A semiconductor device includes: a plurality of circuit parts; a global power source; a plurality of power source supply circuits; and a plurality of local power source control circuits provided in correspondence to the plurality of circuit parts, wherein each of the plurality of power source supply circuits includes a plurality of discrete supply switches, each of the plurality of local power source control circuits includes: a voltage monitor circuit; a storage circuit storing an output target characteristic value of the voltage monitor circuit; a comparator configured to compare the output characteristic value of the voltage monitor circuit and the target characteristic value; and a switch control circuit configured to control the number of the plurality of turned-on discrete supply switches based on the comparison result of the comparator.

In recent years, the demand for a reduction in power consumption in a semiconductor device (LSI) is increasing more and more. The interior of an LSI is divided into a plurality of circuit parts (circuit blocks), and power consumption of a circuit whose load is lightened is reduced by reducing the operation frequency.
FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an LSI in which an operation frequency for each circuit part is changed, and FIG. 1B is a diagram illustrating a time chart indicating the operation of the LSI illustrated in FIG. 1A.
As illustrated in FIG. 1A, an LSI 10 has a plurality of circuit blocks including a first circuit block 11A and a second circuit block 11B, and a power management unit (PMU) 12. The PMU 12 supplies a clock "cka" to the first circuit block 11A and a clock "ckb" to the second circuit block 11B. The PMU 12 divides a system clock "clk" to generate an operation clock and changes the clocks "cka" and "ckb" to be supplied to each circuit block in accordance with a clock mode specified in correspondence to the load state of each circuit block. In this manner, the PMU 12 controls each circuit so as to reduce power consumption while maintaining a desired processing speed.
FIG. 1B illustrates an example of the change in the operation state of the first circuit block 11A. For example, the first circuit block 11A operates at an operation frequency of 100 to 400 MHz, and operates at an operation frequency of 400 MHz in the high-load state where a large amount of data is processed within a brief time and operates at an operation frequency of 100 MHz in the low-load state where a small amount of data is processed within a comparatively long time. In other words, the frequency of the clock "cka" to be supplied to the first circuit block 11A is high when the load is high, and low when the load is low. The power consumption of the first circuit block 11A is larger at the time of operation at 400 MHz than that at the time of operation at 100 MHz.
Similarly, the second circuit block 11B operates at an operation frequency of 50 to 200 MHz in accordance with its load.
The LSI illustrated in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B changes the frequency of the clock to be supplied to each circuit block, however, the power source voltage supplied to each circuit block is fixed (1.2 V in FIG. 1B).
The power consumption of the circuit block changes in accordance with the operation frequency, however, also changes in accordance with the supplied power source voltage. Therefore, a technique in which power is reduced by reducing not only the operation frequency but also the supply voltage positively in accordance with the load state of the circuit block has been adopted in many cases. Such a technique is referred to as the DVFS (Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling) technique.
FIG. 2A is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of the LSI to which the DVFS technique is applied. FIG. 2B is a diagram illustrating a time chart indicating an operation of the LSI illustrated in FIG. 2A.
As illustrated in FIG. 2A, the LSI 10 has a plurality of circuit blocks including the first circuit block 11A and the second circuit block 11B, the PMU 12, and a VREF generation circuit 16.
The first circuit block 11A has an LDO (Low Drop Out) regulator 15A. The second circuit block 11B has an LDO regulator 15B. The VREF generation circuit 16 generates a reference potential VREF to be supplied to the LDO regulators 15A and 15B. The PMU 12 supplies the clock "cka" to the first circuit block 11A and also supplies a control signal "ca" of the supply voltage to the LDO regulator 15A. Further, the PMU 12 supplies the clock "ckb" to the second circuit block 11B and also supplies a control signal "cb" of the supply voltage to the LDO regulator 15B. The PMU 12 changes the frequency of the clock to be supplied and the voltage to be supplied in accordance with the load state of each circuit block specified by the DVFS mode from outside and controls each circuit block so as to reduce power consumption while maintaining the desired processing speed.
When the DVFS technique is applied, if the power source voltage is applied to each circuit block from the outside of the LSI, the number of parts other than the LSI increases, resulting in an increase in the cost. Therefore, a mechanism as illustrated in FIG. 2A is generally adopted, in which the LDO regulator is mounted in correspondence to the circuit block inside the LSI 10, and a single external power source is used, and various voltages are generated inside the LSI to supply a desired voltage to each circuit.
FIG. 2B illustrates an example of the change in the operation state of the first circuit block 11A. For example, the first circuit block 11A operates at an operation frequency of 100 to 400 MHz and on a supply voltage of 0.8 V to 1.2 V. The first circuit block 11A operates on a supply voltage of 1.2 V and at an operation frequency of 400 MHz in the high-load state, and operates on a supply voltage of 0.8 V and at an operation frequency of 100 MHz in the low-load state.
Similarly, the second circuit block 11B operates at an operation frequency of 50 to 200 MHz and on a supply voltage of 0.8 V to 1.2 V in accordance with its load.
Consequently, the PMU 12 outputs a control signal of the frequency of the clock to be supplied to each circuit block and the supply voltage in accordance with the DVFS mode indicating the load state of each circuit block specified from outside. Specifically, the PMU 12 supplies the "cka" of 400 MHz when the first circuit block 11A is in the high-load state and also supplies the "ca" to control the LDO regulator 15A so as to set the supply voltage to 1.2 V. Further, the PMU 12 supplies the "cka" of 100 MHz when the first circuit block 11A is in the low-load state and also supplies the "ca" to control the LDO regulator 15A so as to set the supply voltage to 0.8 V. This also applies to the second circuit block 11B.
In FIG. 2B, the broken line indicates a case where the supply voltage is kept at 1.2 V in the low-load state and by changing the supply voltage from 1.2 V to 0.8 V at the time of the low-load state, the power consumption is reduced by 33% compared to the case of 1.2 V.
FIG. 3A to FIG. 3C are diagrams illustrating the changes in the clock frequency and in the supply voltage in accordance with the load of the first circuit block 11A of the LSI, in which only the clock frequency is changed as illustrated in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B and the DVFS technique is applied.
As illustrated in FIG. 3A, when only the clock frequency is changed as in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B, the supply voltage is fixed at 1.2 V and the desired minimum clock frequency by which the first circuit block 11A can process its load is allocated for each clock mode as in FIG. 3A. Then, the PMU 12 changes the frequency of the clock to be supplied to the first circuit block 11A in accordance with the clock mode corresponding to the load. Specifically, the PMU 12 changes the clock frequency to 400 MHz when the load is high, to 200 MHz when the load is medium, to 100 MHz when the load is low, and to 0 MHz when there is no load (i.e., the clock is not supplied).
When the DVFS technique is applied, the frequency of the clock to be supplied to the first circuit block 11A is changed in accordance with the DVFS mode corresponding to the load, and also the LDO regulator 15A is controlled to change the supply voltage. Therefore, as illustrated in FIG. 3B, the desired minimum supply voltage value by which the first circuit block 11A can operate at each clock frequency is allocated for each DVFS mode. That is, a combination of the clock frequency and the supply voltage is set for each DVFS mode so that the power can be reduced in total in accordance with the change in the load state of the first circuit block 11A. Specifically, the clock frequency is changed to 400 MHz when the load is high, to 200 MHz when the load is medium, to 100 MHz when the load is low, and to 0 MHz when there is no load (i.e., the clock is not supplied). Then, the supply voltage is changed to 1.2 V when the load is high, to 1.0 V when the load is medium, to 0.8 V when the load is low, and to 0.8 V or less when there is no load.
FIG. 3C is a diagram illustrating control points by the above-mentioned control in the coordinate system in which the horizontal axis represents the clock frequency and the vertical axis represents the supply voltage, wherein black circles indicate the case where only the clock frequency is changed in FIG. 3A, and white circles indicate the case where the DVFS technique in FIG. 3B is applied. A range surrounded by a solid line indicates a range in which the circuit can operate.
In the operable range of the circuit in FIG. 3C, the closer to the boundary line of the lower limit, the smaller the power consumption is. Therefore, in order to reduce the power consumption, it is desirable to control so that the control point becomes closer to the lower limit of the operable range. In the case where the supply voltage is fixed at 1.2 V in FIG. 3A, the control point is close to the lower limit of the operable range when the clock frequency is 400 MHz, however, the control point becomes more distant from the lower limit of the operable range when the clock frequency is 200 MHz and 100 MHz.
In contrast, when the DVFS technique is applied, the supply voltage is 1.0 V when the clock frequency is 200 MHz the supply voltage is 0.8 V when the clock frequency is 100 MHz, and therefore, the control point becomes close to the lower limit of the operable range. In the state where there is no load, the supply voltage is set to 0 V and the clock frequency is set to 0 MHz, i.e., the state is brought about where no clock is supplied. This state is outside the operable range, however, no circuit block operates, and therefore, it does not cause any problem in particular.
As described above, in order to apply the DVFS technique, a mechanism is provided that generates various supply voltage values and supplies them to each circuit block, and the LDO regulators 15A and 15B change the supply voltage value in accordance with the control of the PMU 12.
In recent years, in order to further reduce power, a very low power source voltage, such as about 0.5 V, is applied in place of a high power source voltage, such as 1.2 V, which is applied from outside illustrated in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, and an LDO regulator that operates under such conditions is demanded.
FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B are diagrams illustrating circuit examples of the LDO regulator proposed hitherto, also illustrating together circuit blocks to which the power source voltage is supplied from the LDO regulator.
FIG. 4A is a circuit diagram of an analog type LDO regulator 20. For example, the first circuit block 11A in FIG. 2A corresponds to a circuit block 11 and the LDO regulator 15A corresponds to the analog type LDO regulator 20. The analog type LDO regulator 20 is illustrated as being provided outside in correspondence to the circuit block 11, however, it may be provided as a part of the circuit.
The analog type LDO regulator 15A has s supply transistor 21, a differential amplifier 22, and variable resistors 23 and 24. The supply transistor 21 is a PMOS transistor provided between a high-potential side global power source line 25 of a voltage VDD and a local power source line 26 of the circuit block 11, and an output GA of the differential amplifier 22 is applied to the gate thereof. The variable resistors 23 and 24 are connected in series between the local power source line 26 and a low-potential side power source line 27 of a voltage VSS (0 V) and form a variable voltage divider circuit configured to output a divided voltage of a voltage VDDMA of the local power source line 26 and the VSS. The resistance values of the variable resistors 23 and 24 differ in accordance with the DVFS mode. In other words, it is possible for the variable voltage divider circuit to change the resistance ratio in accordance with the DVFS mode. The differential amplifier 22 generates the output GA in accordance with a difference between a divided voltage MONA output from the variable voltage divider circuit and the reference potential VREF output from the VREF generation circuit 16 in FIG. 2A. Reference symbol "C" indicates a capacitor between the VDDMA and the VSS.
The differential amplifier 22 compares the divided voltage of the supply voltage VDDMA to the circuit block 11 and the VSS with the reference potential VREF, and determines whether or not the VDDMA is higher than the desired minimum voltage value (target value) for the circuit block 11 to operate by a potential comparison in an analog manner. Then, in accordance with the comparison result, if the VDDMA is lower than the target value, the output GA is controlled in an analog manner so that the amount of supply current of the supply transistor 21 is increased, and if the VDDMA is higher than the target value, the GA is controlled in an analog manner so that, on the contrary, the amount of supply current is reduced. Therefore, the VDDMA is kept at the target value at all times. The target value differs depending on the DVFS mode, and therefore, as described above, the resistance values of the variable resistors 23 and 24 are changed in accordance with the DVFS mode, and the resistance ratio of the variable voltage divider circuit can be changed. Consequently, it is possible for the LDO regulator 15A to dynamically change the supply voltage in order to keep the target value by changing the VDDMA toward the target value set for each DVFS mode.
The analog type LDO regulator is an LDO regulator widely used at present in the case where the power supply voltage VDD applied from outside is about 1.2 V.
However, in recent year, in order to further reduce power consumption, the power source voltage VDD is reduced to about 0.5 V and the VDDMA becomes about 0.4 V and the VREF is set to 0.25 V. If the VDD falls to as low as 0.5 V, it is difficult to perform gate potential control in an analog manner with precision because a threshold value of the transistor that forms the LDO regulator 15A is 0.4 V to 0.5 V, and therefore, the VDD enters a sub threshold region. The sub threshold region is a region in which the VDD becomes equal to or less than the threshold value.
Then, a digital type LDO regulator is proposed.
FIG. 4B is a circuit diagram of a digital type LDO regulator 30. FIG. 4B also illustrates together circuit blocks to which the power source voltage is supplied by the LDO regulator 30. For example, the first circuit block 11A in FIG. 2A corresponds to the circuit block 11 and the LDO regulator 15A corresponds to the digital type LDO 30. It may also be possible to provide the digital type LDO regulator 30 as part of the circuit block 11.
The basic configuration and operation of the digital type LDO regulator 30 are the same as those of the analog type LDO regulator 20 in FIG. 4A, however, the following points are different.
(1) The supply transistor 21 is formed by a plurality of supply transistors 21A, 21B, 21C, . . . connected in parallel.
(2) The differential amplifier 22 is replaced with a comparator 28 configured to output the comparison result as a digital value of 0 or 1.
(3) A controller 29 is provided that controls the turning on and off of the plurality of the supply transistors 21A, 21B, 21C, . . . in accordance with the output of the comparator 28.
If the VDDMA is lower than the target value, for example, the comparator 28 outputs "0" and the controller 29 performs control so as to increase the amount of supply current by increasing the number of the plurality of the turned-on supply transistors 21A, 21B, 21C, . . . . On the contrary, if the VDDMA is higher than the target value, the comparator 28 outputs "1" and the controller 29 performs control so as to reduce the amount of supply current by decreasing the number of the plurality of the turned-on supply transistors 21A, 21B, 21C, . . . .
By changing the control to the digital control as described above, the LDO regulator becomes to operate on a VDD level at which no erroneous operation of 0 or 1 does not occur, and therefore, the LDO regulator will operate accurately at the VDD lower than that of the analog type LDO regulator.


A facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment includes a communication interface that receives facsimile data, a data storage device, a non-decolorable printing section, a decolorable printing section and a processor. The data storage device stores, prior to the facsimile data being received, a plurality of facsimile transmission source information. The data storage device also stores the received facsimile data. The processor controls printing of the content of the received facsimile data in one of the non-decolorable printing section and the decolorable printing section based on whether a detected transmission source information is determined to be included in the previously stored plurality of facsimile transmission source information.

Recently, an apparatus in which letters and images printed on a paper are decolored so that the paper can be used again, has become practicable. Such an apparatus has an advantage that the paper, which is decolored can be used many times and paper can be saved. However, there are some apparatus in which printing without decoloring is preferable depending on a content of printed data. In addition, an image forming apparatus that includes a mechanism which performs printing using a general non-decoloring recording material and a mechanism which performs printing using a decolorable recording material is known.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Facsimile apparatus and method for printing facsimile


Various methods and systems provide a media player application that is integrated with CD burning functionality. In some embodiments, the CD burning functionality is accessed via a collection of application program interfaces (APIs) that are called by the media player application. The media player application and APIs can be incorporated within an operating system. Because of the integration between the media player application and the CD burning functionality, the user can be provided with a great deal of feedback during the CD burning process. In one embodiment, a user interface (UI) provides a single pane through which a user can access the media player application and its CD burning functionality. Feedback can be provided to the user via the single pane UI.

Compact discs (CDs) have been and continue to be the primary way that people transport, share, and listen to music. As digital music becomes more and more popular, digital music users will be able to use digital music players and the Internet to accomplish these tasks. However, as broadband connections still represent a small percentage of households, CDs will continue to be an easy, low cost alternative.
In recent years, hardware for copying CDs, termed "CD burners", have become a popular way for people to transfer their digital music from a computer, such as a personal computer that contains their music library, to a portable CD. CD burners include a CD drive and hardware that enables digital data to be written to a CD that is inserted into the drive. So, to transfer songs from a computer to a new CD, a user need simply insert a blank CD into an appropriately configured CD drive and utilize a software application on their computer to initiate copying of the songs. In the past, however, the user experience provided by the CD burning systems has not been all that it could be. This stems from the fact that the means by which the CD burning functionality is accessed is not one that lends itself to a robust user experience. As an example, consider FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 illustrates a typical system that has enabled CD burning in the past. This system includes a media player application 100 through which a user interfaces with media on their computer. Typically, to burn CDs, the media player application launches a third party burning application 102 which installs its own layer of software 104. Layer 104 communicates with the hardware drive 106 to facilitate burning. In this scenario, after media player application 100 launches the third party burning application 102, it is no longer involved in the burning process. This is undesirable for a number of different reasons.
For example, the FIG. 1 scenario typically does not provide the user with meaningful and timely information or feedback on the progress and status of the CD burning process. For example, in the past, if the user selected a playlist of songs to burn to the CD and the list was too long, the user would not discover this information until after the third party application received the playlist and attempted to burn it to the CD. The third party application would typically generate an error message which would then cause the user to go back and shorten their playlist. This, however, took place after the user believed that they had initiated the burning process. So, for example, if the user initiated the burning process and left the computer, they would not know that the songs had not been transferred until they returned to the computer.
Additionally, because of the loose association of media player application 100 and third party burning application 102, the media player application typically does not know whether there is a CD drive with burning capabilities on its associated machine. The result of this is that the media player application will appear to the user as if it supports burning capabilities when, in fact, it does not. The media player application then relies on the third party burning application to generate an error message when the user attempts to burn a CD on a system that does not in fact support burning.
Thus, in the past, systems for burning CDs have not provided a user experience that is as desirable as it might be. Accordingly, this invention arose out of concerns associated with providing improved systems and methods for burning CDs and particularly, those that greatly enhance the user's burning experience.

Methods and systems for burning compact discs


A harness assembly for a respiratory protection device is provided. In an exemplary embodiment, the harness assembly includes a strap support having an attachment point, a first strap having a first strap attachment element, and a second strap having a second strap attachment element, wherein the first strap attachment element is attachable to the second strap attachment element and attachable to the attachment point of the strap support, and the first and second straps are positionable between the first configuration in which the first strap attachment element is attached only to the second attachment element and a second configuration in which the first attachment element is attached to the second attachment element and the attachment point of the strap support.

Respiratory protection devices that cover a user's nose and mouth, for example, and provide filtered air to a wearer are well known. Air is drawn through a breathable air source by a negative pressure generated by a wearer or forced into a breathing zone by a fan or blower, for example, where it may be inhaled by the wearer.
Various strap configurations and harness assemblies have been provided for positioning and maintaining a respiratory protection device over the nose and mouth of a wearer. For example, some harness assemblies may include one or more tensioned straps that pass behind a wearer's neck such that the respiratory protection device is drawn over the wearer's nose and mouth. Other harness assemblies may include a support member that may rest on a wearer's head and that one or more straps may be attached to in order to maintain the respiratory protection device in a desired position.

Respiratory protection device harness assembly


A backflow liner in an epitaxial growth system is provided in order to control gas flow and protect the surface of substrates throughout an epitaxial growth cycle. The backflow liner provides critical protection during the warming time prior to substrate pre-treatment, while the growth environment reaches steady state condition between the pre-treatment and the growth process, during pauses between the layer depositions in case of multilayer structure growth, and during the cooling process. The direction of the gas flow through the backflow liner is counter to the deposition gas flows directed from the source end of the growth system. The backflow liner is therefore designed to shape the flow of gases to prevent formation of the vortex-type streams in the growth system that may negatively affect the growth process.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to epitaxial growth systems for production of semiconductor materials and devices, in particular. More specifically, the invention relates to the design of hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) growth systems and reactors, the design of internal components of HVPE growth systems and reactors, and HVPE-based processes for growth of group III-nitride materials and devices that can be used in optoelectronics as well as in high-power high-frequency electronics.
2. Prior Art
The development of GaN-based optoelectronics and power electronics has led to widespread research into the growth and applications of compounds of aluminum, gallium, indium, boron, and nitrogen (collectively, the "III-nitrides," "group III-nitrides," or "AlxInyGa1-x-yN" in which 0≦x+y≦1). Group III-nitride templates, junctions, heterojunctions, multi-layer structures, thick layers/films, and bulk materials are commonly grown epitaxially via chemical vapor deposition methods including, but not limited to, hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) and metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD, MOVPE, or OMVPE).
During these deposition processes, a group III-nitride is grown upon a substrate or template consisting of, but not limited to, sapphire, silicon, silicon carbide, magnesium aluminate spinel, gallium nitride, aluminum nitride, aluminum-gallium nitride alloys, indium nitride, and/or lithium aluminate. A template shall be understood to be a substrate of one of the preceding materials coated with a layer of group III-nitride material. For the purposes of this invention, the terms "substrate" and "template" will be used interchangeably, though one skilled in the art will recognize that slightly different growth chemistries are required to optimize a group III-nitride deposition process for each. The differences in required chemistries are independent, however, of the implementation of the invention as described below.
The choice of substrate material, the crystallographic orientation of the substrate, and the deposition method/chemistry strongly influence the crystalline and morphological quality of the group III-nitride grown upon the substrate/template.
During active growth of a III-nitride (the process by which group III-nitride material is added to the surface of a substrate), it is common for a substrate or template to be exposed to a "growth atmosphere" that contains both one or more group III precursors (including but not limited to gallium chloride, aluminum chloride, indium chloride, trimethyl gallium, triethylgallium, trimethyl aluminum, gallium hydride, and gallium metal) and an active nitrogen precursor (typically but not limited to ammonia, hydrazine, or dihydrazine). For the purposes of the present invention, the atmosphere or ambient conditions within a group III-nitride epitaxy chamber will be referred to as a "non-growth atmosphere" if either or both a group III precursor or a nitrogen precursor are absent from the gas phase chemistry in the vicinity of the substrates or templates on which the group III-nitride is grown.
Studies of the thermal and chemical stability of GaN and other III-nitride epilayers in various ambient gases have been undertaken that have demonstrated thermal instability of some of the III-nitrides in common growth ambient environments (see M. A. Mastro, O. M. Kryliouk, M. D. Reed, T. J. Anderson, A. Davydov, and A. Shapiro, Thermal Stability of MOCVD and HVPE GaN Layers in H2, HCl, NH3 and N2, Phys. Stat. Sol. (a) 188 (2001) 467-471 and M. A. Mastro, O. M. Kryliouk, T. J. Anderson, A. Davydov, A. Shapiro, Influence of polarity on GaN thermal stability, Journal of Crystal Growth 274 (2005) 38-46.). For example, on heating in N2, H2, NH3, and HCl, gallium nitride (GaN) can undergo dissociative sublimation or thermal decomposition accompanied in some instances by gallium droplet formation. In both cases the flatness and smoothness of the surface of the epilayer will be adversely affected, making it unusable for further device epitaxy.
It has been found that group III-nitride surfaces are generally more stable in non-growth atmospheres containing predominantly N2 and NH3 than in those containing principally H2, HCl, or Ar. The protective properties of nitrogen and ammonia are considered to be very useful when for some reason growth interruption is required and III-nitride surfaces are left exposed to the non-growth atmosphere (an ambient in which the III-nitride is not being actively deposited or grown). One skilled in the art of III-nitride epitaxy/crystal growth will recognize that III-nitride films and crystals are frequently exposed to such non-growth atmospheres during typical deposition/growth processes, such as during a waiting period for gas mixture homogenization at the beginning of an epitaxial run or during a slow cooling process at the end of the run. Growth interruptions also occur in the middle of the deposition cycles or runs for annealing to improve crystalline quality of the epilayer. Protection of the III-nitride surfaces is specifically important during the interruptions of an epitaxial process in which one of the components of a gas mixture may adversely influence surface morphology. An example of such an interruption can be found in the HVPE III-nitride deposition process employing HCl flow for the in-situ GaCl formation. The unreacted portion of the HCl flow is capable of etching unprotected surfaces of the substrate and epilayer. Indeed, such growth interruptions occur too frequently during a typical growth cycle for simple relocation of the epiwafers or crystals away from the growth zone of the reactor to adjacent so-called dwell zones to be sufficient or practical for ultimate preservation of the episurface. It is clear that there is a need for an effective means to protect heated III-nitride films, episurfaces, and crystals from decomposition. More preferably, there is a need for a means of providing protective gases through the dwell zone of the reactor to the III-nitride materials therein.
It was emphasized during the study of the first steps of the HVPE GaN growth on sapphire substrates that the results of the growth can be significantly influenced by the initial nucleation and nitridation conditions (see S. Gu, R. Zhang, Y. Shi, Y. Zheng, L. Zhang, F. Dwikusuma, T. F. Kuech, The impact of initial growth and substrate nitridation on thick GaN growth on sapphire by hydride vapor phase epitaxy, Journal of Crystal Growth 231 (2001) 342-351). To preserve the surface of the substrates or templates up to the growth temperature of 1100° C., an additional region, called a backflow tube, was introduced into a vertical HVPE reactor. The gas ambient within the backflow tube was chosen to be either pure N2 or N2+NH3 mixture depending on the choice of pregrowth treatment. The study confirmed that in the reactor with the backflow tube, improved initiation of the growth can be achieved. Apart from the improvement in the crystalline structure of GaN epilayers, their surface was generally smoother and had reduced density of surface pits, which was a common morphological feature of the grown epilayers. However, there was no specific consideration given to the geometry and position of the backflow tube inside the reactor that would help to prevent potential eddy backflows in the growth zone that could adversely affect III-nitride uniformity and quality. From the point of view of the present invention, when the position of the end of the backflow tube is too close to the growth zone or shape of this end coincides with the shape of the growth zone, gases flowing through the backflow tube will effectively block outflow of the reactive gasses from the growth zone. This blocking will negatively influence epitaxy in the growth zone and reduce all benefits of the backflow use to a minimum by unfavorably modifying the gas phase chemistry in the vicinity of the substrates.
In reference F. Dwikusuma and T. F. Kuech, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic study on sapphire nitridation for GaN growth by hydride vapor phase epitaxy: Nitridation mechanism, Journal of Applied Physics 94 (2003) 5656-5664 the study of the sapphire nitridation in the backflow region of a vertical HVPE system under a NH3 and N2 ambient was described. It was mentioned that the backflow region allowed the sample to be heated to the temperature of 1100° C. under a countercurrent gas flow, protecting the sample from a gallium precursor stream. Nitridation was carried out by exposing the sapphire to a mixture of NH3 and N2 at a total flow rate of 2 slpm and a total pressure of 1 atm. The nominal reactor diameter near the sample that corresponded to the diameter of backflow region was 6 cm. The strict correspondence of the diameters and shapes of the backflow and growth regions inevitably leads to the generation of the gas vortexes in the growth zone resulting in irreproducible epitaxial condition. Indeed, the prior art has focused on the use of radially symmetrical backflow liners in vertical configurations that are of no use in horizontally configured flow paths and fail to address deleterious eddy current formation.
In a series of patents, the use of a backflow of ammonia for protection of the grown epilayers is claimed. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,727,333 at a final step of the HVPE deposition of indium gallium nitride epilayer, the backflow of ammonia is provided into the reactor to prevent thermal decomposition of the grown epilayer. In the backflow, the substrate with the epilayer is allowed to cool down to the temperature at which decomposition is negligibly small even without ammonia.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,656,272 and 7,670,435 to achieve sharp interlayer interfaces in multilayer structures the backflow gas sources and substrate movement within the growth zone are proposed. Once the growth of one sublayer is completed, the substrate is moved into the growth interruption zone where the backflow of an inert gas insures the interruption of the growth. While the substrate is in the growth interruption zone, the growth zone can be purged with the inert gas and active gas mixture including ammonia is reintroduced. After the growth mixture is uniformly distributed, the substrate is moved back into the growth zone. The Patents description does not include any specifications for optimal geometry of the growth interruption zone.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,890,809 the backflow direction of argon and/or ammonia gases in the HVPE reactor is proposed to prevent undesirable growth during cooling the substrate with already grown epitaxial structure. In the preferred embodiment, the epitaxial structure comprises a GaN—AlGaN p-n heterojunction and p-type GaN capping layer helping to avoid surface oxidation of p-type AlGaN.
Along with a number of advantages that substantially increase flexibility of the HVPE process, the use of the backflow streams as disclosed in the prior art suffers a major drawback: it is a cause for induced eddy currents that can destroy the laminar pattern of the main gas flow and compromise stability and reproducibility of the group III-nitride growth process (see E. Richter, Ch. Hennig, M. Weyers, F. Habel, J. D. Tsay, W. Y. Liu, P. Brückner, F. Scholz, Yu. Makarov, A. Segal, J. Kaeppeler, Reactor and growth process optimization for growth of thick GaN layers on sapphire substrates by HVPE, Journal of Crystal Growth 277 (2005) 6-12).
The main objective of the present invention is the introduction of a backflow liner that decouples the active/main and counter/backflow gas streams in the growth reactor enriched with the gas counter-flow functionality. A further objective is to provide a backflow liner design that avoids deleterious eddy current formation as has been observed in the prior art and enables laminar gas flow in the vicinity of the growing group III-nitride films.
These objectives are achieved in the epitaxial growth reactor geometry provided herein comprising a main reactor element with an inserted backflow liner axially aligned to the adjacent growth liner and separated from it by the shaped opening that directed gas flow from the growth and backflow liners toward the reactor exhaust.

Backflow reactor liner for protection of growth surfaces and for balancing flow in the growth liner


A window for an airplane pressurized cockpit having a window opening and a rabbet defining a periphery of the window opening includes first and second sheets of glass, and a separating layer positioned between the first and second sheets of glass and connecting the first and second sheets of glass. The separating layer has a periphery which does not extend substantially beyond peripheries of the first and second sheets of glass. A rigid belt is embedded in the separating layer adjacent the periphery of the separating layer for rigidifying the periphery of said separating layer. The rigid belt ensures that the separating layer is held in place in case of rupture of the glass sheets.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to laminated safety glass, especially for an airplane pressurized cockpit window, including at least two sheets of glass and a separating layer made of plastic.
2. Description of the Background Art
Laminated glass windows in airplanes, that is to say windows which include at least two sheets of glass and a separation layer made of plastic which is formed by one or several sheets of polyvinylbutyral and/or polyurethane, can be installed by being bolted together in the structure of the cockpit as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,616,122, or more simply by being fitted into a rabbet.
In flight these windows are subjected to considerable differential pressure between the inside and outside of the cockpit. This differential pressure must be maintained under all circumstances, particularly in case of a flight incident causing breakage of the window.
Thus, laminated glass windows for airplanes use at least two sheets of glass as structural layers to mitigate the consequences of accidental breakage of a sheet of glass. Each of them must be capable of supporting the maximum differential pressure to which the airplane window might be subjected during flights at high altitude.
Although not likely, a fracture of two sheets of glass which constitute the structural layers is nevertheless possible. When the window is bolted to the structure of the cockpit, it can remain in place even if the sheets of glass break, due to the separating layer which itself is held by the bolts. On the other hand, if the window is installed by being fitted into a rabbet, this might cause exposure of the window base in case of breakage of sheets of glass, which will result in sudden depressurization through the opening that is thereby made.


A swivel coupling device is designed for coupling together the mating ends of two tubular fittings forming part of a pressurized fluid, fuel or gas connection system between a fluid, fuel or gas supply and an output device. The device has two relatively rotatable coupling parts with mating flat faces rotatably secured together in face-to-face engagement. Each of the flat faces has a recess with a circular outer periphery matching that of the recess in the other part, and each part has a passageway extending through it to the recess from a point on its outer surface remote from the flat face. Suitable connecting fittings are provided for connecting the passageway on each part to a respective tubular fitting so that the fittings can be swivelled, via dual axes, omni-directionally, relative to one another while fluid, fuel or gas communication between the fittings is maintained through the passageways and recesses of the coupling.

The present invention relates generally to the connection between successive parts of a pressurized system, and is particularly concerned with a swivel coupling or joint for replacing a standard in-line fixed coupling between a hose and a supply of pressurized fluid, fuel or gas or between a hose and an output device, for example.
In fluid supply systems for supplying fluid, fuel or gas from a pressurized source to an output device for using the fluid, fuel or gas, a hose is generally coupled to the source at one end and to the output device at the other end. For example, in diving equipment, a hose connects the air tanks on a diver's back to a mouthpiece unit through which a diver breathes. In automobile engines, hoses connect a supply of braking fluid to the brake cylinders, and a fuel-line hose connects the gas tank to the engine. In garden sprinkler systems, hoses connect water supply taps to sprinkler nozzles. In all cases, rigid coupling devices such as interengaging threaded fittings are normally provided between the hose ends and supply or outlet device. This does not allow easy adjustment of the hose direction.
Some swivel connectors are known for use in fluid connecting systems, but these do not normally provide for omni-directional adjustment and are often relatively cumbersome.

Swivel hose coupling for pressurized fluid, fuel and gas systems


The invention provides modulators of Dvl PDZ-ligand interaction, and methods of identifying and using these modulators.

Wnt signal pathways are essential for development and have been implicated in tumorigenesis[1]. See also Reya & Clevers, Nature (2005), 434:843-850; Logan & Nusse, Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. (2004), 20:781-810; and US 2004/0247593. Disheveled (Dvl) proteins are scaffold proteins that play central role for both canonical and non-canonical Wnt signal pathways[2]. See also Wallingford & Habas, Development (2005), 132:4421-4436. Dvl proteins are composed of an N-terminal DIX domain, a central PDZ domain and a C-terminal DEP domain. Of these three, PDZ domain plays the most important role in Wnt signal transduction. Over 20 natural ligands have been reported bound to Dvl PDZ domain (hereinafter "DvlPDZ" or "Dvl PDZ") [2-6], most of which have been indicated to be biologically important for canonical or non-canonical Wnt signal pathways. For example, the direct binding of DvlPDZ to an internal sequence in the C-terminal region of Frizzled has been reported to play an important role in Wnt signal pathway[3]. Over-expression of Dvl protein has been observed in several types of cancers, such as non-small cell lung cancer and mesothelioma [7,8], making Dvl a drug target for cancer treatment. Efforts have been made to develop specific antagonists to DvlPDZ based on the peptide ligand derived from Dapper and Frizzled[9]. However, the small molecule that was identified reportedly binds to DvlPDZ with very low affinity (Ki=237 μM), and the efficacy in vivo has not been fully addressed.
The important cellular functions ascribed to Dvl, in particular those mediated through the protein-protein interaction between DvlPDZ and its ligand(s), suggest that DvlPDZ represents a significant therapeutic target. It would therefore be beneficial to elucidate the mechanistic aspects of DvlPDZ-ligand interaction and provide compositions and methods targeted at modulating its associated functional activities. The present invention provides this and other benefits.


Current tools for processing e-mail and other messages do not adequately recognize and manipulate threads, i.e., conversations among two or more people carried out by exchange of messages. The present invention utilizes the textual context and characteristics of messages in order to provide a more reliable and effective way to construct message threads. In accordance with the present invention, statistical information retrieval techniques are used in conjunction with textual material obtained by "filtering" of messages to achieve a significant level of accuracy at identifying when one message is a reply to another.

The volume of electronic messages, such as electronic mail ("e-mail") , is huge and growing. Many users receive more messages than they can handle, which has sparked interest in better message handling software. Almost all e-mail readers now support separating messages into folders, and often allow rules to be defined to do this automatically. Tools for prioritizing and searching messages are also becoming available.
A problem with most such approaches is that they process each message individually. Many messages are parts of larger conversations, or threads. A thread is a conversation among two or more participants carried out by exchange of messages. Treating messages outside of this context may lead to undesirable results. For instance, a system that sorts messages into folders based on their content is unlikely to be 100% accurate. The effectiveness of content-based text categorization systems varies considerably among categories, and accuracies over 95% are rarely reported. This means that threads having as few as 20 component messages will almost always be broken up and distributed into multiple folders by such a system, making it difficult for a reader to follow the conversational structure.
On the other hand, a mail reading interface that understood threads could save users considerable effort. For instance, some programs for reading Usenet news allow users to delete an entire thread at once, greatly reducing the number of messages the user must inspect.
Messaging systems that are explicitly oriented to group discussion, e.g., the Usenet network and other bulletin board systems, provide the most support for threading. For instance, the reply command in most Usenet news posting programs inserts into a reply or child message two forms of information about the relationship between it and its parent message (the message it is a reply to). First, the chain of unique message identifiers in the REFERENCES: field of the parent is copied into the REFERENCES: field of the child, with the unique identifier of the parent added. Second, the SUBJECT: line of the parent is copied into the SUBJECT: line of the child, typically prefixed by Re:. Usenet news readers providing a threaded display use the structural links from the REFERENCES: field, while others organize a threaded display around SUBJECT: lines which are identical or have identical prefixes.
Conversations, including group discussions, can also be carried out over electronic mail systems. The ability to send to and reply to groups of people, as well as the use of centralized mail "reflectors" and mailing list management software, can informally support multiple large scale discussions. As with bulletin board systems, replying to an e-mail message often inserts structural information into the reply. For Internet-based mail systems, the reply command may copy the MESSAGE-ID: field or other identifying information from the parent, into the IN-REPLY-TO: field of the child. As in Usenet messages, the SUBJECT: line is typically copied to the SUBJECT: field, preceded by Re:.
Some mail clients provide threaded displays, though this is less common than for bulletin board systems. For instance, the VM mail reader (available at ftp.uu.net in networking/mail/vm directory) allows grouping of messages by one of several criteria, including having the same subject line text, the same author, or the same recipient. The mail archiving program hypermail (see http://www.eit.com/software/hypermail.html) marks up archives of e-mail with a variety of links, including threading information. It attempts first to find a message id in the IN-REPLY-TO: field and match it to a known message. Failing that it looks for a matching date string in the IN-REPLY-TO: field, and finally tries for a match on the SUBJECT: line, after removing one Re: tag.
However, the error rate of each of the above approaches is considerable. While the REFERENCES: field is in theory required for replies to Usenet messages, threading is hampered by clients that delete portions of the REFERENCES: chain due to limitations on field length. In Internet electronic mail, the use of MESSAGE-ID: and IN-REPLY-TO: fields are optional and their format and nature is only loosely constrained when they are present. SUBJECT: lines for both Usenet messages and Internet mail are allowed to contain arbitrary text, clients are inconsistent in their use of Re: tags, and manual editing of SUBJECT: lines further confuses the issue. Furthermore, current approaches to threading are to some extent misconceived, as they rely upon rapidly changing conventions in software communication.
While user clients typically insert in messages structural information useful for recovering threads, inconsistencies between clients, loose standards, creative user behavior, and the subjective nature of conversation make current threading systems only partially successful, and the situation is unlikely to change.
One approach to dealing with the above situation is to try to force clients to follow tighter standards for specifying threads. However, such an approach does not appear practical in light of the increasing diversity of clients and the growing interconnection of only partially compatible messaging systems. Tighter standards also do not help in recovering thread structure from archived messages, since deletion of fields such as IN-REPLY-TO: by archiving and digestifying programs is common.
It is also not clear that threads should be identified with trees of reply links. The reply command is often used to avoid retyping a mail address, rather than to continue a conversation. Further, users will disagree about what is on-topic in a thread, and off-topic responses can easily spawn subdiscussions. Conversely, on-topic contributors to a discussion may simply send a message rather than using the reply command.
This suggests that the links desired for display in a threading interface, and which result in structures to be processed as a unit, are actually not objectively defined "pattern-matching" or "structural" links. The link desired to be captured is that of a response in an ongoing discourse. The fact that users are able to participate in online discussions, despite the inadequacies of current threading software, suggests that most messages contain the contextual information to understand their place in an ongoing conversation. Thus it is at least possible that an automated system will be able to make use of this information as well to make this conversational structure explicit as a thread.
The role of cohesion or linking between the parts of a dialogue has been recognized. Language provides a variety of mechanisms for achieving this cohesion. One such mechanism is lexical cohesion and in particular lexical repetition, that is, the repeating of words in linked parts of a discourse.
The phenomenon of lexical repetition suggests that the similarity of the vocabulary between two messages should be a powerful clue to whether a response relationship exists between them. Measuring the similarity of vocabulary between texts is, of course, a widely used strategy for finding texts with similar topic to a query. Indeed, similarity-based methods have been used to construct hypertexts linking documents or passages of documents on the basis of topic similarity.
Attempts have also been made to go beyond unlabeled linking to use similarity matching in detecting discourse relations. Hearst's TextTiling algorithm (see M. A. Hearst, "Multi-paragraph Segmentation of Expository Text," 32nd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics at Pp. 9-16, Las Cruces, N.M. Jun. 27-30, 1994) uses vector space similarity to decompose a text into topically coherent segments. Also used is the graph structure of a network of raw similarity links to infer meta-links corresponding to discourse relations such as comparison and summarization (see J. Allan, "Automatic Hypertext Link Typing," Proceedings of Hypertext '96, 1996). These lines of evidence suggest text similarity could be a clue to the existence of a response relation between messages as well.
What is desired is a way to utilize robust conventions in human communication in place of, or in addition to, software conventions in order to produce an effective message threading system.

Finding an e-mail message to which another e-mail message is a response


A multi-stage mechanical suspension system extends a linear operating range for a loudspeaker and prevents mechanical damage on explosive peaks. The system includes a pair of spaced contact receivers that limit the travel of a contactor. The system provides a flat linear response at low frequencies as the contact receivers are intermittently or occasionally contacted by the contactor during operation of the loudspeaker. The system enables creation of different regions of non-linearity within a total stiffness versus deflection curve of a loudspeaker suspension system. The non-linearity in each region can be controlled individually, so long as the non-linearity by region increases moving away from the rest position. Thus, a plateau of substantially linear stiffness may extend for a large portion of the total displacement allowed for a voice coil and suspension components before a region of non-linear stiffness occurs only at the ends of an allowable excursion to limit the motion. More than two regions of stiffness also can be created to achieve maximum performance and stability.

The present invention relates to a multi-stage mechanical suspension system for a loudspeaker.
At the present time conventional moving diaphragm electroacoustic transducers have a permanent magnetic circuit that interacts with a coil that is energized by an amplified audio signal. This alternating current (AC) signal creates a current in the coil that generates a force equal to B*l*i (where B=the permanent magnetic field strength, l=the length of wire in the coil immersed in the permanent magnetic field, and i=the current flowing in the coil). The direction of the force is dependent on the polarity of the current. The force (Bli) generates motion in the diaphragm of an electroacoustic transducer which has a mass (Mms). The restoring force is provided by flexible, spring-like connections between the diaphragm and the stationary parts of the loudspeaker (frame, permanent magnetic circuit, etc.) that act as a mechanical suspension system. Typically there are two or more of these flexible connections.

Loudspeaker with multiple stage suspension system


An neutron detector composed of fissionable material having ions of lithium, uranium, thorium, plutonium, or neptunium, contained within a glass film fabricated using a sol-gel method combined with a particle detector is disclosed. When the glass film is bombarded with neutrons, the fissionable material emits fission particles and electrons. Prompt emitting activated elements yielding a high energy electron contained within a sol-gel glass film in combination with a particle detector is also disclosed. The emissions resulting from neutron bombardment can then be detected using standard UV and particle detection methods well known in the art, such as microchannel plates, channeltrons, and silicon avalanche photodiodes.

Neutron detectors are useful in many industries. They are most commonly found in the oil industry to detect potential oil yielding sites. Oil producing formations deep in the earth emit neutrons at a different rate than water bearing formations or non-fluid bearing rock. A device using neutron detection for logging oil wells is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,641,028 to Taylor et al. issued on Feb. 3, 1987. Neutrons detectors are also useful in the medical field and for surveillance in nuclear facilities and weapons storage.
Neutrons are uncharged particles and do not ionize matter as they pass through it. Therefore, they are difficult to detect directly. Some other evidence of a neutron event must be detected in order to determine its existence. An indirect method detects the result of a neutron event and not the neutron event itself.
The use of indirect detection of neutrons is known in the art. For example, a neutron detector as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,334,840 to Newacheck et al. issued Aug. 2, 1994 detects photons of light emitted by carbon infiltrated boron nitride in its hexagonal form when the compound is bombarded by neutrons. The amount of light detected correlates to the number of neutrons bombarding the boron nitride.
Another neutron detector commercially available utilizes Helium-3 as the neutron absorber. When bombarded by neutrons, Helium-3 decomposes into H and H.sub.3 while emitting electrons with an energy of 764 keV. The ionization of the gas electrons can be detected using conventional methods well known in the art and further described below. This type of neutron detector requires a long collection time for the resulting ionization requiring integrating and differentiating time constants of between 1 and 5 microseconds for the best results.
Other gas mixtures are commercially available that have varying resolution or charge per pulse yields depending on the gases used.
Neutron detection for monitoring the dose of thermal neutrons given patients receiving boron neutron-capture therapy have used lithium-6 and a cerium activator in a glass fiber. See reference 1. The present invention improves upon this technique by allowing a cerium activated glass fiber to be coated with the fissionable elements as described herein. A wet chemistry method of placing radioactive fissile elements into glass which in the vitrified state does not pose a hazard, as described herein using sol-gel based technology, is a significant benefit. Reference 10 describes an avalanche photodiode implementation for detecting neutron induced ionization and optical pulse detection.
The present invention incorporates sol-gel techniques not heretofore used in the art of neutron detection. Sol-gel chemistry was first discovered in the late 1800s. This area of chemistry has received renewed interest when the process was found useful in producing monolithic inorganic gels at low temperatures that could be converted to glasses without a high temperature melting process. A comprehensive explanation of sol-gel chemistry may be found in reference 2. Further detail disclosing uranyl-doped sol-gel glasses is disclosed in reference 3.
Emissions detectors such as microchannel plates, channeltrons, or avalanche photodiodes are in common use for detecting ultraviolet (UV) light and fissioned particles such as electrons. Microchannel plates are commercially available and well known in the art. Typically a microchannel plate is formed from lead glass having a uniform porous structure of millions of tiny holes or microchannels. Each microchannel functions as a channel electron multiplier, relatively independent of adjacent channels. A thin metal electrode is vacuum deposited on both the input and output surfaces to electrically connect channels in parallel. Microchannel plates can be assembled in stacked series to enhance gain and performance.
The microchannel plates serve to amplify emissions from fissionable material resulting from the bombardment of neutrons. The amplified signal which is proportional to the emissions which is in turn proportional to the amount of neutrons bombarding the fissionable material can then be detected and recorded.
Channeltrons operate on the same basic principal of amplifying proportional signals emitted from fissionable materials. A channeltron is a horn-shaped continuous dynode structure that is coated on the inside with an electron emissive material. An ion striking the channeltron creates secondary electrons that have an avalanche effect to create more secondary electrons and finally a current pulse.
Typically due to the exotic materials and sensitivity of the equipment, the neutron detectors currently available are expensive and difficult to maintain. For example Helium-3 is an extremely rare stable isotope and must be separated at considerable expense from the radioactive gas tritium. Furthermore, the use of a gas absorber results in a slower response time than a solid absorber as disclosed herein. The present invention incorporating fissionable material into a sol-gel composition in combination with an emission detector is new to the art and overcomes some the disadvantages of the prior art described herein.

Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corporation


A composite construction incorporating one or more non-woven layers at least partially formed from heat fused monoaxially drawn tape fiber elements of discrete length. The non-woven layers are provided with a mat structure covering across at least one surface. The mat structure covering is formed at least partially from interwoven heat fused, monoaxially drawn tape fiber elements of elongate length. The tape fiber elements in the woven and non-woven layers incorporate a base layer of a strain oriented polymer and at least one covering layer of a heat fusible polymer. The covering layer of the tape fiber elements is characterized by a softening point below that of the base layer to permit bonding fusion upon application of heat.

Fibrous structures formed from heat fused, discrete length staple fibers of standard cylindrical geometry are generally known. In the past, such fibrous structures have been formed by blending staple fibers of a first polymer with staple fibers of a second fiber having a lower melting point across its surface and thereafter applying heat and pressure to force point bonding between the fibers. The second fiber may be of substantially uniform composition through its cross-section or may be of a so called bicomponent construction wherein a sheath of a lower melting point polymer is wrapped around a core of a compatible higher melting point polymer.
It has been proposed to form tape structures from polypropylene film that is coated with a layer of propylene copolymer including ethylene units such that the coating has a lower softening point than the core. Such tape structures are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,578,370, the teachings of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. U.S. Patent Application 2004/0242103A1 (incorporated by reference) has also proposed to form monoaxially drawn tape structures characterized by substantial draw ratios and incorporating a central layer of a polyolefin with one or two covering layers of a polyolefin from the same class as the central layer. The DSC melting point of the outer layers is lower than that of the central layer to facilitate heat bonding.

Moldable fibrous construction incorporating non-woven layers


A method of facilitating delivery of advertising to users of mobile computing platforms is disclosed. A geographic database contains data entities that represent geographic features, such as roads, located in a geographic region. Advertising zones are defined within the geographic region. Associated with at least some of the data entities that represent geographic features are data that indicate in which of the advertising zones the represented geographic feature is located. Advertisers are allowed to associate advertising messages with the advertising zones. Users of mobile computing platforms are provided with geographically-related services that use the geographic database. As a user of a mobile computing platform travels in the geographic region, the location of the mobile computing platform is determined. The user of the mobile computing platform is provided with the advertising message associated with the advertising zone in which the mobile computing platform is determined to be located.

The present invention relates to a geographic database organization that facilitates location-based advertising.
Persons who travel through a geographic region can use different types of mobile or portable computing platforms to obtain various geographically-related features and services. Mobile or portable computing platforms that provide geographically-related features and services include dedicated computing devices and general purpose computing devices. Dedicated computing devices include in-vehicle navigation systems and personal (i.e., portable or hand-held) navigation systems. General purpose computing devices include devices, such as portable personal computers (e.g., notebook computers) and personal digital assistants (e.g., PDAs). General purpose computing devices can provide geographically-related features and services by operating navigation application software or by using geographic data. Mobile or portable computing platforms that provide geographically-related features and services include standalone systems that have geographic data and navigation application software installed locally, client devices that access geographic data or navigation application software located at a remote location, and hybrid devices that have some geographic data or navigation application software installed locally but obtain or use geographic data or navigation application software located at a remote location.
Some of the various geographically-related features and services provided by the different types of mobile or portable computing platforms include route calculation and guidance. For example, some mobile or portable computing platforms are able to provide users with an optimum route to travel by roads between locations in a geographic region. Using input from an end user, and optionally from equipment that can determine the end user's physical location (such as a GPS system), a navigation application program used by a mobile or portable computing platform system examines various paths between two locations to determine an optimum route to travel from a starting location to a destination location in the geographic region. The user of the mobile or portable computing platform is then provided with information about the optimum route in the form of instructions that identify the maneuvers required to be taken by the end user to travel from the starting location to the destination location.
Another geographically-related feature provided by some mobile or portable computing platforms is business or person finding services (e.g., electronic yellow or white pages). These services can identify addresses of individuals or businesses. These services can also identify for a user which businesses of a certain type (e.g., Chinese restaurants) are located within a given range (e.g., 3 miles) of a given location.
Although present mobile or portable computing platforms that provide geographically-related features and services are able to provide many useful advantages, there continues to be room for improvement. One area in which there is room for improvement relates to providing information to end users based upon their location. Some types of information, such as advertising, can be more effective or useful if it is restricted to only certain specific locations. For example, a gas station located in Chicago would not advertise to users located in Miami.
Accordingly, it is an objective to provide a means to provide directed information based upon location.
It is another objective to provide a means to deliver advertising to end users who are traveling in a geographic region.

Geographic database organization that facilitates location-based advertising


Disclosed are methods and systems for amplitude digitization of nuclear radiation pulses. The method includes: applying a constant fraction discrimination (CFD) timing process on a subject current signal and outputting a CFD timing signal; applying a shaping process on the subject current signal to obtain a subject shaped signal; comparing, from a time To, values taken at the same time by the subject shaped signal and a dynamic threshold signal, and taking a time Tot as an over-threshold time if the value of the dynamic threshold signal changes from less than the value of the subject shaped signal to not less than the value of the subject shaped signal at the time Tot, wherein a time length between the time To and the arrival time Td of the subject current signal is preset as ΔT; converting a time length between the time Td and the time Tot into a digital quantity as a digitized value of the amplitude of the nuclear radiation pulse; wherein for any two subject shaped signals having amplitudes Vot1 and Vot2, respectively, the dynamic threshold signal satisfies an equation

A nuclear event energy detector is an instrument that converts amplitudes of nuclear radiation pulses into measurable electrical signals and measures the electrical signals. The electrical signals are a series of discrete pulse signals, and the amplitude values of these pulse signals represent energy of the radiations. A conventional method for measuring the amplitude of a nuclear radiation pulse signal includes converting the input analog signal into digital format using an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). This method is inapplicable to a nuclear detector system with a large number of channels and requiring parallel readout of multiple channels, such as a nuclear imaging detector system. This is because each of the channels needs a high-speed ADC, leading to an unacceptable scale of an electronic system for signal readout and digitization. There is therefore a need for a new method for amplitude digitization of a nuclear radiation pulse to accommodate the parallel readout and digitization requirements for a system with a large number of channels while achieving a high integration level.

Method and system for amplitude digitization of nuclear radiation pulses

Abstract: Tot                                                              2                -        To                    Vot                                                  2              =                            Tot                                                              1                -        To                    Vot                                                  1              ,Tot1 represents an over-threshold time for one of the subject shaped signals compared with the dynamic threshold signal, and Tot2 represents an over-threshold time for the other of the subject shaped signals compared with the dynamic threshold signal.

UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF CHINA


A method for controlling a temperature distribution within a combustor having a plurality of chamber sections comprising controlling a fuel-to-air ratio in the chamber sections. At least two chamber sections have different fuel-to-air ratios to create a non-uniform temperature distribution within the combustor to reduce thermoacoustic instabilities.

The present invention relates generally to gas turbine engines. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for controlling thermoacoustic instabilities in a combustor.
Thermoacoustic instabilities arise in gas turbine and aero-engines when acoustic modes couple with unsteady heat released due to combustion in a positive feedback loop. These instabilities can lead to large pressure oscillations inside the combustor cavity, thereby affecting its stable operation and potentially causing structural damage to the combustor components. Two particular examples of thermoacoustic instabilities in annular combustors are the "screech" instability in the afterburner and the "howl" instability in the primary combustion chamber.
Prior art approaches for control of thermoacoustic instabilities typically utilized passive liners or tuned resonators configured to damp the acoustic mode. However, these solutions suffer from several disadvantages. In particular, they introduce additional weight and may be expensive to implement. In addition, resonators are effective only over a limited range of frequencies and become ineffective if frequency of the instability changes because of, for example, changes in operating conditions. These passive devices have to be cooled, which may detrimentally affect the efficiency of the engine. Finally, effective tuned resonator design requires a prior knowledge of the frequency of instability.
Active combustion control has also been considered as an approach for control of thermoacoustic instabilities. Active approaches usually require an accurate mathematical model of the thermoacoustic dynamics for control design. However, on account of complex combustion physics, the exact physical mechanism underlying the initiation and sustenance of instabilities such as screech typically is not understood. Furthermore, there are implementation issues such as lack of suitable bandwidth fuel valves that are needed for active control.
The thermoacoustic instabilities typically appear only during a small portion of an aero-engine's flight envelope or operating conditions in the case of land-based combustors. Thus, passive dampers and active control systems are useful to help control thermoacoustic oscillations only over a small portion of operating conditions and have no useful function at nominal operating conditions. Furthermore, they negatively affect weight and performance of the engine at the operating conditions where the instability is not present.

Method for control of thermoacoustic instabilities in a combustor


Provides structured-document processing device for detecting a relationship of approximateness between structured documents effectively. State-transition-diagram information storing means stores information concerning a state transition diagram where source nodes of a source structured document transit in order of occurrence from the head thereof. Extracting means extracting, a pair consisting of a new node and a corresponding source node in accordance with order of occurrence. Matching means determining whether the source and new nodes in the selection pair have matchingness, on the basis of their descriptions. Node qualifying means qualifying the source node as a node to be used for the new node. Transition-history information generating means generates, as transition-history information, information concerning a transition history regarding the node to be used. Degree-of-approximateness detecting means detects a degree of approximateness between the source structured document and the new structured document on the basis of the transition-history information.

Japanese Patent Laid-open Official Gazette No. Hei. 9-319632 (hereinafter, referred to as "Patent Literature 1") has disclosed an edition management method of displaying information concerning what each edition has been like, when a structured document such as an SGML (Standard Generalization Markup Language) is going to be edited for deletion, insertion, revision and the like, for each edition. According to the edition management method, in order to specifically show a part to be edited in each version while reducing an amount of data to be stored, all the contents of a structured document are stored with regard to a first edition, whereas only information concerning a difference between the current edition and the previous edition is stored with regard to a second edition and each edition following the second edition. In addition, according to a conventional mode of displaying information concerning a difference, contents prior to a revision in the current edition and contents posterior to the revision in the current edition have been displayed respectively, as tagged texts, and in sub-areas into which the display area is divided, as shown by FIG. 4(b) in Patent Literature 1, and visibility for the comparison has been poor. By contrast, in an edition management according to Patent Literature 1, deleted contents, inserted contents and revised contents are designed to be compared for each structured part as shown by FIG. 23 in Patent Literature 1, thereby improving the visibility for the comparison. In other words, according to the invention as disclosed in Patent Literature 1, information concerning the difference itself is stored by a structured document, as shown by FIGS. 6 and 18 in Patent Literature 1.
According to Japanese Patent Laid-open Official Gazette No. 2004-62716 (hereinafter, referred to as "Patent Literature 2"), in order to perform a syntactic analysis of a structured document at a higher speed, information concerning an event set as a result of the syntactic analysis of the structured document is stored in advance, with regard to a single structured document whose structure a single application program repeatedly requests to be analyzed, or with regard to a single structured document whose structure a plurality of different application programs commonly request to be analyzed. When the syntactic analysis of the structured document is once again requested by an application program subsequently, the information concerning the event set which has been stored is read out instead of a syntactic analysis being once again performed on the structured document. Thereby, a series of events are reproduced from the information concerning the event set, thus posting the series of events to the application program.
On the other hand, several methods have been proposed, with which a highly approximate document is detected out of normal text documents at high speed, as shown, for example, in "A system for Approximate Tree Matching," (online), available from US CiteSeer.IST (Scientific Literature Digital Library)<http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/tsong-li92system.html>, (accessed 2004-9-1) (hereinafter, referred to as "Non-patent Literature 1"), and in "On the Editing Distance between Undirected Acyclic Graphs and Related Problems," (online), available from US CiteSeer.IST (Scientific Literature Digital Library)<http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/zhang-li95editing.html>, (accessed 2004-9-1) (hereinafter, referred to as "Non-patent Literature 2").
In addition, a method using an automaton in an adaptive manner is an area which has been researched as a learning automaton, as shown, for example, in Tsetlin, M. L., "Automaton Theory and the Modeling of Biological Systems," New York and London, Academic Press, 1973 (hereinafter, referred to as "Non-patent Literature 3").
Furthermore, there is an SIA (System Integrated Automaton for SAX) Parser as described in "System Integrated Automaton for SAX," (online), available from <http://www.geocities.com/siaparser/resources/siaidea.html>, (accessed 2004-9-1) (hereinafter, referred to as "Non-patent Literature 4").
A simple and apparent method of fetching a difference from a highly approximate XML document with regard to XML documents which have been analyzed may simply fetch a difference with respect to a byte string or a character string. With regard to this difference analysis method, there have been various proposals for a long time, as disclosed in Heckel, P., "A technique for Isolating Differences between Files," Communication of the ACM, April, 1978 (hereinafter referred to as "Non-patent Literature 5").
With regard to an edition management device according to Patent Literature 1, disclosed is use of information concerning a difference for the purpose of saving an amount of information to be stored in an edition management. However, there is no reference made to a specific technique for carrying out a syntactic analysis of a structured document at a higher speed.
A structured-document processing device according to Patent Literature 2 can be adapted for carrying out a syntactic analysis, at a higher speed, for a structured document on which a syntactic analysis has been performed when an application program once again requests the structure of the structured document to be analyzed. However, the structure-document processing device cannot cope with a request for a syntactic analysis to be made for a structured document which is different from the structured document on which the syntactic analysis has been performed.
All of the conventional techniques of retrieving an approximate XML document as disclosed in Non-patent Literatures 1 and 2 make a decision on approximateness of a document which has been parsed. The techniques cannot be used for the purpose of carrying out a parsing process efficiently.
A simple adaptation of an automaton for a document (Non-patent Literature 3) would not take a structure of an XML or a form of the XML into consideration, thus requiring a time-consuming operation such as a check on whether or not the document is well-formed. Accordingly, there is a significant problem with the simple adaptation in terms of efficiency.
The SIA parser as described in Non-patent Literature 4 is designed to recognize a grammar of an XML tree structure itself, and to process it by using an automaton for an SAX event. For this reason, this SIA parser cannot be adapted for a text on which parsing (syntactic analysis) has not been performed as it is.
Non-patent Literature 5 has not made any suggestion concerning carrying out parsing of an XML document, which has not been parsed, at a higher speed.

International Business Machines Corporation


A digital microscope apparatus includes an illumination optical system configured to emit illumination light; a stage having an opening capable of transmitting the light therethrough, on which a preparation can be placed in accordance with a position of the opening; an enlarging imaging unit including an objective lens configured to enlarge an image and disposed to face the system with the stage disposed therebetween, and an imaging device configured to capture an image enlarged by the lens; a white image acquiring unit configured to open the opening, to cause the system to emit the light in a state where an image point of the system is aligned with a focal point of the lens, and to acquire, as a white image, an image formed on an imaging surface of the device; and a calculation unit configured to use the captured white image to calculate a shading correction coefficient.

The present disclosure relates to shading correction in a digital microscope apparatus.
In a digital microscope apparatus, it is important to appropriately perform shading correction when a pathological image is acquired from a pathological slide (preparation PRT). In order to appropriately perform shading correction, it is important to appropriately capture, for shading correction, an image in which a biological sample SPL is not photographed (hereinafter, referred to as entirely-white image or white image).
As a method of capturing an entirely-white image when performing shading correction, a method of acquiring an entirely-white image in which all unevenness factors of a light source, an illumination optical system, and an imaging optical system are superimposed by capturing an entirely-white image without disposing a sample on a stage is disclosed (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-124948).
Moreover, in order to prevent the contrast of a pathological image of a pathological slide captured by a digital microscope apparatus from inappropriately decreasing, an illumination optical system should be appropriately in focus.
In this regard, there exists a technique in which a phase difference autofocusing (AF) is used to automatically and appropriately allow an illumination optical system to be in focus (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2012-008450).

Digital microscope apparatus, information processing method, and information processing program


A method for selecting a diversity mode to be applied by a transmitter having two cross-polarized antenna arrays, each representing a diversity branch, comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of diversity mode performance chart look-up tables, mapping a respective individual diversity mode to a respective pair of time correlation value and space correlation value for the two cross-polarized antenna array beams, wherein a respective individual diversity mode is presented by a mapping area, wherein the plurality of performance chart look-up tables is parameterized by an indication of a ratio of received powers from the diversity branches, first selecting one of the performance chart look-up tables dependent on determined ratio of received powers from separate beams, and second selecting one of the individual diversity modes according to the mapping to the determined actual time relation and space correlation values from the first selected performance chart look-up table.

In detail, the present invention relates to the field of transmit antenna diversity. A rather comprehensive introduction to the technical field of diversity is for example given by Juha Korhonen in "Introduction to 3G mobile communications", chapter 3.4., page 86 to 94, Artech House mobile communications series, 2001. More specifically, the concern of this invention resides in a mode selection procedure by which a suitable transmit diversity mode for each link in the cell defined by the coverage area of the subject transmitter can be selected.
It is to be noted that while reference is made to an antenna array, an array comprising a single antenna only may still be regarded as an antenna array. Likewise, an antenna and/or antenna element of the array produces a beam of electromagnetic radiation in operation, i.e. when being driven, and also terms "antenna" and "beam" are used interchangeable, as the antenna configuration and driving will determine the produced beam. It is to be noted further that when considering diversity, a diversity branch can also be represented by the beam produced by the corresponding (diversity) antenna array.
To recapitulate, there are different transmit diversity modes in FDD WCDMA (FDD=Frequency Division Duplex, WCDMA=Wideband Code Divisional Multiple Access) dedicated downlink channels:    1) an open-loop diversity mode using space-time codes such as for example the concept known as STTD (Space-Time Transmit Diversity), and    2) a closed-loop diversity mode, which can be classified into different closed-loop diversity classes:    a) a first class, subsequently referred to as class 1, in which the receiver (e.g. a user equipment UE) returns information to the diversity transmitter (e.g. a Node_B) concerning the relative phase of the received diversity transmission signals; an example for such a class 1 closed-Loop diversity mode is known as closed-loop loop mode 1; and    b) a second class, subsequently referred to as class 2, in which the receiver returns information to the diversity transmitter concerning the relative phase and the ratio of received powers of the received diversity transmission signals; an example for such a class 2 closed-loop diversity mode is known as closed-loop mode 2 (as for example described in the above cited book by Juha Korhonen or as described by 3GPP TS 25.214: "Physical Layer Procedures (FDD)").
It is to be noted that closed-loop diversity is only applicable to a downlink channel if there is an associated uplink channel which is required to return the feedback information. An example for such a channel combination is represented by the DPCH (Dedicated Physical CHannel)/DPCCH (Dedicated Physical Control CHannel) channels.
First, the present transmit diversity methods in WCDMA are recalled. The present (standardized) Transmit Diversity Methods in FDD WCDMA dedicated downlink channels are, as mentioned herein before, for example    STTD (Space-Time Transmit Diversity) as an open-loop solution utilizing a simple 2×2 space-time code,    closed-loop mode 1 (CL1) as an example for class 1 closed-loop diversity according to which the relative phase between transmitted signals is adjusted based on the feedback from the receiver (user equipment), and    in closed-loop mode 2 (CL2) as an example for class 2 closed-loop diversity according to which both, relative phase and power between transmitted signals, are adjusted based on the feedback from the mobile.
The Node_B as the transmitter (corresponding in its functionality to a base station BS known from GSM system) can select the mode to be used for each link separately or it can use the same mode for all links in the cell. In this invention, however, the former case is studied, since the latter solution is not recommended because it does not utilize the available capacity potential.
Generally, the mode selection problem resides in finding measures and a method by which a best suitable mode can be selected for each link. A "best suitable mode" can be determined as the mode which reveals the best performance (e.g. lowest bit error rate, lowest S/N (signal to noise) ratio, or the like).
The mode selection problem is linked to the employed antenna solution at the transmitter. The present transmit diversity modes are designed by assuming that the average received powers at the receiver side (UE) from separate transmitter (Node_B) antennas are the same. Thus, if average power of signals received at the UE and originating from an antenna Ant1 is denoted by P1 and average power of signals received at the UH and originating from antenna Ant2 is denoted by P2, so that the ratio thereof, P1/P2=1. When this assumption holds, the performance of the closed-loop schemes depends in a certain manner on the feedback delay and on the spatial correlation between transmit antennas. If the ratio P1/P2 is not equal to unity, then the sensitivity of closed-loop modes to the feedback delay and spatial correlation between transmit antennas will be different than in case P1/P2=1. This can be illustrated by a simple example. If transmitter selection combining is used, then the signal is transmitted trough the antenna which provides better channel. Feedback information from a mobile directs the transmit antenna selection. If P1/P2=1 in the receiver, then both received channels are in good state with equal probability and system performance depends on the feedback delay and transmit antenna correlation. If feedback delay is large when compared to channel coherence time, then system performance is corrupted. Similarly, if transmit antennas correlate heavily, then both antennas are in good and bad states simultaneously and the lack of diversity corrupts the system performance. However, if P1/P2 is all the time very high—or very low—then the same antenna provides better channel almost all the time and feedback delay or antenna correlation are not corrupting the system performance much. The effect of P1/P2 is not the same to all transmit diversity modes and therefore it should be taken into account when transmit diversity mode is selected.
In FIG. 1 there is a sketch concerning to the selection problem, when average received powers from separate BS antennas in MS are equal: areas A, B and C (also referred to as Mapping areas) consist of those spatio-temporal correlation value pairs (spatial correlation SC, temporal correlation TC), for which open-loop mode (e.g. STTD), class 1 closed-loop mode (e.g. CL1) and class 2 closed-loop mode (e.g. CL2), respectively, provide the best performance. Apparently, the open-loop mode (STTD) is the best choice in most cases while the operating area of class 2 closed-mode is marginal: class 2 is suitable on ly when time correlation (TC) is very high. class 1 works well when spatial correlation (SC) is relatively high. It is to be noted that the FIG. 1 is only a sketch.
The assumption that average received powers at the receiver would be equal is well posed, if    (a) Transmit antennas are co-polarized    (b) Transmit antenna separation is not very large (i.e. antennas, are in the same site, and not, for example, in separate buildings).
The latter restriction (b) is not a problem in practice since the diversity antennas are usually in the same mast. However, assumption (a) has some drawbacks.
The well known fact is that two low correlated signals can be obtained using cross-polarized antennas (and/or antenna arrays). This antenna solution is more compact and cheaper than a pair of spatially separated co-polarized antennas/antenna arrays. Moreover, beside these known advantages, the so-called polarization mismatch can be avoided by using cross-polarized antenna arrays antennas. This is explained in the following.
Polarization Mismatch Problem:
In a conventional system, a single vertically polarized antenna is used at the transmitter side. This arrangement is feasible if receiver antennas are all vertically polarized. However, this will not be the case in practice. It may even happen that receiver antenna polarization is flat, a horizontally oriented ellipse, or the like. Then huge polarization mismatch losses can be faced.
Also, different physical environments preserve the transmitted polarization in a different way and thus, the danger of polarization mismatch depends on the environment; in open areas the probability of a serious mismatch is expected to be high.
The known solution to this problem is the use of cross-polarized polarized antenna arrays and/or antennas. In GSM related solutions, the downlink (DL) signal is transmitted from cross-polarized antenna branches with equal power (each individual diversity antenna corresponds to a transmitting branch). The relative phase between the signals transmitted from each branch is randomly rotated in order to avoid the situation where signals would erase each other for a long time (this may happen if antenna brancnes have strong correlation, for example because of a line-of-sight, (LOS) situation). This solution prevents the total mismatch between the transmitter and receiver polarizations.
The same method as used in GSM is, however, not straightforward to be used in WCDMA, since channel estimation at the receiver UE is based on common p-lot channel (CPICH). However, if downlink transmit diversity is used, then different CPICHs are transmitted from separate antenna branches and cross-polarized antennas can be employed. Stated in other words, via each antenna of the transmit diversity antennas a respective CPICH is transmitted.
The present WCDMA standards specify in a detailed manner the allowed transmit diversity modes and hence, if cross-polarized polarized antennas are used in connection with transmit diversity, then the special properties of this antenna solution must be taken into account in the limits given by standards.
Summarizing, it has to be noted that    (a) if co-polarized, spatially separated antennas are used in connection with WCDMA transmit diversity modes, then mode selection can be based on a fixed performance chart such as the one proposed in FIG. 1;    (b) based on compact structure, costs and robustness against polarization mismatch, the use of cross-polarized diversity antennas is a very attractive solution. However, when used, this renders the usage of a fixed performance chart such as the one proposed in FIG. 1 not feasible, as will subsequently be explained.Special Characteristics of Cross-Polarized Antenna Arrays:
Currently, the present transmit diversity modes are studied based on the assumption that the average received powers at the receiver originating from separate transmitter antennas are equal (P1/P2=1). This is, however, not necessarily true for cross-polarized antenna arrays if the XPR (cross-polarization ratio) in the channel is high. This is the case especially in rural environments where orthogonal polarization branches are not mixed well and it has been claimed that XPR is relatively high even in urban outdoor environments (See for example Shapira J. and Miller S. in "A novel polarization smart antenna"VTC, May 2001, or in "Transmission Considerations for polarization-smart antennas"VTC, May 201. See also "Method and System For Improving Communication" by Shapira J. and Miller S., International Patent Application WO 98/39856).
Thus, although there might be low correlation between BS antenna branches, the average received power at the receiver from cross-polarized BS antenna branches can be different (P1≠P2); this renders the usage of a fixed performance chart such as the one proposed in FIG. 1 not feasible, or at least its usage will result in a non-optimum diversity mode selection.

Transmission diversity with two cross-polarised antennas arrays


A combination shredder and storage unit that combines various desirable features. The unit includes a cabinet having lower and upper ends and front, rear and side faces. A front access is located in the front face and configured to permit access to the interior of the cabinet. An upper opening is located in the upper end of the cabinet through which a shredding device within the cabinet is accessed. A door is provided for opening and closing the upper opening to allow and prevent access to the shredding device. A receptacle within the cabinet is sized for receiving and storing shredded material, and is accessible by opening the front access of the cabinet. The unit also includes at least one exterior storage compartment on the front access of the cabinet, and at least one closable drawer located beneath the receptacle. The unit can be configured as a floor-standing unit, as well as much smaller counter and wall-mounted units.

The present invention generally relates to office equipment, and more particularly a single unit that combines a paper shredder and storage features that can be sized as a floor unit or to readily fit on a counter or be hung on a wall, with the shredding mechanism preferably being accessible at a height that reduces stress placed on the user's hands, arms and back, thereby decreasing the risk of potential work-related injuries.
Paper shredders are commercially available that have the ability to produce cross cuts, strip cuts, and paper confetti. Commercial shredders presently common on the market include heavy-duty units sized to handle large volumes of office usage, including storage of the resulting shredded paper. Because of their size, some commercial shredders are adapted to be moved on casters or rollers. Otherwise, shredders typically available for purchase are specifically adapted for the limited purpose of shredding paper and like materials.