A method of providing identity information may include: receiving, from a transaction system, a request regarding a transaction; retrieving at least one rule defining a compliant identity based on a type of the transaction, the at least one rule identifying a plurality of identity attributes; retrieving an identity index map including a list of pointers to available identity components; selecting pointers from the identity index map pointing to identity components corresponding to the plurality of identity attributes; outputting, to the transaction system, the compliant identity including information corresponding to each of the identity components, the information including for each identity component at least one of: the selected pointers to the identity component, or the identity component.

In many types of transactions, and other scenarios, an individual must provide identity information to conduct the transaction. For example, to purchase alcohol, an individual is typically required to display a state identification, such as a state driver's license.
One problem prevalent in many such transactions is that the required identification actually contains more information about the individual than is legally or otherwise required to conduct the transaction. For example, to purchase alcohol, all that is legally required to be presented is proof that the person is over the legal age to purchase alcohol, an image associated with the proof that looks like the person, and proof that the presented information is valid. However, when a person displays a state driver's license, they are actually displaying much more personal information than this, including their address, their exact date of birth, the driver's license number, an organ donor status, etc.
Presenting more personal information than is necessary during a transaction has many privacy-related downsides that are desirable to avoid. Continuing the above example, when the person presents the state driver's license to purchase alcohol, oversharing of personal information such as their address may subject them to negative consequences such as stalking.
Thus, a need exists for systems and methods to provide identity information for conducting transactions that limits the provided information to only that required by the transaction.

Systems and methods for identity atomization and usage


A coaxial to transmission line connector has a connector and an attachment area with a windowed electrical attachment point that when soldered in place on a ground reference of an electrical device, creates an electrical and mechanical connection between an outer conductor of the coaxial to transmission line connector. The attachment area has at least one mechanical alignment point and a corresponding reference pivot point located substantially co-planar at the termination of the coaxial dielectric region at an edge of a PCB and a port of the coaxial to transmission line connector. The at least one mechanical alignment point and the corresponding reference pivot plane serve to automatically align the coaxial to transmission line connector to the electrical device. Opposite the attachment area is a dielectric area following termination of the outer conductor in the transition area of the microstrip transmission line.

Many RF circuit boards need one or more RF connectors that allow incoming or outgoing RF signals connected to other circuit boards or connection into RF systems, which contain cables and other RF devices. A method of attaching the RF connector onto a PCB for easy assembly is needed to keep manufacturing costs low since many satellite and cable TV devices require many RF connectors. Satellite and cable TV devices such as amplifiers and splitters are typically interconnected into systems, which utilize interconnecting cables to connect to other components that distribute satellite or cable TV signals to television viewers. The standard satellite and cable TV coaxial cable characteristic impedance is 75 ohm. Currently, RF test equipment that has a reference impedance of 75 ohm will only test components and cables at frequencies up to 3 GHz. Thus, all 75 ohm RF connectors are tested to only 3 GHz. Due to these limitations, 75 ohm connectors, such as the f-connector, will only work with frequencies somewhere below 3 GHz.
Thus, what is needed is an RF connector that is easily aligned, attached, and held in place while soldering that has good RF electrical characteristics at much higher frequencies.


Disclosed are methods and systems to help conserve battery life of a user equipment device (UE). In particular, the UE may make a determination that a remaining battery life is threshold low. In response to making the determination, the UE may engage in a scanning-limiting process that involves (i) the UE identifying on the list each carrier frequency higher than the serving carrier frequency and (ii) based on the identifying, the UE excluding each identified higher carrier frequency from the list, so that, in response to detecting a trigger to scan carrier frequencies in search of target coverage for possible handover, the UE scans each carrier frequency on the list that is lower than the serving carrier frequency but forgoes scanning each identified higher carrier frequency. Further, once the UE detects the trigger, the UE may responsively scan carrier frequencies in accordance with the scanning-limiting process.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the description provided in this section is not itself prior art to the claims and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A typical cellular wireless network includes a number of base stations each radiating to define a respective coverage area in which user equipment devices (UEs), such as cell phones, tablet computers, tracking devices, embedded wireless modules, and other wirelessly equipped communication devices, can operate. In turn, each base station may be coupled with network infrastructure that provides connectivity with one or more transport networks, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or the Internet for instance. With this arrangement, a UE within coverage of the network may engage in air interface communication with a base station and may thereby communicate via the base station with various remote network entities or with other UEs served by the base station.
In general, a cellular wireless network may operate in accordance with a particular air interface protocol or "radio access technology," with communications from the base stations to UEs defining a downlink or forward link and communications from the UEs to the base stations defining an uplink or reverse link. Examples of existing air interface protocols include, without limitation, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE)), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) (e.g., 1×RTT and 1×EV-DO), Wireless Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), among others. Each protocol may define its own procedures for registration of UEs, initiation of communications, handoff between coverage areas, and other functions related to air interface communication.
In accordance with the air interface protocol, each base station (and thus each coverage area) may operate on at least one carrier frequency (could also be referred to herein as a "carrier") for carrying communications wirelessly between the base station and UEs. In particular, the air interface between the base station and UEs may carry communications on one or more particular frequency channels, each defining one or more ranges of radio frequency spectrum within a particular frequency band (or "band class" (BC)). As such, the carrier of a base station may be considered to be the one or more frequency channels on which the base station operates and/or the one or more frequency bands in which the base station operates. Furthermore, a coverage area may operate using a frequency division duplex (FDD) arrangement defining different ranges of frequency being used for the downlink than for the uplink or may operate using a time division duplex (TDD) arrangement defining the same range of frequency being used for the downlink and uplink and being allocated over time among downlink and uplink communications. In an FDD arrangement, an FDD carrier may therefore include a pair of frequency channels with a first channel being used for downlink communication and a second channel being used for uplink communication. Whereas, in a TDD arrangement, a TDD carrier may therefore include a single frequency channel divided over time into segments for downlink communication and other segments for uplink communication.
Moreover, the industry defines various frequency bands each made up of one or more frequency channels. In accordance with industry regulations or engineering design, some of those bands define frequency channels for FDD use (with pairs of those channels defining FDD carriers) and other ones of those bands define frequency channels for TDD use (with each channel defining a TDD carrier). Also in accordance with industry regulations or engineering design, the frequency channels defined in these bands may vary in bandwidth based on the bands in which they are defined and may thus support different speeds of data communication. By way of example, for LTE service, the industry currently defines BC-25 (at or around 1900 MHz) and BC-26 (at or around 800 MHz) for FDD communication, and the frequency channels provided in these bands may span 5 MHz in each direction, thus supporting up to about 25 Mbps on the downlink. In addition, the industry currently defines BC-41 for TDD communication, and the frequency channels provided in BC-41 may be 20 MHz wide, thus supporting up to about 60 Mbps on the downlink. Other examples are also possible.
Further, the coverage area provided by each base station may define various logical or physical channels (e.g., through frequency division multiplexing, time division multiplexing, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, and/or code division multiplexing) for carrying certain types of communications between the base station and UEs. By way of example, on the downlink, the coverage area may define a reference channel for carrying a reference signal that UEs can monitor as a way to detect and evaluate coverage of the base station, one or more control channels for carrying various system information and control messages to UEs, and one or more traffic channels such as a shared downlink channel for carrying bearer communication traffic and other data to UEs. And on the uplink, the coverage area may similarly define one or more control channels for carrying control messages to the base station, and one or more traffic channels such as a shared channel for carrying bearer communication traffic and other data to the base station.
When a UE is being served by a base station on a particular carrier ("serving carrier"), the UE may monitor signal strength (e.g., signal-to-noise ratio) of reference signals received from the serving base station, and the UE may apply various thresholds to control carrier frequency scanning and possible resulting handover to another carrier frequency (e.g., provided by the same serving base station or by another base station). For example, an air interface protocol may define a start-scanning threshold for serving-carrier signal strength, such that when the UE detects that the signal strength on the serving carrier is lower than the start-scanning threshold, the UE starts to scan for coverage on one or more other carriers. Further, an air interface protocol may define a handover threshold for serving-carrier signal strength (e.g., equal to or lower than the start-scanning threshold), such that when the UE finds coverage on at least one target carrier and detects that the signal strength on the serving carrier is lower than the handover threshold, the UE begins engaging in signaling with its serving base station to possibly trigger handover of the UE to that target carrier.
In practice, the signaling that the UE engages in to possibly trigger handover may take one of various forms. In some cases, the UE may transmit to its serving base station a measurement report that specifies the coverage detected on one or more carriers and, for each such detected coverage, the detected signal strength. The serving base station and/or associated network infrastructure may then decide based on the UE's measurement report to process a handover of the UE to a particular target carrier from which the UE detected sufficiently strong signal strength. In other cases, the UE may engage in signaling with its serving base station to simply request handover to a detected target carrier and the base station may respond to the request by engaging in handover signaling with other network entities and/or with the UE so as to carry out the handover.
Furthermore, an air interface protocol may sometimes also define yet another threshold that, together with the handover threshold, may possibly trigger handover of the UE to a target carrier. In particular, an air interface protocol may define a target carrier threshold for target-carrier signal strength, such that when the UE detects that the signal strength on the serving carrier is lower than the handover threshold and also detects that the signal strength on the target carrier is higher than the target carrier threshold, the UE begins engaging in signaling with its serving base station to possibly trigger handover of the UE to that target carrier. In this manner, in order to possibly trigger handover of the UE to a target carrier, the UE would need to detect serving-carrier signal strength at least as low as the handover threshold and target-carrier signal strength at least as high as the target carrier threshold. Other thresholds are possible as well.

Controlling carrier frequency scanning based on battery life and comparison of carrier frequencies


An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for generating a resource utilization description for a parallel data processing system. The method comprises developing a system model using the data flow graph for a target data processing job. The system model is then tuned based on a sample data set. The tuned system model is utilized to calculate the resource utilization description for the target data processing job. The resource utilization description may include disk space usage, scratch space usage, and processor utilization for each partition in the system. The method may further include determining a more efficient data flow graph to achieve the same results of the target data processing job.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computing system resource estimation and optimization, and more particularly relates to estimating and optimizing disk space and processor utilization in a parallel data integration environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data integration in a parallel computing environment typically involves computations with large data sets spread across many computers, or partitions. A data set consumes an area on a computer disk as a permanent storage location. An originating data set, or data source operator, consumes disk space on the originating computer, and a destination data set, or data sink operator, consumes an area on a computer disk as a permanent storage location. While data sets are processed, some operations require memory to store intermediate result sets. For example, a sorting operation may require memory to store intermediate results as the sort is executed. Intermediate memory for processing operations may be called scratch space, and is used to describe an area of disk used to store intermediate result sets. Additionally, performing operations to process data sets consumes processing capacity for the computer performing the operations.
In a parallel computing environment, various operations on data sets can be performed across many different computers, and the operational steps for processing the data sets can be intertwined and rather complicated. A description of the processing steps to be performed on one or more data sets may be called a data flow graph, or data graph. A data flow graph can be a pictorial or string representation of the relationships between operations in a data processing flow. The data flow graph describes the input data sources, the operations to be performed, and the data sink operators. The data flow graph may be coupled with various other information—for example a configuration file to describe which operations are performed on which partitions, and the data schema for each operator at the input and output for the given operator.
Predicting the resource utilization—or the disk space usage, scratch space usage, and processor utilization—for a job is important in designing the data processing job and in designing hardware or planning for upgrades to hardware. Also, if a fast and accurate prediction is available, the parameters of the job can be tested and optimized. For example, a job may comprise datasets to be merged and sorted, and the speed of completion for the job may vary considerably depending upon whether the merge or sort occurs first. The current methods for predicting resource utilization depend upon rules of thumb and extensive experience of the predictor. The nuances of a complicated parallel processing job are likely to be missed, and running multiple scenarios with a dataset to determine the best order for job execution is time prohibitive. Further, only a person with expertise in estimating resource utilization based on job parameters can even make a reasonable estimate. Further, if the estimate should prove to be incorrect, current methods make it difficult to systematically correct the estimate to develop a more reasonable model.

Apparatus, system, and method for generating a resource utilization description for a parallel data processing system

International Business Machines Corporation


A method for part placement of a semiconductor chip for inspection where the semiconductor chip has a plurality of leads defining a seating plane and a body having a top. The method includes the steps of placing the body on a platform in an up position where the plurality of leads are suspended and probing the top of the body. Next measuring the position of the top of the body with reference to a predetermined coordinate system is done. Then the part is moved until the part is suspended on the plurality of leads on a reference plane. The top of the body is then probed for a second time, and the second position of the top of the body is measured with reference to the predetermined coordinate system. The thickness of the part is then determined as the distance between the top of the part and its seating plane.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the inspection of semiconductor chips and in particular to the inspection of leads on a semiconductor chip using zero force part placement.
II. Discussion of the Prior Art
Inspection of leads on semiconductor chips requires accurate measurement of the seating plane of the part being inspected. However, since lead lengths are unknown prior to inspection, prior art methods have avoided placing a part on its leads because such placement may crush or deform the leads. Instead, a part for inspection is held with its leads suspended. As a result, the actual seating plane of the part, as determined by the length of its leads seated on a planar surface, is not measured directly during the inspection process.
Instead of placing the part under inspection onto its actual seating plane with its leads contacting a flat surface the prior art indirectly calculates the seating plane for the part. The calculation is made with the part's leads suspended in air. Measurements for the calculated seating plane are made by sighting along a line determined by, for example, the three longest leads on the part being inspected. In order for such an approach to be valid an assumption is made that the three longest leads encompass the center of gravity of the part being inspected. However, in many cases the three longest leads may not encompass the center of gravity of the part being inspected. Such a part rocks on its leads. The inspection technique of the prior art may result in a rocking part erroneously passing inspection. A rocking part is a part which will not seat correctly but instead exhibits a rocking motion when placed on a flat surface.
Further, prior art measurement systems are subject to measurement variability leading to relatively large errors for some lead measurements when making a measurement of coplanarity. The measurement of coplanarity is defined as the distance from the seating plane, whether calculated or actual, to the bottom of the lead tip. FIG. 1 shows one example of the potential errors introduced by prior art systems in measuring the seating plane of the semiconductor chip 10. In FIG. 1, the actual seating plane is denoted by line 18 which is a line through the center points of the lead tips of leads 12A and 12B. However, in calculating or measuring the coplanarity of the leads using prior art techniques, calculated seating planes are subject to uncertainties due to error factors inherent in the prior art measuring instruments. Further, because of such inherent error factors, results are not repeatable using prior art techniques.
Therefore, in one measurement, the prior art may measure leg 12A with error E1 resulting in an inaccurately long measurement of the lead which results in placement of the seating plane through points S1 and S2. This, in turn, results in the seating plane denoted by broken line 14 which places lead 12C directly on the calculated seating plane 14. Lead 12C is elevated significantly higher than the actual seating plane 18. Calculated seating plane 14 also results in an exaggeratedly large error for lead 12D which appears to be raised high above the calculated seating plane 14 when in fact, at the point of measuring, lead 12D is actually significantly closer to actual seating plane 18.
Measurement errors of as small as 0.001 inch along a length of 1 inch of the semiconductor chip are extremely significant in the art. An error factor of 0.0002 inches in measuring a given lead can easily lead to significant errors in the calculation of the seating plane. Such error factors are inherent in prior art apparatus.
Similarly, a second measurement taken along the broken line 16 introduces error E2 which finds coplanarity through points S3 and S2. As in the foregoing example, it similarly places legs 12C and 12D incorrectly with respect to the actual seating plane 18. Such measurement errors can easily lead to the acceptance of parts which are subject to rocking motion when placed on, for example, a substrate or printed circuit board.
It is therefore the motivation of the present invention to avoid the errors inherent in the prior art and to provide a method of locating the seating plane exactly and directly through the use of mounting the part by its leads onto a known reference plane.
It is a further motivation of the present invention to determine the thickness of a part where the part thickness is defined as the distance from the seating plane determined by its leads in the seated position to the top of the part.

Method and apparatus for zero force part placement


A method and systems are provided for screening and rapid evaluation of routed nets in a post-layout circuit environment, such as in the design of printed circuit boards. A portion of nets are selected for determination of associated signal quality factors. Signal channels containing one or more selected nets are then built. A reference input stimulus is propagated along each of the signal channels in a frequency based simulation for generating characteristic responses of the selected nets' signal channels. A signal channel quality factor is obtained for each signal channel based upon its characteristic response. The signal channels and their nets are then comparatively analyzed according to corresponding signal channel quality factors to selectively identify any aberrant nets warranting supplemental evaluation for faults.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally directed to a method and system for screening nets of circuit design in a post-layout environment. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a method and system operable during design verification for quickly and conveniently screening routed nets of a circuit layout, such as in a printed circuit board design, for potentially faulty nets warranting further evaluation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, when a board level circuit layout has been designed (all circuit elements, including devices, discrete components, conductive traces, and the like have been placed and routed), it undergoes post-layout test/verification using a simulation tool.
The circuit layout at this stage defines a collection of nets, each forming a connection directly between circuit component pins. One or more nets are encompassed by a signal transmitting channel extending to include all passive circuit elements between a driver circuit element (which models a source for a signal) and a receiver circuit element (which models a destination for the signal). A typical circuit layout will easily include thousands of such nets, even hundreds of thousands; yet, adequate verification cannot be had without the reliable identification and remedy of individual nets having faults.
This is important for high speed circuit board applications, where point-to-point connections for transmitting signals cannot be treated simply as ideal short circuits. The distortion that signals experience during transmission between source and destination are hardly negligible in high speed applications, and individual nets of a circuit layout tend to behave much like distributed transmission lines having certain properties, each applying its own intrinsic attenuation and delay on the high speed signals passing therethrough.
For example, a signal originating with an amplitude of 5V at a driver element may arrive at the receiver with an amplitude of 4V due to signal loss through the transmission line. The signal may also be delayed during passage through the line by a non-negligible amount, say on the order of a nanosecond or so. If a high state transition voltage threshold of the receiver were 4.5V in that case, the receiver would erroneously take this signal to be of low voltage state (logic 0), though it had originated from the source as a 5V high state signal (logic 1). Consequently, the receiver would fail to recognize the intended high state signal as such (as it is below the threshold of 4.5 volts at the given point in time).
The potential for this kind of failure even in one individual net must be reliably ascertained during post-layout verification. Obviously, it is important that signals traversing the nets reach the respective receivers at their intended states, and arrive at the expected times. For certain signals, like signals on different nets of a data bus, for instance, where a byte or more of data is simultaneously sent each from multiple driving input/output (I/O) buffers, the delay factor is particularly important since all the bytes must reach the receiving end almost simultaneously. Pervasive timing problems are generated if they are out of phase. Hence, signal channel quality must be preserved for each net to guard sufficiently against the effects of noise and to maintain proper signal timing.
This presents a formidable challenge in applications where thousands of nets are presented for verification of a circuit layout, any one of which could potentially be of problematic signal channel quality. With the post-layout verification tools heretofore known, a full blown simulation analysis is performed on virtually all the nets in order to identify the problematic ones. This process is excessively complex and time consuming, and involves process-intensive simulation runs using many bits. Except in limited applications, the costs in this regard tend to be prohibitively expensive, and sufficiently expansive testing for faulty nets is often impracticable.
There is therefore a need for a method and system whereby potentially faulty, or problematic, nets of a circuit layout may be quickly and conveniently screened for without the need for comprehensive, processing-intensive, and resource-consuming simulation analysis. There is a need for such system and method by which the signal channel quality of the circuit layout's nets may be readily ascertained and compared, so that available time and resources may be committed to closer scrutiny and remedy of signal channels which are actually problematic, rather than being wasted on already acceptable signal channels.

Method and system for screening nets in a post-layout environment


A video communication system comprising at least one video data transmission unit for sending or receiving video data over a data network is disclosed, as well as a corresponding video data transmission method. The transmission unit comprising an image acquiring circuitry or an image reconstruction circuitry for acquiring or reconstruction an image frame or image field, a video processing unit for processing at least part of the video data and a communication unit for sending or receiving at least part of the data. At least two of the image acquiring circuitry or image reconstruction circuitry, the video processing unit and the communication unit are arranged for simultaneously handling different parts of a same image frame or image same field of the video data.

Video data can be considered a three dimensional array of color or luminance data, depending if one refers to color or grayscale video. Two dimensions—horizontal and vertical—of this three dimensional array represent spatial data or so called pixels of a video image, whereas the third dimension represents the time domain of consecutive images. Hereafter each video image will be called a frame. A frame of pixel data generated by an imaging sensor is typically transferred to a processing or visualisation unit by serialising the data, and sending it via one or a limited set of communication lines. This said, the two dimensional spatial data of a single frame are transferred via a single communication line as a consecutive series of data in time. This communication line can carry analog data or digital codewords representing the original pixel data. By using multiple communication lines, data can be transferred more in parallel (e.g. some systems transfer red, green, blue and synchronization data in parallel). The above description typically explains how a camera system transports via a single cable its consecutive frame data to a display. A digital display will collect all consecutive data of a single frame in a buffer, and once the frame is completed it will present it to the display matrix for visualisation. In the remainder of this text, this will be referred to as a 'direct video link'.
Video or image compression refers to bandwidth reduction either in the spatial domain (image compression) or in the spatial and temporal domain simultaneously (video compression). The principal goal of compression is to reduce the amount of data (bandwidth). The latter can either be done without losing any information (lossless compression). This said the original frame data can be reconstructed identically based on the compressed frame data, and is a bit-by-bit perfect match to the original. Alternatively compression can be done such that a human observer is unable to perceive the differences between the original and the compressed frame data (visual lossless compression). This said the original frame cannot be reconstructed identically, but a human observer typically will not see the differences between the original and reconstructed frame. Lastly compression can be 'lossy' and lower the amount of visual information in order to receive a strongly improved compression efficiency. Video compression exploits the fact that pixel data is typically strongly temporal and spatial redundant. Compression can be achieved by storing the differences between a pixel and one or more references spatially (intra-frame: e.g. used in the JPEG compression scheme) and by storing the differences between consecutive frames in the time domain (inter-frame: e.g. used in the MPEG compression scheme). Additionally, given that the human eye is not very sensitive to subtle variations in intensity and/or color, further compression can be obtained by reducing the amount of different variations which are retained after compression. Combinations of these techniques form the basics behind modern nowadays compression schemes like e.g. used in the MPEG1-MPEG2 and MPEG4 families and related.
A communication protocol is an agreement between computing or telecommunication systems for exchange of information. Communication protocols used on the internet/intranet are designed to function in a complex and uncontrolled setting. The design hereto typically uses a layering scheme as a basis, which decouples a larger and more complex protocol in distinct, easier to manage sub-protocols. The Internet protocol suite consists of the following layers: application-, transport-, internet- and network interface-functions. The Internet hereby offers universal interconnection, which means that any pair of computers connected to the internet is allowed to communicate. All the interconnected physical networks appear to the user as a single large network. This interconnection scheme is hence called the internet.
Communication protocols may include signaling, authentication, encryption and error detection and correction capabilities.
Video communication can be obtained through an electrical or optical 'direct cable' carrying raw video data, minimally or not compressed and typically using no higher level communication protocols. The classic cable based system typically yields fast low latency communication, but consumes high bandwidths and normally cannot be tunnelled through a complex communication network like the internet or an intranet. Additionally, traditional video cabling typically imposes limited maximum cable lengths, or it has to be extended with expensive and/or signal-specific technology such as UTP extenders, fiber-optic extenders, and satellite connections. Then, again, these technologies incur high costs for relatively limited flexibility to put multiple channels on the same "wire" and/or receive the same channel on multiple receivers.
Internet capable video communication systems (e.g. used for telepresence) typically offer strong compression and work seamlessly over the internet/intranet, but always introduce a delay of one or more frames. In other words complex communication protocols and compression imply delay.
Despite the advanced stage of current systems for video communication there remains a need for a system combining low latency, strongly compressed internet/intranet capable video communication and possibly offering high visual quality. There is a lack of method or apparatus that could use the internet/intranet—or a communication channel of similar complexity—to send and receive video data with only a delay which is less than half of the time between two consecutive frames in the video feed presented to the sending unit. In other words, the surplus delay when compared to a 'direct video link' (cfr. sup.) of any prior system typically seems at least half of the inter frame time interval.


A transistor (10 or 11) and method of formation. The transistor (10) has a substrate (12). The substrate (12) has an overlying dielectric layer (14) and an insulated conductive control electrode (16) which overlies the dielectric layer (14). A dielectric region (18) overlies the insulated conductive control electrode (16), and a dielectric region (20) is adjacent to the insulated conductive control electrode (16). A spacer (30) is adjacent to the dielectric region (20). Epitaxial regions (24) are adjacent to the spacer (30) and the spacer (30) is overlying portions of the epitaxial regions (24). A dielectric region (26) overlies the epitaxial regions (24). Highly doped source and drain regions (32) underlie the epitaxial regions (24). LDD regions (28), which are underlying the spacer (30), are adjacent to and electrically connected to the source and drain regions (32).

The lightly doped drain (LDD) metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) field effect transistor (FET), or LDD MOSFET, is a transistor that has a drain region and a source region, each with a shallow lightly doped region adjacent a channel region, and a deeper, heavily doped region adjacent the shallow lightly doped region. The LDD MOSFET was developed by the integrated circuit industry for several reasons. The main reason for developing the LDD MOSFET was for use in reducing a known and understood hot carrier injection phenomenon. Hot carrier injection can degrade device performance and device lifetime and LDD formations are successful in reducing hot carrier injection effects.
To improve the performance of the LDD MOSFET over time, transistor material layer thicknesses and LDD MOSFET cell surface areas were reduced. Because of these advances and reductions, known phenomenon such as threshold voltage instability caused by boron penetration, doping outdiffusion, short channel effects, leakage currents, increased capacitance, and reduced isolation caused integrated circuit designers to search for new methods of making new LDD transistors more reliable.
Integrated circuit designers developed an elevated source and drain MOSFET to overcome some of the problems discussed above. The elevated source and drain MOSFET used source and drain regions physically raised off of the substrate surface to reduce short channel effects and doping outdiffusion. The elevated source and drain MOSFET has the disadvantage of having a high probability that a salicide or silicide layer could electrically short a source or drain to the substrate via a known spiking phenomenon. The spiking phenomenon is usually related to faceting in epitaxial growths along material boundaries. Faceting is a phenomenon that causes non-uniform or retarded growth epitaxial regions along epitaxial-to-dielectric boundaries. The electrical shorting caused by faceting or spiking renders the electrically shorted device inoperable. The elevated source and drain MOSFET also has the disadvantage of producing source and drain regions that may not have a constant junction depth. This variation in junction depth can effect device performance, capacitance, isolation, and other essential device characteristics and parameters.
While the LDD and elevated source and drain MOSFETs were still in need of improvements, bipolar and complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) transistors were being merged into a new technology commonly referred to as BiCMOS. BiCMOS technology added new problems and considerations to the course of research in MOSFET technology. BiCMOS technology, for most processes, usually results in added processing steps and therefore added process complexity. Conventional BiCMOS technology can also result in devices that further hinder device size reduction and device performance in both the bipolar regime and the CMOS regime. Currently, a process or a device that eliminates the disadvantages of the LDD and elevated source and drain MOSFETs does not exist.

Transistor having a lightly doped region


A halogen containing fire retardant represented by chemical formula (1) wherein the end groups X and Y are composed by A or B represented by chemical formula (2); and the said fire retardant is a mixture of the composition containing 1 to 40% of X=Y=A, 30 to 70% of X=A and Y=B, smaller than 70% of X=Y=B and, degree of polymerization n is n.gtoreq.0 wherein the content of n=0 is smaller than 60% to the total amount. ##STR1## wherein A and B are represented by following chemical formulae, and R of chemical formula B is an alkyl group of carbon number 1 to 8 alone, or 1 to 79% of alkyl group of carbon number 1 to 8 and 79 to 1% of tribromophenyl group, and total amount of R is smaller than 80%. ##STR2##

This invention relates to a fire retarded thermoplastic resin composition, and provides with the improved fire retarded resin composition and the halogen containing fire retardant for a thermoplastic resin which have a good fire retardation and is superior in the features of light resistance, heat resistance, resistance to hydrolysis, fluidity and also have a non-stickness feature to the metallic part such as screw or cylinder of an injection molding machine or an extruder and a mold. Further, in detail, this invention provides with the fire retarded thermoplastic resin composition and the fire retardant for thermoplastic resin which can be applied to the fields in which a feature of fire retardation is required such as a part of an office automation tool or a household electric appliances, a housing and an automotive parts.

Halogen containing fire retardant and fire retarded resin compositions containing said fire retardant


In ATM networks, the information transmitted in ATM cells is subject to jitter. This should be avoided particularly in the transmission of video signals and voice signals. The method provides a remedy here by reading the ATM cells into a buffer memory at the transmission clock rate and by reading them out again using the average value of the jitter.

In ATM communications networks, information is transmitted in the form of packets or cells according to an asynchronous transmission mode (Asynchronous Transfer Mode, ATM). In these ATM networks, jitter of the ATM cells occurs, dictated by the system, during the transmission operation. Jitter is generally produced by buffering of the ATM cells, which is carried out in a network node, and depends on a number of parameters. Thus, for example, the number of nodes in the network, the loading (that is to say how many bits/s are transmitted) and the nature of the traffic (that is to say whether a variable bit rate is transmitted) have a direct influence on the jitter magnitude. The jitter of an ATM cell thus fluctuates between 0 (optimum value, in other words no jitter) and a maximum value. The occurrence of jitter is particularly disadvantageous when the transmitted information takes the form of video signals or voice signals.
Limit values have been specified in the past for the purpose of avoiding excessively high jitter. Thus, for example in accordance with a specification made by the Federal German Post Office, the maximum jitter per network node must not exceed a value of 250 .mu.s. In the case of a connection in which 6 network nodes are traversed (typical value for a national connection), the maximum jitter can consequently amount to up to 1.5 ms. If a transmission bit rate of 4 Mbit/s (corresponding to a rate of 10000 cells/s) is taken as a basis, this means that, in the extreme case, instead of 15 ATM cells, not a single ATM cell arrives in the receiving device.
German Patent Specification DE 41 32 518 C2 discloses a circuit arrangement for the transmission of digital message signals via a broadband communications system operating according to the asynchronous transfer mode. Said document discloses how the effects of jitter in a receiving device can be reduced. This is done by self-synchronization of buffer memory devices, which proves to be complicated in practice.


A base for baseball or softball including a bottom surface wherein at least a portion of the bottom surface includes a prepared surface having a higher coefficient of friction than the surface in its unprepared state and wherein the base will move from its resting position when a human body applies a lateral force thereto, the force being low enough to avoid substantial injury to the human body, but will remain in position when a force applied to the base includes a downward force component that is substantial in comparison to the lateral force component.

In the United States, the games of softball and baseball are very popular. Moreover, softball and baseball enjoy great popularity in many East Asian, Latin American and Caribbean countries, as well. In a 2006 Gallup poll of Americans, 49% considered themselves baseball fans. In 2006, almost 2.3 million children played Little League Baseball worldwide, which is the largest of several leagues that organize youth baseball for children 5-18 years old. In the United States, most high schools and colleges provide baseball and softball as an intramural or competitive extra-curricular activity. In the United States, while on par in popularity with football, baseball is the oldest major sport and holds the most exalted position as the American pastime.
Familiarity with the basic concepts of the rules of baseball and softball are assumed, as one of ordinary skill in the art would know the rules intimately. However, the rules of baseball and softball provide for markers known as bases that are positioned at the four corners of a diamond, up to 90 feet in distance depending upon the age level of the players or whether baseball of softball is being played. Three of the bases are commonly referred to as bags, because they are short boxes that are placed on the surface of the ground and rise up one to four inches in height. The fourth base, known as home plate, is much thinner and rises above the ground less than one inch. Also, a pitching rubber is placed on a pitcher's mound from which the ball is thrown.
These bases are commonly held in position one of three ways. Major league teams and other organized baseball leagues generally use hollow, square metal posts located in the ground at the proper base locations. Stanchions that are attached to the bottom of the bases are placed in the hollow posts. In this manner, the bases are firmly and fixedly, yet removably positioned for play. Runners running to the bases do not have to fear that the bases will slide as the runner slides into or steps on the base. However, this method requires digging a hole into the ground and repacking the dirt around the post. This can be accomplished on a dedicated baseball field, but it is very difficult and time consuming when bases are arranged on an impromptu baseball field, such as is common for practices, for young children or for a number of other situations where a dedicated field is not used, such as indoors.
The second common type of base uses spikes that are driven into the ground that are attached to straps. The straps are cinched tight to the base and the spikes that hold the base in position. These types of bases are undesirable because they require driving a spike into the ground, which is not possible when playing indoors or on an asphalt or concrete surface, because they require tools for installation and because the bases come in multiple parts, which inevitably become lost.
A third type of base commonly used are "throwdown bases." These bases typically are formed from a single piece or molded rubber or vinyl. These bases are generally thinner than official bases. These bases also suffer from sliding and slipping particularly on grassy or wet surfaces.
As a result of the undesirability of these methods, softball and baseball bases are frequently positioned without any anchoring of any type. For bases, this is undesirable because runners running across or sliding to a bag will move the bag inadvertently. This is undesirable because the player may slip and fall thereby causing as injury or the base may be moved from its required position according the rules of baseball or softball.
Moreover, youth baseball leagues have recently mandated bases that, when a player slides into the base, "breaks away" from its position so that the runner is not injured, as commonly occurs with bases that are rigidly held in place, as described above. Put another way, leagues are requiring a base that will move when a lateral load is applied. The difficulty is designing such a base that will not move when the runner merely runs across the base, i.e. when the load applied is a combination of a lateral load and a vertical load.
Others have attempted to create a base that satisfies these requirements. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,266,768 to Roger Hall discloses a base with a "breakaway element," such as a hook and loop material attached to a base and a receiver portion that is buried in the ground. However, this attempt still requires buried elements and is not tolerant of dirty conditions, which are common on a baseball field. For other reasons, this design has not gained widespread success. The same inventor has patented other similar designs, which all require buried elements or elaborate designs.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for baseball and softball bases that do not require the digging of a hole, driving of a stake, tools or detachable parts in order to be securely and firmly and removably mounted in position.


An environmental control system of an aircraft includes a compressing device having a compressor configured to receive a first flow of a medium and a turbine configured to receive the first flow of the medium and a distinct second flow of the medium. A dehumidification system is arranged in fluid communication with the turbine. A valve is configured to divert the second flow around the turbine and an inlet port is arranged in fluid communication with the compressor, the turbine, and the dehumidification system.

Embodiments of the disclosure relate to environmental control systems, and more specifically to an environmental control system of an aircraft.
Today's air condition systems are supplied pressure that is approximately 30 psig to 35 psig. The energy in the bleed air, in the form of pressure, has is typically applied to either ram air via the ACM fan, the bleed air via the ACM compressor, or to both. A new approach applies the energy in the bleed to only a portion of the bleed air.

Environmental control system for an aircraft


A substrate for detecting base sequences that comprises a transparent support, a thin metal film formed on one side of the transparent support, and a self-assembled monolayer with a nonionic aromatic compound being an intercalator of nucleic acid polymers dispersed over the surface formed on the metal film. The substrate is manufactured, for example, by immersing a transparent support with a thin gold film formed on one side in a solution that contains a disulfide (Sxe2x80x94S) compound containing anthracene for the intercalator of nucleic acid polymers form on the metal film. A nucleic acid polymer (probe or target) is immobilized to the monolayer of the substrate, another nucleic acid polymer (target or probe) is hybridized to the nucleic acid polymer immobilized to the monolayer, and the results of the hybridization can be detected by the Surface Plasmon Resonance method after washing.

The present invention relates to the technology for determining the base sequences of DNA and RNA, which are the materials that carry the genetic information in life forms, particularly to the technology for determining base sequences by hybridization.
The hybridization method that uses for the probe a single-stranded nucleic acid polymer complementary to the sequence of a region of the target nucleic acid polymer is known as a method of detecting a specific genetic sequence in nucleic acid polymers such as DNA or determining whether two nucleic acid polymers are identical.
By the hybridization method, a target nucleic acid polymer is immobilized to a support such as a glass slide or silicon chip, and an aqueous solution containing a probe nucleic acid polymer labeled with a radioisotope (RI) or fluorescent substance is placed on the film. If the probes hybridize to the target nucleic acid polymer, only the hybridized probes remain on the film after washing. The presence of a specific sequence in the target nucleic acid polymer can be determined by detecting the radiation or fluorescence from the IR or fluorescent substance label of the probes or the color of the precipitate.
The radioactive labeling method requires a considerable cost and labor for the facility for handling radioactive substances and its management. The method also has a health problem of people who handle radioactive substances. For this reason, the method that uses fluorescent substances for labeling and performs detection using a fluorescence detection system is in common use grin recent years.
However, a special modification treatment which takes a lot of time and labor is needed to label nucleic acid polymer probes with a fluorescent substance. Moreover, the fading of the fluorescent substance inevitably occurs because of irradiation of the exciting light, and hence an expensive dedicated fluorescence detection system is needed for a high-accuracy measurement.
Further, the immobilization efficiency of a target nucleic acid polymer is very low, and a large amount of a target nucleic acid polymer is needed for immobilization. Therefore, fluorescence detection is difficult when only a small amount of target nucleic acid polymers can be obtained.
There is another method that immobilizes single-stranded nucleic acid polymer probes directly to a solid support, hybridizes a target nucleic acid polymer with the probes, and performs the detection using the Plasmon Resonance method or Quartz Oscillator method. This method of detecting base sequences also has problems that a modification of nucleic acid polymers is required to immobilize them to the support and that the control of immobilization is difficult.
The present invention was made under the situation described above. The object of the present invention is therefore to provide an improved substrate for detecting base sequences and method of detecting base sequences using the substrate which can control the immobilization efficiency of a probe or target nucleic acid polymer to the substrate at a best condition for hybridization and consequently can detect the base sequence of a target nucleic acid polymer from a very small amount of the target nucleic acid polymer without need of leveling nucleic acid polymers with isotopes or fluorescent substances and without need of modifying the molecular structure of nucleic acid polymers.
The substrate for detecting base sequences of the present invention comprises a transparent support, a thin metal film formed on one side of the transparent support, and a self-assembled monolayer with a nonionic aromatic compound (such as anthracene, pyrene, naphthalene, phenanthrene and naphthene) being an intercalator of nucleic acid polymers dispersed over the surface formed on the metal film.
The method of manufacturing the substrate for detecting base sequences comprises the following steps: synthesizing a compound (such as a disulfide compound and thiol compound) containing a nonionic aromatic compound that is an intercalator of nucleic acid polymers; and immersing a transparent support with a thin metal film formed on one side in a solution containing the compound to let the self-assembled monolayer with the nonionic aromatic compound dispersed over the surface formed on the metal film.
The method of manufacturing the substrate for detecting base sequences that has a self-assembled monolayer with anthracene dispersed over the surface comprises the following steps: synthesizing a disulfide compound containing anthracene for the intercalator of nucleic acid polymers; and immersing a transparent support with a thin metal film formed on one side in a solution containing the compound to let a self-assembled monolayer of disulfide with anthracene dispersed over the surface form on the surface of the support.
The method of manufacturing the substrate above for detecting base sequences that has a self-assembled monolayer with pyrene dispersed over the surface comprises the following steps: synthesizing a thiol compound containing pyrene for the intercalator of nucleic acid polymers; and immersing a transparent support with a thin metal film formed on one side in a solution containing the compound to let a self-assembled monolayer of thiol with pyrene dispersed over the surface form on the surface of the support.
The method of detecting base sequences using the substrate comprises the following steps: letting the self-assembled monolayer adsorb a nucleic acid polymer (probe or target) to immobilize the nucleic acid polymer to the substrate; and performing the hybridization of another nucleic acid polymer (target or probe) and the nucleic acid polymer immobilized to the substrate on the substrate.

Substrate for detecting base sequences, method of manufacturing the substrate, and method of detecting base sequences using the substrate


A system (100) and device (300) for mounting and tracking a tracker array during a surgical procedure are described. For example, the system includes a surgical navigation system (700) including a position tracking system (702) configured to track one or more tracker arrays, and a device (300) for mounting a tracker array (306) onto a patient during the surgical procedure. The device includes an intramedullary (IM) canal component (304) configured to be inserted into an IM canal (310) within a bone (312). The device further includes a tracker pin (308) configured to penetrate at least a portion of the bone and engage an inserted end (411, 413) of the IM canal component, and a tracker array (306) affixed to the tracker pin. The IM canal component is configured to engage the IM canal of the bone to stabilize the tracker array during the surgical procedure.

The use of computers, robotics, and imaging to aid orthopedic surgery is known in the art. There has been a great deal of study and development of computer-aided navigation and robotic systems used to guide surgical procedures. For example, computer assisted surgery ("CAS") has been applied to invasive surgical procedures, such as implant procedures. Typically, surgical procedures that implement CAS techniques utilize a surgical navigation system to track anatomy, implements, instrumentation, trial implants, implant components and virtual constructs or references. Such systems can render images and data related to them in connection with orthopedic, surgical and other operations. CAS allows for the association of anatomical structures, constructs, and points-in-space with a fiducial array.
One CAS system, the NAVIO® surgical system, can be used to assist in uni-compartmental and total knee replacement surgeries. NAVIO is a registered trademark of BLUE BELT TECHNOLOGIES, INC. of Pittsburgh, Pa. The NAVIO® surgical system can provide surgical navigation during the removal of tissue and during the placement of cutting guides by employing tracker arrays that are mounted to the operative bones with bicortical pins that pass through or unicortical pins that pass at least partially into the intramedullary (IM) canal. Certain implant surgeries, however, are performed on weakened or diseased bone which is not strong enough to keep a tracker array in a firmly fixed position.
Another surgical system is the ORTHOPILOT® navigation system. ORTHOPILOT is a registered trademark of Aesculap Implant Systems, LLC of Center Valley, Pa. The ORTHOPILOT® navigation system performs tracking during knee replacement revision procedures. Tracker arrays are attached to the bone via extramedullary clamps; however, these types of clamps are less secure than bicortical or unicortical pins and can shift or otherwise move during a surgical procedure.
What are needed are methods and systems for securely inserting an IM component into a compromised operative bone to provide a frame of reference for navigation and tissue removal purposes.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Surgical navigation system support array


A method and a system implementing asynchronous computation batching. A web application written in a side-effect free manner possesses the quality of referential transparency. This property allows independent functions to be executed in any order or in parallel and enables necessary data for such functions to be gathered in a batch query. This property also extends to dependent functions and allows web applications to be written assuming random access to data on a database.

Multiple factors, such as increasing broadband connectivity, the inconvenience associated with computer viruses and hardware redundancy, and the emergence of advertising supported software as a business model, have bolstered the migration of the functionality of locally stored software applications to network based web applications.
Web applications may require communications over a network with a server, (e.g., a web or database server), which introduces latency issues that affect performance, especially in comparison to locally hosted applications. Current web application implementations seek to minimize the effects of latency on application performance by defining when and how to query a server in an efficient manner. The operations defining when to query a server is often accomplished through customized software. The creation and maintenance of the customized software controlling queries can require significant developer resources.


A head lamp device for a vehicle capable of changing a lighting region in front of the vehicle in rightward and leftward directions is provided. The device comprises a head lamp, a lighting region changing mechanism for changing the lighting region of the head lamp, a right wheel speed sensor for detecting a rotational speed of a right wheel, a left wheel speed sensor for detecting a rotational speed of a left wheel, a lighting angle calculating mechanism for calculating a lighting angle of the head lamp from the right and left wheel rotational speeds detected by the right wheel speed sensor and the left wheel speed sensor respectively, and a control mechanism for controlling the lighting region changing mechanism on the basis of the lighting angle calculated by the lighting angle calculating mechanism to change the lighting region.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to light distribution control of a head lamp device for changing a lighting region in rightward and leftward directions.
2. Description of Relevant Art
Hitherto, various head lamp devices capable of changing a lighting region in rightward and leftward directions have been proposed. In almost all of them, basically the lighting region is controlled to change in response to a steering angle of the steering wheel (Japanese laid-open patent publications No. Sho 62-77249, No. Hei 3-14742 etc.) and the lighting region of the head lamp is changed to a direction of the steering to increase a lighting amount in the direction to which the vehicle is just going to advance.
Accordingly, a vehicle having such a head lamp device is specially provided with a steering angle sensor for detecting the steering angle of the steering wheel. When using the steering angle sensor, means for detecting a basis point of the steering angle is necessary in addition in order to obtain a steering angle with respect to the vehicle body.
Conventionally, a vehicle has various sensors mounted thereon, and in a vehicle installed with an anti-lock braking system (ABS), a traction control system (TCS) or the like, sensors for detecting rotational speeds of wheels are provided. Particularly, ABS tends to be installed widely in many kinds of vehicles now and in the future.
It is uneconomical that in spite of above-mentioned various sensors conventionally provided on vehicles, that the steering angle sensor and the steering angle basis point detecting means are added for changing the lighting region of a head lamp device. Thus, if a sensor used for other object can be utilized for changing the lighting region, the cost will be reduced.


An optical bypass switch for a fiber optic local area communications network (LAN) with a ring topology allows an optical signal carried on the ring to by pass a node, which includes terminal equipment and a stub cable, associated with the switch. In a non-bypass mode, the optical signal is transmitted to and from the associated terminal. The switch assembly is remote from its associated terminal and includes optical couplers and associated optical receivers and activity detectors to produce electrical signals indicative of an optical input to and output from the terminal. Logic circuitry analyzes these signals and produces an appropriate drive signal for a switch controller. The remote switch has a local power supply and is preferably located at the junction of the ring and an associated, purely dielectric stub cable. The terminal can include a dual path transceiver and bridging equipment to provide cross links between terminals in the event of a link failure to complement the node failure protection of the bypass switch.

This invention relates generally to optical communication networks and in particular to a remote optical bypass switch for use in such a network.
Fiber optic local area networks (LAN's) using a ring topology require a bypass switch at each node where an optical signal carried on the ring is received and retransmitted. The bypass switch allows the transmission of information on the network if there is a failure in the regeneration of the signal at the associated node, whether this failure is due to a malfunction of equipment at the node, such as the failure of a transmitter LED, or a power failure. The optical signal is transmitted along the ring, through the bypass switch, without interfacing with the terminal or other equipment at the node. The node is therefore "bypassed" and optical energy carrying information continues to circulate through the network. In usual commercial fiber optic LAN's, bypass switches are integrated into each user terminal.
In military applications where buildings containing terminals may be prime targets for attack, it is desirable to place the bypass switch at a location remote from the terminals and preferably in a hardened environment. The remote location increases the survivability of the network. The present solution to providing a remote bypass capability has been to connect the terminal to the remote bypass switch with a hybrid stub cable, one containing optical cables to interface with the transmission system and copper cables that carry an electrical current sufficient to hold an optical relay in a non-bypassed mode. A control signal, usually developed at the terminal, is transmitted over the copper cables to the remote bypass switch. If power is lost, the relay operates to place the switch in a bypass mode. The relay can also operate, as by interrupting the holding current, if a failure is detected at the terminal equipment.
A drawback is that the copper cables leave the system susceptible to electromagnetic interference (EMI), whether man-made or natural, e.g. lightning. Another drawback in known fiber optic LAN's is that it is possible to lose an optical input at a defective node because the bypass switch is responsive only to a power failure or interruption. For example, a break in an optical fiber in the stub cable or a transmitter LED at the terminal which has a diminished output, but is still functioning to some degree can both result in the loss of information without triggering the operation of a conventional remote optical bypass switch.
It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to provide a remote optical bypass switch for a fiber optic LAN with a ring topology which detects and reliably operates in response to a power failure as well as a malfunction or destruction of an associated terminal.
Another object is to provide a remote bypass switch with the foregoing objects which can be automatically reset.
A further object is to provide a remote bypass switch which can operate in association with a purely dielectric stub cable and which therefore is significantly less susceptible to EMI than present commercial remote bypass switches.
Another object is to provide a remote bypass switch which can operate with all of the foregoing advantages during a power failure.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a remote bypass switch with the foregoing advantages that can be manufactured using conventional components.

Optically controlled remote by-pass switch


The method for operating a radio communications system, which provides for the routing of data of connections via subscriber stations, which occasionally perform the function of routing nodes, provides that one of the subscriber stations indicates, to a routing unit of the radio communications system, its readiness to take on the function of a routing node.

The invention relates to a method for operating a radio communication system which makes provision for the relaying of data of connections via subscriber stations which temporarily fulfill the function of routing nodes. The invention further relates to a method for routing a connection in a radio communication system of said kind, as well as to a corresponding subscriber station and a corresponding routing unit.
Communication in radio communication systems is effected by electromagnetic waves over an air interface. One type of radio communication systems are the mobile radio systems. Known mobile radio systems of the so-called "second generation" are the US IS-95 standard and GSM (Global System of Mobile Communication). At the present time mobile radio systems of the third generation are in the process of being built, for example systems conforming to the FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) variant of the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication Standard) standard. The cited mobile radio systems are generally organized on a cellular basis, which is to say that they have a plurality of base stations, each of which provides coverage of a radio cell. The subscriber stations communicate with a base station located in the vicinity, in whose radio cell they find themselves.
Also known are what are referred to as wireless ad hoc networks in which signals of a connection are forwarded exclusively or partially via a plurality of subscriber stations acting as routing nodes. An ad hoc network of said type is described in L. Weifa et al: Maximizing Battery Life Routing in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks, IEEE Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2004. Said paper describes a routing algorithm in which the battery power of the individual subscriber stations that may be suitable as routing nodes is taken into account. In particular said algorithm takes into account information relating to batteries with different charge capacity that are used in the subscriber stations.
In S. Lakkavalli et al: Using Remaining Battery Lifetime Information and Relaying to Decrease Outage Probability of a Mobile Terminal, published on the internet before the date of filing of the present application, there is a description of a cellular mobile radio network which likewise has an ad hoc component. Mobile subscriber stations transmit information relating to the charge condition of their battery to a base station. The base station is then able to calculate the maximum possible transmission power for the corresponding subscriber station. A distinction is made between routing nodes (relays) which have unlimited battery power because, for example, they are connected to the power supply of an automobile, and routing nodes with limited battery power.
WO 03/055246 A1 discloses a mobile communication network in which mobile stations having a relay function are used. In this arrangement a mobile communication network comprises mobile terminals including a fixed station for exchanging signals with a first mobile terminal. A second mobile terminal is configured in such a way as to exchange so-called relay signals between said fixed station and said first mobile terminal.
WO 02/51038 A1 discloses a billing method wherein mobile devices are used as relay equipment.
WO 02/080405 A1 discloses a communication relay device wherein the relay function is used only when there is a connection to an external power source.
WO 2004/034642 AI discloses a method for routing a connection from a first mobile station to a second mobile station, wherein a central routing unit receives positioning information and transmits routing information to the mobile stations.

Method for operating a radio communications system with subscriber stations serving as routing nodes, a routing method and a corresponding subscriber station


A cross shaped container includes a cross shaped member having four arms which are communicably connected at a central portion, wherein the arms are generally hollow and each arm has a cap for sealing a terminal end thereof. A pedestal base supportively connects to one of the arms in a manner to support the cross shaped member in an upright manner.

As an alternative to expensive casket burial, cremation is used today for a deceased person. Cremation enables less land use wherein cremated remains can be easily stored within a container in a home or church and can be easily transferred between locations.
Prior art discloses numerous burial urns. For example, burial urns have been produced in the form of books, boxes, pyramids, figure heads, and rocks. Prior urns have been made of various materials, such as wood, metal and in some cases include a see through glass portion. The prior art urns disclose an engraved plate indicating the name, date of birth, and date of death of the deceased and/or a frame containing a photograph or a written memorial to the person.
While these prior designs have met with some success, there remains a need for a more aesthetically pleasing urn or container which can be relatively easily manufactured.


Commands in a queue in a hard disk drive (HDD) are selected based on a benefit of providing either an optimized throughput or an optimized number of commands per second execution, as opposed to a simple shortest access time first (SATF) selection method.

When a hard disk drive (HDD) has more than one command to execute, the commands are placed in a queue from which the next command is chosen. A Rotational Position Optimization (RPO) algorithm is used to reorder the commands for execution. Presently, hard disk drives use a Shortest Access Time First (SATF) RPO algorithm to determine which command to select. This algorithm works as follows: given a set of commands in a queue, choose the command that can be started (accessed) first. This calculation has two parts, namely, the time to perform the seek and settle operation from the current cylinder to the target cylinder, and the latency (also referred to as "extra time" herein) between this point and the starting sector for the command. Together these parts make up the estimated access time (EAT) for each queued command. The SATF algorithm depends on accurate estimates of the access time. If the estimate is too low, the actuator may settle on track after the desired sector has passed rotationally resulting in a 'miss' which adds one full revolution to the access time and, thus, degrading performance. On the other hand, if the estimate is too high, the optimal command candidate is not chosen for execution.
In any case, a SATF RPO algorithm simply selects the command which can be started first. As critically recognized herein, the SATF algorithm does not account for the length (in blocks) of queue candidates or the fact that certain queue candidates may be linked sequentially to other commands that can be executed in one disk operation. Instead, the SATF algorithm simply compares the estimated access times of each command in the queue and selects the command with the lowest EAT for execution. As recognized by the present invention, this can result in non-optimal data throughput and the failure to execute an optimal number of commands per second.
More specifically, the present invention understands that in workloads that contain a mixture of random and semi-sequential accesses, the SATF algorithm may not select commands that result in the highest rate of operations per second, because the SATF algorithm will attempt to minimize access times only. Consequently, it will not lend weight to a command that has a pipe of sequential commands, such as LBA-sequential commands that might be received sequentially by the drive and which consequently lend themselves to the execution of multiple commands in one operation. As recognized above, however, a SATF algorithm does not exploit this feature, instead attempting only to minimize the next access time. That is, a SATF algorithm will select a long sequential pipe of commands only if it has the shortest access time of all random accesses currently in the queue.
The present invention still further recognizes that for a random or semi-sequential workload that contains a mixture of transfer lengths, a SATF algorithm does not lend weight to commands that have longer transfer lengths, which could otherwise optimize throughput. Accordingly, a SATF algorithm cannot directly optimize either metric, i.e., it cannot optimize throughput or operations per second.

System and method for selecting command for execution in HDD based on benefit

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V.


A process for preparing (meth)acrylic acid by heterogeneously catalyzed gas phase partial oxidation of a saturated hydrocarbon precursor compound, in which the charging gas mixture contains from 5 to 25% by volume of steam and the molar ratio of molecular oxygen present in the charging gas mixture to saturated hydrocarbon precursor compound present in the charging gas mixture is from 1.5:1 to 2.5:1.

Processes for preparing (meth)acrylic acid by heterogeneously catalyzed gas phase partial oxidation of at least one saturated hydrocarbon precursor compound, by charging a catalyst bed which is disposed in a reactor and whose catalytically active composition is a multimetal oxide which contains the elements Mo and V, at least one of the elements Te and Sb, and at least one of the elements from the group consisting of Nb, Ta, W and Ti, and whose x-ray diffractogram has reflections h, i and k whose peak locations are at the reflection angles (2Θ) 22.2±0.5° (h), 27.3±0.5° (i) and 28.2±0.5° (k) at elevated temperature with a charging gas mixture which, in addition to the at least one saturated hydrocarbon precursor compound, molecular oxygen as an oxidant and steam as a promoter, also comprises at least one diluent gas which is substantially inert under the conditions of the heterogeneously catalyzed gas phase partial oxidation, are known (cf., for example, EP-A 1192987, DE-A 10122027, JP-A 2000-256257, EP-A 608838, EP-A 1193240, EP-A 1238960, EP-A 962253, JP-A 10-36311 and EP-A 1254706).
According to the teaching of these prior art documents, it is particularly advantageous that steam is present in the charging gas mixture, since, inter alia, it promotes the selectivity of (meth)acrylic acid formation (cf., for example, EP-B 608838 page 4), and according to the teaching of the prior art, an increasing amount of steam in the charging gas mixture has an increasingly advantageous effect. The activity of the catalytically active multimetal oxide composition is also favorably influenced by the presence of steam.
It is also known of the catalytically active multimetal oxide compositions used that the catalyzed partial oxidation is brought about by the oxygen present in the multimetal oxide active compositions, and has to be constantly resupplied to the multimetal oxide active composition by way of a redox reaction by means of the molecular oxygen present in the charging gas mixture.
Increased molar ratios of molecular oxygen to saturated hydrocarbon precursor compound in the charging gas mixture are therefore generally regarded as advantageous.
However, a disadvantage of the aforementioned procedures which are recommended as particularly advantageous is that the (meth)acrylic acid does not occur as a pure substance in the product gas of the heterogeneously catalyzed partial gas phase oxidation but rather as a constituent of a mixture from which the (meth)acrylic acid has to be removed (cf., for example, DE-A 10316465). However, as a consequence of the high affinity of (meth)acrylic acid to water, a separation of (meth)acrylic acid from steam present in the product gas mixture is particularly energy-intensive. It would therefore be advantageous from this aspect for the steam fraction in the charging gas mixture to be very low.
A further point is that the reaction gas mixture, as it passes through the catalyst bed, has to overcome its resistance. The energy required for this purpose has to be supplied to the charging gas mixture beforehand (for example in the form of compressive work; however, the reaction gas mixture may in principle also be sucked through the catalyst bed).
It will be appreciated that the greater the amount of the charging gas mixture, the greater the total amount of work to be performed (especially when conducting cycle gas). From this aspect, not only would a small steam content be advantageous, but also a very low ratio of molecular oxygen present in the charging gas mixture to the saturated hydrocarbon precursor compound present in the charging gas mixture. This is all the more true when the oxygen source used is not pure oxygen or nitrogen-depleted air, but rather air itself, since each oxygen molecule in this case is additionally accompanied by four nitrogen molecules.
It would therefore be advantageous for a process for heterogeneously catalyzed gas phase partial oxidation of at least one saturated hydrocarbon precursor compound to (meth)acrylic acid to display its full performance even at comparatively low steam contents of the charging gas mixture and comparatively small molar ratios of molecular oxygen present in the charging gas mixture to the at least one saturated hydrocarbon precursor compound in the charging gas mixture.
It is now generally known that catalytically active multimetal oxides which contain the elements Mo and V, at least one of the elements Te and Sb, and at least one of the elements from the group consisting of Nb, Ta, W, Ce and Ti may occur in various crystalline phases (cf., for example, DE-A 10246119 and DE-A 10254279).
One of the possible crystalline phases, known as the k phase (with hexagonal structure) features an x-ray diffractogram which has high-intensity reflections at the 2Θ peak locations 22.1±0.5°, 28.2±0.5°, 36.2±0.5°, 45.2±0.5° and 50.0±0.3°.
A second specific crystal structure (orthorhombic structure) in which the relevant multimetal oxide active compositions may occur is generally referred to as the i phase. Its x-ray diffractogram features, inter alia, high-intensity reflections at the 2Θ peak locations 22.2±0.5°, 27.3±0.5° and 28.2±0.5°, but, in contrast to the k phase, does not exhibit a high-intensity reflection at the 2Θ peak location 50.0±0.3° (cf. DE-A10119933 and DE-A 10118814).
The customary preparative processes of the relevant multimetal oxide compositions (for example the preparative processes of EP-A 1192987, EP-A 529853 and EP-A 603836) normally provide neither pure k phase nor pure i phase, but rather mixed crystal structures which are an intertwined mixture of k and i phase in which the k phase fraction normally dominates.
A measure of the i phase fraction in these mixed crystal structures is the intensity ratioR=Pi/(P+Pk)where Pi is the intensity of the reflection i at 2Θ=27.3±0.5° and Pk is the intensity of the reflection k at 2Θ=28.2±0.5° in the corresponding x-ray diffractogram.
Particularly high i phase fractions are present when 0.55 or 0.65≦R≦0.85. Pure i phase is present when the 2Θ peak location, 50.0±0.3°, additionally exhibits no reflection (cf., for example, DE-A 10246119).
Increased i phase fractions can be generated, inter alia, by washing the mixed crystal structures containing k and i phase with suitable liquids, for example aqueous nitric acid.


An ocular axial length measurement apparatus is provided with: a measurement section for obtaining the ocular axial length of an examinee's eye by using an optical interferometer; a drive mechanism for adjusting the relative positions of the measurement section and the examinee's eye; an operation section operated by an examiner; and a control unit. The ocular axial length measurement apparatus is equipped with an ultrasonic probe for obtaining length information in an axial direction of the examinee's eye in advance, or configured to mount the ultrasonic probe. The control unit, when measuring the eye using the ultrasonic probe, changes a setting at the time of measuring the eye using the ultrasonic probe based on an operation signal output from the operation section.

As ocular axial length measurement apparatuses, an apparatus for measuring an ocular axial length with an optical interferometer and an apparatus for measuring an ocular axial length with an ultrasonic probe are known.
There is a known combo apparatus in which a device for measuring an ocular axial length with an optical interferometer is provided with an ultrasonic probe. Thus, the combo apparatus uses ultrasonic waves to measure an optical interferometer. (see Patent Document 1).

Ocular axial length measurement apparatus


A common flight deck module for use with a plurality of aircraft platforms. The common flight deck module includes a discrete structure that is independent of the structure of the aircraft fuselage and may includes an avionics system and other hardware, controls and equipment. The common flight deck module is configured to xe2x80x9cplug intoxe2x80x9d the fuselage from each of the aircraft platforms. The xe2x80x9cplug inxe2x80x9d modularity of the common flight deck module permits the standardization of various components and procedures to thereby make possible efficiency-based cost reductions for both aircraft manufacturers and aircraft consumers.

The present invention generally relates to commercial transport aircraft and more particularly to the use of a common flight deck module in the fabrication of a plurality of differently sized commercial transport aircraft platforms.
Manufacturers of modern commercial transport aircraft typically produce a plurality of differently sized aircraft configurations so that they are able to provide appropriately sized aircraft to meet the needs of their customers. One common approach to vary the capacity of an aircraft is to add segments to the fuselage on either side of the wing. Large changes in capacity, however, necessitate the creation of a new aircraft platform wherein the diameter of the fuselage is changed (i.e., the fuselage of one platform will have a cross-sectional area that is distinct from the cross-sectional area of the fuselage of a different platform). Despite the widespread use of the latter approach, several drawbacks have been noted.
One such drawback concerns the commonality between the aircraft platforms. In view of the differences in the availability of space in each of the platforms, the complexity of the aircraft avionics and the crew capacity, the crew portion of the cabin of an aircraft is typically configured in a manner that is unique to its aircraft platform.
The unique configuration of the crew portion of a cabin, however, is undesirable to the aircraft manufacturer in that each platform must incur costs to develop the crew portion of the cabin, integrate the crew portion of the cabin to the airframe, as well as fabricate and store spare parts that are unique to the design of the crew portion of the cabin. The unique configuration of the crew portion of a cabin is also undesirable to the aircraft customer in that the customer must incur costs to train its staff for each configuration, as well as procure and store spare parts that are unique to each configuration.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for a crew module that may be integrated into a plurality of aircraft platforms. A crew module that is common to several aircraft platforms permits the costs for the development and certification of the crew module and its integration into the airframe to be shared over several aircraft platforms. Additionally, the use of a common flight deck module across several platforms substantially reduces the amount of resources that must be dedicated to training and the procurement and storage of spare parts.
In one preferred form, the present invention provides a method for fabricating an aircraft that includes the steps of: providing a flight deck module having an avionics suite with at least one exterior window aperture; generating a build order for an aircraft, the aircraft being selected from a plurality of aircraft platforms, each of the aircraft platforms having a fuselage and a predetermined capacity, wherein each of the fuselages is sized differently and wherein each of the capacities is different and wherein the flight deck module is compatible with each of the plurality of aircraft platforms; fabricating at least a portion of an associated fuselage of the aircraft; and fixedly coupling the flight deck module and the associated fuselage to one another to integrate the flight deck module into the aircraft.
In another preferred form, the present invention provides a commercial transport aircraft that includes a flight deck module having a discrete module structure and at least one exterior window aperture and a fuselage having a discrete fuselage structure with a flight deck aperture configured to receive the flight deck module.
Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

Common flight deck module for family of commercial aircraft


An electron beam column package comprises a plurality of layers having components, such as lenses, coupled thereto. The layers may be made of LTCC, HTCC or other layer technology.

Electron beam columns are used in scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) that image objects and in lithography tools for writing patterns onto semiconductor materials to be used as integrated circuits. Conventional electron beam columns consist of an assembly of components, including lenses and magnets, individually machined out of stainless steel or other alloys and individually assembled, and an electron source. A new electron beam column consisting of a package, microfabricated components, and electron source is proposed. The ideal package for this new column should meet the following criteria:    1. The package, including all the internal and external features required for electron beam column operation, should be scalable to small dimensions.    2. The packaging technology should be capable of printing the interconnects and the required shielding on the compact package with sufficient line widths and spacing to eliminate short and long term failures due to electrical break down or other failure mechanisms like, for example, electromigration.    3. The package should support controlled impedance lines and terminations for high-speed interconnects to deflectors, blankers, and other high-speed column components. These impedance lines are typically strip-line or micro-strip-line in configuration with impedances ranging from about 15 to about 150 Ohms.    4. The package should support embedded passive and active devices for on-board drivers, power supplies, monitors, diagnostics, processing, calibration, identification and other electronic functions. This configuration minimizes external circuitry, reduces the number of feed through connections, and allows termination using components mounted directly on the package.    5. The package should support mounting high-speed drivers in close proximity to the electrodes enabling GHz operation.    6. The package should be amenable to production assembly of the components. All connections to the external world should be accessible to pick and place, wire bonding, or other assembly tools. For example, all interconnects might terminate on sufficiently large pads (typically 250×250 um) located on the topside of the package.    7. The package should be amenable to batch fabrication to minimize production costs.    8. The package should be rigid, mechanically hard, and durable to provide an adequate platform for imaging and, perhaps lithography, and able to survive the rigors of in-field operation and, perhaps, space flight.    9. The package coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) should be closely matched to all other materials that it is in contact with to prevent drift, misalignment, distortions, fatigue, and other fatal occurrences.    10. The package should be attachable to the housing material, typically aluminum or stainless steel with a hermetic seal using welding, brazing, soldering or epoxy bonding. The package should allow intermediate, CTE transitioning layers, to be patterned on the surface for this purpose, such as, KOVAR.    11. The package should have a sufficiently high breakdown voltage to be electrically reliable and isolated while meeting volume constraints required by the compact design.    12. The package total thickness variation (TTV), flatness and roughness should be minimized to minimize the distortions and aberrations of the assembled column. The package should have, for example, a TTV<±1 mil, flatness <±0.5 mil/in, and RMS roughness <±0.04 mil.    13. The package may be UHV compatible.    14. The electrical interconnects printed internal to the package should be hermetically sealed to improve reliability.    15. The package must be scalable to support multiple electron beam columns in an arrayed assembly.
Conventional electron beam columns and the packages or support apparatus of other embodiments of miniature electron beam columns fail to meet most of these criteria.
Accordingly, a package enabling the proposed new electron beam column and method of use thereof is required that can overcome deficiencies of conventional electron beam columns and past embodiments of miniature electron beam columns by meeting at least some of the above-mentioned criteria.

Layered electron beam column and method of use thereof


In a horse race gaming machine 1, when a regular denomination process of S201 is executed, a regular BET image, wherein the minimum bet amount a player can specify is “1”, is displayed on a sub monitor 113 of a station 101. In the meantime, when a high denomination process of S208 is executed, a high BET image, wherein the minimum bet amount a player can specify is “2”, is displayed instead of the regular BET image, on the sub monitor 113 of the station 101. For executing the high denomination process of S208, for example, a player has to insert an IC card 119 into a reader/writer 118 (S203: YES), and further, the player has to touch a high button in the regular BET image of the sub monitor 113 (S207: YES).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a horse race gaming machine for executing racing games.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, as one of gaming machines, there has been a horse race gaming machine for executing racing games, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,874,177 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,147, etc.
In this respect, a horse race gaming machine installed in casinos is often a type of machine at which many players can play together. A horse race gaming machine of this type resembles a table game in respect of its capacity to allow a number of players to play simultaneously.
Accordingly, it would contribute very much to the management of casinos if a plurality of horse race gaming machines each having different denomination can be installed, as well as the table installed in casinos.
Yet, a horse race gaming machine is far more expensive than a table used for games. In addition, a horse race gaming machine takes a large space for installation or wiring. Accordingly, it is not easy to increase the number of horse race gaming machines, in contrast to tables used for games.


The present disclosure relates to an enclosure of a vapor compression system, where a component is disposed within the enclosure. The component is fluidly coupled to the vapor compression system and configured to discharge a flow of fluid. The enclosure includes a hole within a portion of the enclosure and a relief valve disposed within the hole of the enclosure, where the relief valve is configured to discharge the flow of fluid in a first direction through a passage within the relief valve. The passage extends from an interior region of the enclosure to an environment external of the enclosure. The relief valve is configured to block a second flow of fluid through the passage in a second direction, where the second direction is opposite of the first direction.

This disclosure relates generally to heating, ventilating, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC&R) systems. Specifically, the present disclosure relates to venting an enclosure of a HVAC&R unit.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present techniques, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as an admission of any kind.
A heating, ventilating, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC&R) system may be used to thermally regulate (e.g., refrigerate) an environment (e.g., a building, home, or other structure). The HVAC&R system may include a vapor compression system, which includes heat exchangers such as a condenser and an evaporator that transfer thermal energy (e.g., heat) between the HVAC&R system and the environment. In many cases, an enclosure may be disposed adjacent to components of the vapor compression system, such as a motor. The enclosure may house various components, such as electrical components for controlling the motor. The components within the enclosure may be pressurized, and in some cases, fluid (e.g., refrigerant) may be discharged into the enclosure.
Typical enclosures may include a plurality of louvers (e.g., cut and/or stamped slots) within a cover plate of the enclosure. The louvers may vent the fluid within the enclosure to the environment. In some cases, the louvers may be expensive to produce, and may use an additional filter to prevent contaminants (e.g., dust) from flowing through the louvers and thus, into the enclosure.

Systems and methods for venting enclosure