A method for increasing similarity between a base seismic survey and a monitor seismic survey of a same surveyed subsurface during a 4-dimensional (4D) project. The method includes receiving first seismic data associated with the base seismic survey; receiving second seismic data associated with the monitor seismic survey, wherein the monitor seismic survey is performed later in time than the base seismic survey; migrating the first and second seismic data to an image-domain; and calculating, with a processor, a set of decimating weights based on the migrated first and second seismic data in the image-domain, to maximize a similarity between the first seismic data and the second seismic data.

1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the subject matter disclosed herein generally relate to methods and systems and, more particularly, to mechanisms and techniques for 4-dimensional (4D) binning seismic data collected with different acquisition geometries.
2. Discussion of the Background
Marine seismic data acquisition and processing generate an image of a geophysical structure (subsurface) under the seafloor. While this image/profile does not provide a precise location for oil and gas reservoirs, it suggests, to those trained in the field, the presence or absence of oil and/or gas reservoirs. Thus, providing a high-resolution image of the subsurface is an ongoing process for the exploration of natural resources, including, among others, oil and/or gas.
During a seismic gathering process, as shown in FIG. 1, a vessel 10 tows an array of seismic receivers 11 located on streamers 12. The streamers may be disposed horizontally, i.e., lying at a constant depth relative to the ocean surface 14, or may have spatial arrangements other than horizontal, e.g., variable-depth arrangement. The vessel 10 also tows a seismic source array 16 configured to generate a seismic wave 18. The seismic wave 18 propagates downward, toward the seafloor 20, and penetrates the seafloor until, eventually, a reflecting structure 22 (reflector) reflects the seismic wave. The reflected seismic wave 24 propagates upward until it is detected by receiver 11 on streamer 12. Based on this data, an image of the subsurface is generated.
Alternatively, ocean bottom cables (OBC) or ocean bottom nodes (OBN) and seismometers (OBS) may be used to record the seismic data. FIG. 2 shows an OBC 30 that includes plural receivers 32 distributed on the ocean bottom 20, which may be connected to each other (or may be independent OBN/OBS) with a cable 33 that may also be connected to a data collection unit 34. Various means (e.g., underwater vehicle) may be used to retrieve the seismic data from the data collection unit 34 and bring it on the vessel 10 for processing.
One or more of the above-noted techniques may be used to monitor a producing reservoir. For these instances, the goal of 4D processing is to determine how and where earth properties change by evaluating differences in co-processed seismic data acquired at different times, usually before (i.e., the baseline survey) and after (i.e., the monitor survey) a period of fluid production from a petroleum reservoir.
Success of 4D processing depends on how well differences in acquisition are compensated for during data processing and imaging. If these differences are accurately compensated, changes in the subsurface that are related to fluid production can be identified by areas of significant difference between baseline and monitor images after migration. Failure of data processing to accurately compensate for acquisition differences leads to creation of 4D noise, which is an appreciable difference of baseline and monitor migrated images not caused by fluid production and, thus, is unwanted.
A sensitive step of 4D processing is the selection of subsets of the base and monitor data that have similar information content and similar wavefield sampling. If this similarity selection is accurately performed, the level of 4D noise in the migrated images is much reduced. This data selection is commonly achieved by 4D-binning, as described in Brain et al., US Patent 20080170468 A1, and Zahibi et al. (2009, "Simultaneous multi-vintage 4D binning," 71st EAGE Conference and Exhibition, Extended Abstracts), the contents of both documents being incorporated herein by reference. Traditional 4D-binning selects traces from the base and monitor surveys for further processing based on a set of criteria designed to assess their degree of similarity. All prior work on this topic uses similarity criteria evaluated in the data domain (i.e., before migration).
For example, Brain et al. discloses a method for processing at least two sets of seismic data, each dataset comprising several seismic traces (i,j) grouped by bins (B_i, B_j) and by offset classes (O_i, O_j). This method includes the following steps: calculating at least one attribute (a(i,j)) characteristic of a similarity between a first trace (i) of a first dataset and a second trace (j) of a second dataset, and selecting or not the first and second traces (i,j) according to a selection criterion applied to the calculated attribute (a(i,j)).
This method explicitly groups the traces by bin and offset classes to facilitate the 4D-binning process, which aims to decimate the baseline and monitor surveys to a common level of information and wavefield sampling. The method described by Brain et al. and Zahibi et al. is now widely used in the geophysical industry, and assesses similarity of the traces using surface attributes of the baseline and monitor surveys, for example, the geographic position of traces defined by shot and receiver locations, or by mid-point location and/or offset and/or azimuth. Alternative measures are also based on data-domain trace attributes such as cross-correlation. In other words, traditional 4d-binning methods use a data-domain-related attribute (similarity) to group the traces.
The above-discussed 4D-binning processes work well when the baseline and monitor surveys have similar acquisition geometry, for example, a towed-streamer base and a towed-streamer monitor acquired in similar positions but at different times. However, when the base and monitor surveys have different acquisition geometries, for example, a towed-streamer base and sparse OBN monitor, the surface or data-domain trace attributes used to measure similarity in the 4D-binning process are not a good proxy for similarity of the data's information content, and/or of the wavefield sampling in the datasets.
Differences in both information content and wavefield sampling lead to generation of 4D noise. Therefore, it is desirable to address acquisition differences through more accurate methods of data decimation (more accurate methods for 4D-binning).
The problem of decimating two different datasets to a common level of information and wavefield sampling is also addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,339,898 (herein '898), the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference. The 4D-binning method described in '898 decimates the baseline and monitor data by evaluating similarity using a measure based jointly on (i) interpolation to a common and regular surface geometry, and (ii) surface or data-domain trace attributes (as commonly used in 4D-binning). More specifically, '898 discloses a method that includes, inter alia, computing measures associated with regularization of the seismic data, and computing measures associated with 4D-binning, where the 4D-binning includes selecting traces from the seismic data of time-lapse seismic surveys and discarding at least one trace of the seismic data that is based on considering both the regularization measures and the 4D-binning measures.
The use of an interpolation engine to map data to a common and regular data domain (with base and monitor traces occupying the same geographic locations defined by their shot and receiver positions) facilitates the 4D-binning process by providing a further measure of similarity. Interpolating to a common data domain would reduce the differences of wavefield sampling, with differences in information content evaluated by the simultaneous inclusion of surface or data-domain trace attributes in the 4D-binning process.
However, where the baseline and monitor surveys have very different acquisition geometry, such as towed-streamer base and sparse OBN monitor, the interpolation of traces to a common surface data domain does not ensure common levels of wavefield sampling. Furthermore, the evaluation of similarity using surface or data-domain trace attributes cannot accurately measure similarity of information content, since the grouping of traces by surface attributes does not allow the comparison of similar parts of the seismic wavefield.
The problem of matching two datasets with very different acquisition geometries is addressed in Provisional Patent Application 61/752,626 (herein '626), "Wavefield modelling and 4D-binning for time-lapse processing of surveys from different acquisition datums," the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. In '626, matching is addressed by the use of subsurface wavefield modeling. The subsurface modeling described in '626 uses ray-tracing to a target horizon, with or without re-datuming of data to a more convenient geometry, to define the subsurface reflection points and incidence angles that should be matched in 4D-binning. The similarity measure used in '626 is made after grouping traces by their subsurface properties (reflection points and incidence angles). Thus, the method incorporates an estimate of subsurface reflection properties, but the subsurface modeling is limited to reflections on a target horizon. Furthermore, where a choice of trace pairs exists for a single estimated reflection point and incidence angle, the similarity measures used to select traces resorts to surface or data-domain trace attributes (albeit ones applied to traces grouped by subsurface properties).
One weakness of the above-discussed 4D-binning methods is the reliance on grouping together of traces from the baseline and monitor prior to evaluating their similarity. Where the acquisition geometries of baseline and monitor are very similar and have similar positioning, these methods work well. However, the situation is different when the acquisition geometries are significantly different; trace grouping based on surface attributes (such as offset or spatial trace bin) cannot ensure that the right part of the monitor dataset is being compared with the equivalent part of the baseline dataset. Where the subsurface modeling technique is used as described in '626, the trace grouping is more accurate, but it still requires data-domain measures of similarity where a choice of traces exists.
Thus, there is a need for a new 4D-binning method that does not suffer from the limitations noted above.

Image-domain 4D-binning method and system


Prosthetic ring valve assemblies are disclosed. A prosthetic valve ring assembly includes an outer tube and a plurality of anchors. The outer tube includes a plurality of windows. The plurality of anchors are positioned inside the outer tube and about a perimeter of the outer tube. The plurality of anchors are configured to be emitted from the plurality of windows in order to anchor the prosthetic valve ring assembly to annulus tissue of a patient.

Mitral Regurgitation is a valvular dysfunction that causes blood volume to flow during systole (during left ventricular contraction) from the left ventricle to the left atrium. In contrast, in a healthy heart, this direction of flow is blocked by the mitral valve. The reverse flow during systole causes pressure to rise in the left atrium, and maintaining a normal cardiac output results in an increased pressure in the left ventricle.
Treating patients with MR (mitral regurgitation) or TR (tricuspid regurgitation) could require valve replacement in order to reduce or eliminate the regurgitation. For many years, the commonly accepted treatment was surgical repair or replacement of the native valve during open heart surgery. In recent years, a trans-vascular technique has been developed for introducing and implanting a prosthetic heart valve using a flexible catheter in a manner that is less invasive than open heart surgery.
In the trans-vascular technique, a prosthetic valve is delivered to the target site (e.g., aortic valve, mitral valve, tricuspid valve, or other valve) through a catheter while the valve is crimped to a low diameter shaft. The valve is then expanded/deployed to a functional size when it is located in the correct position. Examples of such prosthetic valves, and related processes for delivering the valves through a catheter, are described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,518,107, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Advancing the catheter to the target site can be achieved through: (a) The vascular system where a catheter is advanced from the femoral vein/artery, or any other blood vessel that allows access to the target site; (b) Trans-apically where a catheter is advanced through a small incision made in the chest wall and then through the apex; or (c) Trans-atrially where a catheter is advanced through a small incision made in the chest wall and then through the left or right atrium.

Mitral or tricuspid repair systems with multi-directional anchors


A PWM modulator adds first and second input signals to each other, and performs PWM modulation processing for outputting a PWM-modulated pulse whose pulse width is modulated according to a result of addition. A shift register delays a bit stream acquired from a ΔΣ modulator, thereby generating two bit streams having a time difference which is one-half a period of PWM modulation processing, and the bit streams are supplied at first and second input signals to the PWM modulator.

The present invention relates to a class-D amplifier which generates a PWM-modulated pulse based on a bit stream of one bit acquired through ΔΣ modulation, to thus drive a load.
Such a class-D amplifier has been proposed which applies a ΔΣ-modulated bit stream of one bit to a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) modulator as an input signal showing original sound and which drives a load, such as a speaker, by the PM-modulated pulse output from the PWM modulator (refer to; for example, JP-A-2004-128750), thereby reproducing an audio signal. The class-D amplifier of this type has a simplified circuit configuration and has an advantage of being easily embodied as an integrated circuit.
Incidentally, during ΔΣ modulation, quantization noise is shifted toward a high-frequency domain due to so-called noise shaping at the time of generation of a bit stream. Therefore, the bit stream acquired through ΔΣ modulation includes a large amount of quantization noise at high frequencies. Such quantization noise at high frequencies is lessened to a certain extent by integration processing performed in the PWM modulator after the bit stream has been input to the PWM modulator. However, the amount of attenuation is not sufficient. Therefore, the quantization noise insufficiently attenuated by PWM modulation processing of the PWM modulator induces aliasing noise, and a frequency band of the aliasing noise extends to an audio band occupied by spectra of original sound, thereby posing a problem of deterioration of quality of sound reproduced by the class-D amplifier. in order to avoid occurrence of such a problem, a filter for eliminating noise near a PWM modulation frequency from the bit stream must be provided in a preceding stage of the PWM modulator. However, such a filter is embodied as a large-scale filter, which raises a problem of a class-D amplifier becoming expensive.


A television signal level meter is provided which is capable of simultaneously displaying levels for a multitude of television channels in a scale having a variable dynamic range. The television meter includes a level image forming means for displaying signal levels of a multitude of channels, a scale forming means for forming a scale suitable for simultaneously displaying the signal levels of the channels, and an image forming means for displaying channel numbers associated with the channels.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a television (TV) signal level meter (electric field strength meter), and more particularly to a meter of this kind for use in measuring and displaying an electric field strength of a radio wave of each television channel included in the VHF/UHF ranges or the like.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, a TV signal level meter or a spectrum analyzer is used for measuring an electric field strength of a radio wave received in a TV channel. The TV signal level meters may be classified into a single channel type and a multi-channel type. One such single channel type TV meter is a VHF/UHF signal level meter LFC-945 manufactured by the present assignee which is adapted to measure and indicate an electronic field strength level of a selected single channel. On the other hand, one type of multi-channel type TV signal level meter is MODEL NLC-W901 manufactured by Nippon Antenna Co., which simultaneously measures and indicates electric field strength levels of up to a predetermined number of channels (for example seven channels). A spectrum analyzer, though not exclusively employed for the measurement of TV signal levels, can also be used for measuring the electric field strength magnitudes of TV channels since it can display the levels of received signals within a certain frequency range.
Since the above-mentioned single channel type TV signal level meter cannot simultaneously display electric field strength levels of a plurality of channels, it takes a long time to measure the levels of a large number of channels. In condominiums and apartment complexes and so on, it has been required that outputs from an installed common antenna to respective dwelling units must have signal levels not lower than a predetermined value at any channel. In meeting such a requirement, adjustment of the antenna by using a single channel type TV meter requires a great deal of labor. Further, since the number of channels which require measurements of signal levels has been increasing with the recently wide-spread installation of a city-type CATV or the like, the labor for measuring and checking signal levels of these channels becomes immense.
This problem can be alleviated to some extent by the foregoing multi-channel type TV signal level meter MODEL NLC-W901. This TV level meter, however, divides a measurable level range into a high region (60-100 dB.mu.) and a low region (30-70 dB.mu.) and thus has a narrow dynamic range for the simultaneous display of measured results. Specifically, if there is a large difference in level among channels, the measured levels of all channels cannot be displayed at one time. Thus, the TV signal level meter of this model is not suitable for the requirement of the collective residence. The model also suffers a drawback that selection and change of channels to be measured take much time.
If a spectrum analyzer is employed for measuring TV channel signal levels, the levels of all signals present within a certain frequency range are displayed. Due to this, it is inconvenient to find the signals of TV channels to be measured. There is another drawback that the device itself is very expensive.


A monitoring system is presented for monitoring plants' conditions in one or more plant growing areas. The system comprises: a data collection system configured and operable to provide characterization data about plants in said one or more plant growing areas, the data collection system comprising data collection modules of at least first and second different types, the first type data collection module comprising a first imaging device of predetermined first optical properties and the second type data collection module comprising a second imaging device of predetermined second optical properties different from the first optical properties, the characterization data provided by at least one of the first and second imaging devices being indicative of various parameters of the plants being imaged; and a control system configured and operable to be in data communication with an analyzer to be responsive to operational data received from the analyzer and being based on analysis of the image data indicative of one or more plants being imaged by the first type imaging device, to selectively activate the second type imaging device to apply the second type imaging to at least a part of said one or more plants.

Crops require a lot of care, either when grown in protected environment (such as in a greenhouse) or outdoors, especially when cultivated on a large scale where farmers continuously face a variety of challenges, including the need to maintain plants' health over the whole plant life cycle, control over flower pollination, and insure healthy as well as good yield crops. Indeed, it can be a difficult task to know whether the crop, at a specific time point, suffers from a problem, such as existence of pest, disease, or nutritional deficit, and what is the extent of the problem until it is readily visible. Often by that stage, it may require expensive and extensive intervention. Crop yield is affected by the physiological performance of the crop throughout its development cycle. Precise intervention at critical developmental stages, allows farmers to achieve high yields of the crop. A common practice for monitoring crops for pests, diseases and other deleterious conditions, has been the use of human scouts who visually inspect the crop. However, human inspection might take a long time, especially in large plant areas, and might facilitate the spread of those pests and diseases, for example, through physical contact with multiple plants, and is subject to subjective interpretation of the inspecting person.
Many crop management practices are employed based on past practices. A common underlying assumption is that crops are uniform and perform evenly which is not necessarily the case.
Sensor systems have been developed for crop monitoring. For example, some systems use a grid of sensors suspended above the crop or which fly over the crops. Handheld devices are also used to capture data from individual plants. Other systems rely on visual detection by means of motion detection or visual pattern recognition.
Some sensor systems are directed toward specific indicators (presence of disease, emergence of pests, etc.) with narrow spectra of responses. For example, fluorescent measurement systems have been used to detect far red spectra produced by plants when exposed to blue or red light. Conventional fluorescent measurement requires complex equipment, and typically a single assessment takes several minutes. Other sensory systems can collect very general information (temperature, humidity) that cannot accurately pinpoint problems at the level of individual plants.

System and method for monitoring plants in plant growing areas


A voice command and control medical care system is provided which comprises a processor having a continuous speech recognition capability. The processor is programmed to process a user's conversational speech to identify valid commands therein and to generate control signals for operating medical equipment such as surgical tools in accordance with the commands. The processor is programmed to generate audio messages reporting status information when requested, and to generate confirmation messages and await acknowledgement before executing a command. The system is configurable to interface with and control via voice activation essentially any piece of medical equipment having instruments and control switches that can be controlled via electrical or electromagnetic signals.

A number of voice assisted machine control applications have been developed due to recent advancements in speech recognition software. Examples of these applications include input and storage of electronic patient records, assistance in clinical diagnosis, generation and manipulation of medical images, and manipulation of surgical devices such as microscopes.
Voice activated control of surgical instruments for vitreo-retinal surgery, for example, appears to be a good application for voice actuation technology. Intraocular surgery frequently requires simultaneous use of elaborate and sophisticated pieces of equipment by the surgeon, and coordination and integration of such equipment in an operating room with assistants and one or more nurses. A nurse is typically required to manipulate equipment controls in response to a surgeon's commands. Delays can occur when the nurse is busy setting up or adjusting other parameters when the surgeon's command is received. Delays associated with the human interface between a surgeon and a nurse can increase complexity of the surgery, particularly when conditions inside the patient's eye change rapidly and unexpectedly.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,989,253 discloses a voice control system for moving and focusing a microscope. The system is disadvantageous, however, because it employs a discrete speech recognition algorithm. An operator must therefore give simple verbal commands, which are typically only one or two words, and speak them clearly and slowly. During procedures such as intraocular eye surgery, it is difficult to expect a surgeon to speak in the slow, halting manner required for accurate word identification using a discrete speech recognition algorithm.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,148 discloses a voice activated image display controller which requires each operator to speak every command in order to create a stored user-specific pronunciation list. The controller compares received digitized audio signals with the list to determine if a spoken word is a valid command. The controller is disadvantageous because it requires operators to undergo time-consuming training in order to use it.
A need exists, therefore, for a voice command and control system for medical equipment which allows a surgeon to render voice commands using natural, conversational speech and which does not require the surgeon to participate in extensive training of the speech recognition engine. Further, a need exists for a voice command and control system which allows a surgeon to effectively handle volatile and quickly changing patient conditions (e.g., intraocular pressure) , and to decrease surgery time without compromising the safety of the surgical procedure.

Voice command and control medical care system


The invention relates to recombinant expression of terpenoid synthase enzymes and geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase (GGPPS) enzymes in cells and the production of diterpenoids.

The pharmaceutically important diterpene lactone ginkgolides are products of secondary metabolism in Ginkgo biloba (G. biloba) plants. With over 3000 publications on these compounds since 2001 and annual sales of ˜$250 million in the US alone, G. biloba extract and its constituents are currently among the most studied and sold phytochemical worldwide1. Ginkgolides exhibit bioactivities as antagonists of platelet-activating factor, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and glycine receptors, resulting in therapeutics that are administered for improvement in vascular function, inhibition of thrombosis and embolism, and neuroprotective function2-5. Moreover, their potential as cancer therapeutics is under investigation6. Currently, the availability of ginkgolides is limited because less than 5 p.p.m of products can be obtained from leaf extract'. Furthermore, the growth of G. biloba is also extremely slow. Scalable production routes via plant cell culture and chemical synthesis have been explored; however, they are still far from industrial application. Ginkgolides yield from plant cell culture is relatively low (˜40 mg/L)7 and synthetic methods require more than 20 steps8.
The success of fermentation technology to produce many fine and commodity chemicals has inspired the heterologous production of several plant terpenoids using microbial hosts9-13. In plants, secondary metabolite pathways are genetically programmed and regulated (transcriptionally and post-translationally) so that these chemicals are only synthesized as needed14, 15. A particular branch pathway is not designed to overproduce a certain metabolite, but rather, so that the overall metabolism works in concert. A successful microbial production platform, on the other hand, requires that an imported pathway generate a high production yield. Metabolic engineering to increase flux through an engineered plant-derived pathway has been shown to improve terpenoid production12, 13, 16.

Methods for microbial production of terpenoids


An apparatus for performing speculative stores is provided. The apparatus reads the original data from a cache line being updated by a speculative store, storing the original data in a restore buffer. The speculative store data is then stored into the affected cache line. Should the speculative store later be canceled, the original data may be read from the restore buffer and stored into the affected cache line. The cache line is thereby returned to a pre-store state. In one embodiment, the cache is configured into banks. The data read and restored comprises the data from one of the banks which comprise the affected cache line. Instead of forwarding store data to subsequent load memory accesses, the store is speculatively performed to the data cache and the loads may subsequently access the data cache. Dependency checking between loads and stores prior to the speculative performance of the store may stall the load memory access until the corresponding store memory access has been performed. Similar functionality to forwarding of store data is obtained through the performance of load memory accesses to the data cache. Additionally, speculative load memory accesses which are partially overlapped by a prior speculative store memory access may be performed more efficiently.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to microprocessors and, more particularly, to an apparatus for performing store memory accesses in a microprocessor.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
Superscalar microprocessors achieve high performance by simultaneously executing multiple instructions during a clock cycle and by specifying the shortest possible clock cycle consistent with the design. As used herein, the term "clock cycle" refers to an interval of time during which the pipeline stages of a microprocessor perform their intended functions. Storage devices (e.g. registers or arrays) capture their values in response to a clock signal defining the clock cycle. For example, storage devices may capture a value in response to a rising or falling edge of the clock signal.
Since superscalar microprocessors execute multiple instructions per clock cycle and the clock cycle is short, a high bandwidth memory system is required to provide instructions and data to the superscalar microprocessor (i.e. a memory system that can provide a large number of bytes in a short period of time). However, superscalar microprocessors are ordinarily configured into computer systems with a large main memory composed of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) cells. DRAM cells are characterized by access times which are significantly longer than the clock cycle of modern superscalar microprocessors. Also, DRAM cells typically provide a relatively narrow output bus to convey the stored bytes to the superscalar microprocessor. Therefore, DRAM cells provide a memory system that provides a relatively small number of bytes in a relatively long period of time, and do not form a high bandwidth memory system.
Because superscalar microprocessors are typically not configured into a computer system with a memory system having sufficient bandwidth to continuously provide instructions and data, superscalar microprocessors are often configured with caches. Caches are storage devices containing multiple blocks of storage locations, configured on the same silicon substrate as the microprocessor or coupled nearby. The blocks of storage locations are used to hold previously fetched instruction or data bytes. Each block of storage locations stores a set of contiguous bytes, and is referred to as a cache line. Typically, cache lines are transferred to and from the main memory as a unit. Bytes can be transferred from the cache to the destination (a register or an instruction processing pipeline) quickly; commonly one or two clock cycles are required as opposed to a large number of clock cycles to transfer bytes from a DRAM main memory.
Caches may be organized into an "associative" structure (also referred to as "set associative"). In a set associative structure, the cache lines are accessed as a two-dimensional array having rows and columns. When a cache is searched for bytes residing at an address, a number of bits from the address are used as an "index" into the cache. The index selects a particular row within the two-dimensional array, and therefore the number of address bits required for the index is determined by the number of rows configured into the cache. The act of selecting a row via an index is referred to as "indexing". The addresses associated with bytes stored in the multiple cache lines of a row are examined to determine if any of the addresses match the requested address. If a match is found, the access is said to be a "hit", and the cache provides the associated bytes. If a match is not found, the access is said to be a "miss". When a miss is detected, the bytes are transferred from the memory system into the cache. The addresses associated with bytes stored in the cache are also stored. These stored addresses are referred to as "tags" or "tag addresses".
The cache lines within a row form the columns of the row. Columns may also be referred to as "ways". The column is selected by examining the tags from a row and finding a match between one of the tags and the requested address. A cache designed with one column per row is referred to as a "direct-mapped cache". In a direct-mapped cache, the tag must be examined to determine if an access is a hit, but the tag examination is not required to select which bytes are transferred to the outputs of the cache.
In addition to employing caches, superscalar microprocessors often employ speculative execution to enhance performance. An instruction may be speculatively executed if the instruction is executed prior to determination that the instruction is actually to be executed within the current instruction stream. Other instructions which precede the instruction in program order may cause the instruction not to be actually executed (i.e. a mispredicted branch instruction or an instruction which causes an exception). If an instruction is speculatively executed and later determined to not be within the current instruction stream, the results of executing the instruction are discarded. Unfortunately, store memory accesses are typically not performed speculatively. As used herein, a "memory access" refers to a transfer of data between one or more main memory storage locations and the microprocessor. A transfer from memory to the microprocessor (a "read") is performed in response to a load memory access. A transfer from the microprocessor to memory (a "write") is performed in response to a store memory access. Memory accesses may be a portion of executing an instruction, or may be the entire instruction. A memory access may be completed internal to the microprocessor if the memory access hits in the data cache therein. As used herein, "program order" refers to the sequential order of instructions specified by a computer program.
While speculative load memory accesses are often performed, several difficulties typically prevent implementation of speculative store memory accesses. As opposed to registers which are private to the microprocessor, memory may be shared with other microprocessors or devices. Although the locations being updated may be stored in the data cache, the data cache is required to maintain coherency with main memory. In other words, an update performed to the data cache is recognized by other devices which subsequently access the updated memory location. Other devices must not detect the speculative store memory access, which may later be canceled from the instruction processing pipeline due to incorrect speculative execution. However, once the store becomes non-speculative, external devices must detect the corresponding update. Additionally, speculative loads subsequent to the speculative store within the microprocessor must detect the updated value even while the store is speculative.
Instead of speculatively performing store memory accesses, many superscalar microprocessors place the store memory accesses in a buffer. When the store memory accesses become non-speculative, they are performed. Load memory accesses which access memory locations updated by a prior store memory access may be stalled until the store memory access completes, or may receive forwarded data from the store memory access within the buffer. Even when forwarding is implemented, the load memory access is stalled for cases in which the load memory access is not completely overlapped by the store memory access (i.e. the load memory access also reads bytes which are not updated by the store memory access). Buffer locations occupied by stores and loads which depend upon those stores are not available to subsequent memory accesses until the store is performed. Performance of the microprocessor is thereby decreased due to the inability to perform speculative store memory accesses. An apparatus allowing speculative performance of store memory accesses while ensuring correct operation is desired.

Apparatus and method performing speculative stores


A system for delivering infrared energy to a sample using frustrated internal reflectance in which a crystal for receiving the infrared energy is formed integrally with a removable mounting card. The mounting card is removable so that new samples can be sampled by quickly replacing the crystal with a new crystal having a new sample for analysis. Preferably, the crystal has the shape of a Fresnel lens. The infrared energy can be delivered to the crystal so that it experiences a single internal reflection and mounted in a card to form a surface that is integral with one side of the card to facilitate rapid cleaning and reuse of the card.

It is known that a crystal material such as AMTIR-1, silver halide, silver bromide, KRS-5 or the like can be used to attain frustrated internal reflectance of infrared energy. The infrared radiant energy is injected into the crystal so as to reflect at more than the critical angle. The resulting internal reflectance establishes an evanescent field around the crystal. Material placed in or near contact with the crystal will couple with the evanescent field generated by the frustrated internal reflection. A material having spectral absorption features in the bandwidth of the infrared energy imparts a spectral signature to the infrared energy undergoing frustrated internal reflection by coupling with the evanescent field. Ejecting the infrared energy from the crystal to an infrared detector permits the acquired spectrum to be measured using, for example, a known FT-IR spectrometer such as a Mattson Galaxy 5000.
The issue remains how best to deliver the infrared energy to a sample so that it can experience evanescent field coupling with the material being spectroscopically analyzed. Various elaborate proposals have been advanced. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,602,869 to Harrick proposes mounting two mirrors on an arm so as to reflect the infrared energy into a prism. The infrared radiant energy can experience between one and three internal reflections which lead to the infrared energy acquiring the spectral content of the material under analysis. The internal reflection prism cell disclosed by Harrick, however, is quite elaborate in its mechanical construction which adds to the cost of the unit while simultaneously detracting from its ease of use. There is no simple way contemplated for removing the crystal or for moving onto additional measurements. Nevertheless, the solution proposed by Harrick has proven to be one of the more successful spectroscopic accessories on the market due, in part, to its simplicity relative to other comparable accessories.
Another proposal is that presented in U.K. Patent Application GB 2 228 083 in which a crystal is mounted and sealed to a fluid chamber so as to become a part of the wall of the chamber while also contacting the fluid. The infrared energy experiences multiple internal reflections. Forming the crystal integral with the fluid containment vessel has an inherent advantage of simplicity of use in that the spectra of new liquids can be attained simply by emptying the vessel, cleaning the inner face of the crystal and refilling it with the new specimen. The requirement for multiple internal reflections also requires the crystal to be rather large which complicates the construction of the fluid chamber. The concept of this fluid chamber has enjoyed no known commercial acceptance or success.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,177,759 to Wilks, Jr. discloses a particularly simple and powerful geometry for a crystal that achieves frustrated internal reflection. The crystal has a series of ridges in the form of triangular prisms which are aligned in a common direction to form what amounts to a Fresnel lens. Infrared radiant energy enters the crystal through a first face of any of the ridges, experiences a single internal reflection and then exits through a second face of any of the ridges. The resulting prism has minimum weight and can be formed through simple injection molding. This crystal, however, is not mounted in any particular base such that the mechanical complexity of the accessory is not reduced.
There is a need in the art for a simple, efficient and mechanically simplified way to deliver infrared energy to a sample so that it can experience evanescent field coupling with material that being spectroscopically analyzed. There is a need to avoid the mechanical complexity of having a plurality of internal reflections within the crystal while also being able to rapidly change between new samples. And there is a need to attain mechanical simplicity using an optical apparatus that is economical to fabricate.
The present invention meets these and other needs by combining a simple infrared crystal support assembly for delivering the infrared energy to an infrared crystal where it can experience frustrated internal reflectance in which the infrared crystal is formed integrally with a removable crystal mounting plate. The support assembly supports a removable crystal mounting plate so that new measurements can be made by quickly replacing the crystal mounting plate having one crystal with a new crystal mounting plane having another crystal for analysis of a different sample. Preferably, the crystal has the shape of a Fresnel lens of modest size that is easily fabricated. The infrared energy can be delivered to the crystal so that it experiences a single internal reflection which helps to reduce the complexity associated with crystals using a plurality of internal reflections. The crystal can be mounted in its crystal mounting plate to form a surface that is integral with one side of the crystal mounting plate to facilitate rapid cleaning and reuse of the crystal mounting plate.
The foregoing objectives, features and advantages of the present invention, and more, are explained in detail below.

Infrared spectroscopic sampling accessory having a remotely mounted crystal plate


A fitness monitoring device includes an electronic pedometer which responds to a user's body motion at each step and a wireless heart rate monitor which is wirelessly coupled to the electronic pedometer. The wireless heart rate monitor provides a heart beat signal indicative of an exertion level of the user. A visual display is provided to display the pedometer functions and the heart rate signal. A microprocessor receives the pedometer output signal and the heart rate signal. The microprocessor is programmed to provide visual display data relating to the heart rate and pedometer functions.

In order to measure the walking or jogging distance covered by a user, both mechanical and electronic pedometers have been developed. Typically, such pedometers are worn on the side of the user such as by being clipped to a belt or the waist line of the user's pants in the manner of a pager or the like. Other known pedometers are built into a wrist watch worn on the user's wrist. In general, the pedometer functions to record the distance covered by the user by responding to the user's body motion at each step. Pedometers include various features and functions such that they can be adapted to the personal stride of the user. The pedometer includes a display, such as an LCD or LED display, for displaying the distance covered, number of steps taken during the workout, stopwatch and clock features, etc.
In most cases, the known pedometers use a mechanical sensing device to respond to the user's body motion at each step. However, the use of the mechanical sensor is disadvantageous as it is more susceptible to breakage and inaccuracies.
Electronic pedometers are also known which include an electronic sensor circuit to respond to the user's body motion at each step or stride. These electronic pedometers are more reliable and less susceptible to breakage.
While the known pedometers provide useful information during a workout, they unfortunately do not provide the user with any indication as to the level of exertion being placed on the user's body. Thus, while specific performance limitations may be indicated, the pedometer cannot inform the user whether they are training to hard or to little. The user therefore needs some indication of the degree of physical effort actually exerted as measured by physiological signs. The use of physiological signs provides a more direct indication to guide the exercise than the information provided by the known pedometers such as the distance travelled, amount of time involved, or the physical work load.
In view of the above, heart rate monitors have been developed to allow a person to consistently engage in an appropriate quantity and quality of exercise by monitoring the cardiovascular system via the heart rate. In general, effective aerobic conditioning requires that one's heart rate is maintained at a proper level or "target zone" for at least fifteen minutes. Prior to the use of heart rate monitors, a person would have to interrupt the workout in order to manually check their heart rate before continuing or modifying the exertion level of their workout. Of course, the sudden interruption of a workout to check the heart rate is itself disadvantageous.
One known method of monitoring the heart rate uses electrodes attached to the user in the vicinity of the heart. Electrical signals detected by the electrodes are transmitted via conductors or wires to a processor which can compute the heart rate. These "wired" heart rate monitors present various problems in that the wires often interfere with an exercise workout, particularly during running or walking workouts. They are therefore not particularly suited to active exercising.
There have also been developed so-called "wireless" heart rate monitors which use a telemetric transmitter unit for wirelessly transmitting electrical signals detected by electrodes to a separate receiver device. One such telemetric transmitter unit is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,491,474. It is also known to use wired or telemetric wireless heart rate monitors with stationary exercise devices such as a cycle ergometer as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,262. The ergometer is used to simulate an exercise program. However, such combined devices restrict the user's exercise routines to stationary exercise units.
Pedometers have also been developed which incorporate pulse meters for sensing the user's heartbeat, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,539,706. In contrast to heart rate monitors which determine the heartbeat in beats per minute (bpm) based on electrical signals from the heart, the pulse meters calculate the heartbeat by sensing blood flow through the user's veins. Typically, pulse meters incorporate an infrared light sensor which is pressed against the user's fingertip or clipped against the user's ear. The infrared light sensor determines how fast the user's blood is pumping through their veins. Unfortunately, such pulse meters encounter problems in that if the user's finger is pressed too hard against the sensor, the blood flow will slow down. By contrast, if pressed too lightly against the sensor, then even the slightest movement of the user's fingertip can give erratic readings. Similarly, the ear-clip pulse meter models can also provide faulty readings due to poor circulation in the user's ears, or to sensor movements caused by the connecting wires which must dangle from the sensor. While the use of pulse meters is accurate when the user remains very still, they become unstable and inaccurate during a fitness routine. This therefore defeats the purpose of using the pulse meter to determine the user's heartbeat during exercise. Proper use of heart rate measurement requires that the user be aware of the heart rate during the exercise. As noted above, however, accurate readings with the pulse meters are accomplished by interrupting or slowing down the exercise routine, which has its own disadvantages notwithstanding the fact that the user's heart rate instantaneously lowers during a stoppage or slow down.
There is therefore needed a fitness monitoring device which can effectively provide the user with physiological information concerning their exercise level while at the same time providing empirical information with respect to the duration and extent of a workout.

Fitness monitoring device having an electronic pedometer and a wireless heart rate monitor


A camera, which is loaded with a film cartridge having a light lock door for closing and opening a film egress/ingress slot and an indicator attached to a cartridge spool for providing a visible indication that a filmstrip in the cartridge is exposed at a specific angular position of rotation of the cartridge spool, is provided, at the bottom of a cartridge chamber of the camera, with a bottom lid for opening and closing the cartridge chamber and a lock/unlock key movable between lid lock position and a lid unlock position. The movement of the lock/unlock key toward the lid unlock position is accompanied by rotation of the cartridge spool into the specific angular position and movement of the light lock door to the film egress/ingress slot closed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a camera which is loaded with a film cartridge which contains a roll of film strip wound around a cartridge spool and a light lock door rotated closed to prevent ambient light from entering the cartridge interior through a film egress/ingress slot and rotated open to permit film movement into and out of the cartridge interior through the film egress/ingress slot.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, a new type of film cartridges have been proposed and have been put in the market. Such a film cartridge has a film egress/ingress slot and is provided with a light lock door rotatable between a closed position in which the cartridge interior where substantially the entire length of film strip wound around the cartridge spool is contained is kept light-tight and an open position in which the filmstrip is permitted to move into and out of the cartridge interior through the film egress/ingress slot. One of this type of film cartridges is known from, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,274. The film cartridge shell at one of its ends has at least two different symbol windows in the shapes of, for example, a circle (.smallcircle.) and a cross (X). The circular-shaped symbol window effects an indication that the filmstrip is unexposed, and the cross-shaped symbol window effects an indication that the filmstrip is exposed. An indicator rotatable together with the cartridge spool on the inside of the film cartridge is visible in different color from the cartridge shell in one specific angular position through the circular-shaped symbol window to provide an indication that the filmstrip is unexposed. The indicator is visible in different color in another specific angular position through the cross-shaped symbol window to provide an indication that the filmstrip is exposed.
Various types of cameras have been proposed for use with this type of film cartridges. This type of camera has a camera body provided with a cartridge chamber for receiving a film cartridge (which is hereafter referred to as a cartridge receiving chamber) therein. The cartridge receiving chamber at one of its ends has an opening through which is opened to permit a film cartridge to be loaded into and taken out of the cartridge receiving chamber and which is closed by a lid locked in a locked position by a locking key. The camera is further provided with a rotational spool driver which is brought into engagement with the cartridge spool when the film cartridge is inserted into the cartridge receiving chamber and rotates the cartridge spool in opposite directions to forcibly move the filmstrip into and out of the cartridge interior through a film egress/ingress slot, and a light lock door driver which is brought into engagement with the cartridge spool when the film cartridge is inserted into the cartridge receiving chamber and rotates the light lock door in opposite directions to open and close the film egress/ingress slot.
Low-priced cameras of this type has a film rewind switch which is turned on to rotate a motor-driven spool driver for causing rotation of the cartridge spool to rewind an exposed filmstrip into the film cartridge and turned off when an exposure counter indicates zero. The cartridge spool of such a camera is not always located in a fixed position when the rewind switch is turned off, and consequently, the indicator of the film cartridge is not always precisely in a fixed angular position relative to the symbol window which effects an indication that the filmstrip has been exposed. Accordingly, there is a necessity for the photographer to make an additional rotation of the indicator to adjust the indicator in position relative to the symbol window prior to taking the film cartridge out of the camera. Specifically, in this type of low-priced camera, the motor-driven spool driver has a spool drive shaft with a key engageable with a key way of the cartridge spool. Because the angular position of the key way is precisely specified with respect to the spool driver shaft, the spool driver has to be rotated for precise angular position adjustment of the indicator relative to the symbol window prior to taking the film cartridge out of the camera. Another necessity encountered by the photographer is to operate the light lock door driver to rotate the light lock door open to permit film movement into and out of the film cartridge prior to loading the film cartridge into the camera and to rotate it closed prior to taking the film cartridge from the camera for prevention of ambient light from entering the cartridge after permit film movement into and out of the film cartridge after taking the film cartridge out of the camera.
It is hard in the economical point of view to built a motor drive mechanism for both angular position adjustment of the indicator and operation of the light lock door in the low-priced camera.

Photographic camera which automatically sets film status indication and closes light lock door


A multimedia residential gateway device for providing video services to multiple televisions within a home. The device receives incoming video content from a DSL, DOCSIS, or Ethernet data stream and outputs selected content to individual televisions, with the content for each television being transmitted over an ATSC or NTSC channel associated with each television. This eliminates the need for multiple set top boxes in a high-definition offering. Radio frequency handheld remotes for each television are provided which communicate directly with the gateway device. The device may also be provided as a multi-television set top box, wherein the device receives Ethernet data streams from a customer's existing residential gateway.

In recent years, many companies have started to offer in-home digital video services to their customers using packet-switched transmission technologies such as internet protocol television (IPTV). These new video services and associated hardware require "upstream" communication for certain functionality, such as video on demand (VOD), web browsing, and other interactive features. In addition, these digital video services are increasingly being offered as part of a package with internet data and phone services using a single hardware platform. One obstacle to the sales and installation of such services is the requirement for additional hardware, such as digital television set top boxes, and the need for upgraded cabling throughout the home to reach the individual set top boxes.
In a typical installation, a device known as a residential gateway is installed in the home for communicating with the upstream provider equipment. The residential gateway is then connected to individual set top boxes throughout the home, with a separate set top box installed near and connected to each television being used. The set top boxes are needed to convert the Ethernet 802.3 packet-based video signals from the residential gateway into a format that can be interpreted by the television, such as Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) signals. In order to connect the residential gateway to the set top boxes, however, Ethernet Category 5 (CAT-5) cabling must be run from the residential gateway to each room where a set top box and television is to be located. Since most homes do not have existing Ethernet CAT-5 cabling already installed, the labor and material cost of adding such cabling, in addition to the cost of the individual set top boxes, can be quite high.
An alternative solution known in the art is to communicate the gateway Ethernet signals over the existing coaxial cabling in the home using a "Ethernet over coax" protocol, such as the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HPNA) or Multimedia Over Coax Alliance (MOCA) protocol, but this solution often proves unsatisfactory since the existing coaxial cable connectors, or perhaps entire cable runs, may need to be upgraded to accommodate the higher frequencies of the Ethernet signals. This solution also still requires a technician to come to the home, as most customers are not capable of performing and troubleshooting the required wiring upgrades themselves.

In-home distribution residential gateway and/or set top box


A system and method with policy control function (PCF) for multimedia broadcast/multicast system (MBMS) services that includes a core network, one or more application servers, and one or more policy control functions (PCF). In one embodiment, the core network includes one or more gateway GPRS support nodes (GGSN). One of the application servers provides a MBMS service. At least one policy control function is operatively connected between each GGSN and application server. MBMS session request information is sent from the MBMS service server to the policy control function. The policy control function provides authorization information for a MBMS session to the GGSN.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to wireless communications, and more specifically to using a policy control function (PCF)/policy decision function (PDF) for multimedia broadcast/multicast system services (MBMS).
2. Background of the Related Art
Conventional wireless communication systems suffer from the problem of static, limited traffic classification capability. A Quality of Service (QoS) control may be provided through QoS profiles contained in a Home Location Register (HLR) of the system. This has the disadvantage that the network applies the same HLR based QoS for all communication services. Such static HLR based control is not service-aware. It is not possible to achieve differentiated treatment for different types of service usage within one traffic class and the network is sufficient only for short-term simple communication services.
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has attempted to provide for policy based admission control in Release 5 of the 3GPP TR 23.917 specifications "Dynamic Policy control enhancements for end-to-end QoS", the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. The specifications include a Policy Control Function (PCF), which although a separate logical entity from the Proxy Connection State Control Function (P-CSCF), is described as being a part of the P-CSCF in Release 5. Consequently, policy based admissions control is only available for communication services provided through the IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) and only the IMS may request resources of the radio access network (for example, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) or Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)) for the communication services.
In Release 5 of the 3GPP TR 23.917 specifications, a policy control function is only applicable for IMS and tightly linked to the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) session control. This does not enable a generic service policy to be applied to both IMS and non-IMS services, such as multimedia broadcast/multicast system (MBMS) service.
Moreover, the QoS authorization phase in some current methods only work with MBMS multicast mode. In MBMS multicast mode the mobile device (i.e., User Equipment (UE), Mobile Station (MS), Mobile Node (MN), etc.) must send an IGMP Join message to the Gateway GPRS Service Node (GGSN) to indicate its wish to join to a multicast service. This Join message will then initiate the QoS authorization procedure, i.e. the COPS REQ (Common Open Policy Service Request) message to the PCF to exchange the handle. With MBMS broadcast the UE does not send an IGMP Join message. Therefore, the QoS authorization phase must be initiated by the Broadcast/Multicast-Service Center (BM-SC).

System and method with policy control function for multimedia broadcast/multicast system services


A medical apparatus and method of use for implanting a catheter in a patient's body which catheter can be easily positioned, repositioned, and replaced. The apparatus includes an elongate sleeve comprising a wall surrounding an interior passageway extending from a sleeve proximal end to a sleeve distal end. The sleeve is intended to be percutaneously implanted through an incision in the patient's skin to place the sleeve distal end subcutaneously. The sleeve distal end outer surface carries porous material intended to contact the patient's dermis to promote tissue ingrowth. The sleeve passageway is dimensioned to snugly accommodate the outer surface of the catheter while permitting the catheter to slide relative to the sleeve. A split ring locking member is selectively operable in an unlocked state for permitting axial and rotational movement of said catheter relative to said sleeve and operable in a locked state for preventing such relative movement.

In a variety of medical procedures, catheters are implanted through a patient's skin to provide long term access to interior body sites; e.g., blood vessels and organs. Unless adequate precautions are taken, infections and inflammation can readily occur at the catheter entry site. To mitigate such problems, a tissue integrating cuff is sometimes attached to the catheter and placed under the patient's skin to resist infection. Although such a cuff can reduce the likelihood of infection, its presence increases the difficulty of removing and/or repositioning an implanted catheter. More particularly, it is not uncommon for an implanted catheter to become damaged, e.g., clogged or kinked, over an extended period of use thus necessitating catheter removal and/or replacement. When this occurs, the cuff must be dissected thereby complicating and prolonging the surgical procedure.
The aforementioned application Ser. No. 10/821,383 describes the use of a tissue integrating structure on a percutaneously implanted medical device for anchoring the device and creating an infection resistant barrier around the device.

Apparatus and method for percutaneous catheter implantation and replacement

Incumed LLC, A Nevada Limited Liability Co.


The present invention relates to a method for removing residues from open areas of a patterned substrate involving the steps of providing a layer of a developable anti-reflective coating (DBARC) over a substrate; providing a layer of a photoresist over said DBARC layer; pattern-wise exposing said photoresist layer and said DBARC layer to a radiation; developing said photoresist layer and said DBARC layer with a first developer to form patterned structures in said photoresist and DBARC layers; depositing a layer of a developer soluble material over said patterned structures; and removing said developer soluble material with a second developer.

Photolithography is commonly used to make miniaturized electronic components such as integrated circuits in semiconductor manufacturing. In a photolithography process, a layer of photoresist is deposited on a substrate, such as a silicon wafer. The substrate is baked to remove any solvent remained in the photoresist layer. The photoresist is then selectively exposed through a photomask with a desired pattern to a source of actinic radiation. The radiation exposure causes a chemical reaction in the exposed areas of the photoresist and creates a latent image corresponding to the mask pattern in the photoresist layer. The photoresist is next developed in a developer solution to remove either the exposed portions of the photoresist for a positive photoresist or the unexposed portions of the photoresist for a negative photoresist. The patterned photoresist can then be used as a mask for subsequent fabrication processes on the substrate, such as deposition, etching, or ion implantation processes.
Advances in semiconductor device performance have typically been accomplished through a decrease in semiconductor device dimensions. The demand for ever smaller semiconductor device has made it necessary to use photolithographic techniques using imaging lights of shorter wavelengths such as 300 nm or less. However, the use of lights of shorter wavelengths for imaging has resulted in increased back reflection from substrates which are detrimental to the lithographic performance of photoresists.
To reduce the back light reflection from highly reflective substrates, prior art processes have typically used a highly absorbing bottom antireflective coating, generally referred to as BARC. A BARC is applied to a substrate and then a photoresist is deposited on top of the BARC layer. Most BARCs known in the prior art are designed to be removed by dry etch. That is, after the photoresist is pattern-wise exposed and developed to form patterned structures in the photoresist, portions of the BARC not covered by the photoresist are then etched away, thereby transferring the patterned structures to the BARC layer. The patterned structures in the photoresist and BARC layers are further transferred to the substrate by removing or by ion implanting portions of the substrate not covered by the photoresist and the BARC. However, dry etch removal of the BARC often causes thinning of the photoresist layer. Thus, if the etch rate of the BARC material and that of the photoresist are not well matched, the patterned structures in the photoresist may be damaged or not properly transferred into the substrate. In addition, the dry etch process may also cause damage to the substrate which will affect the performance of the final device.
Damage to the substrate during dry etch removal processes are especially detrimental to ion implant lithography. Historically, ion implant lithography has avoided the use of BARCs due to the need to implant species such as Arsenic (As), Boron (B) and Phosphorous (P) directly into the silicon surface of a semiconductor substrate. The dry etch processes used to remove a BARC layer could damage the silicon surface, usually by means of oxidation of the silicon surface. However, if the BARC layer is not removed completely prior to ion implanting, the BARC would serve to impede the implant species, causing variation in doping levels that would be harmful to device performance and reliability. On the other hand, it would be desirable to implement a BARC film in order to improve line-width control over the wafer topography which is normally present at the implant mask lithography step, and also to avoid possible resist residues related to the topography or interactions between the resist and the substrate.
Developable bottom antireflective coating (DBARC) materials have recently been introduced as an attempt to provide a film interposed between the photoresist and the substrate to act as an anti-reflective layer (for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,844,131, 7,261,997, and U.S. Patent Application 2007/0243484). Unlike traditional BARC materials, DBARCs can be removed during the resist develop stage, thereby eliminating the dry etch removal step. While the DBARC materials show great promise for being used in ion implant lithography, they often exhibit residues which can block the implant species and degrade the devices. Thus, it is desired to develop processes to remove residues from a patterned substrate in conjunction with the use of DBARC materials in a photolithographic process.

Method for removing residues from a patterned substrate

International Business Machines Corporation


A wind turbine control system includes a wind turbine, a power-converting device connected with the wind turbine, a control device and a human-machine interface. The control device is connected with the power-converting device. The control device includes a storage module having a first database, among which a first control data is stored in the first database. The human-machine interface having a GUI is connected with the control device. A second control data is set through the GUI and stored in the first database, such that the wind turbine is automatically controlled to rotate at a first rotational speed in a first time period and rotate at a second rotational speed in a second time period by the control device according to the first control data and the second control data. Therefore, the safety concerns are reduced, the operations are simplified, and the probable of inputting improper control parameters is eliminated.

With the improvement of technology, lot types of wind turbine system such as small wind power systems are widely used in general families for obtaining power through wind power.
In general, the rotational speed of a wind turbine of the small wind power system is varied with the wind speed of outer wind. The ratio of the rotational speed to the wind speed depends on the combination of the torque force of a power generator and the blades of the wind turbine, so that the rotational speeds of different designed wind turbines will not be the same. When the wind speed of outer wind is raised, the rotational speed of the wind turbine is also raised. However, the noise of the operation of the blades and the low-frequency vibration of the hub is too loud, and the environment is affected. In addition, compared with the solar power system, the outer wind is irregularly varied, which means that the noise of the wind turbine system is also irregularly generated. To solve this problem, the conventional wind turbine system is usually configured with a fan-stopping device.
The common fan-stopping devices can be classified into three types. The first one is a short circuit fan-stopping device used for making the three-phase circuit of the power generator of the wind turbine a short circuit. The second one is a physical break used for stopping the fan through mechanical means and elements. The third one is configured with a power converter for users to be manual operated as a short circuit. All the three types of the fan-stopping devices are manual operated by technicians, so that the technicians have to move close to the wind turbine to maintain or repair when the high-dB noise is generated. It exists some safety problems.
An example of the conventional wind turbine control system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,433,425 B2. Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 schematically illustrates the system configuration of the conventional wind turbine control system. As shown in FIG. 1 and described in the prior art, the wind turbine control system is provided for users to input control rules, and a supervisory control and data acquisition system is provided as the computing input of a rule engine 408. In practical application, because the user is not familiar with the wind turbine control system, the rule establishment is incomplete, the construction time is too long to complete the control mechanism, and hence the safety concerns are arisen.
Moreover, the ambition of people to install the small wind power system is usually low due to the noise and the safety problem, and the cost of an automatic control system is too high to be applied in general families, so that the family used small wind power system is still manually stopped and maintained during emergency.
There is a need of providing a wind turbine control system and a control method thereof to avoid the dangers and obviate the drawbacks encountered from the prior art.

Wind turbine control system and control method thereof


A shallow notch 1 as a tentative mark is engraved on a periphery of an ingot at a position corresponding to a predetermined crystal orientation in the step of grinding the periphery of the ingot. After the ingot is sliced to wafers, a mark 2 for indication of a crystal orientation is carved on a sliced wafer at a position determined on the basis of the notch 1 by laser marking. Thereafter, the wafer is chamfered to a round shape, and the notch 1 is removed by the chamfering. Since a part where the mark 2 shall be carved is determined on the basis of the notch 1, the mark 2 is efficiently carved on the wafer without the necessity of subjecting each wafer to an X-ray analyzer.

The present invention relates to a method of producing a round-shape wafer on which a laser mark for indication of a crystal orientation is put instead of a notch or orientation flat.
A wafer sliced off an ingot is processed in various steps such as lapping, chamfering and etching. A mark for indication of a crystal orientation is carved on an edge of the wafer used in these steps. The mark is used for setting the wafer, when the wafer is scribed along a cleavage plane for instance.
Such marks are put on wafers by various methods.
OF method is the most popular one by which an orientation flat is formed at an edge of a wafer. The orientation flat is used for specifying a crystal orientation of the wafer in the subsequent processing steps. However, it is difficult to precisely align a wafer using the orientation, since the orientation flat is formed in a relatively broad area crossing an edge of the wafer at an obtuse angle. Besides, the orientation flat puts restrictions on a shape of an electrostatic chuck used for handling the wafer and causes harmful effects on dynamic balance during spin rotation of the wafer.
A notch engraved on an edge of a wafer is also used as a mark for indication of a crystal orientation. In this case, a notched edge shall be polished to specular glossiness, so as to distinctly detect the notched part during measuring in the subsequent steps. Engravement of the notch likely causes induction of residual stresses at the notched part. Although residual stresses put harmful influences on properties of the wafer, it is difficult to completely remove residual stresses.
Notchless wafers having laser marks for indication of a crystal orientation have been recently used in order to avoid these problems. The laser mark is carved on a front or back side of a wafer by partially melting a surface layer of the wafer with irradiation of a laser beam.
In a conventional laser marking method, each wafer is tested by an X-ray analyzer to detect a crystal orientation of the wafer, and a mark for indication of crystal orientation is put on at a proper position. A commonly used crystal orientation is <110>.+-.1 degree. This method requires a marking operation for each wafer, resulting in poor productivity and heavy duty on the X-ray analyzer.

Super Silicon Crystal Research Institute Corp.


A pump for dispensing accurately measured amounts of fluid has a one way check valve in the flow path on the upstream side of a pump chamber and a one way check valve in the flow path at the downstream side of the pump chamber which is of variable internal volume. A flow passage provides fluid communication from the upstream check valve to the pump chamber and enters the pump chamber by a centrally located opening that is surrounded by a valve seat. One wall of the pump chamber is a flexible and elastic diaphragm that is attached to the plunger portion of a solenoid actuator. The plunger and diaphragm are biased by a spring acting upon the plunger such that, in the absence of excitation of the solenoid coil, the diaphragm is biased against a valve seat, preventing flow through the pump. All components exposed to the fluid media are formed of chemically inert, non-corrosive substances and the pump can be sized to accurately dispense fluids in increments of as little as 10 microliters, representing the volume of fluid that passes through the pump in one cycle of the solenoid actuator.

A. Field of invention
The present invention relates generally to devices for pumping fluids and more particularly to a new and improved pump for dispensing controlled amounts of chemically aggressive or sensitive fluids.
B. Description of Related art
Dispensing controlled amounts of fluids requires a means for precisely controlling the flow through the dispensing device. In particular, it is important to insure that such a dispensing system does not leak or weep when the pump is not in active operation. As exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,582 to Buffett, it is known to provide a fluid dispensing pump having one way inlet and outlet valves separated by a chamber of variable volume. One wall of the Buffett pump consists of an oscillating diaphragm which causes the chamber volume to alternately increase and decrease. While the Buffett pump provides a flow of fluid at a relatively constant rate, the integral valves of the Buffett pump only impede flow through the valve by the resilience of the one way duck bill valves at the inlet and outlet ports which provide only slight resistance to opening. Since the factors impeding flow in the Buffett pump would also directly and adversely affect the pump's efficiency, it is to be expected that these factors would be minimized to increase efficiency and conversely decrease resistance to flow. Accordingly, a relatively small positive pressure differential across the Buffett pump would be expected to cause flow to proceed through the pump independent of the operation of the pump. For this reason, conventional pumps such as Buffett are frequently used in applications in which a positive pressure drop across the pump is not anticipated. An example of the limitations of use of such pumps is shown by the placement of the fluid reservoir below the Buffet pump. Such pumps could not be utilized in those applications wherein the fluid reservoir is most conveniently located above the pump as this would create a pressure drop across the pump which could be sufficient to cause the pump to leak when not in operation.
Some other type pumps such as vane or screw types as well may, when new, provide a measure of integral means of flow control by virtue of either positive blockage or impedance of flow; however, as wear occurs at the junction of the vanes or blades and the housing and other parts that move against or past one another, a tight seal is difficult and leakage may commence even in the conventional pumps that are designed to block flow by integral means. Wear of moving parts is particularly important in devices designed for use with chemically sensitive or aggressive fluids because the acceptable materials are limited and are not selected on the basis of wear resistance characteristics. In other systems, flow through the system is controlled by means of an external shut off valve at either the inlet or outlet of the system. In such systems, although the pump mechanism would otherwise leak when not activated, flow is nevertheless blocked by a shut off valve operated in coordination with the pump. A system using both a pump and a separate shut off valve is cumbersome, particularly in applications requiring controlled dispensing of minute amounts or multiple dispensers in a small area. The separate shut off valve may represent an inefficient use of material as a result of the duplication of the flow control function. In addition, the coordination of operation between the valve and pump requires a common control or other means of ensuring simultaneous operation, and the breakdown or other failure of the operation control would be expected to cause the system to experience potentially damaging stress.


A message passing system for an MIMD parallel processing computer system utilizing a CSP programming model is relatively simple and inexpensive, yet allows for deadlock-free message passing, as well as the ability to support irregular connection topologies among nodes in the computer system. Messages are passed from node to node utilizing buffers at intermediate nodes to temporarily store the messages. In accordance with the CSP programming model, the user code is divided into multiple concurrent user processes which communicate with each other via channels. Each user process executing at a node is also provided with a corresponding, but separate, router process which uses a set of N-1 virtual channels to communicate with all other processes in the system, where N is the number of processes. The router process is preferably provided with a routing table that implements an acyclic sub-graph solution for interconnecting nodes in any arbitrary network topology, including irregular network topologies. The router process also allows for standard I/O functions to be emulated at every node in the system, not just those nodes which are directly connected to an I/O device. Preferably, the router process implements a buffer pool management structure which is organized first by channels and then by hops.

Parallel computer processing systems are well known and are typically divided into two basic types, single-instruction, multiple-data (SIMD) systems and multiple-instruction, multiple-data (MIMD) systems. SIMD systems use multiple processing elements which are linked together to execute the same instruction on different data points so that the same task is accomplished simultaneously on all of the different data points. A classic example of an SIMD system is an image processing system where multiple processing elements each use the same instructions to simultaneously process different pixel points in an image. MIMD systems also have multiple processing elements which are linked together, but each processing element is executes a different set of instructions on different data values. In this way, a MIMD system can split up different segments of instructions necessary to solve a problem and execute these different segments simultaneously to increase the speed at which the problem is solved.
SIMD systems typically use a central controller to disseminate the single instruction being executed and to coordinate multi-transfer of information among the processing elements. In contrast, MIMD systems use either a shared memory model or message passing model to coordinate the various processing elements and communicate information among them. In the shared memory model, each processing element has access to a common memory used for storing data and control flags which are used to communicate information and coordinate the processing elements. In contrast, each processing element in the message passing model has only its own distributed, local memory and all communication among processing elements occurs via messages passed along a series of connection links between processing elements.
One of the key trade-offs in designing message passing systems for MIMD computer systems is the manner in which processing elements are connected. Obviously, if every processing element is directly and singularly connected to every other processing element, the speed at which messages can be passed is maximized because each message takes only one hop time to move from one processing element to another. The disadvantage with such an all-to-all connection scheme is that, as the number of processing elements increases, the number of connections required grows geometrically and quickly becomes impractical to implement. At the other extreme, if every processing element were connected to one common connection network, such as a single bus, then messages would still take only one hop time to transfer between processing elements, but only one pair of processing elements could communicate with each other at any given time. To solve these connection problems for massively parallel MIMD computer processing systems, having large numbers of message passing processing elements, two general types of connection schemes have been developed: two-dimensional and n-dimensional grid networks.
In a two-dimensional grid network, all of the processing elements or nodes are directly connected in a regular pattern to four other adjacent processing elements (e.g., left, right, up and down), and messages are routed through this message passing network from a sending node to a receiving node by having each node receive messages and, if the message is not for that node, sending the message on to one of the other adjacent nodes. Examples of a two-dimensional grid networks include the Transputer.RTM. systems developed by Inmos Ltd, Bristol, England, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,692,861, 4,783,734 and 5,243,698 and the massively parallel array processing system developed by Digital Equipment Corp., Maynard, Mass., as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,985,832 and 5,276,895.
In an n-dimensional grid network, all of the processing elements or nodes are directly connected in a regular pattern to six or more other processing elements. In essence, an n-dimensional grid network is similar to a two-dimensional grid network, only the number of dimensions in the network has been increased. Examples of n-dimensional grid networks include the hypercube networks developed by nCUBE Corp., Foster City, Calif., as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,113,523 and 5,367,636, and by Thinking Machines Corp., Cambridge, Mass., as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,152,000 and 5,367,692, as well as the hexagonal mesh network developed by the University of Michigan, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,480.
A popular programming model for message passing networks is the communication sequential process (CSP) programming model which was originally developed by Prof. C. A. R. Hoare. In the CSP model, a software program is divided into independent processes which can exchange data and synchronize their activity via communication links referred to as channels. Each process represents a segment of the software program that can execute independently and of, and generally concurrently with, other segments of the program. Each channel serves as a communication path by which information and data are exchanged between processes. To insure synchronization of processes, transmissions are always acknowledged by the receiving process and the sending process always waits to receive this acknowledgement. Concurrent processing in the ANSI C programming language, for example, conforms to the CSP programming model.
One of the more difficult problems in managing CSP inter-process communications for a message passing MIMD computer processing systems is preventing deadlocks. Deadlocks are situations where the passing of messages among the various process stops because some or all of the processes are endlessly waiting or blocked. In networks where messages are passed from one node to the next on their way from a source node to a destination node, the messages may be temporarily stored in a buffer of an intermediate node during the message passing process. In this situation, deadlocks can occur because one or more of the intermediate nodes will have only a limited buffer space available for the temporary storage of information passing by that node on its way to another node. If the buffers in adjacent nodes fill up, for example, then no messages can be sent to unload the buffer in the center node and a deadlock situation is created. By analogy, a deadlock is somewhat like a traffic gridlock across a series of traffic intersections where cars in one intersection cannot move forward because there is no room in any of the adjacent intersections.
Two techniques have been used, in an effort to decrease or prevent deadlocks when managing CSP inter-process communications. First, the message passage networks are designed with regular interconnections between nodes. The regularity of the interconnections makes it easier to anticipate deadlock conditions and easier to accommodate deadlock conditions by using information that is known about the structure of the network and contained, for example, within the address of a message to help in preventing deadlock conditions. Second, the routing algorithms used in the message passage networks are usually designed to implement adaptive routing, rather than oblivious routing. Oblivious routing implies that, when a message directed to a destination node B, for example, arrives at an intermediate node A, that message is always routed to intermediate node C, regardless of the "traffic" conditions associated with node C. Adaptive routing, on the other hand, allows intermediate node A to check on the "traffic" conditions at the next intermediate node C, and, if the conditions are not good, select an alternate intermediate node for routing the message to destination node B. An example of an adaptive routing message passing system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,393.
While the use of regular interconnections and adaptive routing can effectively handle most deadlock situations in message passing networks that utilize intermediate buffers, the use of these two techniques is not without a performance penalty. Specifically, the requirement for regular interconnections necessarily increases the number of inter-node hops, for example, which must be made to pass a message from one side of a network to another, particularly in a 2-dimensional grid network. The use of adaptive routing necessarily increases the overhead associated with the routing algorithms, and hence decreases the overall message passing performance of the network.
Other attempts have been made to provide interprocessor switching networks that solve the deadlock problem. The use of control circuitry as part of a regularly-structured message passing network is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,058,001, 5,105,424 and 5,291,489. The problem of deadlocks in an irregularly connected MIMD computer processing system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,177,514, which proposes a separate, decentralized control network connected from multiple control nodes to multiple processing nodes to solve the deadlock problem. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,450, router circuitry in each node for a network switched communication path between a source node and a destination node, thereby eliminating the need for any intermediate buffers in the message passing network. Unfortunately, these types of hardware and control solutions only complicate and limit what is otherwise a very simple inter-process communication architecture for the CSP programming model.
A different attempt to increase the performance of message passing networks is proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,247,694. In this patent, a problem graph is created to represent the various processes that comprise a given software program. The problem graph is then used to aid in assigning processes to processing nodes so as to optimize communications among the processing nodes of a regularly connected hypercube network for the given software program. In essence, this solution optimizes the way in which the software program is divided so as to avoid deadlocks when executing that particular program, rather than altering the message passing network so as to prevent the occurrence of deadlocks in the first place.
While existing techniques for providing message passing networks in a MIMD computer processing system offer many advantages over other types of parallel processing computer systems, it would be advantageous to provide a simple message passing system for a MIMD computer processing system which could provide enhanced message passing performance, yet avoid the deadlock problem.

Method for deadlock-free message passing in MIMD systems using routers and buffers


Aminoalkyl-substituted benzo-heterocyclic compounds of the formula ##STR1## wherein M, Q, R and T are as defined in the specification, as well as acid addition salts thereof. These compounds are useful as cholesterol level lowering agents and as antimycotic agents.

1. Field
The present invention is concerned with novel aminoalkyl-substituted benzo-heterocyclic compounds, a process for their manufacture, pharmaceutical preparations which contain such compounds, and the use of these compounds in the production of pharmaceutical preparations.
2. Description
There has been a long felt need for compounds which have cholesterol level lowering and antimycotic activity. The subject invention addresses this need.


A flexible protective cover pad includes a backing sheet coated on one surface with a layer of adhesive and having a middle portion and a pair of side portions extending along opposite sides of the middle portion, a strip of a flexible foam material moldable to an edge of an object, and a pair of sheets of protective material releasably applied to and peelable from the adhesive-coated surface of the pair of side portions of the backing sheet. The strip of foam-like material has a greater thickness than the backing sheet and a greater width than either of the side portions of the backing sheet.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to removable furniture guards and, more particularly, is concerned with a flexible protective cover pad.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The household collisions of small children with coffee table corners and other protruding furniture and appliance edges must reverberate through time and space. To avoid the dangers of bodily harm which such accidents can bring to both children and adults, a variety of cushion and bumper devices have been developed over the years.
While meeting some needs in preventing injury to people and article damage as well, significant drawbacks in the prior art include insufficient shock-absorbing capability, difficulty in conforming to furniture surfaces, thus coming undone or falling off, and susceptibility to removal by small children. Many of these drawbacks are answered by recent design improvements. A representative example of one such device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,065,972 to Buckshaw et al. The Buckshaw corner bumper provides for significant shock absorption in collisions, as well as improved foldability of bumper flaps for adherence to furniture, and beveled bumper edges to prevent their being picked off by small children.
Despite these advantages, the Buckshaw bumper does have certain limitations, however. This bumper is particularly adaptable for use with furniture corners and edges because of the bumper's design configuration of cylindrical and flap portions. Appliances and other articles with less symmetrical surfaces would be less conducive to contact with the Buckshaw bumper.
Additionally, the rather detailed nature of the Buckshaw design features and the use of both resilient rubber and plastic in constructing the Buckshaw bumper entails the necessity of rather complicated construction involving significant expense in its manufacture.
Consequently, a need still exists for a flexible protective cover pad of simple and inexpensive construction which is readily adaptable for use with a wide range of surface types.