An optical-electrical composite flexible circuit substrate having sufficiently high bending resistance is provided. An optical-electrical composite flexible circuit substrate includes: an optical circuit that includes a core portion and a cladding layer that covers the core portion; and an electrical circuit, with the optical circuit and the electrical circuit being disposed at a position that includes a neutral surface when the optical-electrical composite flexible circuit substrate is bent, or at a position near the neutral surface. Alternatively, the optical-electrical composite flexible circuit substrate may include an optical circuit that includes a core portion and a cladding layer that covers the core portion; and a substrate that includes an electrical circuit, with the substrate and the optical circuit being laminated so that the electrical circuit is disposed on a side closer to the optical circuit.

High speed data transmission is required in the field of middle- to long-range communication (specifically, FTTH (Fiber To The Home) communication, in-vehicle communication, and the like). In order to realize this, optical fiber cables have been used as transmission media.
High speed data transmission is also required in short-range communication (for example, communication within 1 meter). In such a short-range communication field, performances that are difficult to realize with optical fiber cables are also required. Specifically, examples of the requirements include high-density wiring such as a narrow pitch, branching, crossing, or multi-layer, surface mounting properties, integration with an electrical circuit substrate, and bending with a small radius of curvature. A wiring substrate including an optical circuit can be used as one that satisfies these requirements.
In addition, in the optical circuit, an inclined surface capable of reflecting light is formed in a core portion or the like of the optical circuit in order to deflect light at a desired angle to input and output light, for example. Moreover, the wiring substrate including such an optical circuit preferably includes an electrical circuit in order to drive a light-emitting element such as a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL), a light-receiving element such as a photodiode (PD), and a semiconductor element such as an integrated circuit (IC). That is, the wiring substrate is preferably an optical-electrical composite wiring substrate that includes the optical circuit and the electrical circuit. An example of such an optical-electrical composite wiring substrate includes a bendable optical-electrical composite flexible circuit substrate. The optical-electrical composite flexible circuit substrate is attracting attention and can be used instead of a flexible wiring substrate disposed with a hinge of a small terminal device interposed.
Non Patent Document 1 discloses an example of such an optical-electrical composite flexible circuit substrate.
Non Patent Document 1 discloses an optical-electrical composite flexible circuit substrate in which an optical waveguide film serving as an optical wiring layer and an electrical flexible wiring substrate serving as an electrical wiring layer are laminated. In the optical-electrical composite flexible circuit substrate, the optical waveguide film is laminated on a surface of the electrical flexible wiring substrate, with this surface being on a side where an electrical circuit is not provided, such that an electrical circuit formed in the electrical flexible wiring substrate can be connected to a light-emitting element.
According to Non Patent Document 1, it is possible to obtain an optical-electrical composite flexible circuit substrate having excellent optical properties such as excellent insertion loss and high reliability such as small betiding deterioration.
In addition, the optical-electrical composite flexible circuit substrate requires higher reliability. Specifically, as described above, since the optical-electrical composite flexible circuit substrate is expected to be used instead of the flexible wiring substrate disposed with the hinge of a small terminal device interposed, the optical-electrical composite flexible circuit substrate is required to have smaller bending deterioration (that is, higher bending resistance).    Non Patent Document 1: Toru Nakashiba and two others, Hikari/denki fukugo flekishiburu print haisenban [Optical-electrical flexible printed wiring board], Matsushita Electric Works Technical Report, Matsushita Electric Works Ltd, September 2006, vol. 54, No. 3, p. 38-43

Optical-electrical composite flexible circuit substrate including optical circuit and electrical circuit

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


A tool for locating the positions where holes are to be drilled in a contoured workpiece includes several thin, flexible plates stacked on one another, conforming to the contour of the workpiece, and held together by fasteners. The intermediate plate has holes through its thickness sized to receive the nose bushing of a drilling machine, the holes being spaced along the length of the workpiece. The innermost plate, which contacts the workpiece and the outermost plate, include slotted holes aligned with the holes of the intermediate plate.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of drilling techniques and drilling machinery for making holes in metal components, especially in sheet metal. More particularly, it pertains to drill templates or jigs for locating the proper position of holes to be drilled in a cambered workpiece and controlling a drilling machine or guiding an operator in making the holes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In conventional practice, before a pattern of holes is drilled in a workpiece preparatory to installing rivets in the holes, a template or jig containing correctly located and directed holes conforming to the desired hole pattern is made and placed on the surface to be drilled. Then a drill, driven rotatably by a suitable motor, is inserted in each hole of the jig and forced against and through the workpiece sufficiently to accept the rivet to be placed in the holes. Often drill guide bushings, of hardened metal highly resistant to wear, are used with the jig to direct and guide the drill as it passes through the jig and into the workpiece.
Drill jigs and templates must have a thickness sufficient to establish accurately the location of the drill point on the workpiece and to direct correctly the drill as it passes through the jig and into the workpiece. When a drill guide bushing is used, the jig thickness must be large enough to grip and hold the bushing without movement throughout the drilling operation.
However, where the workpiece surface is cambered, as in the convexity of the curve of an airfoil from the leading edge to the trailing edge, especially in the vicinity of the leading edge where the airfoil contour changes form rapidly, the material and thickness of a conventional drill jig make the jig too stiff to conform to the surface to be drilled. It is preferred that a drilling template or jig be sufficiently flexible such that when placed on the curved surface of the workpiece it will bend readily, or under moderate pressure, into conformance with the contour to be drilled yet have sufficient thickness to hold a drill guide bushing or otherwise direct a drill and maintain its proper position. Furthermore, once formed to the shape of the workpiece, the drill template or jig should maintain its shape during the drilling operation while fixed rigidly in position on the workpiece.
Various techniques have been devised to drill accurately located and correctly directed holes in curved surfaces used in the fabrication of riveted airplane structures, such as wings and aerodynamic control surfaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,108,566 describes a drilling jig containing a hole pattern, the jig being of the conventional rigid type, preformed to the contour of the workpiece surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,158,045 describes a method and tools employed to locate apertures in structural components joined together by bolts, screws or rivets. The patent is concerned with replicating accurately in production tooling the dimensions and characteristics originally present in master tooling to which the production tooling is referenced.
A flexible drill jig that employs a soft rubber sheet supporting drill guide bushings is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,417,539. Rubber or another elastomer is used in order that the sheet will conform to the cambered surface of an airplane wing. The drill guide bushings, held in place between lamina comprising the rubber sheet, are not rigidly supported. Instead, they are subject to longitudinal and rotational displacement from a true reference position and inclination due to the dimensionally unstable nature of the rubber sheet that supports and carries them.

Template for controlling operation of a drill on a contoured workpiece


This invention relates to a method and system for a collision free insertion and removal of circuit-switched channels in a self-adaptive transmission data structure carrying different classes of packet-switched traffic on a slotted Local Area Network (LAN). This network may have bus or ring topology. The different classes of traffic are asynchronous traffic (packet-switched), synchronous traffic (packet-switched, time sensitive), isochronous traffic (circuit-switched), and signalling on demand. The inventive self-adaptive transmission data structure permits an economic, flexible and bandwidth efficient integration of these different classes of traffic.

The rapid evolution in the field of information processing, data communication, and multi-media office communication has led to the emergence of transmitting different classes of traffic via the same medium, such as offered on LANs (Local Area Network). The majority of existing networks, whether circuit-switched or packet-switched, are still oriented towards particular applications. Thus, we usually have different networks for voice, signalling, video and data applications operating in parallel and independently. While each of these networks is suitable for the application it is designed for, they are not very efficient for supporting other applications. The advantages of an integrated communication system which can accommodate a variety of diverse services with different bandwidth requirements has been recognized for some time. The following two articles "Design approaches and performance criteria for integrated voice/data switching", of M. J. Ross, Proc. IEEE, Vol. 65, September 1977, pp. 1283-1295, and "Plan today for tomorrow data/voice nets", of H. Frank, Data Communications, September 1978, pp. 51-62, relate already to the integration of different traffic classes. The objective of having a unified integrated network allowing the transmission of different traffic classes is the flexibility to cover existing as well as future services with good performance and economical resource utilization, and with a unified network management, operation and maintenance.
In the following sections, we describe the current approaches to integrate circuit-switched and packet-switched principles on LANs. With regard to the prevalent trend in the design of LANs and the unknown future traffic characteristics, we then formulate the objects for the self-adaptive transmission data structure and method of the present invention.
Already in the early seventies, publications dealt with the integration of circuit-switched and packet-switched principles on the same transmission medium. Publications started with an integration on point-to-point links, as described in the article of K. Kummerle, "Multiplexer Performance of Integrated Line- and Packet-Switched Traffic", 2nd Intern. Conf. on Computer Communications (ICCC), Stockholm, 1974, pp. 507-515. Afterwards the efforts were extended to LANs as well as High-Speed LANs (HSLANs), and switching nodes with an internal bus structure. Examples representative for the large number of publications relating to these efforts are:
D. Roffinella, C. Trinchero, G. Freschi, "Interworking Solutions for a Two-Level Integrated Services Local Area Network", IEEE J. on Sel. Areas in Comm., Vol. SAC-5, No. 9, 1987, pp. 1444-1453; PA0 J. H. M. Kleinen, "PHILAN: An Integrated Local Area Network for High Speed Applications", EFOC/LAN 86, Amsterdam, June 1986, pp. 83-87; PA0 R. Calvo, M. Teener, "FDDI-II Architectural and Implementation Examples", EFOC/LAN 90, Munich, June 1990, pp. 76-86. PA0 "Broadband Ring Communication System and Access Control Method", Application No.: 90810456.5, PA0 "Medium Access Technique for LAN Systems", Application No.: 91810224.5.
The current trend in the design of new LANs is to attach more users, to carry higher traffic rates, to achieve smaller delays, to integrate more services, and to cover larger geographical areas. To permit this wide variety of objectives, the evolving high-speed LANs must have concurrent access and slot reuse capability, must provide for frame-by-frame as well as cell-by-cell transmission, and must be able to handle circuit-switched services, too.
The suitable transmission data-structures are slotted to allow simultaneous medium access by geographically separated nodes. Because of this, LAN throughput does not degrade for increasing product of speed and distance. Destination removal (allowing slot reuse) has the high potential to increase system throughput significantly beyond the bit rate of the transmission medium. In today's LANs, transmission is via frames in contiguous slots. This avoids segmentation (thus, no labeling algorithm is necessary to identify segments), reduces transmission overhead, and receiver hardware becomes less complex and its buffer size can be kept smaller. Moreover, transmission by frames simplifies buffer management of multiple receiver buffers at high data rates significantly. At the other hand, transmission of ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) cells is extensively promoted as solution for Broadband-Integrated Services Digital Network (B-ISDN). Moreover, for the foreseeable future, the demand for circuit-switched channels (video, PBX interconnection) on high-speed LANs becomes increasingly evident.
In slotted LANs, frames are guaranteed to be transmitted in contiguous slots either by pure reservation, as described in the publications of M. Nassehi, "CRMA: An Access Scheme for High-Speed LANs and MANs," IEEE International Conference on Communications, Atlanta, Ga., April 1990, pp. 1697-1702, and "Cyclic Reservation Multiple-Access Scheme for Gbit/s LANs and MANs based on Dual-Bus Configuration," Eighth European Fibre Optic and Local Area Networks Conference, EFOC/LAN, Munich, June 1990, pp. 246-251, or by using the buffer insertion technique as e.g. disclosed in the following European patent applications:
Recently, buffer insertion LANs have been augmented by providing a by-pass mechanism for the so-called synchronous slots, as for example described in the above named European patent applications 90810456.5 and 91810224.5. In this way, real-time response for time-sensitive connections is not affected by insertion buffer delays. This by-pass mechanism is a component of the described transmission data-structure. Additionally, fairness in insertion-buffer LANs is now manageable either by a credit mechanism, described in the European patent application 91810224.5, or by a reservation mechanism described in the European patent application 90810456.5.
Traffic types
In the following, we will denote circuit-switched channels by isochronous channels. Slots used for that purpose obey strict periodicity. Slots carrying traffic according to the packed-switched principle is differentiated in synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous slots are used for time-sensitive connections like packetized voice and video or other real-time applications. These connections may need a play-out buffer to adjust network delay variations. All other traffic is transported by asynchronous slots. Essentially, the three traffic types differ in the variation of the end-to-end delay. Isochronous traffic exhibits a constant delay and thus its delay variation is zero. The delay variation for synchronous traffic varies within a limited range whereas that for asynchronous traffic can be considerably. In addition to these three traffic types, signalling traffic for network housekeeping functions (like monitoring, measurements, slot reservations, as disclosed in the European patent application 91810224.5, "Medium Access Technique for LAN Systems", congestion control, and in general network management) must be taken into consideration, too.
Requirement to adapt to continuously changing traffic characteristics
Most LANs are designed to perform at their best for a particular type of traffic, but become less efficient in an environment with strongly different traffic characteristics. As a very simple example, it has been shown that for long frames token rings perform considerably better than slotted rings (comparison without slot reuse), whereas for short messages this is reverse. Because of continuously changing traffic characteristics and the unknown mix of future traffic in B-ISDN, it is essential to have a transmission data-structure that naturally adapts to different and continuously changing traffic characteristics.
Conventional integration of circuit and packet switching on LANs
The integration of circuit switching (CS) and packet switching (PS) on the same medium of a LAN is based on a periodic framing period of constant length (e.g. 125 .mu.s). Framing organization may be partitioned (fixed boundary or movable boundary) with a slotted CS-region and an unstructured PS-region, or completely slotted with free allocation of CS-connections. In the latter approach, a PS-frame is either contiguously transmitted in the remaining slots or is transmitted by autonomous segments with address information (e.g. ATM cells). An extensive overview of these methods is described in the article of E.-H. Goldner, "An Integrated Circuit/Packet Switching Local Area Network--Performance Analysis and Comparison of Strategies", Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, Vol. 10, No. 3-4, October/November 1985, pp. 211-219.
A disadvantage of a framing period with a fixed boundary, where the bandwidth is separated in two fixed parts, is that the bandwidth cannot be shared when traffic demand changes dynamically. In systems using a framing period with a movable boundary, the size of the isochronous part is determined by the position of the last isochronous channel before the packet-switched part starts. Bandwidth of free isochronous channels lying before the last channel cannot be used without channel rearrangement. Channel rearrangement on a ring needs a considerable overhead in terms of organization and higher-layer communication to assure synchronization of all involved nodes as disclosed in the European patent 227852, "Local Area Communication System for Integrated Services Based on a Token-Ring Transmission Medium". Moving the boundary itself requires a similar overhead. Then, all nodes must be informed about the new position. On a ring, moving must be done in several steps to assure that no data is lost. First the nodes must be informed, then all nodes must confirm, and finally in a next round the new position of the CS/PS-boundary circuit-switched/packet-switched) becomes effective. Thus, also a considerable delay is involved.
In the other two approaches with a completely slotted framing period, slots for isochronous channels can be arbitrarily allocated. Slots have a flag indicating the traffic type, so that a frame can be transmitted in an interleaved manner between the isochronous channels. In the first approach, segments are variable and carry no addresses. In the second approach, segments are constant and have address information. Here, the segments or cells are autonomous, and thus parts of different frames can be transmitted interleaved, too. Bandwidth adapts optimally to traffic demand, but on a ring LAN establishment and release of isochronous channels encounter a similar problem as in the framing organization with a moveable boundary i.e. slots to be allocated for an isochronous channel must first be marked as reserved. Thereafter, they get allocated in the next roundtrip. Additionally, the nodes involved must be informed when the channel is available.
In FIG. 1, we highlight already the main difference between isochronous channel support via a movable boundary (left side of figure) and that via insert/remove self-adaption (right side) as is an integrated part of the inventive transmission data-structure. Initially, a framing period 1 exists with two isochronous channels CH1 and CH2. In the movable boundary approach, both channels are located at the begin of the framing period 10 (CS-region). The remaining part of the framing period 10 (PS-part) is used for asynchronous traffic. The first two positions of the framing period 10 are denoted by 11.1 through 11.5 and 12.1 through 12.5 to differentiate between the five considered time instants. Initially, locations 11.1 and 12.1 are used by isochronous channels CH1 and CH2, respectively. As CH1 terminates, location 11.2 becomes free but cannot be used by asynchronous traffic until CH2 is rearranged from location 12.3 to 11.3 and until boundary 13 is correspondingly moved. As mentioned before, these actions cause communication overhead and delayed usage of the freed bandwidth. When later on another isochronous channel has to be established, boundary 13 is moved so that location 12.4 becomes free. It must be noticed that the boundary 13 cannot be moved immediately, because it must be ensured that location 12.4 does not carry data. Finally, after some communication overhead, the new channel CH3 is available at the location 12.5. Compared with this mode of operation, the insert/remove self-adaptation approach to establish and release isochronous channels is extremely efficient. First, both channels can principally be located at arbitrarily positions. We denote the location of channel CH1 by 14.1 through 14.2, and that of channel CH2 by 15.1 through 15.3. Initially, two isochronous channels are located 14.1 and 15.1. All bandwidth around them is available for asynchronous traffic. When CH1 terminates, its bandwidth at location 14.2 becomes immediately available, i.e. without any delay and without communication overhead. In case that isochronous channel CH3 is to be allocated, it can be put anywhere in the framing period (here location 16.3). The key point here is that the channel is immediately available and needs (apart of course from the normal higher-layer set-up procedure) no extra communication overhead. This immediate allocation is possible by inserting the isochronous at the right location and by immediate or delayed removal of a corresponding number of asynchronous slots. Thus, generation of isochronous slots for the allocation of a new isochronous channel is accompanied by destroying free asynchronous slots whereby a temporary surplus of slots may occur when all asynchronous slot candidates are busy. At the other hand, releasing an isochronous channel causes a similar but opposite operation to be executed. This means, a now instantaneous removal of isochronous slots with simultaneous generation of asynchronous slots.
With respect to transmission robustness, the approaches with stricted slotted framing periods have the following drawback. Since only the begin of the framing period is used for synchronization, the recognition of individual slot boundaries relies only on counting. A synchronization loss can only be recovered at the begin of the next framing structure. During the elapsed time, secondary errors might be produced which require a complex recovery scheme to resolve them.
The nearest prior art for the present invention is given by the article of J. Y. Chao, W. T. Lee, L. Y. Kung, "A New Buffer Insertion Ring with Time Variant Priority Scheme to Facilitate Real-Time Image Transmission on a High Speed Integrated Local Area Network", 14th Conference on Local Computer Networks, Minneapolis, October, 1989, and the above named European patent application 90810456.5, "Broadband Ring Communication System and Access Control Method".
The objects of the inventive self-adaptive transmission method for slotted LANs, and the hardware implementation thereof, are given below.

Collision-free insertion and removal of circuit-switched channels in a packet-switched transmission structure

International Business Machines Corporation


A bird feeder has a containment housing and a convertible feed port assembly mounted through a housing opening. The feed port assembly includes a feed port having a port plate and a support frame which extends into the housing through the port opening. The port plate defines a port opening aligned with the housing opening to enable access to the bird feed within the housing. The feed port assembly also includes a door slidably and rotatably mounted in the feed port. In a retracted position, the door is supported by the support frame in the housing and leaves the port open to provide access to seed within the interior of the housing. The retracted door cooperates with the support frame to form a roof or baffle to prevent seeds from falling out of the port opening. The door is slidable outwardly from the housing interior and rotatable to overlie and close off the door opening. The door has a relatively small aperture for access to small bird seed when the door is closed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a convertible feed port assembly for mounting to a bird feeder housing. The feed port assembly includes a port opening therethrough, and a door rotatably mounted above the port opening and slidable horizontally to be supported within the housing, thus enabling large size bird feed to be accessible through the port opening. The slidably and rotatably mounted door includes a relatively small aperture for access to smaller size bird feed that can be stored within the housing, such as thistle, accessible by finches. Thus, the bird feeder can be operable in both a large seed and separate small seed or thistle mode by the relative positioning of the door.
2. Description of the Related Art
Commercially available bird feeders come in a great variety of configurations. These feeders generally include a housing for retaining the bird feed with a plurality of openings in the housing wall to provide access to the bird feed within the housing interior. Such bird feeders include bird feeder port assemblies that are mounted within the housing openings for access to bird feed within the housing. Such port assemblies may include a perch to enable a bird to have access to bird feed within the housing.
Bird feeders having bi-modal seed ports, whereby the seed port can be converted for dispensing large seeds from the feeder and, in another mode, allowing the feeder to dispense relatively small seeds, are known in the art. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,408,788, a bi-modal seed port for a bird feeder is disclosed wherein the seed port is connected to the housing wall and includes a hinged lid that pivots adjacent a trough located on the anterior surface of the housing. The trough is suitable for receiving relatively large seed. The hinged lid is pivotable to a position where the trough is open and bird feed within the housing flows into the trough. The hinged lid can pivot to a second position where the trough is covered and access to the seed is through a smaller aperture in the lid. However, when the lid is in this second position, the bird's access to the aperture is limited because the aperture may be partially blocked by the trough which is adjacent to the aperture. Because of the trough, the bi-modal design is compromised for smaller feed, such as thistle. Accordingly, a need exists for an effective convertible feed port assembly that is equally well-suited in a first mode for large birds and a second mode for smaller birds, such as finches.

Convertible feed port assembly for bird feeders


A power conversion unit and method for converting DC power. The power conversion unit includes a self-oscillating device configured to convert a DC voltage into a self-oscillating alternating current AC signal, a transformer connected to the self-oscillating device and configured to transform the self-oscillating AC signal into a transformed AC signal, and an AC-to-DC converter configured to convert the transformed AC signal into a DC signal. The method generates a self-oscillating current, transforms the self-oscillating current into a transformed AC signal, and converts the transformed AC signal into a DC signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a power converter suitable for conversion of low voltage sources to more usable voltage levels.
2. Background of the Invention
Thermoelectric power generation offers a unique and attractive alternative to conventional battery power generation due to its waste heat energy harvesting capabilities. It is especially suited for many low power and portable applications such as supporting remote sensor operations. The thermoelectric generator's output voltage is directly proportional to the temperature difference between its two junctions. In many cases, a small output voltage with a large current is obtainable with the thermoelectric generator when the temperature difference is less than 20K. Since many practical applications require a higher voltage than is obtainable with the thermoelectric generator, a DC-DC step up converter is important for this unconventional power supply.
Although the theory of a DC-DC converter has been well established, the use of a low input voltage (less than 0.7V) to drive a DC-DC converter is still a research subject.
Conventionally, step-up DC-DC converters have switched the input direct current to an alternating current, i.e. a DC to AC conversion followed by AC-AC transformation to a stepped-up voltage, followed by rectification of the stepped up voltage. One challenge for a low voltage input converter has been to find a switching mechanism providing maximum operation efficiency. MOSFET's have been used as switching devices in most converters due to their low on-resistance and low required gate current, leading to high converter efficiency. However, the switching voltage required is usually high as compared to voltages produced by thermoelectric generators.
A self-starting set of twin converter circuits containing a main converter and a starter circuit converter has been used to transform low voltage DC inputs. In that work, a normally-on transistor was used to perform switching for a low voltage input, and an output of a starter converter was used to drive a MOSFET based main converter. While the circuitry operated at low efficiency at the beginning of the operation when the starter circuit was performing the initial conversion, the main converter offered a relatively high conversion efficiency once the starter provided adequate switching voltage for the main converter.
The development of low voltage input power supplies has been reported for example in the following reference articles, all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety:    [1] J. W. Kimball, IEEE Power Electronics Letters, Vol. 2, No. 3, September 2004;    [2] J. M. Damaschke, IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat. Vol. 33, pp. 1203-1207, September/October 1997;    [3] B. Shen, et al., IEEE Electron Device Letters, vol. 17, no. 7, pp. 372-374, July 1996; and    [4] W. F. Chow, "Principles of tunnel diode circuits", J. Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1964.
Despite this work, realization of suitable power conversion solutions has not been without problems limiting power extraction from low voltage power sources.

DC-DC converter for low voltage power source


A digital escrow pattern is provided for network data services including searchable encryption techniques for data stored in a cloud, distributing trust across multiple entities to avoid a single point of data compromise. In one embodiment, a key generator, a cryptographic technology provider and a cloud services provider are each provided as separate entities, enabling a publisher of data to publish data confidentially (encrypted) to a cloud services provider, and then expose the encrypted data selectively to subscribers requesting that data based on subscriber identity information encoded in key information generated in response to the subscriber requests, e.g., a role of the subscriber.

By way of background concerning some conventional systems, computing devices have traditionally executed applications and data services locally to the device. In such case, as data is accessed, processed, stored, cached, etc., the data may travel on the device over local buses, interfaces and other data pathways, however, the user of the device has not had to worry about interference or exposure of user data unless the device itself is lost or stolen.
Yet, with the evolution of on-line and cloud services, applications and services are increasingly being moved to network providers who perform some or all of a given service on behalf of a user's devices. In such case, the user may become concerned with who can access, or potentially worse, interfere with, the user's data while it is uploaded to a service, while it is stored by the service or while it retrieved from the service. In short, when the data of a user's device leaves the domain of physical possession and enters a network environment away from the user, a concern over handling of the data once it leaves the physical possession of the user naturally develops. Accordingly, it is desirable to increase the trust for cloud services and the handling of data in connection with cloud services.
The above-described deficiencies of today's devices and cloud services are merely intended to provide an overview of some of the problems of conventional systems, and are not intended to be exhaustive. Other problems with the state of the art and corresponding benefits of some of the various non-limiting embodiments may become further apparent upon review of the following detailed description.

Trusted cloud computing and services framework


A mixer mount for mounting a mixer to a sprayer cart includes a mixer clamp, a mixer bracket mount, a mixer bracket pivot and a support assembly. The mixer clamp is connected to the mixer bracket mount. The mixer bracket mount is connected to a mixer bracket pivot at a pivot point. The mixer bracket pivot slidably engages in the support assembly so that the distance between the mixer clamp and the support assembly may be changed. The support assembly is capable of connecting to a sprayer cart.

A texture sprayer assembly is used to apply texture materials, such as plasters, fillers and decorative materials to walls, ceilings and other surfaces. A texture sprayer assembly typically includes a pump and a hopper mounted on a cart. Texture materials are fed from the hopper to the pump. The output of the pump is connected to an application device by a hose.
Texture materials are available as a premixed mud or as a dry powder. The premixed mud may be added directly to the hopper, while the dry powder must be premixed with water before being added to the hopper. Prior to application, the texture material is mixed with a standard hand-held mixer in the hopper to create a uniform mixture. During the mixing process, a user inserts the hand-held mixer into the hopper. The user must support and direct the mixer during use. After mixing, the user must remove the mixer from the hopper.


An adjustable dynamic distraction mechanism connects proximal and distal components of a fixator system to enable adjustment of the distraction between proximal and distal bones of a joint and fixation thereof. The device is dynamic in that once fixation of distraction is set, the distal portion of the anatomy may be permitted to move essentially freely to flex and extend by rotation at the natural axis of the joint.

Injuries to joints present a variety of challenges, including achieving controlled distraction and fixation and preserving motion of the joint during healing. For example, joints of the digits of a human hand are commonly injured during day to day activities. Existing solutions for fixing the bones, in particular for the commonly injured bones of the proximal interphalangeal joint, are bulky, imprecise with respect to distraction, and do not provide for natural flexion and extension. There exists a need for distraction and fixation solutions that provide a hinged design based on the native joint axis to allow more anatomic mobilization of an affected joint and with minimal bulk to improve patient tolerance.

Monoplanar hinged adjustable external fixator for bone fixation and distraction


A preform is disclosed for producing a plastic container. The production of the preform as well as a plastic container that is produced from the preform and its production are also disclosed.

Containers made of tin or multicolored sheet metal, glass or else ceramic, common in the past, are increasingly being replaced by containers made of plastic.
Primarily plastic containers are now being used for the packaging of fluid substances, for example beverages; free-flowing foods, such as, e.g., ketchup, sugo, pesto, sauces, mustard, mayonnaise, and the like; household products; care products; cosmetics, etc. The low weight and the lower costs certainly play a significant role in this substitution. The use of recyclable plastic materials, the use of bioplastics, and the overall more advantageous total energy balance in their production also contribute to promoting the acceptance of plastic containers, in particular plastic bottles, by consumers.
A large number of the plastic bottles and similar plastic containers now used are produced in a stretch-blow-molding method. With this method, first a so-called preform with, for example, an elongated, tube-like shape is produced, which preform is closed with a bottom on one of its longitudinal ends and has a neck section with means for positive clamping of a closure part equipped with corresponding engagement means on the other longitudinal end. The means for positive clamping of a closure part can be, for example, threaded sections made on the outside wall of the neck part or bayonet-like projections or corresponding recesses. The production of the preform can be carried out in an injection-molding method. However, alternative production methods for preforms are also known, for example impact extrusion or extrusion blow molding. The production of the preforms can be done separated in time and/or space from the subsequent stretch-blow-molding method. In an alternative method, the preform that is produced can be processed immediately after its production without interim cooling. For stretch blow molding, the preform is inserted into a mold cavity of a blow mold and for example, inflated by a fluid, such as air, which is introduced with overpressure, expanded in the radial and axial directions. In this case, the preform is stretched in the axial direction in addition with an elongated mandrel that is run-in through the neck opening of the preform. After the elongation/blow-molding process, the finished plastic container is removed from the blow mold.
Because of the usually fairly random arrangement of molecules, the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) that is used in many cases for the production of the preforms and the plastic containers manufactured therefrom has only relatively low mechanical strength and also only relatively poor barrier properties. The subsequent stretch-blow-molding method results in a stretch-solidification of the PET, which leads to convergence as well as to parallel alignment of the molecules. Intermolecular interactions of the molecules that are brought closer to one another and the molecule chains that are aligned parallel to one another can result in a considerable improvement of the mechanical strength of the plastics used.
The advantageous effects of the stretch-solidification occur relatively late in the case of PET used for the production of plastic containers. The long routes resulting therefrom represent a significant technical challenge in the case of radial and axial elongation. In order to achieve these high stretching rates with PET, the preform must have relatively small dimensions. The length of the preform is, for example, about 10 cm, and the latter has a diameter of about 2 cm. The PET container produced from the preform in the stretch-blow-molding method is, however, in many cases relatively large and in the case of known mineral water or soft drink bottle has, for example, a length of about 24 cm and a width of about 7 cm. Because of the high stretching rates, the elongated PET container has only relatively small wall thicknesses, which has a negative effect on the barrier properties of the PET container, in particular in comparison to oxygen and water.

Preform for producing a plastic container, production of the preform and plastic container produced from the preform, as well as its production


A ducted fan for an aircraft includes a rotor-side fan and a stator-side duct that surrounds the rotor-side fan. The stator-side duct includes an inner wall facing the rotor-side fan and an outer wall averted from the fan. The ducted fan further includes a fastening device configured to support mounting of the ducted fan on a structural component of the aircraft. The fastening device includes a pin and a guide body. The guide body is configured to receive and guide the pin, the pin is insertable proceeding from the inner wall into a recess of the guide body, a first end of the pin protrudes relative to the outer wall, and the pin is configured to be mounted, via the first end, on a bearing of the structural component of the aircraft.

DE 10 2018 116 144 A1 discloses an aircraft having a fuselage and having wings which engage on the fuselage. Ducted fans are integrated into the wings. The ducted fans can be covered by slats. The ducted fans may be horizontally or vertically fixed. Horizontally fixed ducted fans serve for the propulsion of the aircraft during a vertical takeoff or a vertical landing. Vertically fixed ducted fans serve for generating forward thrust for the aircraft.
DE 10 2018 123 470 A1 has disclosed an aircraft in the case of which multiple ducted fans are integrated into a wing.
DE 10 2018 116 147 A1 has disclosed a further aircraft. Here, fans which assist the vertical takeoff or a vertical landing of the aircraft engage on a nose of the fuselage of the aircraft.
DE 10 2018 116 153 A1 has disclosed an aircraft in which ducted fans engage on a fuselage, specifically the nose of the fuselage, of the aircraft. Here, two ducted fans are combined to form a unit which is pivotable about an axis of rotation, wherein said axis of rotation runs parallel to a pitch axis of the aircraft.
DE 10 2018 116 166 A1 discloses the basic construction of a ducted fan of an aircraft. According thereto, a ducted fan comprises a rotor-side fan, also referred to as rotor, and a stator-side duct, wherein the duct surrounds the fan radially at the outside. The duct defines a flow channel, extending in an axial direction, for air flowing via the fan.
DE 10 2018 116 149 A1 has disclosed a further ducted fan of an aircraft.
DE 10 2018 120 200 A1 also discloses a ducted fan of an aircraft. In the case of this ducted fan, an electric machine is integrated into the duct.
WO 2019/202515 A1 has disclosed a mounting arrangement for a ducted fan. Said mounting arrangement serves for providing acoustic noise suppression.

DR. ING. H.C. F. PORSCHE AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT


A system and a method of a transparent color image display utilizing fluorescence conversion (FC) of nano-particles and molecules are disclosed. In one preferred embodiment, a color image display system consists of a light source equipped with two-dimensional scanning hardware and a FC display screen board. The FC display screen board consists of a transparent fluorescence display layer, a wavelength filtering coating, and an absorption substrate. In another preferred embodiment, two mechanisms of light excitation are utilized. One of the excitation mechanisms is up-conversion where excitation light wavelength is longer than fluorescence wavelength. The second mechanism is down-conversion where excitation wavelength is shorter than fluorescence wavelength. A host of preferred fluorescence materials for the FC screen are also disclosed. These materials fall into four categories: inorganic nanometer sized phosphors; organic molecules and dyes; semiconductor based nano particles; and organometallic molecules. These molecules or nano-particles are incorporated in the screen in such a way that allows the visible transparency of the screen. Additionally, a preferred fast light scanning system is disclosed. The preferred scanning system consists of dual-axes acousto-optic light deflector, signal processing and control circuits equipped with a close-loop image feedback to maintain position accuracy and pointing stability of the excitation beam.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to displays and more particularly to a system and a method for two-dimensional transparent displays utilizing special laser induced fluorescence media.
2. Background Art
Image display and associated technologies are a fundamental necessity of today's society. Application areas include communication, entertainment, military, medical and health. Traditionally, a display system consists of a source beam, beam masks or deflectors, and a projection screen. Although the basic concept of a display system served us well in the past, new technologies have been developed steadily. As demonstrated in FIG. 1, a prior art light beam based display system consists of a collimated light source 110, a light masking or deflecting unit 130, and the modified light beam (150) strikes a display screen 180. Typical example of this type of displays are: movie and film display systems, liquid crystal based display, MEMs and liquid crystal based reflective light projection systems for TV and computer. In these light based systems, the image can be viewed on the same side of the projection system as in the case of a movie display, or on the opposite side of the projection system, as in the case of back illuminated large screen projection TV. A common element in these light based display system is that the displaying screen does not change the color (or wavelength) of the illumination light. The screen preferably be opaque to increase scattering of the illuminated light to the viewers. Also the intensity of a particular color component is modulated, and/or the beam position is scanned. In FIG. 2, a prior art electron beam based display system is illustrated. These systems are used in Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) based displays for TV and computers and are gradually being replaced by liquid crystal based flat panel displays. A typical CRT display consists of an electron gun 210, horizontal and vertical beam deflecting conductive plates 230 and 240, and a conductive screen 280. A well-collimated electron beam is deflected by periodically changed electrical fields and strikes certain location of the screen at a specified time. The conductive screen is coated with phosphor particles that convert absorbed electrons into photons of a particular color. The intensity of the electron beam is controlled to regulate intensity patterns displayed on the CRT screen. The CRT screen is normally grounded or maintained at certain electrical potential to avoid charge build up. In order to operate properly, these CRT systems are evacuated and sealed in a glass vacuum tube (not shown). In both situations, the display screens are opaque and people can only see the information on the display surface but cannot see through the screens.
Recently, several research groups have studied the potential of using light conversion as a mean to two- and three-dimensional displays. Of particular interests are the work by E. Downing et. al, as described in an article entitled: "A three-color, Solid-state, Three-dimensional Display" published in Science, vol. 273, pp. 1185–89, 1996. The work described in the Science article formed basis for several US patents granted. See for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,684,621; 5,764,403; 5,914,807; 5,943,160; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,956,172 all to Downing. M. Bass and co-workers, at the University at Central Florida, carried out other related research works. Several related US patents were issued. See for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,327,074; 6,501,590; and 6,654,161; to Bass and co-inventors. These patents and article are thereby included herein by ways of reference.
The research work of Downing et. al, and M. Bass and co-inventors all employed a two color excitation scheme called up-conversion. In an up-conversion process, an absorption center must absorb at least two longer wavelength photons to emit one photon with a shorter wavelength. While Downing et. al, used a solid display material (fluoride ZBLAN glass) doped with rare earth cations, M. Bass and co-workers investigated the use of both dye doped plastics micron sized particles as well as rare earth cation containing fluoride micron particles (NaYF4) as display medium. The major difference is that the former uses solid glass layers whereas the latter uses solid particle sizes from 0.5 μm to 50 μm. The major drawback for both methods is the use of multiple lasers as the excitation sources. The use of multiple lasers is normally required for the up-conversion process due to the inefficiency of the process. The use of very intense, infrared lasers substantially limits the practical applicability of the research works and may introduce safety hazards for the viewers. For each displaying color, two laser beams with specified laser wavelengths need to be used to generate a particular color. Therefore, in order to realize a three-color display, a three-layered display solid structure doped with three color-specific emitters (rare earth cations, or dyes) together with six excitation lasers have to be used.
There are several areas that can be improved on these prior art two- and three-dimensional displays. For instance, it is desirable to use a single excitation laser to generate all three colors. Also desirable is methods using one laser for each color instead of the two lasers per color methods used in these prior art displays. Even more desirable is the use of regular dark light sources (e.g. Light emitting diodes or arc lamps of UV-blue emission) and fluorescent "down-conversion" materials for a 2-D display with transparent screen. Inexpensive manufacturing processes are also the key to a practical display technology. There is a need therefore to have improvements to these prior arts such that inexpensive displays with reduced number of laser sources can be made.

System and method for a transparent color image display utilizing fluorescence conversion of nano particles and molecules


In one embodiment, a processor comprising at least one translation lookaside buffer (TLB) and a control unit coupled to the TLB. The control unit is configured to track whether or not at least one update to the TLB is pending for at least one of a plurality of strands. Each strand comprises hardware to support a different thread of a plurality of concurrently activateable threads in the processor. The strands share the TLB, and the control unit is configured to delay a demap operation issued from one of the estrands responsive to the pending update, if any.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to translation lookaside buffers (TLBs) and demapping of translations in the TLBs, especially in multithreaded processors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Processors and computer systems that include the processors typically implement a virtual memory system, in which most software executing on the processors and accessing memory do so using virtual (or effective) addresses. These addresses are translated through the virtual memory system to physical addresses, which are used to access memory. A virtual memory system offers several benefits: it allows software to address a larger virtual memory space than the actual physical memory included in the system; it allows multiple independent processes to access memory while being protected from interfering with each other (e.g. by one process modifying data used by another process); etc.
Generally, the virtual memory system (and particularly the mapping of virtual addresses to physical addresses) is under software control. Software builds data structures in memory that describe the virtual to physical mappings. These data structures are usually referred to as "page tables", since many translations translate a page of the virtual address space to a page of physical memory, aligned to a page boundary in the physical memory space. Page sizes vary, from 4 kilobytes to several megabytes or even larger. A given virtual memory system often supports more than one page size.
Performing a translation frequently requires several accesses to the page tables in memory. Even if the page tables are cached, the process of searching the page table entries is a lengthy process, as compared to the amount of time needed to execute a given instruction. The added latency on memory accesses (both instruction fetches and load/store operations) to perform the translation process each time would hamper performance. Accordingly, most processors implement a cache for a subset of the translations from the page tables, referred to as a translation lookaside buffer (TLB). The TLB caches the results of the translation process, which includes an identification of the virtual address and the corresponding physical address, as well as any protection data that may be included in the virtual memory system (again, generally under the control of software). The data cached in the TLB and used to translate a given range of virtual addresses (e.g. a page) is referred to as a "translation" for the range/page. The translation may include contents derived from multiple page table entries or one page table entry, depending on the definition of the virtual memory system.
At various points in time, the software that controls the virtual memory system (referred to as memory management software) needs to reclaim physical memory that is currently mapped (e.g. to map other virtual addresses to the physical memory). To reclaim physical memory, the memory management software invalidates the current mappings to the physical memory in the page tables and establishes the new mappings. However, the old translations may be cached in the TLBs. Accordingly, the memory management software, after modifying the page tables, must also ensure that any translations derived from the invalidated page table entries are invalided in the TLBs.
In a single-threaded processor, it is sufficient for the memory management software to issue a TLB translation removal operation (referred to herein as a demap operation) on the processor and the TLB (or TLBs) in the processor will be invalidated. In multiprocessor systems, the TLBs on each processor must be invalidated. In some cases, the demap operation is issued on each processor. In the PowerPC architecture, two instructions are used to invalidate TLBs in a multiprocessor system: a TLB invalidate instruction (tlbie) that is transmitted by the executing processor to all other processors, and a TLB synchronization instruction (tlbsync) that follows the tlbie. The executing processor also transmits the tlbsync to all other processors, which retry the tlbsync until the TLB invalidation is complete. When the tlbsync is successfully transmitted without retry, all TLBs are known to be invalidated. Since the tlbsync is retried until a TLB invalidation is complete, the possibility of livelock exists if two processors are executing the tlbie/tlbsync sequence at the same time. Thus, software must ensure that only one processor executes the code sequence that includes the tlbie/tlbsync. Additional instructions may also be required (e.g. a synchronization instruction (sync) prior to the tlbie).
In a multithreaded processor, hardware is provided to support each thread that can be concurrently active in the processor. The hardware that supports a given thread is referred to as a "strand". Strands may share a TLB. At any given point in time, two or more threads may have a translation cached outside of the TLB. For example, the hardware table walker may have already read the translation, prior to page table modification and in response to a TLB miss for a thread on another strand that shares the TLB, but not yet loaded it into the TLB. Alternatively, the translation may be cached by memory management software executing in response to a page fault from another thread, such as in registers that correspond to the strand or memory locations separate from the page tables. Accordingly, it is possible that, even after executing the demap operation on one strand, other threads executing on other strands that share the TLB may cause the translation to be reloaded in the TLB.
To prevent the reload after the demap operation, memory management software typically issues the demap operation on each strand that may share the TLB. Once the demap operation has completed on each strand, the translation is known to be invalidated in the TLB and will not be reloaded (since the translation is invalidated in the page tables and is no longer cached with respect to other active threads). While functionally correct, this solution is a low performance mechanism since the thread executing on each strand must be interrupted to perform the demap operation.

Hardware demapping of TLBs shared by multiple threads


A mounting system attaches head suspensions to actuator head mounting arms of a disc drive actuator. The mounting system includes head suspension mounting plates and features on both the head suspension mounting plates and on the actuator head mounting arms that facilitate snap-fitting or press-fitting of the mating components, as well as features that ensure both accurate alignment and maintenance of the position of the mounted head suspensions in and about the major orthogonal axes.

This invention relates generally to the field of hard disc drive data storage devices, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to an improved mounting system for attaching the head suspensions that support the read/write heads to the head mounting arms of the disc drive actuator.
Disc drives of the type known a xe2x80x9cWinchesterxe2x80x9d disc drives or hard disc drives are well known in the industry. Such disc drives record digital data on a plurality of circular, concentric data tracks on the surfaces of one or more rigid discs. The discs are typically mounted for rotation on the hub of a brushless DC spindle motor. In disc drives of the current generation, the spindle motor rotates the discs at speeds of up to 10,000 RPM.
Data are recorded to and retrieved from the discs by an array of vertically aligned read/write head assemblies, or heads, which are controllably moved from track to track by an actuator assembly. The read/write head assemblies typically consist of an electromagnetic transducer carried on an air bearing slider. This slider acts in a cooperative hydrodynamic relationship with a thin layer of air dragged along by the spinning discs to fly the head assembly in a closely spaced relationship to the disc surface. In order to maintain the proper flying relationship between the head assemblies and the discs, the head assemblies are attached to and supported by head suspensions or flexures.
The actuator assembly used to move the heads from track to track has assumed many forms historically, with most disc drives of the current generation incorporating an actuator of the type referred to as a rotary voice coil actuator. A typical rotary voice coil actuator consists of a pivot shaft fixedly attached to the disc drive housing base member closely adjacent the outer diameter of the discs. The pivot shaft is mounted such that its central axis is normal to the plane of rotation of the discs. An actuator housing is mounted to the pivot shaft by an arrangement of precision ball bearing assemblies, and supports a flat coil which is suspended in the magnetic field of an array of permanent magnets, which are fixedly mounted to the disc drive housing base member. On the side of the actuator housing opposite to the coil, the actuator housing also typically includes a plurality of vertically aligned, radially extending actuator head mounting arms, to which the head suspensions mentioned above are mounted. When controlled DC current is applied to the coil, a magnetic field is formed surrounding the coil which interacts with the magnetic field of the permanent magnets to rotate the actuator housing, with the attached head suspensions and head assemblies, in accordance with the well-known Lorentz relationship. As the actuator housing rotates, the heads are moved radially across the data tracks along an arcuate path.
The head suspensions mentioned above are typically formed from thin stainless steel foil. In order to provide a robust connection between the head suspension and the actuator head mounting arms, the attachment end of the head suspension is typically welded to a relatively thick mounting plate which includes features intended to cooperate with mating features on the actuator head mounting arms to attach the head suspensions to the actuator.
By far the most common head suspension mounting method in current use is swage mounting. Swage mounted head suspensions include mounting plates that are formed with a cylindrical swage boss. Typically, the entire array of head/suspension assemblies is placed in cooperative arrangement with the actuator head mounting arms, with the swage bosses of the head suspension mounting plates inserted into openings in the actuator head mounting arms. A swaging tool, consisting of a ball feature having a diameter slightly larger than the inner diameter of the swage bosses, is then passed through the entire vertically aligned stack of swage bosses, expanding the swage bosses into firm contact with the inner diameters of the openings in the actuator head mounting arms. Thus, swage mounting of the head/suspension assemblies is simple and economical for use in high volume manufacturing environments.
Swage mounting of head suspensions does, however, produce potential problems. Firstly, the plastic deformation of the swage bosses during the swaging process induces large mechanical stresses in the material of the mounting plates, and these mechanical stresses can lead to deformation of the planar portion of the mounting plates to which the thin head suspensions are welded. Such deformation can lead to uncontrolled variation in the pitch and roll static attitudes of the entire head suspension/head assembly, adversely affecting the data recording/recovery performance of the entire disc drive.
Secondly, since the swage mounting plates must be located on the upper and lower surfaces of the actuator head mounting arms, and since certain minimal vertical dimensions of the various components must be maintained to provide the necessary mounting strength, swage mounting dictates that the vertical spacing between the elements of the head/disc stack has a finite minimum. In order to provide the maximum amount of storage capacity in a disc drive, designers seek to incorporate the greatest number of heads and discs possible within industry-defined physical form factors, or, alternatively, to develop ever smaller form factors. Thus, swage mounting imposes limits on the number of heads and disc that can be fitted into a defined physical package, and may impose limits on the total storage capacity of the disc drive.
Finally, swage mounting, by definition mechanically deforms the associated components when it is performed. If, after assembly, a faulty component is discovered, it is first difficult to disassemble a swage mounted head suspension assembly without damaging other xe2x80x9cgoodxe2x80x9d components. Additionally, reinsertion of a replacement swage mounted head suspension into a head mounting arm that has already been stressed by a previous swaging operation may result in less than optimal mounting force, leading to undesirable variation in the finished product.
For these and other reasons to be noted below, a need clearly exists for an alternative to swage mounting of the head suspension assemblies in a disc drive.
The present invention is an improved mounting system for attaching the head suspensions to the actuator mounting arms of a disc drive actuator. The mounting system of the invention includes novel features on both the head suspension mounting plates and on the actuator head mounting arms that facilitate snap-fitting or press-fitting of the mating components, as well as features that ensure accurate alignment of the mounted head suspensions in the major orthogonal axes. Several embodiments of the invention are disclosed.
It is an object of the invention to provide a mounting system for attaching head suspensions to actuator mounting arms in a disc drive.
It is another object of the invention to provide a head suspension mounting system that incorporates snap-fitting or press-fitting, and thus facilitates rework.
It is another object of the invention to provide a head suspension mounting system that includes features for orthogonally aligning the mounted head suspensions.
It is another object of the invention to provide a head suspension mounting system that minimizes the vertical, or Z-axis, height while maintaining adequate mechanical strength.
It is another object of the invention to provide a head suspension mounting system that is simple and economical to implement in a high volume manufacturing environment.
The manner in which the present invention achieves these objects, as well as other features, benefits and advantages of the invention, can best be understood by a review of the following Detailed Description of the invention, when read in conjunction with an examination of the accompanying drawings.

Head suspension mounting system with positive orthogonal alignment features


This invention describes various processes for synthesis and resolution of racemic amino-substituted fused bicyclic ring systems. One process utilizes selective hydrogenation of an amino-substituted fused bicyclic aromatic ring system. An alternative process prepares the racemic amino-substituted fused bicyclic ring system via nitrosation. In addition, the present invention describes the enzymatic resolution of a racemic mixture to produce the (R)— and (S)— forms of amino-substituted fused bicyclic rings as well as a racemization process to recycle the unpreferred enantioner. Further provided by this invention is an asymmetric synthesis of the (R)— or (S)— enantiomer of primary amino-substituted fused bicyclic ring systems.

It is desired by those of skill in the art to produce enantiomeric forms of pharmaceutical compounds, since such enantiomers often have increased activity for selected diseases when compared with the racemic form of the same compound. For example, 8-amino-5,6,7,8-tetrahydroquinolines are utilized as intermediates in the preparation of novel heterocyclic compounds that bind to chemokine receptors and demonstrate protective effects against infection of target cells by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). See WO 00/56729.
Approximately 40 human chemokines have been described, that function, at least in part, by modulating a complex and overlapping set of biological activities important for the movement of lymphoid cells and extravasation and tissue infiltration of leukocytes in response to inciting agents (See, for example: P. Ponath, Exp. Opin. Invest. Drugs, 7:1–18, 1998). These chemotactic cytokines, or chemokines, constitute a family of proteins, approximately 8–10 kDa in size. Chemokines appear to share a common structural motif, that consists of 4 conserved cysteines involved in maintaining tertiary structure. There are two major subfamilies of chemokines: the "CC" or β-chemokines and the "CXC" or α-chemokines. The receptors of these chemokines are classified based upon the chemokine that constitutes the receptor's natural ligand. Receptors of the β-chemokines are designated "CCR"; while those of the α-chemokines are designated "CXCR".
Chemokines are considered to be principal mediators in the initiation and maintenance of inflammation. More specifically, chemokines have been found to play an important role in the regulation of endothelial cell function, including proliferation, migration and differentiation during angiogenesis and re-endothelialization after injury (Gupta et al., J. Biolog. Chem., 7:4282–4287, 1998). Two specific chemokines have been implicated in the etiology of infection by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,583,131, U.S. Pat. No. 5,698,546 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,817,807 disclose cyclic compounds that are active against HIV-1 and HIV-2. These compounds exhibit anti-HIV activity by binding to the chemokine receptor CXCR4 expressed on the surface of certain cells of the immune system. This competitive binding thereby protects these target cells from infection by HIV which utilizes the CXCR-4 receptor for entry. In addition, these compounds antagonize the binding, signaling and chemotactic effects of the natural CXC-chemokine for CXCR-4, stromal cell-derived factor 1 α (SDF-1).
Additionally cyclic polyamine antiviral agents described in the above-mentioned patents have the effect of enhancing production of white blood cells as well as exhibiting antiviral properties. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,365,583. Thus, these agents are useful for controlling the side-effects of chemotherapy, enhancing the success of bone marrow transplantation, enhancing wound healing and burn treatment, as well as combating bacterial infections in leukemia.
Therefore, a skilled artisan would be interested in more effective and efficient processes for producing racemates and enantiomers of various ring systems. This invention provides such processes.

Synthesis of enantiomerically pure amino-substituted fused bicyclic rings


An electronic switch comprises a substrate having a surface and an embedded electrode, a droplet of conductive liquid located over the embedded electrode, and a power source configured to create an electric circuit including the droplet of conductive liquid. The surface comprises a feature that determines a contact angle between the surface and the droplet.

Many different technologies have been developed for fabricating switches and relays for low frequency and high frequency switching applications. Many of these technologies rely on solid, mechanical contacts that are alternatively actuated from one position to another to make and break electrical contact. Unfortunately, mechanical switches that rely on solid-solid contact are prone to wear and are subject to a condition known as "fretting." Fretting refers to erosion that occurs at the points of contact on surfaces. Fretting of the contacts is likely to occur under load and in the presence of repeated relative surface motion. Fretting typicaly manifests as pits or grooves on the contact surfaces and results in the formation of debris that may lead to shorting of the switch or relay.
To minimize mechanical damage imparted to switch and relay contacts, switches and relays have been fabricated using liquid metals to wet the movable mechanical structures to prevent solid to solid contact. Unfortunately, as switches and relays employing movable mechanical structures for actuation are scaled to sub-millimeter sizes, challenges in fabrication, reliability and operation begin to appear. Micromachining fabrication processes exist to build micro-scale liquid metal switches and relays that use the liquid metal to wet the movable mechanical structures, but devices that employ mechanical moving parts can be overly-complicated, thus reducing the yield of devices fabricated using these technologies. Therefore, a switch with no mechanical moving parts may be more desirable.

Liquid metal switch employing electrowetting for actuation and architectures for implementing same


A guided-vane rotary internal combustion engine including a plurality of working chambers which are separated from one another by way of vane assemblies which rotate with a rotor assembly about an axis employs a rotor assembly having a plurality of sectors wherein each sector is associated with a corresponding working chamber and a plurality of spark plugs wherein each spark plug is mounted within a corresponding sector for igniting an air/fuel mixture contained within a corresponding working chamber. A rotor disk is mounted upon the rotor assembly for rotation therewith and acts as a distributor through which energizing charges are conducted to the spark plugs. In addition, a controller is utilized for selectively activating or de-activating the working chambers of the engine upon the occurrence of a predetermined event.

This invention relates generally to guided-vane rotary apparatus utilized as an internal combustion engine and relates, more particularly, to means and methods for igniting the air/fuel mixture within and for controlling the operation of the working chambers of the apparatus.
Guided-vane rotary apparatus with which this invention is concerned include a rotor which rotates within the interior of a housing and vanes which are associated with the rotor and housing for dividing the housing interior into working chambers. Commonly, the vanes are mounted within the rotor and adapted to slide relative thereto between alternative radial positions as the rotor is rotated within the housing. When employed as an internal combustion engine, the engine operates on the same four-cycle Otto thermodynamic principle common to a piston engine, but the thermodynamic operation of the guided-vane rotary engine is referred to as cycles, rather than strokes, as the guided-vane rotary engine has no pistons utilizing reciprocating strokes. Furthermore, the engine completes its four cycles of operation in one full revolution, i.e. 360 degrees, of the rotor output shaft. An example of a guided-vane rotary apparatus of the aforedescribed class is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,783, having the same inventor as the instant application.
In order to enhance the efficiency of a guided-vane rotary apparatus of the aforedescribed class, it would be desirable that the working chambers of the apparatus be effectively sealed from one another to prevent a leakage or flow of the working gases or fluid contained in one chamber of the apparatus to another chamber of the apparatus. In other words, when such leakage is permitted, any pumping efficiency or effectiveness of the apparatus as a positive displacement machine is impaired. However, current designs have not proven to be entirely satisfactory in this respect, and when the designs of such guided-vane rotary apparatus have involved a spark plug mounted within an outer wall of the housing interior, some degree of flow communication is commonly permitted between adjacent chambers of the apparatus as each vane of the apparatus moves past the spark plug.
Furthermore and for purposes of conserving fuel being utilized by such a guided-vane rotary engine or reducing the exhaust emissions of the engine, it would be desirable to provide a scheme of engine operation whereby all of the working chambers of the engine are utilized only when full operating power of the engine is desired, and less-than-all of the chambers are utilized when less-than-all of the operating power of the engine is desired.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved guided-vane rotary internal combustion engine whose structure reduces the likelihood of flow communication between working chambers of the apparatus during the operation of the engine.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such an engine having an improved scheme for sealing the working chambers of the engine from one another.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide such an engine wherein the disposition of its spark plug therein reduces the likelihood of flow communication between working chambers of the engine.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide such an engine having a rotor body within which the engine spark plug is mounted and an attending arrangement for energizing the spark plug.
A further object of the present invention is to provide such an engine having a new and improved scheme for control of the utilization of the working chambers of the engine.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide such an engine whose working chambers can be selectively activated or de-activated and an associated controller to effect this purpose.
A yet still further object of the present invention to provide such an engine which is adaptable to selective chamber operation whereby only a selected number of working chambers are permitted to operate in response to changing power demands.
One more object of the present invention is to provide such an engine which is uncomplicated in structure, yet effective in operation.

Control of chamber combustion and operation of a guided-vane rotary internal combustion engine


A distributed computing system is provided. Both a first computing node and a second computing node in the distributed computing system store information about a name, a size, and a communication peer side identifier of a first data flow graph parameter in a data flow graph. The first computing node stores the first data flow graph parameter, where the first computing node and the second computing node generate respective triplets based on same interface parameter generation algorithms and information about the first data flow graph parameter that are stored in the respective nodes. The triplet is used as an interface parameter of a message passing interface (MPI) primitive that is used to transmit the first data flow graph parameter between the first computing node and the second computing node.

With development of the big data industry and the artificial intelligence technology, various computing platforms such as a machine learning platform, a graph computing platform, and a flow computing platform constantly emerge. These computing platforms are usually deployed in a distributed computing system to perform big data computing. For example, the machine learning platform usually uses a data flow graph as a computing object, divides the data flow graph into a plurality of subgraphs or copies, and deploys the plurality of subgraphs or copies on a plurality of computing nodes in the distributed computing system, so that the plurality of computing nodes may be used to perform collaborative computing on the data flow graph, to improve data computing efficiency. A computing node in the plurality of computing nodes may include a plurality of devices used for computation, such as a CPU (central processing unit) and acceleration hardware that is equipped in a host of the computing node. For example, the acceleration hardware may be a GPU (graphics processing unit).
However, in a computation process of the data flow graph in the distributed computing system, communication for a data flow graph parameter needs to be performed between nodes. Such communication directly affects efficiency of computing the data flow graph by the machine learning platform. In an existing solution, a message passing interface (MPI) library that is usually applied to the high-performance computing field is introduced into a distributed computing system as an external plug-in unit, to support data communication in the system. However, before data communication is performed in the MPI library, two parties that need to perform data communication exchange information to obtain information about a communication peer side, so as to obtain, through negotiation, a communication parameter used for an MPI primitive. However, because a communication time sequence of a computing platform is dynamic and random, it is difficult for the two parties for data communication to determine a peer end and perform negotiation in a timely manner. The negotiation process further increases data communication load on the computing platform, thereby affecting data transmission efficiency.

Distributed computing system, and data transmission method and apparatus in distributed computing system


A method of transmitting and receiving data packets across a noisy communication medium, e.g., an AC power line. The data packets are transmitted using spread-spectrum chirps. A first sequence of the chirps forms a contention-resolution preamble used by transmitters to resolve conflicting contentions for access to the communication medium. The preamble is followed by a second sequence of chirps that form a start-of-packet symbol used by receivers to delineate the start of data within the packet. To simplify detection at the receiver, identical chirps are used in the preamble and the start-of-packet symbol. To enable the receiver to avoid erroneously interpreting preamble chirps as start-of-packet chirps, and thereby erroneously begin to accept packet data, chirps in the preamble are transmitted at a different pitch (i.e., different time period between inception of successive chirps) from chirps in the start-of-packet symbol.

This invention relates to chirp spread-spectrum communication systems, and in particular to such systems used on noisy network media, such as power lines.
Spread spectrum communication is a method whereby information is communicated using a bandwidth that greatly exceeds that required by information theory. Since these methods provide their signals over a wide bandwidth, they may be immune to large amounts of noise within that bandwidth. In chirp spread-spectrum method, a signal burst known as a chirp is transmitted. Each chirp has energy spread across a frequency range. The frequency spread may be achieve by frequency sweeping or other known techniques (such a direct sequence). The chirps may be sent in succession and modulated with information to be communicated to a receiver. A filter in the receiver is matched to the chirp, enabling a chirp to be detected in the presence of noise (a term which we use collectively to refer to all impairments to the communications channel).
My U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,024, entitled SPREAD-SPECTRUM COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM FOR NETWORKS, issued Feb. 18, 1992, is herein incorporated by reference. The patent describes a system for communicating over power lines, and the like, that employs chirp spread-spectrum communication techniques.
In a communication network, several transmitters and receivers may communicate with each other over a network medium. In certain networks, collision (or contention) resolution strategies are implemented to resolve situations in which two or more transmitters simultaneously require use of the network medium.

Timing for spread-spectrum communication across noisy media


A method of reducing defects in epitaxially grown III-V semiconductor material comprising: epitaxially growing a III-V semiconductor on a substrate; patterning and removing portions of the III-V semiconductor to form openings; depositing thermally stable material in the openings; depositing a capping layer over the semiconductor material and thermally stable material to form a substantially enclosed semiconductor; and annealing the substantially enclosed semiconductor.

The present invention relates generally to semiconductor epitaxy and more specifically to a method for reducing defects within III-V semiconductor materials epitaxially grown on mismatched crystalline substrates.
For many III-V semiconductor material epitaxies, for example GaAs, annealing at temperatures higher than the growth temperature (i.e., temperatures above 550° C.) may be performed after epitaxial growth to annihilate defects and reduce overall defect densities. However, high temperature annealing may cause problems when one of the III-V materials used to form the epitaxial layer exhibits a high partial vapor pressure. For example, during high temperature annealing, Group V materials, which tend to have higher vapor pressures than Group III materials, may evaporate from the surface of the III-V semiconductor epitaxy, leaving droplets of Group III material behind. Such decomposition of the III-V semiconductor may lead to pitting of the III-V semiconductor, and subsequently, erosion of layers formed on top of the III-V semiconductor. These defects may degrade the performance of the III-V semiconductor device.

Post growth defect reduction for heteroepitaxial materials

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


The invention relates to an optoelectronic arrangement having a laser component. There are provided: a cooling device of small design for cooling the laser component down to a constant temperature, a device for the direct optical detection of the emitted wavelength of the laser component, whose signal is used to control the cooling device, and a package of small design with an extent of at most 6.5 mm perpendicular to the optical axis of the laser component and in which the above named components are arranged. The invention also relates to a method for controlling the emitted wavelength of a laser component.

For the purpose of transmitting as large a quantity of data as possible via an optical waveguide, it is known in optical telecommunications to multiplex the data to be transmitted. One possibility for this purpose is to transmit information independently and simultaneously over one waveguide with the aid of several wavelengths (wavelength division multiplexing—WDM). It is necessary in this case to keep reliably on the transmission side to the various prescribed optical wavelength channels. Thus, there is a need in the transmission modules for an optical arrangement with the aid of which the wavelength of the individual transmission devices can be monitored and, if required, corrected. The aim in this case is for the technical solution provided to be of small overall size, to require little electric power and to be capable of cost effective production.
WO 03/069744 A1 discloses an optoelectronic module in which a laser chip is arranged on a submount and is cooled by a Peltier cooler of small design. Located on the submount for the purpose of monitoring the wavelength emitted by the laser chip is a temperature sensor via which the operating temperature of the laser can be detected. The signal generated by the temperature sensor is fed to an electronic monitoring and control unit via which the temperature is set after a calibration operation on the laser and is kept stable by suitable control of the current by the Peltier cooler. A temperature is set in this case at which the laser emits the desired optical wavelength, which corresponds to a specific WDM channel.
It is also known for the emitted wavelength to be detected directly in order to monitor and control the wavelength of the light emitted by the laser. Use is made for this purpose of relatively complicated optics having one or more wavelength-dependent filters. By directly detecting the emitted wavelength of the laser component, it is possible to achieve a substantially finer stabilization of the wavelength than by exerting control through using a temperature sensor.
The Peltier cooler used in known optoelectronic arrangements for temperature stabilization are disadvantageously relatively large as a rule. Furthermore, they require a relatively large electric power and are comparatively expensive. Optoelectronic modules with wavelength stabilization are therefore cost intensive both to produce and to operate.

Optoelectronic arrangement having a laser component, and a method for controlling the emitted wavelength of a laser component


A method and the resulting product for isolating lightly doped silicon islands from each other and from a common substrate. The substrate is covered with a first heavily doped epi layer. The first layer is covered with a lightly doped second epi layer. A pair of spaced deep trenches are provided which extend from the top surface of the second layer, through the first layer and into the substrate. The interior walls of the trenches are lined with oxide. A pair of heavily doped reach-through diffusions extending from said top surface to the first layer is oriented perpendicularly to the deep trenches and fully extends between the trenches. The heavily doped reach-through diffusions and the contiguous first layer are removed by a single anisotropic etching step to yield silicon islands isolated by air except where the islands contact the oxide-lined deep trenches. The air isolation preferably is partially replaced with other dielectric material.

The present invention generally relates to silicon-on-insulator semiconductor device structures and methods and, more particularly, to a simplified undercut etching method based on the use of doped reach-through regions to isolate such device structures from each other on the same chip.
Undercut etching methods to remove selectively a buried doped semiconductive region to form submerged spaces for the insertion of insulating material are well-known in the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) art. The various methods differ in complexity particularly as to how access is gained to each and remove the buried region and as to how the overlying region (to be isolated) is supported during the process of removing the buried region.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,888,300, issued to Gregory N. Burton on Dec. 19, 1989 for Submerged Wall Isolation of Silicon Islands, teaches the use of trenches in an epitaxial layer to provide access to a differently doped buried layer. While supporting the portion of the epitaxial layer adjacent the trench (by an oxide bridge), the underlying region of the buried layer is etched away to form a cavity under the active area. Five etching steps are disclosed to accomplish the accessing, supporting and removal steps for forming the cavity and for completely isolating the silicon islands from the substrate. Copending patent application, Ser. No. 07/781,429, filed Oct. 23, 1991 in the names of K. D. Beyer et al. for Buried Air Dielectric Isolation of Silicon Islands and assigned to the present assignee also utilizes trench and oxide bridging steps to provide for the accessing and removal of the buried region material while supporting the active area. Three etching steps are disclosed for forming completely isolated silicon islands.

Reach-through isolation etching method for silicon-on-insulator devices


The present application relates to the field of alcohol detection, and particularly to an intelligent identity-authentication alcohol detector. One technical solution comprises an intelligent identity-authentication alcohol detector, comprising a base, a mounting seat, and a connecting arm; the mounting seat is provided on the base, and a face information acquiring module is provided on the mounting seat; the connecting arm is rotatably provided on the base, and a breathing opening for alcohol detection is provided on the connecting arm; and the connecting arm is used for driving the breathing opening for alcohol detection to a position where the face information acquiring module acquires the face information of a subject. According the technical solution of the present application, the face information acquiring module can constantly acquire the face information of a subject when the subject breathes into the breathing opening for alcohol detection, thereby preventing the subject from cheating.

An alcohol detector is an apparatus used for detecting whether alcohol is taken in a human body and how much alcohol is taken in. It can be used as a tool for detecting how much alcohol a driver has drunk by a traffic policeman on duty, so as to effectively reduce the occurrence of significant traffic accidents. An alcohol detector can also be used to detect the level of alcohol in the air expired from a human body on other occasions, for example, at some high-risk firms where it is prohibited to be on duty after drinking, so as to avoid personal casualties and significant property losses.
Further, a conventional alcohol detector has the function of face recognition, so as to recognize the face of a subject, preventing the subject from cheating during the process of alcohol detection in expired air. Particularly, a conventional alcohol detector comprises a base and a camera disposed on the base for acquiring the face information of a subject. A breathing opening for alcohol detection is further provided on the base.
However, the above conventional alcohol detector has the following defects in operation: both the camera and the breathing opening for alcohol detection are fixed on the base and close to each other, therefore, when a subject breathes into the breathing opening for alcohol detection, too close distance between the head of the subject and the camera prevents the camera from effectively acquiring the face information of the subject, increasing the risk of cheating by the subject when performing alcohol testing to the subject by using such alcohol detector.

Intelligent identity-authentication alcohol detector