A distributed-memory multi-processor system includes a plurality of cells communicatively coupled to each other and collectively including a plurality of processors, caches, main memories, and cell controllers. Each of the cells includes at least one of the processors, at least one of the caches, one of the main memories, and one of the cell controllers. Each of the cells is configured to perform memory migration functions for migrating memory from a first one of the main memories to a second one of the main memories in a manner that is invisible to an operating system of the system.

Historically, main memory was physically situated on a central bus. Within this type of system, memory requests consisting of full physical addresses were forwarded to the memory subsystem and the data was returned. In a distributed-memory system, main memory is physically distributed across many different cells. A cell may consist of a number of processors, one or more input/output (I/O) devices, a cell controller, and memory. Each cell holds a different portion of the main memory space. Each processor can access not only the local memory, but also the memories of other cells via cell communications link circuitry, such as one or more crossbar switches.
Caching can ameliorate the performance limitations associated with memory accesses. Caching involves storing a subset of the contents of main memory in a cache memory that is smaller and faster than main memory. Various strategies are used to increase the probability that cache contents anticipate requests for data. For example, since data near a requested word in memory address space is relatively likely to be requested near in time to the requested word, most caches fetch and store multi-word lines. The number of words stored in a single cache line defines the line size for a system. For example, a cache line might be eight words long.
Caches typically have far fewer line storage locations than main-memory. A "tag" is typically stored at each cache location along with data to indicate uniquely the main-memory line address owning the cached data.
In both single-processor and multi-processor systems, there is a challenge of ensuring "coherency" between the cache and main memory. For example, if a processor modifies data stored in a cache, the modification should be reflected in main memory. Typically, there is some latency between the time the data is modified in the cache and the time the modification is reflected in main memory. During this latency, the yet-to-be-modified data in main memory is invalid. Steps should be taken to ensure that the main memory data is not read while it is invalid.
In the case of a distributed-memory multi-processor system in which each processor or input/output module has a cache memory, the situation is somewhat more complex than for single processor systems having a cache memory. In a multi-processor system, the current data corresponding to a particular main memory address may be stored in one or more cache memories, and/or in a main memory. The data in a cache memory may have been operated on by a processor, resulting in a value that is different from the value stored in main memory. Thus, a "cache coherency scheme" is implemented to ensure that the current data value for any address is provided independent of where that data value resides.
Typically, "permission" is required to modify cached data. That permission is typically only granted if the data is stored in exactly one cache. Data stored in multiple caches is often treated as read only. Each cache line can include one or more state bits indicating whether permission is granted to modify data stored at that line. While the exact nature of the states is system dependent, there is typically a "privacy" state bit used to indicate permission to modify. If the privacy bit indicates "private," only one cache holds the data and the associated processor has permission to modify the data. If the privacy bit indicates "public", any number of caches can hold the data, but no processor can modify it.
In a multi-processor system, for a processor desiring to read or modify data, a determination is typically made regarding which caches, if any, have copies of the data and whether permission is given for modification of the data. "Snooping" involves examining the contents of multiple caches to make the determination. If the requested data is not found in the local cache, remote caches can be "snooped". Recalls can be issued to request that private data be made public so that another processor can read it, or recalls can be issued to invalidate public data in some caches so that another cache can modify it.
For large numbers of processors and caches, exhaustive snooping can impair performance. For this reason, some distributed-memory multi-processor systems snoop within cells and rely on directory-based cache coherency for inter-cell coherency. A distributed-memory multi-processor system with directory-based cache coherency is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,610, filed on Aug. 25, 1997, issued on Apr. 25, 2000, and entitled "DISTRIBUTED MEMORY MULTIPROCESSOR COMPUTER SYSTEM WITH DIRECTORY BASED CACHE COHERENCY WITH AMBIGUOUS MAPPING OF CACHED DATA TO MAIN-MEMORY LOCATIONS", which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
In a distributed-memory system employing directory-based cache coherency, the main memory of each cell typically associates a directory entry with each line of memory. Each directory entry typically identifies the cells caching the line and whether the line of data is public or private. The directory entries may also identify the particular cache(s) within a cell caching the data, and/or snooping may be used to determine which cache(s) within a cell has the data. Thus, each cell contains a directory indicating the location of cached copies of data stored in its main memory.
As an example, in an 8-cell system, each directory entry might be 9 bits long. For each of the eight cells, a respective "site" bit indicates whether or not that cell contains a cached copy of the line. The 9th, "privacy", bit indicates whether the data is held privately or publicly.
It is occasionally desirable to move or migrate memory from one cell to another, or within a particular cell. For example, memory may be migrated from a defective memory device to a spare memory device. As another example, a board containing one or more memory devices may need to be removed from the system, perhaps because the board contains a defective component, the board is being replaced by a newer revision, or for some other reason. Before removing the board, it may be desirable to migrate the memory from the board to another location.
Memory migration typically occurs with operating system intervention, with the memory first being deallocated, and then later reallocated to the desired destination. With such prior art memory migration techniques, processes accessing the memory being migrated might stall, or the system may have to wait for the processes to terminate before the memory can be migrated. Thus, prior art memory migration techniques affect the operation of the software, and occasionally cause the system to be unavailable for use for a period of time. In addition, certain pages that the operating system and firmware need cannot be easily migrated using prior art migration techniques.
Memory may also be interleaved, causing additional difficulties for memory migration using conventional techniques. De-interleaving memory is not a simple task, and sometimes a de-interleaving solution does not exist.

System and method for memory migration in distributed-memory multi-processor systems

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A liquid composition, active curing additive for water or solvent borne surface coatings and sealants such: latex products, paints, putties, caulks, sports track and court construction, asphalt or coal tar seal coating, asphalt paving, micro-seal, roof tars, asphalt emulsions, crack sealants, and the like is provided. The additive functions to significantly reduce the amount of time required for the surface coating to cure and thereby allows the coated or sealed surface to be quickly returned to service. Preferably, the additive is composed of a composition of fly ash, hydrous ammonia, water or solvent, and bentonite. This formulation, when added to a liquid surface sealant or coating, will create an active process within the film of the said sealant or coating which draws water out of the film extremely fast, thereby reducing the amount of time required for the surface coating or sealant to cure.

The present invention relates to an active curing additive for water or solvent borne surface sealants or coatings. More particularly, the present invention relates to an active curing additive for water or solvent surface sealants and coatings such as latex products, paints, putties, caulks, sports track and court construction, asphalt or coal tar seal coating, asphalt paving, micro-seal, roof tars, asphalt emulsions, crack sealants, and the like. In some situations, the drying or cure time for a particular coating is critical. For example, asphalt parking lots must be coated to retard oxidation and protect the surface from harmful automotive fluids. However, closing a lot creates considerable problems for the business customers and owners. Customers who must park at a distance from the business are inconvenienced and this adversely affects sales.
Currently, the minimum industry cure time for a parking lot seal coating is 24 to 48 hours. Further, a location may be subsequently closed to apply painted stripes to the coated surface. This causes additional customer inconvenience.
The present inventive active curing additive, when added to such a surface sealant or paint, allows traffic to be reintroduced to a parking lot within 2 to 4 hours of the final application coat. The faster cure time of the present invention allows for striping to be applied within an hour or two of the final coat thereby eliminating not only a second customer inconvenience, but eliminating a second trip by the application contractor to the job site. As may be easily seen, the reduced cure and drying times of the present invention allows the contractor to complete more jobs per unit of time, generate greater revenues with fewer labor costs, and provide greater customer satisfaction.
The present invention provides a longer lasting coating film which does not bleed into or smudge onto the painted stripes. Additionally, the present invention may be used with traffic paint for stripes. The same advantages noted in the use of the present invention as a parking lot sealant result when used as a stripe or traffic paint, i.e., quicker cure and drying times in humid conditions resulting in greater profits and added convenience to the public.
Furthermore, the inventive active curing additive reduces curing time in other water or solvent sealants and coatings such as latex products, paints, putties, caulks, sports track and court construction, asphalt or coal tar seal coating, asphalt paving, micro-seal, roof tars, asphalt emulsions, crack sealants, and the like which all require an extended cure time. This cure time can be shortened by the active curing process triggered by the inventive active curing additive resulting in reduced down time for the customer and more productivity for the contractor.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Liquid composition additive to reduce curing time of surface coatings


Presented herein are improved bridging agents comprising a degradable material, improved subterranean treatment fluids comprising such improved bridging agents, and methods of using such improved subterranean treatment fluids in subterranean formations. An example of a method presented is a method of drilling a well bore in a subterranean formation. Another example of a method presented is a method of forming a self-degrading filter cake in a subterranean formation. Another example of a method presented is a method of degrading a filter cake in a subterranean formation. An example of a composition of the present invention is a treatment fluid including a viscosifier, a fluid loss control additive, and a bridging agent comprising a degradable material. Another example of a composition presented is a bridging agent comprising a degradable material.

The present invention relates to subterranean treatment operations, and more particularly, to improved bridging agents comprising a degradable material, to improved subterranean treatment fluids comprising such improved bridging agents, and to methods of using such improved subterranean treatment fluids in subterranean formations.
A subterranean treatment fluid used in connection with a subterranean formation may be any number of fluids (gaseous or liquid) or mixtures of fluids and solids (e.g., solid suspensions, mixtures and emulsions of liquids, gases and solids) used in subterranean operations. An example of a subterranean treatment fluid is a drilling fluid. Drilling fluids are used, inter alia, during subterranean well-drilling operations to, e.g., cool the drill bit, lubricate the rotating drill pipe to prevent it from sticking to the walls of the well bore, prevent blowouts by serving as a hydrostatic head to counteract the sudden entrance into the well bore of high pressure formation fluids, and also remove drill cuttings from the well bore. Another example of a subterranean treatment fluid is a "drill-in and servicing fluid." "Drill-in and servicing fluids," as referred to herein, will be understood to include fluids placed in a subterranean formation from which production has been, is being, or may be cultivated. For example, an operator may begin drilling a subterranean borehole using a drilling fluid, cease drilling at a depth just above that of a potentially productive formation, circulate a sufficient quantity of a drill-in and servicing fluid through the bore hole to completely flush out the drilling fluid, then proceed to drill into the desired formation using the well drill-in and servicing fluid. Drill-in and servicing fluids often are utilized, inter alia, to minimize damage to the permeability of such formations.
Subterranean treatment fluids generally are aqueous-based or oil-based, and may comprise additives such as viscosifiers (e.g., xanthan) and fluid loss control additives (e.g., starches). Subterranean treatment fluids further may comprise bridging agents, which may aid in preventing or reducing loss of the treatment fluid to, inter alia, natural fractures within the subterranean formation. Calcium carbonate is an example of a conventional bridging agent. In certain circumstances, a bridging agent may be designed to form a filter cake so as to plug off a "thief zone" (a portion of a subterranean formation, most commonly encountered during drilling operations, into which a drilling fluid may be lost). Generally, bridging agents are designed to form fast and efficient filter cakes on the walls of the well bores within the producing formations to minimize potential leak-off and damage. Generally, the filter cakes are removed before hydrocarbons are produced from the formation.
Conventionally, the filter cakes are removed from well bore walls by contacting the filter cake with one or more subsequent fluids. For example, where an aqueous-based treatment fluid comprising bridging agents is used to establish a filter cake, operators conventionally have employed enzymes and oxidizers to remove the viscosifier and fluid loss control additive, and then used an acid, or a delayed-generation acid, to clean up the calcium carbonate bridging agent. The removal of filter cakes established by oil-based treatment fluids, however, is often much more difficult.
When an oil-based treatment fluid comprising bridging agents is placed in a subterranean formation, a filter cake often results that covers the walls of the well bore. Because the fluids that subsequently will be placed in the well bore often will be aqueous-based, an operator ordinarily might prefer to remove this filter cake with an aqueous-based cleanup fluid that may be compatible with the subsequent fluids. However, attempts to remove the filter cake with an aqueous-based cleanup fluid generally have been unsuccessful, due at least in part to the fact that oil and water are immiscible, which may impair the aqueous-based cleanup fluid's ability to clean the filter cake off the well bore walls. Accordingly, operators have attempted to introduce acid into the well bore, to try to dissolve the calcium carbonate bridging agents which are acid-soluble. This method has been problematic, however, because such calcium carbonate bridging agents are generally well-mixed within the filter cake. Multi-stage cleanup operations usually ensue, and may include, in a first stage, the introduction of water-wetting and oil-penetrating surfactants, followed by multiple stages that involve the introduction of an acid solution into the well bore. Additionally, some operators have attempted to use an oil-based treatment fluid having a particular pH to establish a filter cake (which, as noted above, is essentially a water-in-oil emulsion when formed by an oil-based treatment fluid), and followed the oil-based treatment fluid with a cleanup fluid having a pH that is sufficiently different to invert the emulsion (e.g., the filter cake) to become water-external, thereby water-wetting the bridging particles within the filter cake.
These conventional methods have been costly, laborious to perform, and generally have not produced the desired results, largely because the filter cake is not cleaned evenly-rather, the cleanup methods described above generally only achieve "pinpricks" in the filter cake itself. These pinpricks may be problematic because the well bore is typically under hydrostatic pressure from the column of treatment fluid, which may be lost through these pinpricks where the filter cake has been penetrated. Thus, any fluid that subsequently is placed within the well bore may be lost into the formation, as such fluid may follow the path of least resistance, possibly through the pinpricks.

Treatment fluids and methods of forming degradable filter cakes comprising aliphatic polyester and their use in subterranean formations


A multi-link piston crank mechanism for an internal combustion engine, including a crankshaft having a crank pin, and crank webs connected with each other through the crank pin. A pair of thrust surfaces are formed on the crank webs so as to be opposed in a direction of a center axis of the crank pin. A first link pivotally supported on the crank pin is coupled to a second link through a connection pin located in a space between the thrust surfaces. The connection pin is moveable about the crank pin to form a circular trace along which the thrust surfaces extend. The end surfaces of the connection pin and the thrust surfaces come into mutual contact to prevent the connection pin from falling out of the space between the thrust surfaces.

The present invention relates to a piston crank mechanism for reciprocating internal combustion engines having a crankshaft rotatable as a piston reciprocally moves. Specifically, the present invention relates to a multi-link piston crank mechanism in which a piston pin and a crank pin are connected with each other through a plurality of links.
Japanese Patent Application First Publication No. 2002-188455 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 6,561,142) discloses a multi-link piston crank mechanism useable as a variable compression ratio mechanism for reciprocating internal combustion engines. The multi-link piston crank mechanism includes upper and lower links linking a piston pin of a piston to a crank pin of a crankshaft, and a control link linking the lower link to an engine block. The upper and lower links are connected with each other so as to be relatively pivotally moveable about a connection pin. The lower link is pivotally supported on the crank pin and connected to one end of the control link through a connection pin. The control link operates so as to restrain motion of the lower link. The control link has an opposed end swingably supported on the engine block, for instance, a lower portion of a cylinder block. The opposed end of the control link is coupled to a cam mechanism varying a position of the center of the swing motion of the opposed end. Owing to the operation of the cam mechanism, a top bottom center position of the piston and a compression ratio of the engine can be varied.
In view of lubricating performance in such a multi-link piston crank mechanism, it is preferred to use the connection pin of a full-floating type capable of connecting two links so as to permit relative pivotal motion thereof. In order to realize the full-floating connection construction of the connection pin, opposed end portions of the connection pin are projected outwardly from a pin boss of the link, and snap rings are mounted to snap ring grooves formed on the projected end portions of the connection pin. With the arrangement of the snap rings on the projected end portions of the connection pin, the connection pin can be prevented from removing from the link in the axial direction. The arrangement of the snap rings on the projected end portions of the connection pin is shown in FIG. 11 of the above-described related art.

Multi-link piston crank mechanism for internal combustion engine


A distributed temperature sensor system has a pulsed laser coupled to a circulator, the circulator having a laser input and coupling energy to an optical reference coil in series with a measurement fiber having loops or helical turns, the circulator having a backscatter signal port coupling backscattered reflections from the measurement fiber. The backscatter signal port is coupled to a switch and mux, the switch and mux selecting either an anti-Stokes filter or a Stokes filter, the output of the mux coupled to a photodetector, the photodetector coupled to a histogram processor synchronized to the pulsed laser enable. The histogram processor uses the anti-Stokes and Stokes histogram counts associated with a sensor region to estimate a temperature of that sensor region.

Raman back-scattered distributed temperature sensing (DTS) systems measure temperature distribution along the length of a fiber-optic sensing cable. A Distributed Temperature Sensing system measures the distributed temperature profile along the sensing fiber. A Raman DIS temperature measurement system uses a pulsed laser source to send repetitive short (typically on the order of a fraction of nanosecond to over 10 nanosecond pulse duration, also known as pulse length or pulse width) pulses of light at a given center wavelength (typically a center wavelength chosen in the visible to infrared spectral region) into the sensing optical fiber. As the light pulse travels along the optical fiber, a small fraction of the traveling laser optical pulse energy is Raman backscattered in a counter-propagating direction along the fiber length and back to the optical input port. The backscattered light is measured over time and analyzed to extract the distributed temperature profile of the optical fiber, with a spatial resolution on the order of a fraction of 1 meter to several meters (typically a spatial resolution of about 1 meter is obtained in the prior art DTS systems). The DTS sensing fiber is typically a multi-mode fiber although single-mode sensing fibers may also be used for Raman DTS. A DTS system can use fiber lengths of a few kilometers to as long as tens of kilometers.
There are several limitations to the prior art Raman DTS approach. A primary shortcoming is the DTS spatial resolution, which is typically on the order of 0.5 meter or longer, making the DTS measurement unsuitable for high-resolution shorter extents of localized measurements. Another limitation is the inability to make a plurality of position-specific localized measurements on a single length of optical fiber. It is desired to provide a method and apparatus for making multiple temperature measurements over comparatively short measurement extents than available in the prior art.

Distributed temperature sensor with shortened sensing regions


A method for mapping sampled patterns into a lower resolution display device whereby a continuous image of the sampled pattern is reproduced. The method comprises determining the pixel location of each element of high resolution sampled data and the relative location within the pixel, deciding whether the pixels corresponding to the mapped data points should be included in the image, and graphically connecting selected pixels which are separated by one or more pixels. The process of pixel selection is aided by dividing each pixel into two separate areas, the boundary of which is determined by a predetermined geometric shape such as a diamond or circle which is entirely contained within a pixel. If a high resolution sampled data point or a connecting line falls within that predetermined geometric shape inside the pixel, then that pixel is selected, whereas data points falling outside the predetermined area within the pixel do not select that pixel for activation.

This invention describes a method for mapping of a high resolution digital image into a lower resolution frame, and more specifically describes a method of mapping handwritten scripts in the form of high resolution digital data into a lower resolution frame such as a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD).
As used herein, the term "mapping" refers to the process of selection of the appropriate pixels in the lower resolution display in order to form a visual image of a higher resolution digital image on the display device, and does not include any offset or skewing correction between the high resolution and the lower resolution frames. The offset and skewing errors can be corrected as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 640,321 U.S. Pat. No. 5,115,107, filed Jan. 11, 1991, inventor John F. Crooks et al, titled "Method of Correcting Skew Between a Digitizer and a Digital Design", and commonly assigned with the present application. Said application is incorporated herein by reference.
In many systems such as PC notebooks and signature capture and verification devices, typically handwritten scripts are electronically captured and visually displayed on a panel such as an LCD. An example of such a system may be seen in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 575,096 filed Aug. 30, 1990, and commonly assigned with the present application. Said application is incorporated herein by reference. In that system, an LCD module which is operatively connected to a microprocessor is placed directly behind a transparent digitizer, which is operatively behind a transparent digitizer, which is operatively connected to the microprocessor whereby positional and script inputs are captured via a stylus operatively connected to the digitizer. As the stylus is used to input script information, the LCD module is driven by the microprocessor to display the image traced by the stylus.
The visual quality of the traced image displayed on the display device is primarily determined by the resolution of the digitizer, the resolution of the display device, and the sampling rate of the digitizer. Typically, the resolution of the digitizer (approximately 500 dots/inch) is much higher than the resolution of the display device (approximately 75 dots/inch) because of the higher costs of the higher resolution displays and the memory elements required for the operation thereof. Thus, the visual quality of the image traced by the stylus and displayed on the display device is essentially determined by the resolution of the display device.
In such systems, where the display device has a lower resolution than the digitizer, in order to display a visual image of a pattern traced by the stylus tip, the samples obtained by the digitizer which are in the form of a high resolution digital data must be mapped into the display grid. In prior art techniques, the higher resolution digitizer data is first truncated or rounded off to the resolution of the display device, and thereafter a visual image is formed by the activation of those display pixels corresponding to the truncated or rounded off data and the graphical connection of those display pixels representing lines. However, such techniques do not always yield the best visual image of the pattern being presented by the display device, more particularly in the cases where the high resolution digital samples of the traced pattern are closely spaced on the display grid. The poorer visual quality of the displayed pattern is mainly caused by the ineffective selection of display device pixels corresponding to the digital image and the poor method of the graphical connection of those pixels forming a line.

Method for converting high resolution data into lower resolution data


A method of setting an exposure apparatus to expose exposure sectors defined on a resist film formed on a surface of a substrate with proper values of an exposure amount and a focus value for forming a pattern having a predetermined dimension includes exposing and developing an exposure sector defined on a reference substrate by a first exposure apparatus having a first state, and imaging the same. The method exposes and develops exposure sectors defined on an inspection substrate by a second exposure apparatus having a second state where at least one of the exposure amount and the focus value is unknown, and forms and images a pattern on the inspection substrate. The method determines the proper values for the exposure amount and the focus value for the second state based on luminance of the exposure sector of reference data and luminances of the exposure sectors of inspection data.

In a semiconductor device manufacturing process using a photolithography technique, for example, a resist coating process of coating a resist onto a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter referred to simply as "wafer") to form a resist film, an exposure process of exposing a predetermined pattern on the resist film, and a developing process of developing the exposed resist film are performed in order so that a resist pattern is formed on the wafer.
The dimension (line width) of the resist pattern is determined by an exposure amount and a focus value set in an exposure apparatus which is configured to perform the exposure process. The exposure amount and the focus value are set based on a dimension of an intended resist pattern. The focus value corresponds to a distance between an objective lens installed in the exposure apparatus and the wafer. Since the exposure amount and the focus value may change with time, the exposure amount and the focus value are set to prevent changes in the dimension of the resist pattern even if the exposure amount and the focus value change. Specifically, the exposure amount and the focus value are set to have a wider margin.
A variation in an output from a light source or lens distortions caused by environmental factors such as a temperature and humidity may cause the focus value and the exposure amount to be changed as described above, which causes an offset between a set value and an actual value with respect to time. For this reason, an operation of periodically checking the relationship of the exposure amount and the focus value with a dimension of each pattern is performed. If desired, a correction is performed on the exposure amount and the focus value. In the checking operation, a wafer called an FEM (Focus Exposure Matrix) wafer is formed and used. Details of the FEM wafer will be described in embodiments. The FEM wafer is formed by changing the focus value and the exposure amount with respect to each shot (one exposure) on the wafer with a resist film formed thereon, performing a sequence of subsequent exposure and developing processes, and forming a pattern on a plurality of exposure sectors of the wafer, respectively. A line width of the resist pattern formed on each of the exposure sectors is measured using an optical CD (Critical Dimension) measuring unit or an equipment called a critical dimension SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) configured to measure a dimension of a pattern.
However, measuring the dimension of the pattern at each of the exposure sectors requires a long period of time, which leads to spending a lot of time in setting of the exposure apparatus, thereby making it difficult to increase production efficiency of the exposure apparatus. Conventionally, there is a technology in which the FEM wafer is formed to provide a simulation model which is used in manufacturing a photo mask of the exposure apparatus, and measures a line width of the pattern. Unfortunately, this technology fails to address the above mentioned problems.

Setting method of exposure apparatus, substrate imaging apparatus and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium


An ultrasonic beamforming method is provided. The ultrasonic beamforming method includes dividing an input ultrasonic signal into a plurality of regions in an observation space, calculating a weight value for each of the plurality of regions, calculating a pixel weight value for each pixel using the weight value for each region, and calculating a beamforming value using the pixel weight value.

1. Field
The following description relates to a method of ultrasonic beamforming and an apparatus therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ultrasonic image is used for analyzing characteristics of tissue by outputting a pulse and receiving a reflection signal of the pulse. An ultrasonic imaging system may need focusing in order to obtain reflection characteristics of tissue located at a desired position. The ultrasonic imaging system produces data from signals input to an ultrasonic transducer during focusing, in a delay and sum (DAS) process.
It is difficult to accurately focus on tissue at a desired position due to a difference in the signal speed between neighboring tissues or refraction and reflection effects. To address the matter, adaptive weight beamforming technology has been suggested in which the DAS process is performed by giving a weight to a signal input to each element of the ultrasonic transducer. The adaptive weight beamforming technology having a weight controlling effect may minimize signal noise so that a variation value is reduced. According to an application of the adaptive weight beamforming technology, a higher resolution image may be obtained in comparison to an application of the DAS method. However, the application of the adaptive weight beamforming technology may increase an amount of calculation in comparison to the application of the DAS method.

Method of ultrasonic beamforming and apparatus therefor


A crusher for crushing cooked wood chips or the like finely. A raw material to be crushed such as the cooked wood chips is delivered into a housing and clamped between stationary blades attached to a stationary plate housed in the upper end of the housing and rotary blades attached to a rotary plate rotating in the housing, so that it is finely crushed by the stationary blades and the rotary blades by making use of the planer principle. The crushed products are carried in the air flow, which is generated around a guide vane disc, which rotates in a through hole formed in a substantially central portion of the stationary plate, and forcibly delivered from an exit in the housing side wall front portion inclined forward, to the outside of the housing.

In case the plants trimmed from roadside trees and the like or lawns or the like mowed from golf courses are to be burned, a complicated and large-sized incinerator is required to raise the cost by the recent regulations on dioxins emissions.
In recent years, therefore, there has been proposed a method for effectively using the trimmed plants, lawns, or the like as a fertilizer or a substitute for the soil by crushing them into a powdery or near state.
A crusher for crushing wood chips, trimmed plants, weeds, or the like into the powdery or near state is disclosed in JP-A-07-223208.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-07-223208


An improved semiconductor structure is provided. The semiconductor structure comprises a first layer, the first layer having a restricted growth surface having a region with a transverse dimension D, the first layer having a first lattice constant L.sub.1 ; a first, last and at least one intermediate transition layers, the transition layers forming a transition region, the transition region disposed above the first layer, the transition region having a vertical thickness T, and where at least one of the transition layers has lattice constants between L.sub.1 and a second lattice constant L.sub.2 where the first transition layer has a lattice constant closer to the L.sub.1 than L.sub.2 and the last transition layer has a lattice constant closer to the L.sub.2 than L.sub.1 ; and a second layer disposed on the transition region, the second layer having the second lattice constant L.sub.2 ; wherein: the transition region has an average fractional change in lattice constant characterized by .kappa. where .kappa.=D/T){(L.sub.2 -L.sub.1)/L.sub.1 }, where 0<.vertline..kappa..vertline..ltoreq.10 and where D.gtoreq.2 .mu.m.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the dislocation free epitaxial growth of materials having significantly large differences in lattice constant and contain semiconductor light sources such as LEDs and VCSELs, and more particularly to a semiconductor laser comprising a strained material which is grown on a restricted area surface and has a large lattice mismatch between a substrate and an active region in the semiconductor laser.

Extended wavelength lasers having a restricted growth surface and graded lattice mismatch


The gate driver circuit is connected to a row of pixel unit, each includes a pixel driving module and a light-emitting device connected to each other, the pixel driving module including a driving transistor, a driving module and a compensating module, the compensating module is connected to a first row scanning signal, and the driving module is connected to a second row scanning signal and a driving voltage. The gate driver circuit further includes a row pixel controlling unit configured to provide the first row scanning signal to the compensating module and provide the second row scanning signal and the driving voltage to the driving module, so as to control the compensating module to compensate for a threshold voltage of the driving transistor and control the driving module to drive the light-emitting device.

Currently, there is no GOA (gate-on-array, which means that a gate driver circuit is directly formed on an array substrate) circuit capable of providing Vth (threshold voltage) compensation for a pixel of an OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display panel in the prior art, and only a pixel design with a Vth compensation function or a single-pulse GOA circuit is applied.
Usually, an OLED pixel design of a current-controlled mode is adopted, so the display evenness of the OLED display panel will be reduced due to the uneven Vth of the entire OLED display panel and a Vth shift generated after the long-term operation. In order to improve an integration level of the OLED display panel and reduce the production cost, the use of an integrated gate driver technology is a trend of development in future. However, a peripheral driver circuit is desired for the OLED Vth compensation pixel design, and as a result, more requirements are put forward on the GOA circuit.

Gate driver circuit, gate driving method, gate-on-array circuit, display device, and electronic product


The invention is directed to a method, a laser system, and a kit for non-invasive treatment and removal of varices. In particular the invention allows for non-invasive laser treatment of large varices, such as varices having a diameter larger than 5 mm. The method of treatment can apply presently available dermatological lasers. The invention further propose developments and additions to presently available dermatological lasers making these particularly applicable to the treatment method.

Dermatological treatment methods for treating a range of abnormalities in both the epidermis and the dermis of the human body are well known in the art. Such abnormalities can be e.g. birthmarks, port-wine stains, spider veins, varicose veins (varices) or other.
Varicose veins are dilated (expanded) distended veins that lie just under the epidermis of the skin. This condition occurs in about 15% of the population, and is seen most commonly in women who have been pregnant, but it is known to occur as early as by the age of 14-15 years.
The medical term for varicose veins is varices or venous insufficiency. The key function of the venous system is to transport deoxygenated blood from the various organs and parts of the body back to the heart. In normal functioning veins, valves located within the veins prevent the venous blood from returning back down to the leg. When these valves no longer function correctly the vein is termed 'incompetent' and venous blood collects in the veins, which causes them to dilate.
The result is visible outpouching varices or varicose veins that cause pain, swelling and discomfort in the lower limbs as well as long term effects such as reduced venous circulation leading to premature aging of the skin. These are indications of a malfunction in the venous system and should be investigated in order to initiate possible treatment.
The most commonly applied treatment for treating small and relatively uncomplicated varices is simple compression therapy. By compression therapy the patient is instructed to wear compression/elastic stockings or bandages for shorter or longer periods of time, until the varices are reduced or wholly treated due to increased blood circulation in the tissue. In addition to this, the patient is also typically instructed to keep the relevant limbs in a raised position when resting, in order to ease the backflow of deoxygenated blood.
In particular in relation to varicose veins, use of laser light irradiation applied to the skin of a living human is a widespread and broadly recognized treatment method, albeit such a method is regarded possible only for the treatment of smaller sized veins having a cross-section diameter in the range of 0-5 mm.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,027,495 to Miller relates to a method and apparatus for dermatological treatment used for removing vascular and pigmented lesions from the skin of a living human. The method is carried out by using a modified high power diode laser system under carefully controlled conditions. From this document, one is taught that such a treatment by laser light irradiation yields the best results on varicose veins (vessels) in the range of 0.1-3.0 mm (cf. column 11, line 7-10).
A description of state of the art non-invasive laser treatment of varices may be found in "Effective Treatment of Deep and Large Vessels with VascuLight™", PhotoDerm® Application Notes, Volume 1, Number 6, ESC Medical Systems Ltd, 1998 (www.aesthetic.lumenis.com/pdf/treatment_of_deep.pdf), or in Moraga et al., Clinical Application Notes Vol. 8 No. 1, ESC Medical Systems, 1999 (www.aesthetic.lumenis.com/pdf/european_multicenter.pdf).
Treatment of larger sized varicose veins, i.e. having a cross-section diameter above 5-8 mm, typically relies on invasive methods. Such invasive methods can comprise of e.g. removal by surgery such as avulsion phlebectomy (removing the whole or part of the vein) which is also known as 'stripping', sclerotherapy (injecting an agent that obliterates the vein) or laser ablation such as endoveneous laser therapy (EVLT).
EVLT treatment involves destruction of the venous tissues by means of heat. Laser energy from a diode laser is delivered inside a vein by using an optical fiber inserted in the vein through an small incision. The laser energy closes the vein from the inside as the laser fiber is pulled through a small cannula drawn through the vein. When the diode laser is triggered, it deposits thermal energy in the blood and the venous tissues, thereby causing irreversible venous tissue damage in the irradiated area. The laser is fired repeatedly as the laser fiber is carefully and stepwise drawn through the vein until it is treated. Although a hole may turn up in the vessel wall where the laser beam makes contact with it, permanent ablation of the vein happens due to the thermal injury to the entire circumference of the vessel.
The disadvantage of the existing methods is the use of surgical methods which require an incision with instruments.

Non-invasive laser treatment of large varices


A motor control apparatus for computing or outputting motor load information, comprises: a storage unit which stores a function or table obtained in advance based on parameters used for the computation of the load information and on an actually measured value of a motor output or motor torque; and a load meter computing unit which computes the load information from the function or table stored in the storage unit by using the parameters used for the computation of the load information. With the above configuration, the load meter is computed in such a manner as to accurately indicate the load condition of a motor in real time over the entire speed range of the motor including the nonlinear control region of the motor, and the motor is controlled using the thus computed value or the computed value is displayed on a display unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motor control apparatus which computes a display output to be fed to a load meter for viewing, the load meter being a device that shows the operating condition (load condition) of a spindle motor in a machine tool, wherein the motor control apparatus controls the motor by using the display output.
2. Description of the Related Art
To monitor the operating condition of a spindle motor in a machine tool or the like, motor load information is computed or detected. Conventionally, such motor load information is computed using factors that affect motor output, such as the output power of a motor control apparatus (also called an amplifier), the efficiency of the motor, and a torque command (or electric-current command) for the motor.
A spindle motor used to drive the spindle of a machine tool may be operated even in the nonlinear control region of the motor to achieve high-speed and high-output performance required of it. In that case, torque may not be produced as directed by the torque command, and as a result, the load meter value computed based on the torque command may deviate from the correct value. On the other hand, to monitor tool wear, etc., or to determine the cutting conditions of a machine tool, user demand for accurate display of load meter values is increasing.
Patent Document 1 discloses a method for visually displaying a load meter that enables the operating condition of a motor to be grasped instantly in real time. Generally, in prior art load meters, the load meter value is computed and displayed in the following manner to present the operating condition of a motor for viewing.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a first specific example of a motor control apparatus according to the prior art. In FIGS. 1 to 4 given hereinafter, the same reference numerals indicate the same parts. In FIG. 1, motor control apparatus 10 includes all the parts shown, except motor 1. As shown in FIG. 1, a speed control unit 12 for motor 1 receives an output of an adder 13 which shows the difference between the speed command and the actual speed V of motor 1, and outputs a torque command TC.
As shown in FIG. 1, a load meter 11 in prior art motor control apparatus 10 includes a load meter computing unit 111, a load meter display unit 112, and a storage unit 113. Efficiency η defined by a preset given value is stored in storage unit 113. Load meter 11 monitors the output of a driving unit 15, computes the output power of motor 1 from the output power W of driving unit 15 and the efficiency η of motor 1, and displays it as the load meter value on the display part of load meter display unit 112, or computes the ratio of the thus computed output power of motor 1 to the maximum output power at the corresponding rpm and displays it as the load meter value on the display part of load meter display unit 112.
LM, W, V, and η in the equation LM=f1(W, V, η) shown inside load meter computing unit 111 in FIG. 1 are defined as follows.                LM: Load meter value, W: Output power of amplifier, V: Actual speed of motor, η: Motor efficiency
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a second specific example of a motor control apparatus according to the prior art. A load meter 21 shown in FIG. 1 includes a load meter computing unit 211 and a load meter display unit 212. Load meter 21 monitors the torque command TC that a speed control unit 12 outputs (or the electric-current command that the driving unit outputs to control the current supplied to the motor), and displays (as the load meter value) the ratio (in %) of the torque command (electric-current command) TC to the maximum torque command (electric-current command) corresponding to the motor rpm (motor speed V) at that time.
LM, V, and TC in the equation LM=f2(V, TC) shown inside load meter computing unit 211 in FIG. 2 are defined as follows.                LM: Load meter, V: Motor speed, TC: Torque command
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H10-90011 (refer to [CLAIM 1] in the claims, paragraph numbers [0002] to [0004] in the specification, and FIG. 2)
However, in the case of the load meter shown in FIG. 2, when factors affecting the motor output, such as the torque command (electric-current command) used for controlling the motor, are used to calculate the load of the motor, if the motor enters a nonlinear region (for example, because of the saturation of the motor energization voltage or the saturation of the output voltage of the amplifier) the proportional relationship between the factors, such as the torque command, and the motor output will be lost. The resulting problem is that the load information (load meter) value calculated from these factors deviates widely from the desired value, causing a significant error.
On the other hand, the load meter computation method shown in FIG. 1 involves a problem that the load meter cannot be accurately calculated unless the motor speed and motor efficiency that varies with the load condition are accurately known, because the load meter computing value is affected by the amplifier output power and the motor efficient.


A distributed computer system incorporating multiple computer processes enables a client computer process to request execution of a remote procedure on a server computer process even when the server computer process does not support a current version of the client computer process. A version map is utilized by the client computer process while requesting a remote procedure to format the request to a version supported by the server computer process, thus permitting client and server computer processes coresident in a distributed computer system to be upgraded independently while ensuring backward-compatibility with earlier versions.

The invention generally relates to distributed computer systems, and in particular, relates to supporting multiple versions of client and server computer processes existing in distributed computer systems.
Distributed computer systems have become more widespread as interconnected computer networks and the like have proliferated. Distributed computer systems are characterized by the sharing of resources and the use of multiple computer xe2x80x9cprocessesxe2x80x9d running on multiple computer systems to cooperatively perform tasks, where computer xe2x80x9cprocessesxe2x80x9d are routines or threads running or executing on computer systems, e.g., as part of larger applications or programs. Distributed operating principles may be found, for example, on Local Area Networks (LAN""s), Wide Area Networks (WAN""s), and on global distributed networks such as the Internet.
One way in which multiple computer processes may cooperatively perform tasks is under a xe2x80x9cclient-serverxe2x80x9d relationship. In such a relationship, a xe2x80x9cclientxe2x80x9d or calling computer process issues or sends a request for a remote procedure to a xe2x80x9cserverxe2x80x9d or receiving computer process which executes the procedure. It will be appreciated that while one computer process may function as a client when it issues a procedure request and another may function as a server when it executes the procedure, any computer process may function as both a client and a server in different capacities.
A preferred manner of passing remote procedure requests between clients and servers is through Remote Procedure Calls (RPC""s), which are typically defined using a remote procedure interface, e.g., using a specific Interface Definition Language (IDL). IDL""s have been developed, for example, for the Open Systems Foundation Distributed Computing Environment (OSF DCE), the Windows 95 and Windows NT operating systems, the UNIX operating system, and the Sun Network File System (NFS), among others.
As new functionality is implemented in computer processes and environments, however, remote procedure interfaces often may be enhanced to support the new functionality. As is common in the industry, enhancements to a remote procedure interface, like any computer program or application, are embodied in a new xe2x80x9cversionxe2x80x9d of the interface.
To support a new version of a remote procedure interface, both the client and server utilizing the interface must support the new version. In many distributed computer systems, however, it is impossible or impractical to upgrade all clients and servers at the same time to a new version of a remote procedure interface. This may be due to cost constraints (e.g., in internal networks) or due to lack of control (e.g., in shared or public networks). Consequently, multiple versions of an interface may exist over a network.
The only manner used heretofore to handle multiple interface versions is to allow servers to support multiple versions, with clients supporting only single versions. In such implementations, it is incumbent for the RPC runtime code on a server to detect the version of the interface used by a client and direct any requests to appropriate versions of routines on the server. However, if a client issues a request using a version not supported by the server, the request fails.
These implementations are thus not capable of handling the situation of when a client is upgraded to a new version of an interface before a server. Furthermore, this situation is exacerbated in the situation where computer processes function as both clients and servers, where conventional implementations would require all processes to be upgraded at the same time.
Therefore, a substantial need has arisen for a manner of supporting multiple versions of a remote procedure interface in a distributed computer system, which permits both clients and servers to seamlessly support multiple versions coexisting within the system.
The invention addressees these and other problems associated with the prior art in providing an extended remote procedure interface which maps each remote procedure defined in the interface to prior versions of the remote procedure. This enables client computer processes to utilize a version map from the interface when requesting execution of remote procedures so that the requests are in formats supported by the server computer processes executing the remote procedures, regardless of the versions of the remote procedure interface in the client and server processes. This is in direct contrast to conventional systems, as the preferred remote procedure interfaces enable clients, and not just servers, to support multiple versions of an interface.
By mapping remote procedures to prior versions of the same, the manner or order in which clients and servers are upgraded in a distributed computer system are no longer critical, which is particularly beneficial in shared and public network environments where control over interface versions is all but impossible. Moreover, as remote procedure interfaces and distributed computing applications are enhanced and additional versions are supported, new applications may be implemented with less effort and with greater backward compatibility and seamless integration into existing systems. Further, often much of the underlying code can still remain the same, thereby freeing the interface from particular computer architectures and making the interface less platform-dependent.
Therefore, in accordance with one aspect of the invention a computer system is provided comprising a client computer process for requesting a remote procedure to be executed by a server computer process external to the client computer process. The client computer process supports a first version of the remote procedure and the server computer process supports a second version of the remote procedure. The client computer process includes a mapper that maps the first version of the remote procedure to the second version of the remote procedure if the server computer process does not support the first version of the remote procedure; and a requester, coupled to the mapper, that requests the server computer process to execute the second version of the remote procedure.
According to an additional aspect of the invention, a distributed computer system is provided, which includes first and second computer systems coupled through a network; a remote procedure interface residing in the first computer system, the remote procedure interface defining a first version of a remote procedure and a version map that maps the first version of the remote procedure to a second version of the remote procedure; and a request handler, residing in the first computer system and having access to the remote procedure interface, that requests execution of the remote procedure on a computer process on the second computer system, wherein the request handler utilizes the version map in the remote procedure interface to request execution of the second version of the remote procedure if the computer process on the second computer system does not support the first version of the remote procedure.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for requesting in a first computer process a remote procedure to be executed by a second computer process. The method includes the steps of determining in the first computer process whether the second computer process supports a first version of the remote procedure which is compatible with the first computer process; and if the second computer process does not support the first version of the remote procedure: mapping the first version of the remote procedure to a second version of the remote procedure which is compatible with the second computer process; and requesting the second computer process to execute the second version of the remote procedure.
According to another aspect of the invention, a program storage device is provided which readable by a first computer process. The program storage device tangibly embodies a program of instructions executable by the first computer process to request a remote procedure to be executed by a second computer process. The program includes a version map that maps a first version of a remote procedure to a second version of the remote procedure which is compatible with the second computer process; and a request handler that issues a request to execute the remote procedure on the second computer process, wherein the request handler utilizes the version map to issue a request to execute the second version of the remote procedure if the second computer process does not support the first version of the remote procedure.
According to a further aspect of the invention, a method is provided for transmitting a program product to a computer system. The method includes the steps of establishing a connection with the computer system; and transmitting the program product to the computer system, the program product being executable by a first computer process on the computer system to request execution of a remote procedure by a second computer process. The program product includes a version map that maps a first version of a remote procedure to a second version of the remote procedure which is compatible with the second computer process; and a request handler that issues a request to execute the remote procedure on the second computer process, wherein the request handler utilizes the version map to issue a request to execute the second version of the remote procedure if the second computer process does not support the first version of the remote procedure.
These and other advantages and features, which characterize the invention, are set forth in the claims annexed hereto and forming a further part hereof. However, for a better understanding of the invention, and the advantages and objectives attained by its use, reference should be made to the Drawing, and to the accompanying descriptive matter, in which there are described preferred embodiments of the invention.

Remote procedure interface with support for multiple versions

International Business Machines Corporation


Embodiments of the invention relate to processes and apparatus for the washing and recovery of metal-containing catalyst solids in a form suitable for reclamation. More specifically, a catalyst recovery process comprises removing an organic residue with a washing medium from a metal-containing catalyst solids, recovering washed solids, and treating the washed solids under oxidative conditions to form non-reactive solids. The treatment oxidative conditions may be effective to convert the metal(s) into an oxide form and/or may facilitate the removal of remaining organic residue from the washed solids. The treatment of the washed solids may comprise calcination. In some embodiments, the metal-containing catalyst solids may be recovered from a slurry stream, and the process further comprises passing the slurry stream though a separation unit to obtain a catalyst-enriched retentate slurry. In some embodiments, the organic residue comprises a hydrocarbon wax, and the solid catalyst is a hydrocarbon synthesis particulate catalyst.

Natural gas, found in deposits in the earth, is an abundant energy resource. For example, natural gas commonly serves as a fuel for heating, cooking, and power generation, among other things. The process of obtaining natural gas from an earth formation typically includes drilling a well into the formation. Wells that provide natural gas are often remote from locations with a demand for the consumption of the natural gas.
Thus, natural gas is conventionally transported large distances from the wellhead to commercial destinations in pipelines. This transportation presents technological challenges due in part to the large volume occupied by a gas. Because the volume of a gas is so much greater than the volume of a liquid containing the same number of gas molecules, the process of transporting natural gas typically includes chilling and/or pressurizing the natural gas in order to liquefy it. However, this contributes to the final cost of the natural gas.
Further, naturally occurring sources of crude oil used for liquid fuels such as gasoline and middle distillates have been decreasing and supplies are not expected to meet demand in the coming years. Middle distillates typically include heating oil, jet fuel, diesel fuel, and kerosene. Fuels that are liquid under standard atmospheric conditions have the advantage that in addition to their value, they can be transported more easily in a pipeline than natural gas, since they do not require energy, equipment, and expense required for liquefaction.
Thus, for all of the above-described reasons, there has been interest in developing technologies for converting natural gas to more readily transportable liquid fuels, i.e. to fuels that are liquid at standard temperatures and pressures. One method for converting natural gas to liquid fuels involves two sequential chemical transformations. In the first transformation, natural gas or methane, the major chemical component of natural gas, is reacted with oxygen and/or steam to form synthesis gas or syngas, which is a combination of carbon monoxide gas and hydrogen gas. The second transformation is commonly known as the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, in which carbon monoxide is reacted with hydrogen to form organic molecules containing carbon and hydrogen, such as hydrocarbons and oxygenates (containing oxygen in addition to carbon and hydrogen). Synthesized hydrocarbons generally include paraffins and/or olefins. Paraffins are particularly desirable as the basis of synthetic diesel fuel.
Typically the Fischer-Tropsch product stream contains hydrocarbons having a range of numbers of carbon atoms, and thus having a range of molecular weights. Thus, the Fischer-Tropsch products produced by conversion of natural gas commonly contain a range of hydrocarbons including gases, liquids and waxes. Depending on the molecular weight product distribution, different Fischer-Tropsch product mixtures are ideally suited to different uses. For example, Fischer-Tropsch product mixtures containing liquids may be processed to yield gasoline, as well as heavier middle distillates. Hydrocarbon waxes may be subjected to an additional processing step for conversion to liquid and/or gaseous hydrocarbons. Thus, in the production of a Fischer-Tropsch product stream for processing to a fuel it is desirable to maximize the production of high value liquid hydrocarbons, such as hydrocarbons with at least 5 carbon atoms per hydrocarbon molecule (C5+ hydrocarbons).
The Fischer-Tropsch process is commonly facilitated by a catalyst. Catalysts desirably have the function of increasing the rate of a reaction without being consumed by the reaction. A feed containing carbon monoxide and hydrogen is typically contacted with a catalyst in a reaction zone that may include one or more reactors.
Common reactors include packed bed (also termed fixed bed) reactors, fluidized bed reactors and slurry bed reactors. Originally, the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis was carried out in packed bed reactors. These reactors have several drawbacks, such as temperature control, that can be overcome by gas-agitated slurry reactors or slurry bubble column reactors. Gas-agitated multiphase reactors sometimes called "slurry reactors" or "slurry bubble columns," operate by suspending catalytic particles in liquid and feeding gas reactants into the bottom of the reactor through a gas distributor, which produces gas bubbles. As the gas bubbles rise through the reactor, the reactants are absorbed into the liquid and diffuse to the catalyst where, depending on the catalyst system, they are typically converted to gaseous and liquid products. The gaseous products formed enter the gas bubbles and are collected at the top of the reactor. Liquid products are recovered from the suspending liquid by using different techniques like filtration, settling, hydrocyclones, magnetic techniques, etc. Gas-agitated multiphase reactors or slurry bubble column reactors (SBCRs) inherently have very high heat transfer rates, and therefore, reduced reactor cost. This, and the ability to remove and add catalyst online are some of the principal advantages of such reactors as applied to the exothermic Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. Sie and Krishna (Applied Catalysis A: General 1999, 186, p. 55), incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, give a history of the development of various Fischer Tropsch reactors.
Typically, in the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, the distribution of weights that is observed such as for C5+ hydrocarbons, can be described by likening the Fischer-Tropsch reaction to a polymerization reaction with an Anderson-Shultz-Flory chain growth probability (α) that is independent of the number of carbon atoms in the lengthening molecule. α is typically interpreted as the ratio of the mole fraction of Cn+1 product to the mole fraction of Cn product. A value of α of at least 0.72 is preferred for producing high carbon-length hydrocarbons, such as those of diesel fractions.
The composition of a catalyst influences the relative amounts of hydrocarbons obtained from a Fischer-Tropsch catalytic process. Common catalysts for use in the Fischer-Tropsch process contain at least one metal from Groups 8, 9, or 10 of the Periodic Table (in the new IUPAC notation, which is used throughout the present specification).
Cobalt metal is particularly desirable in catalysts used in converting natural gas to heavy hydrocarbons suitable for the production of diesel fuel. Alternatively, iron, nickel, and ruthenium have been used in Fischer-Tropsch catalysts. Nickel catalysts favor termination and are useful for aiding the selective production of methane from syngas. Iron has the advantage of being readily available and relatively inexpensive but the disadvantage of a high water-gas shift activity. Ruthenium has the advantage of high activity but is quite expensive.
Many petroleum and chemical processes use particulate catalysts for the conversion of a feedstock to one or more desired products, such as the Fischer-Tropsch process described herein. In any reaction requiring a particulate catalyst, the particulate catalyst can be expected to have a certain life, for example several months to a few years. Accordingly, as the time on line increases, the particulate catalyst tends to degrade and eventually becomes ineffective. The catalyst can then be considered 'spent' and, a portion of or all of the spent catalyst can be removed from a reactor vessel. In order to maintain catalyst inventory in the reactor, new and/or regenerated catalyst can be loaded therein. The selection of a particulate catalyst composition to be used in a specific reaction system may largely depend on the cost of manufacture of the catalyst and the ability for the catalyst activity to be restored. The spent catalyst removed from the reactor vessel can undergo a regeneration process if the activity of the removed spent catalyst can at least be partially restored. However, in some cases the loss of catalyst activity is irreversible. In this case, it may be possible for the spent catalyst to undergo a reclamation process to recover some of or all of the valuable materials (especially its metallic components).
An important aspect of the economics of a commercial hydrocarbon synthesis process, such as employing the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, is the efficient utilization of the metals used in the hydrocarbon synthesis particulate catalyst. The initial costs of the metals employed in such particulate catalyst are a large capital expenditure. Accordingly, once the catalyst has, in one way or another, become unacceptable for continued use in the hydrocarbon synthesis process, it is economically wise to take steps to recover the metals from the spent catalyst for reuse, for example to prepare new batches of fresh particulate catalyst. While such reclamation facilities may be located at or in proximity to the hydrocarbon synthesis process site, these facilities are often offsite thus requiring that the spent catalyst be transported or shipped for further processing to extract valuable metallic components. One step in this effort is to prepare the spent catalyst for safe transport to the location where at least some of the metallic components (e.g., metal or metals) will be recovered.
In such cases, it is preferable to remove any residual hydrocarbon products from the spent particulate catalyst prior to processing the spent particulate catalyst through a reclamation process. In this way, one can recover the value of the hydrocarbon products, convert the catalyst from a reactive form to an inert form, avoid the additional transportation costs associated with the weight of the residual hydrocarbon products, and in some instances, minimize the presence of hydrocarbonaceous compounds in any waste materials for environmental conservation reasons.
Therefore, a need exists in the art for efficient methods and systems for the removal of organic materials from solid catalysts, and in particular removal of hydrocarbon products from Fischer-Tropsch spent catalysts, and for the conversion of metallic component(s) of these catalysts into non-reactive form, to lessen safety concerns during transportation to reclamation facilities and/or to facilitate the reclamation of metallic components from such catalysts.


A surface acoustic wave device is provided. The surface acoustic wave device includes a piezoelectric substrate and an IDT which is disposed on the piezoelectric substrate and made of Al or an alloy containing Al as a main component and using an SH wave as an excitation wave, wherein the piezoelectric substrate is a rotated Y-cut quartz plate having a cut angle θ set to a range of −64.0°<θ<−49.3° rotated counterclockwise from a Z crystalline axis and a propagation direction of a surface acoustic wave set to a direction of 90°±5° with respect to an X crystalline axis, wherein, when a wavelength of an excited surface acoustic wave is denoted by λ, an electrode film thickness H/λ normalized with wavelength of the IDT is set to a range of 0.04<H/λ<0.12, and wherein, when a line occupancy rate mr of electrode fingers constituting the IDT is defined to be electrode finger width/(electrode finger width+electrode finger spacing), the line occupancy rate mr is set to a range of 0.53≦mr≦0.65.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a surface acoustic wave device using a quartz plate, and more particularly, to a surface acoustic wave device capable of improving a frequency control performance by reducing a capacitance ratio.
2. Related Art
Recently, surface acoustic wave (hereinafter, referred to as a SAW) devices have been widely used as parts for mobile communication terminals or built-in vehicle apparatuses. The SAW devices have been required to have a small size, a high Q value, and excellent frequency temperature characteristics.
As a SAW device stratifying the requirement, there is a SAW device using an ST cut quartz plate. The ST cut quartz plate is a name of a cut quart plate having a plane (XZ′ plane) which is formed by rotating an XZ plane by 42.75° counterclockwise from an Z crystalline axis about an X crystalline axis as a rotation axis, and the SAW device uses a SAW (hereinafter, referred to as an ST cut quartz SAW) which is a (P+SV) wave, that is, a so-called Rayleigh wave propagating in a direction of the X crystalline axis. The ST cut quartz SAW device may be widely applied to an SAW resonator used as an oscillation frequency element, an IF filer disposed between RF ports and ICs in a mobile communication terminal, or the like.
Since it is possible to efficiently use the reflection of the SAW, the size of the ST cut quartz SAW device can be reduced, and a device having a high Q value can be implemented. Now, an ST cut quartz SAW resonator shown in FIG. 12 is exemplified. The ST cut quartz SAW resonator has a structure where comb-like electrodes (hereinafter, referred to as an IDT) having a plurality of lines of electrode fingers which are alternately inserted are disposed on an ST cut quartz plate 101, and grating reflectors 103a and 103b reflecting the SAW are disposed at both sides of the IDTs 102. Since the ST cut quartz SAW is a wave propagating along a surface of the piezoelectric substrate, the ST cut quart SAW can be efficiently reflected on the grating reflectors 103a and 103b, so that the SAW energy can be sufficiently held within the IDTs 102. As a result, the device having a small size and a high Q value can be implemented.
In addition, as the important factors in use of the SAW device, there are frequency temperature characteristics. In the aforementioned ST cut quartz SAW, a first-order temperature coefficient of the frequency temperature characteristics is zero, and the characteristics are represented by a quadratic curve. Since the frequency variation can be greatly reduced by adjusting a peak temperature to a center of a usage temperature range, it is generally known that frequency stability thereof is excellent.
Although the first-order temperature coefficient is zero, a secondary temperature coefficient of the ST cut quartz SAW device has a relatively large value of −0.034 ppm/° C.2, so that there is a problem in that, if the usage temperature range is widened, the frequency variation increases extremely.
As a technique for solving the above problem, there are SAW devices disclosed in the article "Surface Skimming Bulk Wave, SSBW" (by Meirion Lewis, IEEE Ultrasonics Symp. Proc., pp. 744-752 (1977)) and JP-B-62-016050. As shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B, in the SAW device, a cut angle θ of a rotated Y-cut quartz plate is set to a vicinity of an angle rotated by −50° counterclockwise from a Z crystalline axis, and a propagation direction of the SAW is set to a direction (direction of a Z′ axis) perpendicular to the propagation direction of the SAW. In addition, the aforementioned cut angle can be represented with (0°, θ90°, 90°)=(0°, 40°, 90°). The SAW utilizes the IDT to excite the SH wave propagating along a portion directly underlying a surface of the piezoelectric substrate, and the vibration energy can be held within a portion directly underlying the electrode. In addition, the frequency temperature characteristics are represented with a quartic curve, and the frequency variation is very small in the usage temperature range, so that excellent temperature characteristics can be obtained.
However, since the SH wave is basically a wave attenuating into an inner portion of the plate, the reflection efficiency of the grating reflector for the SAW is low in comparison to the ST cut quartz wave propagating along the surface of the piezoelectric substrate. Therefore, there is a problem in that it is difficult to implement a SAW device having a small size and a high Q value. Although an application as a retardation line which the reflection of the SAW is not utilized for is disclosed in the aforementioned prior documents, any application of a device utilizing the reflection of the SAW is not disclosed. Therefore, there is a problem in that it is difficult to implement a practical oscillation frequency element or filter element.
In order to solve the above problem, a so-called multiple-pair IDT type SAW resonator is disclosed in JP-B-01-034411. As shown in FIG. 14, in the multiple-pair IDT type SAW resonator, a large number of pairs, that is, 800±200 pairs of IDTs 112 are disposed on a piezoelectric substrate 111 which has the cut angle θ of the rotated Y-cut quartz plate set to a vicinity of −50° and a propagation direction of the SAW set to a direction (a direction of the Z′ axis) perpendicular to the X crystalline axis. Accordingly, the SAW energy can be held by means of only the reflection of the IDT 112 without using any grating reflector, so that a multiple-pair IDT type SAW resonator having a high Q value can be implemented.
However, in comparison to the SAW resonator utilizing the grating resonator, the multiple-pair IDT type SAW resonator can not efficiently hold the energy, so that the number of IDT pairs increase up to 800±200 in order to obtain a high Q value. Therefore, the size thereof is larger than that of the ST cut quartz SAW resonator, there is a problem in that a recent requirement for a small size can not be satisfied.
In the SAW resonator disclosed in the aforementioned JP-B-01-034411, when a wavelength of the SAW excited in the is denoted by λ, the Q value can be increased by setting the electrode film thickness to 2% λ or more, preferably, 4% λ or less. In case of a resonance frequency of 200 MHz, the Q value is saturated at a vicinity of 4% λ, and at this time, the Q value is merely about 20000, which is substantially equal to that of the ST cut quartz SAW resonator. This is because the SAW is not sufficiently held within the surface of the piezoelectric substrate when the film thickness is in a range of 2% λ to 4% λ. Therefore, the reflection thereof can not efficiently used.
For these reasons, it is conceivable to provide a SAW device wherein IDTs made of Al or an alloy containing Al as a main component are disposed on a rotated Y-cut quartz plate having a cut angle θ set to a range of −64.0°<θ<−49.3°, preferably, −61.4°<θ<−51.1° rotated counterclockwise from a Z crystalline axis and a propagation direction of the surface acoustic wave set to a direction of 90°±5° with respect to an X crystalline axis and wherein an electrode film thickness H/λ of the IDT normalized with a wavelength of the SAW is set to 0.04<H/λ<0.12, preferably, 0.05<H/λ<0.10. According to the invention, the wave attenuating into the inner portion of the piezoelectric substrate is concentrated on the surface of the plate, so that the reflection of the SAW can be efficiently used. As a result, it is possible to implement an SAW device having a smaller size, a higher Q value, and more excellent frequency temperature characteristics than those of the ST cut quartz SAW device in the related art.
On the other hand, as an important factor for determining characteristics of the SAW device such as the SAW resonator and the SAW filter, there is a capacitance ratio γ. FIG. 15 shows an equivalent circuit diagram of an SAW resonator, and the capacitance ratio γ is represented by γ=C0/C1. As the capacitance ratio γ decreases, oscillation of the oscillating circuit using the SAW resonator can be further facilitated, so that it is possible to obtain a wide variable range of oscillation frequency and to widen a practical band width of the SAW filter.
The capacitance ratio γ may vary greatly according to an occupancy rate (hereinafter, referred to as a line occupancy rate mr) of an electrode finger width L to the electrode pitch (electrode finger width L+ electrode finger spacing S) of the IDT. Therefore, if the line occupancy rate mr of the IDT is not suitably selected, the capacitance ratio γ may be too large to obtain desired characteristics. However, since the capacitance ratio γ may not be conceived in the aforementioned conceivable SAW device, there is a need to scrutinize a relation between the capacitance ratio γ and the line occupancy rate mr in detail.
In addition, during a production process of the SAW device, it is difficult to accurately control the line occupancy rate mr, so that there occurs a deviation caused by production error or measurement error during the formation of the electrodes. If the line occupancy rate mr is not uniform, the frequency variation occurs, so that production yield is reduced. Therefore, the line occupancy rate mr is needed to be suitably selected in order to obtain excellent frequency control performance. However, the frequency control performance may not be conceived in the aforementioned conceivable SAW device, there is also a need to scrutinize a relation between the capacitance ratio γ and the frequency control performance in detail.
In addition, in the aforementioned conceivable SAW device, as a result of an electrical conduction test using the SAW resonator at a resonance frequency 433 MHz, the frequency variation during the electrical conduction further increases in comparison to a ST cut quartz SAW device in the related art. The reason is as follows. In the aforementioned conceivable SAW device, the electrode film thickness is larger than that of a ST cut quartz device in the related art. If the electrode film thickness is large, stress to a film during the formation of the film increases, so that there occurs stress migration that Al atoms migrates so as to alleviate the stress. Accordingly, frequency variation increases. In addition, if the electrode film thickness is reduced in order to avoid the frequency variation, the Q value is greatly lowered, so that there is a problem in that an insertion loss during the formation of a filter or the like increases.


An improved diffuse optical tomography system for in vivo non-contact imaging includes an illumination source for illuminating a specimen, a spectrum source for projecting a spectrum onto the specimen, at least one sensor configured to capture the response of the specimen to the illumination and to the projection of said spectrum.

Diffuse Optical Tomography (DOT) is a functional imaging modality that reveals physiological parameters, such as oxygen saturation of hemoglobin and blood flow, based on intrinsic tissue contrast, molecular tissue function, and gene-expression based on extrinsically administered fluorescent probes and beams. DOT offers several potential advantages over existing radiological techniques, such as non-invasive and non-ionizing imaging.
DOT imaging includes illuminating the tissue with a light source and measuring the light leaving the tissue with a sensor. A model of light propagation in the tissue is developed and parameterized in terms of the unknown scattering and/or absorption as a function of position in the tissue. Then, using the model together with the ensemble of images over all the sources, one attempts to invert the propagation model to recover the scatter and absorption parameters.
A DOT image is actually a quantified map of optical properties and can be used for quantitative three-dimensional imaging of intrinsic and extrinsic adsorption and scattering, as well as fluorophore lifetime and concentration in diffuse media such as tissue. These fundamental quantities can then be used to derive tissue oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin concentrations, blood oxygen saturation, contract agent uptake, and organelle concentration. Such contrast mechanisms are important for practical applications such as the measurement of tissue metabolic activity, angiogenesis and permeability for cancer detection as well as characterizing molecular function.
A typical DOT system uses lasers so that specific chromophores are targeted and the forward model is calculated for the specific wavelengths used. Laser diodes have been customarily used as light sources since they produce adequate power and are stable and economical. Light is usually directed to and from tissue using fiber guides since this allows flexibility in the geometrical set-up used. For optical coupling, the fibers must be in contact with tissue or a matching fluid. Use of the matching fluids helps to eliminate reflections due to mismatches between indices of refraction between silica, air, and tissue.
Advanced DOT algorithms require good knowledge of the boundary geometry of the diffuse medium imaged in order to provide accurate forward models of light propagation within this medium. A forward model is a representation of the representative characteristics of the volume being studied. Currently, these boundary geometries are forced into simple, well known shapes such as cylinders, circles, or slabs. In addition to not accurately representing the shape of the specimen to be analyzed, the use of these shape forces the specimen to be analyzed to be physically coupled to the shape either directly or by the use of a matching fluid as discussed above.

Diffuse optical tomography system and method of use


A wrapping method and unit for producing a package containing a group of cigarettes and having a cigarette extraction opening; a sheet of wrapping material, complete with the cigarette extraction opening, is fed into a pocket of a wrapping wheel so that the sheet of wrapping material folds into a U inside the pocket; then the group of cigarettes is fed into the pocket containing the U-folded sheet of wrapping material.

A packet of cigarettes normally comprises an inner package defined by a group of cigarettes wrapped in a sheet of wrapping material; and an outer package enclosing the inner package, and which may be defined by a sheet of wrapping material folded into a cup shape about the inner package (soft packet of cigarettes), or by a rigid, hinged-lid box formed by folding a rigid blank about the inner package (rigid packet of cigarettes).
In a conventional packet of cigarettes, the group of cigarettes is wrapped internally in a rectangular sheet of foil inner wrapping material with no glue, and is packed externally in a rectangular sheet of outer packing material which is stabilized using glue.
Tobacco is highly sensitive to environment. That is, in contact with the atmosphere, its organic characteristics tend to vary alongside variations in humidity (by losing or absorbing too much moisture) or due to evaporation of the volatile substances with which the tobacco is impregnated (especially in the case of aromatic cigarettes treated with spices). To preserve the tobacco, packets of cigarettes are therefore cellophane-wrapped, i.e. wrapped in a heat-sealed overwrapping of airtight plastic material. This, however, may not always be sufficient to fully preserve the tobacco in the packet, especially if the packet is consumed some time after manufacture. Moreover, when the packet is unsealed, the overwrapping is removed, thus exposing the tobacco to the atmosphere, and, if the cigarettes are not consumed soon after the packet is unsealed, the organic characteristics of the remaining cigarettes may deteriorate.
In an attempt to eliminate this drawback, U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,676A1 proposes a rigid packet of cigarettes, in which the inner package is airtight, and comprises a sheet of airtight, heat-seal wrapping material having a cigarette extraction opening.
It has been observed that folding the sheet of inner wrapping material about the group of cigarettes may damage the ends of the cigarettes, thus resulting in localized deformation (of both the filter ends and the plain ends where the tobacco is exposed), and/or tobacco spill (i.e. tobacco fallout, obviously only from the plain ends where the tobacco is exposed). This applies in particular to the corner cigarettes in the group, though damage is also evident in all the outermost cigarettes, i.e. located along the fold lines of the sheet of inner wrapping material. Folding a sheet of airtight inner wrapping material is especially damaging to the cigarettes, on account of airtight sheets being thicker (and therefore stiffer) than conventional sheets of foil inner wrapping material. In the packet of cigarettes described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,300,676A1, the sheet of airtight inner wrapping material is preferably folded into a U at the filters of the cigarettes, so that the filters are located at the extraction opening, as in practically all currently marketed packets of cigarettes. When folding the sheet of airtight wrapping material into a U, however, the filters of the cigarettes are subjected to severe mechanical stress. It is important to bear in mind that the filters are visible when the packet is opened, so any deformed filters are particularly negative by giving the impression the cigarettes are flawed. Moreover, the above wrapping method fails to provide for forming square edges at the filters, on account of the stiffness of the sheet of inner wrapping material deforming the filters and so resulting in the formation of rounded edges. The fact that the inner package is rounded as opposed to square is particularly undesirable, by resulting in an overall look of the visible portion of the inner package that is not very popular with consumers, who tend to opt for inner packages with decidedly sharp edges.

Wrapping method and unit for folding a sheet of wrapping material about a group of cigarettes