A railroad tank car containing liquid, has a tube through its top, with the closed lower end of the tube in the liquid. A float slidable along the tube exterior is magnetically coupled to an ultrasound reflector piston inside the tube so that, when the tube is in the liquid in the tank, the float determines the height of the piston inside the tube. An ultrasonic transducer atop the tube sends pulses down the tube and which are reflected by the piston to the transducer. A computer coupled to the transducer determines and displays the liquid level. The piston is cup-shaped with a known distance between reflecting surfaces for use in the computer to produce a display value corrected for temperature variations.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to liquid storage tanks, and more particularly to a device for accurately determining, from the top of the tank, the level of the liquid in the tank.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In businesses whose activities include storage of liquids in some kind of tank, it is at least of interest, and usually necessary, to have some means to determine the level of the liquid in a tank. A rudimentary means used in some cases is a sight glass in the wall or connected to the wall of the tank. In other cases, where access to the side of a tank is impossible, or inconvenient or impractical, a measuring stick is inserted through an opening in the top of the tank to measure the liquid level. The stick may be inserted to the bottom of the tank and then withdrawn, to note how much of the stick has the liquid on it. The stick may or may not be graduated. A more recent and refined approach is to insert into the liquid, a tube having a closed lower end, a graduated stem inside the tube, a float encircling the tube and having a magnetic coupling to an armature at the bottom of the stem. When the assembly is mounted to a top opening in a tank, the float will cause the measuring stem to settle at a level controlled by the float and whereby measurements on the stem, relative to the tube top, indicate the liquid level.
Ultrasonic ranging is well known for measuring distances. However, it is significantly affected by air movement and temperature changes. Therefore, to my knowledge, it has not been useful to detect the level of liquid in a tank in which there is any air movement, or a temperature variation due to depth or ambient conditions. A classic example of such environment is a railroad tank car. But it has remained important to be able to accurately determine the level of liquid in a tank car through a top access opening and in a convenient way. The present invention is addressed to this need.

Electromechanical Research Laboratories, Inc.


The invention provides a viewing optical system positioned between a viewing plane as a virtual plane and an eye point. The viewing optical system comprises, in order from the viewing plane side, a first lens and a filter.

The invention relates to a viewing optical system, and an imaging apparatus using the same.
Patent Publication 1 discloses a viewfinder that comprises a polarizing device located in front of a display device for the purpose of size reductions and high quality, and Patent Publication 2 discloses a viewfinder in which a virtual image position is spaced away from a polarizing device at a distance greater than depth of field.
Patent Publication 1: JP(A) 2001-356295
Patent Publication 2: JP(A) 2000-56257

Viewing optical system and imaging apparatus using the same


The present invention relates to messaging systems in general and message broker systems in specific. More particularly, the invention relates to means and a method for processing message publication requests and message subscription requests.

The present invention relates to messaging systems in general and message brokers in specific. More particularly, the invention relates to means and a method for processing message publication requests and message subscription requests.
One source of technology the current invention is based on is the database technology. For a thorough outline of the principles and concepts of database technology refer for instance to R. Elmasri and S. B. Navathe, Fundamentals of database systems, 1989, Benjamin/Cummings. Of specific importance to the current invention is the fundamental concept of a query of database technology. A query is a request to a database system to retrieve from a database a collection of data qualifying under the query; this collection is called the answer.set of the query. Typically, the database contains data about real-world entities like persons, orders, appointments etc. A query is a prescription for selecting subsets from these entities, possibly combine some of them, and present them in a certain form.
Another source of technology the current invention is based on is the technology messaging systems or message brokers in specific. A messaging system or a message broker is like a hub where messages are streaming in, are transformed, and are streaming out. Messaging systems offer the passing of messages through a store-store-and-forward funcionality. Message brokers in addition also allow to reduce the connection costs by supporting the many-to-many communication principle comprising the one xe2x80x9csource-messagexe2x80x9d vs. multiple xe2x80x9csink-messagexe2x80x9d communication case. Compared to messaging systems a message broker might be augmented by related services like: a message transformer, flow controller, message warehouse, message dictionary and management facility.
The messages which are streaming into the messaging system/broker are referred to as being published. Messages which are streaming out of the messaging system/broker are referred to as being subscribed. A publication request specifies a message a certain application intends to offer to other interested applications, i.e. to subscribers. A subscription request specifies the subset of all incoming messages a particular application is interested in, and the format in which it has to be presented to the subscriber. An overview on messaging systems and message brokers is given in R. Schulte, Message brokers: A focussed approach to application integration, Gartner Group, Strategic Analysis Report SSA R-401-102, 1996 as well as in xe2x80x9cEnterprise application integration and information flowxe2x80x9d, The Yankee Groupxe2x80x94Internet Computing Strategies (Boston Mass., 1997).
Thus, a subscription request is similar to what has been described above as a xe2x80x9cqueryxe2x80x9d in terms of database technology. And exactly in this sense current state of the art messaging systems and message brokers do treat subscription requests. Expressed in database terms the xe2x80x9cmessagesxe2x80x9d are treated as xe2x80x9cdatabase dataxe2x80x9d and the xe2x80x9csubscriptions requestxe2x80x9d are treated as xe2x80x9cqueryxe2x80x9d operating on that data filtering out the subscribed messages; i.e. based on its specification messages are filtered, transformed and delivered to its requester. State-of-the-art implementations (for instance the Gryphon approach of IBM Watson Research) use techniques like variants of binary trees to represent subscription requests and process incoming messages accordingly for filtering.
So far specific implementations for messaging systems and message brokers of these administrations and filtering tasks of message publication and subscription requests have been required. No exploitation of general purpose technologies delivering performant solutions has been possible so far.
The message broker paradigm is about to gain increased importance in the area of application integration. Its implementation therefore has to be further improved to be able to support the huge diversity of application needs.
The invention is based on the objective to improve the processing of message publication requests and message subscription requests within messaging systems in general and message brokers in specific.
The objective of the invention is solved by the independent claims.
The objective of the invention is solved by claim 1. A messaging system is taught comprising first receiving means for receiving a message publication request comprising a message to be published. Said messaging system comprising second receiving means for receiving one or a multitude of message subscription requests comprising a query on a message qualifying under said query. Further a database (301) is comprised. Said second receiving means treats said message subscription request as database data and stores said message subscription request to said database (301). Said first receiving means treats said message publication request as a database query (302) and retrieves from said database a collection (303) of message subscription requests qualifying under said database query.
The technique proposed by the current invention makes database technology available to messaging systems. In database environments a query operates on a large amount of data, but in a message broker environment a large amount of queries (corresponding to a message subscription) operate on a single data item (corresponding to a publication of a message). Due to this circumstances database technology could not be exploited in a performant manner by messaging systems. Moreover the current teaching significantly simplifies the implementation of messaging systems as an exploitation of the mature, sophisticated and high performant database technology is possible; no implementation specific to messaging systems is required.
Through the transformation of the subscription problem into a database query problem the current invention allows to use query techniques known and optimized for many years. All advantages and benefits provided by database technology are immediately available to messaging systems, like persistency, recovery features, transactional behavior and many more. For a broad spectrum of business problems, no new algorithms must be invented and existing implementations can be reused. All these advantages are of specific value within messages systems required to provide high reliability against data losses and high availability.
Additional advantages are accomplished by claim 2. According to a further embodiment of the proposed invention said second receiving means transforms a message subscription request into a database data representation.
By explicitly transforming a message subscription into a specific data representation the efficiency (for instance in terms of the amount of data to be stored or in terms of performance to process a later query for that data etc.) of the current approach can be increased further.
Additional advantages are accomplished by claim 3. According to a further embodiment of the proposed invention said first receiving means transform said message publication request into a database query.
Through such a transformation, which may be adjusted to the transformation of the subscription according to claim 2, into a specific query representation the efficiency of the current approach can be increased further.
Additional advantages are accomplished by claim 4. According to a further embodiment of the proposed invention said first receiving means store said message into said database or into a separate message database.
Using database technology also for the messages allows to profit from the database technology benefits for the message request too; examples are: the recovery features after system crashes, atomicity, integrity etc. Moreover through this feature the door to message warehousing is opened.
Additional advantages are accomplished by claim 5. According to a further embodiment of the proposed invention the current teaching is applied to a message broker and/or a message warehouse.
Through its universality the current teaching may be applied in various areas.
Additional advantages are accomplished by claim 6. According to a further embodiment of the proposed invention said database may be stored in main memory and/or on persistent memory.
Again this demonstrates the flexibility of the teaching; messaging systems, for which the response time behavior is the primary requirement and which will store the database within main memory, as well as messages systems, for which reliability against data losses is the primary requirement and which will store the database on persistent memory, may exploit the proposed technology.
Additional advantages are accomplished by claim 7. According to a further embodiment of the proposed invention said database may be a relational database or a hierarchical database or a network database or an object-oriented database or a collection of flat files.
Thus the current teaching is applicable to any type of database. The teaching does not limit the exploiter to a certain database technology; instead other criteria, for instance maturity, availability of the database technology or the type of data to be stored within the database, may decide on the database type to be selected.
Additional advantages are accomplished by claim 8. According to a further embodiment of the proposed invention the messaging system is comprising sending means for sending said message to subscribers of said collection of message subscription requests.
Thus the message comprised in the message publication request and serving as the database query can finally be sent to all subscribers of that particular message or that message type.
The objective of the invention is solved by claim 9. A method of processing a message publication request is being taught comprising a message to be published, and one or a multitude of message-subscription-requests comprising a query on a message qualifying under said query. Said method comprises the following steps: 1) a first step of treating said message subscription request as database data and storing said message subscription request to said database (301), and 2) a second step of treating said message publication request as a database query (302) and retrieving from said database a collection (303) of message subscription requests qualifying under said database-query.
Benefits related to this teaching have been discussed together with claim 1 above.
Additional advantages are accomplished by claim 10. According to a further embodiment of the proposed invention said first step is preceded by a subscription transformation step wherein said message subscription request is transformed into a database data representation.
Benefits related to this teaching have been discussed together with claim 2 above.
Additional advantages are accomplished by claim 11. According to a further embodiment of the proposed invention said second step is preceded by a message transformation step wherein said message publication request is transformed into a database query.
Benefits related to this teaching have been discussed together with claim 3 above.
Additional advantages are accomplished by claim 12. According to a further embodiment of the proposed invention said first step stores said message into said database or into a separate message database.
Benefits related to this teaching have been discussed together with claim 4 above.
Additional advantages are accomplished by claim 13. According to a further embodiment of the proposed invention said method is executed by a message broker and/or wherein said database is part of a message warehouse.
Benefits related to this teaching have been discussed together with claim 5 above.
Additional advantages are accomplished by claim 14. According to a further embodiment of the proposed invention said method is storing said database in main memory and/or on persistent memory.
Benefits related to this teaching have been discussed together with claim 6 above.
Additional advantages are accomplished by claim 15. According to a further embodiment of the proposed invention said database is a relational database or a hierarchical database or a network database or an object-oriented database.
Benefits related to this teaching have been discussed together with claim 7 above.
Additional advantages are accomplished by claim 16. According to a further embodiment of the proposed invention said method is further comprising a third step of sending said message to subscribers of said collection of message subscription requests.
Benefits related to this teaching have been discussed together with claim 8 above.

Using database query technology for message subscriptions in messaging systems

Abstract: The current invention transforms the subscription problem into a database query problem allowing to use query techniques known and optimized for many years. The basic approach of the current invention is to invert the relationship of message publication requests (treated as database data) and message subscription requests (treated as database queries) according the state of the art. Thus the core of the current invention is to treat incoming messages publication requests as database queries and to treat message subscription requests as database queries.

International Business Machines Corporation


An air quality sensor includes a detector element array, a processor operatively connected to the detector element array, and a memory. The memory is disposed in communication with the processor and has instructions recorded on the memory that, when read by the processor, cause the processor to execute certain operations including measuring electrical resistance of one of more detector element of the detector element array. A difference is calculated between the measured resistance and a reference resistance, and a determination is made of presence or absence of a contaminant in air communicated to the detector element array from an atmosphere of an aircraft cabin based on the difference between the measured resistance and the reference resistance. Aircraft and methods of monitoring air quality also described.

The subject matter disclosed herein generally relates to environmental control, and more particularly to monitoring air quality in controlled environments such as in aircraft cabins.
Aircraft cabin air is generally not monitored for the presence of contaminants. In some aircraft it can be necessary to monitor cabin air for the presence of contaminants, such as engine exhaust introduced to the cabin environment through the aircraft air supply system. On rare occasions a system malfunction may result in fumes and/or odors being introduced into the aircraft cabin air. On such occasions it is typically not possible to discriminate between fumes and odors associated with hazardous condition from fumes and odors associated with nuisance conditions.
Such systems and methods have generally been considered suitable for their intended purpose. However, there remains a systems and methods for monitoring environmental conditions within aircraft spaces. The present disclosure provides a solution to these needs.

Air quality sensors and methods of monitoring air quality


Provided are a liquid jet head and a liquid jet apparatus in which it is possible to securely connect drawn wires and connection wires and to improve reliability. Connection portions 91 of drawn wires 90 drawn from piezoelectric elements 300 and pad portions 101 of a drive IC 100 for driving the piezoelectric elements 300 are connected by connection wires 110 formed by wire bonding and extended in directions intersecting drawing directions of the connection portions 91. Accordingly, the connection wires 110 and the drawn wires 90 are suitably connected.

In an ink-jet recording head, a vibration plate constitutes part of pressure generating chambers communicating with nozzle orifices which eject ink droplets. Piezoelectric elements deform this vibration plate to pressurize ink in the pressure generating chambers, thereby causing the nozzle orifices to eject the ink droplets. There are two types of piezoelectric actuators which have been employed by this ink-jet recording head for practical use: a piezoelectric actuator of a longitudinal vibration mode which extends and contracts in an axial direction of the piezoelectric elements; and a piezoelectric actuator of a flexure vibration mode. A well-known example of the ink-jet recording head employing the actuator of the flexure vibration mode is as follows: a uniform piezoelectric material layer is formed over the entire surface of the vibration plate by deposition technology; this piezoelectric material layer is cut into pieces by use of a lithography method so that the shape thereof becomes suitable for the pressure generating chambers; and the piezoelectric elements are formed independently for the respective pressure generating chambers. Moreover, these piezoelectric elements are generally driven by a drive IC (semiconductor integrated circuit) or the like, and the drive IC is mounted on, for example, a joint plate joined with one side of a passage-forming substrate on which the pressure generating chambers are formed. This drive IC and drawn wires drawn from the respective piezoelectric elements are electrically connected by connection wires, which are formed by wire bonding (e.g., refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-160366).
However, such an ink-jet recording head has a problem that adjacent drawn wires are short-circuited when the drawn wires and connection wires are connected. This is because widths of the drawn wires and the pitch thereof are narrowed in line with a shift toward high-density piezoelectric elements. In other words, there is a problem that the adjacent drawn wires are short-circuited by the connection wires projecting to the outside of the drawn wires since regions of the drawn wires connected to the connection wires are narrowed. In addition, there is another problem that connection strengths degrade between the connection wires and the drawn wires if connection areas between the two are extremely small. Note that these problems arise not only in the ink-jet recording head which ejects ink, but also in other liquid jet heads which eject liquid other than ink.

Liquid jet head and liquid jet apparatus


According to the invention, a system and method for integrating agent scripting, call routing and workforce management functions in contact centers, enabling them to work together without opposing the influence of the workforce management system against those of the other two systems, is disclosed. In an embodiment of the invention, a feedback mechanism is provided between the agent scripting engine and either the forecasting engine or the adherence module of the workforce management system, or both. This feedback mechanism is used to pass useful information dynamically between the said workforce management system and the said agent scripting engine, said information exchange being unidirectional in either direction, or bidirectional. A similar feedback mechanism is provided between the routing system and either the forecasting engine or the adherence module of the workforce management system, or both. This second feedback mechanism is used to pass useful information dynamically between the said workforce management system and the said call routing system, said information exchange being unidirectional in either direction, or bidirectional. In another embodiment of the invention, a method in which information is passed from an agent scripting engine and a call routing system to the forecasting engine or adherence module of a workforce management system, or both, is disclosed.

The task of generating optimized schedules for contact center agents and other related resources has been known for years to be a complex one, and has spawned an entire industry of companies which provide products, of varying sophistication, which attempt to provide optimal resource scheduling for contact centers. Known as workforce management systems, the products known in the art generally perform a common series of sequential tasks in order to accomplish the scheduling function. Referring to FIG. 1, the first step of workforce management is to gather historical data on call volumes 100 for the contact centers in question; this data is generally broken out by call activities or skills, such as sales, service, complaints, etc. Data 101 is also obtained, similarly segregated by activity or skill, for the average handling time of calls, which is the total time a call takes within the contact center from start to completion (which is usually defined as the time when the agent who handled the call last completes any call-related work after the caller is released). Note that "call" as used in discussing the present invention can be a traditional phone call carried by the public switched telephone network (PSTN), a voice-over-IP (VOIP) call, an e-mail, or any other customer interaction arriving at or commencing in a contact center.
Second, the data on call volumes and handle times is run through a forecasting engine 102 to generate a forecast 103 of anticipated call volumes and handle times for the period to be scheduled. The technique used to create the forecast can be one of a multitude of techniques known in the art, including but not limited to neural network forecasting, statistical forecasting, template-based forecasting, genetic algorithms and neural networks where the weighting functions are determined by genetic algorithms. The forecast is then modified by the inclusion of the anticipated effects on call volume and handling times resulting from upcoming events such as catalog mailings, television advertisements, and so forth. The modified forecast is then used to generate a forecast of agent resource demand 104, based on the forecast and the desired agent occupancy rates 105 (that is, if you need 9 agents on calls and agents are intended to be busy 90% of the time they are on duty, then you will need 10 agents available to handle the expected traffic). Note that "agent resource" usually refers to human agents but can also refer to interactive voice response (IVR) ports against which scripts have been loaded to handle customer interactions automatically. Usually but not necessarily, this agent resource demand forecast is generated in 15 minute increments for the entire schedule period.
Next, a scheduling engine 106, which takes into account a plurality of business rules 107 concerning break policies, shift schedules, maximum and minimum workweeks, meal scheduling, and other related scheduling influences, creates an optimized overall schedule 108 which includes specific work times for each agent. Often agent preferences and vacation requests are included in this scheduling step. These scheduling engines 106, like the forecasting engines 102, use a plurality of well-known optimization techniques to generate a schedule which ensures that the expected traffic is handled within established service level limits while meeting as many of the business rules and agent preference constraints as possible. Finally, during the period the schedule is in effect, an adherence monitor 109 measures conformance to the schedule in real time, usually by integration of the workforce management system with one of the many interaction management engines 110 known in the art (including for example automated call distribution systems, computer-telephony integration systems, e-mail management systems). Usually a graphic display of the current performance of the contact center relative to the forecast is provided, showing where deviations from the forecast and the schedule are occurring, and showing what their effect is on service levels.
In parallel with the emergence in the art of computer-implemented workforce management systems working as described above, and referring to FIG. 2, there have emerged in the last decade a number of very sophisticated routing engines 203 which determine, in real time, how to allocate calls and other tasks to agent resources. These systems generally receive event notification 202 of the arrival of a new interaction (or of a transferred interaction that requires redirection) from the interaction management engine 110. They then execute scripts which can take into account data concerning current agent availability 204, statistical results 205 of recent operations, customer information 206 (such as loyalty level, profitability, identity of agent who last handled, and so forth), and call data 207 such as ANI and DNIS, in order to select which of the available agents is the most appropriate to receive the interaction. When all appropriate agents are busy, the routing engine 203 applies an appropriate treatment to the call, such as playing music or an announcement informing the caller that all agents are busy, and then waits for an agent to become available. When an agent does become available, the routing engine 203 then chooses the most appropriate call to deliver to that agent, from among the plurality of calls awaiting an available agent. It then sends routing instructions 208 to the interaction management engine 110, which relays this information to a media server 200 such as a PBX with ACD or an e-mail server.
In parallel with the emergence in the art of computer-implemented workforce management systems and routing systems working as described above, and referring to FIG. 3, there are many methods in the art for controlling the sequence of tasks performed by contact center agents when handling customer calls. Collectively these systems are often referred to as agent scripting systems, although often the agent scripting function is embedded in larger systems, most commonly customer relationship management systems, of which agent scripting is one component of many. These systems comprise a scripting engine 301 which controls the sequence of activities on a plurality of agent desktops 302. The scripting engine 301 generally receives notification of events relating to calls managed by a media server 300 from the interaction management system 110. These events include, but are not limited to, the Ringing event (announcing call arrival at a particular agent location), the Established event (announcing successful completion of a connection between called parties, the Released event (announcing the termination of a call), and various events concerned with call transfers, conferences, and data updates. The scripting engine 301 executes scripts which take into account the nature of the event received and the data that goes with it concerning the interaction, as well as data concerning current agent activities, customer information obtained from a customer information database 303 (such as loyalty level, profitability, identity of agent who last handled, and so forth), and optionally information and direction received from one or more supervisor stations 304. A typical example of the sequence of events managed by the scripting engine 301 starts with the Ringing event, which is, in most systems known in the art, accompanied by call data and user-defined data such as account number. The scripting engine 301 uses the data received with the Ringing event to retrieve customer data from the customer information database 303. The scripting engine 301 then directs the agent desktop 302 to display a "screen pop" showing the agent who is calling and why, and either automatically sends a request to the interaction management engine 110 to answer the call, or displays an answer button on the agent desktop 302 and waits for the agent to push this button before sending the request. The answer request is transmitted by the interaction management system 110 to the media server 300 which in turn completes the communications channel between the caller and the agent's communications device (telephone, e-mail software, or the like). The scripting engine 301 thereafter supplies the agent desktop 302 with a series of prompts advising the agent what to say, and receives from the agent desktop 302 the results of these actions (such as customer responses to questions). The scripting engine 301 is capable of performing branching logic based on the results of the actions on the agent desktop 302 and, thereby, is able to fully manage a large range of customer interactions, thus allowing the agent to deliver a higher quality of service with a given level of training. The scripting engine 301 can be one of many types well known in the art, including among others compiled computer programs, web-based business rules script servers using ECMAScript, XML, or any of a plurality of scripting languages, or a system in which business rules are stored as records in a database and retrieved and executed as needed.
The problem which the present invention addresses is that these three important technologies in the contact center industry in fact often work against one another. Workforce management products that follow the sequence of steps outlined above (which means all workforce management products in the art) rely on two key implicit assumptions. First, workforce management products assume that the future will behave much like the past—this is a central assumption of the forecasting step. It means that call volumes and call handle times are external variables that do not depend on any other systems in the contact center—they are what they are, and they can be forecast based on historical data. Second, workforce management products implicitly assume call volumes and handling times are independent variables relative to each other. Frustrating these assumptions is the fact that modern, sophisticated routing systems all operate independently of the workforce management systems. Routing engines 203 take the staffing available at the moment, the statistical behavior in the immediate past (usually the last hour or so), and the current call volume, and use this information to make routing decisions. It is easily within the capability of existing routing engines 203 to change call volumes for various skills or activities by diverting some calls away from agents to IVR ports in heavy traffic periods (thus increasing the volume for the IVR and decreasing the volume for the agent population which would have gotten the call). For organizations with multiple sites, calls can be diverted to other sites to avoid congestion. Quite often, routing engines 203 are tasked to dynamically change their target list (the list of agents considered as appropriate for a given interaction), in response to traffic conditions, time the call has been waiting, and so forth. Further frustrating these workforce management forecasting assumptions is the fact that modern, sophisticated agent scripting systems all operate independently of the workforce management systems. Scripting engines 301 walk the agent through potentially complex scripts which have numerous branching points and which, accordingly, introduce a significant amount of volatility into the key parameter of average handle time (AHT). It is not uncommon to have AHT vary by several hundred percent from call to call, even among seemingly simple calls of the same type. And when scripts are changed, even subtly, the changes can often introduce very large changes in the statistical behavior of AHT. Workforce management forecasting engines 102 use historical statistical samples of AHT as a core element of the forecasting engine's 102 algorithm, so if large variations in the behavior occur, the forecasts 103 will inevitably be inaccurate. Also, if agents are prompted to conference in other agents, or to transfer calls to other agents, as part of the scripting engine's 301 logic, then the call volume element of the forecasts 103 used in creating the schedule 108 will be inaccurate. Each of these routing and agent scripting actions acts to invalidate the core assumptions of the workforce management forecasting engine 102, and in fact, the problem invariably gets worse as more sophisticated (i.e., more useful) routing strategies and agent scripts are deployed. Existing workforce management systems were designed with basic ACD (automatic call distribution) queuing in mind and do not work well with modern routing engines 203 or agent scripting engines 301.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method for integrated resource scheduling, task allocation and agent work management

Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc


Human MAPK genes are identified as modulators of the Rac, axin, and beta-catenin pathways, and thus are therapeutic targets for disorders associated with defective Rac, axin, and beta-catenin function. Methods for identifying modulators of Rac, axin, and beta-catenin, comprising screening for agents that modulate the activity of MAPK are provided.

Cell movement is an important part of normal developmental and physiological processes (e.g. epiboly, gastrulation and wound healing), and is also important in pathologies such as tumor progression and metastasis, angiogenesis, inflammation and atherosclerosis. The process of cell movement involves alterations of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions in response to signals, as well as rearrangement of the actin and microtubule cytoskeletons. The small GTPases of the Rho/Rac family interact with a variety of molecules to regulate the processes of cell motility, cell-cell adhesion and cell-matrix adhesion. Cdc42 and Rac are implicated in the formation of filopodia and lamellipodia required for initiating cell movement, and Rho regulates stress fiber and focal adhesion formation. Rho/Rac proteins are effectors of cadherin/catenin-mediated cell-cell adhesion, and function downstream of integrins and growth factor receptors to regulate cytoskeletal changes important for cell adhesion and motility.
There are five members of the Rho/Rac family in the C. elegans genome. rho-1 encodes a protein most similar to human RhoA and RhoC, cdc-42 encodes an ortholog of human Cdc42, and ced-10, mig-2 and rac-2 encode Rac-related proteins. ced-10, mig-2 and rac-2 have partially redundant functions in the control of a number of cell and axonal migrations in the worm, as inactivation of two or all three of these genes causes enhanced migration defects when compared to the single mutants. Furthermore, ced-10; mig-2 double mutants have gross morphological and movement defects not seen in either single mutant, possibly as a secondary effect of defects in cell migration or movements during morphogenesis. These defects include a completely penetrant uncoordinated phenotype, as well as variably penetrant slow-growth, vulval, withered tail, and sterility defects, none of which are seen in either single mutant.
Beta-catenin is an adherens junction protein. Adherens junctions (AJs; also called the zonula adherens) are critical for the establishment and maintenance of epithelial layers, such as those lining organ surfaces. AJs mediate adhesion between cells, communicate a signal that neighboring cells are present, and anchor the actin cytoskeleton. In serving these roles, AJs regulate normal cell growth and behavior. At several stages of embryogenesis, wound healing, and tumor cell metastasis, cells form and leave epithelia. This process, which involves the disruption and reestablishment of epithelial cell-cell contacts, may be regulated by the disassembly and assembly of AJs. AJs may also function in the transmission of the 'contact inhibition' signal, which instructs cells to stop dividing once an epithelial sheet is complete.
The AJ is a multiprotein complex assembled around calcium-regulated cell adhesion molecules called cadherins (Peifer, M. (1993) Science 262: 1667-1668). Cadherins are transmembrane proteins: the extracellular domain mediates homotypic adhesion with cadherins on neighboring cells, and the intracellular domain interacts with cytoplasmic proteins that transmit the adhesion signal and anchor the AJ to the actin cytoskeleton. These cytoplasmic proteins include the alpha-, beta-, and gamma-catenins. The beta-catenin protein shares 70% amino acid identity with both plakoglobin, which is found in desmosomes (another type of intracellular junction), and the product of the Drosophila segment polarity gene 'armadillo'. Armadillo is part of a multiprotein AJ complex in Drosophila that also includes some homologs of alpha-catenin and cadherin, and genetic studies indicate that it is required for cell adhesion and cytoskeletal integrity.
Beta-catenin, in addition to its role as a cell adhesion component, also functions as a transcriptional co-activator in the Wnt signaling pathway through its interactions with the family of Tcf and Lef transcription factors (for a review see Polakis, (1999) Current Opinion in Genetics & Development, 9:15-21 and Gat U., et al., (1998) Cell 95:605-614).
Deregulation of beta-catenin signaling is a frequent and early event in the development of a variety of human tumors, including colon cancer, melanoma, ovarian cancer, and prostate cancer. Activation of beta-catenin signaling can occur in tumor cells by loss-of-function mutations in the tumor suppressor genes Axin or APC, as well as by gain-of-function mutations in the oncogene beta-catenin itself. Axin normally functions as a scaffolding protein that binds beta-catenin, APC, and the serine/threonine kinase GSK3-beta. Assembly of this degradation complex allows GSK3-beta to phosphorylate beta-catenin, which leads to beta-catenin ubiquitination and degradation by the proteasome. In the absence of Axin activity, beta-catenin protein becomes stabilized and accumulates in the nucleus where it acts as a transcriptional co-activator with TCF for the induction of target genes, including the cell cycle regulators cyclin D1 and c-Myc.
The APC gene, which is mutant in adenomatous polyposis of the colon, is a negative regulator of beta-catenin signaling (Korinek, V. et al., (1997) Science 275: 1784-1787; Morin, P. J., et al., (1997) Science 275: 1787-1790). The APC protein normally binds to beta-catenin and, in combination with other proteins (including glycogen synthase kinase-3b and axin, is required for the efficient degradation of b-catenin. The regulation of beta-catenin is critical to the tumor suppressive effect of APC and that this regulation can be circumvented by mutations in either APC or beta-catenin.
While mammals contain only a single beta-catenin gene, C. elegans contains three (Korswagen H C, et al., (2000) Nature 406:527-32). Each worm beta-catenin appears to, carry out unique functions (Korswagen H C, et al., (2000) Nature 406:527-32, Nartarajan L et al. (2001) Genetics 159: 159-72). Because of the divergence of function in C. elegans, it is possible to specifically study beta-catenin role in cell adhesion, which is mediated by the C. elegans beta-catenin HMP-2.
The C. elegans gene pry-1 is the structural and functional ortholog of vertebrate Axin (Korswagen H C et al. (2002) Genes Dev. 16:1291-302). PRY-1 is predicted to contain conserved RGS and DIX domains that, in Axin, bind APC and Dishevelled, respectively. Overexpression of the C. elegans pry-1 gene in zebrafish can fully rescue the mutant phenotype of masterblind, the zebrafish Axin 1 mutation. pry-1 loss-of-function mutations produce several phenotypes that appear to result from increased beta-catenin signaling (Gleason J E et al. (2002) Genes Dev. 16:1281-90; Korswagen et al., supra).
Mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase kinase 4 (MAP4K4) is a serine-threonine kinase that activates the c-Jun N-terminal kinase signaling pathway, and may be involved in TNF alpha signaling (Yao, Z., et al (1999) J Biol Chem 274:2118-25; Huang, T. T., et al (2000) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 97:1014-9).
KIAA0551 is a protein with high similarity to mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase kinase 6 (MAP4K6) which activates the JUN N terminal kinase (JNK) and p38 MAP kinase pathways.
Misshapen/NIKs-related kinase (MNK) is a member of the germinal center kinase (GCK) family of kinases. MINK activates the cJun N-terminal kinase and the p38 pathways (Dan, I., et al (2000) FEBS Lett 469:19-23).
The ability to manipulate the genomes of model organisms such as C. elegans provides a powerful means to analyze biochemical processes that, due to significant evolutionary conservation, have direct relevance to more complex vertebrate organisms. Due to a high level of gene and pathway conservation, the strong similarity of cellular processes, and the functional conservation of genes between these model organisms and mammals, identification of the involvement of novel genes in particular pathways and their functions in such model organisms can directly contribute to the understanding of the correlative pathways and methods of modulating them in mammals (see, for example Dulubova I, et al, J Neurochem 2001 April; 77(1):229-38; Cai T, et al., Diabetologia 2001 January; 44(1):81-8; Pasquinelli A E, et al., Nature. 2000 Nov. 2; 408(6808):37-8; Ivanov I P, et al., EMBO J 2000 Apr. 17; 19(8):1907-17; Vajo Z et al., Mamm Genome 1999 October; 10(10):10004). For example, a genetic screen can be carried out in an invertebrate model organism having underexpression (e.g. knockout) or overexpression of a gene (referred to as a "genetic entry point") that yields a visible phenotype. Additional genes are mutated in a random or targeted manner. When a gene mutation changes the original phenotype caused by the mutation in the genetic entry point, the gene is identified as a "modifier" involved in the same or overlapping pathway as the genetic entry point. When the genetic entry point is an ortholog of a human gene implicated in a disease pathway, such as Rac, axin, and beta-catenin, modifier genes can be identified that may be attractive candidate targets for novel therapeutics.
All references cited herein, including patents, patent applications, publications, and sequence information in referenced Genbank identifier numbers, are incorporated herein in their entireties.

MAPKs as modifiers of the rac, axin, and beta-catenin pathways and methods of use


Interconnect structures comprising capping layers with low dielectric constants and good oxygen barrier properties and methods of making the same are provided. In one embodiment, the integrated circuit structure comprises: an interlevel dielectric layer disposed above a semiconductor substrate; a conductive interconnect embedded in the interlevel dielectric layer; a first capping layer comprising SiwCxNyHz disposed upon the conductive interconnect; a second capping layer comprising SiaCbNcHd (has less N) having a dielectric constant less than about 4 disposed upon the first capping layer; and a third capping layer comprising SiwCxNyHz disposed upon the second capping layer, wherein a+b+c+d=1.0 and a, b, c, and d are each greater than 0 and less than 1, and wherein w+x+y+z=1.0 and w, x, y, and z are each greater than 0 and less than 1.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to integrated circuits, and particularly to interconnect structures comprising capping layers with low dielectric constants and good oxygen barrier properties.
2. Description of Background
Fabrication of an integrated circuit involves numerous processing steps. After impurity regions have been implanted within a semiconductor substrate and gate areas defined upon the substrate, an interlevel dielectric is formed across the topography to isolate the gate areas and the impurity regions. Interconnect routing is then placed across the semiconductor topography and connected to the impurity regions and/or the gate areas by ohmic contacts formed through the interlevel dielectric. The entire process of making ohmic contacts to the impurity regions and/or the gate areas and routing interconnect material between the ohmic contacts is described generally as "metallization". As the complexity of integrated circuits has increased, the complexity of the metallization compositions has also increased.
Aluminum and aluminum alloys were once the material of choice for forming interconnects. However, due to the current focus on increasing circuit density and speed, the use of copper as the interconnect material has grown significantly since copper exhibits lower resistivity and lower susceptibility to electromigration failure as compared to aluminum. Despite these advantages, one drawback of using copper is that it readily diffuses into the surrounding dielectric material during subsequent processing steps. To inhibit the diffusion of copper, copper interconnects are often capped with a protective barrier layer referred to as a "capping" layer or a "passivation" layer, such as silicon nitride.
Silicon carbide deposited using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) from a trimethylsilane source, which is commercially available from Applied Materials under the tradename of BLOK®, is currently used as a capping layer over copper interconnects formed by the damascene process. The compound with less nitrogen (N) (less than about 5 mol %), i.e., SiaCbNcHd, is referred to as "BLOK", and the compound with more N (about 10 mol % to about 25 mol %), i.e., SiwCxNyHz, is referred to as "NBLOK". BLOK has a lower dielectric constant of less than 4.0, whereas NBLOK has a dielectric constant of about 5.0. While BLOK is not a good oxygen barrier but is a good copper (Cu) barrier, NBLOK is both a good oxygen barrier and a good Cu barrier. In order to achieve low k capping while still providing a good oxygen barrier and a good Cu barrier layer, a bilayer has been designed with 5 to 10 nm of NBLOK as a bottom layer and 30 to 35 nm of BLOK as a top layer. These two capping layers have also been combined to form a bilayer cap comprising a layer of SiaCbNcHd over a thinner layer of SiwCxNyHz that adheres well to the copper surface. While this bilayer cap provides a significant reduction in the effective k value of the dielectric stack, it can undesirably exhibit electromigration failure. One of the reasons for this failure is that a seam forms in the CVD deposited SiwCxNyHz layer (NBLOK) in the corners above the sidewalls of the copper interconnect. Thus, oxygen can migrate through the upper SiaCbNcHd (BLOK) layer and through the seams of the thin SiwCxNyHz (NBLOK) layer. As a result, the upper surface of the copper interconnect could become oxidized, thereby reducing adhesive forces between the Cu interconnect and the SiwCxNyHz (NBLOK) layer and adversely affecting the electromigration properties of the bilayer cap.

Interconnect structures comprising capping layers with low dielectric constants and methods of making the same

International Business Machines Corporation

Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd.


This invention relates to a complex prism sheet which is configured such that heat-resistant coating layers are formed on both surfaces of a substrate layer, thus preventing wrinkling or curling of the complex prism sheet due to heat generated from a light source, and increasing concealment and electro-optic characteristics, ultimately improving properties of a light crystal display. This complex prism sheet can be usefully applied to television (TV) sets, monitors, notebook personal computers (NBPCs), etc., which are required to have heat resistance, slimness and concealment because of an increasing use of a light emitting diode (LED) light source these days.

A backlight unit (BLU) which is a light emitting element widely used in a liquid crystal display (LCD) allows light emitted using a light source such as a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL), etc., to sequentially pass through a light guide plate, a diffusion sheet and a prism sheet to reach a liquid crystal panel.
The light guide plate transfers light such that light emitted from the light source is distributed onto the entire surface of the liquid crystal panel which is planar, the diffusion sheet makes light intensity uniform over the entire surface of the screen, and the prism sheet performs a light passage control function such that light rays that have passed through the diffusion sheet in a variety of directions are converted into an image within a range of a viewing angle adapted to be observed by a user. Also, a reflective plate is provided under the light guide plate such that light falling out of the light passage without being transferred to the liquid crystal panel is reflected again so as to be used, thereby increasing use efficiency of the light source.
In such a backlight unit, the prism sheet performs a light collection function, and controls the passage of light diffused in a variety of directions through the diffusion sheet so as to increase front luminance of the display, thus achieving a brighter and clearer image.
Recently, as displays are being made slimmer, a complex prism sheet is being developed, which is able to achieve both a diffusion function and a light collection function by introducing a light diffusion layer to the prism sheet. Furthermore, in order to reduce the cost of the display, the number of light sources is decreased in the backlight unit.
However, because the output of individual light sources should be increased to decrease the number of light sources in the backlight unit, variations (a portion distant away from a portion adjacent to the light source in the complex prism sheet) of heat transferred to the complex prism sheet should increase due to increased output of the light source. The variations of heat cause a difference in shrinkage and expansion at different positions of the complex prism sheet, and thus the complex prism sheet may wrinkle or curl due to the difference in shrinkage and expansion at different positions of the complex prism sheet.
When the complex prism sheet wrinkles or curls in this way, uniformity of light incident on the liquid crystal panel may decrease, undesirably deteriorating the quality of an image. That is, curling or wrinkling of the complex prism sheet expanded or shrunken due to variations of heat generated from the light source makes it difficult to efficiently introduce light to the liquid crystal panel from the light source. Thus, the development of techniques for solving this problem is required.


A multiple peak resonant tunneling diode (10) includes multiple vertical semiconductor structures (12, 13). The vertical structures (12, 13) include a resonant tunneling diode having a predetermined cross-sectional area and a series resistor of a predetermined resistance. The vertical structures (12, 13) are spaced from one another and interconnected in parallel. Additionally, the vertical semiconductor structures (12, 13) are fabricated such that their predetermined diode cross-sectional areas and series resistances have values that vary by predetermined amounts to adjust the respective peak currents and/or peak voltages of the vertical semiconductor structures (12, 13).

It has been widely recognized that multiple peak resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) are useful in several circuit applications. These include multi-state memory, high speed analog-to-digital converters, multi-valued logic circuits, parity bit generators, and neural networks. For these applications, the multiple peak RTD device exhibits multiple equally-spaced peaks and valleys in its current-voltage (I-V) characteristics. A further requirement demands that the largest valley current not exceed the smallest peak current.
Conventional methods for fabricating a multiple peak RTD involve integrating serially connected multiple RTDs in an epitaxial stack. However, the number of peaks is limited by the accumulated series resistance of the undoped double-barrier structure, which produces undesirable hysteresis in its I-V characteristics. In addition, the RTDs' peak-to-peak and valley-to-valley separation cannot be made smaller than that of a single RTD. Another known multiple peak device is fabricated with multiple potential barriers and quantum wells, but this type of device is difficult to design to accomplish low valley currents in its I-V characteristics.
Accordingly, it has become desirable to provide a multiple peak RTD devices which possess desirable I-V characteristics at normal operating temperatures. Furthermore, in the interest of large scale integration, device compactness and ease in fabrication are additional important and desirable properties.


The present invention provides methods for diagnosing an acute cardiovascular event and for differentiating between an acute cardiovascular event and chronic heart failure based on measuring a cardiac troponin and a natriuretic peptide in a sample from a patient and comparing the measured amounts with reference amounts, as well as devices and kits for carrying out such methods.

An aim of modern medicine is to provide personalized or individualized treatment regimens. These are treatment regimens which take into account a patient's individual needs or risks. A particularly important risk is the presence of a cardiovascular complication, particularly an unrecognized cardiovascular complication or a prevalence for such cardiovascular complications. Cardiovascular complications, particularly heart diseases, are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the Western hemisphere. Cardiovascular complications can remain asymptomatic for long periods of time. Therefore, reliable differential diagnosis of the presence of a cardiovascular complication is more difficult and error-prone than generally believed.
Specifically, patients suffering from symptoms of an acute cardiovascular event (e.g., myocardial infarction) such as chest pain are currently subjected to a troponin T-based diagnosis. To this end, troponin T levels of the patients are determined. If the amount of troponin T in the blood is elevated, i.e., above 0.1 ng/ml, an acute cardiovascular event is assumed and the patent is treated accordingly.
However, by using the current troponin T test, a significant portion of patients is false positively diagnosed as suffering from an acute cardiovascular event. It is to be understood that the subsequent therapy is less effective or even ineffective, resulting in more severe complications or even death.
Therefore, there is a clear long-standing need for means and methods allowing for a precise differential diagnosis of acute cardiovascular events. The said means and methods shall allow a reliable and efficient differential diagnosis and shall avoid the drawbacks of the current techniques.
Thus, the technical problem underlying the present invention must be seen as the provision of means and methods for complying with the aforementioned needs.
The technical problem is solved by the embodiments characterized in the claims and herein below.

Differentiation of acute and chronic myocardial necrosis in symptomatic patients


A pulsing valve assembly pulses metered fuel flow to a turbine engine. The pulsing valve assembly comprises a valve housing having an inlet and an outlet. A divider valve divides metered fuel flow into a first flow portion and a second flow portion. A first actuator sets a magnitude of a flow divide between the first and second flow portions. The valve assembly also includes a pulsing valve for pulsing the first flow portion and a second actuator for setting a frequency of pulsing valve. The pulsed and unpulsed flow portions are then joined and delivered to the turbine engine combustion chamber.

Combustion instabilities frequently are encountered during the development and use of modern industrial gas turbine engines, especially engines that have low NOx technology. These low pollution engines operate at fuel mixtures that can result in combustor instabilities at frequencies up to 700 Hz or even higher. The pressure oscillation caused by the instability can damage the combustor. Often, during engine development, the combustor geometry is modified to correct these instabilities. These modifications are called passive techniques and are generally effective for a limited range of operating conditions. Recently, active control methods have been successfully tested in a laboratory environment. Active control means that some engine parameter, such as engine geometry or fuel flow, is varied at the combustion oscillation frequency but out-of-phase with the instability to dampen the oscillations. A key advantage of the active control system may be the ability to dampen oscillations over a much wider range of engine operating conditions and fuels.
Some active control systems tested to date have used high-speed actuators and valves to pulse fuel flow. For example, magnetostrictive or piezoelectric actuators or high-speed electrohydraulic servo-valves have been used. These valves have proven the theory of active control. However, the technology has not been suitable for commercial production applications. This proposed technology to date is expensive, has performance limitations due to very low stroke, and has limited life.
The state of the art as described above is more fully discussed in the following technical papers and patent application which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties: Liquid Injector Actuator for Control of Combustion Processes, AIAA 98-3540, Y. Neumeier, E. Lubarsky, R. Heising, O. Israeli, M. Neumaier and B. T. Zinn, Georgia Institute of Technology, 34th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit, July 13–15, 1998; Suppression of Combustion Instabilities in a Liquid Fuel Combustor Using a Fast Adaptive Control Algorithm, AIAA 2000-0476, C. E. Johnson, Y. Neumeier, E. Lubarsky, J. Y. Lee, M. Neumaier and B. T. Zinn, Georgia Institute of Technology, AIAA 38th Aerospace Sciences Meeting & Exhibit, 10–13 Jan. 2000; Active Instability Control With Direct-Drive Servo Valves In Liquid-Fueled Combustion Systems, C. Hantschk, J. Hermann and D. Vortmeyer, 26th Symposium (International) on Combustion/The Combustion Institute, 1996/pp. 2835–2841; Active Combustion Instability Control With Spinning Valve Actuator, GT-2002–30042, P. Barooah, T. Anderson and J. Cohen, ASME Turbo Expo 2002, Jun. 3–6, 2002, © 2002 by ASME; Hydraulic R-DDV™ Servovalves, www.textronmotioncontrol.com, Jul. 27, 2001; U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2003/0056490 A1, Anderson et al., VALVE ASSEMBLY FOR USE IN A GAS FUEL NOZZLE, application Ser. No. 09/965,217, Filed Sep. 27, 2001. None of these references have provided a suitable solution for commercial production due to one or more of the following issues: cost, performance limitations, reliability, lifespan concerns, and/or other such concerns. Accordingly, there is a desire for technology that may be employed not just in the laboratory but in commercial applications.

Flow pulsing valve and fuel supply system for a turbine engine incorporating same


Porous membranes including a first microporous skin surface having a pore density of at least about 20 pores/50,000 μm2, and a second porous surface, and a bulk between the surfaces, wherein the bulk has a pore density of at least about 120 pores/mm2, as well as methods of using and methods of making the membranes are disclosed.

Synthetic polymer membranes are used for filtration in a variety of applications. However, there is a need for membranes that provide sufficient strength and sufficient retention of undesirable material while providing good throughput. There is also a need for membranes for inkjet applications that minimize smearing.
The invention provides such membranes.
These and other advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the description as set forth below.


A slurry containing abrasive particles and exhibiting normal stress effects. The slurry further contains non-polishing particles resulting in reduced polishing rate at recesses, while the abrasive particles maintain high polish rates at elevations. This leads to improved planarization.

Historically the goal of polishing is to take out scratches from an otherwise planar surface. Here the polish rate at the sharp peaks is higher than at the indentations due to the stress concentrations at the peaks. This automatically leads to the elimination of the peaks.
Contrary to the above, the goal of polishing in the microelectronics industry is to planarize a scratch-free surface. Most often the surface morphology includes wide plateaus adjacent to wide valleys resulting from the conformal nature of most deposition processes when considered on a large scale. Since wide plateaus do not present significant stress concentrations, they do not polish much faster than the wide valleys. Consequently, polishing is inefficient in achieving planarization, and the starting surface morphology, (steps) is planarized only to a limited extent.
The wider the features, the more difficult planarization becomes. Since a soft pad is more conformal than a hard pad, its use practically excludes the possibility to planarize. The use of a hard (stiff) pad, while more favorable from a planarization point of view, still does not eliminate the problem, since while the degree of conformity decreases, it does not disappear. In addition, hard pads cause scratches on the surface with the abrasive or the polishing debris, which cannot be tolerated because these scratches in turn can cause shorts.
The requirement for planarity is the most stringent in the shallow trench isolation (STI) application of SiO.sub.2 because this feature is at the base, and every subsequent layer will replicate any non-planarity of the surface topography. Because of the lack of a truly planarizing polishing process, currently the problem is addressed by the deposition of "dummy structures" or "polish-stops" which elevate the valley areas to the height of the plateau areas. This requires extra design effort, extra patterning, extra deposition reactive ion etching and polishing steps. The total number of these expensive auxiliary steps often reaches six, where if planarization of the original polishing process were efficient, one step would suffice.
Concerning oxide planarization, it is important to appreciate the fact that oxide polishing results in an even lesser degree of planarization than does metal polish. This problem is reduced in interlevel dielectrics by increasing the initial thickness of the oxide, since planarization improves when an increasing amount is removed. While this approach increases the cost of planarization, the extent of planarization is still not good enough for very large scale integration schemes.

Polish process and slurry for planarization

International Business Machines Corporatin


An image bearing article includes a support; a visible image recorded on the support; invisible information recorded on the support, the invisible information relating to and in registration with elements of the visible image.

Display or capture media for images have been known for over 150 years. Today, these images are often organized into color planes, each plane representing the corresponding color components of the image. Black-and-white images have one plane, while color images generally have three, one each in a color primary, typically red, green, and blue. Images are often stored on negative or positive transparent film, color paper, or digitally on magnetic media. When stored digitally, uncompressed images are generally organized as sets of pixels, image lines, or image planes. Each element of the set represents a different color within the image. When stored on film, a separate physical layer of the film incorporates each color plane of the image. Traditional color silver halide paper uses a similar approach. Inkjet and thermal sublimation techniques deposit separate layers or pixels of primary colored inks.
False-color imaging systems are also well known. In these systems, invisible light (typically infrared or ultraviolet) exposes otherwise traditional imaging materials such as color film to produce a visible color in the exposed medium.
It is often useful to associate non-image information about an image with the image. Such information is often known as meta-data and comprises information such as time of image capture, location of capture, an image description, flash and exposure settings, audio clips, and so forth. This information can be used to optimize the display or use of the image itself. When images are stored digitally, associating such information with an image is straightforward. The meta-data is organized in some structured fashion and written as a header in the image file or otherwise associated with the image file.
Associating such information with images stored on hard-copy media is more problematic. Such a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,763,891 issued Jun. 9, 1998 to Yoshinaga et al., entitled Non-Visualized Information Recording Medium and Apparatus for Detecting the Same.
Techniques are known for writing meta-data on a variety of hard-copy image media. For each of these techniques, invisible, light-responsive materials must be coated or otherwise applied to the medium, and methods to expose or otherwise write information in the invisible material, as well as read the information back, are known (e.g. see U.S. Pat. No. 5,995,193 issued Nov. 30, 1999 to Stephany et al., entitled Self-Contained Device for Recording Data Encoded Either in Visible or Invisible Form). Other materials, such as a thermal sublimation donor material coated with an additional, invisible layer capable of information storage on a receiver media, is known as is the use of an inkjet deposition system to provide an additional invisible layer for information storage on a paper inkjet print. U.S. Pat. No. 5,514,860 issued May 7, 1996 to Berson, entitled Document Authentication System Utilizing a Transparent Label describes placing a transparent tape over a medium. U.S. Pat. No. 5,841,885 issued Nov. 24, 1998 to Neff et al., entitled Print and Method and Apparatus for Printing, Storing and Retrieving an Image Record discloses storing additional digital information on the reverse of an image print.
There are also techniques known that utilize invisible magnetic layers to store information. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,229,259 issued Jul. 20, 1993 to Yokota, entitled Silver Halide Photographic Material discloses a silver halide photographic material with a magnetic recording layer. However, these systems and their associated meta-data associate information with the image as a whole and do not physically associate information with each image pixel on the recording medium.
In addition to meta-data describing attributes of an image, information related to each pixel can be useful, particularly if the hard-copy image media constrains the image information. Once written to the constrained medium, original image information is lost. For example, a residual image is the difference between one hard-copy representation of an image (typically color paper) and another less constrained representation (typically color film).
In general, it is possible to store any meta-data or additional information associated with the pixels of an image separately from the image pixels, either on the same hard-copy medium or in a separate location. In the latter case, the meta-data information may become disconnected from the image and lost. In the former case, the storage is inherently less robust in that if a portion of the image is lost or damaged, it is very likely that all of the information will be lost or unrecoverable. Moreover, there is a general problem with digital information storage in file formats. The formats tend to be very media or computer dependent and change rapidly. Hence, information stored in obsolete formats quickly becomes unrecoverable as the software and computer systems to support the format become unavailable.
As images become increasingly pervasive and the variety of image applications grows, additional pixel-related information beyond the traditional red, green, and blue (or cyan, yellow, magenta, and black) is becoming extremely useful. For example, applications such as image scene modeling, image differences, image understanding, multi-image scenes, and three-dimensional images, display require per-pixel information such as scene distance from capture device, pixel differences from other images, color/exposure attributes, or object classification information. This information can be captured or calculated in a variety of ways and readily stored in a digital system but robust storage and recovery of the additional information is problematic when associated with hard-copy film or paper media.
There is a need therefore for an improved method for storing and retrieving additional information associated with each pixel in an image on hard-copy media.

Non-image pixel data stored on hard-copy image media


A cap for a fluid coupling is provided that includes a stem member adapted for insertion into the fluid coupling and a cover member connected to the stem member. The cover member includes an internal cavity sized to receive the fluid coupling such that the fluid coupling is positioned between the stem member and the cover member. The internal cavity is defined by a wall having at least one of a longitudinally extending groove and a longitudinally extending protrusion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to fluid couplings and to a dust and impact protection cap for a fluid coupling.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are many applications where a fluid power system requires that a connection be made between a hose assembly and an apparatus, such as a tank, reservoir, pump, motor or valve. In one arrangement, a male fluid coupling is connected to the apparatus and functions as a port to which a hose-secured female fluid coupling may be connected. When disconnected from the female fluid coupling, the male fluid coupling is covered with a cap to protect it from dust, dirt and other debris. Since male fluid couplings may protrude from the apparatus, caps also protect the male fluid coupling from damage due to impacts with other objects. Among other things, it is improvement of this cap that is the subject of the invention set forth herein.


A method of controlling a power feed to a load (L), wherein the load (L) can be connected to an apparatus (1) for the power feed and the power fed to the load (L) has clock-controlled signals. The method includes the steps of: detecting a temperature prevailing in the apparatus (1) by means of at least one temperature sensor (13, 14), providing a first safety function if the detected temperature is not greater than a predetermined first excessive temperature, providing a second safety function if the detected temperature is greater than the predetermined first excessive temperature, and again providing the first safety function if the detected temperature falls and reaches the first excessive temperature, wherein the first safety function includes constant cyclic clock control of the power fed to the load and the second safety function includes temporary cyclic clock control of the power fed to the load.

Products to be delivered to a customer are generally subjected to a test in regard to operability and durability by a respective manufacturer before delivery. That is particularly important in the case of circuit arrangements with electrical and electronic components, wherein the circuit arrangement can also involve a relatively high degree of complexity and can thus have a large number of different components. Functional testing can therefore be correspondingly complicated and expensive.
In the field of electrical and electronic engineering the individual discrete components as well as integrated circuits are subjected to a detailed test before they are fitted into a device in conjunction with other components or are arranged on a printed circuit board or circuit board (functional assembly). At any event the printed circuit board or the device which is entirely or at least partially finished is to be tested in respect of its function at various stages in manufacture.
That testing operation concerns the general basic function that the circuit arrangement disposed on the printed circuit board (in some cases also a plurality of separate or connected circuit arrangements) must perform. For that purpose actual signals occurring in normal use are applied to the circuit board and, upon evaluation of output signals of the board, it is possible to determine whether the function is performed, in which case it may also be of interest to ascertain the tolerance ranges within which the output signals occur. In such a test, it is based on the usual operating conditions, wherein those operating conditions should also involve the usual prevailing ambient conditions of the respective circuit board in use. The circuit board or products related thereto are delivered only after successful and in part multiple testing.
If it is known that components or circuit boards are used under ambient conditions which lead to an increase loading, such as for example a mechanical loading due to shaking or vibration, or a thermal loading with excessive temperatures, testing is then also necessary to ascertain whether the circuit board or the product connected thereto also performs its function under those extreme ambient conditions and long-term stability can be expected.
For example components and circuit boards arranged in the proximity of a strong heat source are subject to an increase thermal loading which can also give rise to severe fluctuations. Such thermal loadings occur for example in motor vehicles if they are operated in an environment with basically increased temperatures (for example under strong sunlight). Greatly increased temperatures can also briefly occur in an engine compartment of a motor vehicle if for example the internal combustion engine is operated over a prolonged period of time with a high power output in a hot environment and the vehicle has to stop or if a greater amount of power is required at comparatively low engine speeds (and thus with a lower degree of cooling). In that case it is necessary, in connection with a test arrangement for devices to be tested, to implement the corresponding boundary conditions so that checking (testing) can be carried out under the approximately real conditions of a possible increased temperature and also provides information in regard to service life and operability.
A suitable test cycle for testing electrical or electronic components or also a circuit board equipped with such components is determined in dependence on demands and specifications of a customer, in regard to the use of the components or circuit board. In that respect, temperature ranges which are at the edge of the temperature range that occurs in normal operation, in use by the customer, are frequently used for the test. If for example control circuits are considered on a circuit board with corresponding power components and electrolytic capacitors for use in a motor vehicle for the actuation of electric motors for auxiliary modes of operation, then test cycles can be used there, at elevated temperatures of for example 90° C. to 110° C. In that respect, more specifically the circuit boards or also the modular devices are subjected to those changing temperatures in that temperature range and functioning is tested by means of the actuation of corresponding electrical signals and evaluation of the output signals. In that case the output signals which are formed in dependence on the function and the actuation signals in the circuit arrangement to be tested (on the circuit board) are compared to reference or target signals. It is possible to arrive at a conclusion about the operability of the circuit arrangement or circuit board, in dependence on the comparison result.
In the case of a requirement for testing the circuit board at elevated temperatures as are frequently prescribed by customers for the circuit board, the temperature for testing a device, a discrete component or the circuit board is produced in a suitable environment, for example in a test cabinet, in which case the heat produced acts from the exterior on the test piece for example in the form of the circuit board. Temperature detection in the test cabinet and also on the circuit board is required to achieve precise basic data for reliable testing.
If, to simulate real operation, the test piece such as for example the circuit board is actuated with electrical signals, the feed of voltages and currents then produces a corresponding power loss in the device or the circuit board so that this also involves a contribution to the increase in temperature. When determining the temperature of the test piece and its test environment therefore it is necessary to take account of the inherent heat in operation of the test piece (the circuit board).
If the above-specified circuit boards having a circuit arrangement for feeding power to a load, for example to an electric motor of a fan in a motor vehicle, are considered, then besides further requirements there is the need that the circuit arrangement or the circuit board with the corresponding electrical or electronic components must also be operable in a temperature region of 110° C. In that case operable signifies the possibility of feeding a variable power to the connected load like the electric motor in a controlled fashion and thus in connection with a cadence of output signals.
In general service life tests are performed at about 110° C. and concern the properties of the circuit arrangement and the circuit board such as the capability of feeding to a connected load in cyclically controlled fashion, a power which can be controlled or regulated in connection with the cyclic signal cadence. If the circuit arrangement or the circuit board is supplied with corresponding clock signals (for example with pulse width modulated signals or PWM signals) for the controllable or regulatable supply of power to the load and if moreover the situation involves an increased ambient temperature and thus also a circuit board temperature of about 110° C. then interruption of the clock is effected to protect the electrical and electronic components on the circuit board, in which case then to guarantee operation, for example of the load in the form of a fan in the motor vehicle sector, it is actuated at full power.
In that case the power components on the circuit board are completely switched through. The circuit arrangement on the circuit board automatically performs that measure, in which case temperature detection is performed on the circuit board and/or the immediate environment. When the circuit components are completely switched through, in that case there is a lower power loss in respect of the components on the circuit board, irrespective of the maximum power feed to the connected load, so that this entails a lower degree of additional inherent heating as a consequence of the components being completely switched through and the interruption in a clock control. If in operation or also during the testing at the appropriate temperature of about 110° C. that operating condition (ambient conditions) is detected, then for reasons of safety and reliability it is possible to provide for the power components being completely switched on (switched through). That is also justified in view of the high ambient temperature.
That prevents excessive inherent heating of the power components and in particular also the electrolytic capacitors which are subjected to a lower current loading as a consequence of the interruption in the clock control.
If the clock control is interrupted in the limit region of the temperature of about 110° C. and the power components (generally power transistors) are put into the conducting condition and thus switched on, then, on the part of the control circuit formed on the circuit board in question, there is no longer any possibility of controlling or regulating the power of the connected load. Rather, to ensure operation of the load (for example a fan motor) the full power is supplied, so that at least operation of the load is guaranteed, even if the circuit board is in its limit region in regard to its own temperature conditions or the temperature conditions prevailing in the environment.
Thus controllability or regulatability of the power fed to the load is no longer possible by interrupting the clock control, in the temperature limit region of more than 110° C. in conjunction with for example a corresponding test cycle (thermal loading). Rather, after detection of a temperature of more than 110° C. the circuit automatically makes the transition into a simplified mode of operation in accordance with predetermined programming or in conjunction with a control from the exterior, wherein a power which is no longer variable is fed to the load in that simplified mode of operation. In principle complete shut-down is also possible.
Such a behaviour of a circuit arrangement to be tested or a circuit board is shown in FIG. 5. FIG. 5 shows a time-dependent temperature characteristic K (time graph, testing characteristic), as is used in accordance with a known testing procedure. In a comparatively low temperature region of below 110° C., the usual form of actuation of the load connected to the circuit arrangement or circuit board, with clock-controlled signals, is effected between the times t0 and t1, between the times t2 and t3, and from the time t4 (regions A), in which case it is possible to test the operability of the circuit board (circuit arrangement). Thus corresponding clock control of the supplied electrical power (electric signals, output signals) is effected in the regions A in dependence on a power requirement for the load.
In the further time regions which are denoted by B and lie between the times t1 and t2 and between the times t3 and t4, an increased temperature of more than 110° C. occurs, for example a temperature of 120° C. (increased thermal loading). In the regions B, in accordance with the inherent control by the circuit arrangement after detection of the temperature which is occurring or in accordance with control from the exterior, actuation of the connected load with clock-controlled signals no longer occurs as in the regions B the temperature which is increased in any case and which acts on the circuit board from the exterior would entail a danger for the components if inherent heat of the components, for example the electrolytic capacitors and the power transistors, would involve a greater inherent heat (dissipation heat) being added thereto. With an increased temperature range above a predetermined limit temperature therefore the circuit arrangement or the associated circuit board can no longer involve implementation of testing of the controllability or regulatability of the power fed to the load, as a consequence of a necessary interruption in the clock control of the output signals for protecting the components.

Method of controlling a power feed and apparatus


A wireless IC tag includes a wireless IC chip and two coil-shaped antennas. One end of each of the coil-shaped antennas is electrically connected to the wireless IC chip, and the other ends of the coil-shaped antennas are electrically connected to each other. The winding axes of the coil-shaped antennas are arranged at different positions, and the coil-shaped antennas have the same winding direction. A reader-writer includes an antenna connected to an information processing circuit. The antenna is electromagnetically coupled to the coil-shaped antennas for communication.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless integrated circuit (IC) tags. More particularly, the present invention relates to a wireless IC tag used in a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system, a reader-writer communicating with the wireless IC tag, and an information processing system including the wireless IC tag.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems have been developed as article management systems. In such an RFID system, a reader-writer producing an induction electromagnetic field communicates with a wireless tag in a non-contact manner to transmit information. The wireless tag is attached to an article and stores certain information. A wireless IC tag including two coil-shaped antennas is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-126750 as a wireless tag used in an RFID system. The two coil-shaped antennas are connected in series to each other so as to form a figure eight.
However, since the two coil-shaped antennas have opposite winding directions in the wireless IC tag, the wireless IC tag has a disadvantage in that, in response to reception of a high-frequency magnetic field radiated from a loop antenna of the reader-writer, a current occurring in one coil-shaped antenna is offset by a current occurring in the other coil-shaped antenna. Accordingly, there is a problem in that the energy transfer efficiency between the wireless IC tag and the reader-writer is reduced to decrease the communication distance.

Wireless IC tag, reader-writer, and information processing system


An apparatus for cleaning a semiconductor wafer and method for cleaning a wafer using the same wherein, the apparatus includes a chamber on which a wafer is mounted, a revolving chuck mounted in the chamber for supporting and fixing the wafer, a nozzle for spraying cleaning solution onto the wafer, a cover for covering an upper part of the chamber, and a light source. The cleaning solution, preferably one of ozone water, hydrogen water, or electrolytic-ionized water, may be heated for a short time and used to clean the wafer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and to a method for fabricating a semiconductor device using the same. More specifically, the present invention relates to an apparatus for cleaning a semiconductor wafer and to a method for cleaning a wafer using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor devices are ordinarily cleaned using cleaning solutions such as standard cleaning 1 (a mixed solution of hydrogen peroxide, ammonium hydroxide and deionized water), hydrofluoric acid (HF) and a sulfuric peroxide mixture (SPM). These conventional cleaning solutions contain strong chemicals that cause corrosion of a metal layer of the semiconductor device. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new cleaning solutions with the cleaning ability of the conventional solutions but which minimize corrosion of the metal layer.
Ozone water, hydrogen water, and electrolytic-ionized water have recently been studied as cleaning solutions capable of meeting this need. The ozone water and the hydrogen water cleaning solutions are used by dissolving an ozone gas or a hydrogen gas, respectively, that occurs as a result of electrolyzing deionized water, in the deionized water. The electrolytic-ionized water cleaning solution is used by oxidation water and reduction water that occur as a result of electrolyzing deionized water. In the ozone water, the hydrogen water, and the electrolytic-ionized water, it is advantageous to comparatively free control pH and oxidation-reduction potential by using a gas dissolved in the solution or by an electrolytic current during electrolysis. The ozone water, the hydrogen water, and the electrolytic-ionized water can each remove impurities without corrosion of the metal layer using pH and oxidation-reduction potential.
However, the cleaning ability of the ozone water, the hydrogen water, or the electrolytic-ionized water is minor when used at a normal temperature. Raising the temperature of the ozone water, the hydrogen water, or the electrolytic-ionized water increases its cleaning ability. However, if the ozone water, the hydrogen water, or the electrolytic-ionized water is heated for too long or left alone in the opened state, gases in the cleaning solution evaporate shortening the lifespan of the cleaning solution. Also, because heating the ozone water, the hydrogen water, or the electrolytic-ionized water for a long time dramatically reduces its cleaning ability, it is necessary to heat the cleaning solution rapidly, and to use the heated cleaning solution immediately after heating to clean the wafer.

Apparatus for cleaning semiconductor wafer including heating using a light source and method for cleaning wafer using the same


An image guiding device includes a gantry, an imaging source, an imager, and an image server. The imaging source, the imager and the image server are all mounted on the gantry. The imager is connected to the image server. The imaging source is arranged to face the imager. The imaging source emits X-rays. The imager receives X-rays passing through an affected part of a patient, generates projection data based on the received X-rays, and sends the projection data to the image server. The image server processes the projection data to obtain an image of the affected part.

Radiotherapy is the treatment of tumors by using radioactive rays to realize death or apoptosis of cancer cells, and is one of the most basic and important methods for the treatment of tumors. As tumor tissues are surrounded by healthy tissues, the tumor tissues need to be precisely positioned during the radiotherapy, so as to avoid damages to the healthy tissues. The positioning of the tumor tissues may be achieved by an image guiding device. The image guiding device may be configured to collect image information of the human body, determine the position and movement of a treatment target area based on the image information, and guide the subsequent treatment.

Image guiding device and radiotherapy equipment