireless mobile Internet. The wireless stationary Internet includes systems for wireless LAN (Local Area Network), B-WLL (Broadband Wireless Local Loop), LMDS (Local Multipoint Distribution Service), and Bluetooth. The wireless stationary Internet has limits in mobility, but provides superior transmission capacity and speed. By contrast, the wireless mobile Internet, which is implemented by different types of systems in a notebook computer and PC according to generations of the mobile communication network, provides superior mobility, but has limitations in transmission capacity and speed.
In order to support mobility in such a mobile network, a MIP (Mobile IP) and a QoS (Quality of Service) that secures a reliable transmission of data and multimedia traffic are required. The reliable transmission of the multimedia traffic in wired network environment uses an RSVP (Resource reSerVation Protocol) which reserves network resources in advance.
However, since the present RSVP is not developed in consideration of the mobility, a proper resource reservation cannot be made when the MIP, which is the mobility protocol, is used. Research for the resource reservation in the mobile network is continuously in progress after the introduction of the MIP. The representative protocols of such research include an MRSVP (Mobile RSVP), an RSVP-MP (RSVP Mobility Proxy), and a CORP (a method of Concatenation and Optimization for resource Reservation Path).
FIG. 1 illustrates a wireless network environment in which a mobile node (MN) 10 is connected to a correspondent node (CN) 20 through an access network and a backbone core network. The MN 10 is generally a notebook computer, a PC, or a mobile phone. The MN 10 accesses the access network through an access router (AR) so as to communicate with other nodes in the access network or with the CN 20 connected through the backbone core network.
The connection through the wireless link of FIG. 1 is superior to that through a wired link in view of the mobility, but has a higher error rate in the packet transmission due to the deterioration of the transmission capability caused by noise, interference and distance.
Basic methods for dealing with errors at a link layer include a forward error correction (FEC) mechanism and an automatic repeat request (ARQ) mechanism. These mechanisms may be separately used to obtain optimum performance, or, used in combination such as a hybrid ARQ.
The FEC mechanism attaches additional data to transmitted packets so that a reception side can recover the losses when there are lost packets. Since the packets are transmitted just one time between a reception terminal and a transmission terminal, the FEC mechanism is suitable for real-time communication. However, since a code for error recovery is additionally required, the additional data prolongs the processing and increases overhead. The FEC mechanism wastes resource bandwidth due to the necessity of transmitting the additional data even when a link status is stable and normal.
The ARQ mechanism determines the loss of packets and retransmits the packets if an acknowledgement (ACK) packet is not received within a predetermined time-out with respect to each packet transmitted from the transmission side. A router, which interconnects networks in Internet protocol (IP)-based wireless network environment, transmits packets to a mobile node and then, retransmits the packets if the ACK packet is not received from the mobile node.
Currently, communications among users are performed more rapidly and the users experience real-time TV broadcasts and videoconferences through PCs. When such real-time communication is required, transmission of real-time packets from the reception side to its destination side has restrictions on time, and thus the packets transmitted to the destination are dropped after the deadline. Specifically, real-time traffic for transmitting packets in real-time receives the packets in real time and utilizes the received packets. Thus, packets beyond a predetermined time after the transmission are dropped and the following packets are utilized.
In the wireless access environment as shown in FIG. 1, the mobile node needs to connect with the AR to access the access network. The AR, which is connected with a certain number of upper routers, forwards packets from the CN 20 to the mobile node 10, or, forwards packets from the mobile node 10 to the CN 20 along a reserved route.
The AR having a transmission queue buffers the received packets in the transmission queue and forwards the received packets to the destination by checking an IP address of the destination contained in a header of the received packets. The queue represents a first-in first-out (FIFO) buffer structure which outputs in a sequential order data stored in a constrained memory area. The transmission queue indicates the queue storing the packet to be transmitted. When the packets to be transmitted are stored in the queue, the packets to be transmitted await in the queue until the firstly stored packets are output.
Packets for real-time transmission are stored in the transmission queue and then, transmitted in a sequential order of their storage. Accordingly, queuing time becomes quite long until the requested packets are transmitted because all prior transmission packets are transmitted first.
If there is a plurality of prior transmission packets and a considerable queuing time is required for the router in the network, total time for transmitting the packets to the destination increases. Consequently, the deadline may expire before the packets arrive at the destination. Such real-time transmission packets beyond the deadline are invalid and thus, the destination drops the packets upon the reception.
In the above conventional arrangement, the packets, which are dropped due to the arrival beyond the deadline in the real-time communication, need to arrive at the destination. Hence, the AR stores the packets in the transmission queue and forwards the packets to the destination, thus wasting resources such as the bandwidth.
This disadvantage becomes worse in the network environment implemented under the ARQ mechanism. For the real-time communication under the ARQ mechanism, the router has the transmission queue for storing the packets to be transmitted to the mobile node at the link layer and also has a retransmission queue for storing a duplicate of the packets to be transmitted. When the ACK packet is received from the mobile node, the related duplicate packet stored in the retransmission queue is removed at once. Packets that are negatively acknowledged (NACK) are moved from the retransmission queue to the transmission queue and are transmitted prior to other packets pre-stored in the transmission queue. Therefore, the retransmission due to such errors requires more time and increases probability to exceed the deadline of the real-time traffic. The resources of the retransmission queue are wasted since the router has both of the transmission queue for the packets and the retransmission queue for the duplicates of the packets.
Efficient queue management methods have not been suggested for dealing with the above disadvantages in the wireless network. Resource management methods based on the queue management suggested for the wired network, such as RED (Random Early Detection), SRED (Stabilized RED), BLUE, and GRED (Gentle RED), do not consider characteristics of the wireless network and are not applicable.
In case of frequency handover in the wireless network environment, both an old AR (OAR) and a new AR (NAR) store the packets, thus wasting resources.

Access network device for managing queue corresponding to real time multimedia traffic characteristics and method thereof


Method of controlling distribution of energy within an energy distribution system and energy distribution systems are provided. An energy distribution system includes a central controller and one or more remote distribution control units. A method includes obtaining, with the central controller from the remote distribution control units, operational data indicating an operational condition of the energy distribution system. The method further includes comparing the operational condition to a polling rate threshold that indicates when the operational condition is approaching a condition threshold at which the central controller will operably control operation of the remote distribution control unit. The method further includes adjusting a polling rate at which the operational data is obtained in response to the operational condition crossing the polling rate threshold. The method yet further includes polling and controlling the remote distribution control unit with the central controller at the adjusted polling rate.

This disclosure describes embodiments of systems, controllers, and methods to provide improved control and coordination of a multiplicity of electric distribution grid-connected distribution units, such as energy storage units deployed over a geographically-dispersed area. The units may be very similar to those described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,900,556 and commonly referred-to under names such as Distributed Energy Storage (DES) and Community Energy Storage (CES). An alternative design of units that may be adapted, used, deployed or controlled in accordance with the embodiments herein described is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,050,311 and referred-to as an "Intelligent transformer." In summary, these units are self-contained energy storage systems consisting typically of a storage battery capable of holding 25 kWH of energy or more, an inverter, and a local control system with a communication interface to an external central control system responsible for coordinating their function within the distribution grid. These external central control systems are commonly referred to under names such as the HUB controller or the Distributed Energy Management (DEM) controller. The system consisting of the controller and the storage units is commonly referred-to as a Virtual Power Plant. Under sponsorship of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the functional requirements for a very simple control system for coordinating the operation of these storage units have been cooperatively developed and placed in the public domain.
The primary function of the DES unit is to assist the utility in reducing peak demand (referred to commonly as "peak shaving" or "load following") to defer or eliminate a regional need for additional generating capacity. Other valuable features of the DES unit include the ability to provide reactive power compensation, to provide voltage support, to provide backup power for stranded customers when the main source of supply is temporarily unavailable, and to provide frequency support (ancillary services). An extensive description of the requirements of the basic DES unit, from the customer (electric distribution utility) point of view is contained in the EPRI DES Hub and Unit Functional Requirements Specifications. Other functions allow the DES unit to facilitate the connection of various renewable energy sources into the grid. This includes providing energy storage or buffering during periods of weak demand, and conversion from DC to AC and AC to DC.
In order to coordinate the functions of the remote DES units, the external central controller DEM requires communications between the DEM and each storage unit to obtain operational performance data and to send commands from the DEM to the storage units. The DEM may also be in communication with devices such as Transformer Breakers, Feeder Breakers, and/or Tap Controller power monitors. The DEM performs communications at regular intervals to evaluate information obtained and to send updates to the fleet. The DES is designed to target deployments that are highly distributed across a large number of locations, employing a variety of telecommunications solutions for communications. Such scattered distribution means that communications can be unreliable, low bandwidth, and potentially carrying high operating costs.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide methods and systems for reducing the frequency of communications in highly distributed energy distribution systems. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.

Adaptive polling in energy distribution systems with distributed energy storage


A method of manufacturing a vented tamper evident closure of the J-hook type to a container involves a closure of the type including a base, a downwardly depending sidewall portion and a tamper evident band. The tamper evident band is frangibly connected to the sidewall portion and includes a main band portion and a J-hook retention member that includes a plurality of retaining elements and a corresponding plurality of flexible web elements. Advantageously, the retention member is originally molded in a first position wherein it is positioned substantially beneath and in alignment with the main band portion of the tamper evident band. This molding position creates substantial manufacturing advantages. When the closure is installed onto the container, the retention member is circumferentially compressed and folds inwardly as it is moved to a second, engaged position wherein it is bent upwardly and inwardly to engage the container. The substantial circumferential compression of the retention member is enabled by the provision of the flexible web elements. In addition, ventilation openings are preferably defined within the flexible web elements. The ventilation openings provide a dual benefit in that they further promote efficient moldability of the closure and that they permit the entire container assembly, including the closure, to be washed after packaging to remove any food material that may be left after filling permit the closure.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of packaging technology, and more specifically to tamper evident closures for containers.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Various beverages, foods, medicines and the like are delivered to the public in bottles or other containers that are provided with resealable closures. Such closures provide a benefit to the consumer in that the containers can be tightly sealed and resealed after opening, which prolongs the shelf life of the product and maintains freshness. Although resealable containers provide benefits to consumers, by their nature they permit unauthorized and sometimes undetectable tampering with the product. Accordingly, many modern consumer products are packaged using tamper evident closures, which are designed to make it apparent to a consumer that a container has been opened.
Many conventional tamper evident closures utilize what is commonly known as a tamper evident band, which is designed to be retained by the container and to rupture or become separated from the consumer removable portion of the closure during opening. Typically, the container itself will include an annular ring or other retention structure for engaging the tamper evident band. The tamper evident band and the mating retention structure of the container are usually designed so that the tamper evident band will slip over the retention structure without damage during the initial application of the closure onto the container at the packaging plant, but that subsequent removal of the tamper evident band from the container will be difficult.
One type of tamper evident band that is in commercial use includes a first portion that is frangibly connected to the consumer removable portion of the closure and a second retention portion, commonly known as a J-hook, that is molded so as to angle radially inwardly and upwardly from a lower portion of the tamper evident band in order to engage retention structure on the container. During initial application of the closure, the retention portion will slip over the retention structure because of the inward and upward angling, but once it slips over the retention structure it will lock against the lower side of the retention structure, making it difficult to remove the tamper evident band from the container. Examples of such closures are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,085,921; 4,470,513; and 5,400,913. Some J-hook designs include ventilation openings for providing ventilation to the space between the closure and the finish portion of the container.
J-hook type closures can unfortunately be problematic to manufacture because the characteristic upward and inward angling of the retention portion necessitates what is known as an undercut in the tooling that is used during the injection molding process. The presence of an extensive undercut makes a part both difficult to mold and difficult to eject from the mold. These problems are preventing the J-hook type closure from reaching its full commercial potential within the packaging industry.
A need exists for an improved J-hook type tamper evident closure having integrated venting and a method of making such a closure that obviates the present manufacturing obstacles that are discussed above.

Tamper evident closure with integrated venting and method of manufacturing

Crown Cork & Seal Technologies Corporation


A walk exercising floor comprising a base board having a flange vertically projecting upward around the peripheral edge thereof and a recessed surface portion defined within said flange, said recessed surface portion having a plurality of recessed holes thereon, a plurality of stones respectively fastened in said recessed holes, said stones each having a top edge protruding beyond the level of the topmost edge of said flange for massaging the muscles and joints while one is walking, lying or sitting thereon, and a layer of epoxy resin covered over said recessed surface portion in flush with the topmost edge of said flange to secure said stones to said base board. The stones may be manmade, each having holes on the bottom edge thereof into which epoxy resin is filled to secure the stones to the base.

The present invention relates to walk exercising floors and relates more particularly to a walk exercising floor made from foamed plastics with natural or artificial stones secured in place by an epoxy resin for massaging the muscles and joints while one is walking, lying or sitting thereon.
It has been known that rubbing and kneading the muscles and joints can make them work better, and a thorough massage feels good when one is tired. Walk exercising floor is designed for this purpose. Conventionally, a walk exercising floor is made by inserting stones in a concrete base. This concrete type of walk exercising floor is too rigid. It feels uncomfortable while one is walking thereon. Further, this concrete type of walk exercising floor is not movable. Recently, there have been disclosed several walk exercising floors made from plastic material through the process of injection molding. A walk exercising floor which is made from plastic material can be moved from place to place, however, the convex portions thereon for massaging the muscles are still rigid and do not feel comfortable.


A gardening water spray gun may include a barrel portion and a handle, and a water control chamber laterally penetrates through the water spray gun. A water control valve pivotally secured inside the water control chamber is controlled by an operating unit. The water control valve is a circular shaft which has an upper arc edge and a lower arc edge, and a central portion of the lower arc edge comprises a through hole which penetrates through the water control valve from a side to another. Moreover, a recess formed at an end of the through hole is located close to the upper arc edge, and with the communication between the through hole and the recess, the water spray gun is configured to allow more water to flow through and to provide a large amount of spraying water at one time.

To overcome a disadvantage that a user needs to press a button or a handle to allow a conventional water spray gun to continuously spray water, referring to FIGS. 7 to 9, a kind of water spray gun, as disclosed in my previous invention, comprises a main body (50), an axle bolt (60), a mounting unit (70), a control unit (80) and a sealing cover (90). The main body (50) has a handle (51) and a barrel portion (52) which are connected to each other, and a cover (53) covers around outer surfaces of the handle (51) and the barrel portion (52). Also, a first O-ring (521) is disposed on a front portion of the barrel portion (52), thereby achieving the water sealing-effect of the main body (50). A front end of the barrel portion (52) is connected to a base (54) which is configured to connect to a spray head (55), and a holding portion (56) is connected the handle (51) and the barrel portion (52) at two ends thereof. Furthermore, the handle (51) has a water control chamber (511) laterally penetrating through an upper portion thereof, and the water control chamber (511) is communicated with a water inlet channel (512) of the handle (51) and a water outlet channel (522) of the barrel portion (52). The handle (51) and the barrel portion (52) is connected with an angle, and an outer corner of the connection has an arc surface (513). Moreover, two blocking pieces (514) are respectively formed at an upper end and a lower end of the arc surface (513), and the spray head comprises a plurality of spray holes (551) which are configured to perform different patterns of spraying water such as solid stream, full cone, or other various patterns. In addition, a locating unit (57) comprising at least s spring and a locating column is secured between the base (54) and spray head (55). A first lateral edge of the axle bolt (60) has a water flowing hole (61) which is cut and shaped into a preferred angle, and a through hole (62) formed at a bottom end of the water flowing hole (61) penetrates through an opposite side of the first later edge of the axle bolt (60). The axle bolt (60) is configured to be turned by a user to selectively block the through hole (62) in different levels, thus controlling the on/off operation and water amount of the water spray gun. A first end of the axle bolt (60) has a first peripheral groove (63) which is configured to be disposed by a second O-ring (631), and a second end of the axle bolt (60) is connected to a connecting tube (66) which has a smaller diameter than the second end of the axle bolt (60). Moreover, the first peripheral groove (63) is connected to a first blocking edge (64) which has a larger diameter than the first peripheral groove (63). Furthermore, an inner surface of the blocking edge (64) close to the first peripheral groove (63) comprises two first engaging pieces (65) which are respectively formed at two corresponding positions. Additionally, two second engaging pieces (67) formed in hook shapes are respectively located at a top portion and a bottom portion of an outer periphery of the connecting tube (66). A second blocking edge (71) formed at a first end of the mounting unit (70) has a larger diameter than the mounting unit (70), and the second end of the mounting unit (70) comprises an axial connecting hole (73). An inner surface of the second blocking edge (71) close to the second end of the mounting unit (70) has two blocks (72) which are respectively formed at two corresponding positions, and two engaging holes (74) are respectively formed at a top portion and a bottom portion of an inner periphery of the connecting hole (73). An outer periphery of the mounting unit (70) has a second periphery groove (75) which is configured to be disposed by a sealing ring (751). The control unit (80) has two parallel rotating arms (71), and a pressing piece (82) is connected to the two rotating arms (71) at two ends thereof. Each of the two rotating arms (71) has a stepped hole (83) laterally penetrating through a central portion thereof, and each of the two stepped holes (83) has two engaging slots (84) respectively formed on an inner periphery thereof at two corresponding positions. In assembly process, the sealing cover (90) secured inside the main body (50) located between the water control chamber (511) of the handle (51) and the barrel portion (52), and the two rotating arms (81) of the control unit (80) are respectively borne against two lateral ends of the water control chamber (511) so as to allow the pressing piece (82) to couple and move on the arc surface (513) with a limited displacement. After the control unit (80) is coupled on the main body (50), the two stepped holes (83) are aligned with the two lateral ends of the water control chamber (511) such that the axle bolt (60) is configured to penetrate through the first stepped hole (83), the water control chamber (511), and the second stepped hole (83) to connect to the mounting unit (70). Wherein the axle bolt (60) is firmly connected to the mounting unit (70) through connecting the connecting tube (66) to the connecting hole (73), and the two second engaging pieces (67) are respectively engaged with the two engaging holes (74). In the meantime, the first blocking edge (64) of the axle bolt (60) and the second blocking edge (71) of the mounting unit (70) are respectively coupled in the two stepped holes (83) of the control unit (80), and the two first engaging pieces (65) of the axle bolt (60) and the two blocks (72) of the mounting unit (70) are respectively engaged in the engaging slots (84) on the two control unit (80) such that the control unit (80), the axle bolt (60) and the mounting unit (70) are configured to be linked and moved synchronously.
However, the water spray gun of my previous invention still has its disadvantages because: the through hole (62) connecting to the water flowing hole (61) has a smaller diameter, and it cannot allow a large volume of water to flow through at one time, which limits the volume of spraying water. Therefore, there remains a need for a new and improved design for a water spray gun to overcome the problems presented above.

Shin Tai Spurt Water of the Garden Tools Co. Ltd.


An electrically operated lock including a latch mechanism, a spindle for displacing a dead bolt of the latch mechanism, and an actuating unit which includes a swing member, a slider, a first cam mechanism, a wheel member, a second cam mechanism, and a motor for actuating the spindle. The swing member coacts with the spindle and swings along with rotation of the spindle. The slider coacts with the swing member and is movable between a first and a second position. The first cam mechanism coacts with the slider and the swing member so as to move the slider between the first and second positions in a manual operation mode. The wheel member coacts with the slider. The second cam mechanism coacts with the slider and the wheel member so as to move the slider between the first and second positions in an electrical operation mode.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a lock, more particularly to an electrically operated lock with a latch mechanism, which can be operated manually or electrically.
2. Description of the related art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,365 discloses a lock which includes a latch mechanism with a dead bolt that is movable between a retracted and an advanced position, a spindle coacting with the latch mechanism and tumable to displace the dead bolt between the retracted and advanced positions, a pinion sleeved on the spindle a slider formed with a vertical slot for passage of the spindle therethrough and provided with upper and lower controlled faces and a vertical rack which cooperates with the pinion, a wheel gear provided with a finger that is turnable along with the wheel gear to engage the upper and lower controlled faces so as to move the slider upwardly and downwardly and so as to turn the spindle via engagement between the pinion and the vertical rack, and a motor connected to the wheel gear via a gear mechanism that includes a worm gear unit coupling the motor and the wheel gear.
The object of the present invention is to provide an electrically operated lock with a latch mechanism that can be operated manually or electrically. Instead of using the aforesaid pinion and rack assembly in the aforementioned patent, the lock of this invention uses a cam mechanism to perform the function of the latch mechanism.
According to the present invention, the electrically operated lock comprises: a latch mechanism with a dead bolt that is movable in a lateral direction between a retracted and an advanced position; a spindle defining an axial direction that is transverse to the lateral direction, coacting with the latch mechanism, and turnable to displace the dead bolt between the retracted and advanced positions; and an actuating unit including a swing member, a slider, a first cam mechanism, a wheel member, a second cam mechanism, and a motor. The swing member coacts with the spindle and is swingable along with rotation of the spindle. The slider coacts with the swing member and is movable in a direction substantially parallel to the lateral direction between a first and a second position. The first cam mechanism has a first cam member that is provided on the slider, and a first cam follower that is provided on the swing member and that cooperates with the first cam member for moving the slider between the first and second positions. The wheel member coacts with the slider. The second cam mechanism has a second cam member that is provided on the slider, and a second cam follower that is provided on the wheel member and that cooperates with the second cam member for moving the slider between the first and second positions. The motor coacts with the wheel member for turning the wheel member.


Systems and methods for displaying position sensitive datalink messages on avionics displays are provided. In one embodiment, a flight deck instrument display system for an aircraft comprises: a flight plan display screen that displays a graphical representation of at least a part of an aircraft's planned flight path together with symbology representing a position of the aircraft with respect to the aircraft's planned flight path; wherein the flight plan display screen further displays at least one symbol positioned along the graphical representation of at least a part of the aircraft's planned flight path that indicates a point of applicability for a received uplink datalink message.

Controller-pilot datalink communications (CPDLC) messages are one type of datalink used to exchange data between an aircraft's pilot and an air traffic controller (Air Traffic Control (ATC), for example) such as tactical changes that need to be made during flight or for any negotiations. Conventionally, uplink datalink messages are displayed to the pilot via the on-board MCDU/MFD in an ATC log page where the messages are displayed sequentially in the order they were received from the ATC ground station. As such, the order of messages displayed on the log page is not context sensitive and does not readily convey which messaged received from the ground might be applicable to the immediate waypoint. That is, a pilot will not be able to understand which part of the flight a message is applicable to the route of flight until he or she actually opens and views the message. This is not only time consuming, but potentially forces the pilot to review messages not immediately relevant before finding those that are relevant. The pilot has to manually scan through all the messages in the log to determine those that are immediately relevant, thus increasing workload & heads down time which presents unnecessary distractions.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the specification, there is a need in the art for alternate systems and methods for displaying position sensitive datalink messages on avionics displays.