A method of removing trace levels of arsenic-containing impurities from raw triethylphosphate (TEPO) is disclosed. The method uses adsorption, or adsorption followed by a flash distillation. The method comprises contacting raw triethylphosphate (TEPO) with an adsorbent which selectively adsorbs the arsenic-containing impurities in the raw triethylphosphate (TEPO). The adsorbent is a base promoted alumina containing adsorbent represented by a formula: ZxWy; where x is the weight percentage of Z in the adsorbent ranging from 30% to 99.999%; y is the weight percentage of W in the adsorbent, and x+y=100%; Z is selected from the group consisting of alumina (Al2O3), magnesium-alumina based layered double hydroxide (MgO—Al2O3), alumina-zeolite, and mixtures thereof; and W is selected from the group consisting of at least one basic metal oxide, at least one basic metal carbonate, and mixtures thereof. The method will result in a final triethylphosphate (TEPO) with a few ppb to less than 1 ppb arsenic containing impurities.

Triethylphosphate (TEPO) is a liquid chemical commonly used as the phosphorous-containing source for the production of PSG (phosphosilicate glass) or BPSG (borophosphosilicate glass) in the microelectronics industry. PSG and BPSG are used in semiconductor devices as insulating layers that are deposited between metal or conducting layers. BPSG films are typically used as planarization films which can provide excellent step coverage for high density microelectronic devices. The presence of percent levels of boron and phosphorus in the BPSG films has the effect of decreasing the glass transition temperature relative to the silicate glass, thus decreasing the thermal budget of a fabrication process while providing gap-filling properties that enable the BPSG layer to meet the requirements of microelectronic manufacturing processes.
Manufacturers require phosphorous sources, such as TEPO, to be extremely pure with respect to certain metals such as arsenic and other metals. Certain metallic impurities may act as device poisons or have undesirable toxicological properties, especially in the case of arsenic, that may present significant environmental health and safety issues during the normal life cycle of the device, such as during manufacturing or waste disposal after use.
For the aforementioned reasons, manufacturers in the microelectronics industry require that TEPO meets very stringent specifications with respect to the concentration of certain metallic impurities. Typical concentration specifications for TEPO require that many alkali, alkaline earth, rare earth, transition and main group metals are present at less than 5 ppb, or more commonly less than 1-3 ppb.
However, raw TEPO has arsenic levels of 50 ppb (parts per billion) to over 10,000 ppb depending on the particular source and how it was processed. Achieving arsenic levels of less than 5 ppb, or more commonly less than 1-3 ppb, presents a substantial challenge for arsenic in particular, which is a common impurity in phosphorus-containing materials.
The removal of trace levels (about 50 ppb to 10,000 ppb) of arsenic impurities from TEPO often cannot be accomplished by the use of common separation techniques because of the similarity in the chemical and physical properties of the phosphorus and arsenic compounds.
There are numerous examples in the prior art of the removal of arsenic-containing impurities from various systems, including gaseous streams such as acetylene or silane, liquid hydrocarbon fractions used in the petrochemical industry, aqueous systems, and phosphate based fluid fertilizer streams. The arsenic-containing components removed during processing are either tri-valent or penta-valent, and either organic and inorganic.
The majority of the previous works described the removal of arsenic such that the treated material had a final arsenic content of 1-1000 ppm (parts per million, 1 ppm=1000 ppb). The description of the removal of arsenic to ultra-trace levels (10 ppb or less) found in the prior art was for the preparation of high purity silane used for microelectronic applications. In the latter case the primary arsenic contaminant is gaseous arsine, as opposed to the present disclosure in which the arsenic impurities are believed to be either miscible liquids, such as triethylarsenate (TEASAT) or solubilized inorganic salts.

Removal of trace arsenic impurities from triethylphosphate (TEPO)


A feed saving insert is described that is positionable on the surface of feed within a feed bucket. The insert includes a sheet formed into a disk that is sized to be loosely received through the bucket top opening and to rest against feed within the bucket. Access apertures are formed through the disk and are uniformly spaced about the disk to permit limited access to feed under the disk. The disk and access apertures are sized such that access to the feed within the bucket is limited and so the disk will float on the feed within the bucket and will change in elevation within the bucket in response to removal of feed during feeding. A guide shaft is provided, projecting downwardly from the disk and through an opening in the bucket bottom to hold the disk substantially parallel to the bucket bottom and guide the disk in its downward movement responsive to removal of feed from the bucket.

Some animals, especially horses are notorious for wasting feed such as grain which is fed from conventional buckets. Horses in training for special events are fed with various grains and other granular or powdered nutrients during conditioning, and it is typical that the feed is portioned carefully according to the training being completed. The typical manner in which feed is presented involves selecting an appropriate bucket, placing a measured amount of feed in the bucket, then hanging the bucket in the horse's stall, paddock, or corral in which the horse is kept.
A typical full grown horse will feed by gorging its mouth with feed in the bucket, then raise its head from the confines of the bucket before chewing. A grown horse will usually take about two cups of feed in its mouth, then in the process of chewing, lose about 35% of the feed. This causes wastage of feed, and inability for the trainer to accurately meter the amount of feed actually ingested by the horse. Of course different horses, having different physical and psychological characteristics will feed differently, and the trainer may not rely on the otherwise seemingly simple solution of overfeeding the horse by approximately 35% to accommodate for the loss during chewing.
The feed loss typically occurs as spillage into the stall, paddock, or corral, where the lost feed cannot be easily recovered by the animal. Yet the spilled feed will remain, often attracting unwanted rodents such as mice and rats.
It is also a fairly common practice to include measured amounts of medication, feed supplements, vitamins, or other treatment materials to feed for consumption by an animal. If the animal is likely to spill a considerable amount of feed, it is logical that a similar amount of an additive will be spilled as well. This causes a dosage problem, since it becomes difficult to determine whether the animal has actually ingested the desired amount of treatment materials.
It is desirable to avoid feed wastage, to economize on feed, to enable accuracy in dietary portioning, and to minimize attraction to rodents. The present invention, as will be understood below, fulfills this need.

Feed saving insert for animal feed buckets


A heat-sensitive transfer sheet, containing a substrate, at least one thermal transfer layer containing a thermally transferable dye and a resin, disposed on one surface of the substrate, and a heat-resistant slipping layer disposed on another surface of the substrate, wherein said at least one thermal transfer layer contains at least one kind of polymer type releasing agent having a mass-average molecular weight of 5,000 to 100,000 and also having a fluorine-substituted aliphatic group at a side chain of the polymer, and at least one kind of non-polymer type fluorine-system surfactant.

Various heat transfer recording methods have been known so far. Among these methods, dye diffusion transfer recording systems attract attention as a process that can produce a color hard copy having an image quality closest to that of silver halide photography. Moreover, this system has advantages over silver halide photography: it enables direct visualization from digital data; it makes reproduction simple, and the like without using treatment chemicals.
Among these methods, in a sublimation type thermal transfer recording system, a heat-sensitive transfer sheet (hereinafter also referred to as an ink sheet) containing dyes is superposed on a heat-sensitive transfer image-receiving sheet (hereinafter also referred to as an image-receiving sheet), and then the ink sheet is heated, for example, by a thermal head whose exothermic action is controlled by electric signals, in order to transfer the dyes contained in the ink sheet to the image-receiving sheet, thereby recording an image information. Three colors: cyan, magenta, and yellow, are used for recording a color image by overlapping one color to other, thereby enabling transferring and recording a color image having continuous gradation for color densities.
In recent years, because speeding up of a printer can shorten user's waiting time in case that print is conducted in a photo shop for user's advantage, high-speed printers in the sublimation-type thermal transfer recording system, which can provide a print in a short time, have been developed and commercialized one after another.
In wide spread use of the printers in the sublimation-type thermal transfer recording system, there is a demand for a printer providing prints of good image quality under various environmental conditions, independently of an installation site. That is, in order to satisfy user's needs, it is necessary to provide a print of good image quality and free from image defect, not only under the standard air-conditioned environmental condition of offices and shops, for example, at a temperature of 23° C. to 27° C. and a humidity of 50% to 70%, but also, under a high-temperature high-humidity condition in summer (e.g., temperature: 35° C., humidity: 80%) and a low-temperature low-humidity condition in winter (e.g., temperature: 10° C., humidity: 20%).
As one of the technical problems to be solved in the sublimation-type thermal transfer recording system, there is pointed out an image trouble that is caused by a release failure between the heat-sensitive transfer sheet and the heat-sensitive transfer image receiving sheet. In the sublimation-type thermal transfer recording system, the heat-sensitive transfer sheet and the heat-sensitive transfer image receiving sheet are superimposed with each other to form an image. The image is formed on the heat-sensitive transfer image receiving sheet. Therefore, after image formation, it is necessary to strip off the unneeded heat-sensitive transfer sheet from the heat-sensitive transfer image receiving sheet without leaving any unwanted substances on the image receiving sheet. However, from a requirement of reduction in printing time, there is a trend that a temperature applied to the heat-sensitive transfer sheet at the time of recording is raised (a heating time is reduced in keeping with this trend). Consequently, this trend is easy to cause a problem that, after printing, the print and the heat-sensitive transfer sheet are fused to each other, or the heat-sensitive transfer sheet is not successively separated from the heat-sensitive transfer image receiving sheet and thereby a releasing line remains.
For prevention of the heat-sensitive transfer sheet and the heat-sensitive transfer image receiving sheet from fusing, several methods of using a releasing agent such as a silicon compound or a fluorine compound have been proposed. As one of these methods, a method of introducing such the releasing agent into the image receiving sheet has been proposed. However, in a recent sublimation-type thermal transfer recording system, a transparent resin is laminated, in many cases, on the heat-sensitive transfer image receiving sheet having an image formed thereon from viewpoints of improvement in both scratch resistance and light fastness of the formed image. In this embodiment, when a releasing agent is present in the side of the heat-sensitive transfer image receiving sheet, the releasing agent gives, in some cases, disadvantages to the transparent resin laminate.
As an alternative, a method of introducing the releasing agent into the heat-sensitive transfer sheet has been proposed. As the releasing agent that is introduced in this method, a usage of fluorine-system polymers has been also proposed (see Japanese Patent No. 3150691, JP-A-5-32072 ("JP-A" means unexamined published Japanese patent application) and JP-A-1-146791).


A method of browsing the Worldwide Web of the Internet and presenting elements of a web page to a user. The web browser requests a desired HTML and then requests other elements of the page based upon user defined priority levels. Elements are presented to the user in priority sequence as soon as received eliminating unnecessary waiting for lower priority or unrequested elements, as well as partial display of desired elements.

The world wide web (WWW) comprises a multitude of computer servers, respective databases which are managed by servers and contain documents formatted as web pages, and a network by which clients can communicate with the servers and thereby request and load web pages of interest. Clients and servers utilize the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (http), a known application protocol to communicate and provide access to information by using a standard page description language known as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). The information can comprise text, graphics, applets, images, sound, animated video etc. Each of the clients includes a "web browser" which is an interface to the user and the WWW. One common web browser is the Netscape Navigator (TM) web browser licensed by Netscape Communications Corporation of Mountain View, Calif. The Netscape Navigator web browser is further described in "Hands on Netscape" David Sacks, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, N.J., 1996 ISBN013240284X.
Each web page is specified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address which comprises an access method/protocol designation such as http as a prefix, a server name, and the requested document as a suffix. The server name typically includes a "domain name" which may be the name of a company, educational institution, government body, or other organization that maintains the server. The request indicates a web page associated with the server. There are different ways that a client can obtain a web page. If the client knows the URL, the client can directly request the web page from the server. However, if the client only knows the server name, the client can address the server name and in response, the server will present the "home page" for the server. The home page (and other web pages) typically includes tags or "hot links" which reference other associated web pages. When the user selects a hot link, the web browser requests the respective web page from the corresponding server.
There has been explosive growth in the network of computers known as the WWW. This expansion, while advantageous for information exchange, has led to problems of congestion, slowing or even preventing traffic. Furthermore, developments in browser technology have led to more useful but more complex download formats including interactive and dynamic presentations which typically require more time to be received and to be processed by a browser. Consequently a user typically first sees a fragment, typically text, of the web page on the display screen. Other elements of the page such as video, applets etc. are received, processed, and gradually filled in as they are fetched. Meanwhile, the web page is unusable and confusing. This waiting wastes the user's time and causes dissatisfaction with the WWW.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,643 fills in the waiting time by displaying different types of informational messages, for example, advertisements, notices, messages, copyright information, and the like. Such diversionary activity is resented by many users and does not address the problem described above.
Some browsers such as Netscape Navigator browser with its Autoload Images option provide an option to turn off graphics. While this feature may offer some performance improvement when loading web pages with extensive graphics content, it provides no help to the user who does not want or need video, sound, or JAVA applets. Other users may want graphics only and, having read the text during a previous view of the page, have no need or desire for text. The ability to turn off graphics provides no help to such users.

Presenting web pages with discrete, browser-controlled complexity levels

International Business Machines Corporation


In a semiconductor sensor having a membrane structure, the destruction of the membrane caused by the expansion or contraction of a fluid within a hollow part formed under the membrane while the sensor is in use is prevented. A semiconductor sensor 10 comprising a substrate 30 and a membrane 20 formed on the top surface thereof, in which the bottom of the substrate 30 and a mounting surface 50 on which the sensor 10 is mounted are bonded, has pressure difference adjusting means 22a to 22c for eliminating the difference in pressure of a fluid between an inside and an outside of a hollow part 34 while the sensor is in use.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor sensor, such as an infrared-ray sensor, a gas sensor, an air fuel ratio sensor, a pressure sensor and an acceleration sensor, having a membrane structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a semiconductor sensor having a so-called membrane structure is frequently used. A membrane (thin film) is formed, by etching, in the center of the undersurface of a wafer and a detecting element is formed on the membrane in order to increase the sensitivity of the sensor. FIG. 5A to FIG. 5C are illustrations showing a semiconductor sensor having a conventional membrane structure.
As shown in a perspective view in FIG. 5A, a semiconductor sensor 10 comprises an insulating material layer 20 and a substrate 30 made of silicon or the like for supporting the insulating material layer 20. As shown in a top view in FIG. 5B and in a sectional view along the A–A′ line in FIG. 5C, the undersurface of the substrate 30 is etched in the center of the sensor to form a thin film part 32 and then a membrane is formed by the thin film part 32 and the insulating material layer 20. After this, a detecting element (not shown) for sensing is formed on the top surface of the membrane so that it has a plurality of layers.
FIG. 6A to FIG. 6D are each a perspective view, a top view, a side view and a sectional view along the A–A′ line, respectively, showing a semiconductor sensor having a conventional membrane structure (membrane) in an assembled state. As shown schematically, the semiconductor sensor 10 is bonded to a mounting surface, such as a stem 50, with an adhesive 40. A sensor having such a membrane structure has been disclosed in, for example, Patent documents 1 to 3.
[Patent document 1]
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 7-58134 (paragraphs [0016] to [0020])
[Patent document 2]
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 6-129898 (paragraphs [0028] to [0038])
[Patent document 3]
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 7-120306 (paragraphs [0010] to [0024])
As shown in FIG. 6A to FIG. 6D, however, if the entire undersurface of the substrate 30 is bonded to the stem 50, a hollow part 34 under the membrane is sealed hermetically and a way of escape of a fluid, such as air, present inside the hollow part 34 is blocked. If the fluid expands or contracts within the hollow part 34 because of the change in temperature, a difference in pressure is produced between the inside and outside of the semiconductor sensor 10, an excessive stress is produced in the membrane, and deformation and distortion of the membrane occur.
In other words, as shown in FIG. 7A, when the fluid within the hollow part 34 expands, a gas pressure Pi inside the hollow part 34 becomes higher than a gas (atmospheric) pressure Po outside the hollow part 34, and the membrane made of the thin film part 32 and the insulating material layer 20 of the substrate 30 is deformed in such a way as to be pushed upward. In contrast to this, as the fluid within the hollow part 34 contracts, the gas pressure Pi inside the hollow part 34 becomes lower than the gas pressure Po outside the hollow part 34 and the membrane is deformed in such a way as to be pushed downward. If such deformation of the membrane is excessively large, there is a possibility of destruction of the membrane and if deformation of the membrane at a certain magnitude is repeated, there is a possibility of occurrence of fatigue failure of the membrane.
An example of a method for avoiding the above-mentioned problem is such one in which the bonding part of the bottom of the semiconductor sensor 10 to the stem is limited only to a part thereof (for example, refer to Patent document 1), as shown in FIG. 8A to FIG. 8D and FIG. 9A to FIG. 9E. FIG. 8A to FIG. 8D show how only opposite sides of the bottom of the semiconductor sensor 10 are bonded to the stem with adhesives 40a and 40b. FIG. 8A to FIG. 8D are each a perspective view, a top view, a side view in the X direction and a sectional view along the line A–A′, respectively. FIG. 9A to FIG. 9E show how only four corners of the bottom of the semiconductor sensor 10 are bonded thereto with the adhesives 40a, 40b, 40c and 40d. FIG. 9A to FIG. 9E are each a perspective view, a top view, a side view in the X direction, a sectional view along the line A–A′ and a sectional view along the line B–B′, respectively.
By limiting the bonding part only to a part of the bottom as described above, the hollow part 34 under the membrane and the outside of the semiconductor sensor 10 are communicated with each other through the gaps at the parts not bonded, as shown in FIG. 8C and FIG. 8D and in FIG. 9D and FIG. 9E and, therefore, a difference in gas pressure between the inside and the outside of the semiconductor sensor 10 can be eliminated.
However, the use of this method causes a problem: it becomes difficult to control the quantity of adhesive 40 to be applied when the semiconductor sensor 10 is mounted on the stem 50 and the mounting process becomes complicated. In other words, if the quantity of adhesive 40 to be applied is too small, the bonding strength is reduced and if, in contrast to this, the quantity is too large, the adhesive invades even unwanted parts and the hollow part 34 is sealed because the entire circumference of the bottom of the substrate 30 is bonded with the invaded adhesive. Therefore, it is necessary to precisely control the quantity of adhesive to be applied.
Another example method is such one as used in an infrared-ray sensor disclosed in Patent documents 2 and 3, in which the semiconductor sensor 10 is formed as a package and the internal space of the package and the hollow part 34 are put under a vacuum or in a pressure reduced state. FIG. 10 shows a conventional packaged infrared-ray sensor.
As shown in FIG. 10, the infrared-ray sensor 10 has an infrared-ray detecting part 80 formed on a membrane made of a thin film part 32 and an insulating material layer 20. The bottom of a substrate 30 is bonded to a stem 50 with adhesive 40 and a cap 70 having a window part provided with a filter 72 is fixed on the step 50 in a close contact (seal welded) state and thus the infrared-ray sensor 10 is formed as a package. Then, the inside of the cap 70 and the space within a hollow part 34 are put under a vacuum or in a pressure reduced state. By putting the hollow part of a semiconductor sensor 10 and the internal space of the cap 70 excluding the hollow part under a vacuum or in a pressure reduced state, as described above, the change in the difference in gas pressure between the inside and the outside of the semiconductor sensor 10 due to the change in gas temperature within the hollow part 34 can be eliminated or considerably reduced.
However, this method requires that packaging (forming as a package) be carried out in a hermetically sealed container equipped with an evacuation system which has a vacuum means and an exhaust means and, therefore, the process for assembling a sensor becomes complicated and the cost is raised.

Semiconductor sensor with pressure difference adjusting means


A system which operates a digitally controlled model railroad transmitting a first command from a first client program to a resident external controlling interface through a first communications transport. A second command is transmitted from a second client program to the resident external controlling interface through a second communications transport. The first command and the second command are received by the resident external controlling interface which queues the first and second commands. The resident external controlling interface sends third and fourth commands representative of the first and second commands, respectively, to a digital command station for execution on the digitally controlled model railroad.

The present invention relates to a system for controlling a model railroad.
Model railroads have traditionally been constructed with of a set of interconnected sections of train track, electric switches between different sections of the train track, and other electrically operated devices, such as train engines and draw bridges. Train engines receive their power to travel on the train track by electricity provided by a controller through the track itself. The speed and direction of the train engine is controlled by the level and polarity, respectively, of the electrical power supplied to the train track. The operator manually pushes buttons or pulls levers to cause the switches or other electrically operated devices to function, as desired. Such model railroad sets are suitable for a single operator, but unfortunately they lack the capability of adequately controlling multiple trains independently. In addition, such model railroad sets are not suitable for being controlled by multiple operators, especially if the operators are located at different locations distant from the model railroad, such as different cities.
A digital command control (DDC) system has been developed to provide additional controllability of individual train engines and other electrical devices. Each device the operator desires to control, such as a train engine, includes an individually addressable digital decoder. A digital command station (DCS) is electrically connected to the train track to provide a command in the form of a set of encoded digital bits to a particular device that includes a digital decoder. The digital command station is typically controlled by a personal computer. A suitable standard for the digital command control system is the NMRA DCC Standards, issued March 1997, and is incorporated herein by reference. While providing the ability to individually control different devices of the railroad set, the DCC system still fails to provide the capability for multiple operators to control the railroad devices, especially if the operators are remotely located from the railroad set and each other.
DigiToys Systems of Lawrenceville, Ga. has developed a software program for controlling a model railroad set from a remote location. The software includes an interface which allows the operator to select desired changes to devices of the railroad set that include a digital decoder, such as increasing the speed of a train or switching a switch. The software issues a command locally or through a network, such as the internet, to a digital command station at the railroad set which executes the command. The protocol used by the software is based on Cobra from Open Management Group where the software issues a command to a communication interface and awaits confirmation that the command was executed by the digital command station. When the software receives confirmation that the command executed, the software program sends the next command through the communication interface to the digital command station. In other words, the technique used by the software to control the model railroad is analogous to an inexpensive printer where commands are sequentially issued to the printer after the previous command has been executed. Unfortunately, it has been observed that the response of the model railroad to the operator appears slow, especially over a distributed network such as the internet. One technique to decrease the response time is to use high-speed network connections but unfortunately such connections are expensive.
What is desired, therefore, is a system for controlling a model railroad that effectively provides a high-speed connection without the additional expense associated therewith.
The foregoing and other objectives, features, and advantages of the invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
The present invention overcomes the aforementioned drawbacks of the prior art, in a first aspect, by providing a system for operating a digitally controlled model railroad that includes transmitting a first command from a first client program to a resident external controlling interface through a first communications transport. A second command is transmitted from a second client program to the resident external controlling interface through a second communications transport. The first command and the second command are received by the resident external controlling interface which queues the first and second commands. The resident external controlling interface sends third and fourth commands representative of the first and second commands, respectively, to a digital command station for execution on the digitally controlled model railroad.
Incorporating a communications transport between the multiple client program and the resident external controlling interface permits multiple operators of the model railroad at locations distant from the physical model railroad and each other. In the environment of a model railroad club where the members want to simultaneously control devices of the same model railroad layout, which preferably includes multiple trains operating thereon, the operators each provide commands to the resistant external controlling interface, and hence the model railroad. In addition by queuing by commands at a single resident external controlling interface permits controlled execution of the commands by the digitally controlled model railroad, would may otherwise conflict with one another.
In another aspect of the present invention the first command is selectively processed and sent to one of a plurality of digital command stations for execution on the digitally controlled model railroad based upon information contained therein. Preferably, the second command is also selectively processed and sent to one of the plurality of digital command stations for execution on the digitally controlled model railroad based upon information contained therein. The resident external controlling interface also preferably includes a command queue to maintain the order of the commands.
The command queue also allows the sharing of multiple devices, multiple clients to communicate with the same device (locally or remote) in a controlled manner, and multiple clients to communicate with different devices. In other words, the command queue permits the proper execution in the cases of: (1) one client to many devices, (2) many clients to one device, and (3) many clients to many devices.
In yet another aspect of the present invention the first command is transmitted from a first client program to a first processor through a first communications transport. The first command is received at the first processor. The first processor provides an acknowledgement to the first client program through the first communications transport indicating that the first command has properly executed prior to execution of commands related to the first command by the digitally controlled model railroad. The communications transport is preferably a COM or DCOM interface.
The model railroad application involves the use of extremely slow real-time interfaces between the digital command stations and the devices of the model railroad. In order to increase the apparent speed of execution to the client, other than using high-speed communication interfaces, the resident external controller interface receives the command and provides an acknowledgement to the client program in a timely manner before the execution of the command by the digital command stations. Accordingly, the execution of commands provided by the resident external controlling interface to the digital command stations occur in a synchronous manner, such as a first-in-first-out manner. The COM and DCOM communications transport between the client program and the resident external controlling interface is operated in an asynchronous manner, namely providing an acknowledgement thereby releasing the communications transport to accept further communications prior to the actual execution of the command. The combination of the synchronous and the asynchronous data communication for the commands provides the benefit that the operator considers the commands to occur nearly instantaneously while permitting the resident external controlling interface to verify that the command is proper and cause the commands to execute in a controlled manner by the digital command stations, all without additional high-speed communication networks. Moreover, for traditional distributed software execution there is no motivation to provide an acknowledgment prior to the execution of the command because the command executes quickly and most commands are sequential in nature. In other words, the execution of the next command is dependent upon proper execution of the prior command so there would be no motivation to provide an acknowledgment prior to its actual execution.


Provided in the present invention are a method and a system for power adjustment, a base station, and a user equipment. The method includes: receiving, by a UE, downlink control information that is sent by a base station and carries a transmit power control TPC command, determining, by the UE, a power control value corresponding to the power control command field according to the TPC command and a first condition, where the first condition is: information on a time when the UE receives the downlink control information, or information on a position of a physical downlink control channel PDCCH candidate, or information of a non-TPC command in the downlink control information, or a power control value preset in the UE, or indication information that is sent by the base station and indicates the power control value.

In 3GPP long term evolution (LTE), an uplink power control algorithm of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) uses a method of combining open loop power control and closed loop power control, where the power control is classified as the open loop power control and the closed loop power control according to whether the mobile station/terminal and the base station are involved simultaneously. Currently the closed loop power control is mostly used to compensate the error of the open loop power control, so as to archive precise control of channel fading under a frequency division duplex (FDD) mode.
For PUSCH transmission, taking control signaling overhead into account, a 2-bit transmit power control (TPC) command is used to indicate the closed loop power control which includes an accumulated mode and an absolute mode. Currently, in the accumulated mode, a TPC command supports a raise by 1 dB and 3 dB, that is the power may be increased by 1 dB or 3 dB on the basis of the power of last transmission; the TPC command supports a decline only by −1 dB, that is the power may be decreased by −1 dB on the basis of the power of last transmission. The advantage is that when channel conditions or other conditions change, the transmit power of a UE can be quickly increased so as to adapt to the channel conditions.
Because a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) uses only 16-bit cyclic redundancy check (CRC), and the UE performs PDCCH blind detection up to 44 times in every transmission time interval (TTI, unit: ms), when the time is accumulated comparatively long, for example 1 s, the probability of false alarm or erroneous detection will increase greatly. Here the false alarm may be understood as a base station does not send a PDCCH, but the UE detects the PDCCH. Since in the accumulated mode, four code points have equivalent status, it can be assumed that the probability of false alarm for the TPC Command Field (TPC control command field: 0,1,2 or 3) is the same, noticing that the accumulated mode supports a raise by 1 dB and 3 dB, but supports a decline only by −1 dB, then in the statistics of certain time of accumulation, the power of UE is increased unnecessarily due to the false alarm or erroneous detection of the PDCCH, which will cause unnecessary power waste and uplink channel interference, and thus affects uplink performance.

Method and system for power adjustment, base station, and user equipment


In a data transmission system, one or more signal supply voltages for generating the signaling voltage of a signal to be transmitted are generated in a first circuit and forwarded from the first circuit to a second circuit. The second circuit may use the forwarded signal supply voltages to generate another signal to be transmitted back from the second circuit to the first circuit, thereby obviating the need to generate signal supply voltages separately in the second circuit. The first circuit may also adjust the signal supply voltages based on the signal transmitted back from the second circuit to the first circuit. The data transmission system may employ a single-ended signaling system in which the signaling voltage is referenced to a reference voltage that is a power supply voltage such as ground, shared by the first circuit and the second circuit.

The present disclosure relates to the generation and control of signal supply voltages for use in a data transmission system.
In a communication system, data or other information may be transmitted from one integrated circuit (IC) device to another IC device as electric signals over one or more wires. For example, a memory controller may transmit (during a "memory write" operation) data as data signals to a memory device over one or more data communication channels, while the memory device may transmit (during a "memory read" operation) data as data signals to the memory controller using the same or different data communication channels. In many instances, a signal from a transmitting device would have one or more characteristics (e.g., a signal swing) that are dependent on one or more regulated signal supply voltages. Conventionally, each IC device in a communication system obtains a power supply voltage from an external voltage regulation device. That power supply voltage is often used directly, but in some cases is regulated again, internal to the chip, to generate a signal supply voltage that determines the one or more characteristics of the signals sent to other devices. In the above example involving the memory controller and the memory device, the memory controller would include a set of internal voltage regulation circuitry to generate the regulated voltage(s) for forming the write data signals while the memory device would include another set of internal voltage regulation circuitry to generate the regulated voltage(s) for forming the read data signals.
Such arrangement would have several drawbacks. First, on-chip, internal voltage regulators or generators require relatively complex circuitry (e.g., charge pumps) and/or involve relatively large circuit components (e.g., on-chip capacitors), and thus add to the size and manufacturing cost of the IC device. Second, when the communicating IC devices have independent voltage regulators to generate their own signal supply voltage(s), the IC devices that transmit the signal would not have information to adjust one or more signal characteristics of the signal to suit the IC device receiving the signal.

Forwarding signal supply voltage in data transmission system


An opening (3) is formed on a surface of a metal film (2), a plurality of axes (4, 5, 6, 7) cross each other substantially perpendicularly at the opening (3), a plurality of periodic grooves (8, 9, 10, 11) are provided for respective axes (4, 5, 6, 7), and each of the periodic grooves (8, 9, 10, 11) includes a plurality of grooves (8-n, 9-n, 10-n, and 11-n) substantially perpendicular to the axis for which each periodic groove is provided, and the periodic grooves (8, 9, 10, 11) is positioned point-symmetrically with respect to the opening (3).

A hard disc drive (HDD) has been widely used as an information storage medium. However, recording density of a hard disc drive is increasing more and more, closing to super paramagnetic limit where magnetic information becomes instable.
The super paramagnetic limit is explained below with reference to equation (1).−kmV/kT  (1)
Equation (1) indicates thermal fluctuation constant, and km, V, k, and T indicate magnetic anisotropic energy, recording bit volume, Boltzmann constant, and absolute temperature, respectively. In a conventional medium for magnetic storage (hard disc), volume (V) of recording bit decreases as recording density becomes higher, and consequently the thermal fluctuation constant becomes larger. It is generally known that larger thermal fluctuation constant results in instability of magnetic information, such as accidental spin inversion.
Therefore, in order to realize higher density, there has been studied hybrid storage that is generally called heat-assisted magnetic recording, optical-assisted magnetic recording, laser-assisted magnetic recording etc. In the hybrid storage, a magnetic storage layer having high capacity of magnetic information at room temperature is used in a storage medium in order to prevent instability of magnetic information, and at the time of magnetic storage, an external magnetic field is applied while the temperature of a magnetic storage area is increased in order to facilitate spin inversion.
This allows forming a magnetic storage bit smaller than external magnetic distribution in a case where heat gradient steeper than external magnetic gradient is given to the surrounding of the magnetic storage area.
In order to heat such magnetic storage layer, evanescent light that is localized sufficiently smaller than diffraction limit of light is employed. Evanescent light is generated by irradiating laser to an evanescent light generation mechanism made of a minute metal opening smaller than the wavelength.
Patent Document 1 discloses a recording/reproduction head 100 that is a slider in which a semiconductor laser 102, a ¼ wavelength plate 134, a transparent light-converging medium 106 serving as an evanescent light generation mechanism, an optical spot 109a, and an optical system are integrated, as illustrated in FIG. 15.
With the configuration, linearly polarized light generated from the semiconductor laser 102 is converted by the ¼ wavelength plate 134 into circularly polarized light and then passes through the transparent light-converging medium 106 so as to be converged to the optical spot 109a. Light emitted from the optical spot 109a is evanescent light 109b. Converting the linearly polarized light into the circularly polarized light allows forming thermal distribution that is rotation-symmetrical with respect to a magnetic storage layer (not shown).
However, a slider used in a hard disc drive is getting smaller year after year. The size of a general slider at present is approximately 0.8 (depth)×0.7 (width)×0.3 (height) mm. The weight of a general slider is decreasing exponentially as the slider is getting smaller year after year. It is expected that the weight will decrease further.
It is known that, in general, as the size of a slider gets smaller and the weight of the slider decreases, moment of inertia of a suspension to which the slider is fixed drops, making the access speed higher.
On the other hand, the length of a resonator of edge-emitting semiconductor laser ranges from 0.2 to 1.0 mm, the width of a chip ranges from 0.2 to 0.5 mm, and the height of the chip ranges from 0.1 to 0.3 mm, which is substantially the same size as the aforementioned small slider. That is, the integrated slider with the above configuration where the optical lens and the wavelength plate are combined has a problem that it is difficult to downsize the slider and that there is a possibility that the slider gets larger.
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Tokukai 2004-362771 (published on Dec. 24, 2004)
[Non-Patent Document 1]
W. L. Barnes, A Dereux, T. W. Ebbesen, Nature 424, 824 (2003)

Slider, integrated slider, and hybrid storage device


A valve assembly of a water dispenser for a refrigerator includes a connecting part connected to a reservoir which stores water, a valve spool for opening/closing the connecting part, a biasing spring placed between the connecting part and valve spool, for exerting a biasing force to the valve spool, and an open/close part for raising the valve spool by overcoming the biasing force of the biasing spring. The horizontal motion of a slide member sliding along a base plate swings the cams, and the swing motion of the cams raises the valve spool. Once valve spool ascends, the connecting part is opened and the water within the reservoir is poured into a cup. The valve assembly is easy and convenient to use, is simple in structure, and maximizes the space efficiency of a refrigerating compartment door.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a water dispenser of a refrigerator, and more particularly to a valve assembly of a water dispenser.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A water dispenser or beverage dispenser is an implement for automatically dispensing drinking water or beverages, which is installed in a house, on office or a public lot for domestic or commercial use. A valve assembly of the water dispenser of a commercially available beverage dispenser employs an actuator which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,849 issued to Cradle, Jr. on Apr. 19, 1994.
Also, the water dispenser is utilized as a household or office product. In recent years, a beverage dispenser installed in a refrigerator has been suggested. The refrigerator is an appliance for storing a variety of foodstuffs under freezing or refrigerating temperatures in order to main freshness of the foodstuffs for a long time period. The refrigerator is provided with a compartment for storing foodstuffs which is partitioned into a freezer compartment for storing foodstuffs under a freezing temperature and a refrigerating compartment for storing foodstuffs under a refrigerating temperature. The freezer compartment and refrigerating compartment are respectively supplied with cool air generated from an evaporator.
The cool air is directly supplied to the interior of the freezer compartment from the evaporator by means of a fan. Some of the cool air is supplied to the interior of the refrigerating compartment and has its temperature raised while flowing through a duct internally formed in the refrigerator. The freezer compartment and refrigerating compartment are installed with doors at the frontal sides to allow for the act of putting in/taking out the foodstuffs.
In addition, in the refrigerating compartment drinking water is stored. The drinking water is stored within the refrigerating compartment after a container is filled with the drinking water. In order to drink the water stored within the refrigerating compartment, the door is opened to take out the container filled with the drink water. However, the refrigerating efficiency of the refrigerator is lowered by frequently opening he door of the refrigerator.
Recently, in order to solve die above disadvantage, an apparatus for dispensing water of a refrigerator has been proposed, in which the drinking water within the refrigerating compartment can be taken out without opening the door of the refrigerating compartment. FIG. 1 is a section view showing a valve assembly 100 of the water dispenser for the refrigerator, wherein the valve assembly 100 is installed to the front plane of a refrigerating compartment door 10. Here, valve assembly 100 furnished to refrigerating compartment door 10 is formed by a valve body 110 which has an inlet 112 connected to a reservoir (not shown) installed to the inner side of door 10 and has an outlet 114 penetrating through the lower surface thereof. In addition, a valve spool 120 for opening/closing outlet 114, a valve cap 130 for closing the upper portion of valve body 110 and a lever 140 which pivots in order to transfer valve spool 120 up and down, are furnished thereto.
Valve spool 120 includes a rod 124 which is connected to lever 140 by means of a hinge 122 and is moving up and down by the pivoting motion of lever 140, a packing member 126 attached to the lower end of rod 124 for closing outlet 114, and a spring 128 installed between the lower surface of valve cap 130 and packing member 126 for exerting a biasing force upon rod 124. Inlet 112 of valve body 110 is in communicating relation with the inner side of door 10, and is connected to the reservoir placed to the inner side of door 10. The water within the reservoir flows into valve body 110 via inlet 112. Inlet 112 is maintained as being filled with water.
Once the user grips a cup and pushes lever 140 by the cup, lever 140 pivots to raise rod 124 by overcoming the biasing force of spring 128, thereby opening outlet 114. At this time, the water within the reservoir is dispensed and fills up cup 20 under outlet 114.
For sanitary reasons, disposable articles such as a paper cup 20 or a paper-envelope cup, which is used once is generally utilized instead of a plastic cup. Since paper cup 20 has an soft structure, it becomes deformed when lever 140 is pushed by means of paper cup 20. Accordingly, the user must push lever 140 by using the hand gripping paper cup 20. However, in the conventional water dispenser, the water coring out of outlet 114 of valve assembly 100 sometimes lands on the hand of a user, thereby irritating the user. Moreover, in order to connect valve assembly 100 to the reservoir, a wide space of refrigerating compartment door 10 is needed, so the space efficiency of door 10 is lowered. Additionally, after proper time passing, a deposit stacks in inlet 112 of valve body 110, then the deposit causes dirtiness of the water dispenser.

Valve of a water dispenser for a refrigerator


The present disclosure describes apparatus and methods for processing microfeature workpieces, e.g., by depositing material on a microelectronic semiconductor using atomic layer deposition. Some of these apparatus include microfeature workpiece holders that include gas distributors. One exemplary implementation provides a microfeature workpiece holder adapted to hold a plurality of microfeature workpieces. This workpiece holder includes a plurality of workpiece supports and a gas distributor. The workpiece supports are adapted to support a plurality of microfeature workpieces in a spaced-apart relationship to define a process space adjacent a surface of each microfeature workpiece. The gas distributor includes an inlet and a plurality of outlets, with each of the outlets positioned to direct a flow of process gas into one of the process spaces.

Thin film deposition techniques are widely used in the manufacturing of microfeatures to form a coating on a workpiece that closely conforms to the surface topography. In the context of microelectronic components, for example, the size of the individual components in the devices on a wafer is constantly decreasing, and the number of layers in the devices is increasing. As a result, the density of components and the aspect ratios of depressions (e.g., the ratio of the depth to the size of the opening) are increasing. The size of such wafers is also increasing to provide more real estate for forming more dies (i.e., chips) on a single wafer. Many fabricators are currently transitioning from 200 mm to 300 mm workpieces, and even larger workpieces will likely be used in the future. Thin film deposition techniques accordingly strive to produce highly uniform conformal layers that cover the sidewalls, bottoms, and corners in deep depressions that have very small openings.
One widely used thin film deposition technique is chemical vapor deposition (CVD). In a CVD system, one or more precursors that are capable of reacting to form a solid thin film are mixed in a gas or vapor state, and then the precursor mixture is presented to the surface of the workpiece. The surface of the workpiece catalyzes the reaction between the precursors to form a solid thin film at the workpiece surface. A common way to catalyze the reaction at the surface of the workpiece is to heat the workpiece to a temperature that causes the reaction.
Although CVD techniques are useful in many applications, they also have several drawbacks. For example, if the precursors are not highly reactive, then a high workpiece temperature is needed to achieve a reasonable deposition rate. Such high temperatures are not typically desirable because heating the workpiece can be detrimental to the structures and other materials already formed on the workpiece. Implanted or doped materials, for example, can migrate within silicon workpieces at higher temperatures. On the other hand, if more reactive precursors are used so that the workpiece temperature can be lower, then reactions may occur prematurely in the gas phase before reaching the intended surface of the workpiece. This is undesirable because the film quality and uniformity may suffer, and also because it limits the types of precursors that can be used.
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is another thin film deposition technique. FIGS. 1A and 1B schematically illustrate the basic operation of ALD processes. Referring to FIG. 1A, a layer of gas molecules A coats the surface of a workpiece W. The layer of A molecules is formed by exposing the workpiece W to a precursor gas containing A molecules, and then purging the chamber with a purge gas to remove excess A molecules. This process can form a monolayer of A molecules on the surface of the workpiece W because the A molecules at the surface are held in place during the purge cycle by physical adsorption forces at moderate temperatures or chemisorption forces at higher temperatures. The layer of A molecules is then exposed to another precursor gas containing B molecules. The A molecules react with the B molecules to form an extremely thin layer of solid material C on the workpiece W. The chamber is then purged again with a purge gas to remove excess B molecules.
FIG. 2 illustrates the stages of one cycle for forming a thin solid layer using ALD techniques. A typical cycle includes (a) exposing the workpiece to the first precursor A, (b) purging excess A molecules, (c) exposing the workpiece to the second precursor B, and then (d) purging excess B molecules. The purge process typically comprises introducing a purge gas, which is substantially non-reactive with either precursor, and exhausting the purge gas and excess precursor from the reaction chamber in a pumping step. In actual processing, several cycles are repeated to build a thin film on a workpiece having the desired thickness. For example, each cycle may form a layer having a thickness of approximately 0.5–1.0 Å, and thus it takes approximately 60–120 cycles to form a solid layer having a thickness of approximately 60 Å.
One drawback of ALD processing is that it has a relatively low throughput compared to CVD techniques. For example, ALD processing typically takes several seconds to perform each A-purge-B-purge cycle. This results in a total process time of several minutes to form a single thin layer of only 60 Å. In contrast to ALD processing, CVD techniques only require about one minute to form a 60 Å thick layer. In single-wafer processing chambers, ALD processes can be 500%–2000% longer than corresponding single-wafer CVD processes. The low throughput of existing single-wafer ALD techniques limits the utility of the technology in its current state because ALD may be a bottleneck in the overall manufacturing process.
One promising solution to increase the throughput of ALD processing is processing a plurality of wafers (e.g., 20–250) simultaneously in a batch process. FIG. 3 schematically illustrates a conventional batch ALD reactor 10 having a processing enclosure 20 coupled to a gas supply 30 and a vacuum 40. The processing enclosure 20 generally includes an outer wall 22 and an annular liner 24. A platform 60 seals against the outer wall or some other part of the enclosure 20 via a seal 62 to define a process chamber 25. Gas is introduced from the gas supply 30 to the process chamber 25 by a gas nozzle 32 that introduces gas into the main chamber 28 of the process chamber 25. Under influence of the vacuum 40, the gas introduced via the gas nozzle 32 will flow through the main chamber 28 and outwardly into the annular exhaust 26 to be drawn out with a vacuum 40. A plurality of workpieces W, e.g., semiconductor wafers, may be held in the processing enclosure in a workpiece holder 70. In operation, a heater 50 heats the workpieces W to a desired temperature and the gas supply 30 delivers the first precursor A, the purge gas, and the second precursor B as discussed above in connection with FIG. 2.
However, when depositing material simultaneously on a large number of workpieces in an ALD reactor 10 such as that shown in FIG. 3, it can be difficult to uniformly deposit the precursors A and B across the surface of each of the workpieces W. Removing excess precursor from the spaces between the workpieces W can also be problematic. In an ALD reactor such as that shown in FIG. 3, the primary mechanism for removing residual precursor that is not chemisorbed on the surface of one of the workpieces is diffusion. This is not only a relatively slow process that significantly reduces the throughput of the reactor 10, but it also may not adequately remove residual precursor. As such, conventional batch ALD reactors may have a low throughput and form non-uniform films.

Microfeature workpiece processing apparatus and methods for batch deposition of materials on microfeature workpieces


The invention relates to methods for generating or increasing a pathogen resistance in plants by reducing the expression, activity or function of an NADPH oxidase.

The aim of plant biotechnology work is the generation of plants with advantageous novel properties, for example for increasing agricultural productivity. The plants' natural defense mechanisms against pathogens are frequently insufficient. Fungal diseases alone result in annual yield losses of many billions of US$. The introduction of foreign genes from plants, animals or microbial sources can increase the defenses. Examples are the protection against feeding damage by insects by expressing Bacillus thuringiensis endotoxins (Vaeck et al. (1987) Nature 328:33-37) or the protection against fungal infection by expressing a bean chitinase (Broglie et al. (1991) Science 254:1194-1197). However, most of the approaches described only offer resistance to a single pathogen or a narrow spectrum of pathogens.
Only a few approaches exist which impart a resistance to a broader spectrum of pathogens to plants. Systemic acquired resistance (SAR)—a defense mechanism in a variety of plant/pathogen interactions —can be conferred by the application of endogenous messenger substances such as jasmonic acid (JA) or salicylic acid (SA) (Ward, et al. (1991) Plant Cell 3:1085-1094; Uknes, et al. (1992) Plant Cell 4(6):645-656). Similar effects can also be achieved by synthetic compounds such as 2,6-dichloroisonicotinic acid (INA) or S-methyl benzo(1,2,3)thiadiazole-7-thiocarboxylate (BTH; Bion200 ) (Friedrich et al. (1996) Plant J 10(1) :61-70; Lawton et al. (1996) Plant J. 10:71-82). The expression of pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins, which are upregulated in the case of SAR, may also cause pathogen resistance in some cases.
In barley, the Mlo locus has been described as a negative regulator of the defense against pathogens. The loss of the Mlo gene causes an increased and, above all, race-unspecific resistance against a large number of mildew species (Büschges R et al. (1997) Cell 88:695-705; Jorgensen J H (1977) Euphytica 26:55-62; Lyngkjaer M F et al. (1995) Plant Pathol 44:786-790). Ml-deficient barley varieties obtained by conventional breeding are already being used in agriculture. Despite intensive cultivation, the resistance has proved to be durable, presumably due to the fact that it is recessive. Mlo-like resistances in other plants, in particular in cereal species, are not described. The Mlo gene and various homologs from other cereal species have been identified and cloned (Büschges R et al. (1997) Cell 88:695-705; WO 98/04586; Schulze-Lefert P, Vogel J (2000) Trends Plant Sci. 5:343-348). Various methods using these genes for obtaining a pathogen resistance are described (WO 98/04586; WO 00/01722; WO 99/47552). The disadvantage is that the Mlo-mediated defense mechanism comprises a spontaneous die-off of leaf cells (Wolter M et al. (1993) Mol Gen Genet 239:122-128). Another disadvantage is that the Mlo-deficient genotypes show hypersensitivity to hemibiotrophic pathogens such as Magnaporte grisea (M. grisea) and Cochliobolus sativus (Bipolaris sorokiniana) (Jarosch B et al. (1999) Mol Plant Microbe Interact 12:508-514; Kumar J et al. (2001) Phytopathology 91:127-133).
The liberation of reactive oxygen species (ROS; for example superoxide (O2−) , hydroxyl radicals and H2O2) is ascribed an important protection function in the reaction on plant pathogens (Wojtaszek P (1997) Biochem J 322:681-692). A variety of ways of how a cell can produce ROS are known. In the macrophages of mammals, it is in particular the enzyme NADPH oxidase, which is able to transfer electrons to molecular oxygen, which must be mentioned. Homologous enzymes have also been identified in plants (Lamb & Dixon (1997) Annu Rev Plant Physiol Plant Mol Biol 48:251).
It has been shown that mutations in the catalytic subunit of NADPH oxidase in Arabidopsis thaliana show a reduced accumulation of reactive oxygen intermediates (ROI). With regard to the hypersensitive reaction (HR), the results were heterogeneous: while infection with the aviralulent and bactrium Pseudomonas syringae showed a reduced HR in a double mutant, the virulent oomycete Peronospora parasitica showed an increased HR. Growth—both of virulent and of avirulent P. syringae strains—was not changed in comparison with wild-type plants, however (Torres M A et al. (2002) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99:517-522). Likewise, the inhibition of NADPH oxidase by means of the inhibitor diphenyleneiodonium chloride (DPI)—at physiologically relevant concentrations—had no effect on the development of pathogenic fungi (Hückelhoven R & Kogel K H (1998) Mol Plant Microbe Interact 11:292-300). A cDNA fragment of a phagocytic barley NADPH oxidase (pNAox, homolog of the large subunit gp91phox of a phagocytic NADPH oxidase) is described under the GenBank Acc.-No.: AJ251717).

Method for obtaining the pathogenic resistance in plants


A mirror apparatus comprising a frame adapted to be rotatably mounted on the side of a vehcile body, a first case secured to one side of the frame for defining a first space therebetween, a mirror movably mounted on the first case and rotatable about a central pivot point and an adjusting mechanism that is mounted in the first space for adjusting the position of the mirror.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mirror apparatus and in particular to a mirror apparatus to be mounted to the outside of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An example of a conventional mirror apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 60-244640 published without examination Dec. 4, 1985. In the conventional mirror apparatus, a frame is secured with a case in which a movable mirror and a driving mechanism for moving the mirror are arranged so that the mirror is located at the outside. The frame and the case are enclosed within a body that acts as an outer shell and which is secured to one side of a vehicle body.
Although it is desirable from a design and aesthetic viewpoint to have a thinner mirror apparatus, the accommodation of the frame and the case within the frame prevents the construction of a thinner mirror apparatus. In addition, due to additional functions performed by the control circuit, such as a function for eliminating water drops from the mirror, the control circuit has to be enlarged, thereby expanding the size of the mirror apparatus.


In a wireless peer-to-peer (P2P) network or group, regulatory information may be provided from a P2P client device to a P2P group owner device for use in selection of an operating class and/or operating channel for the P2P group. The regulatory information may be obtained by the P2P client device, for example, by concurrently connecting to a wireless local area network (WLAN) infrastructure. The regulatory information may be formatted as a P2P action frame and may include regulatory domain information and/or supported channel information such as operating class and channel number.

Wireless networks are capable of operating within multiple operating channels at different frequencies. The operating channels may be regulated depending upon the frequency band in which the channels operate and the geographic location of the wireless network. Operating channels in the 5 GHz range, for example, may be restricted and even prohibited by certain regulatory domains. A network controller, such as a wireless access point, may determine which operating channels are supported within the regulatory domain in which the network controller is located and may select operating channels accordingly.
In wireless peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, wireless devices are able to communicate directly without routing messages through a network controller such as a wireless access point. In a P2P network, a wireless device operating as a group owner (i.e., a P2P group owner device) may establish associations with and communications between other wireless devices (i.e., P2P client devices). Although the P2P group owner device in the P2P network acts similar to a wireless access point, the P2P group owner may not be able to connect concurrently to a wireless local area network (WLAN) infrastructure access point to obtain the regulatory domain information and/or supported channel information needed to determine the appropriate operating channels for use by the P2P network.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications, and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is intended that the claimed subject matter be viewed broadly.

Providing regulatory information to a group owner for channel selection in a wireless peer-to-peer network


A manually operated chuck for machining of rotationally symmetrical workpieces, the chuck comprising: a base body, attached to clamping jaws radially movable on the base body for securing the workpiece and in which an opening extends at right angles to a longitudinal axis of the base body; a threaded spindle movably mounted in the opening and accessed from outside to change the position, thereof; a wedge bar in the base body proximate the spindle, the wedge bar being connected to the spindle and a clamping jaw in a shape-locking arrangement; a driving ring rotationally mounted in the base body and connected to the threaded spindle and to one of the wedge bars with play between the threaded spindle and driving ring, and/or the threaded spindle and a wedge bar, and/or between the driving ring and wedge bars of the clamping jaws, the workpiece disposed concentrically to a longitudinal axis of the chuck.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a manually operated chuck for machine tools for machining of rotationally symmetrical workpieces involving cutting.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A chuck of the instant kind for lathes is disclosed in DE 2004 889, which relates to a base body in which three clamping jaws are disposed in a radially movable arrangement. The base body is releasably connected to a machine tool. The clamping jaws are moved to and fro in the base body by means of a driving ring, and are used for clamping rotationally symmetrical workpieces. The clamping jaws are arranged on the base body with a pitch angle of 120°.
Two of the three clamping jaws are directly driveably connected to the driving ring by means of a wedge bar, and are moved linearly in the base body between the particular wedge bar and the clamping jaw due to the helical gearing.
The driving ring is in a shape-locking or drivable connection with a threaded spindle inserted in the base body, wherein the threaded spindle is mounted in the base body at right angles to its longitudinal axis and can be moved in this arrangement. The threaded spindle can be operated manually from the outside, for example, by using a spanner as a tool, which accounts for the fact that a chuck of this kind is also referred to as a manually operated chuck, because the clamping force to be applied is generated manually using the tool.
One of the three clamping jaws is in a direct, drivable connection with the threaded spindle by means of a helically geared wedge bar, and is consequently moved by the movement of the threaded spindle, and synchronously with the two other clamping jaws.
It has proven to be, a disadvantage and a particular technical challenge in such manually operated chucks over the past decades that it is not possible optimally to centre the workpiece in relation to the longitudinal axis the base body. This is because there is a fault tolerance resulting from the manufacturing process between the individual components required for operating the clamping jaws, namely the threaded spindle, the driving ring, the corresponding wedge bars and their clamping jaws, as a result of which tolerance the clamping jaws cannot adequately achieve a central fixing of the workpiece. The presence of play leads to the permanent effect that the workpiece slips out of the set position during its rotation and machining, within a limit area of about 5 μm. It is only possible to achieve a lower fault tolerance than 5 μm at the cost of huge expenditure in production, as a result of which it is more cost-effective to manufacture chucks with a lower fault tolerance than chucks with a higher fault tolerance. However, the higher the fault tolerance, the greater the inaccuracies in metal-cutting machining on a workpiece.
The manually operated chucks of prior art do make it possible to compensate for the existing play between the individual components that drive the clamping jaws, e.g. the driving ring, the wedge bars and the threaded spindle, providing the workpieces involved are small. However, the larger the circumference of the driving ring, the larger the magnitude of the play between the driving ring and the individual components required for operating the clamping jaws. The bearing play can also be compensated in the case of lightweight workpieces, because workpieces of this kind do not exert any significant forces on the clamping jaws, with the effect that they may remain in their set position. Consequently, with heavy and large workpieces, it is not possible to compensate for the existing play between the components required for clamping the workpiece, with the effect that there is a permanent fault tolerance.
These bearing plays are inaccuracies which cannot be compensated for when clamping the workpiece, rather these inaccuracies are transferred to the clamping situation of the workpiece in such a way that a considerable inaccuracy arises between the position of the workpiece and the centre of the chuck, which leads to inaccuracies on the workpiece in the course of its machining. As a result, precise production and machining of the workpiece is not possible without further measures being taken.
It has proved to be a further disadvantage in the disclosed, manually operated chucks that clamping errors arise during the machining process which is often time consuming and highly complicated, because the machined workpiece becomes lighter during the machining process as a result of having material removed from it. Such working procedures involving material removal then result in the original position of the workpiece being changed in relation to the chuck and therefore in relation to the machine tool. A readjustment of the workpiece is often time-consuming and complicated to achieve.
The clamped workpieces are rotated by the machine tool in order to be machined. Therefore, in the case of a chuck with three clamping jaws offset at an angle of 120° in relation to one another, and in particular with exceedingly heavy and large workpieces of 20 tonnes inherent weight, for example, it has been observed that one clamping jaw which is located in a certain angular position of the chuck has to carry the weight of the workpiece exclusively, with the effect that it is not guaranteed that this clamping jaw can hold the workpiece reliably. Rather, the weight of the workpiece exceeds the clamping force of the individual clamping jaw, with the effect that it the jaw is forced outwards, the clamping force acting on the workpiece is eliminated. The workpiece is thus not reliably held in the chuck, and consequently its intended clamping position cannot be retained.


A product palette for carrying an electronics product on a production line for electronics products. The product palette includes a signal interface for establishing a signal connection between the product palette and the product, and a test arrangement connected to the signal interface. The test arrangement is used for subjecting the product to one or more test operations on the product palette by the signal interface.

The invention relates to a method of testing an electronics product, the method comprising placing the product on a product palette, moving the product palette and the product on it along a production line to a work-station on the production line for performing operations on the product.
The invention also relates to a product palette for carrying an electronics product on a production line for electronics products.
The second embodiment of the invention relates to a method of subjecting an electronics product to operations.
The product can be e.g. a finished device, a semi-finished product or a circuit board provided with components and wirings. The product may be e.g. a mobile phone to be tested with or without the battery or a circuit board of a mobile phone with components and wirings. It is clear that the product to be tested can also be some other product.
Prior art methods and solutions for testing electronics products, such as mobile phones, comprise moving of the product to be tested on a product base, i.e. a palette, along a testing line via one or more test stations. Testing is performed at the test stations and the palette functions as a base along which the product is moved to the test station and away from the test station. The prior art solutions often employ an arrangement in which a rack provided with several expensive measuring devices is placed in the test station or attached to it. The rack also comprises test devices which perform some relatively simple test operations.
The prior art solutions have several disadvantages, which are particularly related to the fact that the actual testing period of the product is short compared to the time the product spends on the testing line. The testing period of the product can be only 20% of the total period the product spends on the testing line because most of the time the product only lies on the palette as the palette moves towards a test station or away from the test station. The palette may also be stationary on the testing line. Another problem is that testing is not very efficient because both complex and simple test devices perform their test operations one at a time, i.e. one after the other. Since several aspects of the product cannot be tested at the same time, the other test devices are inutile as one test device included in the same entity performs testing. To keep the capacity of the production line high, it has been necessary to increase the number of test stations. Naturally each test station must have been provided with a separate rack of testing devices. The price of test devices provided in a test rack serving one test station may amount to USD 200,000. Increase of the number of test stations and test devices also requires more floor area, which adds the costs and makes it more difficult to change the layout of the apparatuses at a production facility.
In prior art solutions related to the second embodiment of the invention, transmission of data on operating settings to the product, e.g. transmission of software to a mobile phone, has been implemented by connecting the phone directly to a PC, for example, from which the software of the phone has been transmitted to the phone. This step requires unnecessary moving of the product and connection of the phone to a separate device, e.g. to a PC. Furthermore, the above-mentioned underutilization of time also constitutes a problem.

Method and product palette for testing electronic products


Apparatuses, systems, and methods are provided for securing an intra-osseous device within a safety device to prevent stick injuries and to guide the removal of the intra-osseous device from the bone of a patient. A body of the safety device has a cavity that receives the intra-osseous device, and the cavity guides the removal of the intra-osseous device along a straight line to prevent injury during removal. The intra-osseous device is drawn past a lock feature that secures the intra-osseous device within the body such that a needle of the intra-osseous device is contained within a cavity of the body and cannot injure the patient, staff members, etc.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of sharps related injuries occur among healthcare workers. For example, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) over 385,000 sharps related injuries occur annually. Aside from the stress and risk of blood borne pathogens associated with sharps injuries (Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Human Immunodeficiency Virus, syphilis, malaria, herpes, etc.), there are healthcare costs: loss of time, testing and treatment also increase costs and place the burden on healthcare workers, employers, and society.
Sharps safety is such a serious issue that the United States Congress passed the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act and guides regulatory agencies like the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) with regard to blood borne pathogen standards and mandates implementation of safer medical devices.
According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the design of the device can increase the risk of injury. Specific features make certain devices more dangerous. These include: (NIOSH, 1999) devices with hollow-bore needles, needle devices that need to be taken apart or manipulated by the health care worker such as blood-drawing devices that need to be detached after use, syringes that retain an exposed needle after use, and needles that can be difficult to place in sharps containers.
Safety devices such as needleless or protected-needle systems, needle shielding, and encased needles have been effective at reducing accidental sharp exposures. However, there is a paucity of safety devices for medical apparatuses that gain access to bone marrow. Currently, medical devices that gain access to bone marrow, especially those that insert a penetrator or needle, contain all the specific features of a medical device at high risk for iatrogenic injuries.
Commonly known as intra-osseous devices, these devices present unique characteristics from other medical devices associated with sharps injuries. Since intra-osseous devices must enter cortical bone, they tend to be extremely sharp and typically have more than a single cutting surface or point to increase cortical bone penetration. Intra-osseous devices are typically of a larger caliber than commonly used needles and peripheral vascular access devices. Intra-osseous devices carry greater risk of bodily contamination due to microscopic fractured bone fragments in addition to blood component exposure.
The technique of removal of an intra-osseous medical device is a crucial step for patient and healthcare worker safety. Due to the bone matrix and micro-fractures associated with placement of the medical devices, withdrawal of these devices must occur in the opposite vector of the placement to minimize worsening of the fracture area. Angulation of the device during withdrawal is associated with increased chance of worsening micro-fractures of the bone and increased risk of device failure and lodgment in the subject bone.
The technique of removal can be complicated by initial incorrect placement of an intra-osseous device. Placement in dense cortical bone may necessitate significant force to overcome the initial resistance of the cortical bone. However, once initial resistance is overcome, the force exponentially decreases over a very short interval. The rapid decline in resistance creates another dangerous opportunity for sharps injury; healthcare workers have been known to physically jerk upon the device's release from the bone and potentially impale the worker or assistants during device removal.

Apparatus and method for removing intra-osseous device


In the present invention the basic detection and interruption components of an Immersion Detection Circuit Interrupter (IDCI), in combination with the line, neutral and shield conductors of an extension or appliance cord provides a new improved type of detector, a Leakage Current Detector Interrupter (LCDI) which interrupts current to a load when current leakage is detected between the line or neutral conductors of the cord and the shield conductor. The new improved LCDI detector provides, either singularly or in combination, the following advantages: Prevents the LCDI from being reset should the device become inoperative (reset lockout); Provides an indication of the integrity of the shield in the extension or appliance cord; Tests the integrity of the shield within the extension or appliance cord, in addition to testing the functionality of the LCDI; Interrupts current to the load if an electrical connection is detected between the shield and neutral, or the shield and ground, in addition to the existing detection of leakage current from the phase conductor; Allows the LCDI to trip during an open neutral condition by utilizing the ground connection as a return wire for the trip coil; and/or Provides immersion detection at the receptacle end of the extension cord in addition to protection from leakage faults.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed generally to electrical extension cords and power supply cords and, more specifically, to electrical extension and power supply cords having built in safety protection and diagnostics.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The electrical extension cord in use today includes a plug, usually comprising two or three prongs, an electrical conducting cord typically comprising two or three insulated wires several feet in length and a terminal connector or receptacle for receiving one or more electrical plugs to power lamps, a television, household appliances, an air conditioner, etc. A grounded extension cord includes a plug having three prongs and a three conductor insulated wire cord where two conductors are utilized for phase and neutral or return power and the third conductor is used as a common ground. While extension cords provide many advantages, there are some disadvantages that are also associated with their use. For example, extension cords are often left underneath rugs where they are trampled upon, or they are pinched by doors and furniture which can lead to arcing or short circuiting which can cause a fire. Extension cords also frequently tend to be left coiled where heat can concentrate, or are overloaded to the point of destruction by fire. Given the number of dangerous situations which can develop pursuant to extension cord use and abuse, such as residential fires and electrical shock, an extension cord design which offers some protection in anticipation of homeowner/user abuse is desired.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,248 assigned to Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc. discloses an electrical extension cord where the insulated phase, neutral and ground conductors are surrounded by a braided sensing shield. The braided shield is electrically connected at the receptacle to the ground conductor and extends to the plug. Leakage current released from the conductors may be collected in the shield and detected by a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI). The purpose of the shield is to capture any type of leakage current within the extension cord and transfer it to ground such that the GFCI may detect the current imbalance and interrupt the circuit. This type of device is commonly known as a Leakage Current Detector Interrupter (LCDI).
Present day GFCI based leakage current detectors have several limitations. One such limitation is that of being a relatively expensive and complex device which requires the use of one or more toroidal transformers to function. These transformers can be very large for high current applications. In addition, presently available devices require that a ground be available at the outlet that the leakage current detector is plugged into. This may not always be the case in residential circuits, and some applications, such as hospitals, require a floating ground.
Two other problems are inherent in circuit interrupting devices of various manufacturers presently available that can be plugged into household outlets. One such problem is that it may be possible to reset a circuit interrupting device to provide power when the fault detecting and interrupting circuitry is no longer functioning. It is here noted that this problem has been addressed and solved in GFCIs manufactured by Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc. of Little Neck, N.Y. With the Leviton device, known in the industry as a reset lockout GFCI, the main contacts cannot be closed when the device fails to operate the interrupting mechanism.
Another problem that can occur is when a device is plugged into an outlet in such a way that electricity is supplied to the phase terminal but not to the neutral terminal. When this happens the interrupting device is not powered and therefore can not operate because there is no return or neutral circuit. But, high voltage is still available to the user and, therefore, a potentially dangerous situation can exist. Relays that are non-latchable and normally open contact are typically used to prevent high voltage being available to the user when this type of open neutral condition exists. The normally open relay will not close the contacts unless a return circuit is available, and will open if the neutral circuit should open. However, this type of relay is relatively large and consumes a large amount of power.
It is now a requirement that window air conditioners be protected with a Leak Current Detector Interrupter (LCDI). Therefore, what is needed is an extension cord that contains diagnostics which can indicate if the extension cord is safe to connect a window air conditioner to a wall outlet and an extension cord having a plug which contains circuitry which interrupts the flow of current through the cord if an unsafe leakage current condition should arise. What is also needed is an LCDI that cannot be reset if it is non-functional, that can either indicate an open neutral condition or has the ability to interrupt the circuit during an open neutral condition, and an LCDI that meets these needs with minimal circuitry and power consumption so that it can be fitted into a small form factor.

Leakage current detection interrupter extension cord with cord diagnostics


A data writing method for a flash memory is provided. The data writing method includes following steps. First, a block is selected as a substitute block from a spare area of the flash memory, wherein the substitute block is used for substituting a data block in a data area for writing a new data. Next, the new data is directly written into the substitute block starting from a start page, wherein there is valid data in the data block before the address for writing the new data. Thereby, meaningless data moving can be reduced, system performance can be improved, and overlong waiting time for writing the new data can be prevented.

1. Technology Field
The present invention generally relates to a data writing method, in particular, to a data writing method for a flash memory and a controller using the same.
2. Description of Related Art
Along with the widespread of digital cameras, camera phones, and MP3 in recently years, the consumers' demand to storage media has increased drastically too. Flash memory is one of the most adaptable memories for such battery-powered portable products due to its characteristics such as data non-volatility, low power consumption, small volume, and non-mechanical structure. Besides being applied in foregoing portable products, flash memory is also broadly applied to external products such as flash cards and flash disks. Thereby, flash memory has become one of the most focused electronic products in recent years.
A flash memory is usually divided into a plurality of physical blocks, and for the convenience of description, these physical blocks will be referred as blocks thereinafter. Each bit in a block of a flash memory can only be programmed from "1" to "0". Accordingly, an erasing operation has to be performed before writing data to a memory address which contains old data. Generally speaking, data in a flash memory is erased in unit of blocks. Namely, each block contains the smallest number of memory cells which are erased together. Each block is usually divided into a plurality of pages, and each page is the smallest programming unit, namely, each page is the smallest unit for writing or reading data. It should be noted that in some other different flash memory designs, the smallest programming unit may also be sector, namely, a page has a plurality of sectors and each sector is served as the smallest programming unit, such as in a single level cell (SLC) NAND flash memory having the number of program (NOP) as 4.
According to the conventional technique, when the programming unit is smaller than the erasing unit and a new data is to be written into a flash memory, a substitute block is first selected from the flash memory, the old valid data before an address at where the new data is to be written in the original block is written into the substitute block, and the new data is then written into the substitute block right after the old valid data.
However, moving the old data may become meaningless if a next writing command is to update the old data previously written into the substitute block, and accordingly the system performance may be reduced.

Data writing method for flash memory, and controller and system using the same


A high performance, high efficiency filter is provided by a multi-stage filter having combinations of tribologically different fibers, nanofibers, and layering.

The invention relates to high performance, high efficiency filters.
There are ever increasing demands for higher performance, higher efficiency filters, all within a compact passage. The present invention arose during development efforts directed toward these demands. The present invention achieves higher performance and efficiency with various filter combinations including multi-stage filters, direct flow filters, and filters employing nanofibers in a selected fiber diameter range, basis weight range, layering, and placement.

High performance, high efficiency filter


Storage-stable, silane-modified core-shell copolymers are provided comprising a shell-forming copolymer I of. a) from 70 to 95% by weight, based on the overall weight of the shell, of acrylic and/or methacrylic C.sub.1 - to C.sub.10 -alkyl esters of which from 20 to 80% by weight have a water solubility of not more than 2 g/l and from 80 to 20% by weight, based in each case on the comonomers a), have a water solubility of at least 10 g/l, and PA0 b) from 5 to 30% by weight, based on the overall weight of the shell, of one or more ethylenically unsaturated, functional and water-soluble monomers including a proportion of from 25 to 100% by weight, based on the comonomers b), of unsaturated carboxylic acids, and a core-forming copolymer II of one or more monomers c) from the group of the vinyl esters, monoolefinically unsaturated mono- or dicarboxylic esters, vinylaromatic compounds, olefins, 1,3-dienes and vinyl halides,. wherein the shell contains no silane compounds and the core comprises one or more silane compounds d) from the group of the mercaptosilanes alone or in combination with olefinically unsaturated, hydrolyzable silicon compounds.

1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to storage-stable, silane-modified core-shell copolymers, to processes for preparing storage-stable, silane-modified core-shell copolymer dispersions and powders, and to their use.
2) Background Art
Alkoxysilane-functional copolymers are frequently employed in practice as building adhesives (DE-B 2148456=GB-A 1407827) or for preparing emulsion paints and polymer-based plasters (DE-A 2148457=GB-A 1407827, EP-A 327006=U.S. Pat. No. 5,576,384). The alkoxysilane groups are incorporated by polymerization into the copolymers in order to improve the wet adhesion and the water resistance in the case of use as coating materials, and to improve the adhesion to mineral substrates in the case of use as building adhesives or tile adhesives.
A problem when using alkoxysilane-functional copolymers, especially in the form of their aqueous dispersions, is their tendency to premature crosslinking through hydrolytic condensation reactions of the alkoxysilane groups. As a consequence, aqueous dispersions of alkoxysilane-functional copolymers frequently possess inadequate stability on storage and when stored for several months lose their very good binder properties.
EP-B 687277 discloses aqueous dispersions of core-shell copolymers which are obtainable by a procedure in which the alkoxysilane-functional comonomers are reacted with a small amount of predominantly hydrophilic comonomers to give a water-swellable or water-soluble addition polymer which subsequently, in the polymerization of the major amount of hydrophobic comonomer, envelops the hydrophobic core formed in the polymerization. This gives core-shell polymers in which the alkoxysilane-functional comonomer units are present externally in the shell, with the effect that very good adhesion properties result with relatively small amounts of alkoxysilane-functional comonomer. A disadvantage, however, is that after these dispersions have been stored for six months the very good binder properties (adhesive strengths under tension following dry and wet storage) in dispersion tile adhesives and plasters are no longer achieved.
EP-A 444827 discloses silane-modified core-shell copolymer dispersions, for preparing elastic coatings, which comprise a core of vinyl ester-olefin-acrylate-vinylsilane copolymer and a vinyl ester-olefin shell. For their preparation, part of a mixture of vinyl ester, a acrylate and vinylsilane is introduced as initial charge, ethylene is injected, and the remainder of the comonomer mixture is metered in. After the end of the metered addition of silane-containing monomer, a second metered, silane-free vinyl ester addition is started. This process achieves the formation of a silane-containing, hydrophobic core, which has particular strength owing to crosslinking by way of the silane functions, and the formation of a silane-free shell. Although the silane component of these core-shell polymers is concentrated in the core and surrounded by a shell, the tensile adhesion values achieved following wet storage with this system when used as a tile adhesive are extremely poor.
From EP-A 366969 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,948) it is known that ceramic tile adhesives based on aqueous dispersions of polymers comprising mercaptosilane rather than vinylsilane units exhibit greater water resistance in the solidified state than do vinylsilane-containing polymer dispersions.
The object, therefore, starting from the silane-modified core-shell copolymers of EP-A 687277, was to provide storage-stable, silane-modified core-shell copolymer dispersions with which high-grade binder properties are obtained via the crosslinking of the silane functions even after storage at room temperature for 12 months.