A semiconductor integrated-circuit die includes a substrate of semiconductor material that has an edge. A conductive layer is disposed on the substrate, and a first insulator layer is disposed between the said substrate and the conductive layer. A functional circuit is disposed in the die. A conductive path is disposed beneath the insulator layer and is coupled to the circuit, the conductive path having an end portion that is located substantially at the edge of the substrate. The wafer on which the die is disposed has one or more signal lines that run along the scribe lines of the wafer. Before the die is scribed from the wafer, the conductive path couples the circuit on the die to one of these signal lines. The end portion of the conductive path is formed when the die is scribed from the wafer.

To improve the reliability of integrated circuits such as memory devices, engineers have developed many stressing and testing procedures to identify defective integrated circuits before they are shipped to customers. Typically, an integrated circuit is formed on a section of a wafer of semiconductor material, such as silicon. Each such section is called a die, and wafer includes multiple dies. For example, a wafer having an 8-inch diameter may include up to 600 individual dies. After the integrated circuits have been formed, the dies are detached, i.e., cut, removed, or scribed, from the wafer along scribe lines. The engineers then subject the individual integrated circuits to the desired testing and stressing procedures. Alternatively, the scribed dies may be packaged before the engineers test the integrated circuits. Integrated circuits that are tested in die form, i.e., before they are packaged, may be packaged after testing and then shipped to customers, or may be shipped to customers in die form, i.e., as known good dies.
The initial stressing of the integrated circuit, often called burn-in, accelerates the physical changes that the circuit would otherwise experience during normal operation, so that a defect that would occur after a number of hours of normal operation often occurs after significantly fewer hours of burn-in. After the completion of the burn-in, engineers test the integrated circuit for defects before it is shipped to a customer. If the engineers find a defect, they may repair the defect if such a repair is possible, or they may discard the defective integrated circuit.
One stressing and testing procedure includes placing a memory circuit into an oven that has a temperature well above room temperature, and then applying to the memory cells within the memory circuit test voltages that are well above the normal operating voltages. To reduce the time of such a procedure, engineers have developed a number of test circuits that are formed as part of the memory circuit and that allow the simultaneous selection of multiple memory cells during the procedure. Examples of such test circuits are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/954,276, entitled "Stress Test For Memory Arrays In Integrated Circuits," filed Sep. 30, 1992, U.S. Pat. No. 5,341,336, entitled "Method For Stress Testing Decoders And Periphery Circuits," and U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,277, entitled "Address Buffer," which are incorporated by reference.
One problem with known stressing and testing procedures such as the one described above is that they may cause a substantial bottle neck in the overall production of integrated circuits. For example, the number of signal probes that must be coupled to each integrated circuit during stressing and testing often limits the number of integrated circuits that a test station can stress and test at one time. For some large-capacity memory devices, such stress and testing procedures may take approximately 100 hours. Therefore, to decrease the overall stress-test time, one often must use more test stations. However, the size and cost of a test station often makes acquiring additional test stations impractical or impossible. Additionally, if an integrated circuit is stressed and tested after it has been packaged and is found to be defective, the packaging is either removed to allow the repair of the defective circuit, or the defective circuit, package and all, is discarded. Thus, the packaging time and materials are wasted on the defective circuit.

Integrated-circuit die suitable for wafer-level testing and method for forming the same


An arrangement for generating a control signal for controlling a power output of a power generation system, such as a wind turbine, is provided. The power output is supplied to a utility grid. The arrangement includes a first input terminal for receiving a first input signal indicative of an actual grid frequency of the utility grid, a control circuit for generating the control signal, and an output terminal to which the control signal is supplied. The control circuit includes a bang-bang controller for generating a first power signal being indicative of a predefined amount of power to be added to the power output of the power generation system. The bang-bang controller is adapted to be activated when the first input signal falls below a first predefined threshold. The control signal depends on the first power signal.

One or more power generation systems, such as wind turbines, may be connected to a utility grid to supply electric energy to the utility grid. On the other hand, one or more consumers or loads are connected to the utility grid to extract electric energy from the utility grid. The utility grid may deliver the electric energy in form of a AC power stream (or signal or electromagnetic wave) which have a predetermined nominal grid frequency, such as 50 Hz or 60 Hz. Thereby, the grid frequency may highly depend on the balance of generated and consumed power. This balance of generated and consumed power is necessary to keep the frequency stable, but due to outage, generation loss and sudden increase in power a variation in frequency is often observed.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,345,373 B2 discloses a system and method for utility and wind turbine control, wherein a flow of power through the converter is modulated in response to frequency disturbances or power swings of the utility system relative to an internal reference frame which is implemented as an integrator that emulates a virtual inertia with a particular magnitude defined by the constant M. Thereby, the internal reference frame has an output that is variable and is the frequency of the internal reference frame. A relative frequency is obtained as a difference of a measured frequency (measured utility system frequency) and the frequency of the internal reference frame. In particular, the frequency of the internal reference frame may differ from the utility system during frequency disturbances.

Arrangement for generating a control signal for controlling a power output of a power generation system


The present invention pertains to a method of preparing substituted and unsubstituted N-hydroxy-2-aminobutane diacid derivatives. The invention also pertains to the use of N-hydroxy-2-aminoethane derivatives (including the N-hydroxy-2-aminobutane diacid derivatives) in the preparation of pyridine derivatives.

2. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a method for preparing pyridine derivatives by reacting substituted or unsubstituted unsaturated carboxylic acid derivatives with unsubstituted hydroxylamine and .alpha.,.beta.-unsaturated carbonyl compounds.
2. Background Art
N-hydroxyamino acids are valuable precursors for natural amino acids, peptides, herbicides, antibiotics, growth promoting agents, antitumor agents, antifungal agents, and polymers. It has been known that the addition of hydroxylamine to an unsaturated monocarboxylic acid derivative can be used to obtain N-hydroxyamino mono carboxylic acid derivative. However, addition of hydroxylamine to an unsaturated dicarboxylic acid, such as fumaric acid, in the presence of an enzyme does not successfully result in the isolation of N-hydroxyaspartic acid, as reported in "Progress in the Chemistry of Organic Natural Products", L. F. Alves et al., Springer-Verlag (1988), page 230. Indeed, the utilization of enzyme extracts, such as Bacillus caderas or proteus vulgaris also does not yield success in isolating this desired product, but resort must be made, through utilization of a benzyl group, to protect the hydroxylamine moiety as reported by Kolasa, Can. J. Chem., Vol. 63, 2139 (1985). Such methods are cumbersome and involve the removal of protecting groups rather than employing hydroxylamine or a salt thereof directly.
K. Bashceruddin et. al., Synthetic Communications, 9, 705-712 (1979) reports the questionable result of obtaining of N-hydroxyaspartic acids of greatly different melting points from maleic acid and fumaric acid, utilizing hydroxylamine. The reaction conditions for such conversion(s) are not disclosed, nor is revealed the criticality involved for obtaining N-hydroxyaspartic acid or its derivatives, namely a critical pH. Furthermore, the only relevant reaction conditions revealed in this publication, those for preparation of N-hydroxy-3-amino-3-(p-nitrophenyl)propionic acid from p-nitrocinnamic acid, do not yield N-hydroxyaspartic acid.
Literature methods for preparing 5,6-dialkyl and 5-alkyl-6-arylpyridine-2,3-dicarboxylic acids and esters are limited and often require oxidation of alkyl or aryl substituents at positions 2 and 3 in order to obtain diacids. Recently there has been disclosed a method for the preparation of substituted and disubstituted pyridine-2,3-dicarboxylic acid esters and 2-alkylnicotinates utilizing .alpha.-halo-.beta.-ketoesters and .alpha.,.beta.-unsaturated aldehydes or ketones in the presence of an ammonium salt. The use of .alpha.-halo-.beta.-ketoesters is not desired due to the fact that such materials are usually costly and unstable.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,011 discloses preparation of substituted and disubstituted pyridine-2,3-dicarboxylates by the reaction of an .alpha.-halo-.beta.-ketoester such as chloro-diethyloxalacetate (chloro-DOX) and an .alpha.,.beta.-unsaturated aldehyde or ketone such as 2-ethylacrolein in the presence of at least 2 molar equivalents of an ammonium salt in order to produce the desired compounds.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,588 discloses and claims a process for preparing pyridine-2,3-dicarboxylic acids by the oxidation of 8-substituted quinolines.
European patent application 274,379 published Jul. 13, 1988 discloses two processes for producing pyridine-2,3-dicarboxylic acid compounds. One process seems similar to that previously described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,011 and the other process involves reacting on .alpha.,.beta.-unsaturated aldehyde or ketone with various aminomaleates or aminofumarates such as diethyl aminomaleate.
European patent application 299,362 published Jan. 18, 1989 also discloses the same reaction.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,675,432 to Donald R. Maulding, issued Jun. 23, 1987 described a method for the preparation of anilinofumarate. A dichlorosuccinate is reacted with a molar equivalent of aniline in an inert organic solvent and with two or more molar equivalents of an aqueous base in the presence of a phase transfer catalyst to produce the anilinofumerate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,283 to Robert F. Doehner, Jr., issued Apr. 7, 1987 describes a method for the preparation of alkyl esters of substituted 2-methylquinoline-3-carboxylic acid and quinoline-2,3-dicarboxylic acid as well as dialkyl 3-(substituted)-phenylaminobut-2-ene-dioates. An appropriately substituted aniline is reacted with approximately an equimolar amount of a keto-ester to produce the products above-described.
Although the methods above-described are effective, nevertheless, because of the commercial importance of the compounds, particularly as useful intermediates for the preparation of herbicidal 2-(2-imidazolin-2-yl)nicotinic acids, esters and salts, any improvement in the process is of tremendous potential economic significance.

Process for preparing pyridinecarboxylic acid derivatives


There are provided methods and apparatus for estimating channel induced distortion. A method for estimating distortion for an inter-coded image includes the step of calculating an average channel distortion for received inter-coded macroblocks in the inter-coded image as a previous average channel distortion multiplied by a scaling factor.

The video received by a user in a networked video application (e.g., video streaming or video telephony) differs from the original video. The difference, or the distortion, is incurred, for example, by quantization applied at the video encoder, and bit errors and packet losses during the transmission. The latter, referred to as "channel-induced distortion" (or "channel distortion" for short) depends on many factors including, for example, characteristics of channel errors, error resilience features applied at the encoder, error concealment techniques employed at the decoder, and the motion and texture content of the underlying sequence. Accurate estimation of the channel-induced distortion enables a video service provider to optimally select operating parameters of the source encoder, the channel encoder, and other transport error control mechanisms, to maximize the received video quality for a given channel bandwidth.
In the prior art, an analytical model was developed which relates the average channel-induced distortion with the packet loss rate and the intra-rate, by modeling the spatial-temporal error propagation behavior as a leaking filter. However, the attachment of physical meanings to the model parameters is not without difficulty.
Also in the prior art, the so-called ROPE (Recursive Optimal Per Pixel Estimate) method is known, which recursively calculates the expected difference between the original and decoded value at each pixel. The ROPE method can be used to calculate the expected distortion for a new macroblock using different coding modes (inter vs. intra) so that the encoder can choose the mode that leads to the minimal distortion. However, the ROPE method is not applicable for determining the average intra-rate before actual encoding for a given channel loss rate. Moreover, the ROPE method is also computationally intensive. Also, the ROPE method is only applicable when the encoder employs only integer motion vectors for temporal prediction, and when the decoder uses a simple error concealment method that copies the co-located blocks in the previously reconstructed frame for any lost block in the current frame.
Further in the prior art, a frame-level recursion formula (hereinafter the "conventional frame-level recursion formula") was developed, which relates the channel-induced distortion in a current frame with that in a previous frame. However, this model is only applicable for the simple error concealment method that copies the co-located blocks in the previously reconstructed frame for any lost block in the current frame.
All of the prior art described above considers error propagation due to only temporal inter-prediction. Further, most prior art methods do not take into account non-integer motion compensation for temporal prediction and concealment, nor do they consider the effect of deblocking filtering.
Spatial intra-prediction and deblocking filtering are two new features, of the latest H.264 video coding standard and significantly improve the coding efficiency over previous standards.
Accordingly, it would be desirable and highly advantageous to have a method and apparatus for estimating channel induced distortion that overcome the above-described limitations of the prior art.

Method and apparatus for estimating channel induced distortion


The different advantageous embodiments provide a method and apparatus for detecting an aircraft. The different advantageous embodiments may provide a method for detecting an acoustic emission emitted by the aircraft using a number of acoustic sensors to form a detected acoustic emission. The aircraft may be identified from the detected acoustic emission to form an identified aircraft. A bearing may be estimated for the identified aircraft using the detected acoustic emission.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to monitoring systems and in particular to a method and apparatus for surveillance of aircraft in an airport environment. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for detecting, tracking and classifying aircraft using sound sensors distributed across a surveillance area.
2. Background
An ability to detect and track aircraft in an airport environment is an important capability for areas where ground surveillance radars do not exist or are limited in detection scope. Today, air traffic control radar systems are used to attempt to track and identify aircraft moving within an airport environment, such as on a runway or taxiway. These radar systems may only be implemented in large airports due to the high cost of these systems.
While these systems may provide detection of moving aircraft within an airport environment, some airports may have sensing gaps where the aircraft operating on a runway or taxiway may go undetected. In addition, these sensing systems require the aircraft to actually move before they can detect and alert human air traffic controllers of potential runway incursions. This gives controllers mere seconds to respond to a detected movement that may pose a potential runway conflict. This type of sensing system offers limited capabilities that provide a small amount of time for air traffic controllers to respond. Additionally, many airport environments may not possess the resources to acquire and implement expensive radar systems, and must rely on visual detection by human air traffic controllers.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a method and apparatus that takes into account one or more of the issues discussed above as well as possible other issues.


A method of reclaiming a well completion brine solution containing metal impurities by introducing to the brine solution an organic chelant of the formula:

High density brines (completion brines) have been widely used in well completion and workover operations in oilfields in the past several decades. The completion brines are salt solutions typically having fluid densities ranging from about 8.4 ppg (pounds per gallon) to about 20 ppg. Depending on the density desired, a completion brine can be a one salt solution (e.g. NaCl, NaBr, CaCl2, CaBr2, ZnBr2 or formate salt in water), a two salt solution (e.g. CaCl2/CaBr2 or ZnBr2/CaBr2), or a three salt solution (e.g. ZnBr2/CaBr2/CaCl2). The composition of the brines determines the fluid properties such as pH, density, etc. Depending on the economics, a fluid can be used in a well and then purchased back to be cleaned and reused later.
At the conclusion of any completion or workover project, a substantial volume of contaminated or unneeded completion/workover fluid typically remains. Such fluids may be contaminated with any or all of the following: water, drilling mud, formation materials, rust, scale, pipe dope, and viscosifiers and bridging agents used for fluid-loss-control pills. Depending on their composition and level of contamination, these fluids may or may not have further practical or economic value. If it is deemed that the fluids have future use potential, they may be reclaimed. Conversely, if they are determined to have no further use, they must be disposed of in an environmentally responsible way.
The benefits derived from the use of solids-free fluids, and especially high-density brines, for completion and workover operations have been extensively documented in the literature. Unfortunately, the costs associated with the initial purchase and subsequent disposal of such brines has been a hindrance to their universal acceptance especially since the "use once and dispose" means of disposal is neither prudent nor economically sound.
Because of the relatively high cost and limited worldwide natural mineral resources available for producing medium- and high-density completion/workover fluids, it is essential that their used fluids be reclaimed. The reconditioned fluids must meet the same specifications as those of "new" or "clean" fluids. With respect to completion/workover fluids, the term "clean" denotes not only the absence of suspended solids but also the absence of undesirable colloidal or soluble species which are capable of undergoing adverse reactions with formation, formation fluids or other completion fluids to produce formation-damaging insoluble substances.
There are many known methods for removing contaminates from a brine solution. One approach is to remove suspended solids by filtration. Simple filtration processes, wherein the brine is filtered through a plate and frame type filter press with the use of a filter aid such as diatomaceous earth and then through a 2μ cartridge polishing filter, are effective to remove solid contamination but they have no effect on removing other types of contamination such as colloidal or soluble species. This is the case since colloidally dispersed and soluble contaminants cannot be removed by this filtration without first treating the fluid to change the chemical and/or physical properties of the contaminants. The treatments required to salvage the fluid depend on the nature of the contaminants incorporated and their chemical and physical properties.
A common contaminant in completion fluids is created by iron. In most non-zinc containing brines, it is relatively easy to treat for iron though careful attention must be made by the analyst. Zinc containing high-density brines have proven to be the most difficult to treat for iron removal. Most of the zinc based brines have relatively low pH which often leads to high iron contamination during use as completion and/or workover fluids. Iron contamination in such fluids can reach several hundred or even thousand milligrams per liter. Further, iron in zinc brine solutions is more likely to be in a soluble and stable form. Because of the low solubility of oxygen in such solutions, a significant percentage of the iron contaminants exists as ferrous iron. As a result, precipitation of iron hydroxide with the addition of calcium hydroxide, calcium oxide, or other basic material is difficult to achieve because the brine is highly buffered through aqueous zinc hydroxide complexes, which makes it nearly impossible to raise the pH appreciably. Additionally the pH of these zinc-containing fluids cannot be adjusted above about 6.0. Nonetheless, adding lime or other basic (suspended) material to adjust brine pH can be an important step in the reclamation process which often consists of multiple steps, including filtration, pH adjustments, oxidation, etc.
One brine reclamation process of the prior art consists of the oxidation of polymeric species to reduce the viscosity and yield point of the contaminated brine, oxidation of Fe++ to Fe+++to facilitate removal of iron, and the oxidation of organic species which interfere with the reclamation process.
Another brine reclamation process of the prior art consists of the initial filtration of the brine followed by a reduction in the pH of the brine fluid. Carbon or bentonite absorbent is then added to the brine and the solution is allowed to stand for about six hours. The resulting solids are then filtered and the pH of the resulting system is slowly raised. The fluid is then re-filtered and tested for compatibility.
Yet another multi-step reclamation process is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,730,234. In this process, the spent brine is mixed with acid in order to lower the pH. The fluid is then contacted with a halogen, such as bromine, to increase the density. A reducing agent, such as anhydrous ammonia, is then added. An alkali is then used to neutralize any excess acid. Finally any suspended solid impurities are removed.
Such multi-step processes for reclaiming brine solutions are flawed. First, such processes often take very long to complete which, in turn, increases expenses as more man-hours and more hours of equipment usage are required to complete the reclamation. They are also expensive because they require the addition of multiple chemical agents. In many cases, pH adjustments lead to a reduction in the brine density and a reduction in the resale value of the brine. Further, quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) is difficult to control in light of the multi-steps involved.
Therefore there exists a need for an improved method of reclaiming spent brine fluid. There is a need for a process that works independent of property changes to the system, such as pH and temperature. In addition, an improved process is needed which is easier to control in QA/QC.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method of reclaiming brine solutions using an organic chelant

Abstract: and may be either a neutral compound, a corresponding salt, or a corresponding quaternary salt, wherein:                D is F-A (Y3)u(Y4)v;        R is independently selected from Cp or CpC(O);        Cp is a C1-C36, preferably a C8-C36, hydrocarbyl group, optionally substituted with one or more substituents selected the group consisting of halogen, hydroxyl, sulfate, CH2CO2Z or —(CH2)nPO(OZ)2 groups;        each A is independently selected from —N and —P;        Y1 is independently selected from J, —[(F)-A(J)]w Y6 and R;        J, R1, Y2, Y3, Y4, Y5 and Y6 are independently selected from the group consisting of —H, R, —(F)nCO2Z and —(CH2)nPO(OZ)2;        each F is independently selected from a C1-C12 hydrocarbyl group, optionally substituted with one or more substituents selected from the group consisting of halogen, hydroxyl, sulfate, CH2CO2Z or —(CH2)nPO(OZ)2 groups;        Z is —H, a balanced organic counterion or a balanced counterion of an alkali or alkaline earth metal, Zn or NH4+ or a mixture thereof;        m is 0 to 7;        n is 1 to 7;        r+s+t is 1 or 2;        u+v is 1 or 2; and        w is 0 to 7        provided when m is 0, no more than one of R1, Y1, Y2 and Y5 can be —H.An organic chelant may be introduced to the brine containing the metal impurities. The brine may contain an oxidizer. Further, the pH of the brine being reclaimed or the brine reclaimed may be adjusted by the addition of a pH adjustment agent.


A semiconductor process includes polishing a substrate with a slurry in an enclosure. Polishing the substrate is stopped. First mist is injected into the enclosure, such that the first mist has at least about 80% of saturation of a liquid or gaseous solvent in a carrier within the enclosure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor methods and systems, and more particularly to chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) methods and systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
With advances in electronic products, semiconductor technology has been applied widely in manufacturing memories, central processing units (CPUs), liquid crystal displays (LCDs), light emitting diodes (LEDs), laser diodes and other devices or chip sets. In order to achieve high-integration and high-speed requirements, dimensions of semiconductor integrated circuits have been reduced and various materials, such as copper and ultra low-k dielectrics, have been proposed along with techniques for overcoming manufacturing obstacles associated with these materials and requirements. In order to form a copper damascene structure, various chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) processes, such as oxide CMP or metal CMP, have been proposed and used.
The CMP process uses abrasive and corrosive chemical slurry in conjunction with a polishing pad and a dynamic polishing head retaining a wafer. The dynamic polishing head is rotated with different axes of rotation to press the wafer against the polishing pad. The CMP process removes material and evens out irregular topography of the wafer so as to flatten or planarize the wafer. During the CMP process, chemicals in a slurry react with and/or weaken the material to be removed. The abrasives accelerate the weakening process and the polishing pad helps to wipe the reacted materials from the surface of the wafer.
Due to the high rotational speed of the polishing head, slurries may be spun away from the polishing pad and/or polishing head and attach on other parts of the CMP system. The spun slurries may become dried or solidified after attaching on these other parts of the CMP system. The solidified slurries may detach from the parts of the CMP system, falling on the polishing pad. During a polishing process, the detached solidified slurries may scratch the surface of the wafer and destroy the topography of the wafer. The detached solidified slurries may be a factor affecting a yield of integrated circuits formed on the wafer.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that CMP methods and apparatus are desired.

Chemical mechanical planarization apparatus

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


A method for handling a missed rank report during a tune-away period is provided. The method can include a wireless communication device tuning away from a first network to a second network for a tune-away period; returning to the first network from the tune-away period; determining that a scheduled rank report was missed during the tune-away period; generating a Channel State Indicator (CSI) report based on a previously defined Rank Indicator (RI) value known to the first network in response to missing the scheduled rank report; and sending the CSI report to the first network.

Wireless networks continue to evolve as new communication technologies are developed and deployed. For example, networks implementing Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, developed and standardized by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), are currently being deployed. LTE and other newer RATs often support faster data rates than networks utilizing legacy RATs, such as various second generation (2G) and third generation (3G) RATs. Wireless network operators can deploy new communication technologies in parallel with earlier generation communication technologies, and can support multiple communication technologies simultaneously to provide smooth transitions through multiple generations of wireless communication devices. For example, in some deployments, LTE and other new RATs may not fully support some services that can be handled by legacy networks. Accordingly, LTE networks are often co-deployed in overlapping regions with legacy networks in an arrangement sometimes referred to as a "simultaneous" wireless network deployment, and wireless communication devices can transition between co-deployed RATs as services and/or coverage may require. For example, in some "simultaneous" wireless network deployments, LTE networks can support packet switched communications, but are not capable of supporting circuit switched voice calls. Thus, when a wireless communication device receives or initiates a circuit switched voice call while connected to an LTE network that supports packet switched sessions, but not voice calls, the wireless communication device can transition to a simultaneously deployed legacy network, such as Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA2000) 1× (also referred to as "1×RTT" or "1×") that supports voice calls.
Dual chip, or dual radio, wireless communication devices can include separate radios (e.g., separate signal processing chips) that each can support a different wireless communication protocol, such as one radio for supporting connections to CDMA2000 1× wireless networks and another radio for supporting connections to LTE networks. In particular, in a dual chip wireless communication device, each radio can include its own receive signal processing chain, including in some instances multiple receive antennas and attendant signal processing blocks for each radio. With separate receive antennas available to each radio in the dual chip wireless communication device, pages can be received independently from two different wireless networks, such as from the CDMA2000 1× wireless network and from the LTE wireless network, by the dual chip wireless communication device. Even when the dual chip wireless communication device is connected and actively transferring data through one of the radios to one of the wireless networks, such as the LTE wireless network, the dual chip wireless communication device can also listen for and receive a paging message through the other parallel radio chip from a second wireless network, such as the CDMA2000 1× wireless network. Thus, the dual chip wireless communication device can establish a device originating or device terminated circuit switched voice connection through the CDMA2000 1× wireless network while also being actively connected to (or simultaneously camped on) the packet switched LTE wireless network.
However, the implementation of multiple radios on dual chip wireless communication devices can result in increased power consumption, can require a larger physical form factor and can require additional components that can increase production costs. As such, many wireless communication devices use a single radio to support operation on multiple cellular RATs. Such devices are often referred to as "single radio," or "single chip" devices. For example, some wireless communication devices use a single radio to support operation on both LTE and CDMA2000 1× networks. The use of a single radio for multiple RATs makes transitioning between networks, such as in response to a page message for an incoming voice call or circuit switched service, more complex. In this regard, while a single radio wireless communication device can support connections via multiple RATs, a single radio wireless communication device can only connect to a single network at any given time. For example, a single radio wireless communication device can be able to connect to or camp on the evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (eUTRAN) of the LTE network or the radio access network (RAN) of the CDMA2000 1× network, but not to both networks simultaneously. As such, a single radio wireless communication device can be unable to receive signals from a second network while actively connected to a first network, particularly when multiple antennas can be used to receive a single communication technology. Thus, when actively connected to an LTE network that does not support a circuit switched fall back (CSFB) mode or Voice over LTE (VoLTE) connections, the single radio wireless communication device can be unable to receive a page from a CDMA2000 1× network when connected to or camped on the eUTRAN of the LTE network.
Given the inability to communicate simultaneously to multiple networks, a technique has been developed whereby a single radio wireless communication device can achieve similar functionality to a dual chip wireless communication device, such that a single radio wireless communication device can retain the ability to complete a circuit switched voice connection through a network, such as an CDMA2000 1× network, when connected to or camped on another network, such as an LTE network. In this regard, a single radio wireless communication device can periodically tune one or more receivers from a first wireless network to a second wireless network in order to listen for paging messages addressed to the wireless communication device from the second wireless network during what is referred to as a "tune-away period." The first wireless network can suspend allocation of radio resources to the wireless communication device during the tune-away period based on receipt of a suspension message from the wireless communication device, based on knowledge of a paging cycle for wireless communication device in the second wireless network, and/or based on detection of an out of synchronization condition with the wireless communication device. However, as the wireless communication device can be unable to receive or transmit on the first network during the tune-away period, the wireless communication device can miss a scheduled period(s) for signaling reporting messages that can be used by the first network for resource (e.g., uplink and/or downlink resource) scheduling for the device. A missed report by the wireless communication device during a tune-away period can negatively impact scheduling for the device, and, in some instances can result in the first network not scheduling any resources or scheduling only very limited resources for the device for some time after the device has returned from the tune-away period.

Missed rank report in dual network radio resource management


A cathode ray tube device includes: a cathode ray tube with an envelope including a panel having a phosphor screen on its inner face and a funnel having a neck portion including an electron gun; and a deflection unit disposed around an outer face of the funnel. An inductance-adjusting element is provided therein for reducing an inductance at a frequency in an audio frequency band of at least one of a plurality of coils included in the deflection unit, and thereby noise is reduced that is generated by the at least one of the plurality of coils whose inductance is thus reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a cathode ray tube device. More specifically, this invention relates to a cathode ray tube device with reduced beat noise caused by vibration generated in coils around a deflection yoke due to an alternating current flowing therein.
2. Related Background Art
Recently, display monitors have been increasingly improved in flatness and increased in size; such trends require strict convergence properties. On the other hand, with the spread of software that allows the information to be displayed at the periphery of a screen, users have been requesting very high levels of convergence properties.
Conventionally, magnetic fields generated by horizontal and vertical deflection coils of a deflection yoke have been controlled and adjusted so as to reduce misconvergence that mainly attributes to variations caused during assembly. This alone, however, hardly makes it possible to exclude misconvergence and therefore, a convergence correction unit or a distortion correction unit (a saturable reactor) is used for the purpose of controlling impedance of the deflection yoke to reduce misconvergence.
The convergence correction unit is housed in a two-part resin case 7 as shown in FIGS. 12A and 12B. The configuration of the convergence correction unit includes, as shown in FIG. 13, a control coil 1 connected in series with a vertical deflection coil and controlled coils 3 wound around four drum cores 5 disposed in pairs on both sides of the control coil 1, respectively. Magnets 6 magnetized in the thickness direction are attached to both outer sides of the drum cores 5 to apply a magnetic bias to the controlled coils 3. When a vertical deflection current flows therein, the control coil 1 vibrates, and thus beat noise is generated among the lead wires constituting the control coil 1, between the drum cores 5 and the lead wires, or between the control coil 1 and the case 7.
With regard to this beat noise, for instance, JP8-329859A discloses a method of reducing beat noise, wherein as shown in FIG. 13, a control coil 1 and controlled coils 3 are fixed to a case 7 through an adhesive 131 such as a silicone adhesive, so that the control coil 1 is kept out of contact with the case 7.
Although, this method can suppress the beat noise generated between the control coil 1 and the case 7, it cannot reduce directly the vibration of the noise source itself, namely, the control coil 1. Accordingly, it was not possible to suppress the beat noise generated by interference among lead wires or between the lead wire and a drum core 4.
Furthermore, the use of the adhesive 131 increases material and processing costs, which has been another disadvantage.
This invention is intended to solve such conventional problems as mentioned above. It is an object of the present invention to provide a cathode ray tube device in which vibration of a noise source itself such as a control coil is reduced by a simple and inexpensive method, and thus less beat noise is caused.
This invention achieves an improvement in a cathode ray tube device including: a cathode ray tube with an envelope composed of a panel having a phosphor screen on its inner face and a funnel having a neck portion provided with an electron gun; and a deflection unit having a plurality of coils and disposed around an outer surface of the funnel. In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, at least one of the coils of the deflection unit is provided with an inductance-adjusting element for reducing an inductance of the coil at a frequency in an audio frequency band so as to reduce noise that is generated by the coil whose inductance is thus reduced.
This configuration allows vibration of the control coil itself as a beat noise source to be reduced, and thereby, beat noise at a frequency of 200 Hz or higher can be reduced without using an adhesive such as a silicone adhesive.
In the above-mentioned configuration, the inductance-adjusting element can be a closed-loop coil that is coupled magnetically to the at least one of the plurality of coils included in the deflection unit and includes at least one turn of conductor. Thus, beat noise can be reduced by a simple and inexpensive method in which the closed-loop coil for beat-noise reduction is added.
In this configuration, the deflection unit can include a deflection yoke including a horizontal deflection coil and a vertical deflection coil, and auxiliary coils through which a current is passed in synchronization with a deflecting current. In the deflection unit, at least one of the horizontal deflection coil, the vertical deflection coil and the auxiliary coils can be coupled magnetically to the closed-loop coil.
With respect to the auxiliary coil, the auxiliary coil includes control coils of a convergence correction unit disposed on a side of the electron gun of the deflection yoke and connected in series with the horizontal deflection coil or the vertical deflection coil.
Furthermore, the auxiliary coil can include the control coil wound around a drum core and at least one pair of two-part controlled coils disposed on both sides of the control coil, and each of the two-part controlled coils is wound around drum cores other than the above-mentioned drum core around which the control coil is wound.
The aforementioned respective configurations allow the vibration of coils as beat noise sources other than a control coil to be reduced, and thus beat noise at a frequency of 200 Hz or higher can be reduced without using an adhesive such as a silicone adhesive.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A clamping and tensioning rail for the trailing edge of a printing plate is mounted in the cylinder channel of a plate cylinder such that the trailing edge of the printing plate can be introduced in a simple way, without folding, into the gap between an upper and a lower clamping part. The clamping and tensioning rail is mounted pivotably about two pivot axes which are formed, for example, from stops fixed relatively to the cylinder and which interact respectively with an edge and an arcuate recess on the clamping and tensioning rail. Preferably, the clamping and tensioning rail is drawn into a completely open position by the force of a prestressed compression spring and can be pivoted against this force by an actuating shaft via lever arms and straps.

In sheet-fed offset printing machines, a printing plate having a leading edge--a print start--and a trailing edge--a print end--is typically fastened on the plate cylinder by means of tension rails arranged in a cylinder channel. These tension rails are assigned respectively to the print start and the print end. In order to attach a printing plate, the leading edge (print start) is first inserted and clamped into the corresponding tension rail. Next, the trailing edge (print end) is similarly clamped into a second tension rail. Finally, the printing plate is tensioned by the exertion of force. The accurate and precise introduction of the trailing edge of a new printing plate can be very time consuming under certain circumstances. In particular, the trailing edge must be precisely aligned when large format printing is involved. Thus, the design of the print-end tension rail is of great importance in reducing the time spent in drawing off an old printing plate and drawing on a new plate.
DE 3,940,795 C2, DE 3,940,796 C2 and EP 0,431,575 A2 disclose systems capable of performing automatic printing plate changes. In these systems, the drawing off of an old printing plate from the plate cylinder and the drawing on of a new printing plate onto the latter take place automatically. In addition to storage and reception regions for the printing plates, these systems also have transport devices for feeding a new printing plate and conveying an old printing plate away while the plate cylinder is being rotated in the appropriate direction. The printing plates are fastened onto the plate cylinder by means of tension rails which, as indicated in each of the individual publications, have remotely actuatable devices for corresponding clamping or tensioning.
EP 0,431,575 A2 discloses the use of printing plates having a bevel at their trailing edge (print end) which can be inserted into a radially oriented gap between two clamping pieces. After the printing plates are positioned, the two clamping pieces are pivoted in a virtually azimuthal direction by an eccentric shaft in order to achieve clamping, and ultimately, tensioning. This approach has many disadvantages. First of all, the new printing plates must be bevelled at their trailing edges by a special device. This bevelling must be carried out very carefully because possible corrugations in the bevelled region can lead to tilting and therefore to problems when introducing the plates into the gap of the tension rail. Therefore, the approach presents difficulties in manufacturing printing plates. Further, in view of the problems presented by corrugations, it seems scarcely possible to supply used printing plates for a system of this kind. Moreover, a bevelled print end cannot be conveyed directly by a transport system having a roller nip.
Bevelled printing plates cannot be used in the printing plate changing systems disclosed in DE 3,940,793 C2 and DE 3,940,796 C2 because of the specially designed print-end tension rails. The clamping flaps causing gripping have a specially arranged pivoting pole which is disclosed in DE 3,626,936 C1. These clamping flaps make it possible to place the trailing edge (print end) of the printing plate onto a lower clamping device. However, this procedure entails a relatively large pivoting angle of the clamping flap. A disadvantage of this large pivoting angle is that a clamping flap which is pivoted into the opening position projects correspondingly far from the reference-circle circumference of the print cylinder and thus impedes a pressure roller which causes the printing plate to be laid down.
German Utility Model 6,491,597 discloses a tension rail for use in a plate cylinder in a printing machine wherein the tension rail is assigned to the trailing edge or print end of a printing plate. This tension rail consists of two clamping pieces which are movable relative to one another for gripping the trailing edge of the printing plate. Further, in order to enable tensioning of the printing plate, the tension rail is pivotably mounted about an axis extending parallel to the plate cylinder. A disadvantage of the device described is that interaction with automatic plate changing systems is impossible.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,521,665, U.S. Pat. No. 3,107,609 and EP 0,458,323 A1 teach the tensioning of a printing plate with the force of compression springs. The printing plates can be released via a corresponding exertion of force counter to the spring forces.

Device for clamping and tensioning printing plates


A second device seeking to access a network can be detected using a first device communicatively coupled to the network. Responsive to detecting the second device seeking to access the network, the first device can be caused to communicatively uncouple from the network and whether the second device poses a risk of corrupting the network's intended functioning if the second device accesses the network can be determined by the first device.

The present invention relates to the field of electronic device networking, and more particularly, to the validation and management of devices.
A smart home network typifies an aggregation of disparate electronic devices that when linked electronically can be accessed, controlled, and monitored remotely and can operate autonomically. The devices that make up a smart home network, for example, can be configured to provide the home's inhabitants with an ability to remotely monitor and control various built-in functions such as the home's lighting, temperature, security, door and window operations, and home entertainment system. Various "home automation" technologies can provide so-called "intelligent feedback" so that even conventional devices such as washing machines, lamps, and the like can be endowed with an "intelligence" that enables the devices to operate autonomically. A refrigerator, for example, when communicatively coupled to a smart home system can catalogue its contents, suggest menus, recommend healthy alternatives, and order replacements as the contents are used up.
Such systems easily extend to other structures such as office buildings, hotels, and the like. Each such system can be tailored to perform specific functions with different devices that can be remotely accessed, controlled, and monitored and that are able to operate autonomically.

Network device validation and management


A side airbag device for vehicle includes: a gas generator that is disposed in a seat cushion side part in a vehicular seat and generates a gas for inflation and deployment by actuation; and a side airbag in which the inside thereof is partitioned into an upper chamber and a lower chamber by a up-down dividing tether having a connecting hole and the gas from the gas generator is supplied to the lower chamber.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a side airbag device for vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-177527 (JP 2000-177527 A) discloses a constitution that includes a side airbag in which an upper chamber and a lower chamber, which are different in internal pressure each other during inflation and deployment, are disposed in a vehicle vertical direction in a seat back of a vehicular seat. Specifically, a gas generator and the side airbag that is constituted of the upper chamber that is made expandable at the side of a chest region of an occupant and the lower chamber that is made expandable at the side of a pelvis of the occupant are disposed in the seat back. The upper chamber and the lower chamber are filled with a gas by the gas generator such that internal pressures in the respective filled states are different and are made expandable.
According to the constitution described above, during a vehicle side collision (hereinafter, referred to as "side collision"), the gas is filled in the upper chamber and lower chamber from the gas generator, and impact to a chest region and pelvis of the occupant can be alleviated thereby. At this time, when the internal pressure of the upper chamber disposed at the side of the chest region is set lower than the internal pressure of the lower chamber disposed at the side of the pelvis, the impact to the chest region that is relatively weak to load can be alleviated by the upper chamber of low load.
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-285709 (JP 2003-285709 A) discloses a constitution in which a first side airbag device is disposed in a seat cushion of a vehicular seat, and a second side airbag device is disposed in a seat back. Specifically, this constitution includes the first side airbag that is disposed on the seat cushion side and protects a lumbar part and a part lower than that of an occupant, and the second side airbag that is disposed on a seat back side, protects an abdominal part and a part higher than that of the occupant, and is provided with a vent hole.
According to the constitution described above, when the first side airbag and second side airbag are deployed during the vehicle side collision, since the first side airbag is not provided with the vent hole, the internal pressure is maintained at a high level. Thus, the lumbar part and the part lower than that of the occupant can be moved to a non-collision side. On the other hand, in the second side airbag, since the vent hole is provided, the internal pressure decreases. Thus, the chest part and the like of the occupant can be protected with the second side airbag of low load.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-094235 (JP 2008-094235 A) discloses a constitution in which a side airbag of which stiffness is different in a vehicle longitudinal direction is disposed in a seat cushion of a vehicular seat. Specifically, this constitution includes a side airbag for lumbar part for absorbing a shock energy to the lumbar part by restraining the lumbar part of an occupant, and a side airbag for thigh part which has the stiffness or the like different from the side airbag for lumbar part and absorbs the shock energy to the thigh part by restraining the thigh part. Further, the stiffness of the side airbag for thigh part is set higher than that of the side airbag for lumbar part.
According to the constitution described above, when the side airbag for lumbar part and the side airbag for thigh part are deployed under a gas supply from the gas generator during the vehicle side collision, the internal pressure of the side airbag for thigh part becomes higher than the internal pressure of the side airbag for lumbar part. As a result, by the side airbag for thigh part of which stiffness is set higher, the thigh part of the occupant is restrained. Therefore, a pubic bone load that is input particularly to the pubic bone part of the lumbar part of the occupant can be reduced with a small energy absorption stroke.
However, when the constitution disclosed in JP 2000-177527 A is used, the side airbag having the upper chamber and the lower chamber is disposed in the seat back of the vehicular seat. That is, since there is a relatively long distance from the side airbag to the lumbar part of the occupant seated on the vehicular seat, there is a room for improvement from the viewpoint of improving the restraining property of the lumbar part of the occupant (first problem).
Further, since the side airbag is disposed at the side of chest part, there is a room for improvement of the restraining performance of the lumbar part and a part lower than that of the occupant, in particular, the pubic bone part and femur bone that are near a seat surface of the seat cushion (second problem).
Further, there is a room for improvement from a point that the side airbag that restrains the lumbar part of the occupant is controlled to optimum internal pressures in accordance with immunity values to loads of the respective sites of the occupant. That is, there is a room for improvement from a point that at the pubic bone part and femur bone that are relatively high in the immunity value to the loads and an iliac bone part that is relatively low in the immunity value, the side airbag is controlled to the optimum internal pressures in accordance with the immunity values of the respective sites. Further, the same can be said regarding the lumbar part that are relatively high in the immunity value to the load and the abdominal part that is relatively low in the immunity value (third problem).
On the other hand, according to the constitution disclosed in JP 2003-285709 A, the first side airbag device is constituted to be disposed in the seat cushion. Therefore, the first problem and second problem can be solved. However, the third problem still remains in an unsolved state. That is, the pubic bone part and femur bone that are relatively high in the immunity value and the iliac bone part that is relatively low in the immunity value are restrained by the first side airbag device having the same internal pressure. Further, since the first side airbag device is not provided with the vent hole, the internal pressure of the side airbag is maintained at a high level. Therefore, the iliac bone part is restrained by the side airbag having high internal pressure.
Further, in the case when the constitution disclosed in JP 2008-094235 A is used, since a constitution in which the side airbag for thigh part and the side airbag for lumbar part are disposed, and the side airbag for thigh part is set to higher internal pressure than that of the side airbag for lumbar part is adopted, the third problem can be solved. However, the side airbag for thigh part disposed on a front side in the vehicle longitudinal direction is constituted to be high in the internal pressure. Therefore, when an occupant is out of position, there is a room for improvement from the viewpoint of suppressing an influence on the occupant.


The present invention is an oxygen generator including a stabilized bismuth oxide body and a plurality of first and second channels. The first channels receive a first gas containing some oxygen and the second channels are sealed at the input and outlet openings and extend generally in parallel to the first channels. Electrodes are disposed on the channel walls of the first and second channels, the electrode composition includes LXM, wherein L is lanthanum, M is manganate, and X is strontium, calcium, lead or barium. The oxygen generator may further include silver disposed over the LXM which thereby decreases the resistivity of the electrodes without the electromigration of the silver. The silver may be mixed with glass to thereby provide improved adherence of the silver to the LXM. A method of making an oxygen generator includes forming a stabilized bismuth oxide body having channels extending therethrough and forming LXM electrodes in the channels. Forming the LXM electrodes in the channels includes mixing an LXM powder with an organic liquid to form a slurry, applying the slurry to the stabilized bismuth oxide body and firing the body. The method may further include forming a silver layer over the LXM in the channels, thereby forming a multi-layer electrode composition having a low resistivity in which the LXM acts as an electromigration barrier for the silver.

Oxygen tends to move from a gas containing a high concentration of oxygen to one of lower concentration. If the two gases are separated from each other by an oxygen ion conductor, oxygen molecules will dissociate by catalysis on one surface of the conductor and absorb electrons to form oxygen ions. These oxygen ions can then diffuse through the ionic conductor, leaving the entry surface with a deficiency of electrons. Emerging on the exit or low oxygen concentration side of the ion conductor, oxygen ions give up electrons via catalysis to form molecular oxygen, leaving the exit surface with an excess of electrons. Thus, an electrical potential difference, or EMF, is set up between the two surfaces of the ionic conductor. The greater the difference in oxygen content of the two gases, the greater will be the tendency of oxygen to diffuse through the conductor, and the greater will be the potential difference between the entry and exit surfaces.
These basic principles underlie the operation of oxygen sensing devices, which are generally well known in the art. Oxygen sensors function by monitoring the EMF developed across an oxygen ion conductor which is exposed to gases having different oxygen partial pressures. The reciprocal principle underlies the operation of oxygen separators (also called oxygen generators) such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,296,608. Voltage is applied across an oxygen ion conducting material and oxygen ions will be forced to flow across the material such that the oxygen partial pressures become equal. Thus, one gas will become richer in oxygen than the other, resulting in a basic oxygen generator. A physical structure for an oxygen generator composed of an oxygen ion conducting material is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,205,990 and is highlighted in prior art FIGS. 1-3 in the present application and the entire disclosure is hereby incorporated by reference.
Generally, a prior art oxygen generator 10 includes a ceramic honeycomb body 12 made of an oxygen ion conducting material having a first plurality of channels 14 and a second plurality of channels 16 extending therethrough from a front face 18 to a back face 20. The channels 14 and 16 are arranged in alternating rows, resembling a striped pattern laterally across faces 18 and 20 of the ceramic honeycomb body 12. The oxygen generator 10 further includes a voltage source 22 electrically connected to the channels 14 and 16 through electrode connectors 24 and 26 which are located on a top portion 28 of the ceramic honeycomb body 12, respectively. Each of the channels have electrodes disposed over their respective side walls along their entire length. The connection methodology is such that each of the first channels 14 are electrically connected in parallel and each of the second channels 16 are also electrically connected in parallel. The voltage source 22 is operable to apply a voltage across the electrodes within the channels 14 and 16, thereby creating a voltage potential across the first and second channels 14 and 16 and enabling oxygen ion conduction through the ceramic honeycomb body 12 from one channel to another.
The oxygen generator 10 receives a source gas 30 containing some oxygen, for example, air, into the first channels 14 which are open on both the front face 18 and back face 20 of the body 12. The oxygen ions pass through the oxygen ion conducting material of the body 12 from the first channels 14 to the second channels 16 which are sealed on both the front face 18 and back face 20 of the body 12. In this manner the source gas 30 contains more oxygen than an exit gas 32 from the back face 20 due to the conduction of oxygen ions into the second channels 16. The oxygen 34 within the second channels 16 is collected from a side face 36 of the body 12 via a plurality of third channels 38 which laterally intersect the second channels 16 approximately in the middle of the side face 36.
Prior art FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating in greater detail a prior art electrode composition wherein electrodes 40 and 42 are disposed on the surfaces (side walls) of the channels 14 and 16. The prior art electrode composition, for example, is a platinum, catalytic material. Prior art FIG. 3 is another perspective view illustrating another prior art electrode composition having platinum as the electrodes 40 in the first channels 14 and a copper, nickel wool or mesh 44 in the second channels to further reduce electrode resistance. Neither prior art electrode composition, however, is satisfactory. For example, platinum is an expensive raw material, making the cost of forming electrodes within the channels 14 and 16 approximately $300 for the generator 10 of prior art FIG. 1. Further, as stated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,205,990, the copper, nickel wool or mesh 44 of prior art FIG. 3 is quite expensive. Since oxygen generators are desired for individual, ambulatory medical care applications, such prior art electrode compositions make such product applications cost prohibitive.
In addition, the prior art electrode compositions exhibit a substantial resistivity, which causes undesirable excess power dissipation. Since oxygen generators are desirable for ambulatory care applications, it is often necessary to use oxygen generators in conjunction with batteries. Therefore the excess power dissipation associated with the high prior art electrode resistivity is undesirable. Further still, the appreciable electrode resistivity requires that the channels 14 and 16 be rather short in length to avoid current crowding along the lengths of the channels 14 and 16. Having short channels negatively impacts the oxygen generating capacity of the generator and/or places constraints on the oxygen generator's form factor for a given oxygen generating capacity. Lastly, a large number of short channel lengths make the extrusion of the body 12 more expensive and less reliable and is consequently undesirable.

Electrode composition and application method for oxygen generators


Fiber laser unit 1 comprises a plurality of fiber lasers 2 and 3 that generate laser beams by exciting a laser active substance inside cores 2a and 3a by exciting light, propagate the laser beams inside the cores 2a and 3a, and output the laser beams from the end portions 2c and 3c, wherein the respective fiber lasers 2 and 3 have resonators 4 and 5 that reflect the laser beams on both ends 2b, 2c, 3b, and 3c thereof and have a structure in which a part of the cores 2a and 3a is reduced in diameter, the diameter reduced portions of the cores 2a and 3a are made proximal to each other, injection synchronization is carried out inside the resonators 4 and 5 by laser beams leaked from the cores 2a and 3a, and a loss is applied to the port of either one of the fiber lasers 2 and 3. According to this fiber laser unit 1, by a simple structure in which the cores 2a and 3a are made proximal to each other and injection synchronization is carried out by using laser beams leaked from the cores 2a and 3a, coherent addition of lasers with extremely high addition efficiency is realized.

Various lasers have been actively developed, and in particular, among the lasers, a laser with high output and high spatial coherence has been demanded. As a method for realizing this, there is known a method which realizes high output by coherent addition (coupling) of outputs of a plurality of lasers. As an example, coherent addition (coupling) of lasers by means of evanescent coupling of laser arrays or diffraction coupling by using a Talbot mirror have been studied. An example of the evanescent coupling is disclosed in "Diode Laser Arrays," D. Botez and D. R. Scifres, Cambridge Studies in Modern Optics, 1994, p. 1, and an example of the Talbot resonator relating to solid-state lasers is disclosed in "A Coherent All-Solid-State Laser Array Using the Talbot Effect in a Three-Mirror Cavity," Y. Kono, M. Takeoka, K. Uto, A. Uchida, and F. Kannari, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics, Vol. 36, 2000, pp. 1-8, and an example of the Talbot resonator relating to laser diode arrays is disclosed in "Phase-locking of the 2D structures," V. V. Apollonov, S. I. Derzhavin, V. I. Kislov, V. V. Kuzminov, D. A. Mashkovsky, and A. M. Prokhorov, Opt. Express 4, 1999, pp. 19-26.


An optical filter including at least one substrate and first and second thin-film interference filters disposed directly on the substrate. The interference filters include a plurality of hard coating thin film layers of alternating high and low index of refraction. A filter set capable of providing low image shift is also provided.

Thin film interference filters are widely used in a variety of optical systems. Such filters are generally implemented in an optical system for reflecting one or more spectral bands of an optical signal, while transmitting others. The reflected or transmitted range, for example, may include wavelengths carrying information sensed or transmitted by the system. Failure or inadequate performance of these filters can thus be fatal to operation of a system in which they are utilized.
Interference filters are wavelength-selective by virtue of the interference effects that take place between incident and reflected waves at boundaries between materials having different indices of refraction. Typically, an interference filter includes multiple layers of two or more dielectric materials having different refractive indices. Each layer is very thin, i.e. having an optical thickness (physical thickness times the refractive index of the layer) on the order of order of ¼ wavelength of light. The layers may be deposited on one or more substrates, e.g. a glass substrate, in various configurations to provide long-wave-pass (also called long-pass), short-wave-pass (also called short-pass), band-pass, or band-rejection filter characteristics.
Conventionally, the thin film layers in very high spectral performance interference filters for use at wavelengths below about 1200 nm have been implemented using "soft coatings." Soft coatings are typically deposited on a substrate using physical vapor deposition methods such as resistive evaporation and electron-beam evaporation. In these deposition methods, the selected coating material is vaporized, forming a cloud or stream that is imparted to the substrate. Conventional soft coating materials include metals like aluminum (Al) and silver (Ag), and dielectrics like lead fluoride (PbF2), zinc sulfide (ZnS), and cryolite (Na5Al3F14). The vaporized material solidifies on the substrate forming a thin film layer having a density and structure commensurate with the level of energy carried by the vaporized particles.
A major disadvantage associated with soft coatings is that, as the name implies, the coatings are physically soft and susceptible to damage and deterioration in most operating environments. In fact, soft coatings may be easily scratched when contacted by glass, metal, or even plastic. As such, these coatings must be protected from the environment when used in high performance applications, such as fluorescence detection systems, optical communication systems, etc. Also, because they are not very dense, they absorb moisture from the air, which causes their spectral properties to shift and can lead to longer term permanent degradation.
High performance soft coatings are, therefore, usually partially or fully hermetically sealed from the environment by placing them on the inside facing surfaces of two or more pieces of glass in a sealed ring housing, or they are sandwiched between glass substrates cemented together with optical adhesives, thus providing a barrier to moisture. FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary prior art interference filter structure 100 including soft coating filters 102, 104 sandwiched between glass substrates 106, 108. The illustrated construction is a bandpass filter including a long-wave-pass filter 102 deposited on a first substrate 106 and affixed to the second substrate 108 via an adhesive layer 110. A short-wave-pass filter 104 is deposited on an opposing surface of the second substrate 108 and is affixed to a colored glass layer 112 by an adhesive layer 114. In addition to the effort and expense of hermetically sealing these soft coating filters, the additional substrates and optical adhesives used for such configurations lead to added loss (e.g. due to scattering and absorption) and manufacturing complexity (resulting in increased time and cost to manufacture). Another contributor to the manufacturing complexity is that in order to minimize losses associated with the additional surfaces resulting from multiple pieces of glass, additional anti-reflection (AR) coatings must be applied to these surfaces. Because of the increased cost and time required to apply additional coatings, these are often ignored; hence there is a trade-off between manufacturing complexity and filter throughput performance. Furthermore, the excess thickness associated with the hermetic seal makes it impractical for such filters to be diced into very small (e.g., millimeter-sized) filter "chips."
In order to minimize deviation of a light beam passing through the filter construction in an imaging application, as in an optical microscope, the overall construction should have a minimal wedge angle. However, when two or more pieces of glass are cemented together, it is difficult to ensure parallelism of the interfaces and hence minimal overall wedge angle. The difficulty minimizing the wedge angle in conventional filters may cause an undesirable phenomenon known as image shift. In an optical system, such as a fluorescence imaging system as shown in FIG. 16, image shift may occur when two or more different images, each captured with a different filter set, are shifted relative to one another in the plane of the camera film, Charge Coupled Device (CCD) sensor, or other detection system, due to non-zero beam deviation caused by the emitter filters and/or dichroic beamsplitters. The exciter filter does not generally contribute appreciably to this problem. In high-performance fluorescence imaging systems (such as fluorescence microscopes) that use optical filters (e.g., emission filters, excitation filters and dichroic filters), the filters may be placed in a region of the optical system where the imaging rays are substantially collimated or parallel. Therefore, a non-zero beam deviation caused by the emitter or dichroic filters causes the image in the image plane to be displaced laterally, which is problematic. In many fluorescence experiments, it is desirable to capture multiple images of a single object marked with multiple colors of fluorescent material using a monochrome camera. Each image depicts a single color and the images are subsequently combined electronically. If there is a relative image shift among the images, the final composite image will be blurred due to the relative lateral shift of the different color components.
As shown in FIG. 17, a conventional filter based on soft coatings is comprised of multiple glass substrates bonded together with epoxy. Thus, it is difficult to control the overall parallelism of the structure and the resulting net wedge angle causes appreciable beam deviation.
Based on the above considerations, options for minimizing image, or pixel, shift have been limited. One could measure each filter and hand-select only those with the smallest beam deviation; however, the yield with this approach is low because of the difficulty controlling the beam deviation. One could rotate the orientation of the emitter filter to best offset the beam deviation of the dichroic beamsplitter; however, this approach only works well when each filter in the pair has a similar magnitude of beam deviation, and it requires the extra manufacturing steps of measuring, orienting, and marking the finished filters. One could measure the net beam deviation (and orientation) of the emitter-dichroic pair, and then add an appropriately oriented compensating wedge of the appropriate wedge angle to cancel the net beam deviation. This technique works but is expensive and time-consuming to implement and adds additional optical surfaces that can contribute to light loss in the system.
Accordingly, there is a need for filters of sufficiently low beam deviation that minimize the wedge angle and the resulting image shift and that are relatively simple to manufacture.

Optical filter and fluorescence spectroscopy system incorporating the same


A carryable optical magnifying device can be worn during use by the user, and relates in particular to binoculars or field-glasses with a carrying strap attached to the housing of the magnifying device. The carrying strap is passed outward laterally of the eyepiece region of the magnifying device through an opening in the outer portion of the housing. The opening has substantially the same cross section as the carrying strap. The carrying strap has at its end within the housing a thickening that is larger than the opening for the carrying strap in the outer portion of the housing. An inner cavity into which the thickening is inserted, is formed within the housing with the cooperation of a clamp member.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a carryable optical magnifying device that can be carried during use by the user, and relates in particular to binoculars or field-glasses, and particularly to a binocular device, with a carrying strap attached to the housing of the magnifying device.
2. Description of Relevant Art
Carrying strap fastenings are known from German Patents DE 80 06 381, DE 36 17 423, DE 32 33 801 and DE 34 19 298, having the fastening elements arranged outside the binoculars. A disadvantage of this is that the fastening elements can become hooked to the clothing of the user of the binoculars.
Furthermore, it is known in binoculars to fasten a round cord with thickened ends in the ends of two hinges toward the eyepiece by means of screws, which reduce the diameter of the cord. However, this solution functions only for round cords and for binoculars with two hinge axes between the halves of the binoculars, and has the disadvantage that the distance between the two cord fastenings is very small, to that it can very quickly lead to a twisting of the binoculars during wearing, so that the binoculars cannot be worn in a secure position.


A method for setting up a conference call where the subscribers are not only concentrated in one area but also more widely dispersed. The method allows both groups of subscribers to be contacted for a conference call with individuals close to the point of origination of the conference call being connected to a shared channel call and any members further out being connected to the conference call using individual channels. Members who initially started with an individual channel can move closer to the point of origin and automatically join the shared channel. This is of particular use to the emergency services where they may need to co-ordinate members arriving at the scene or performing related actions further away from the scene of the emergency.

Conference calls are used in many situations nowadays. They are of particular use to groups of people who need to reach a decision rapidly but cannot talk face to face. By using a conference call a single number may be dialed to set up a conference call. This negates the need to make multiple individual calls or even connect multiple parties on an individual basis to a conference call. In the emergency services this can prove especially important where informed decisions need to be made rapidly.
There are presently three main ways of setting up a conference call in a Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) or General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network. Firstly, a call may be set up such that each user connects to the call using a respective channel on the network; a so called "Multiparty Bridge" call. The use of one channel per user rapidly uses up bandwidth meaning that only a limited number of users within a certain area can participate in the group call using this type of conference call technique. However, this type of multi-party call is highly efficient when contacting users who are distributed over a large geographic area and who are therefore served by many different base stations.
The second method for setting up a conference call involves defining an area over which the call is to be available and providing only one channel for that call in each cell within that area. This may be provided in cells which use GSM Phase 2+ with Advanced Speech Call Items (ASCI). Any users in a cell within the predefined area and subscribed to be part of the conference call can connect to the channel and take part in the conference call. However, any subscribed users not within one of the cells contained by the predefined area cannot take part in the call as they have no channel allocated to allow them to take part in the conference call. Additionally, there is a significant cost associated with upgrading many handsets, base stations and the provider infrastructure to the GSM Phase 2+ standard to provide the ASCI capability. Hence, there is the possibility that people who need to be included in the conference call are not. Nevertheless, this is an efficient way of providing a conference call if there are a large number of users within a small geographical area.
The final method for setting up a conference call is known as Push-to-talk (PTT). This method uses a packet switched network and, as with the multi-party bridge call set up, one channel is allocated to each user resulting in the same drawbacks. However, there are additional disadvantages to this method of conference calling in that, at present, the system is not considered robust enough to be relied on for emergency service calls and requires further development.
For the Emergency Services a typical scenario could be that, at the beginning of an emergency situation, members of the Emergency Services are widely dispersed. Then, as the emergency progresses, more members are likely to converge on a single area. There is currently no efficient method for providing a multiparty call to people involved in a scenario such as this.


Computer program products and methods for efficient handling of queued-direct input/output (QDIO) requests and completions at an adapter in communication with an I/O device are provided. A method includes accessing a queue with one or more storage block address lists (SBALs), where each SBAL includes a plurality of storage block address list entries (SBALEs) and is associated with an SLSB. The method further includes reading an SBAL count in one of the SBALEs, where the SBAL count indicates a number of the SBALs forming an I/O request to the I/O device. In response to determining that the SBAL count is greater than one, a number of the SBALs from the queue and associated SLSBs equivalent to the SBAL count are prefetched without waiting for a notification of completion of each of the SBALs forming the I/O request, and states of the associated SLSBs transition from adapter-owned to program-owned.

The present invention relates generally to computer system input/output request processing, and more specifically, to efficient handling of queued-direct input/output requests and completions.
Queued-direct-I/O (QDIO) provides a means for a program, such as an operating system, to directly and asynchronously communicate with one or more input/output devices or a network of devices by the use of data queues constructed and managed in main storage of an implementing computer system. The queues allow the communication to be performed in a predictable and efficient manner without requiring services of a centralized controlling mechanism, such as an operating system input/output supervisor, and the resulting overhead such a mechanism implies.
An adapter supporting QDIO may have 0 to N input queues and/or 0 to N output queues, where N is an arbitrary number such as 32. When QDIO input queues are used, the program can directly access data placed into the input queues by the adapter. Typically, the source of the data placed into the input queues is an I/O device or network of devices to which the adapter is connected. Correspondingly, when QDIO output queues are used, the program can transmit data directly to the adapter by placing data into appropriate output queues. Depending on the adapter, the data placed into the output queues may be used internally by the adapter or may be transmitted to one or more I/O devices to which the adapter is connected. For both QDIO input queues and QDIO output queues, main storage of the implementing computer system is used as the medium by which data is exchanged between the program and the adapter.

Efficient handling of queued-direct I/O requests and completions

International Business Machines Corporation


A method and system for allocating data among cache memories within a symmetric multiprocessor data-processing system are disclosed. The symmetric multiprocessor data-processing system includes a system memory and multiple processing units, wherein each of the processing units has a cache memory. The system memory is divided into a number of segments, wherein the number of segments is equal to the total number of cache memories. Each of these segments is represented by one of the cache memories such that a cache memory is responsible to cache data from its associated segment within the system memory.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method and system for sharing data among cache memories in general and, in particular, to a method and system for sharing data among cache memories within a symmetric multiprocessor data-processing system. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method and system for allocating data among cache memories within a symmetric multiprocessor data-processing system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) data-processing system, all of the processing units are generally identical; that is, they all have the same architecture and utilize a common set or subset of instructions and protocols to operate. Typically, each processing unit includes a processor core having at least one execution unit for carrying out program instructions. In addition, each processing unit may include at least one level of caches, commonly referred to as L1 or primary caches, which are implemented with high-speed memories. In most cases, a second level of caches, commonly referred to as L2 or secondary caches, may also be included in each processing unit for supporting the first level caches. Each level of cache stores a subset of the data and instructions contained in a system memory for low latency access by the processor cores.
Within an SMP environment, if a first processing unit contains a modified copy of data that is being requested by a second processing unit, the first processing unit does not send the requested data to a system memory for access by the second processing unit; instead, a cache-to-cache transfer of the requested data from the first processing unit to the second processing unit is performed. Upon receipt of the cache-to-cache transfer of the requested data, the second processing unit returns an acknowledgement of the receipt to the first processing unit. The process of transferring data from one processing unit to another processing unit on a system bus without going through a system memory is referred to as "intervention." An intervention protocol improves system performance by reducing the number of cases in which the high latency system memory must be accessed in order to satisfy a read or read-with-intent-to-modify request by any one of the processing units within the SMP data-processing system.
Because the latency associated with system memory access are generally quite large, it is apparent that it would be advantageous to maintain as much useful data in at least one of the cache memories as possible to allow for intervention such that system memory access may be avoided. To that end, the present invention provides an improved method and system for allocating data among cache memories within a SMP data-processing system such that as much useful data are maintained in at least one of the cache memories as possible in order to minimize the frequency of system memory accesses.

Method and system for allocating data among cache memories within a symmetric multiprocessor data-processing system

International Business Machines Corporation


Various aspects of the subject technology relate to systems, methods, and machine-readable media for controlling movement in a video game. The method includes rotating a camera angle in a virtual world to change a viewpoint of a character. The method also includes populating a movement control interface with selections corresponding to points of interest in the virtual world in response to rotating the camera angle, the selections changing based on the viewpoint. The method also includes selecting a point of interest from the movement control interface by toggling a selection corresponding to the point of interest. The method also includes moving the character to the point of interest in the virtual world.

Conventional techniques for controlling movement in a video game involve the use of a controller. First person shooter games typically include separate controls for controlling a camera view and movement of a player. Because a player often actively engages both controls simultaneously with both thumbs, it becomes difficult to perform other tasks involving the player's thumbs. As a result, the player must tradeoff controlling camera view and/or movement for performing other in-game tasks. This affects the player's ability to play the game, and reduces the player's enjoyment of playing the game. Therefore, it is desirable to have improved controls for movement in a video game.

Controlling character movement in a video-game


A method for constructing a plug for an electrical connection to a multipolar lead for an active implantable medical device includes providing a plug body having an insulating monobloc central core, the monobloc central core having a generally cylindrical shape, a cylindrical side surface, and a housing, providing a connection wire and a conductive pod, attaching the connection wire to the conductive pod, placing the conductive pod into the housing with connection wire extending therefrom, placing a conductive cylindrical ring on the cylindrical side surface, wherein the cylindrical side surface centers the conductive cylindrical ring coaxially about the monobloc central core, attaching the conductive pod to the cylindrical ring to create an electrical contact zone on a cylindrical outer surface of the plug body.

Active implantable medical devices generally include a housing, which is often called "the generator", that is mechanically and electrically connected to one or more "leads" that have electrodes that in turn come into contact with the tissues to which it is desirable to apply electrical pulses and/or to collect an electrical signal of the patient's myocardium, nerve, or muscle.
Standardized connection systems have been used for years to ensure an interchangeability of the leads and generators produced by different manufacturers. Thus, the standards called "IS-1" and "IS-4" define a number of dimensional and electrical characteristics for the leads to be connected to the generator. For defibrillation or cardioversion leads, wherein electrical stresses are more severe in view of the high energy passing from the generator to the lead, the "DF-1" and "DF-4" standards define the dimensional and electrical characteristics of the connection system.
The complexity of multi-polar leads, which already incorporate specific constraints in terms of the electrical energy associated with delivery of pacing or shock pulses, is enhanced by the development of multisite devices and intracardiac sensors, such as peak endocardial acceleration (PEA) sensors. This complexity leads, in terms of connectivity, to a proliferation of connection plugs, in addition to different standards depending on the plugs.
It is thus desirable to obtain a single plug that is subject to a single standard having a plurality of electrical contacts to simultaneously ensure connections to various terminals of the generator for all applicable energy levels, whether for the collection of depolarization signals, for the application of stimulation pulses or for the delivery of a defibrillation shock. In this context, a single "isodiametric" connection plug, namely a plug having a uniform cylindrical shape, designed to be inserted in a counterpart cavity of the generator, is known.
EP 1641084 A1 and its counterpart U.S. Pat. No. 7,175,478 (both assigned to Sorin CRM S.A.S. previously known as ELA Medical) describes one such isodiametric connection plug with the outer cylindrical surface having a stack of annular electrical contact zones, realized with alternating conductive cylindrical rings and insulating zones, the latter designed to electrically isolate the conductive rings. In addition, each electrical contact in the cavity of the generator must be isolated from the other contacts and from the environment outside the cavity by suitable seals. Originally placed on the lead, these joints are now placed in the cavity because of the fact, more particularly for defibrillation leads, high voltages are applied to the contact elements. It is therefore essential that the connecting pins of the multipolar leads are dimensionally stable over time and comply, with precise tolerances, with the geometric description of the imposed standards. These requirements help ensure that the electrical contact zones and insulating zones coincide with the corresponding zones of the cavities of the generators, when inserting the connector plugs into the cavities, as well as during the useful life of the active implantable medical device.
In this context, two key parameters must be taken into account, namely, on the one hand, the surface state of the electrical contact and insulating zones, and on the other hand, the coaxiality of the electrical contact and insulating zones along the connection plug. These parameters are indeed crucial for the quality of the electrical contact in the generator cavity and for sealing the system.
With these constraints, the difficulty of making a plug connector with a constant diameter along the entire length of the part and with multiple electrical contacts is increased, which in turn raises many manufacturing problems. In addition, the constraint of a small outer diameter (e.g., 3.2 mm according to ISO 27186) limits the design possibilities, so that the impact of complying with tight tolerances that are needed for industrial production can be considerable in terms of time and cost.
In this context, the connection plug described in EP 1641084 A1 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,175,478 mentioned above is not entirely satisfactory, because it does not guarantee a perfect coaxiality of the different zones. Indeed, in this prior art plug, the electrical contact zones and insulating zones are defined by cylindrical elementary parts the axial and angular alignment of which is obtained by longitudinal rods fitted in bores formed in each counterpart section of elementary parts. However, the minimum functional space between the pins and bores to allow stacking of the elementary parts leads to a lack of concentricity of the assembly, detrimental to the electrical contact and sealing of the connection plug inside the generator cavity.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/221671 A1 proposes a plug for electrical connection of a multipolar lead for an active implantable medical device, said plug having a cylindrical outer surface including a plurality of annular electrical contact zones axially distributed and formed of conductive cylindrical rings, the electrical contact zones being alternately separated by a plurality of intercalary insulating cylindrical zones. The plug connector further includes an insulating monobloc core, a piece having a generally cylindrical shape and a plurality of coaxial centering side cylindrical surfaces, with a conductive ring being placed on at least one centering side surface. The desired coaxiality of the conductive rings directly results from the centering side surfaces formed during the manufacture of the monobloc core piece. The fact that there is a unique piece for the central core, so with no functional clearance, ensures the long term stability of the coaxial rings.
However, the described structure requires welding the wire "blind" in a through-hole of the conductive ring, without the possibility of any visual inspection of the weld integrity. The problem of correct positioning of the different rings (i.e., the conductive rings provided with their welded wire and the insulating rings) during the assembly of the plug also remains, while satisfying the constraints of longitudinal alignment and of centering of the rings (namely, for an optimum, and desired perfect, coaxiality of the electrical contact and insulating zones), with a sufficient reproducibility and reliability, without significant increase in production costs and with simple parts and simple manufacturing and control processes, as appropriate for an industrial solution with profitability and efficiency for production in large quantities.

Method of manufacturing electrical connection plug for a multipolar lead of an active implantable medical device