The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for using transparent surfaces at an automated teller machine. In one implementation, a method of visualizing a deposit at an automated teller machine includes receiving a command to deposit at least one depository element; determining an amount associated with the command; displaying, on a transparent surface of the automated teller machine configured to allow a user of the automated teller machine to view the at least one depository element, a visual representation of the determined amount; and receiving, concurrent with or after displaying, a verification of the amount.

Automated teller machines (ATMs) often provide deposit capabilities in addition to withdrawal capabilities. However, customer trust in deposits at ATMs is often low because deposits disappear once inserted and are only confirmed using text or graphics on a distinct screen.
Moreover, customer trust in withdrawals suffers from a similar drawback. In particular, withdrawals are dispensed by the ATM, and the customer is tasked with manually counting bills to verify the amount of the withdrawal.

Systems and methods for using transparent surfaces in an automated teller machine


An image processing system comprising a data repository and an image processor. The data repository is configured to store image data. The image processor is configured to place the image data into a three-dimensional mesh. The image processor is further configured to identify vectors of the image data in the three-dimensional mesh. The image processor is further configured to identify a number of clusters in the vectors of the image data in the three-dimensional mesh.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to classifying image data and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for clustering data in a point cloud. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for classifying groups of image data in a point cloud.
2. Background
Manned and unmanned aerial vehicles, ground vehicles, or both may be used to gather data. In particular, vehicles and other platforms may gather data about a scene. Various objects may be present in the scene. This data may take various forms. In some cases, an aerial vehicle may use a visible light camera, an infrared camera, and other cameras to generate image data about the scene. Specifically, the image data may be generated for particular objects in the scene.
In some cases, an aerial vehicle may generate image data for the scene in the form of a point cloud. The point cloud is a set of points in a three-dimensional coordinate system. Each point has a three-dimensional coordinate and may also include other information. The aerial vehicle may use a three-dimensional scanner to generate image data for the point cloud. The three-dimensional scanner may identify points for objects in the scene.
For example, a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system may be used to generate image data for the point cloud of the scene. In another example, a laser detection and ranging (LADAR) system may be used to generate image data for the scene. This type of system also may be referred to as a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system. These LIDAR and LADAR may be used interchangeably.
Processing the image data for the point cloud may be more time consuming than desired and also may require more processing power than desired. For example, a point cloud for a scene may include millions of points that form the image data for the point cloud. Processing the point cloud to identify objects in the point cloud may take more time and processing power than desired.
Processing the point cloud to identify objects may not occur as quickly as desired. The time needed to identify objects may be more important when a particular mission involves quickly changing situations. For example, when surveillance is performed on location having one or more targets of interest, identifying moving objects or objects that may potentially move may not occur as quickly as desired in processing a point cloud of the scene.
In another example, if the mission is for fire-fighting in a forest or other location, advancement of flames, locations of fire fighters, and other ground assets may not be identified as quickly as needed to perform a mission using the point cloud. Also, a need for real-time or near-real-time identification of targets of interest and other related information, and more detailed layering of such information is often needed. Despite these needs, known mapping and surveillance systems and capabilities may not enable the speed, resolution, or more detailed layers of information required for ever more demanding applications.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that takes into account at least some of the issues discussed above as well as possibly other issues.

Point cloud data clustering and classification using implicit geometry representation


A system for automatically deactivating a turn signal displayed on a vehicle, the system including a sensor configured to measure a vehicle turn attribute, and a processing unit in communication with the sensor, wherein the processing unit deactivates the turn signal based on a comparison between the vehicle turn attribute and a predetermined data point referenced by the processing unit.

Certain embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a system and method of indicating a turn by a vehicle, and more particularly to an improved turn signal that is automatically deactivated.
Various vehicles, such as automobiles, use turn signals to indicate an operator's desire to turn the vehicle. Signaling a turn allows one driver to notify other drivers that he/she is about to either change lanes, or make a turn onto another street, off-ramp, parking-lot, drive way, or the like.
Typically, once a full turn is completed, a turn signal activator is deactivated through a mechanical trigger or reset apparatus. For example, in automobiles, when the wheels are straightened after a turn, the mechanical motion of the steering wheel itself is used to cancel the operation of the directional signal.
Various vehicles with a single steerable front wheel, such as motorcycles, may not include a system for an automatic mechanical deactivation of a turn signal. Consequently, operators of these vehicles typically need to manually deactivate the turn signal. Often, an operator forgets to deactivate the turn signal, thereby erroneously notifying other drivers of an impending turn.
Thus, a need exists for an improved system and method of automatically deactivating a turn signal. Further, a need exists for such a system and method that does not rely on a mechanical trigger to deactivate the turn signal.

System and method for indicating a turn by a vehicle


A back-up ring assembly for a wellbore packer that acts as an extrusion limiter for a packing element and engages the wellbore bore, also operating as a slip to anchor the packer in place. A wellbore packer includes a back-up ring that includes a gripping structure on its outer wall-contacting surface that acts both to back up the extrusion of the packing element and to engage the wellbore wall.

Wellbore packers are known that are used to create a seal in a wellbore. The term "wellbore packer" may be used to also encompass a bridge plug, a straddle tool, etc., all of which are employed in wellbore operations to control fluid flow. A wellbore packer is deployed in a well to be expanded between a mandrel and a constraining wall, such as an open wellbore wall, a lined wellbore wall or another liner. The mandrel may have an open bore or may be sealed against fluid flow. The mandrel is often part of a larger structure, such as a wellbore string.
Sometimes, a wellbore tool is needed that operates both to create a seal about, and anchor, the mandrel in a wellbore. Such a tool has a requirement for both a sealing mechanism and an anchoring mechanism. As such, some packers have both a sealing element and mechanism for expanding that sealing element and a separate anchoring slip system and a mechanism for driving the slips against the constraining wall in which the tool is positioned.
The packing element is often formed of deformable materials such as rubber or other elastomers and is squeezed with compression, either mechanically applied or hydraulically applied. When the packing element is squeezed out, it expands radially outwardly and is driven into contact against the constraining wall in which the tool is positioned. At the same time, the backside of the packing element is sealed up against the mandrel and a seal is achieved. The best seal is achieved when the packing element is kept from axially extruding, as such extrusion may lead to seal damage and failure.
The anchoring slip system, for example, may include a cone system including an inclined frustoconical wedge that forces the slip against the constraining wall in which the tool is positioned. It may also contain a ratcheting device called a mandrel lock that locks the slip in the anchored position.
The anchoring slip system is offset axially along the mandrel from the packing element.

Wellbore packer back-up ring assembly, packer and method


A liquid cartridge includes: a valve chamber; a moving member; first and second sealing parts; and a second liquid channel. The valve chamber is defined by a side wall surface including central, first-end side, and second-end side regions. The central region defines a first space having a first cross-sectional area. The first-end side region defines a second space having a second cross-sectional area. The second-end side region defines a third space having a third cross-sectional area. The second and third cross-sectional areas are greater than the first cross-sectional area. The moving member moves from a first position where the first and second sealing parts are positioned within the first and third spaces, respectively, and the valve closes the second liquid channel, to a second position where the first and second sealing parts are positioned within the second and first spaces, respectively, and the valve opens the second liquid channel.

An inkjet recording device well known in the art records images on paper by ejecting ink stored in an ink cartridge onto the paper through nozzles formed in a recording head. As an ink cartridge that is mounted in such an inkjet recording device, an ink cartridge including a single valve mechanism for opening and closing both an ink channel and an air channel has been known.
With this ink cartridge, an ink delivery tube inserted into a through-hole formed in a tubular member moves a valve element against a frictional force generated between the ink delivery tube and the tubular member and also against an urging force of a coil spring, thereby opening the ink channel. Further, the ink delivery tube moves the tubular member against a frictional force generated between the tubular member and a wall surface defining a large diameter hole and also against the urging force of the coil spring, thereby opening the air channel.

Liquid cartridge capable of reducing force required to open air channel and liquid channel


A dishwasher includes a sump for receiving washing water, a washing pump for pumping the washing water from the sump, a drain chamber for receiving the pumped washing water, and a filtering unit disposed above the drain chamber. The filtering unit includes a contaminated water for receiving and filtering the washing water that has passed through the drain chamber.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dishwasher, and more particularly, to a dishwasher that can reduce washing water consumption and power consumption.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A dishwasher is a machine for washing dishes by spraying washing water at high pressure and drying them.
The dishwasher includes a rack, a spray arm and a driving unit within a case. The rack accommodates dishes and the spray arm sprays washing water. The spray arm is disposed at an upper or lower side of the rack.
The driving unit includes a sump and a pump. The sump collects the washing water. The washing water pumped by the pump flows through a washing water pipe and is sprayed through the spray arm. The dishes are washed by the sprayed washing water.
The driving unit for pumping the washing water by using the pump includes various filters and pipes to properly supply the washing water and recollect the washing water sprayed onto the dishes.
Meanwhile, if the washing water sprayed onto the rack is directly drained out, it is a waste of the washing water. Accordingly, there is a demand for a dishwasher having a driving unit that can effectively reuse the washing water.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Block copolymers having a repeating unit comprised of polysiloxane and urea segments are prepared by copolymerizing certain diaminopolysiloxanes with diisocyanates. The invention also provides novel diaminopolysiloxanes useful as precursors in the preparation of the block copolymers and a method of making such diaminopolysiloxanes. Pressure-sensitive adhesive compositions comprising the block copolymer are also provided as are sheet materials coated with the same.

Block copolymers of polydimethylsiloxane polymers based solely on polydimethyl-siloxane lack tensile strength. Consequently, several references suggest ways for conveniently increasing the strength of these siloxane polymer elastomers. For example, various references suggest that mechanical properties of polysiloxane polymers can be improved substantially through the preparation of block copolymers which include as a repeating unit a "soft" polysiloxane block or segment and any of a variety of other "hard" blocks or segments such as polyurethane. See, for example, (Ward) U.K. Patent GB 2 140 444B, published Jun. 5, 1985, (Cavezzan et al) U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,758, (Nyilas) U.S. Pat. No. 3,562,352, and (Kira) U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,343.
Segmented polydimethylsiloxane polyurea elastomers, with silicone segment molecular weights less than about 4,000, prepared from silicone diamines and diisocyanates are described in Polymer, Vol. 25, pages 1800-1816, December, 1984. This reference reveals that synthesis of higher molecular weight silicone segments could not be achieved by the disclosed method. This process also leads to significant amounts of monofunctional and non-functional silicone contaminants. These contaminants remain in the polyurea elastomers prepared from such diamines.

Organopolysiloxane-polyurea block copolymer release agents

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company


A mapping program includes an overlay grid of intersecting lines represented by two series of numbers. An origin is defined and an area of interest is defined. The origin corresponds to a location on a map. One series of numbers relates to longitude; while the other series of numbers relates to latitude. Each series of numbers are represented by two or more digits. Each digit represents up to 35 different numerals or letters. When two digits are used to represent a location, the combined number of lines for each series of number may comprise up to 1225 lines. Thus, the total number of lines represented by each series of number corresponds to a power of the base number of possibilities up to 35; the power being represented by the number of digits used in each series of numbers. These numbers are overlaid onto a map having points corresponding to actual longitudinal and latitudinal locations. A device for converting between the latitude and longitude is provided. A storage medium is also provided for storing a series of steps to perform the operations.

The present invention relates to systems, devices and methods for precisely determining a position on a map. More specifically, the present invention relates to a novel method and apparatus for determining a position with a new coordinate system. Characters represented by letters and numbers are used to reduce the quantity of numbers ordinarily necessary for representing a position on a map.
Any location on earth may be described by two sets of characters that represent coordinates on a map. Latitude and longitude are currently used for representing positions on a map. Both latitude and longitude are angles measured in degrees, minutes of arc and seconds of arc. To specify the latitude of a point on the surface of the earth, a line is drawn from the origin or center of the earth to the point. The equator has latitude of zero, while the North and South Poles have latitudes of ninety degrees. An elevation angle between the equator and the point is calculated. This elevation angle is expressed as mentioned above. Latitude corresponds to a North and South movement of a person or object across a surface area of the Earth.
Longitude "meridians" extend from the North Pole to the South Pole. Every meridian crosses the equator which is divided into 360 degrees. The longitude angle of a point is defined by the value where a meridian crosses the point and the equator. Longitude corresponds to an East and West movement of a person or object across the surface area of the Earth.
One problem associated with using latitude and longitude coordinates to represent a location is the difficult nature of easily remembering a particular location when it does not correspond to an absolute elevation angle and particular meridian. To specify a particular point of interest, as many as 18 digits may be required, an example might be W 137.23145, N 120.12359. Often, users will give directions to a particular point by providing an address or coordinates. Directions may be provided that include landmarks an approximate distances.
Others have tackled the problem of providing directions to a particular point by assigning addresses to the point. This requires the use of massive databases that contain all of the address information. Until now, there were no ways in which individuals or business could easily specify the location of their residences without the use of a cumbersome coordinate code or address.
The present invention overcomes this problem by providing a system and apparatus that easily converts a location from a standard latitude and longitude format into an easily recognizable format. Thus, a user may easily represent his residence, place of business or point of interest in an easy format that may be represented by a string of characters, for example, 1RZ2A44B. This string of characters, when recognized in the format of the present invention, intuitively allows a user to proceed in a general direction towards a point of interest. Moreover, if a character sequence representative as a starting point is known, the user easily recognizes a direction to proceed.
Through, use of the present system, any location in the continental United States may be represented by eight digits or characters to within ten feet. By adding an additional character or two, the elevation from sea level of a particular point of interest may also be represented. The instant invention allows users to input a "location code" in a handheld device such as a global position system "GPS" unit, mobile telephone system or other such device having a microprocessor and including a software storage medium having a software program stored therein that converts any location on a map into a series of characters that may be easily recognized and intuitively used. These devices may include a microprocessor equipped with an algorithm that converts the location code into coordinates to provide a user with directions and distances to a point, estimated time of arrival, bearing and the like. A storage medium is also provided that includes the process for realizing the invention. The invention may also be useful in military application for easily specifying target locations for guided weapons systems.

Mapping program including a map, process and system for precisely representing or determining a location on the map and an electronic device and a storage medium therefor


A file system that does not conflate item lifetime with the item's inclusion in an organizational structure of the file system is described herein. In addition, the file system's organizational structure is not limited to directory trees, but instead may use any directed acyclic graph (DAG). Items, once stored into the file system, may be maintained until affirmatively deleted by a client of the file system, regardless of whether the item is part of a DAG or not. Items may be placed in file regions, which are conceptual workspaces for a client to control item lifetime and to organize items into any DAG structure of the user's choosing. Items may be concurrently stored in multiple DAGs, and each file region may have one or more independent DAGs. An item's placement in a DAG may also be used to govern file properties such as namespace, security, privacy, and read/write attributes.

Computers store files on storage devices such as disk drives. The disk drive only provides a place to store data, similar to an empty file cabinet. Just as an empty filing cabinet does not come with any predefined filing system for files (i.e., users of the filing cabinet must create the filing system or organizational structure themselves, e.g., by alphabetizing files), a hard drive is also, by default, just an empty storage space. By itself, the only way to access data on a hard drive is by either specifying the data's physical location (e.g., by specifying the cylinder, head, and sector of the hard drive where a file is stored), or by its logical location (e.g., the 21,671st block) on the disk. Once the hard disk drive is installed on a computer, the computer uses a file system to keep track of files stored on the hard disk drive in an easily-accessible manner.
Known file systems unduly limit how the operating system and user of the file system can organize files in the file system. That is, known file systems typically require users to organize items in a tree of files and directories, where directories are in fact a special kind of file identified by the file system. Even if a file system supports additional data structures, this capability is typically not exposed to the file system's clients (i.e., end-users and applications). FIG. 2 illustrates a brief example of a typical organizational structure 201 of present file systems. As illustrated in FIG. 2, known file systems use a tree to organize directories (illustrated with rounded ends) and files (illustrated with squared off ends). In a tree structure, an item's location and organization are conflated; every item must be in one and in exactly one directory. This is how the user must organize his or her files, and the user is unable to place an item in multiple organizations without creating a new copy of the item.
Typical file systems use two tables or databases in conjunction with each other to organize files. The first table or database is a lookup table that identifies the physical location at which a file is stored on a storage device such as a hard drive. The second table defines the organizational structure of the files. These tables are generically referred to herein as the location table (LOC) and organizational table (ORG), respectively. The organizational table stores information regarding holding links, i.e., that one item is the parent of another item. Some file systems may combine the location table and the organizational table into a single table or structure, but still require that elements of both tables be present in order for the file system to operate properly. For example, in the NT brand file system marketed by Microsoft Corporation, or NTFS, a Master File Table acts as both the location table and as the organizational table. Similarly, the Unix file system, UFS, uses a table of i-nodes that acts as both the location table and the organizational table for files. Directories are stored as a special kind of file, where the directory "file" stores a list of filenames within the directory and their respective i-nodes.
In these and other known file systems, the file system keeps a file stored on the physical storage device as long as the file is located in at least one location as defined by holding links in the organizational table, i.e., there is at least one holding link pointing to the file. That is, if a holding link for a file is deleted from the organizational table, and there are no more holding links pointing to that file, then the file system removes the file's entry in the location table (regardless of whether the file is physically overwritten on the storage device). The storage device may then use the storage space to write new data. For example, if a user were to "delete" the file C:\PROGRAMS\MICROSOFT\OFFICE\WORD\FILE.DOC depicted in FIG. 2, the file system first removes the file's entry from the organizational table. If the file has no other entries in the location table, i.e., the file is not also stored somewhere else, then the file system removes the file's entry in the location table, thus freeing the space for other data. Typically, the file system maintains a reference count of the number of ancestors (called "holding links") any given item has. When the last holding link on an item is removed, the item is "deleted" By removing the file's reference in the location table. However, this is undesirable from an end-user perspective, as it limits the organizational structures that a file system can use.
Due to the above restrictions and limitations (e.g., deletion as a by-product of removing a file from the tree), file systems do not allow clients to organize data in data structures other than tree-like hierarchies of directories and files. Users want to be able to organize and de-organize items, in a variety of organizational data structures, without concern that a given item will be deleted. It would be an advancement in the art if the lifetime of an item were separate from its organization in the file system. That is, it would be an advancement to provide a file system that does not conflate item lifetime with organizational structure, where an act of organizing or de-organizing the item does not affect its lifetime. Thus, it would be an advancement in the art to provide a file system that does not limit the types of data structures in which the operating system and/or user can organize files, and also that does not delete a file simply because it is removed from all organizational structures within the file system or has no holding links pointing to the file.


The invention relates to a device for the exact measurement of gases with a plurality of sensors which are evaluated by means of a microcontroller so that high accuracy of measurement is obtained independently of the environmental conditions, which are also measured.

Stationary and portable gas flow and pressure measuring devices are required for the calibration, production and standardization of devices of all types. Devices available to date have the disadvantage that the gas flow measurements are influenced by the environmental conditions, and miscalibrations therefore occur. This is very problematic especially in the case of medical devices, such as respiratory and anesthesia devices. Since the devices are used worldwide, miscalibrations also result from incorrect operation of the devices.
There have to date been several efforts to perform an exact gas measurement. The following measuring principles are known:
Ultrasound
Two combined ultrasonic transmitter/receiver units which are arranged at an angle to the inflow direction. These send an ultrasound pulse at regular intervals and wait for the reception of the pulse of the other transmitter. If ultrasound waves cover a defined distance s in a known medium they require for this purpose a time t dependent on their propagation velocity. The propagation velocity of a wave is thus dependent on the transit time of the signal from one transmitter/receiver to the other.
Volume Counter with Measuring Vanes
A vane wheel is caused to rotate so that its speed is proportional to the mean flow rate.
Wind Pressure Method
The medium flows through a nozzle or aperture. The cross-section is narrowed, which accelerates the flow rate. In order to avoid vortex formation, venturi nozzles are generally used. The mass flow is then calculated from the pressure difference across the nozzle.
Laminar Flow Elements
Like the wind pressure method, laminar flow elements are based on the fact that the flow can be calculated from a pressure difference. In contrast thereto, however, the flow is linear relative to the measured pressure difference. In medicine, the laminar flow elements are known as pneumotachographs.
Hot-Wire Anenometer
A wire or a surface is heated to a temperature which is above the ambient temperature. Molecules which strike this surface and then fly off again absorb kinetic energy there. The heat loss of the heated surface is proportional to the temperature difference between the heated surface and the environment and to the number of molecules striking per unit time.
All these known structures are at their limits, and the exactness of the measurement is restricted. Particularly in the area of medicine, however, it was intended to increase the accuracy further. This is the object of the invention. It is intended to improve the accuracy of gas flow measurement.
The measurement properties of the individual methods differ and, depending on the application, one or other measuring device—optionally optimized—is used.
Particularly in the case of special devices in the area of medicine, such as, for example, respiratory devices, anesthesia devices, etc., however, a very wide range of applications are present in a device, so that it was necessary to date to measure using a plurality of measuring devices, or to be satisfied with a certain accuracy of measurement—for example for standardization or monitoring purposes.


The present invention provides a light emitting diode (LED) package and the fabrication method thereof. The LED package includes a lower metal layer, and a first silicon layer, a first insulation layer, a second silicon layer, a second insulation layer, and a package electrode pattern formed in their order on the lower metal layer. The LED package also includes a spacer having a cavity, formed on the electrode pattern. The LED package further includes an LED mounted in the cavity by flip-chip bonding to the electrode patterns, and an optical element attached to the upper surface of the spacer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light emitting diode (LED) package, and more particularly, to an LED package which is superior in heat discharge quality, compact in size, and appropriate for mass production, and to a fabrication method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, an LED using a compound of semiconductor material such as GaAs, AlGaAs, GaN, and AlGaInP has been developed to realize diverse colors of light source. The factors contributing to the characteristics of LED products include color, luminance, and light-conversion efficiency. The characteristics of an LED product are influenced by the primary factors including compound and structure of semiconductor material used in the LED, and also greatly by the secondary factors including the package structure for mounting the LED. As LEDs have been extensively applied to diverse fields such as indoor/outdoor illumination, automobile headlights, backlight units of LCD display devices, there have been an increasing number of characteristics desired in an LED package.
Especially, in order to be used for illumination, the LED generates a high output of light and requires input of high-voltage electricity. Therefore, the operation of the LED generates much heat. If the heat generated in the LED is not effectively discharged, the temperature of the LED increases, deteriorating the LED characteristics, and in turn, shortening the life of the LED. Therefore, there have been efforts to effectively discharge the heat generated from the LED. In order to improve the heat discharge quality of the LED package, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2003-218398 discloses techniques of using a separated metal substrate with a narrow slit for an LED package substrate.
In addition, with the current trend of miniaturization and light weight of electronic components, there has been an increasing demand for a very thin, compact size LED package. For example, the LED package used in the backlight unit needs to be manufactured in compact size in order to miniaturize the backlight unit. However, the conventional LED packages have not satisfied such needs described above, and also the manufacturing process is complicated.
FIG. 1 is a sectional view illustrating an overall structure of a conventional LED package 10. This LED package 10 uses air as the medium of light. Referring to FIG. 1, the LED package 10 includes a metal substrate 2 with a narrow slit 6, a spacer 4 made of insulation substrate, and a cover plate 9 made of transparent glass. The slit is filled with insulator 3 such as epoxy resin, so that the metal substrate 4 forms two electrodes 2a and 2b that are separated from each other. The metal substrate 2, the spacer 4, and the cover plate 9 are adhered to each other by adhesive sheets 5 and 8 interpositioned between them. In the center of the spacer 4, a cavity or a through hole 4b is formed, and an LED chip 7 is received in the through hole 4b. The surface of the through hole 4b is coated with a metal film 11. This metal film 11 functions as a reflective surface on which the LED light emitted to the side is reflected upward. The LED 7 is flip-chip bonded to the two electrodes 2a and 2b of the metal substrate 2 via bumps 7a and 7b. The gap between the LED 7 and the metal substrate 2 may be filled with underfill resin.
The LED package 10 uses a metal substrate 2 to enhance the discharge quality of the heat generated from the LED 7. However, in order to manufacture the conventional LED package with the above construction, the metal substrate 2 needs to be finely processed to divide the metal substrate 2 into parts by a narrow slit 6. Therefore, the fabrication process of the LED package 10 is not easy, hindering obtainment of a sufficiently thin, compact size package. Furthermore, it is difficult to flip-chip bond the LED chip 7 precisely on the two electrodes 2a and 2b such that the LED chip 7 is positioned between the two bumps 7a and 7b.

Light emitting diode package and fabrication method thereof


The present invention relates to a method of treatment of hot flushes with a 5-HT2c receptor agonist and in particular to the use of the selective 5-HT2C receptor agonists 1-[6-chloro-5-(trifluoromethyl)-2-pyridinyl]-piperazine and (S)-(+)-3-[(2,3-dihydro-5-methoxy-1H-inden-4-yl)oxy-pyrrolidine or pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts thereof for the manufacture of a pharmaceutical formulation adapted for the treatment of hot flushes.

Use of serotonergic compound for a method of treatment of hot flushes in post-menopausal women.
The invention relates to the use of a serotonergic compound for the treatment of hot flushes.
The most well-known complaints of the (post)-menopausal syndrome are due to changes in temperature regulation, causing sudden crises of feelings of excessive body heat (hot flushes). These symptoms are highly disturbing for a large proportion of menopausal women, leading to therapy requests to the medical profession. Usually, replacement of estrogens is selected as remedy. Less commonly and more recently explored is the selection of non-hormonal compounds as medicine for treating hot flushes. For example, the use of serotonergic uptake inhibitors and serotonin (=5-hydroxy-tryptophan=5-HT) antagonists for the treatment of hot flushes is discussed in Berendsen, Maturitas Vol 36, pp 155-164, 2000. Some beneficial effects of 5-HT2A antagonists and serotonin uptake inhibitors were reported. The beneficial effect of the serotonin reuptake inhibitors sertraline and paroxetine were described in Plouffe et al., Delaware Medical Journal 69: pp 481-482, 1997, Roth and Scher, Psycho-Oncology 7, pp 129-132, 1998, and Stearns et al., Annals of Oncology 11, pp 17-22, 2000.
It has now been found that an agonist for 5-HT2C receptors in an organism can be used for a method of treatment of hot flushes.
Unexpectedly, these 5-HT2C-agonists produce better results than SSRI""s against hot flushes in view of the extent to which side effects are compensated for by efficacy.
Thus, the invention provides for a method of treatment of hot flushes with a 5-HT2C receptor agonist. In particular, a selective 5-HT2C receptor agonist is preferred. A selective 5-HT2C receptor agonist in the context of the description of this invention means a 5-HT2C receptor agonist which is more active as agonist on 5-HT2C receptors than on other 5-HT receptor subtypes, such as 5-HT1A, 5-HT2A and/or 5-HT3 receptors. The selective 5-HT2C receptor agonist should preferably be such that it is at least 5 times more active on 5-HT2C receptors than on the other serotonin receptors. The 5-HT agonists described in EP 370 560 are particularly suitable for the use of this invention. Specifically 1-[6-chloro-5-(trifluoromethyl)-2-pyridinyl]-piperazine and its pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts have the most desirable properties out of this group for the use of this invention. More preferred is the use of a 5-HT2C agonist being at least 10 times more active on 5-HT2C receptors relative to 5-HT2A receptors. Most preferred is the use of the azetidines or pyrrolidine compounds disclosed in EP863136 for use in the treatment of hot flushes, and in particular the compound (S)-(+)-3-[(2,3-dihydro-5-methoxy-1H-inden-4-yl)oxy-pyrrolidine or its pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts described in that disclosure.
Since the treatment of the present invention is not based on hormone replacement these treatment agents are preferably used in those circumstances were treatment with a hormone or a hormone receptor agonist bears higher risks. Therefore, an aspect of this invention is that it makes a treatment available for hot flushes in patients at risk for hormone dependent tumour growth. Such patients are the group of patients with ovariectomy in view of estrogen dependent tumour growth. Another aspect of the invention is that it makes a treatment available for hot flushes in patients with adverse feminizing responses to estrogens. In particular, male patients functionally or pharmacologically castrated for the purpose of removing endogenous hormones can be treated for hot flushes with 5-HT2C-agonists. Hot flushes not only occur as complaint during menopause, but also in certain women during specific points in time of the mensual cycle, for example before and during the days of menstruation. It is an aspect of this invention that hot flushes in those circumstances can be very well non-hormonally treated with a 5-HT2C agonist.
The terms used in this description have the meaning according to common understanding of these terms. The accepted use of the terminology to indicate serotonin receptor subtypes is for example used in Barnes and Sharp, Neuropharmacology 38, pp 1083-1152, 1999. A serotonergic compound is a compound which directly or indirectly, for example as agonist or as serotonin reuptake inhibitor activates serotonin receptors in an organism. An agonist for a receptor is a compound which produces an effect caused by conformational changes of the receptor by direct binding to the receptor. For the 5-HT2C receptor the agonist mimicks at least partially the effect of serotonin. Thus, a partial agonist is explicitly included within the scope of this invention. It is in many circumstances beneficial to use a partial agonist rather than a full agonist. The former might be less efficacious but may have less risk for full-blown adverse overdose effects.
Determination of selectivity of a receptor agonist can be done by methods well known in the art. The basic technique is with binding experiments in which the compound is tested for binding affinity to the subtypes of receptors. Alternatively, selectivity can be determined with in vitro expression systems in which a biochemical parameter, such as cyclic adenosine monophosphate or phosphoinositol production or inhibition is used to determine receptor activation by an agonist. In vivo methods can also be used when selective models for testing receptor stimulation are available. Some differences in the selectivity results obtained with these methods can occur. Usually, and under the condition that the test is accepted as reliable, the in vivo selectivity is the preferred indicator for determination of selectivity of a compound over in vitro methods. Results with in vitro expression of receptor activity are in turn more preferred for determination of the selectivity than binding experiments. For a suitable collection of techniques to determine the properties of a 5-HT2C agonist reference is made to Martin et al., 5-HT2C receptor agonists: Pharmacological characteristics and therapeutic potential. J. Pharmacol and Experimental Therapeutics 286: 913-924, 1998.
The present invention further includes the use of a 5-HT2C-agonist for the manufacture of a medicament for the treatment of hot flushes.
Suitable acid addition salts include hydrochloric, fumaric, maleic, citric or succinic acid, these acids being mentioned only by way of illustration and without implied limitation. A preferred salt is the hydrochloric acid salt.
The amount of a 5-HT2C agonist, also referred to herein as the active ingredient, which is required to achieve a therapeutic effect will, of course, vary with the particular compound, the route of administration and the age and other conditions of the recipient.
A suitable daily dose for any of the two compounds chemically named above will be in the range of 5 to 140 mg of the base per person per day, preferably in the range of 20 to 70 mg of the base per recipient per day. In the case of tolerance development, treatments can be further optimalised by increasing the dose up to 5 times in the course of a chronic treatment in humans. The desired dose may be presented as one, two, three or more sub-doses administered at appropriate intervals throughout the day.
While it is possible for the active ingredient to be administered alone, it is preferable to present it as a pharmaceutical formulation. Accordingly, the present invention further provides a pharmaceutical formulation for use in the treatment of hot flushes comprising a 5-HT2C-agonist, together with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier thereof and optionally other therapeutic agents. The carrier must be xe2x80x9cacceptablexe2x80x9d in the sense of being compatible with the other ingredients of the formulation and not deleterious to the recipients thereof. The invention further includes a pharmaceutical formulation, as hereinbefore described, in combination with packaging material suitable for the pharmaceutical formulation, said packaging material including instructions for the use of the pharmaceutical formulation in the treatment of hot flush.
Formulations include those suitable for oral, rectal, nasal, topical (including transdermal, buccal and sublingual), vaginal or parenteral (including subcutaneous, intramuscular, intravenous, intradermal and epidural) administration. The formulations may be prepared by any methods well known in the art of pharmacy, for example, using methods such as those described in Gennaro et al.,Remington""s Pharmaceutical Sciences (18th ed., Mack Publishing company, 1990, see especially Part 8: Pharmaceutical Preparations and their Manufacture). Such methods include the step of bringing into association the active ingredient with the carrier which constitutes one or more accessory ingredients. Such accessory ingredients include those conventional in the art, such as, fillers, binders, diluents, disintegrants, lubricants, colorants, flavoring agents and wetting agents.
Formulations suitable for oral administration may be presented as discrete units such as tablets or capsules each containing a predetermined amount of active ingredient; as a powder or granulates; as a solution or suspension. The active ingredient may also be presented as a bolus or paste, or may be contained within liposomes or microparticles.
Formulations for rectal administration may be presented as a suppository or enema.
For parenteral administration, suitable formulations include aqueous and non-aqueous sterile injection. The formulations may be presented in unit-dose or multi-dose containers, for example, sealed vials and ampoules, and may be stored in a freeze dried (lyophilised) condition requiring only the addition of the sterile liquid carrier, for example, water prior to use.
Formulations suitable for administration by nasal inhalation include fine dusts or mists which may be generated by means of metered dose pressurised aerosols, nebulisers or insufflators.
Formulations may, for example, be presented in a suitable sustained release form, for example, in a device such as the Minipump(trademark).
The compounds according to the present invention are non-toxic.
The the compounds 1-[6-chloro-5-(trifluoromethyl)-2-pyridinyl]-piperazine and (S)-(+)-3-[(2,3-dihydro-5-methoxy-1H-inden-4-yl)oxy-pyrrolidine, and their pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts may be prepared by any method known in the art for the preparation of a compound of similar structure. Typically the compound 1-[6-chloro-5-(trifluoromethyl)-2-pyridinyl]-piperazine can be prepared by the methods described in EP 370 560, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference, whereas the compound (S)-(+)-3-[(2,3-dihydro-5-methoxy-1H-inden-4-yl)oxy-pyrrolidine and its pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts can be prepared by the methods described in EP863136, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The following example is for illustration and should not be considered to be limiting in anyway:

Serotonergic compound for a method of treatment of hot flushes in post-menopausal women


A resistance memory element, a phase change memory element, a resistance random access memory device, an information reading method thereof, a phase change random access memory device, and an information reading method thereof are provided. The resistance random access memory device includes an array of resistance memory element arranged in a matrix. Each resistance memory element includes a substrate in which a source region and a drain region are formed along the column direction and a channel region is formed between the source region and the drain region, a bit line formed on the channel region out of a conductive material to have a shape extending along the arrangement direction of the columns, a resistance switching layer formed on the bit line out of a material of which electrical resistance is switched by an electrical signal, and a word line formed on the resistance switching layer out of a conductive material to have a shape extending along the row direction.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a non-volatile memory device, and more particularly, to a resistance random access memory device and a phase change random access memory device.
2. Related Art
With recent brilliant development of the information communication industry, a need for various memory devices has increased. Particularly, memory devices for mobile terminals and MP3 players require a non-volatile property that written data is not erased even when it is turned off. Since the non-volatile memory devices can electrically store and erase data and can store data even with no power, applications thereof have increased in various fields. However, a known dynamic random access memory (DRAM) formed of semiconductor has a volatile property that stored information is erased with no power, and thus non-volatile memory devices to be replaced for the DRAM have been studied.
As a representative non-volatile memory device, a flash memory device having an electrically-isolated floating gate was actively studied in the past. However, a magnetic RAM (MRAM) using a magnetic resistance changing phenomenon, a ferroelectric RAM (FRAM) using a spontaneous polarization phenomenon of ferroelectrics, a resistance RAM (ReRAM) using a resistance switching or conductivity switching phenomenon of a metal oxide film, and a phase change RAM (PRAM) using a phase change phenomenon were studied as the non-volatile memory devices in recent years. Particularly, the resistance random access memory and the phase change random access memory have a relatively simple structure and a relatively simple manufacturing process in comparison with the other non-volatile memory devices and thus have attracted much attention.
The resistance RAM exhibits a characteristic that oxide is switched from a high resistance state (HRS) to a low resistance state (LRS) when an electrical signal is applied to a basic element structure of metal-oxide-metal. The oxide is switched from the LRS to the HRS with another electrical signal. It is called "set" that the oxide is switched from the HRS to the LRS. On the contrary, it is called "reset" that the oxide is switched from the LRS to the HRS. The set state means the LRS and the reset state means the HRS. Information is written to and read from the resistance RAM by the use of the switching of resistance.
The phase change RAM includes a transistor and a storage node. The storage node has a structure in which a lower electrode, a phase change layer, and an upper electrode are sequentially stacked and the transistor is used as a switching element. When the phase change layer of the phase change RAM is crystalline, it corresponds to the LRS. When the phase change layer is amorphous, it corresponds to the HRS. It is called "set" that the phase change layer is changed from the HRS to the LRS, that is, that the phase change layer is changed from the amorphous state to the crystalline state. On the contrary, it is called "reset" that the phase change layer is changed from the LRS to the HRS, that is, that the phase change layer is changed from the crystalline state to the amorphous state. As described above, the set state means the LRS and the reset state means the HRS.
When elements exhibiting the resistance switching phenomenon are integrated using a transistor as a switching element like the known DRAM, the resistance RAM has a structure very similar to the phase change RAM. However, because of the deterioration in performance of the transistors with the increase in degree of integration, a cross bar array structure is more preferable than the above-mentioned structure.
The known resistance RAM is shown in FIG. 1A. As shown in FIG. 1A, the known resistance RAM 100 has a structure in which resistance memory elements 140 having a resistance switching layer 120 disposed between electrodes 110 and 130 perpendicular to each other are arranged in a matrix. For example, information of "1" and "0" is stored depending on the resistance state of the resistance switching layer 120 of each resistance memory element 140, that is, the LRS and the HRS, respectively.
The writing and reading of information to and from the resistance memory element 140 will be described now. In order to write information to a selected resistance memory element 140, voltages for switching the resistance switching layer 120 to the LRS or the HRS are applied to the electrodes 110 and 130 of the selected resistance memory element 140. In order to read information therefrom, reading voltages are applied to the electrodes 110 and 130 of the selected resistance memory element 140 and current flowing in one electrode 110 or 130 is measured. That is, when the magnitude of current is relatively great, it corresponds to "1" as the LRS. When the magnitude of current is relatively small, it corresponds to "0" as the HRS.
When information is read from the resistance Ram 100, there is a problem that the information is influenced by the resistance state of the resistance switching layer of another resistance memory element in addition to the resistance state of the resistance switching layer 120 of the resistance memory element 140 selected to read information therefrom. Such a problem is shown in FIG. 1B.
The reading of information from the resistance memory element 151 having the resistance switching layer 121 in the HRS will be described now. In order to read information, a reading voltage should be applied across the electrodes 111 and 131 of the selected resistance memory element 151. For example, 0 V as a reference voltage is applied to the electrode 111 and Vread as a reading voltage is applied to the electrode 131. Current flows in the direction of an arrow 170 and information is read by measuring the value of the current. When the resistance switching layer 121 of the selected resistance memory element 151 is in the HRS, the measured current value should be relatively small, which can be said that the information is correctly read.
When the voltages are applied in the above-mentioned method, current also flows in the direction of an arrow 180, in addition to the arrow 170. In this case, as shown in FIG. 1B, when the resistance switching layers 122, 123, and 124 of the peripheral resistance memory elements 152, 153, and 154 are in the LRS, the value of current flowing in the direction of the arrow 180 is greater than the value of current flowing in the direction of the arrow 170. Accordingly, the resistance switching layer 121 of the selected resistance memory element 151 is in the HRS but the relatively great value of current may be measured to read the information as the LRS.
Similarly to the resistance RAM, the above-mentioned problem with the erroneous reading of information occurs in the phase change RAM.

Resistance memory element, phase change memory element, resistance random access memory device, information reading method thereof, phase change random access memory device, and information reading method thereof


A stud spacer and mounting system is provided which consists of a plurality of studs, an elongated track member is positioned upon a flat horizontal surface, whereby the track member will substitute for a bottom sole plate. A structure is on the track member, for positioning and retaining the studs vertically in stationary spaced apart locations therealong, so that sheet rock boards can be secured flush to the studs when a wall is being constructed.

1. Field of the Invention
The instant invention relates generally to stud locating tools and more specifically-it relates to a stud spacer and mounting system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous stud locating tools have been provided in prior art that are adapted to be used for measuring the proper locations along preexisting walls for the studs to be secured thereto. While these units may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as heretofore described.


The invention relates to poly-amide bonded hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) stationary phases and novel HILIC methods for use in the characterization of large biological molecules modified with polar groups, known to those skilled in the art as glycans. The invention particularly provides novel, poly-amide bonded materials designed for efficient separation of large biomolecules, e.g. materials having a large percentage of larger pores (i.e. wide pores). Furthermore, the invention advantageously provides novel HILIC methods that can be used in combination with the stationary phase materials described herein to effectively separate protein and peptide glycoforms by eliminating previously unsolved problems, such as on-column aggregation of protein samples, low sensitivity of chromatographic detection of the glycan moieties, and low resolution of peaks due to restricted pore diffusion and long intra/inter-particle diffusion distances.

Hydrophilic interaction chromatography (or hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography, HILIC) is a variant of normal phase liquid chromatography that partly overlaps with other chromatographic applications such as ion chromatography and reversed phase liquid chromatography. The stationary phase of HILIC is a polar and hydrophilic phase which results in enhanced retention for polar analytes. The mobile phase of HILIC is a reversed-phase type high organic eluent, for example, a mixture of water and acetonitrile. A mechanism of separating analytes in HILIC can be a combination of partitioning, ion exchange and reverse-phase chromatography.
Prior to the present invention, HILIC has seen limited use for the separation and analysis of large proteinaceuous biomolecules, such as glycoproteins. The authors of T. Tetaz et al., J. Chomatogr., A 1218, 5892-5896 (2011), explored the analysis of intact soluble proteins using HILIC with mediocre results, presenting chromatograms indicative of relatively low resolution separations. Similarly, the authors of, "Separations of Intact Glycoproteins by HILIC" at the 33rd International Symposium and Exhibit on the Separation and Characterization of Biologically Important Molecules, Jul. 17-19, 2013 in Boston, Mass., USA, expressed that glycoprotein separations by HILIC would be of significant interest though at present this poses a significant challenge. Their presented work was limited to separation of small (<20 kDa) glycoproteins.
Moreover, Guillarme ("What You Need to Know About HILIC" Jul. 1, 2013 LCGC NORTH AMERICA Volume 31, Issue 7, pp. 560-563) notes that the peak shape of large proteins (greater than 20 kDa) using HILIC may be unacceptable as, prior to the present invention, optimized wide-pore HILIC phases are not available.
There remains a need for HILIC materials designed for high efficiency/high resolution separations of large biomolecules (e.g. larger average pore diameters) along with improved chromatographic methodologies for the analysis of such samples, including those containing proteinaceous biomolecules modified with polar groups known to those skilled in the art as glycans.

Materials for hydrophilic interaction chromatography and processes for preparation and use thereof for analysis of glycoproteins and glycopeptides


An omniwheel is presented that may be included with additional omniwheels in a wheel assembly, which can be used in nearly any omnidirectional device such as a robot, a park ride or other vehicle, and the like. The omniwheel includes a wheel support or frame, and a first roller pivotally supported on the wheel support. Further, the omniwheel includes a second roller pivotally supported on the wheel support. The first and second rollers are each generally spherical in shape and have equal outer diameters. The first and second rollers each has a pair of recessed contact surfaces at opposite poles. Each of the first and second rollers is supported in the wheel support for freewheeling about a rotation axis passing through the opposite poles, and the first and second rollers are oriented in the wheel support to have their rotation axes offset relative to each other by an offset angle.

1. Field of the Description
The present description relates, in general, to designs for omniwheels and omnidirectional vehicles (or other omnidirectional devices), and, more particularly, to a wheel assembly with multi-sphere omniwheels (e.g., two or more spherically shaped rollers or "sub-wheels" make up each omniwheel of the wheel assembly) that can be used in any omnidirectional device such as an omnidirectional vehicle for use in an amusement park ride or omnidirectional apparatus for moving objects over both smooth and rough or contoured surfaces, which can be problematic for conventional omniwheels to smoothly traverse.
2. Relevant Background
Omniwheels (or omnidirectional wheels, poly wheels, or the like) have been in use for many years and are often employed in holonomic drive systems. Well-known omniwheels are wheels with small discs or rollers around the circumference or rim of a larger wheel (or the omniwheel hub), and small discs or rollers provide the contact surface for the omniwheel and are arranged, typically, to be perpendicular to the turning direction. The effect is that the omniwheel can be driven with full force by rotating a shaft along the major axis of the omniwheel while still being able to slide laterally via free or undriven rotation of the small discs or rollers about their minor axes.
In general, omnidirectional wheels or omniwheels allow movements of a supported vehicle or object in all directions (i.e., forward/backward, sideways, and spin) freely and immediately. In particular, omnidirection wheels allow a vehicle or supported object to move sideways without the intermediate maneuvers that are need for "parallel parking" a vehicle with conventional wheels. Mathematically, omniwheels are holonomic wheels while conventional wheels are nonholonomic. As noted above, omniwheels generally include a large wheel or hub that is rimmed with smaller rollers around the circumference, and the rollers are set perpendicularly to the major axis of the large wheel or hub. In forward/backward motions, the large wheel or hub rotates about the major axis and presents a large diameter with minimal friction and the ability to overcome obstacles such as bumps on a surface. In sideways motions, the typically much smaller rollers present a smaller diameter than the large wheel or hub and, as a result, often are unable to overcome obstacles including relatively small bumps in a surface over which the omniwheel is rolling. Effectively, traditional omniwheels are asymmetric as the ratio of the largest diameter (e.g., of the main/large wheel or hub) to the smallest diameter (e.g., of the smaller roller) determines the uniformity.
A design challenge arises when it is desired to provide a wheel (and suspension in many cases) system that can allow a vehicle or object supported by the wheel system to move in all directions over a bumpy surface. Traditional wheels (not omniwheels) can overcome bumps on a surface with ease, and currently available omniwheels can move in all directions. However, the combination of these two capabilities has not yet been effectively achieved as currently available omniwheels cannot overcome bumps in all directions (e.g., rolling or sliding on the smaller rollers is not effective on a surface with any significant bumps. Also, conventional omniwheels tend to be relatively complex to fabricate and control/drive and often do not provide a smooth contact surface (e.g., due to spaces between the smaller rollers on the circumference or rim of the larger wheel).
FIGS. 1-6 illustrate examples of currently available omniwheels, and each is useful for providing multidirectional movement on a smooth, flat surface but can have problems on a bumpy or rough surface. FIG. 1 illustrates an omnidirectional wheel 100 with a main/larger wheel or hub 110 with a center hole or opening 115 to allow the omnidirectional wheel 100 to be attached to a drive shaft or axle (not shown) for driving the omnidirectional wheel to rotate about the major axis, AxisMajor, of the larger wheel or hub 110. A plurality of smaller rollers 120 (e.g., fourteen rollers) are provided in a spaced apart arrangement about the circumference (or outer rim) of the larger wheel/hub 110. The rollers 120 provide a contact surface for the omnidirectional wheel 110 (i.e., traditional omniwheels are designed to provide a single contact point) and rotate about an axis, AxisMinor, that is in a plane perpendicular to the rotation axis, AxisMajor, of the larger wheel/hub 110. It should be understood that rollers 120 are sized to have a diameter that is much smaller than the diameter of the larger wheel/hub 110. Obstacles that can be successfully forded in the sideways direction (parallel to the main rotation axis, AxisMajor) are, therefore, much smaller than the ones that can be overcome in the forward direction during rotation of the larger wheel/hub 110. This can significantly decrease the usability of the omniwheel 100 on rough or bumpy surfaces or to overcome surface obstacles.
FIG. 2 illustrates an omniwheel 200 made up of a set of three side-by-side larger wheels/hubs 210 with holes/openings 215 for a draft shaft (not shown) for driving the larger wheels/hubs 210 to rotate about a rotation axis, AxisMajor. Each of the wheels/hubs 210 includes a number of rollers 220 on their outer rim, and each of the rollers 220 is configured to rotate freely about an axis, AxisMinor, that is in a plane perpendicular to the rotation axis, AxisMajor, of the larger wheel/hub 210. The wheels/hubs 210 are arranged so that their rollers 220 are offset from each other (e.g., the rollers 220 are provided in multiple layers to provide a more continuous contact surface). FIG. 3 also presents an omniwheel 300 with a hub/larger wheel 310 with a center hole 315 to allow it to be rotated by a shaft/axle (not shown) about its rotation axis, AxisMajor. A number of layered and offset rollers 320 are provided about the outer rim of the larger wheel/hub 310 and each rotates about a longitudinal axis, AxisMinor, of the roller 320. In each of the omnidirectional wheels 200 and 300, the diameters of the rollers 220 and 320 has to be much smaller than the diameter of the larger wheel/hubs 210 and 310.
FIG. 4 illustrates another design for an omniwheel 400 that includes a larger wheel or hub 410 with a central hole/opening 415 to allow the hub 410 to be affixed to a drive shaft (not shown) to rotate/drive the omniwheel about the main rotation axis, AxisMajor, passing through the opening/hole 415. Further, a plurality of overlapping rollers 420 and 425 are provided on the circumferential surface or rim of the larger wheel or hub 410 and each is adapted to rotate about its longitudinal axis, AxisMinor, which each are in a plane that is perpendicular to the main rotation axis, AxisMajor, of the omniwheel 400. The omniwheel 400 may be considered an extra-smooth omniwheel that more accurately approximates the shape of a circular wheel with its contact surfaces provided (one at a time) by the rollers 420 and 425. To keep a single layer, this design necessarily has small diameter rollers 425 and larger diameter rollers 420, and the ability to ford or overcome bumps or obstacles is limited by the smaller diameter of the rollers 425.
FIGS. 5A and 5B show top and side views, respectively, of a spherically-shaped omniwheel 500 which is supported and can be driven by shaft 516 to rotate about an axis, AxisMajor. Two sphere halves 520 are mounted on shaft 516 and rotate about an axis, AxisMinor, that is perpendicular to the major rotation axis, AxisMajor. At each spaced apart end of the sphere halves 520, smaller diameter rollers 525 are provided and mounted to rotate about an axis, AxisMinor2, that is perpendicular to both the major rotation axis, AxisMajor, and the first minor axis, AxisMinor1. In the omniwheel 500, the large diameter rollers 520 have become as large as the diameter of the omniwheel 500. In balance, the small diameter rollers 525 have become tiny or much, much smaller than the diameter of the omniwheel 500, and, as a result, the design looks like it would be smoother than many other designs. However, when the smaller rollers 525 hit obstacles, even the smallest obstacles (smallest dips or bumps in a surface) may undesirably stop the rolling of the omniwheel 500.
FIG. 6 shows another design for an omnidirectional wheel 600 with a larger wheel or hub 610 that can be driven to rotate about its rotation axis, AxisMajor. About the peripheral surface or rim of this larger wheel or hub 610, a plurality of free-rotating rollers 620 are provided that each rotates about its longitudinal axis, AxisMinor. In the omnidirectional wheel 600, the smaller diameter rollers 620 are positioned at 45 degree angles rather than in the plane of the hub 610. This allows a torque applied about the driven hub axis, AxisMajor, to create ground forces outside the plane of the hub, and a vehicle supported by multiple parallel wheels 600 can be actively driven sideways relative to the wheels. However, the small diameter of the rollers 620 accentuates the asymmetry of the omniwheel 600 making it unsuited for many bumpy surfaces or for fording many obstacles that may be on a surface.
Hence, there remains a need for an improved omniwheel or omniwheel assembly providing two or more omniwheels that provides a more smooth contact surface (or "ride"), is less complex to fabricate and control/drive, and, significantly, is able to move easily in all directions on both smooth and bumpy/rough surfaces. Preferably such omniwheels or omniwheel assemblies would be adapted for use in "all-terrain" omnidirectional devices (e.g., omnidirectional vehicles) that more easily overcome obstacles or bumps on a surface. Since the omniwheels preferably are more simple in design, fabrication, and use than existing omniwheels, it is likely that the new omniwheels will be more robust and more useful in less controlled environments such that the new omniwheels will find application in a large variety of domains beyond robots such as in omnidirectional vehicles (for amusement park rides and other applications/environments).

Wheel assembly with multi-sphere omniwheels and omnidirectional devices including the wheel assembly


Concurrent receipt of incoming calls from both a private radio communications network connected to a public switched telephone network and a wide area cellular network also connected to the public switched telephone network are provided by a radio communications mobile terminal supporting concurrent receipt of incoming calls from the two uncoordinated networks. The mobile terminal wakes up from a lower power sleep mode to monitor for paging messages on the paging channel of the wide area cellular network. The mobile terminal also wakes up to monitor for beacon transmissions from the private radio communications network on the beacon channel of the private radio communications network. When incoming calls are indicated as pending in either network, the mobile terminal accesses the network having an incoming call and receives the call. The mobile terminal may optionally deregister from the wide area cellular network when it establishes access to a private radio communications network and only periodically wake up from its lower power sleep mode to monitor for incoming calls on both the wide area cellular network and the private radio communications network.

Public cellular networks (public land mobile networks) are commonly employed to provide voice and data communications to a plurality of subscribers. For example, analog cellular radiotelephone systems, such as designated AMPS, ETACS, NMT-450, and NMT-900, have been deployed successfully throughout the world. More recently, digital cellular radiotelephone systems such as designated IS-54B in North America and the pan-European GSM system have been introduced. These systems, and others, are described, for example, in the book titled Cellular Radio Systems by Balston, et al., published by Artech House, Norwood, Mass., 1993.
Traditional analog radiotelephone systems generally employ a system referred to as frequency division multiple access (FDMA) to create communications channels. As a practical matter well-known to those skilled in the art, radiotelephone communications signals, being modulated waveforms, typically are communicated over predetermined frequency bands in a spectrum of carrier frequencies. These discrete frequency bands serve as channels over which cellular radiotelephones communicate with a cell, through the base station or satellite serving the cell. In the United States, for example, Federal authorities have allocated to cellular communications a block of the UHF frequency spectrum further subdivided into pairs of narrow frequency bands, a system designated EIA-553 or IS-19B. Channel pairing results from the frequency duplex arrangement wherein the transmit and receive frequencies in each pair are offset by 45 Mhz. At present there are 832, 30-Khz wide, radio channels allocated to cellular mobile communications in the United States.
The limitations on the number of available frequency bands present several challenges as the number of subscribers increases. Increasing the number of subscribers in a cellular radiotelephone system generally requires more efficient utilization of the limited available frequency spectrum in order to provide more total channels while maintaining communications quality. This challenge is heightened because subscribers may not be uniformly distributed among cells in the system. More channels may be needed for particular cells to handle potentially higher local subscriber densities at any given time. For example, a cell in an urban area might conceivably contain hundreds or thousands of subscribers at any one time, easily exhausting the number of frequency bands available in the cell.
For these reasons, conventional cellular systems employ frequency reuse to increase potential channel capacity in each cell and increase spectral efficiency. Frequency reuse involves allocating frequency bands to each cell, with cells employing the same frequencies geographically separated to allow radiotelephones in different cells to simultaneously use the same frequency without interfering with each other. By so doing, many thousands of subscribers may be served by a system of only several hundred frequency bands.
Another technique which may further increase channel capacity and spectral efficiency is time division multiple access (TDMA). A TDMA system may be implemented by subdividing the frequency bands employed in conventional FDMA systems into sequential time slots. Although communication on frequency bands typically occur on a common TDMA frame that includes a plurality of time slots, communications on each frequency band may occur according to a unique TDMA frame, with time slots unique to that band. Examples of systems employing TDMA are the dual analog/digital IS-54B standard employed in the United States, in which each of the original frequency bands of EIA-553 is subdivided into 3 time slots, and the European GSM standard, which divides each of its frequency bands into 8 time slots. In these TDMA systems, each user communicates with the base station using bursts of digital data transmitted during the user's assigned time slots.
A channel in a TDMA system typically includes one or more time slots on one or more frequency bands. As discussed above, traffic channels are used to communicate voice, data or other information between users, for example, between a mobile terminal such as a radiotelephone and a network base station. In this manner, each traffic channel forms one direction of the duplex communications link established by the system from one user to another. Traffic channels typically are dynamically assigned by the system when and where needed. In addition, systems such as the European GSM system, may "frequency hop" traffic channels, i.e., randomly switch the frequency band on which a particular traffic channel is transmitted. Frequency hopping reduces the probability of interference events between channels, using interferer diversity and averaging to increase overall communications quality.
Typically included in the dedicated control channels transmitted in a cell are forward control channels which are used to broadcast control information in a cell of the wide area cellular network to radiotelephones which may seek to access the network. The control information broadcast on a forward control channel may include such things as the cell's identification, an associated network identification, system timing information and other information needed to access the wide area cellular network from a radiotelephone.
Forward control channels, such as the Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH) of the GSM standard, typically are transmitted on a dedicated frequency band in each cell. A radiotelephone seeking access to a system generally "listens" to a control channel in standby mode, and is unsynchronized to a base station or satellite until it captures a base station or satellite control channel. In order to prevent undue interference between control channels in neighboring cells, frequency reuse is conventionally employed, with different dedicated frequency bands being used for the control channel in neighboring cells, according to a frequency reuse pattern that guarantees a minimum separation between cochannel cells. Frequency hopping, which might allow denser reuse of control channel frequency bands, is typically not employed because an unsynchronized radiotelephone generally would have difficulty capturing a frequency-hopped control channel due to lack of a reference point for the frequency hopping sequence employed. Moreover, for private uncoordinated radio communications systems, a frequency reuse pattern cannot be used because each private radio communications system typically operates independently of other potentially interfering systems including the wide area cellular network.
The past decades have shown a considerable rise in the deployment of mobile telephony. With a slow start of the analog standards like AMPS, NMT and TACS, mobile telephony has really hit the consumer markets with the advanced digital standards incorporating TDMA like GSM and D-AMPS. In addition to progress in mobile terminal features like size and battery life, much progress has been made at the network side as well. Increasingly dense cell reuse plans have been complemented with hierarchical cell structures, where macrocells cover entire districts, microcells cover smaller parts like streets, and picocells cover very small areas the size of a few rooms. Important for the hierarchical cell structure is that each base station deployed (ranging from macro to pico base stations) is part of the same Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN), also referred to as a wide area cellular network. When a mobile user wanders from a macrocell to a microcell area, the call can be handed off from a macro base station to a micro base station without the user noticing it. This is particularly true for digital phone systems that apply TDMA: being handed off from one base station to another within a coordinated wide area cellular network for the mobile phone usually only involves the change of a time slot.
Recently, private radio communications networks for residential and business areas are being developed that use the same air-interface as the public cellular network, but do not form an integrated part with the overlaying public cellular network. In this sense, these private systems are not micro or pico networks since there is no direct connection between these private systems and the public cellular network. For example, for residential usage, private base stations can be used as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,668 which only connect to the PSTN (or ISDN) wired network. In business or office networks applying a Private Branch Exchange ("PBX"), radio base stations belonging to the same private network communicate with each other, but none of them communicates directly with the overlaying wide area cellular network. A mobile terminal in range of a private communications network typically preferably enters a private mode attaching to the private communications network to enjoy benefits such as lower tariffs, longer talk and stand-by time, and better voice quality.
However, in such systems, the mobile terminal, once it accesses the private communications network, typically cannot receive incoming calls from the wide area cellular network. While it has been suggested to resolve this problem by providing for call forwarding in the wide area cellular network to the PSTN number of the private radio communications network when the mobile terminal is connected to the private radio communications network, this is not always desirable. For example, there may be occasions where call forwarding from the wide area cellular network number to the PSTN number of the private radio communications network is not available. Furthermore, some wide area cellular networks employ a short message service (SMS) which is not defined on wired networks and, accordingly, such short messages are not presently forwarded through call forwarding.

Methods and systems for concurrent receipt of incoming calls from a wide area cellular network and a private radio communications network


A disciplinal engineering review computer information system and method by defining a database of disciplinal engineering review process entities for an enterprise engineering program, opening a computer supported engineering item based upon the defined disciplinal engineering review process entities, managing a review of the opened engineering item according to the defined disciplinal engineering review process entities, and closing the opened engineering item according to the opened engineering item review.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer system to support the engineering review process in any engineering field.
2. Description of the Related Art
Managing the people, data and activities associated with the Engineering Review Process (ERP) for an enterprise program presents challenges to the people involved. Conventionally, an enterprise managed the ERP manually using spreadsheets to identify and input a problem and assign personnel to the problem. Cross-referencing data concerning identical problems and causes in different systems or different problems within a single system or both was also done manually.


A logic gateway circuit is provided for a bus to support multiple interrupt request signals, including an output OR gate having a plurality of input terminals and an interrupt request signal output signal, an inverter having an input terminal connected to the interrupt request signal output terminal of the output OR gate and an output terminal, and a plurality of gateway circuits to respectively and selectively device-end interrupt request signals generated by a plurality of target devices to transmit through the gateway circuit to the output OR gate or to queue the device-end interrupt request signals in the gateway circuit. Each gateway circuit includes an AND gate and an OR gate, wherein the OR gate bases on the states of an output terminal of the AND gate and the interrupt request signal output terminal of the output OR gate to generate a gateway signal to a gateway signal input terminal of the AND gate.

The architecture of standard computer systems or digital systems often include hardware components including central processing units, disk drives, input means, output means, and memories. All the hardware components are linked together by buses for data transfer and control purposes. Currently, a number of different specifications for bus are available for different system requirements and features.
Referring to FIG. 1 of the attached drawings, a computer system or a digital system that includes an ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) bus is shown. The computer system comprises a central processing unit 11, a memory 12, a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bridge 13, at least one PCI device 14, a PCI/ISA bridge 15, and a plurality of ISA devices D1 to Dn. The central processing unit 11 and the memory 12 are connected to a system bus 21 that is connected via the PCI bridge 13 to a PCI bus 22. The PCI bus 22 is a bus having specification formulated by PCISIG and serves to provide high speed data transfer in a microprocessor system. The PCI bus 22 is provided for connection with various PCI devices 14, such as interface devices including local area network interface card, video card, and input/output interface card. The PCI bus 22 is connected to an ISA bus 23 via the PCI/ISA bridge 15. The ISA bus 23 provides a connection with various ISA devices D1 to Dn. Each ISA device D1, D2, . . . , Dn, which is also referred to as a target device, operates to generate a device-end interrupt request signal D1_INT, D2_INT, . . . , Dn_INT, which is forwarded by the ISA bus 23 to an interrupt request signal controller 16 to carry out an interrupt service routine associated with the specific interrupt request signal.

Logic gateway circuit for bus that supports multiple interrupt request signals


There is disclosed a method for manufacturing a polycrystal semiconductor film comprising the steps of applying a high energy beam to a surface of a semiconductor film comprising an amorphous or a polycrystal semiconductor provided on a surface of a substrate to melt only the semiconductor film, and solidifying the film via a solid and liquid coexisting state to form a semiconductor film comprising a polycrystal semiconductor having a large grain diameter, by heating a liquid part using a difference in an electric resistance in the liquid and solid coexisting state to heat only the liquid part, and by extending the solidification time until the completion of solidifying of the molten liquid crystal film. Furthermore, as the base film of the semiconductor film, a material having a melting point of 1600.degree. C. and a thermal conductivity of 0.01 cal/cm.s..degree. C. is used to suppress heat dissipation from the molten liquid of the semiconductor to the substrate so that time until the complete solidification can be prolonged. Furthermore, the beam is irradiated so as to form a standing wave at a predetermined position of the surface of the semiconductor film to generate the heat density distribution having the same cycle with the standing wave and to melt the semiconductor film with the result that a polycrystal semiconductor film comprising a uniform and a large crystal grains by controlling the distribution of the crystal nuclei at the interface between the base film and the substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a polycrysal semiconductor film used in a liquid crystal display device and the like, and more particularly to a method for manufacturing a polycrystal semiconductor film having crystal grains with a large and even diameter.
2. Description of the Related Art
Thin film transistors (hereinafter referred to as TFT) are normally formed on a polycrystal semiconductor film formed on a substrate such as a quarz substrate, a glass substrate or the like.
Semiconductor characteristics such as mobility of the polycrystal semiconductor film and the like are improved with an increase in the size of crystal grains. Consequently, in the case that a quarz glass having an excellent heat-resistance property is used as a substrate, and in the case that the damage of the substrate does not hinder the usage thereof, for example, such as a solar battery, there is used a method in which the substrate of an amorphous Si-film (hereinafter referred to as a-Si film) is heated as it is so that the semiconductor film is molten followed by holding the film in a heated state for a long time to anneal and to carry out a polycrystallization.
However, when the film is used as a TFT device of the liquid crystal display device, the quarz is very expensive with the result that the cost of the TFT becomes high. Consequently, the TFT device is consequently formed on the cheap glass substrate.
Here, when a polycrystal Si is used for the TFT device of the liquid crystal display device, a long-time high temperature annealing is required (for example heating for 8 to 56 hours in the atmosphere of a high temperature nitrogen at 600.degree. C. or more). However, in the case of the glass substrate, a deformation or a warp is generated.
Consequently, there is normally used a pulse laser irradiation method in which only the semiconductor film is heated and molten in a short time by applying an excimer pulse laser to the amorphous semiconductor film or the semiconductor film comprising a fine crystal polycrystal on the glass substrate with the result that a polycrystal film with a large grain size.
In other words, in the polycrystallization using an excimer laser, more than several 10 nanosecond pulses are irradiated to a surface of the semiconductor film such as the a-Si (amorphous Si) film which is deposited on the surface of the substrate to melt only the film and provide a solid state via a mixed state of a solid phase and a liquid phase thereby forming a polycrystal film.
However, as described above, the excimer laser annealing can melt only the semiconductor film such as the a-Si film or the polycrystal Si film by applying more than several 10 nano second laser pulse to the film surface. However, there arises a problem in that the heat dissipation to the substrate is very fast so that time up to the completion of solidification is short and the crystal grain cannot be grown to a large size. It is necessary to take as long time as possible up to the solidification to grow the crystal grains to an even and large diameter.
However, it is possible to prolong the time required for the solidification by prolonging the pulse length of the laser, and prolonging the heat input time with a multiple pulse using a plurality of lasers. For all that, a single pulse length can be prolonged only by several times, so that the time up to the completion of the solidification cannot be prolonged on a large scale. Furthermore, a multiple pulse method using a plurality of lasers is an effective method in principle, but controlling a plurality of unstable lasers at the same time was virtually impossible.
Furthermore, in a simple method, the solidification time can be prolonged to some extent by applying a laser in a state in which the substrate is heated to an extent which does not affect the glass (300 to 500.degree. C.). However, in the method, a large effect cannot be provided unless the substrate is heated to a temperature approximate to the melting point of the semiconductor. It was impossible to prolong the solidification time to a large extent up at a temperature of 300 to 500.degree. C. which is a heat resistant temperature in the usage of the glass substrate.
In this manner, the formation of the polycrystal semiconductor film using the conventional pulse laser has a problem in that the solidification time is extremely short until the end of the solidification and the crystal grains cannot be grown to a large size.
Another problem is that when the film is completely molten to the substrate or to the interface with the base film at the time of melting the semiconductor film such as a-Si film or the polycrystal Si film or the like with the excimer laser, crystal nuclei at the interface which constitute seeds of crystallization have disappeared and the molten liquid is supercooled at the time of cooling with the result that a large number of crystal nuclei are abruptly generated from the interface and from within the molten liquid and crystal grains with a large grain size are not generated, a polycrystal semiconductor film comprising a plurality of fine crystals is provided and semiconductor properties such as required mobility or the like are not obtained.
On the contrary when the melting of the semiconductor film is insufficient, a large number of crystal nuclei remain at an interface with the substrate or the base film so that a crystal growth proceeds with the residual crystal nuclei as seeds and fine crystal grains, which have a grain diameter d which is in an inverse proportion to the density (N) of the residual nuclei, are generated.
When a relation between the intensity of the laser beam and the residual nuclei is described, the density of the residual nuclei decreases with an increase in the intensity of the laser beam so that the size of the crystal increases until the intensity of the laser beam increases, the semiconductor film is completely molten and the residual nuclei completely disappear.
However, when the intensity of the laser beam attains a maximum limit, the residual nuclei disappear, and, the supercooling is generated in the process of cooling with the result that fine crystallization is generated.
Therefore, in order to generate large crystal grains in a uniform manner, the control of the density of the residual nuclei and the generation position of the nuclei are important. However, in the method for manufacturing the polycrystal semiconductor film by means of the conventional excimer laser annealing, a size of crystal grains which are generated largely change with a fine variation of the intensity of the laser beam in the vicinity of a maximum value so that the polycrystal semiconductor having a stable and uniform large crystal grains could not be supplied.

Method for manufacturing polycrystal semiconductor film


A method includes receiving a single request to configure a continuous route tracer (CRT) between a first plurality of network devices and a second plurality of network devices and configuring, by a processing device of a control server, the CRT between the first plurality of network devices and the second plurality of network devices. The method further includes receiving a plurality of probe reports corresponding to a plurality of CRT probes sent between the first plurality of network devices and the second plurality of network devices and analyzing the reports to detect one or more anomalies corresponding to a network comprising the first plurality of network devices and the second plurality of network devices. The method further includes providing the one or more anomalies for display.

Network administrators may be tasked with ensuring that network infrastructure is operating properly. As network infrastructures become more complex, this task has become increasingly difficult. In particular, attempting to troubleshoot complex network infrastructure using traditional troubleshooting tools (e.g., ping or traceroute) is a difficult and time consuming task. For example, test packets sent by traditional trouble-shooting tools may take specific paths through the network and such tools may not cover all available network paths.

System for network event detection and analysis


A computer implemented method for running a plurality of business services within an explicitly defined business context wherein the context and the business services are representing meaningful instances of work situation or actions, the method comprising: provisioning web services, a composition of services, or both with an additional input/output interface for passing data from and to a parent business context; enabling this interface to handle long running, stateful actions; and implementing a standardized user interaction behavior to make the user interface of an action reusable across contexts. An embodiment of the invention introduces an “action” concept which can be technically described as a wrapping layer on top of enterprise services that provides a special plug & execute interface to enable a service or a composition of services to interact with a parent context.

An embodiment of the invention relates to a method for implementing a service oriented business application on a computer system. Specifically, an embodiment of the invention relates to a computer implemented method and system for running a plurality of business processes, wherein process data are handled in data objects by one or more service oriented business applications run on a computer. An embodiment of the invention further relates to a computer system for running a plurality of business processes, a computer program product and an article of manufacture with a computer usable medium.
Service-oriented business applications running on programmable devices, such as computers, are known. Service-oriented architectured applications have more flexibility to create an optimized user experience by composing all relevant functions and information in one place across different backends. These applications may aid users of the applications performing their activities within an enterprise. For example, a business application may guide a user through steps of a certain business process in a certain order, e.g. hiring a new employee. For different steps in this process the business application may then provide the user with one or more services at the user interface, such as filling in and submitting a form to a database (e.g. with the new employees name address etc), and ordering items.
It is known to implement a service-oriented business application using a plurality of services. Typically, a service is implemented as a set of procedures or functions hosted on a computer server connected to the computer devices.
A computer device on which the business application is running can request data from the computer server, by submitting a set of parameters to the set of procedures or functions on the server.
It is known to implement such services as Web services which allow a user of a web browser to request XML data from the server by submitting parameters to the server. Web services (sometimes called application services) are services (usually including some combination of programming and data, but possibly including human resources as well) that are made available from a business's Web server for Web users or other Web-connected programs. Web services range from major services like storage management and customer relationship management (CRM) down to much more limited services such as the furnishing of a stock quote and the checking of bids for an auction item.
However, implementing the known service-oriented business applications is a complex task, since by definition web services have no user interface and the context in which multiple services are orchestrated has yet to be defined. Accordingly, complex techniques have to be applied to enable a transfer of data from a first to a second service when the implemented business application is running. The complexity increases disproportionally with the amount of services involved.
Modern business applications will follow a service-oriented architecture in which many enterprise services are exposed as small granular entities. New, so called composite applications are composed by configuring and composing new solutions based on such services. A problem, however, is that these enterprise services are still very system-related and do not directly model reasonable business acts that are meaningful for business experts, who lack expert programming experience. In order to let business experts develop, modify, or extend business solutions, a library with meaningful business actions or process steps is needed that can be configured to higher level processes.
Another problem is that the same business service may be used at different screens of the applications, or even in completely different contexts like as a step or as a related action within a workflow. From the engineering point of view it is desirable to have one implementation even for services that come with a user interface and re-use the same component in all situations.

Computer implemented method and system for running a plurality of business processes