Embodiments of the present invention relate to the communications field, and provide a method for determining a control plane node, an apparatus, and a wireless communications system, so as to select, for UE, a control plane node corresponding to a network slice to which the UE belongs, thereby ensuring that the control plane node can provide a customized service for the UE. The method includes: obtaining, by UE, indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate a network slice to which the UE belongs; and sending, by the UE, an access layer request message to a radio access network node, where the access layer request message includes the indication information, and the access layer request message is used to trigger the radio access network node to determine, based on the indication information, a control plane node corresponding to the network slice for the UE.

A plurality of network slices are deployed in a wireless communications system, so that the wireless communications system can be adapted to different application scenarios. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, different network slices may be deployed for different types of user equipment (UE) in the wireless communications system. For example, MBB network slices may be deployed for a mobile broadband (MBB) UE, V2V network slices may be deployed for a vehicle to vehicle communication (V2V) UE, and MTC network slices may be deployed for a machine type communication UE.
After receiving a service request message sent by UE, a radio access network node may usually parse a globally unique mobility management entity identifier (GUMMEI) field in a globally unique temporary identity (GUTI) carried in the service request message, to obtain an identifier of a mobility management entity (MME) previously connected to the UE. If the identifier of the MME is not included in an MME list stored in the radio access network node, the radio access network node may select a proper MME for the UE based on an MME selection function, obtain an access address of the MME through DNS query, and then send the service request message of the UE to the MME for processing.
However, a plurality of network slices are deployed in the wireless communications system, and MMES that are corresponding to network slices and that provide customized services for different types of UE are different. Therefore, when the radio access network node selects an MME for UE by using an MME selection function, an MME other than an MME that is corresponding to a network slice to which the UE belongs may be selected. Consequently, the MME selected by the radio access network node for the UE cannot provide a customized service for the UE.

Method for determining control plane node, apparatus, and wireless communications system


Methods and systems for multiple channel authentication are described. In one embodiment, a request for an interaction is initiated from within a mobile application. The request may include authentication information and contextual information relating to a current exchange between the mobile application and an organization. The user may be authenticated with the authentication information and the request may be routed to a representative based on the contextual information to continue the exchange.

Organizations strive to ensure secure and convenient user access to services and accounts. With the proliferation of identity theft and the growing emphasis on convenience, organizations are forced to find a balance between sufficient security procedures and accessibility of services/accounts. Many systems sacrifice convenience and efficiency of use for security measures, such as by requesting authentication information several times during the course of an interaction with the user. As such, techniques are needed that provide for improved security without sacrificing ease of use and time for the customer.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION (USAA)


Systems, methods, software and apparatus enable providing supplemental audio content to members of a communication group via a group communication service that manages the multiple member user nodes' transmission and receipt of communications between and among the member user nodes. A request for audio content (e.g., from the communication group or a member user node) causes the group communication service to launch a bot node member to locate and deliver the requested audio content. The audio content can be merged with user node communications (e.g., as transmission packets or as streaming audio content). In some implementations each user node includes a wearable push-to-talk end user device linked to a communication device executing a communication application connected to the group communication service.

In some systems, a group management system facilitates secure communications between multiple user nodes in a distributed communication environment. Communications among members of a defined group can be enabled using distributed end user devices operating in the networked user nodes, where multiple user nodes each include an intermediate communication device that establishes a communication channel with another intermediate communication device in another user node. The intermediate communication devices (e.g., cellphones, smartphones, laptop computers, tablets and others) are linked to a communication network and the group management system, which implements communications between user devices (via a communication application in each intermediate communication device) in the defined group of user nodes.
The group management system processes communication messages transmitted by a group member user node to determine its identity, thereafter identifying one or more active communication groups with which the first user node is affiliated. In connection with at least one of the identified active communication groups, the group management system relays the group member user node's transmitted communication messages to active recipient nodes affiliated with the group. Various groups may use such systems for real-time communication among the various groups' members. In some cases it may be desirable to deliver supplemental audio to some or all group members as part of the group's active communications.

Supplemental audio content for group communications


A glass substrate usable for a semiconductor device which shrinks less during a heating process. Specifically, lithium is added to the glass substrate material prior to formation. Further, the glass substrate can be thermal annealed in advance. In accordance with the present invention, it is possible to reduce substrate shrinkage even during TFT processing, by using glass material including more than 4% by weight of lithium, and further by heating the glass substrate at a temperature below the glass strain point temperature.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a glass substrate and a method of making a glass substrate usable for a semiconductor device, which requires high temperature processing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Up to the present, glass substrates for semiconductor devices have had almost zero value of thermal expansion coefficient at temperatures of 300.degree.-600.degree. C., which are necessary to make a semiconductor device. The crystallized glass is obtained by growing a crystal in the glass which has been previously heated to form a crystal nucleus. It is possible to make a glass which is resistant to thermal impact by controlling the crystallization to adjust the thermal expansion coefficient of the glass.
In general, glass will expand by heating. This results from the fact that glass has a positive coefficient of the thermal expansion. But, it is possible to make the thermal expansion coefficient at some temperatures approach zero without being plus or minus over the entire part of glass, by depositing crystallized constituents having negative coefficients of thermal expansion with the constituents of glass.
Products such as Liquid Crystal Display Devices and Image Sensors are produced by directly forming a semiconductor device, like a thin film transistor, on a glass substrate. However, to make such a semiconductor device, heating of more than 600.degree. C. is required, which may cause glass to shrink. The glass shrinkage will shorten the glass substrate after glass is heated and then cooled. This phenomenon will occur repeatedly, even after a substrate is once shrunken. In fact, it will shrink more by a second thermal treatment. Namely, although it is generally known that glass will expand by heating, it has a hysteresis which causes glass to shrink compared with its original measure. The shrinkage ratio will be lowered in accordance with repeated thermal treatment.
The problem that the glass substrate will expand in the heating process can be solved by using the above-mentioned crystallized glass. For instance, as it is known that glass is controlled with the thermal expansion coefficient, heat resistant glass has been put into practical use.
On the other hand, the aforementioned problem of glass substrate shrinkage has caused difficulty using a mask combination in the making of a semiconductor device such as an Insulated Gate Field Effect Transistor (hereinafter to be referred to as TFT). That is, many sheets of photomask are used while processing a TFT. The masks in every process are different from each other in their pattern shapes, but they are designed to constitute the same TFT after all the processing is finished. As a matter of course, all the masks are prepared according to the same dimensional standards.
In the process of making the TFT using such masks, it is necessary to heat the substrate once at least. For that reason, the substrate will shrink before and after the heating process. As a result, some of patterns will not coincide with the substrate when the masks are made according to the same dimensional standard.
To overcome this problem of glass substrate shrinkage during the heating process, it has been proposed to shrink a glass substrate in advance by thermal treatment. This is useful in lightening the shrinkage of a substrate to some extent. The shrinkage of a glass substrate by heating is caused by the fact that an amorphous constituent existing in a glass substrate will be crystallized by heating. As a result, a volume of the substrate will be decreased. Accordingly, this proposed method is designed to remove the utmost of the constituents to be crystallized by heating, which is effected in an actual use of a glass substrate, by crystallizing in advance the amorphous constituents in glass.
However, it has not been practical to cause beforehand shrinkage of a glass substrate by heating in advance, as stated above, since it is not easy to stop complete shrinkage. Especially, in such case of an active Liquid Crystal Display Device having a big area or a contact type Image Sensor of the A4 or B4 size. In these cases, it is needed to fairly decrease the shrinkage of a glass substrate, since the required dimension of a substrate is very big. As a result, it has been impossible to attain a sufficiently effective method of one or two thermal treatments in advance.
Also, in the case where a semiconductor device includes a silicon semiconductor film with a crystalline character, an amorphous silicon on a glass substrate is crystallized by heating. In this case, a problem exists between the shrinkage difference of a silicon semiconductor film and a glass substrate, resulting in needless stress to the silicon film having a crystalline character which may cause cracking in the crystalline silicon.

Glass substrate for a semiconductor device and method for making same

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


The present invention provides a forming method of forming a through electrode, in a second substrate joined on a first substrate having an electrode pad, to electrically connect a pattern to be formed on the second substrate to the electrode pad, the method comprising steps of detecting a position of a first mark formed on the first substrate and a position of a second mark formed on the second substrate in a state in which the first substrate and the second substrate are joined, determining, based on the position of the first mark and the position of the second mark detected in the detecting, a point to form the through electrode in the second substrate so as to electrically connect the pattern to the electrode pad, and forming the through electrode at the determined point.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a forming method of forming a through electrode in a substrate, and a method of manufacturing an article.
Description of the Related Art
There is a method of forming a plurality of layers of circuit patterns overlaid when manufacturing a semiconductor device or the like. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-321012 describes a positioning method used when forming a plurality of layers of circuit patterns overlaid on one substrate.
A technique of manufacturing a semiconductor device by overlaying a plurality of substrates each including a circuit pattern has recently received attention. In this technique, a circuit pattern is formed on each of a plurality of substrates, and after that, the plurality of substrates are overlaid and joined. After the plurality of substrates are joined, a through electrode (Through Silicon Via; TSV) to electrically connect the circuit patterns of the substrates is formed in each substrate. For example, a through electrode to electrically connect the circuit pattern of a first substrate and the circuit pattern of a second substrate joined on the first substrate is formed in the second substrate.
However, when overlaying and joining a plurality of substrates, a position deviation of circuit pattern may occur between the plurality of substrates due to an overlay error between the plurality of substrates, deformation of the substrates caused by joint stress, and the like. If a through electrode is formed based on, for example, the marks (alignment marks) of the second substrate in a case where the position deviation has occurred, the through electrode may be prevented from contacting the circuit pattern (electrode pad) of the first substrate. In this case, the circuit pattern of the first substrate and that of the second substrate cannot be electrically connected.

Forming method and method of manufacturing article


The packet processing system, according to an example embodiment, comprises a Network Interface Controller (NIC) to receive and transmit network packets; a memory unit for storing network packets; a processor for processing network packets stored in the memory unit; a cache unit to access all data to the processor from the memory unit; and an application process running on the processing unit. The NIC includes a packet processing means to process the network packets received by the NIC. The packet processing means includes a Contiguous Header Mapping/Map (CHM) header-data splitter to split said network packets into a header portion and a payload portion; a table or equivalent to store the contiguous header-data split configuration data; and a packet Direct Memory Access (DMA) unit to DMA copy said header portion and said payload portion into separate memory area/location and contiguously map said header portion of network packets in the memory unit.

In the realm of digital communication systems, data is generally transmitted between various communication systems in a network through network packets. Network packets are nothing but small chunks of data or information. These packets carry the data in protocol stacks used in the internet i.e. Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol stack (TCP/IP). A network or data packet typically comprises of three parts, namely; a header, which contains information about the packet, including origin, destination, length and packet number; payload (or body), which contains the data; and a trailer that indicates the end of the packet and frequently include error detection and correction information.
However, the processing of these network packets, especially at high speeds, involves heavy interaction between the internal data structures of the various network elements such as the Network Interface Controller (NIC), memory, the Central Processing Unit (CPU) and the like. In most cases, the network elements access only the packet headers (and not any packet data) to make the forwarding decisions. The payload beyond transport protocol stack is not of any concern to the routers until and unless some sort of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) is done at the routers. Thus, for an effective processing, it is only the header of the network packet which needs to be processed and not the data of the packet. However, the NIC, in general, on receiving the packets, Direct Memory Access (DMA) copies the entire packet into the memory buffer obtained from Rx ring descriptor. Thus, each packet in memory buffer has both, the protocol header as well as the data, most of which may be not necessary for a data path application. This results in wastage of memory space as a huge amount of the cache is occupied by the payload of the network packet. Thus, storing the entire packet in the buffer not only results in loss of space bit also slows down the processing system. Further, a key challenge in packet processing also exists in the extremely low cycle budget available per packet at high line rates or speed beyond 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps), resulting in huge amount traffic. In most cases, the essential work to be done involves inspecting packet headers or specific fields in the payload to take a decision on further processing actions.

Method and system for processing network packets


A dynamic random access memory cell (20) with increased capacitance and a method of fabricating the cell, including forming a corrugated post capacitor (21) is provided. The method includes depositing a first film (80) having a first etched selectivity and depositing on the first film a second film (82) having a second etched selectivity. These steps of depositing a first film and a second film are repeated at least once to form a plurality of first film layers (80) alternated with a plurality of second film layers (82). A void (58) is etched in the plurality of first and second film layers. The plurality of first and second layers are selectively etched to form a plurality of undercut areas. Silicon is then selectively deposited in the void, and by overgrowing the selectively deposited silicon a portion of the undercut areas is filled with silicon to form a corrugated post storage electrode. The pluralities of first (80) and second (82) film layers are then removed. A layer of rugged polysilicon may be applied to further enhance the surface area of the storage electrode. A capacitor dielectric (48) is then formed over the selectively deposited silicon and a conductive material (50) is formed over the dielectric.

Dynamic random access memory ("DRAM") cells typically consist of one transistor and one capacitor. One of the goals in the design of DRAMs is to increase the memory capacity of each integrated circuit. To increase the memory capacity, significant efforts have been made at decreasing the size of each of the memory cells that make up the DRAM. One of the most challenging problems faced by DRAM designers is the maintenance of sufficient charge-storage capacity in the capacitors of the memory cells as their size is decreased.
Important parameters involved in increasing the charge stored on the capacitor are typically the dielectric constant, thickness of the insulator, and surface area of the capacitor. Many techniques have been investigated for increasing the charge-storage capacity in capacitors without increasing the area (footprint) the DRAM cells occupy on a chip's surface or the size (volume) of the DRAM cell. One example is a trench capacitor in which the capacitor is formed as part of a trench formed in a substrate with the transistor disposed on the surface of the substrate. A trench capacitor may include a plate electrode of the capacitor inside the trench and a storage electrode on the substrate.
Another approach that allows a memory cell to shrink in size without a loss of its storage capacity is stacking the storage capacitor on top of the associated transistor. DRAM cells made through this process are sometimes called stacked capacitor DRAMs. Although stack capacitor DRAMs may reduce the planar surface area required by a capacitor, they are generally formed significantly above the surface of the substrate in which the DRAM cell is formed, which leads to topological problems in the formation of subsequent layers of the associated integrated circuit.

Corrugated post capacitor and method of fabricating using selective silicon deposition


A circuit arrangement compensates for changes of pulse-duration in a binary signal. These changes of pulse-duration are the consequence of parasitic reactances in the signal path of the binary signal. A compensating circuit, which owing to its simplicity is particularly suitable for integrated circuits, is characterized in that a signal is inverted by an input inverter (I1) after it has passed through the signal path, then passes through a copy (NA) of the signal path, and is inverted once again by an output inverter (I1). If the signal path and its copy are integrated on a single chip, an adjustment of the copy (NA) need not be performed. Particularly advantageous--because of its cost-effectiveness--is the implementation of the above circuit in switching networks which are realized as integrated circuits. For each output of the switching network only a single copy (NA) will then be necessary.

The invention relates to a circuit arrangement for compensating for changes of pulse-duration in a binary signal which are the consequence of parasitic reactances in a signal path.
Circuit arrangements for compensating for pulse distortions--thus also changes of pulse-duration--in analog technology are known (compare, for example, the text book by Steinbuch and Rupprecht: Nachrichtentechnik, Springer-Verlag Berlin/Heidelberg/New York, (1967), pp. 113 to 118). However, if one wishes to compensate for the pulse distortions which develop, for example, on signal paths in integrated circuits, analog techniques are discarded due to their space-consuming dimensions. It is conceivable though, with integrated circuits, to carry out the usual pulse regeneration by means of resampling (cf. for this purpose European patent document EP 0 160 826 B1). A different possibility would be the one through which the problem could be avoided by implementing a faster technology which, for example, can be inferred from European patent document EP 0 148 395, according to which integrated broadband switching networks are implemented in ECL technology.

Circuit arrangement which compensates for pulse-duration changes in a binary signal


A method for shortening a web page title. The method includes determining if a title of a current web page fits in a title display area of a display. If the title fits the title is displayed in the title area. If the title does not fit, it is determined if the title of the current web page starts with a same word as a title of a previous page. If the title of the current web page starts with the same word, at least one word is removed from a beginning portion of the title of the current page that is in common with the title of the previous page, until the title of the current page fits in the title display area, or there are no more common words in the beginning of the title. End words or letters or end words can be removed until the title fits. Missing words may be indicated by adding a predetermined indicator in the area of the missing or removed words.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to web browsers and browser user interfaces displaying information related to web pages and or wireless application protocol ("WAP") pages, and in particular to displaying title information of a web page or WAP page.
2. Background of the Invention
Web pages may often have titles that indicate their location in the web site. The main page of a web site has a main title, for example "BBC News", and sub-pages add to this title, for example "BBC News | Health". The deeper a web page is located within a web site, the longer the corresponding title. Long web page titles are problematic to show on small screens. Devices with a limited screen size and small display size may have a problem showing a longer title, as only a few words from the beginning of the title will fit to the screen. If the user has browsed the pages of the same site right before the current page, the beginning of the page title becomes irrelevant, and the end of the title is the more important one to see. The existing solutions related to displaying long titles tend to show as many words from the beginning of the title and indicate remaining words by adding ". . . " to the end of the title. The user thus has a hard time to identify the pages based on the partial page title e.g. when, for example, the user steps back to previous pages via a history list where the page titles are shown or viewing a page with the partial page title visible.
Browsers such as Opera and Internet Explorer ("IE") show as many words from the beginning of the page title as possible, and indicate the remaining words by adding ". . . " to the end of the title. These, and other browsers, do not try to shorten the title in any other way.
Ayers et al. define, in their paper entitled "Using Graphic History in Browsing the World Wide Web", a title-shortening algorithm that tries to preserve whole words in the title so the abbreviated title will make sense. Ayers also tries to preserve whole words at either end of the title. Ayers builds the abbreviated title back and forth from the beginning and end of the title, adding as many whole words as will fit at either end, and then adding characters to the title until the length of the title fills the width allotted for the node.
Chang et al. describe, in their paper entitled "Efficient Web Search on Mobile Devices with Multi-Modal Input and Intelligent Text Summarization", a title-shortening algorithm that consists of two techniques: the use of abbreviation and automatic insignificant words removal.
It would be helpful to be able to account for the titles of pages already visited and account for the browsing history of the user, rather than shorten each page title individually without investigating the relationship of the current page to the other pages visited.


A light field imaging system captures different images provide views that are shifted by sub-pixel amounts relative to one another. These views can be combined to produce a higher resolution digital image of the object.

1. Field of the Disclosure
This disclosure relates generally to light field imaging systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
A light field camera can simultaneously collect multiples images of an object. However, the resolution of a light field imaging system is reduced due to the fact that the resolution of the captured images is typically determined by the number of lenslets in the microlens array, rather than by the number of sensors in the sensor array. Thus, there is a need for approaches to increase the resolution of images captured by a light field imaging system.

Automatic adjustment of light field imaging systems for resolution enhancement


An apparatus for collecting drugs dispensed from drug dispensing boxes includes a main conveyor on which the dispensed drugs are placed and discharged to a first end thereof, and an auxiliary conveyor configured to be hidden at a lower portion of the first end of the main conveyor or to be expanded outside of the first end so as to increase a discharging path of the dispensed drugs. Due to the auxiliary conveyor, when the drugs are discharged or are redelivered to another apparatus, it is possible to control the drugs to fall down to a desired position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for collecting dispensed drugs and, more particularly, to an apparatus for collecting drugs dispensed from drug dispensing boxes as a part of drug dispenser for automatically dispensing the drugs rather than manually dispensing the drugs.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In general, a dosage of medication based on a prescription for a patient may include various kinds and shapes of drugs. Such dosage of medication is contained in a basket, and is delivered to a patient.
The various drugs contained in one basket are collected into the basket from boxes in which the respective drugs are stored according to a kind and number of the drugs written in the patient's prescription. The basket into which the drugs are collected is delivered to the patient, and the patient takes the drugs collected into the basket.
To collect the various drugs into one basket, a medical expert such as a pharmacist needs to manually select and store the drugs according to a patient's prescription. Thus, reconfirmation of determining the accuracy of drug collection is necessary. This makes it difficult to guarantee the accuracy of drug collection, and always includes a possibility of a pharmaceutical accident. In addition to the possibility of the pharmaceutical accident, the drug collection itself is complicated, and thus it takes a long time to collect the drugs consistently with the patient's prescription. This leads to a problem of reduced work efficiency. For this reason, studies of plans and techniques for improving accuracy and efficiency in collecting a dosage of medication according to a patient's prescription, providing convenience to a user such as a pharmacist and preventing pharmaceutical accidents in advance are required.

Apparatus for collecting dispensed drugs


An assembly for supporting a member in a vessel comprises a clip comprising an arm with a first end attached to a panel and a second end opposed to the panel. The panel is secured in the vessel. The assembly also comprises a plate slidably disposed between the second end of the arm and the panel. The subject matter also pertains to the clip itself and the method of use.

Vessels, such as, hydroprocessing vessels, reactors, absorbers, strippers, and distillation columns, typically require means for supporting vertically oriented components in the vessel. Such vessels typically promote fluid contacting such as vapor-liquid contacting. Trays are often used to promote vapor-liquid contacting. Often, trays are installed during initial construction of the vessel, as well as removed and installed during vessel downtime for maintenance or refurbishing. Trays typically include a deck with or without openings for allowing liquid to spread out and be contacted by up flowing vapor. Trays also include downcomers that protrude over the deck to provide a weir and extend below the deck to transfer liquid that spills over the weir to the next tray below. Downcomers are often equipped with deflector plates to ensure splashing liquid hits the deflector plate and flows down into a subjacent downcomer. Deflector plates are typically secured to a support member to position the deflector plate properly above the downcomer in the vessel.

Clip for supporting vessel internals, assembly and method of assembly


A method to construct an accurate scaled model from an original too small to allow for physical measurement is disclosed, said method generally comprising the steps of determining the initial geometry of the original, analyzing the original to determine its internal structure, establishing a reference useful for quantitative measurement of the object, physically dissecting the original, recording the results of the physical dissection, and constructing the model at a desired scale based on quantitative measurements obtained from the dissection of the original.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of fabricating a scale model of an object too small to be evaluated by conventional measurement techniques. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method for constructing a high-fidelity, disassembleable corporeal model of a minuscule object where said model provides significant accuracy of the differentiated characteristics of the object with respect to shape, materials structure and materials composition.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is often necessary or desirable to create a scaled model of a given object for purposes of analysis, testing and education. A common example is seen in the testing of aerodynamic configurations for both land and air vehicles. In order to evaluate the aerodynamics of a wing or lifting body, for example, a small scaled model is constructed in the laboratory and then subjected to wind tunnel and other similar testing. To construct such a model, the engineering specifications for the full sized object are downsized and the model fabricated via conventional processes.
In cases where a model is constructed of an object for which there exists no construction or design specifications, such as a bone or a tooth, a model is sometimes made by forming a cast or negative impression of the object. The negative impression is then used to form a model. Disadvantages with this technique reside in its exclusive application to replicate the external physical details of an object, thereby rendering it useless to construct a model in which external and internal characteristics such as material structure, composition or function may be observed and disassembled for study or analysis.
In instances where it is necessary to construct a three-dimensional model of an internal biological structure without physical invasion of the body, e.g., a prosthesis, an image of the rough external and internal details of the object may first be obtained by use of X-rays. X-ray radiographs can then be used in conjunction with information of the structure previously known to construct the model. Such a technique is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,436,684, as issued to White. Such techniques, while oftentimes sufficiently accurate to form a prosthesis, do not generally enable the generation of a model which discloses differentiated shapes, compositions, material structure and/or functionality. This limitation is due to the nature of the X-ray medium which is limited to providing an image of materials which differ in their absorption coefficient to X-rays. Accordingly, only materials of varied density may be viewed and thus reproduced by such a method. Moreover, X-rays are generally useless to define details in objects which prevent the passage of X-rays, e.g., shielded or metallic objects.
Techniques heretofore used to construct a conceptual model of microscopic and especially submicroscopic objects such as molecules, living cells, minute electronic structures and the like, have relied upon crude approximations of their external shape. As a consequence, such models provide no more than a general representation of the characteristics of a given object and are therefore useless for purposes of quantitative evaluation.

Method for creating a three-dimensional corporeal model from a very small original


A method of separating propylene oxide from a mixture (M) comprising propylene oxide and methanol, said method comprising: (i) introducing said mixture (M) into an extractive distillation column; (ii) additionally introducing an extracting solvent into said extractive distillation column; (iii) distilling propylene oxide overhead from said extractive distillation column as top stream; (iv) withdrawing a bottoms stream from said extractive distillation column; (v) compressing the top stream obtained overhead in (iii) by means of at least one compressor to give a compressed vapor.

In numerous publications on the subject of the preparation of propylene oxide, there are only a few which are concerned with integrated processes in which the energy of the vapor obtained in a distillation step is usefully returned to the process. This applies particularly to processes in which propylene oxide is separated off from solvents or traces of solvent by distillation.
WO-A-02/14298 describes a process for the continuous preparation of an olefin oxide. In the context of this process step, it is disclosed that the heat of condensation obtained at the top of a column can be recovered for one or all distillation processes of the overall process. In the column in question, a mixture comprising solvent, oxygen and inert gas is separated by distillation. Specific procedures for recirculating the heat of condensation are not disclosed.
WO-A-00/07965 describes a process for preparing propylene oxide, in which a mixture of propene, propylene oxide and methanol is separated off from a mixture via the top of a distillation column, with the reflux necessary for the separation in the column being condensed in a partial condenser at the top of the column.
If methanol, for example, is used as solvent in the preparation of propylene oxide from propene, it is generally advantageous for this to be used in the reaction section, i.e. for the reaction of propene with a hydroperoxide such as hydrogen peroxide, particularly when a titanium silicalite catalyst of the TS-1 type is used as catalyst for the reaction. On the other hand, the presence of methanol makes purification of the propylene oxide more difficult.
According to the prior art, at atmospheric pressure or superatmospheric pressures, essentially in the range from 1 to 5 bar, propylene oxide and methanol can be separated by distillation only when a distillation column having a very large number of theoretical plates is used and a very high reflux ratio is set at the same time, owing to the entraining azeotrope.
The separation task is simpler at lower pressures, but the low pressure has an adverse effect on the condensation temperature since the condensation temperature, which can, for example, be in the region of 15° C. depending on the pressure, requires provision of a high refrigeration power for condensation. Especially on an industrial scale, this incurs tremendous costs.
Other documents of the prior art relate to process where propylene oxide is separated from the solvent methanol by extractive distillation processes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,849,938 discloses a process where propylene oxide is separated from methanol in a crude olefin epoxidation product by means of an extractive distillation wherein a relatively heavy polar solvent having hydroxy groups such as water or propylene glycol is used as the extracting solvent, propylene glycol being particularly preferred. According to this document of the prior art, the distillation column used ordinarily has from 20 to 60 theoretical plates, and the reflux/distillate ratio is generally in the range of from 5 to 15. According to the examples, a typical ratio is 9. Typical bottoms temperatures are in the range of 90 to 120° C., the pressure under which distillation is carried out being from 0.55 to 3.44 bar. According to the example, a preferred bottom pressure of the distillation column is 2.76 bar and therefore well above standard pressure. As typical propylene oxide fractions, fractions are obtained comprising 300 or 1,500 ppm of methanol. The bottoms streams obtained according to the examples comprise up to 6,300 ppm of propylene oxide. The purified propylene oxide stream obtained from the process according too U.S. Pat. No. 5,849,938 may be further purified and thus be subjected to a fractional distillation subsequently after removing the propylene oxide stream from the extractive distillation column.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,500,311 B1 discloses a process wherein a separation of methanol and propylene oxide takes place. As extracting solvent, a non-polar solvent, namely a C7-C9 hydrocarbon such as n-octane is used.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of separating propylene oxide from methanol which, compared to the processes described in the prior art, has an improved energy balance and, additionally, leads to top streams and bottoms streams having a lesser degree of impurity with regard to methanol and propylene oxide, respectively.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of separating propylene oxide from methanol in which a cheap extracting solvent is employed which simultaneously allows for milder distillation conditions than those described in the prior art.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method which, compared to the processes described in the prior art, for example processes for separating propylene oxide from methanol or for preparing propylene oxide, has a significantly improved energy balance.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method of producing propylene oxide in the course of which propylene oxide is separated from methanol wherein this separation has the above-mentioned advantages thus rendering the process for producing propylene oxide energetically and also with respect to the purity of the distillation fractions advantageous over the prior art.

Separation of propylene oxide from a mixture comprising propylene oxide and methanol


There is disclosed a silver halide color photographic material having at least one silver halide emulsion layer on a base, which comprises in said silver halide emulsion layer a dispersion including at least one yellow coupler represented by the following formula (1) or (2) and at least one water-insoluble homopolymer or copolymer: ##STR1## wherein X.sub.1 and X.sub.2 each represent an alkyl group, an aryl group, or a heterocyclic group, X.sub.3 represents an organic residue required to form a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic group together with the >N-, Y represents an aryl group or a heterocyclic group, and Z represents a group capable of being released upon a coupling reaction of the coupler represented by said formula with the oxidized product of a developing agent.

In silver halide color photographic materials, as photographic couplers that will react with the oxidized product of an aromatic primary amine developing agent to form color-formed dyes, generally a yellow coupler, a magenta coupler, and a cyan coupler are used in combination.
The color-formed dyes obtained from these couplers are required to have, for example, excellent spectral absorption properties and high fastness to light, heat, humidity, etc. The excellent spectral absorption properties desired in photographic materials should be such that color-formed dyes formed from respective couplers do not have undesired absorption in wavelength regions other than the desired major absorption. For example, in the case of yellow color-formed dyes, since the major absorption part of the formed dye is broad, the color reproduction of yellow hue and green hue is unsatisfactory.
In color print materials used for recording and storing images, conventionally, pivaloylacetanilide-type yellow couplers are used. However, since the major absorption of the yellow dyes obtained from these couplers is broad, the color reproduction is unsatisfactory and a technique for its improvement is desired. The fastness of the color-formed dyes obtained from the above yellow couplers is poorer than that of the color-formed dyes obtained from magenta couplers and cyan couplers, the change in color balance of the respective color-formed dyes during long-term storage is conspicuous, and therefore improvement is strongly desired.
The present inventors have found that when a malondiamide-type yellow coupler is used, since the major absorption of the yellow dye image is sharp in comparison with conventional pivaloylacetanilide-type yellow couplers, the color reproduction is improved; but it has been found that for color photographic materials, particularly, for example, color print papers, which will be exposed to light for a long period of time or which are required to be suitable for storage in a place having a high humidity and a high temperature for a long period of time, further improvement in image stability is desirable.
Thus, to improve light-fastness of such yellow color-formed dyes, steric hindrance phenol compounds described, for example, in JP-A ("JP-A" means unexamined published Japanese patent application) Nos. 48535/1979 and 222853/1985, polyalkylpiperidine compounds described, for example, in JP-B ("JP-B" means examined Japanese patent publication) No. 20617/1982 and JP-A Nos. 116747/1984 and 11935/1984, and compounds described, for example, in JP-A Nos. 239149/1987, 240965/1987, 254149/1987, and 300748/1990, are known, and when yellow couplers are used in combination with these compounds, fastness to light is indeed improved.
However, even though the conventional attempt to improve image preservability by using a combination of an image stabilizer with a malondiamide-type coupler exhibits an effect, in many cases such an attempt is attended with lowering of other various photographic performances. For example, although stability to light can be increased, not all performances can be satisfied fully; for example preservability in darkness cannot be improved or is deteriorated, or, particularly when color photographic materials using a high silver chloride emulsion with a silver halide content of 90 mol % or more are stored after the production, a change in sensitivity is brought about.

Silver halide color photographic material


A threat monitoring and vulnerability management system is disclosed. The system includes one or more sensors configured to scan a frequency spectrum of a project 25 (P25) network and to collect data on the P25 network. The system further includes a server coupled to the sensors and configured to receive the collected data from the plurality of sensors, compare the collected data with previously stored historical data to determine whether an anomaly exists within data patterns of the collected data, responsive to determining that the anomaly exists, determine at least one of: whether use of a cloned radio that mimics an authorized connection occurs, whether jamming of a radio frequency (RF) communication occurs, or whether jamming of a voice communication occurs within the P25 network by comparing the collected data with preset thresholds, and send a real-time alert to a dispatch and control console unit coupled to the server and the P25 network in response to determining that some of the collected data exceeds at least one of the preset thresholds, such that the dispatch and control console unit provides one or more corrective actions to the P25 network.

LMR systems have been in use for communication by emergency, public safety, law enforcement and intelligence service providers. These systems provide the capability for critical inter-communication to the first responders engaged in time and mission and performance critical activities during emergency situations. Legacy LMR systems generally use analog narrowband frequency modulation (FM) transmission for point to point communication. In this instance, users carry transceivers that receive transmission from other users over the same broadcast frequency channel. That is, all the radios in the group monitor and share the same channel frequency. In order to improve the capabilities of the person-to-person and person-to-group communication capabilities using the advances of the digital radios, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) initiated Project 25 (also referred to as P25 or APCO-25), and as such, P25 communication system was produced.
P25 is a suite of digital protocols and standards designed for use in narrowband short-range very high frequency (VHF) and ultra-high frequency (UHF) land-mobile wireless two-way communications systems or digital LMR. P25 is intended as an evolutionary digital communication replacement of the analog two way radios of the legacy LMR. The P25 is meant to be deployed to replace the legacy LMR systems without any major disruption or change in the user experience, network topology, bandwidth requirement, etc. The P25 system was additionally designed to operate as the legacy system using the push-to-talk button. To conform with the legacy systems, and conform to the spectrum standards, the P25 systems use discrete narrowband radio channels and not the spread spectrum techniques normally associated with digital wireless communication. The P25 systems work as half-duplex with only one user transmitting over a given channel at a time. These radios have the capability to constantly receive transmissions over a single channel or scan multiple pre-assigned channels. The radios are able to distinguish received traffic and ignore traffic not intended for them, either by muting the signal or dropping signal which are encrypted using keys not available with them. Current P25 systems use continuous four level modulation (C4FM) within frequency division multiple access (FDMA) modulation scheme over a 12.5 kHz channel with 12.5 kHz spacing to transmit a four-level signal that sends 2 bits with each symbol transmitted to achieve a rate of 4800 symbols/second (sec), which is a bit rate of 9600 bits/sec. The P25 specification also in next phase cover use of a quadrature phase shift keying and time division multiple access (TDMA) and FMDA schemes that uses only 6.25 kHz of spectrum. P25 also enables low bandwidth data traffic independent of the voice, piggy backed over the voice communications.
The P25 system can work in three configurations. They are:
(a) simplex configuration where all members of the group receive and broadcast over the same frequency. This is a direct transmit/receive configuration and has limitations of coverage due to terrain, allowed power, interference from other users, etc.
(b) repeater configuration where the transmitted information is sent to an appropriate repeater location over one frequency, which is then retransmitted at a different frequency by a repeater at another frequency. By optimally choosing the repeater location, wider area coverage can be achieved.
(c) the currently preferred trunk configuration where a central controller allocates frequencies for transmission and reception between any two transceivers dynamically. The available bandwidth can be effectively utilized by time and frequency division multiplexing in this configuration.
The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International, Inc. (APCO International) is a group of long-standing partnerships between the public safety communications community, standard development organizations and industry manufacturers. The group's end goal is to satisfy the complex and evolving mission critical communication needs of users for interoperable LMR equipment and systems. To this end the APCO International has put together the P25 that standardizes the operation of the digital LMR and provides for backward compatibility with the prior analog LMR installations.
The P25 process itself focuses on the practical realization of the significant benefits of digital radio communications technologies and promotes the competitive offering of compliant P25 equipment and systems for effective use by a highly diverse user community on a worldwide basis. P25 is an open, user driven standardization process, with technical and operational requirements established through the participation of its stakeholders, including public safety practitioners from different countries representing different levels of government. The standards published by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), for example, establish the basis upon which:
manufacturers across the industry can develop, implement, and competitively offer P25 equipment and systems,
accredited laboratories that conduct P25 compliance testing, and
specifies, procures, and operates (by users) P25 radios and communications infrastructure.
With all stakeholders working together within P25, public safety organizations and agencies can realize the opportunity to advance technology along a common path that benefits the greatest number of users. P25 defines system interfaces that are utilized to build P25 communications networks. The standards documents define messages and procedures required for P25 features to operate across P25 system interfaces, but do not define equipment.

Systems and methods for distributed P25 LMR radio vulnerability management and real-time interference monitoring


A multiprocessor computer architecture containing processor caches that are kept coherent, and in particular, a duplicate cache tag subsystem and method for maintaining duplicate cache tags, are disclosed. The tag width of duplicate cache tags for a processor cache is tailored to available integrated circuit surface area, or to device pin count, without significantly sacrificing system performance. Such partial duplicate tag width may also be reduced at any time during the integrated circuit design phase, should the available integrated circuit surface area or pin-availability decrease. The method disclosed involves requesting data from memory; reading a partial duplicate cache tag list to determine if there is a partial hit; taking the data from the memory if there is no match between a requested address and the partial duplicate cache tag list; holding the data in memory or a requestor module if there is a match between the requested address and the partial duplicate cache tag list; and interrupting processor operation to confirm that the partial duplicate cache tag corresponds to an actual cache tag. The data are taken from the cache if the partial duplicate cache tag matches the actual cache tag and cache status indicates that the data have been modified. The data are taken from memory if the partial duplicate cache tag does not match the actual cache tag or cache status indicates that the data have not been modified.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a multiprocessor computer architecture. More particularly, the invention relates to a multiprocessor computer architecture containing processor caches that are kept coherent.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The flow of information between processors in a computer architecture should avoid the use of stale data, i.e. data that is older than and/or inconsistent with related data stored at another cache location or in main memory. Thus, cache coherency should be maintained, while minimizing interference with processor operation. In computer system architectures, cache coherency can be handled by hardware and/or software. In some such architectures, coherency between the processors and memory is maintained by hardware, while software guarantees coherency between the cache, memory, and input/output devices.
Caches can be classified either as write-through or write-back. A write-through cache is always written to along with system memory, such that system memory and cache each maintain a current copy of the information that is written, and the possibility of stale data is avoided. Information input in computer architecture using a write-through cache requires significant system overhead. For example, the system must guarantee that none of the blocks of the I/O buffer that have been designated for input are in the cache.
Write-back caches keep modified data until the data are cast out and written back to memory to make room for new data. Because a write-back cache may have the only copy of modified data, special care must be taken in the cache coherency protocol between caches and I/O systems such that the cache data can be quickly accessed and never lost.
One software solution to the stale data problem marks a buffer page as non-cacheable, and the operating system is configured to input information only to this non-cacheable page. Another software solution to this problem uses the operating system to flush the buffer addresses from the cache after an information input occurs, effectively clearing the caches. A hardware solution to the stale data problem checks the I/O addresses during information input to determine if they are in the cache. If so, the cache entries are invalidated to avoid stale data.
The protocols that are used to maintain coherency for multiple processors are referred to as cache coherency protocols. There are two classes of cache coherency protocols:
1. Directory based: The information about one block of physical memory is kept in just one location. This information usually includes which cache(s) has (have) a copy of the block and whether that copy is marked exclusive for future modification. An access to a particular block first queries the directory to see if the memory data is stale and the real data resides in some other cache. If it is, then the cache containing the modified block is forced to return its data to memory. Then the memory forwards the data to the new requester, updating the directory with the new location of that block. This protocol minimizes inter-bus module (or inter-cache) disturbance, but typically suffers from high latency and is expensive to build due to the large directory size required.
2. Snooping: Every cache that has a copy of the data from a block of physical memory also has a copy of the information about the data block. Each cache is typically located on a shared memory bus, and all cache controllers monitor or snoop on the bus to determine whether or not they have a copy of the requested block.
Snooping protocols are well suited for multiprocessor system architectures that use caches and shared memory because they operate in the context of the preexisting physical connection usually provided between the bus and the memory. Snooping is preferred over directory protocols because the amount of coherency information is proportional to the number of blocks in a cache, rather than the number of blocks in main memory.
The coherency problem arises in a multiprocessor architecture when a processor must have exclusive access to write a block of memory or object, and/or must have the most recent copy when reading an object. A snooping protocol must locate all caches that share the object to be written. The consequences of a write to shared data are either to invalidate all other copies of the data, or to broadcast the write to all of the shared copies. Because of the use of write back caches, coherency protocols must also cause checks on all caches during memory reads to determine which processor has the most up to date copy of the information.
Status bits are provided in a cache block to implement snooping protocols. This information is used when monitoring bus activities. On a read miss, all caches check to see if they have a copy of the requested block of information and take the appropriate action, such as supplying the information to the cache that missed. Similarly, on a write, all caches check to see if they have a copy of the data, and then act, for example by invalidating their copy of the data, or by changing their copy of the data to the most recent value.
Because every coherent bus transaction causes the caches to check their address tags, snooping interferes with the CPU's access to its cache regardless of the snoop result. For example, even when snooping returns a miss, the CPU is prevented from cache access because the cache is unavailable, i.e. the cache is busy checking tags to match against the snoop address. Thus, the CPU stalls or locks if it needs to access the cache while the cache is busy with a coherency check.
Snooping protocols are of two types:
Write invalidate: The writing processor causes all copies in other caches to be invalidated before changing its local copy. The processor is then free to update the data until such time as another processor asks for the data. The writing processor issues an invalidation signal over the bus, and all caches check to see if they have a copy of the data. If so, they must invalidate the block containing the data, and provide the data if the status indicates that the block has been modified. This scheme allows multiple readers but only a single writer.
Write broadcast: Rather than invalidate every block that is shared, the writing processor broadcasts the new data over the bus. All copies are then updated with the new value. This scheme continuously broadcasts writes to shared data, while the write invalidate scheme discussed above deletes all other copies so that there is only one local copy for subsequent writes. Write broadcast protocols usually allow data to be tagged as shared (broadcast), or the data may be tagged as private (local). For further information on coherency, see J. Hennessy, D. Patterson, Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc. (1990).
In a snoopy coherence multiprocessor system architecture, each coherent transaction on the system bus is forwarded to each processor's cache subsystem to perform a coherency check. This check usually disturbs the processor's pipeline because the cache cannot be accessed by the processor while the coherency check is taking place.
In a traditional, single ported cache without duplicate cache tags, the processor pipeline is stalled on cache access instructions when the cache controller is busy processing cache coherency checks for other processors. For each snoop, the cache controller must first check the cache tags for the snoop address and, if there is a hit, then modify the cache state, and provide data if the status indicates that the block has been modified. Allocating cache bandwidth for an atomic (unseparable) tag read and write (for possible modification) locks the cache from the processor longer than needed if the snoop does not require a tag write. For example, 80% to 90% of the cache queries are misses, i.e. a tag write is not required.
It is possible to reduce contention between the processor pipeline and the bus snoops by implementing a dual ported cache. However, this solution requires additional hardware and interconnect, and is therefore difficult and expensive to implement.
In multi-processor systems, duplicate tags (which are also referred to as "tag caches") may be used to minimize the number of coherence checks performed on a processor. By performing fewer coherence checks on the cache, the cache can be more fully used to execute instructions, and thereby improve system performance.
In prior art implementations, the duplicate tags are an exact copy of the tags of the actual cache. As caches continue to increase in size, either the portion of the cache integrated circuit surface area devoted to maintaining duplicate tags also increases, or the device pin-count (e.g. for off-chip duplicate tags) required to maintain the duplicate tags becomes costly.
A system for maintaining duplicate cache tags in a simple and inexpensive way, and that minimizes the use of integrated circuit surface area by, or device pin-out associated with, such duplicate cache tags would be a significant advance in uniprocessor and multiprocessor architecture design.

Method and apparatus for maintaining duplicate cache tags with selectable width


A clamp contact device for providing mechanical and electrical attachment for cables, wires, and electrical conductors. A single device can provide simultaneous dual attachment modes for cables, wires, and plugs. One end of the device contains two holes on separate spring legs. The spring legs can be pressed towards each other until the holes are in alignment. By inserting the cable through the aligned holes and releasing the legs, spring tension in the legs tries to force the holes apart, clamping the cable in place. The other end of the device has an opening for insertion of an pin, plug, or similar element. A fork spring that partially extends into the interior of the device provides spring-loaded extensions that contact an inserted plug and hold it in place, without the need to initially press on any part of the device. The device can be manufactured from a single piece of sheet metal. Another embodiment includes a separate spring within the interior of the device, which provides spring tension for the legs, allowing the legs to be made of materials that have good electrical conductivity rather than good spring qualities. This second spring can also serve as a stop to prevent inserted wires from protruding beyond a certain point. This assures that a wire inserted from one end will not interfere with a plug inserted from the other end.

Clamp contact devices are known from EP-A-0 218 133, FR-A-2 524 721, and DE-B-11 96 741. In all these spring clamps, which are built and operate according to the same principle, clamp contacting adequate for the stated purposes is achieved. However, these clamp devices do not provide for an electrical connection with a plug-in contact element.
DE 28 00 307 A1 discloses a contact point with a movable spring leg which rests on a printed circuit board and which runs at an angle thereto and a fork spring located on the outside of the deflectable spring leg. This contact point is suitable for electrical connection to a plug pin, but not for clamp contacting of a cable. But primarily this component has very large dimensions which make it essentially useless for many applications due to the spring leg which rests on the board and which is pulled forward in the plug-in direction, and especially due to the fork spring provided on the outside of the movable spring leg.
Furthermore, DE 42 33 446 C1 discloses a clamp contact device as is shown schematically in FIGS. 5 and 6, FIG. 5 showing the clamp contact means in the closed, or clamped, state, and FIG. 6 shows the clamp contact device in the open state, in which the cable can be inserted in the clamp contact device. In this known clamp contact device in plastic housing 1 there is clamp contact spring 2 which is riveted or caulked to support body 3 likewise located in plastic housing 1. Clamp contact spring 2 has fixed spring leg 4 and deflectable spring leg 5, and the latter can be pressed inward towards fixed spring leg 4 by means of lever 6 against spring force (compare FIG. 6). A cable (which is not shown), or the stripped conductor of a cable, can be pushed through opening 7 in plastic housing 1 into the latter and between deflectable spring leg 5 and stop 8 of support body 3. When lever 6 is released the inserted cable or inserted cable conductor is pressed against stop 8 by the spring force of deflectable spring leg 5 and in this way electrical contact is established between the cable and clamp contact means or support body 3. At the same time deflectable spring leg 5 mechanically fixes the cable or cable conductor, one free edge 9 of deflectable spring leg 5 acting as the contact blade.
This clamp contact means is complex, both with respect to production and also mounting. To achieve sufficient spring action contact spring 2 must be produced from spring steel so that additional support body 3 of bronze or brass is necessary to ensure adequate contacting and low electrical resistance. To deflect spring leg 5, i.e. to open or close the clamp contact device, additional lever 6 is necessary. To open the clamp contact device a tool is necessary, for example a screwdriver, which increases the operating effort of the user. In addition, the clamp must be mounted securely on a circuit board or a housing since for actuating the clamp both hands are necessary, one for holding the cable and the other for holding the tool, so that the hands are no longer free to hold the clamp itself. Another important disadvantage of this known clamp contact device is that it can be miniaturized only with high cost.


Cyclohexyladipates are produced by reacting a mixture containing a major amount of benzene and minor amounts of cyclohexene, adipic acid and an acid catalyst.

A conventional method for the manufacture of adipic acid is the air oxidation of cyclohexane to form a mixture of cyclohexanone and cyclohexanol. This mixture is then oxidized with nitric acid to adipic acid.
The preparation of adipic acid is also carried out commercially by the selective hydrogenation of benzene to form cyclohexene, separation of the cyclohexene from the unconverted benzene and the over-hydrogenated cyclohexane by extractive distillation, then hydration of cyclohexene to form cyclohexanol, and the nitric acid oxidation of the cyclohexanol to adipic acid. See for example Kagaku Kogaku (Chemical Technology), vol. 55, No. 5, pp 382-385 (1991); "Technology for Manufacturing Cyclohexanol using Cyclohexene Technique" by Shikazo Senoo and Koji Nakagawa.
British Patent 1,402,480 teaches the preparation of adipic acid by esterification of cyclohexene with adipic acid using an acid catalyst, and then oxidizing the cyclohexyladipates with nitric acid to form adipic acid.
Japanese published patent application 51-36,267 (Published Oct. 7, 1976) discloses that cyclohexyladipates may be formed by the reaction of cyclohexene and adipic acid using an acid catalyst. The published application states: "The cyclohexene used in the present invention may be conventional-grade cyclohexene; the presence of a small amount of inert substances such as cyclohexane and benzene does not present a problem."

Process for the production of cyclohexyladipates and adipic acid


An elongated sheet piling panel has a length and width, and opposed side edges, and has elongated voids positioned within the interior of the panel. The voids are oriented in the direction of the length of the panel, and the edges of the panel are configured to be connected to the edges of additional similar panels.

Sheet piling material, or sheet piling, is used to form continuous earth retaining walls or sea walls. Some of the uses of such walls include anchored bulkheads, shore-protection walls, soil retaining walls, water-control structures, cut-off walls to control ground water or hazardous chemical seepage, and trenching. The retaining walls or sea walls are typically formed by driving the elongated, planar sheet piling material vertically into the ground, with adjacent sheets being joined to each other to form a sturdy structure. The sheets are typically driven into the ground by pile driving, and the sheets must have sufficient stiffness to withstand the pile driver without buckling or otherwise failing.
Usually, the sheet piling material has a panel side edge configuration that enables interlocking of the panel edges with the edge of an adjacent panel. Sheet pilings can be made of many different types of material, including steel, aluminum, treated timber, extruded vinyl sheet material, and fiber-reinforced pultruded polymer material. Sheet pilings are used in different cross-sectional configurations, such as Z-shaped, U-shaped, and arch-shaped configurations, as well as a straight flat configuration. There are currently more than ten US-based and international steel sheet piling manufacturers who produce nearly 200 different sheet piling configurations.
Steel pilings are widely used for sheet piling material due to the superior strength and ductility of steel, the efficient use of the material in various cross-sectional configurations, and the ease of installation due to interlocking. However, there are two major drawbacks to using steel: corrosion and high weight. An alternative to steel is aluminum. While more corrosion-resistant than steel, aluminum sheet pilings are more expensive than steel. Another choice for sheet pilings is preservative-treated timber. While timber retaining structures are less expensive than metallic systems, they are coming under increased environmental scrutiny because of the preservatives used in the timber. Extruded vinyl sheet pilings can also be used for sheet pilings. The vinyl pilings are more durable that either the steel or the wood pilings, but they are expensive and suffer problems related to low strength and low stiffness. Pultruded fiber-reinforced polymer sheet pilings are stronger and stiffer than their extruded counterparts, but are more expensive.
The predominantly-used steel piles are typically made using hot rolling or cold forming, although other methods can be used. Hot rolled panels are produced by a steel hot-mill procedure in which the shape is reduced during a series of rolling stages to the final form. The thickness of flanges and webs can be adjusted and interlocks that connect one sheet pile to the other are shaped by the flow of hot metal. The shape of cold formed sheet piles is obtained by passing cold sheet steel through a series of rolls. The interlock is formed, for example, by bending the flange ends into a hook-and-grip cross-sectional configuration or a male-female ball and socket joint configuration. While there is no standard interlock design, interlocks are usually designed to provide a permanent connection of individual sheets in order to form a continuous, relatively water-tight or earth-tight wall, and to allow reasonably free sliding to facilitate installation. Also, the sheet piling material is designed to provide adequate pull strength in applications where the sheet material is under tension, and to provide a certain amount of swing.
It would be advantageous if there could be developed an improved sheet piling material, taking into consideration such factors as structural strength requirements, cost, ease of installation, durability, and absence of environmental problems.

Sheet piling panels with elongated voids

University of Maine System Board of Trustees


In an off-road vehicle having a resistor grid network and a blower system as part of a braking system operable to determine at least one of a resistor failure and a blower failure, the system including a first series of resistors connected in series, a second series of resistors connected in series, a blower cross to at least one of the first series of resistors and the second series of resistors, a sensor proximate at least one of the first series of resistors, the second series of resistors, and the blower, wherein each individual resistor in the first series connected in parallel to an individual resistor in the second series, and wherein when at least one of a current value, blower speed, and voltage value changes, the grid network is disconnected.

This invention relates to electrical systems and more particularly, to a system, and method, and computer software code for isolating electrical ground and secondary failures in electrical systems.
Electrical systems may sometimes encounter faults, such as AC grounds, DC grounds or impedances outside of acceptable ranges. When such faults occur, they may mildly or seriously damage the electrical system. Electrical systems are used in a vast variety of machines or components.
One such apparatus which uses a variety of electrical systems is a locomotive. A locomotive has a plurality of electrical systems on it. One such electrical system on a locomotive is a propulsion system. For example, a conventional diesel electric locomotive generally has a prime mover, typically a turbo-charged diesel engine with cylinders ranging from twelve to sixteen, to drive an electrical transmission. The electrical transmission generally comprises a synchronous generator that supplies electric current to a plurality of alternating current (AC) traction motors whose rotor are drivingly coupled through speed reducing gearing to respective axle wheel sets of the locomotive.
In one version, these locomotives will have an individual inverter connected to an individual traction motor while in other versions there may be multiple traction motors connected to a single inverter. The number of combinations of inverters/traction motors on a locomotive may vary also, such as from three to six, depending of the type or style of locomotive. The inverters and traction motors are used for propulsion and braking. Again, depending on the type of locomotive, there can be a plurality of parallel paths of dynamic braking grids or grid boxes, such as ranging from three to six parallel paths of dynamic braking grids. Each grid box can be either a series or parallel combination of resistances. The generator typically comprises a main three-phase traction alternator. When excitation current is supplied to field windings on the rotating rotor, alternating voltages are generated in three-phase armature windings on the stator of the alternator. These voltages are rectified to produce a controlled amplitude DC voltage and then applied to one or more of the inverters which control the effective frequency of alternating current to be supplied to the armature windings of the traction motors.
During dynamic braking, power comes from the traction motors. If there is not enough power from the traction motors, additional power is supplied from the alternator to the braking grids to maintain a proper DC link voltage to support traction motor excitation. At low speeds, when there is little power from the traction motors, most of the power is provided from the alternator during braking.
While in operation, electrical grounds, either an AC ground or DC ground, may develop in the propulsion circuit. An AC ground is a ground where the voltage at the ground fault point has a predominantly AC component with respect to the system grounding point. A DC ground is a ground where the voltage at the ground fault point has a predominantly DC component with respect to the ground. Thus as an illustration, in a DC locomotive, the system grounding point is typically at neutral point of the alternator. If the grounding point is the neutral of the alternator and if a ground on a DC bus exists, the ground may appear as an AC ground.
If not detected in time, this problem can severally damage components of the propulsion system. Additionally, impedance changes could occur which could also damage components of the propulsion system. Resistance changes occur because of either a short or an open circuit in a resistance. An open circuit in a portion of a resistor or a short circuit in a portion of a resistor, which would change the resistance, could damage additional components. Either certain components or the rest of the circuit may encounter a high power density or higher temperatures, thus damaging the electrical system.
Even though systems and techniques may exist today to effectively handle these problems, they do not necessarily apply less total power, less time in power, and less power for any components which are experiencing increased stress as a result of the original component failure. Furthermore, they do not all provide for a confirmation process to ensure isolation accuracy of failed components. They also do not provide for an early failure detection and handling based on specific operation information which may include comparison between similar devices.
Additionally, AC locomotives typically have from four (4) to six (6) parallel electrical paths for dynamic braking resistors. Any failure of these resistors and any associated circuits can cause extensive damage to the resistor system and other equipment if operation in a failed state continues for a sufficiently long time. Similar conditions exist in DC locomotives wherein they also may have 4 or 6 electrical paths for dynamic brake resistors. However they are connected independently.

Method, system, and computer software code for detection and isolation of electrical ground failure and secondary failure


The invention concerns a scanning device for focusing a beam of rays in defined regions of a defined volume, comprising an input optics wherein the beam of rays penetrates first, having at least one first optical element; a focusing optics for focusing the beam of rays exiting from the input optics; and a deflecting device arranged between the first optical element and the focusing optics, for deflecting the beam of rays after it has passed through the first optical element, based on a position of the focus to be adjusted in lateral direction. In order to adjust the position of the focus of the beam of rays in the direction of the beam of rays, and optical element of the input optics can be displaced relative to the deflecting device.

The focusing of a luminous beam into different given ranges of a volume, this is both in a lateral and/or transversal direction to the luminous beam as well as in a parallel direction to the luminous beam, which plays an important role in a series of optical devices and/or with a set of optical procedures. From now on, as luminous beams must be conceived in particular laser beams delivered by a laser.
For example, laser beams are used in ophthalmology, in order to correct defective vision of a human eye by a laser-surgical intervention over the cornea of the eye. A special importance has the well-known procedure known as "LASIK" (laser in situ keratomileusis), in which by means of a pulsed laser beam material is removed not from the surface of the cornea, but from inside the cornea. This way, an external surface area of the cornea forms a fold-like cover also known as a "flap", whose thickness is substantially smaller than the one of the cornea. This cover is folded away for the actual removal treatment, whereupon a given amount of material is removed through the area of the opened region by means of a pulsed laser beam, with which the defective vision is corrected. Afterwards the cover is folded back on the opened surface.
In order to be able to cut the cover in the cornea to the exact defined depth as carefully and precisely as possible, femtosecond laser pulses may be used—this is, laser pulses with suggested pulse-widths lower than 10−12 s. By means of such pulses, optical openings—which are also denominated "photo-disruptions", which are locally limited and show an expansion of only a few micrometers—can be produced in the cornea. By placing several of these optical openings very close in exact given places, the cover can be formed very accurately. Thereby, a fundamental condition for the exact formation of the cover is the accurate positioning of the focus of the used pulsed laser beam, not only in the lateral direction, but most of all also in the depth of the cornea and thus in the propagation direction of the laser beam.
US 2003/0053219 A1 describes a zoom lens system which is intended for surgical applications. A zoom lens is moved in the direction of the laser beam for focusing into different depths, whereby the focal length of the focusing optics is modified. In order to be able to place the focus in the depth with the required accuracy, the zoom lens must be adjusted with a very high accuracy, which requires accordingly complex mechanics.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,751,033 B2 shows an ophthalmologic laser system, in which a laser beam delivered by a laser source is diverted in a lateral direction and thereafter is focused in a given depth by using optics with variable focal length. The same disadvantages of the system described in US 2003/0053219 A1 can be expected with this system.
A further application area for scanning devices of the above mentioned type are those denominated confocal laser scanning microscopes, in which a laser beam is focused on a given range of the volume of the object to be examined. The light emitted from this area is aimed over a detector in which a fine aperture is located over an intermediate image plane, which basically only allows the light emitted from the range and/or focus to pass, fading out the light from neighboring regions so that a dissolving takes place in the lateral and depth directions. A three-dimensional volume of the object which is being examined can be shown by the relative motion between specimen and focus in lateral direction and in the direction of the laser beam. The specimen table which holds the object is moved by positioning the focus in the direction of the laser beam relative to the object, is also mechanically complex and due to the relatively large mass of the sample table, does not allow a very fast adjustment.
The basic purpose of the concerned invention is to create a scanning device for focusing a luminous beam into determined ranges of a given volume by means of a simple laser beam, in a simple and exact way in the lateral direction and in the direction of the laser beam into different specific ranges of a volume, that can be focused following a determined procedure.


Methods and apparatus are provided for efficiently combining and filtering a plurality of input signals into a single combined output signal. M number of input signals are received, combined and filtered by a filter/combiner. The filter/combiner has a plurality of input stages for each input signal, and an output stage that combines the outputs of the input stages into the combined signal. The filter/combiner has a desired overall filter transfer function designed to filter signals having frequencies outside a passband and which passes the desired M input signals.

Power amplifiers account for a significant portion of the capital and operational expense in current wireless base station designs. One method of reducing this expense is to increase the overall efficiency of these amplifiers. In order to obtain high-efficiency amplifiers, one prior approach is to modulate the amplifier's PSU (power supply unit) in order to track the input envelope of the modulated signal. This in turn requires that one must have a high-efficiency PSU which supports the desire to modulate the PSU, while at the same time, does not introduce any impairments into the main signal path.
A number of high-efficiency architectures have been proposed, particularly in the audio field. However, these architectures typically consist of a single phase and are not capable of supporting the power levels and input bandwidths required for RF applications.
Improvements in efficiency of power amplifiers would benefit low-frequency, high-frequency and radio-frequency amplifier applications, ultimately providing for increased flexibility as to base station placement, particularly when efficiencies increase to the point where supplemental heat dissipation via fans and the like is no longer required.
Sigma-Delta modulation allows noise shaping such that the noise of the modulated signal lies mostly out-of-band. Filtering off the out-of-band noise substantially restores the original signal. See for example Sharp "An Overview of Sigma-Delta Converters", (IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, January 1996), SM-SX1 Sigma-Delta Audio Amplifier (IEEE Spectrum, March 2000), "Bandpass delta-sigma class-S amplifier", Electr. Letters, Vol. 36, No. 12, June 2000, "Linear High-Efficiency Microwave Power Amplifiers Using Bandpass Delta-Sigma Modulators", Jayaraman et al., IEEE Micr. & Guided Wave Letters, Vol. 8, No. 3, March 1998, "Linear Amplification by Sampling Techniques: A new application for Delta Coders", Cos, IEEE Trans. Comm., Vol. Com-23, No. 8, August 1975. Conventional applications for Sigma-Delta modulation have focused on analog inputs, and have produced single-bit outputs only. Single bit systems require a very high over-sampling rate to achieve acceptable performance. Multi-bit Sigma-Delta modulators have also been proposed. Sigma-Delta modulation takes an input signal and converts it to an N-level quantized Sigma-Delta signal. The input signal can be in the form of an analog signal or a digital signal.
Various methods and apparatus for efficiently amplifying or converting a signal, including high-efficiency amplifiers and methods, are disclosed in United States Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0239416 (Ser. No. 10/449,105 filed on Jun. 2, 2003 and published on Dec. 2, 2004) and United States Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0062526 (Ser. No. 10/858,079 filed on Jun. 2, 2004 and published on Mar. 24, 2005), each of which is incorporated herein by reference.
In most high efficiency applications, filters are utilized to reject signals in particular frequency ranges, outside a desired passband. Conventional filter implementations typically introduce dissipation into the signal processing path. Other components or processing blocks or network within the path may also increase dissipation. Therefore, there is a need for filter design and implementation (and other component design and implementation) that reduces dissipation and results in increased efficiency.

Method and apparatus for combining multiple signals for high efficiency applications


An open-air type earphone having a duct that communicates between an inside and an outside of the earphone and applies an inductance component to an acoustic signal generated by an electroacoustic transducer. The earphone includes the electroacoustic transducer to convert an electric signal into an acoustic signal, a housing to accommodate the electroacoustic transducer, and a variable duct unit that inwardly extends from the housing to communicate between the earphone and the surrounding atmosphere, and to adjust an inductance component for the acoustic signal generated by the electroacoustic transducer. Since a length or sectional area of the duct can be varied at an end of the housing, a frequency characteristics, particularly, a loss bass characteristic of the earphone, can be easily adjusted according to a user's taste, a genre of music, and the like.

1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an earphone, and more particularly, to an open-air type earphone having a duct that communicates between an inner portion of the earphone and an outer portion of the earphone and applies an inductance component to an acoustic signal generated by an electroacoustic transducer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Earphones are tiny speakers that fit into a user's ears and have an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electric signal into an acoustic signal.
Earphones can be classified as a closed-air type earphone and an open-air type earphone according to the shape of a housing in which an electroacoustic transducer is contained. Closed-air type earphones are configured such that a housing is hermetically closed from the surrounding atmosphere, and open-air type earphones are configured such that small back holes are formed along an edge of a rear portion of a housing to communicate between the inside and the outside of the housing.
In closed-air type earphones, since the sound pressure in the ear changes according to how tight the earphone fits into the ear, the sound quality can also vary. However, in the open-air type earphones, since the inside and the outside of a housing communicate with each other, the sound pressure inside the ear can be maintained constant over a wide range of frequencies from a low frequency to a high frequency. Additionally, acoustic resistance materials, e.g., urethane foams, may be embedded in back holes formed in the housing of the open-air type earphones to reduce external noise.
Resonance in the open-air type earphone occurs at a frequency between a middle frequency and a high frequency of an acoustic signal according to the size of the back holes. This resonance results in a sound pressure peak between the middle frequency and the high frequency, thereby degrading frequency characteristics of the open-air type earphones. In an effort to address these problems, U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,887 describes an open-air type earphone having a duct.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a conventional open-air type earphone.
Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional open-air type earphone includes an electroacoustic transducer 102 including a permanent magnet, a voice coil, and a diaphragm, and a housing 104 accommodating the electroacoustic transducer 102. Back holes 106 are formed in the back of the housing 104 and are covered by acoustic resistance materials such as non-woven fabrics. A duct 108 extends from a side of the housing 104.
In the conventional open-air type earphone having the back holes 106, since the frequency response decreases at frequencies below the resonant frequency of the vibration system consisting of the voice coil and the diaphragm, the resonant frequency of the electroacoustic transducer 102 should be as small as possible in order to improve the low frequency characteristic.
The resonant frequency of the electroacoustic transducer 102 may be decreased by increasing the compliance or the equivalent mass of the electroacoustic transducer 102. Here, the compliance is a measure of the flexibility of a moving body. For example, a high compliance speaker is very soft at a cone support portion.
In particular, in order to increase the compliance of the electroacoustic transducer 102, it is necessary to either (1) select a material of high compliance for the diaphragm or (2) decrease the thickness of the diaphragm. However, there are limits regarding the compliance of the material that can be used for the diaphragm and the extent to which the thickness of the diaphragm can be reduced. Further, by increasing the equivalent mass of the electroacoustic transducer 102, the sensitivity and acoustic characteristic of the earphone in the high frequency range is deteriorated.
In the conventional open-air type earphone of FIG. 1, the compliance and the equivalent mass of the electroacoustic transducer 102 are improved by extending a portion of the housing 104 to form the duct 108. Since the duct 108 adds an equivalent mass to the vibration system, the resonant frequency of the vibration system is reduced by the amount corresponding to the added equivalent mass. That is, this reduction of the resonant frequency of the vibration system is achieved irrespective of the compliance and the equivalent mass of the vibration system. Accordingly, the low frequency characteristic of the conventional open-air type earphone can be improved due to the duct 108.
The low frequency characteristic of the earphone is basically determined by the equivalent mass of the duct 108 and the resonant frequency of the vibration system, but also is determined by how tight the earphone fits in the ear. That is, the low frequency characteristic is changed according to the leakage of sound when an acoustic signal generated by the earphone is transmitted to the ear. The low frequency component of the acoustic signal is reduced when there is a great deal of sound leakage.
Additionally, since the hearing sensitivity of different users varies based on ear structure, the low frequency characteristic of the earphone is also affected by the ear structure as well as the equivalent mass of the duct 108 and the resonant frequency of the vibration system.
Users may also want to adjust the low frequency characteristic of the earphone according to the music genre. Here, the low frequency ranges from 20 to 200 Hz, and can be divided into deep bass ranging from 20 to 40 Hz, middle bass ranging from 40 to 400 Hz, and upper bass ranging from 100 to 200 Hz. For example, deep bass is particularly important when listening to classical music, whereas upper bass is particularly important when listening to hip-hop or dance music.
Accordingly, the low frequency characteristic should be adjusted according to a user's physical feature (i.e., the ear structure), taste, and music genre.