A method of inhibiting mammalian topoisomerase II and inhibiting the growth and inducing the regression of malignant cells in mammals by the action of a (S)-3-methyl-7-oxo-2,3-dihydro-7H-pyrido[1,2,3-de][1,4]benzoxazine or -benzothiazine of the formula ##STR1## wherein R.sub.1 is hydrogen or fluoro, R.sub.2 and R.sub.3 each independently is hydrogen or alkyl having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, and X is O, S or S=O; a pharmaceutically acceptable acid-addition salt thereof; or a salt thereof with a pharmaceutically acceptable cation; and certain novel compounds of formula I.

a) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the inhibition of mammalian topoisomerase II and of the growth of malignant cells and to inducing the regression of malignant cells in mammals by the action of certain (S)-3-methyl-7-oxo-2,3-dihydro-7H-pyrido[1,2,3-de][1,4]benzoxazine(and benzothiazine)-6-carboxylic acids; and to certain of such compounds which are novel.
b) Information Disclosure Statement
Hayakawa et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,382,892, issued May 10, 1983, discloses antibacterial pyrido[1,2,3-de][1,4]benzoxazine derivatives having the formula ##STR2## wherein X is a halogen atom, R is a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group of 1 to 6 carbon atoms and Z represents mono-substituted, di-substituted or cyclic-substituted amino group which may contain a hetero atom and may have a substituent such as hydroxyl, alkyl having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, amino, hydroxyalkyl having 1 to 6 carbon atoms or mono- or di-alkylamino having 1 to 6 carbon atoms in each alkyl moiety.
D. T. Chu U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,694, issued Sep. 10, 1985, discloses antibacterial pyridine-substituted quinobenzoxazines having the formula ##STR3## wherein X is halogen or hydrogen; R.sub.2 is a substituent; and R.sub.1 is hydrogen or a carboxy protecting group. The specification of the patent suggests substitution on the pyridine ring including alkyl groups but there are no specific examples thereof.
Hutt et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,396, issued Feb. 18, 1986, discloses antibacterial quinolones which include compounds of the formula ##STR4## wherein R.sub.1 is hydrogen, C.sub.1-6 alkyl or a cation, Y is hydrogen, fluoro or amino, W is O, NR, S or CH, R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 are hydrogen or C.sub.1-3 alkyl, and Z is an aza- or diazabicycloalkyl radical.
Gilligan et al. U.S. pat. No. 4,623,650, issued Nov. 18, 1986 discloses antibacterial quinolones of the formula ##STR5## wherein R.sub.1 is hydrogen, alkyl of 1 to 6 carbon atoms, benzyl or a pharmaceutically acceptable cation; R.sub.2 is hydrogen or fluoro; R.sub.2 and Y, inter alia, when taken together have the formula --X--(CH.sub.2).sub.n --CHR.sub.4 -- wherein X is CH.sub.2, O, S, NH or NCH.sub.3, n is 0, 1 or 2, and R.sub.4 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, alkyl and haloalkyl of 1 to 3 carbons, hydroxymethyl, hydroxyethyl, aminomethyl, phenyl and methylene; and R.sub.3 is phenyl which may be substituted by one to three defined substituents including C.sub.1-4 alkyl. The only specific compounds disclosed where R.sub.2 and Y are --X--(CH.sub.2).sub.n --CHR.sub.4 -- are Example 43 (R.sub.1 =H, R.sub.3 =phenyl, X=O, n=1, and R.sub.4 =CH.sub.3) and Example 44 (R.sub.1 =H, R.sub.3 =4-aminosulfonylphenyl, X=O, n=1, and R.sub.4 =CH.sub.3).
Gilligan et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,636,506, issued Jan. 13, 1987, discloses antibacterial quinolones of the formula ##STR6## wherein R.sub.1 is hydrogen, a pharmaceutically acceptable cation or alkyl of 1 to 3 carbon atoms; R.sub.2 is 3-pyridyl or 4-pyridyl which may be substituted by various groups not including alkyl; and, inter alia, R.sub.3 and Y may be combined to form a bridge of the formula --X(CH.sub.2).sub.n --CHR.sub.4 -- or --X(CH.sub.2).sub.n --C(.dbd.CH.sub.2)-- wherein X is CH.sub.2, O, S, NH or NCH.sub.3 ; n is 0, 1 or 2, and R.sub.4 is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, alkyl and halo alkyl of 1 to 3 carbon atoms, hydroxymethyl, hydroxyethyl, aminoethyl and phenyl. The only specific compounds disclosed where R.sub.3 and Y are combined are Example 7 (R.sub.1 =H, R.sub.2 =3-pyridyl, and combined R.sub.3 and Y=--S--CH.sub.2 --CH.sub.2 --) and Example 8 (R.sub.1 =H, R.sub.2 =3-pyridyl, and combined R.sub.3 and Y=--N(CH.sub.3)--CH.sub.2 --CH.sub.2 --).
Lesher U.S. Pat. No. 4,839,355, issued Jun. 13, 1989, discloses antibacterial fluorinated 10-(2,6-dimethyl-4-pyridinyl)-7-oxo-2,3-dihydro-7H-pyrido[1,2,3-de][1,4]be nzoxazine-6-carboxylic acids and -benzothiazine-6-carboxylic acids of the formula ##STR7## wherein R is hydrogen, R' is hydrogen or fluoro, R" is alkyl of 1-3 carbon atoms and X is O or S.
M. R. Jefson et al., at the 29th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy held Sep. 17-20, 1989, disclosed the synthesis and properties of optically pure C.sub.7 -heteroaryl quinolones structurally related to ofloxacin. Included in the properties studied was the in vitro DNA gyrase and mammalian topoisomerase activities of S-(-)-CP-92,121 [(S)-9-fluoro-3-methyl-10-(4-pyridyl)-7-oxo-7H-pyrido[1,2,3-de][1,4]benzox azine-6-carboxylic acid] and its antipode, R-(+)-CP-91,120; and S-(-)-CP-100,964 [(S)-9-fluoro-3-methyl-10-(6-quinolyl)-7-oxo-7H-pyrido[1,2,3-de][1,4]benzo xazine-6-carboxylic acid] and its antipode, R-(+)-CP-100,965. The calf thymus topoisomerase II activities, expressed as CC.sub.50 s (.mu.g/ml), for these compounds was 30, 380, 20 and >1000 respectively. It is stated that the combined potent activity against procaryotic and eucaryotic topoisomerase enzymes make agents such as CP-92,121 and CP-100,964 attractive compounds for potential use as cancer chemotherapeutants.
K. Hoshino et al., Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 33(10), 1816-1818 (October 1989) compared the in vitro inhibitory effect of certain quinolones on bacterial DNA gyrase of Escherichia coli KL-16 and topoisomerase II of fetal calf thymus. Included in the comparison are ofloxacin [9-fluoro-3-methyl-10-(4-methyl-1-piperazinyl)-7-oxo-2,3-dihydro-7H-pyrido [1,2,3-de][1,4]benzoxazine-6-carboxylic acid], fleroxacin [6,8-difluoro-1-(2-fluoroethyl)-7-(4-methyl-1-piperazinyl)-1,4-dihydro-4-o xo-3-quinolinecarboxylic acid], ciprofloxacin [1-cycloproyl-6-fluoro-7-(1-piperazinyl)-1,4-dihydro-4-oxo-3-quinolinecarb oxylic acid], CI-934 [6,8-difluoro-1-ethyl-7-[3-(ethylaminomethyl)-1-pyrrolidinyl]-1,4-dihydro- 4-oxo-3-quinolinecarboxylic acid] and lomefloxacin [6,8-difluoro-1-ethyl-7-(3-methyl-1-piperazinyl)-1,4-dihydro-4-oxo-3-quino linecarboxylic acid], the 50% inhibitory doses for topoisomerase II of which were found to vary between 64 and 1,870 .mu.g/ml, the potency of inhibition being lowest for ofloxacin.
P. Hussy et al., Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 29(6), 1073-1078 (June 1986) investigated the effect of certain 4-quinolones and novobiocin on elements of eucaryotic DNA replication in vitro. Ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin [1-ethyl-6-fluoro-7-(1-piperazinyl)-1,4-dihydro-4-oxo-3-quinolinecarboxyli c acid] and ofloxacin were included in the investigation and found to have K.sub.i values of 50% inhibition of DNA topoisomerases from calf thymus of 150, 300 and 1300 .mu.g/ml respectively in the case of topoisomerase II.
J. F. Barrett et al., at the 27th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy held Oct. 4 to 7, 1987, disclosed that several quinolones and anti-tumor compounds were tested as inhibitors of purified eukaryotic topoisomerase II in unknotting, catenation and radiolabeled DNA cleavage assays. Among the quinolones tested, ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin were reported not to be potent enhancers of DNA cleavage mediated by topoisomerase II whereas, in contrast, CP-67,015 [6,8-difluoro-1-ethyl-7-(4-pyridyl)-1,4-dihydro-4-oxo-3-quinolinecarboxyli c acid] induced significant DNA cleavage in both the radiolabeled and cold cleavage assays [see also J. F. Barrett et al., Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 33(10), 1697-1703 (October 1989)].

Method of inhibiting mammalian topoisomerase II and malignant cell growth in mammals, with substituted (S)-3-methyl-7-oxo-2,3-dihydro-7H-pyrido[1,2,3-de][1,4 ]-benzoxazine(and-benzothiazine)-6-carboxylic acids


Spine stabilization systems are disclosed. One spine stabilization system includes a bone screw assembly including a coupling member and a screw member received therein. The coupling member includes a pair of extension elements that form a pair of slots. The slots include bottom angled surfaces. An angled wedge member having a substantially horizontal bottom surface and an angled top surface is delivered on top of the screw member within the coupling member. A rod member can be delivered down the coupling member such that it rests on the slots and on top of the angled wedge member. A locking assembly comprising a cap member and set screw can be delivered down the coupling member to secure the rod member to the coupling member. The rod member and locking assembly components can be delivered through a single incision and at a same or similar angle as the screw member during surgery.

Many surgical procedures require securing an implant to bone, for example, to vertebrae along the spine. Orthopedic fixation devices are frequently coupled to bone by the use of fasteners such as screws, threaded bolts, or pins. For example, a rod implant can be operatively coupled to bone with the assistance of one or more bone screw assemblies designed to receive the rod implant. The rod implant can be secured across one or more vertebrae to assist in bone stabilization. Each of the bone screw assemblies can include a locking assembly such as a cap and set screw to secure the rod implant therein.
The bone screw assemblies and implants can be delivered minimally invasively through one or more incisions. In order to insert the bone screw assemblies and implants, the one or more incisions may need to be expanded in size. Expanding the size of an incision can detrimentally increase the amount of trauma to a patient and can extend the amount of time for healing. It also increases the operation time by requiring an extra step to be performed by a surgeon.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide spinal stabilization systems that reduce the need to expand an incision during surgery, or at least reduce the size of expansion.


A distributed database management system balances the load on query boundaries and to achieve a more evenly balanced load. The system includes two or more query processors with a common data source. A database client manages a transaction including two or more queries. A transaction analyzer checks if a transaction can be processed by more than one query processor. A query processor optimizer locates the optimum query processor for each query in the transaction based on workload of each query processor, while a workload balancer directs each query to the optimum query processor if the transaction can be processed by more than one query processor. This approach is particularly well suited to a clustered database environment that includes query processor nodes that work off a shared disk to provide database access to clients that connect to the node.

Embodiments of the invention relate to distributed database systems and, more particularly, to transaction independent workload balancing in a distributed database with a common data source.
Transactions that use a distributed database system may require data from a common data source across the distributed database system. In this type of distributed database with a common data source, certain processing nodes can get overworked compared to other processing nodes and can therefore be more prone to faults and errors. In particular, an uneven load profile on the processing nodes can adversely impact the overall throughput of the system and potentially cause the system to fail to meet its designed goals. Workload balancing responds to these concerns by distributing workload across the different processing nodes in a balanced way. There is a continuing need for improved workload balancing techniques for distributed database systems.

Workload balancing in a distributed database

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A content addressable memory (CAM) includes a linked list structure for a pending queue to order memory commands for maximizing memory channel bandwidth by minimizing read/write stalls due to read-modify-write commands.

As is known in the art, network devices, such as routers and switches, can include network processors to facilitate receiving and transmitting data. In certain network processors, such as IXP Network Processors by Intel Corporation, high-speed queuing and FIFO (First In First Out) structures are supported by a descriptor structure that utilizes pointers to memory. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2003/0140196 A1 discloses exemplary queue control data structures. Packet descriptors that are addressed by pointer structures may be 32-bits or less, for example.
In some known network processors, an operation that involves a read followed by write could result in loss of memory interface cycles. A read-modify-write (RMW) command enters a main command queue or FIFO (First In/First Out) 10 and is subsequently broken up into its constituent read and write commands. The read command is put into a read command FIFO and the write command is put into a write command FIFO. The queued write command must wait for the corresponding read command to finish before the required write data can be formed. If there is a backlog in the read command FIFO, the write FIFO stalls even if there is another write command pending in the write command FIFO that can execute. As a result write cycles are lost on the pin interface.
Similarly if there is a read that is ordered to a write location but write data has not yet been read from the source of the write data, the read can not proceed resulting in wasted read cycles. A similar loss of performance occurs when dealing with SRAM (static random access memory) ring commands.

Processor having content addressable memory with command ordering


A metering system configured to couple to multiple specialty systems, such as a control system. At least some of the illustrative embodiments are processing units comprising a processor, a memory coupled to the processor, and a communication port configured to coupled to a backbone communication network of a control system. The memory stores a program that causes the processor to selectively participate (over the communication port) as a processing unit of a control system of a first manufacturer (the control system implements a first proprietary communication protocol between processing units), and to participate (over the communication port) as a processing unit of a control system of a second manufacturer different than the first manufacturer (the control system of the second manufacturer implements a second proprietary communication protocol between the processing units).

Manufacturers of distributed process control systems design their control systems to be used with a variety of industrial processes. For example, the general hardware and software that a distributed process control system manufacturer may create may be used in such diverse applications as running a power plant to controlling a food processing facility. For this reason, the manufacturers of the distributed process control systems intentionally create their systems to be easily adaptable to a plurality of different controlled processes.
However, there are niche markets in the process control realm for which general process control systems are not particularly suited. For example, the measurement of the flow of hydrocarbons (e.g., natural gas, liquefied natural gas, oil, gasoline) for purposes of custody transfer is a niche market for which the general tools provided in a distributed process control system are inadequate. Stated otherwise, while some distributed process control systems may have function blocks to perform flow measurement calculations, the flow measurement calculations provided are not of sufficient accuracy for custody transfer (i.e., billing) purposes. Moreover, many legal jurisdictions have regulatory audit requirements regarding the measurement of the flow of hydrocarbons, and the general tools for flow measurement calculations of process control systems do not meet such requirements. As yet another example of a niche market for which distributed process control systems are not particularly suited is turbine (e.g., gas turbine, steam turbine) control. Turbine control systems control not only valve position for turbine speed/load control, but also implement various specialty functions like heat soaking a turbine for proper expansion of the various components after periods of inactivity, and in the case of gas turbines fuel flow control. As yet another example of a niche market for which a distributed process control systems are not particularly suited is hydrocarbon quality monitoring (e.g., BTU content, hydrocarbon makeup, entrained liquid in natural gas flow), and some legal jurisdictions also have specific metrological requirement regarding quality monitoring.
Because of the complexity and requirements regarding specialty systems, such as metering of hydrocarbons for custody transfer, turbine control, and hydrocarbon quality monitoring, in the related art the specialty systems are separate physical systems.

Coupling a specialty system, such as a metering system, to multiple control systems


A preamorphized silicon layer formed atop a sapphire substrate is selectively recrystallized such that the original degraded quality of the crystallinity of an N-well region where a P-channel device is to be formed is enhanced, so that leakage in the P-channel device is reduced, while the high UVR number of a P-well region where an N-channel device resides remains unaffected. The process according to the present invention involves implanting a recrystallization-inducing element, such as silicon, into only that portion of the preamorphized silicon layer where an N-conductivity well region for a P-channel device is to be formed. An N-conductivity type impurity is introduced into the silicon-implanted portion of the preamorphized silicon layer, to form the N-conductivity well region. The structure is then annealed at a relatively low temperature for several minutes, which is sufficient to activate the phosphorus and to cause local recrystallization of the N-well region of the silicon layer, without essentially causing a redistribution of the phosphorus. What results is a precisely tailored, low leakage P-channel device with a very close to ideal characteristic, integrated in the same SOS structure with a high UVR-based N-channel device.

A beneficial radiation response is observed in CMOS devices fabricated in an inherently degraded silicon heteroepitaxy layer grown upon sapphire substrates. The lattice mismatch between the layer and the substrate is sufficiently different as to result in defects in the layer near the silicon/sapphire substrate. Because of this, silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) architectures are often selected to fabricate radiation-hardened integrated circuits, such as very large scale static random access memories. The defect level of the silicon overlayer can be characterized and controlled by means of ultraviolet (UV) light reflectance, an indirect quantification of the defect twins which produces the favorable response. An identified range of defect densities has been found to aid in reducing the post irradiation leakage of the N-channel transistor and is characterized by a relatively high UV reflectance index or number. Integrated circuit designs such as static RAMs which employ a predominance of N-channel transistors enjoy a significant reduction in leakage current in a radiation environment. On the other hand, this same level of crystal quality produces a correspondingly inferior increase in P-channel transistor leakage. Because of this apparent disparity, a compromise between N and P-channel device leakage is usually encountered. Such a compromise necessarily favors suppression of leakage in the N channel transistor, often allowing the P-channel leakage component to become excessive.

Selective recrystallization to reduce P-channel transistor leakage in silicon-on-sapphire CMOS radiation hardened integrated circuits


A connector that includes a carabiner and an insert is provided. The base of the insert has a length that extends between a first end and a second end and a width that extends between a first side edge and a second side edge. A barrel connector of the insert centrally extends from the first side edge of the base. The barrel connector receives a barrel of a gate of the carabiner. A first ear extends from the second side edge of the base proximate the first end of the base. The first ear includes a first carabiner retaining channel that selectively engages a first portion of the carabiner. A second ear extends from the second side edge of the base proximate the second end of the base. The second ear includes a second carabiner retaining channel that selectively engages a second portion of the carabiner.

Safety harnesses are typically used in work areas that subject workers to the risk of falling. In some high risk areas, a safety harness is coupled to a lifeline that is in turn coupled to a support structure. If a fall event should occur, the lifeline coupled to the support structure limits the fall of the worker donning the safety harness to prevent injuries to the worker. In some work environments, it is necessary for the worker to move about from a first area to a second area. It is common in this situation that the worker will have to disconnect the lifeline from a first support structure in the first area and connect to a second support structure in the second area when moving from the first area to the second area. Hence, there is a period of time, between when the worker disconnects the lifeline from the first support structure and connects the lifeline to the second support structure, in which the lifeline is not connected to a support structure. If a fall event occurs during that period of time the worker has no fall protection. This scenario can be avoided with the use of two lifelines. With the use of two lifelines, one lifeline can always be attached to an associated support structure when moving between areas of the worksite. For example, when a worker needs move from a first area to a second area, the worker simply connects a second lifeline to a support structure in the second area. Once that is completed, the first lifeline is disconnected from the first area. Lifelines can incorporate various types of safety devices such as self-retracting lifeline configurations and energy absorbers known in the art.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for a connector that allows for the connection of two lifelines to a safety harness in an effective and efficient manner.


A pair of bi-fold lids covers a container having a depth dimension that is less than half the width dimension of the container. Each bi-fold lid has front and rear sections that are hinged together along a hinge axis. The hinge axis is reinforced by adjacent flanges that overlap one another when the lids are in their closed position. When the lids are open, the front and rear sections fold over on one another to reduce the extent to which they hang down adjacent the sidewall of the container. This permits a container of short height or shallow depth to have lids.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to hi-fold lids hinged to the sidewalls of a container that has a width dimension that exceeds twice its depth dimension. In particular each lid has two sections hinged to one another that extend across the opening of the container in a closed position and fold back onto each other when the lids are rotated to an open position.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional lidded containers have a depth dimension that exceeds the width dimension across the open top of the container. As a result, when the lids, which are hinged to the sidewalls of the container, are opened, the lids rotate approximately 270.degree. to a position substantially parallel with the sidewalls. This permits the containers to be shipped in a nested stack with the lids open without a substantial change in the overall dimension of the container, as compared to when the lids are in the closed position.
When a container is designed to have a width dimension between the sidewalls to which the lids are hinged that exceeds the depth of the container, the lids rotate to an open position, but are prevented from rotating the full 270.degree. as a result of interference with the floor or other support surface supporting the container. As a result, when empty containers of such dimensions are stacked in a nested stack, the lids of the bottom container engage the support surface causing them to flare outwardly to a significant degree thus changing the overall dimension of the container, as compared with its dimension when the lids are closed. Thus lidded containers of shallow depth are not in wide circulation.


An organic light-emitting device includes: an anode; a wiring that is disposed side-by-side with and spaced from the anode; a light-emitting layer that is disposed above the anode, and includes an organic light-emitting material; an intermediate layer that is disposed above the light-emitting layer and the wiring; an organic functional layer that is disposed above the intermediate layer, and has an electron injection property or an electron transport property; a cathode that is disposed above the organic functional layer. The intermediate layer includes: a fluoride of a first metal, the first metal being an alkali metal or an alkaline-earth metal; and a second metal that has a property of cleaving a bond between the first metal and fluorine in the fluoride.

In recent years, researches have been advanced on organic light-emitting devices including light-emitting layers that include an organic light-emitting material. An organic light-emitting device for example includes a thin-film transistor (TFT) substrate, anodes, light-emitting layers, and a cathode. Also, an organic EL element includes hole injection layers, hole transport layers, an electron injection layer, an electron transport layer, a sealing layer, and so on as necessary. Examples of the organic light-emitting device include an organic EL display panel having a plurality of pixels.
By the way, an organic EL display panel of an active matrix driving type generally includes an anode as an electrode that is formed independently for each pixel and a cathode as an electrode that is formed for the entire pixels. Voltage is applied to the cathode from a peripheral part of the cathode. Accordingly, the size increase of the organic EL display panel causes voltage drop due to the increase of an electrical resistance of the cathode itself. Variation might occur in voltage to be applied between the anode for each pixel and the cathode because of the difference in distance from the peripheral part of the cathode to each pixel. Such a variation in voltage to be applied between the anode for each pixel and the cathode results in luminance unevenness in the organic EL display panel. To address this problem, Patent Literature 1 discloses a technology of preventing variation in voltage to be applied between an anode for each pixel and a cathode by electrically connecting wirings and the cathode that are disposed on a substrate. Such electric connection is often established by direct contact of the wirings with the cathode.
On the other hand, a wet process is sometimes used in a panel manufacturing process. There is for example a case where an interlayer insulating layer to be formed on a TFT circuit, a barrier rib layer constituting subpixels of RGB luminous colors, and so on are formed by application of a positive photosensitive material. There is also a case where a hole injection layer, a hole transport layer, an electron injection layer, an electron transport layer, and light-emitting layers, which constitute an organic EL element, are formed by application of an ink containing an organic material. Layers formed by the wet process might contain moisture and oxygen. Also, formation by the wet process sometimes results in a cathode made of a metal, an organic functional layer including a metal, and so on. In this case, if moisture and oxygen intrude into the cathode and the organic functional layer from the light-emitting layers, the cathode and the organic functional layer might degrade due to oxygenation of the metal included therein, for example. To address this problem, Patent Literature 2 discloses a technology of providing, between light-emitting layers and an organic functional layer, an intermediate layer including fluoride of an alkali metal or an alkaline-earth metal.

Organic light emitting device and method for manufacturing same


Methods and devices are provided utilizing an end effector having three jaws movably coupled thereto for grasping and/or dissecting tissue. In one embodiment, each of the three jaws are movable between an open position in which the distal ends of the three jaws are spaced apart from one another, and a closed position in which the distal ends directly contact one another. The jaws can define an opening therebetween when the jaws are in the closed position.

Minimally invasive surgical (MIS) instruments are often preferred over traditional open surgical devices due to the reduced post-operative recovery time and minimal scarring associated with minimally invasive procedures. Laparoscopic surgery is one type of MIS procedure in which one or more small incisions are formed in the abdomen and a trocar is inserted through the incision to form a pathway that provides access to the abdominal cavity. The trocar is used to introduce various instruments and tools into the abdominal cavity, as well as to provide insufflation to elevate the abdominal wall above the organs. Endoscopic surgery is another type of MIS procedure in which elongate flexible shafts are introduced into the body through a natural orifice.
Due to the benefits associated with minimally invasive surgeries, significant efforts have gone into developing a range of endoscopic and laparoscopic surgical instruments that are suitable for precise placement of a distal end effector at a desired surgical site. These distal end effectors engage the tissue in a number of ways to achieve a diagnostic or therapeutic effect (e.g., grasper, cutter, staplers, clip applier, access device, drug/gene therapy delivery device, and energy device using ultrasound, RF, laser, etc.).
For example, end effectors for grasping tissue have been developed which secure tissue between two jaws. Though two-jawed graspers can be effective to engage tissue therebetween, graspers must exert significant compressive forces on the target tissue in order to insure a firm grasp. Due to the constraints of operating in confined spaces, however, graspers must often utilize relatively small tissue-engaging surfaces which decrease the tissue area to which the force is applied, thereby leading to increased risk of unintentional tissue damage. Merely increasing the size of the grasper is impractical, however, as such efforts are limited by the size of the access port and the surgeon's need to visualize the surgical site and/or deliver multiple end effectors thereto. Further, the limited range of motion of the two-jawed graspers can make it difficult to occlude a puncture site, for example, as the two jaws must be precisely aligned with target tissue site to ensure capture. Similarly, two-jawed end effectors for dissecting (e.g., separating or spreading) tissue can lead to unintentional tissue damage tissue due to the pressure placed on the tissue by the two jaws, while possibly limiting the access due to the end effector's lack of freedom of movement. For example, conventional two-jawed dissectors typically generate an elongate access slot in the dissected tissue.
Accordingly, there remains a need for improved end effectors and methods of operating the same, and in particular to methods and devices for grasping or dissecting tissue.


A method for manufacturing fluorescent powder substrate includes (1) providing a fluorescent powder and glass panels of which one forms a through hole; (2) mixing the fluorescent powder in deionized water solvent to form a slurry; (3) applying the slurry to form a fluorescent powder layer on one glass panel; (4) laying flat a loop of low melting point glass powder on the glass panel on which the fluorescent powder layer is formed; (5) laminating the other glass panel on the glass panel; (6) burning the laminated glass panels at a temperature of 400-550° C. to completely combust organic substance therebetween and to have the low melting point glass powder bonding the glass panels together; (7) evacuating interior between the glass panels through the through hole; and (8) sealing the through hole to form a fluorescent powder substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of liquid crystal displaying, and in particular to a method for manufacturing a fluorescent powder substrate and a liquid crystal module using the fluorescent powder substrate.
2. The Related Arts
Liquid crystal display (LCD) has a variety of advantages, such as thin device body, low power consumption, and being free of radiation, and is thus widely used. Most of the LCDs that are currently available in the market are backlighting LCDs, which comprise a liquid crystal panel and a backlight module. The operation principle of the liquid crystal panel is that liquid crystal molecules are interposed between two parallel glass substrates and a plurality of vertical and horizontal fine electrical wires is arranged between the two glass substrates, whereby the liquid crystal molecules are controlled to change direction by application of electricity in order to refract light emitting from the backlight module to generate images. Since the liquid crystal panel itself does not emit light, light must be provided by the backlight module in order to normally display images. Thus, the backlight module is one of the key components of an LCD. The backlight module can be classified as two types, namely side-edge backlight module and direct backlight module, according to the position where light gets incident. The direct backlight module arranges a light source, such as a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) or a light-emitting diode (LED) at the back side of the liquid crystal panel to form a planar light source that directly provides lighting to the liquid crystal panel. The side-edge backlight module arranges a backlight source of LED light bar at an edge of a backplane to be located rearward of one side of the liquid crystal panel. The LED light bar emits light that enters a light guide plate (LGP) through a light incident face of the light guide plate and is projected out through a light exit face after being reflected and diffused to thereby form, after transmitting through a set of optic films, a planar light source for the liquid crystal panel.
The LED light bar comprises a printed circuit board (PCB) and LED lamps mounted to and electrically connected to the PCB. An LED lamp is often composed of a blue LED chip coated with YAG fluorescent powder (B+Y Powders) or a blue LED chip coated with RB (Red and Green) powders (B+RG Powders) in order to emit white light. The fluorescent powder is often mixed with epoxy resin and silica and is then packaged on the LED chip with a dispenser. In such a structure, the LED chip and the epoxy resin and the silica are set in tight engagement with each other, whereby heat dissipation from the LED chip is inefficient. This sets the LED chip long in a high temperature condition. However, epoxy resin is poor in resisting high temperature and being long set in a high temperature condition will lead to turning yellowish and reducing light emission performance. Further, being kept long in a high temperature condition may easily cause color fading and eventually results in shortened lifespan of the LED lamp and increase of cost.

Method for manufacturing fluorescent powder substrate and liquid crystal module using fluorescent powder substrate

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd


A system and method is disclosed for detecting security vulnerabilities in a computer network. The system includes an IP spoofing attack detector, a stealth port service map generator, a source port verifier, source routing verifier, an RPC service detector and a Socks configuration verifier. Each of these verifiers may be operated separately or as a group to detect security vulnerabilities on a network. Each verifier may be programmed to exhaustively test all ports of all computers on a network to detect susceptibility to IP spoofing attacks, access to services with little or no authorization checks or misconfigured routers or Socks servers. The detected vulnerabilities or the location of services having little or no authorization checks may be stored in a table for reference by a network administrator. The service map generated by the stealth service map generator may be used to identify all service ports on a network to facilitate the operation of the other verifiers which send service command messages to service ports to detect their accessibility. A graphic user interface (GUI) may be used to provide input and control by a user to the security verifiers and to present options and display information to the user.

Many business and scientific organizations in the United States which use more than one computer in their operations couple the computers together through a network. The network permits the computers to be islands of processing which may share resources or data through communication over the network. The data which may be communicated over the network may take the form of programs developed on a user's computer, data files created on a user's computer, electronic mail messages and other data messages and files which may be generated or modified by a user at a user's computer. Typically, the user's computer includes an operating system for controlling the resources of the user's computer, including its central processing unit ("CPU"), memory (both volatile and non-volatile memory) and computer peripherals such as printers, modems and other known computer peripheral devices. The user typically executes application programs and system services to generate data files or programs.
Most computers are coupled to a network through a network communication printed circuit card which is typically resident within each computer system. This communication card typically includes processors, programs and memory to provide the electrical signals for transmission of data and implement the protocol which standardizes the messages transmitted through a network. To communicate data from a user's application program or operating system service, a protocol stack is typically implemented between the communication card for the network and the operating system services and application programs.
The typical protocol stack used on most open networks is a Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol ("TCP/IP"). This protocol stack includes a transport layer which divides a data stream from an application program or service into segments and which adds a header with a sequence number for each segment. The TCP segments generated by the transport layer are passed to the Internet Protocol ("IP") layer. The IP layer creates a packet having a packet header and a data portion. The data portion contains the TCP segment and the packet header contains a source address identifying the computer sending a message and a destination address identifying the computer for which the message is intended. The IP layer also determines the physical address of the destination computer or an intermediate computer, in some cases, which is intended to receive the transmitted message. The packet and the physical addresses are passed to a datalink layer. The datalink layer typically is part of the program implemented by a processor on the communication card and it encapsulates the packet from the IP layer in a datalink frame which is then transmitted by the hardware of the communication card. This datalink frame is typically called a packet. For purposes of this specification, the word "message" includes the data entities packet and datalink frame.
At the destination computer, the communication card implements the electrical specification of a hardware communication standard, such as Ethernet, and captures a data message from a source computer. The datalink layer at the destination computer discards the datalink header and passes the encapsulated packet to the IP layer at the destination computer. The IP layer at the destination computer verifies that the packet was properly transmitted, usually by verifying a checksum for the packet. The IP layer then passes the encapsulated TCP segment to the transport layer at the destination computer. The transport layer verifies the checksum of the TCP message segment and the sequence number for the TCP packet. If the checksum and TCP sequence number are correct, data from the segment is passed to an application program or service at the destination computer.
Segregation of communication functions in the various layers of the protocol stack and the segregation of the protocol stack from the communication card and application programs, modularizes the functions required to implement communication over a computer network. This modularization of functions simplifies computer communication operation and maintenance. It also does not require a user to have knowledge of how the protocol stack and communication card communicate in order to send data messages to other computers over the network.
All of the computers coupled to a network may have approximately the same resources available at each machine. The type of network is sometimes called a peer to peer network. Another type of network environment is one in which one computer controls shared databases and other computer resources with other computers over the network. The computer controlling access to the shared resources is typically called a server and the computers utilizing the shared resources are called clients.
In both the client/server and peer to peer environments, a server or computer may be used as a gateway to other networks or computers. Another device which a message may encountered as it moves along a network is a router. A router examines destination addresses of messages it receives and routes them in an efficient manner to the specified destination computer. For example, a server on a first network may be coupled to a router which is coupled to a plurality of servers including a server on a second network and a server for a third network. In this type of environment, the computer on the first network may communicate with a computer on the third network by generating data messages which have the destination address for a computer on the third network. The message circulates through the first network and is eventually provided to the server of the first network. The server of the first network then passes the message to the router which determines that the message is addressed for the third network. Accordingly, it sends the message to the server of the third network. The communication facilities at the server for the third network recognize the destination address as existing on the third network and pass the message to a computer on the third network where it eventually would be passed to the destination computer.
While this type of communication effectively and efficiently couples all of the computers from all of the networks together without requiring a message to pass through each computer on the network, a message typically passes through a number of computers, routers, servers or gateways prior to reaching the destination computer. As a result, the data messages from one computer to another computer may be intercepted and data obtained from the message as the message is passed on to another computer. The type of network wherein this type of accessible communication is provided is typically called an open network. One of the more popularly known open networks is the Internet where literally millions of servers and computers are coupled through a TCP/IP communication protocol.
While the open network architecture of the Internet permits a user on a network to have access to information on many different computers, it also provides access to messages generated by a user's computer and to the resources of the user's computer. In fact, there are persons who attempt to use knowledge regarding the operations of the protocol stack and operating systems in an effort to gain access to computers without authorization. These persons are typically called "hackers". Hackers present a significant security risk to any computer coupled to a network where a user for one computer may attempt to gain unauthorized access to resources on another computer of the network. For example, an employee may attempt to gain access to private and confidential employee records on a computer used by the human resources department of an employer.
In an effort to control access to a network and, hence, limit unauthorized access to computer resources available on that network, a number of computer communication security devices and techniques have been developed. One type of device which is used to control the transfer of data is typically called a "firewall". Firewalls are routers which use a set of rules to determine whether a data message should be permitted to pass into or out of a network before determining an efficient route for the message if the rules permit further transmission of the message. In this specification the term "routers" includes firewalls and routers.
In the TCP/IP protocol, a communication connection is established through a three handshake open network protocol. The first handshake or data message is from a source computer and is typically called a "synchronization" or "sync" message. In response to a sync message, the destination computer transmits a synchronization-acknowledgment ("sync-ack") message. The source computer then transmits an acknowledgment ("ack") message and a communication connection between the source and destination computer is established. To limit access to computers on a network, routers may be provided as a gateway to the network and programmed to detect and block sync messages being transmitted from a computer external to the network to a destination computer on the network. That is, computers on the network may send out sync messages through the router to initiate communication with other computers, but computers outside the router and its network cannot send sync messages through the router to initiate communication with computers on the network. In this way, a hacker cannot attempt to initiate communication with a computer on the network.
Hackers, however, have developed other ways which may be helpful in bypassing the screening function of a router. For example, one computer, such as a server on the network, may be permitted to receive sync messages from a computer outside the network. In an effort to get a message to another computer on a network, a hacker may attempt to use source routing to send a message from the server to another computer on the network. Source routing is a technique by which a source computer may specify an intermediate computer on the path for a message to be transmitted to a destination computer. In this way, the hacker may be able to establish a communication connection with a server through a router and thereafter send a message to another computer on the network by specifying the server as an intermediate computer for the message to the other computer.
In an effort to prevent source routing techniques from being used by hackers, some routers may be configured to intercept and discard all source routed messages to a network. For a router configured with source routing blocking, the router may have a set of rules for inbound messages, a set of rules for outbound messages and a set of rules for source routing messages. When a message which originated from outside the network is received by such a router, the router determines if it is a source routed message. If it is, the router blocks the message if the source routing blocking rule is activated. If blocking is not activated, it allows the source routed message through to the network. If the message is not a source routed message, the router evaluates the parameters of the message in view of the rules for receiving messages from sources external to the network. One such rule is the external sync message filter discussed above. Other rules may also be implemented in such a router. However, a router vulnerability exists where the rules used by the router are only compared to messages that are not source routed and the source routed blocking rule is not activated. In this situation, the router permits source routed messages through without comparing them to the filtering rules. In such a case, a computer external of the network may be able to bypass the external sync message filter and establish a communication connection with a computer on the network by using source routed messages.
What is needed is a system and method for verifying that the source routing blocking feature of a router has been activated.
Networks may also be coupled to external computers through a specialized communication filter typically known as a "Socks" proxy server. A Socks proxy server is interposed between a network and external computers. For an external computer to establish communication with a computer on a network coupled to a Socks server, the external computer first establishes a communication connection with the Socks server and the Socks server establishes a communication connection with the destination computer. Thereafter, the Socks server relays messages between the external computer and a computer on the network only if they comply with the filter rules configured for the Socks server. Typically, Socks servers are used to interface e-mail, File Transfer Protocol ("FTP") and Telnet communication services between computers on a network and computers external of the network and to block access to most other ports on a network. The interrogation and evaluation of messages through a Socks server is dependent upon the network administrator for proper configuration. Known methods for verifying the configuration of the Socks server is to view the configuration files of the Socks server to verify the rules are properly set. However, this method does not ascertain the rules actually being implemented by the Socks server.
What is needed is a method and system for determining the rules being implemented by a Socks server without reviewing the configuration files for a Socks server.
Another entry port for hackers are commonly known services which provide information to external users without requiring authorization checks such as passwords. Most implementations of the UNIX operating system, for example, include Remote Procedure Call (RPC) services which may not be protected by authorization checks. The ports on which RPC services are located may be determined by querying a UNIX operating system service known as "portmapper". In an effort to obtain knowledge regarding accessible services on a computer, a hacker may make an inquiry of the portmapper service at its port in order to obtain information regarding the RPC services available for entry on the computer. Although the portmapper service may be reconfigured to include an authorization check that still does not provide an authorization check for the RPC services themselves.
What is needed is a system and method for detecting and reporting to a network administrator those ports which are coupled to RPC services which have little or no authorization checks.
As discussed above, the transport layer of the protocol stack provides a sequence number for each data segment to be transmitted. In the TCP/IP protocol, the sequence number is called a TCP sequence number which is placed in the TCP header generated by the transport layer. The sequence number for the data segment is typically incremented at predefined time units, for example, each second, and for each communication connection or attempted communication connection. For example, in attempting to establish communication with another computer on a TCP/IP network, the source computer generates a sync message with a TCP sequence number. The destination computer responds with a sync/ack message where the ack value in the message is the sequence number from the received sync message and the sequence number for the destination computer is a number generated by the destination computer. This sequence number typically has the value of the last TCP sequence number generated by the destination computer plus the addition of a preferred offset value for each predefined time unit and communication connection that has occurred since the last TCP sequence number was generated. The ack message from the source computer to the destination computer which completes the communication connection must include the TCP sequence number received from the destination computer in the sync/ack message.
One known way which hackers attempt to access a computer on a network is to emulate the communication of messages from another computer on the network. A hacker emulates another computer on the network by first blocking a communication port on the computer being emulated by repeatedly sending sync messages to a port on the computer. This causes the communication program for the port to fill its communication buffer with half-open communication connections. When the buffer is full, no more sync messages are accepted until the oldest attempted half-open communication connection times out. Typically, the time out period is ten minutes or longer. In order to obtain a sequence number, the hacker's computer sends a number of sync messages to the computer which is the target of the attack which responds with a plurality of sync/ack messages containing TCP sequence numbers to the hacker's computer. The TCP sequence numbers from the sync/ack messages may be compared to statistically determine the offset used by the target computer to generate TCP sequence numbers. The hacker then uses the emulated computer's blocked port address as the source computer address for a sync message originated by the hacker's computer. In response, the target computer replies with a sync/ack message which is addressed to the blocked computer port of the emulated computer. Thus, the hacker's computer does not receive the sync/ack message with the TCP sequence number required for a proper response. However, the hacker's computer then sends an ack message with the next computed sequence number derived from bombarding the target computer with sync messages. If the sequence number has been correctly computed so that it matches the sequence number in the sync/ack message sent by the target computer to the blocked computer port, a communication connection is established and the hacker is able to transmit a command to the service on the port of the target computer through which communication has been established. In a UNIX system, a hacker normally attacks the ports coupled to the rsh and rlogin services since the authorization check for these services is usually the source address. If the hacker is able to successfully emulate a computer on the network having an address authorized for the service on the target computer port, the command is executed by the service. The service command typically provided to the port of the target computer disrupts the target computer's operation so the hacker's computer has unencumbered access to the target computer's resources. These types of attacks which use predicted TCP sequence numbers are typically known as IP spoofing attacks.
Although the protocol stack for each computer uses different offset values to generate the initial TCP sequence number for establishing communication links, some machines generate initial sequence numbers which are more easily predicted than others. What is needed is a way of detecting which computers on a network are susceptible to attacks using predicted TCP sequence numbers.

Method and apparatus for detecting and identifying security vulnerabilities in an open network computer communication system


A configurable furniture integrated lighting system has a plurality of interchangeable symmetric and asymmetric fixture heads for indirect lighting and a plurality of different supporting structures for supporting any one of the fixture heads at a predetermined mounting height from a variety of different support surfaces associated with the furniture system, including floor level support surfaces, desk top surfaces, book shelf surfaces, and binder bins. The described invention can be mounted virtually anywhere along the partition walls of almost any open office arrangement, with different alignments with respect to the walls being possible. Free-standing fixtures can additionally be placed as required to achieve an optimum ambient lighting distribution.

The present invention generally relates to office lighting; it particularly relates to providing and positioning sources of ambient lighting in an open office having office systems furniture.
Modular systems furniture are widely used to create open office arrangements that are both flexible and efficient. A modular office system will typically include partition walls for creating suitably private office spaces or other work areas. However, much more than a desk surrounded by partitions, a modern office furniture system provides a coordinated set of elements that can be aesthetically integrated into an appropriate layout of offices and connecting spaces which can include, at the option of the designer, a variety a working surfaces, counter tops, book selves, storage cabinets, binders bins, and the like. As business needs change, the open office normally can be added to or reconfigured at a relatively modest cost.
However, the very flexibility in placing and configuring modular office systems furniture leads to problems in terms of the quality of the open office's ambient lighting environment. Conventional sources of ambient lighting are relatively inflexible in terms of their placement. Thus, a layout of modular offices and connecting areas optimized to meet particular business needs may produce a poor lighting environment, that is, an environment where the ambient lighting (as opposed to specific task lighting) is not well distributed in relation to the work spaces of the open office. For example, ambient light might be produced in a typical office by direct lighting fixtures, such as conventional 2 foot by 4 foot recessed parabolic troffers evenly distributed about an overhead ceiling surface. Modular offices placed between fixtures would likely be poorly lit as compared to modular office placed directly underneath a lighting fixture. Where the office ambient lighting is provided by indirect lighting fixtures, the situation is improved since indirect light tends to be more evenly distributed. Nonetheless, the quality of the lighting environment in the modular office will still depend to a large degree on the placement of the systems furniture in relation to the normally fixed placement of the sources of indirect lighting.
While moveable indirect lighting fixtures have been devised for use in open offices, such fixtures are very limited as to where they can be placed. Such existing moveable fixtures include floor standing indirect HID and fluorescent fixtures and indirect HID and fluorescent fixtures designed to simply rest on top of a furniture system's binder bin.
The above-mentioned deficiencies of conventional sources of ambient lighting in the open office environment can have a great impact on the quality of the work environment and employee efficiency. An adequate and even distribution of ambient lighting which does not produce glare plays an important role in preventing employee fatigue, eye strain, and other health problems related to poor lighting. The present invention overcomes these problems by making it possible to provide an open office with optimally distributed ambient lighting from indirect lighting sources. Specifically, the present invention provides a furniture integrated ambient lighting system that is fully configurable within the modular office furniture system for which it is designed. Using the furniture integrated ambient lighting system of the invention, sources of indirect light can be easily and interchangeably placed in a wide variety of locations on or about the modular office furniture system for providing an ambient light distribution that is specifically tailored to a particular modular office layout. The result is the efficient illumination of all work areas and other areas such as connecting walkways, meeting areas and the like. Moreover, the below described invention permits the ambient lighting of an open office to be easily changed with changes in the office configuration.
Thus, the ambient lighting system of the invention overcomes the present inflexibility of the above-described conventional direct and indirect lighting systems; it also provides a system that can be fully integrated into the furniture system and made to aesthetically compliment the system's structural elements. Furthermore, the elements of the lighting system are portable, and not architectural fixtures. Thus, ownership of the fixtures may be with the tenant who can move them from location to location and depreciate them over a shorter depreciation period.

Configurable furniture integrated ambient lighting system and method


A light emitting device, a wafer for making the same, and method for fabricating the same are disclosed. The device and wafer include a first layer of a first conductivity type, an active layer, and a layer of a second conductivity type. The active layer overlies the first layer, the active layer generating light. The second layer overlies the active layer, the second layer having a first surface in contact adjacent to the active layer and a second surface having a surface that includes features that scatter light striking the second surface. A layer of transparent electrically conducting material is adjacent to the second surface and covered by a first layer of a dielectric material that is transparent to the light generated by the active layer. A mirror layer that has a reflectivity greater than 90 percent is deposited on the first layer of dielectric material.

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are an important class of solid-state devices that convert electric energy to light. Improvements in these devices have resulted in their use in light fixtures designed to replace conventional incandescent and fluorescent light sources. The LEDs have significantly longer lifetimes and, in some cases, significantly higher efficiency for converting electric energy to light.
The cost and conversion efficiency of LEDs are important factors in determining the rate at which this new technology will replace conventional light sources and be utilized in high power applications. Many high power applications require multiple LEDs to achieve the needed power levels, since individual LEDs are limited to a few watts. In addition, LEDs generate light in relatively narrow spectral bands. Hence, in applications requiring a light source of a particular color, the light from a number of LEDs with spectral emission in different optical bands is combined. Thus, the cost of many light sources based on LEDs is many times the cost of the individual LEDs.
The cost of an LED is increased by the need to package the LED containing dies prior to installing those dies on printed circuit boards and the like in the final product. The cost of conventional packaging that relies on wire bonds to connect the dies to an underlying circuit carrier represents a significant fraction of the cost of the final LED. Hence, "flip-chip" packages in which the LED die is modified such that the pads for powering the LED are on the opposite side of the die from the surface through which the light is emitted have been developed. The pads are constructed such that the die can be soldered directly to a pair of corresponding pads on a printed circuit board. Unfortunately, the techniques used to increase the conversion efficiency of LEDs are not easily implemented in the flip-chip architecture.
The conversion efficiency of individual LEDs is an important factor in addressing the cost of high power LED light sources. Electrical power that is not converted to light in the LED is converted to heat that raises the temperature of the LED. Heat dissipation places a limit on the power level at which an LED operates. In addition, the LEDs must be mounted on structures that provide heat dissipation, which, in turn, further increases the cost of the light sources. Hence, if the conversion efficiency of an LED can be increased, the maximum amount of light that can be provided by a single LED can also be increased, and hence, reduce the number of LEDs needed for a given light source. In addition, the cost of operation of the LED is also inversely proportional to the conversion efficiency. Hence, there has been a great deal of work directed to improving the conversion efficiency of LEDs.
The spectral band generated by an LED, in general, depends on the materials from which the LED is made. LEDs commonly include an active layer of semiconductor material sandwiched between additional layers. For the purposes of this discussion, an LED can be viewed as having three layers, the active layer sandwiched between two other layers. These layers are typically deposited on a substrate such as sapphire. It should be noted that each of these layers typically includes a number of sub-layers.
Improvements in materials have led to improvements in the efficiency of light generated in the active layer. However, a significant fraction of the light generated in the active layer is lost. Most of this light is lost through absorption in the various layers used to construct the LED. This mode of light loss is aggravated by the trapping of much of the light within the LED structure. Light that is generated in the active layer must pass through the top layer of the substrate before exiting the LED. Since the active layer emits light in all directions, the light from the active region strikes the boundary between the outer layers of the LED at essentially all angles from 0 to 90 degrees relative to the normal direction at the boundary. Light that strikes the boundary at angles that are greater than the critical angle is totally reflected at the boundary. This light is redirected toward the other outer boundary and is likewise reflected back into the LED. As a result, the light is trapped within the LED until it strikes the end of the LED or is absorbed by the material in the LED. In the case of conventional GaN-based LEDs on sapphire substrates approximately 70 percent of the light emitted by the active layer is trapped between the sapphire substrate and the outer surface of the GaN.
Several techniques have been described to improve light extraction from LEDs, and hence, improve the light conversion efficiency of these devices. In one class of techniques, one of the outer surfaces of the LED is converted from a smooth planar surface to a rough surface. Some of the light that is reflected at the other surface will return to the rough surface at a location in which that light is now within the critical angle, and hence, escape rather than being again reflected. The remainder of the light is reflected back toward the smooth surface and returns to the rough surface at a new location and at a range of angles, and hence, a portion of that light also escapes, and so on.
In a typical flip-chip LED, the light is emitted through the bottom surface of the LED, i.e., through the substrate on which the LED layers were deposited. Providing a rough surface at the substrate air boundary is not as effective in reducing the trapping of light within the high index GaN layers sandwiched between air and sapphire. Accordingly, the rough surface is normally provided on the top surface of the LED, unless it is applied to the bottom surface of the GaN by growing GaN on a surface-patterned sapphire substrate. However, in a flip-chip design, the top surface of the LED must also be a reflector. To convert the rough surface to a reflector, a layer of metal such as silver is applied to the surface. Unfortunately, the reflectivity of such a layer is substantially less than 100 percent due to surface plasmon effects caused by the underlying roughened layer.
To avoid this problem, prior art devices in which the substrate is removed to expose the bottom layer of epitaxially grown GaN are utilized. The LED is first bonded to a new substrate, the sapphire substrate is removed and the bottom surface is then roughened. However, this technique has its own problems. First, the substrate removal process is not as well developed as the other types of processing used to fabricate LEDs. Second, the process involves a number of additional steps that increase the cost of the LEDs. Finally, if during any period of time the LED wafer is without a substrate, the wafer is extremely fragile, and hence, subject to damage.


The invention relates to a drive device and a drive method for a brushless motor. In a drive method in which a switching timing of energization patterns is detected by comparing a pulse induced voltage of a non-energized phase with a voltage threshold, when the pulse induced voltage does not reach the voltage threshold, the pulse induced voltage at an angle of switching the energization patterns is measured. Discrimination between a demagnetization failure and a lock failure is performed based on whether the measured pulse induced voltage satisfies a predetermined condition or not. When it is the demagnetization failure, motor control continues after changing the voltage threshold. When it is the lock failure, the motor control stops.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drive device and a drive method, which switches two phases according to a pulse induced voltage induced in a non-energized phase, the two phases being selected from three phases of a brushless motor and to be applied with a pulse voltage according to a pulse width modulation signal.
2. Description of Related Art
Japanese Laid-open (Kokai) Patent Application Publication No. 2009-189176 discloses a drive device for a three-phase brushless motor that measures a pulse induced voltage induced in a non-energized phase by a pulse voltage, and compares this pulse induced voltage with a threshold, to successively switch energization patterns.
However, in a sensor-less control which compares a pulse induced voltage of a non-energized phase with a threshold and thereby successively switches two phases to be applied with the pulse induced voltage, when the pulse induced voltage is decreased and does not reach the threshold due to a demagnetization failure, energization patterns cannot be switched, so that the brushless motor cannot be started up.
Although it becomes possible to start up the brushless motor by changing the threshold according to the decrease in the pulse induced voltage, the start-up failure of the brushless motor also occurs when the brushless motor is locked.
However, it has been difficult to discriminate between the demagnetization failure allowing the motor startup and the lock not allowing such startup, and therefore there has been a possibility that the control of the brushless motor might be continued in the locked state, in which the startup is not allowed.

Drive device and drive method for brushless motor


A corrosion resistant Al or Al alloy material on the surface of which multi-layer deposits for improved corrosion resistance. The deposits are obtained by laminating more than five layers of unit periodic layers with a thickness of 100 .ANG. or less in which two, or three or more layers of unit deposits, comprised of specific elements, are laminated. Such multi-layer structure can prevent water, chloride and other corrosion accelerating substances from passing through the deposits and reaching the surface of the base material, thus effectively preventing the corrosion of Al or Al alloy.

1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to corrosion resistant Al or Al alloy materials which are coated with a deposit of multilayer structures. These Al or Al alloy materials are useful as components for devices, appliances and equipments of which a high level of reliability is required.
2. Description of the prior art
Al or Al alloy materials are lightweight and possess fairly good strength and corrosion resistance, and also possess excellent workability and electrical properties. Hence, Al or Al alloy materials have found extensive applications as construction materials, automobile wheels and body panels, canning materials and various metallic containers, and further in the electronics field. Despite these advantages, however, it is known that on these Al or Al alloy materials take place corrosions, representative of which is pitting, under acid or alkaline environments, or even under neutral environments where chloride ions and other halogen ions are present. These corrosions cause serious damage to any devices, appliances or equipment which use Al alloy materials as their component material, substantially impairing the reliability thereof.
For instance, in Al conductor materials which are used in semiconductor devices, with the recent trends toward the increasing integration and density of these devices, the materials have become increasingly finer and thinner. This has brought much more attentions to the problem of corrosion resistance. Especially in Al conductor materials that are employed in silicon LSI currently under research and development when an age of submicron is now being entered the ones as fine and thin as approx 1 .mu.m wide are required. As LSI has become more integrated, the plastic package layer which is used as protective material has not only become smaller and thinner, but they have become more exposed to excessive stress and severe corrosive environments as a result of a production process with higher production efficiency. Much higher degree of reliability of conductor materials against corrosion, as well as their reliability against electromigration and stress migration, has been required than ever before.
Incidentally, the conventional semiconductor devices are housed in a plastic package in order to prevent the penetration of moisture from the atmosphere and avoid deterioration due to oxidation. On the plastic package, various studies about passivation refinement technology have been under way, including the improvement of resin materials.
When a plastic package is used, a direct contact between device and resin is structurally unavoidable. Accordingly, various problems occur which arise from the properties peculiar to the resin comprising the plastic package. Most of the resin, for example, possesses moisture permeability and hygroscopicity, and also contains substances which are easily ionized in the presence of water, such as chloride and sodium, al though in small amounts. There are many defects, including pin holes, and when they are stored or used in an atmosphere with high temperatures and high humidities, moisture penetrates thereinto in a diffusive fashion, and condensates inside the package, causing corrosion of Al conductor materials in semiconductor devices.
To overcome this problem, methods have been proposed in which the corrosive resistance of Al conductor materials themselves are improved by forming passivation coating (SiO.sub.2 protective coating) on the surface of Al conductor materials. In a passivation film of single layer structure, however, not al of the pin holes, cracks and other defects can be eliminated no matter how coating materials or coating producing procedures are devised. Moisture and other substances which penetrate through these defects into the package corrode the Al conductor materials, until they are broken. To improve the corrosion resistance, anti-migration property and other reliabilities of the Al materials themselves, methods are proposed in which some 1 to 2 wt % silicon is added to the Al materials, or similar amounts of silicon and about 0.5 to 4 wt % of Cu are added thereto in a combined manner. These methods have proved not to give satisfactory corrosion resistance to the Al materials.

Corrosion resistant Al or Al alloy materials


A method and an apparatus for compressing and decompressing data employ a splay coding instead of an arithmetic coding to achieve a high speed code entering process. The data compressing apparatus encoding input data according to a history of occurrence of the input data in the past to compress it, includes a pre-data retaining unit retaining a context, a history retaining unit retaining a combination of input data and a context, a code tree retaining unit retaining code trees each independent for each context, a code tree determining unit determining a code tree, a code outputting unit outputting unique data according to bifurcation from a node on the code tree, a code tree rearrangement unit exchanging an encoded leaf with another leaf or an internal node, and a pre-data updating unit entering the data in the pre-data retaining unit.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data compressing method and a data decompressing method, and a data compressing apparatus and a data decompressing apparatus therefor.
(2) Description of Related Art
Recent computers tend to deal various types of data such as graphic character codes, vector information, image pictures, etc. and a volume of the data dealt in the computer rapidly increases. When a large volume of data is dealt with, redundant portions in the data are omitted to compress the volume of data so as to decrease a required storage capacity or transmit the data faster. A universal coding is proposed as a method being capable of compressing various data in one manner.
Incidentally, this invention is applicable to various data, not limited to a field of character code compression. In this specification, one word unit is called a character, and data composed of the voluntary number of words is called a character string.
There are a dictionary coding utilizing analogy of data sequences, and a statistical coding utilizing frequency of occurrence of a data string. The above-mentioned universal coding is a representative method of the statistical coding.
As a representative manner of the universal coding, there is also an arithmetic coding. The arithmetic coding is to generate a code adaptable to an occurrence probability of each character without using a code table, considered to be able to compress at a maximum efficiency if an occurrence probability of each character of information source is known. The arithmetic coding is classified into a binary arithmetic coding and a multi-value arithmetic coding of more than binary value.
Hereinafter, the multi-value arithmetic coding will be described.
In the multi-value arithmetic coding, a number line of 0.ltoreq.P<1 (described as 0,1! hereinafter) is, to begin with, divided by the number of events of characters having appeared (referred as a symbol, hereinafter).
A width of each section is taken as in proportion to a ratio of an occurrence probability of each symbol, and the sections are arranged in the order of high occurrence probability.
Next, a section corresponding to an occurring symbol is selected, the selected section is divided into sections corresponding to the number of all symbols when the next symbol occurs, and a section corresponding to the next symbol is selected so that the selected section is divided recursively.
The above process will be described in more detail by reference to illustrations showing a principle of the multi-value arithmetic coding in FIGS. 70(a) and 70(b).
FIG. 70(a) shows an example of frequencies of occurrence of symbols, while FIG. 70(b) showing an example of how to divide the section of a symbol.
By way of an example where a section of a graphic character string "abe" is obtained in the dividing.
Now, a number line (0, 1) is divided into five sections of characters a, b, c, d and e as shown in FIG. 70(a).
First, a section (0, 0.2) of a symbol "a" which occurs first is selected. Then, the selected section (0, 0.2) is further divided into five sections of all the symbols "a" through "e".
A section (0.04, 0.06) of the symbol "b" which occurs secondary is selected, then divided into five sections of all the symbols "a" through "e". A section of the symbol "e" which occurs last is selected so that a section 0.05, 0.06) of a character string "a b e" is finally obtained.
As above, by repeating the above process on all input data, it is possible to determine a section of a character string to be encoded. An arbitrary point in the section of the character string that is finally determined is represented in a binary notation, then outputted as a compressed code.
A term "arithmetic coding" is derived from that a code word is expressed in a binary numerical value after the decimal point as 0.11011..!, which can be obtained in calculation.
As a method to divide a section according to a frequency of occurrence as above, there are a static coding in which a section is divided according to a predetermined frequency of occurrence, not depending on an actual frequency of occurrence of a character string, a semi-adaptive coding in which a section is divided according to a frequency of occurrence obtained by scanning in advance all character strings, and an adaptive coding in which a frequency is calculated whenever a character occurs to reset the section for each character.
Meanwhile, a method to compress data into a unit of bite (character) using the above multi-value arithmetic coding for file compression is described in, for example, the following two documents (1) and (2). (1) "Arithemtic Coding for Data Compression," Commun. of ACM. Vol.30, No.6, PP.520-540 (1986) (2) "An Adaptive Dependency Source Model for Data Compression Scheme," Commun. of ACM, Vol.32, No.1, PP.77-83
The document (1) teaches an actual algorithm of the multi-value arithmetic coding. The multi-value coding in document (1) is one of the methods, which is called as an entropy coding which codes and compresses data by a single character unit. In the entropy coding, a probability of occurrence of a focused character is encoded in the multi-value coding and the probability of occurrence of each character is sequentially updated whenever a character occurs so that the entropy coding can code various data dynamically and adaptively. A detailed process of the multi-value coding is as shown in a flowchart in FIG. 71(a).
The document (2) teaches a method to express a focused character with a conditional probability using an immediately preceding character, encode the conditional probability in the multi-value coding so as to obtain a high compression rate. In the method in the document (2), each of the conditional probability is sequentially updated so as to be able to encoded various data dynamically and adaptively various data. In such the multi-value coding, the process shown in a flowchart in FIG. 70(b) is performed.
There is proposed, instead of the multi-value coding, a Dynamic Huffman Coding which is a modification of Huffman coding (refer to "Variations on a Theme by Huffman", IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, Vol.24, No.6, 1978, or "Design and Analysis of Dynamic Huffman Codes", Journal of ACM, Vol.34, No.4, 1987). The Dynamic Huffman Coding has a coding efficiency inferior to the multi-value coding, which requires a longer processing time. For this, there is no actual application of a method to encode a conditional probability in the dynamic Huffman coding.
FIG. 72 shows an example of an algorithm of the multi-value arithmetic encoding and decoding.
Different from the arithmetic coding, there is a Splay-Tree coding (refer to "Application of Splay Tree to Data Compression" by Douglas W. Jones, Commun. of ACM, Vol.31, No.8, P.996-1007, for example).
The splay coding uses a code table in a tree structure (referred as a code tree, hereinafter) as shown in FIG. 73(a), where a symbol is entered at an end of the code tree (called a leaf, in general) and a distance from a top of the code tree (called a root, in general) to a leaf at which input data is stored is outputted as a code word.
More specifically, assuming the path goes down from the root to the leaf of the code tree, "1" is allocated to the code word when the path branches to the right, and "0" is allocated when the path branches to the left.
In the example shown in FIG. 73(a), the code of a symbol A becomes 10110! and a symbol B becomes 001!.
If the code length is changed (that is, if the code is updated), a coded leaf is exchanged with other leaf or a contact on the code tree (called as a node).
FIG. 73(b) shows an example of the above-mentioned code updating. As shown in FIG. 73(b), as input data, symbols A, B, C and D are initially stored in leaves of the code tree.
A node of the symbol A and a node of the symbol C are exchanged, a higher degree node D of the symbol A and a node of a symbol E are exchanged as shown in FIG. 73(C). As a result, the code of the symbol A becomes 110! from 10110! so that the code is updated.
The above case is to dynamically encode a probability of occurrence of each word in a variable length coding. To more increase a compression rate, a conditional probability of occurrence introduced a relationship of dependency between an input signal and the immediately preceding character therein is encoded in a dynamic variable-length coding.
This method is a statistical coding using a statistical characteristic of data. As shown in FIG. 74, this coding is performed in a process made up of two stages, that is, a context collecting step 511 and a dynamic variable-length coding step 512, as shown in FIG. 74.
A context in a front and behind relation with a character string is collected from input data at a context collecting step, a tree structure of a context as shown in FIG. 75(b) is generated and it is encoded in a dynamic variable-length coding to determine a conditional probability.
The above conditional probability is determined by counting the number of occurrence every time a character string crosses over a character in each node on a context tree in a tree structure shown in FIG. 75(b).
A context collecting method to determine a conditional probability is chiefly classified into the following two methods. Incidentally, the number of character of a condition (a context) will be hereinafter referred as degree (refer to "Data Compression Using Adaptive Coding and Partial String Matching", JOHN G. CLEARY et al., IEEE, Vol.COM-32, No.4, APRIL 1984, PP.396-402).
(1) Fixed-Degree Context Collecting Method
This method expresses a condition of a conditional probability with a fixed character number.
For instance, in an degree-2 context, a context of a character following two immediately preceding characters is collected to encode a conditional probability p(y.vertline.x.sub.1, x.sub.2), wherein y is a focused character to be encoded, x.sub.1 and x.sub.2 are the first character and the second character followed by the focused character, respectively.
(2) Blending Context Collecting Method
In the above fixed-degree context collecting method, if the immediately preceding conditional character string rarely occurs, an estimation of a conditional probability tends to be inaccurate. To the contrary, if the immediately preceding conditional character string frequently occurs, an estimation of the conditional probability tends to be accurate, where there still remains a possibility to increase the degree.
In general, data coming to have a stronger correlation between characters when the degree used is more increased can provide a high compression rate. However, data coming to have a weaker correlation between characters as the degree used is more increased provides a poor compression rate.
What can solve the above problem is to blend the context (blending of the degree). In this method, the degree of the immediately preceding character string is not fixed. The degree is increased if the occurrence is frequent, and if the occurrence is rare, the degree is kept in the lower number. As this, the degree is increased adaptively to input data.
However, the statistical coding employing an arithmetic coding to a dynamic variable-length code needs to compute once more an accumulated frequency of all data having been inputted every time data is inputted and to divide a number line of 0, 1) once more. There is required an enormous volume of arithmetic process so that it is impossible to increase the processing rate.

Method and apparatus for compressing and decompressing data


Circuits, methods, and apparatus that allow signals that are compliant with multiple standards to share a common connector on an electronic device. An exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides a connector that provides signals compatible with a legacy standard in one mode and a newer standard in another mode.

Electronic devices often include connectors to provide ports where power and data signals can be shared with other devices. These connectors are often designed to be compliant with a standard, such that the electronic devices can communicate with each other in a reliable manner. The various Universal Serial Bus (USB), Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe), and DisplayPort (DP) standards are but a few examples.
On occasion, the standards that use these connectors are replaced by newer standards. As a result, multiple connectors that provide similar functions are often included on an electronic device. For example, many current televisions include inputs for HDMI, S-video, component video, and RCA jacks.
The inclusion of these connectors increases device size, complexity, and cost. Also, the inclusion of several options can cause confusion and frustration for customers as they try to determine the best way to configure a particular system.
Some of this confusion could be reduced if one connector was able to provide signals for more than one standard. For example, if one connector could provide signals for both a legacy standard and a newer standard, the number of connectors on an electronic device could be reduced, thereby enabling the device to be made smaller, simpler, and less expensive.
But as helpful as this would be, it is very difficult to do. For example, circuits associated with one standard may interfere with circuits associated with another standard. This becomes even more difficult when data rates are high, as reflections and termination mismatches caused by unused circuits impair the performance of the circuits being used.
For example, a newer, faster standard may share a connector with a legacy, slower standard. Circuitry necessary for the legacy standard may cause reflections and termination mismatches for the circuits for the newer, faster standard, thereby degrading system performance.
Thus, what is needed are circuits, methods, and apparatus that allow various standards to share a common connector.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Surgery is performed with a pulsed heat-producing device that selectively heats a region in a specific tissue within a patient destroying the tissue. The pulsed heat-producing device may be a coherent optical source that is guided by laser fiber to the tissue to be destroyed. In another embodiment, the pulsed heat-producing device is a focussed ultrasound transducer which concentrates ultrasonic energy at a focal point within the specific tissue. A magnetic resonance imaging system employing a real-time temperature-sensitive pulse sequence monitors the heated region of the tissue to provide temperature profiles allowing an operator to alter the position and size of the heated region.

The present invention relates to surgery performed by local heating guided by magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for performing surgery by pulsed local heating guided by real-time temperature-sensitive MR imaging.
Conventional MR imaging provides an operator, such as a surgeon or a radiologist, with internal views of a patient's anatomy. MR imaging provides excellent contrast between different tissues and is useful in planning surgical procedures. Many tissues in a patient such as a tumor, are much more visible in an MR image than as seen in actual surgery. The tumor can also be obscured by blood during surgery further reducing visibility.
Experiments on living tissue show that a heated zone above a critical temperature destroys tissue. This zone increases in size with time as the heat is applied to reach a steady state of both temperature and heat flow. If the maximum temperature is limited, then an area heated to a temperature exceeding the critical temperature causing destruction of tissue, approaches a predetermined size.
Researchers at Brigham and Womens Hospital, Boston, Mass. have proposed treatment of deep lying tumors by laser surgery, as described in "MR Imaging of Laser-Tissue Interactions", by F. A. Jolesz, A. R. Bleire, P. Jakob, P. W. Ruenzel, K. Huttl, G. J. Jako, Radiology 168:249 (1989).
In laser surgery of the brain, a small burr hole is drilled in the skull and a hollow needle containing an optical fiber is then inserted into the tumor. Optical energy is passed through the optical fiber and into the tumor heating the tumor. Lasers guided through fiber optics are potentially very useful for surgery in the brain, since they allow access (through biopsy needles) to deeply buried pathology with minimal disruption of intervening tissue. The laser destroys the pathological tissue through localized heating.
A view of the heated region is provided with the use of MR temperature-sensitive pulse sequences. One known MR temperature-sensitive pulse sequence is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,914,608 "In-vivo Method for Determining and Imaging Temperature of an Object/Patient from Diffusion Coefficients Obtained by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance", by Denis LeBihan, Jose Delannoy, and Ronald L. Levin issued Apr. 3, 1990. This sequence causes full MR images to be created. It is, therefore, relatively slow, time-consuming and not capable of monitoring quickly changing temperatures.
In focussed ultrasound surgery, acoustic energy is concentrated at a focal point within the tumor. The focussed acoustic energy causes heating of tissue at the focal point.
Tumors have been selectively destroyed in cancer patients using focussed ultrasound to heat tissue within the patient at the University of Arizona as reported in "Effects of Physical Parameters on High Temperature Ultrasound Hyperthermia" by B. E. Billard, K. Hynynen and Robert. B. Roemer, Ultrasound in Med. & Biol. Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 409-420, 1990. Billard et al. disclose that the control of heat is improved by using short heating pulses where the effect of blood perfusion is negligible. However, since they do not image the temperature distribution, it is difficult to hit small, deep laying targets.
It would be beneficial to accurately image, in real time, localized heating and selectively destroy a specific tissue with minimal invasiveness without harming surrounding healthy tissue.

Heat surgery system monitored by real-time magnetic resonance temperature profiling


A method is disclosed making a molecular of TON framework type having unique properties. The method uses 1,3,4-trimethylimidazolium cations as a structure directing agent and a combined source of silicon and aluminum selected from alumina-coated silica and aluminosilicate zeolites. The obtained molecular sieve can be used in processes for dewaxing paraffinic hydrocarbon feedstocks.

Molecular sieve materials are classified by the Structure Commission of the International Zeolite Association according to the rules of the IUPAC Commission on Zeolite Nomenclature. According to this classification, framework type zeolites and other crystalline microporous crystalline materials, for which a structure has been established, are assigned a three-letter code and are described in the "Atlas of Zeolite Framework Types", Sixth Revised Edition, Elsevier (2007).
One known molecular sieve for which a structure has been established is the material designated as TON, which is a molecular sieve having a unique one-dimensional 10-membered ring channel system. Examples of TON framework type molecular sieves include ISI-1, KZ-2, NU-10, Theta-1, and ZSM-22. TON framework type materials are of significant commercial interest because of their activity as catalysts in dewaxing of paraffinic hydrocarbons.
According to the present disclosure, using 1,3,4-trimethylimidazolium cations as a structure directing agent and aluminosilicate starting materials, it has now been found that TON-type molecular sieves can be synthesized by simpler processes and in shorter heating periods than was previously possible. Using these materials, TON-type molecular sieves can be made prepared having unique morphologies and physico-chemical properties. In addition, it is possible to produce TON-type molecular sieves with small crystal size.

Synthesis of ton framework type molecular sieves