A technique for controlling air-fuel ratio in an internal combustion engine consuming more than one fuel type includes determining a target air-fuel ratio as a function of engine operating conditions; determining an actual air-fuel ratio from the engine operating conditions; determining a first fuel quantity of a first fuel to introduce into a combustion chamber as a function of the engine operating conditions; determining a second fuel quantity of a second fuel such that the actual air-fuel ratio equals the target air-fuel ratio to within a predetermined range of tolerance when the first fuel quantity and the second fuel quantity are introduced into the combustion chamber, the second fuel quantity being determined as a function of the engine operating conditions, the target air-fuel ratio, the actual air-fuel ratio and the first fuel quantity; and introducing the first fuel quantity and the second fuel quantity into the combustion chamber.

A Diesel-cycle engine can be fueled with natural gas instead of diesel to obtain emission and economic benefits. In these engines a diesel pilot fuel is often employed since the auto-ignition temperature of natural gas is greater than that of diesel. A small amount of diesel, normally around 5% of total fuel introduced to the combustion chamber, is injected along with the main natural gas fuel. The diesel ignites due to compression heat and subsequently the natural gas is ignited due to the combustion of diesel.
Air-fuel ratio is an important engine parameter that influences emissions and fuel usage of gaseous fueled engines. Air-fuel ratio can be expressed as the excess air ratio which is the ratio of the actual air-fuel ratio to the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio (when all the oxygen and fuel are consumed during combustion). The excess air ratio can also be referred to as lambda (λ). Another parameter related to air-fuel ratio if the fuel-air ratio, which is simply the inverse. Similarly, the equivalence ratio is the ratio of the actual fuel-air ratio to the stoichiometric fuel-air ratio. As used herein these terms are used interchangeably to describe the relationship of air with fuel in the combustion process. In premixed engines the excess air ratio is controlled to within a narrow range of the stoichiometric value (1). Conventional diesel-cycle engines that fuel from diesel typically operate lean and with a broad range of excess air ratios, for example with lambda somewhere between 1.3 at full power and 10 at idle. Gaseous fueled engines can operate with lambda similar to the premix engine or the diesel engine depending upon how the gaseous fuel is introduced to the combustion chamber, for example whether it is introduced upstream of an intake valve or directly introduced into the combustion chamber.
Known techniques for air-fuel ratio control comprise adjusting fueling quantity along with manifold absolute pressure (MAP) and air charge temperature (ACT). For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,273,076, issued Aug. 14, 2001 to Beck et al., discloses a method of optimizing excess air ratio in a diesel-cycle engine on a full time, full range basis. In diesel-cycle engines, which operate lean, the demanded torque is achieved by controlling the fueling quantity. During a transient condition when the operator is demanding a new torque the fueling quantity changes, and in the steady state condition when there is no change in demanded torque the excess air ratio is controlled by adjusting the air supply. The method disclosed by Beck includes a step of adjusting a fuel quantity when the difference between an optimum lambda value and an actual lambda value (the error signal) is large. This indicates transient engine operation, for example a sudden and sharp increase or decrease in commanded power. After adjusting the fuel quantity, or instead of adjusting fuel quantity when there is no transient engine condition, the method includes the step of adjusting the air supply to minimize the error signal.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,270,089, issued Sep. 18, 2007 to Hoi Ching Wong, discloses a method of controlling excess air ratio when transitioning between operating modes of a dual fuel engine. The engine is preferably configured to operate in the pilot ignited gaseous fuel mode during as much of its speed and load range as practical except under (1) low speed and high load conditions and (2) light load and all speed conditions where it operates in diesel mode. During transition the method of Wong takes gas lambda in pilot ignited gaseous fuel mode and diesel lambda in diesel mode into consideration during transition between operating modes to avoid undesired or premature switching between modes. Other techniques for optimizing and controlling Lambda include skip fire techniques where for lighter loads some cylinders can be deactivated such that more fuel is injected in the remaining active cylinders which allows the lambda value to be decreased in these cylinders.
Conventional techniques of excess air ratio control do not teach precise control of lambda in a throttled engine operating near stoichiometry and where a premixed charge of natural gas is introduced into the cylinder and ignited by a pilot fuel. In such an engine there is a need for an excess air ratio control technique that allows lambda to be controlled when disproportionate amounts of fuel are consumed. For example, a preferred control technique exercises control over lambda when under light load conditions the fuel composition comprises 10% natural gas and 90% pilot fuel and under heavy load conditions when the fuel composition comprises 95% natural gas and 5% pilot fuel. Over the range of engine operating conditions the preferred control technique provides fast transient response and stable steady state operation to maintain lambda at or near the desired value.
The state of the art is lacking in techniques for closed loop fuel control in an engine that consumes more than one fuel type simultaneously and where the variability in the quantity of one fuel is much greater than the variability in the quantity of the other fuel. The present method and apparatus provide an improved technique for controlling air-fuel ratio in a multi-fuel internal combustion engine.

Air-fuel ratio control in a multi-fuel internal combustion engine


This invention is referred to a digital technetium Tc-99m generator obtained by incorporating devices to allow the control, verification and recording of all the operations performed by the generator. The invention includes a conventional traditional generator Mo-99/Tc-99m, using either a dry or wet column, such as the ones commercially available for use in nuclear medicine. The invention also includes an electronic sensor of elution; an eluted activity measurement sensor; and a device to measure the nuclear quality of the eluted Tc-99m. There is an electronic memory with information for the user regarding: Generator No., Lot No., activity, calibration and expiration dates. The invention also includes a communication interface, whether via RS232, USB, parallel Port or any other input-output port of a PC; a control, and user interface software.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system that allows the control, verification and recording (logging) of the performance of all operations carried out by a radioisotope generator. Such system comprises one or more sensors connected to an electronic device for data processing to provide performance control of a radioisotope generator, such as a Mo-99/Tc-99m Generator. In particular, the invention refers to a digitalized system for the measurement, verification and logging of all the operations performed by a Mo-99/-Tc-99m generator, including an electronic sensor of the elution of the generator, an eluted activity measurement device, a nuclear quality control device for Tc-99m, a communication interface to an electronic data processor and an user interface program.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98.
Although technical bibliography and literature provides for a great variety of Tc-99m generators, there is no knowledge of digital generators, including digitalized equipment to control, verify and log every operation performed by the generator through a simple and economical means, such as a conventional computer connected to suitable means of sensing and with the appropriate software to process the information obtained through such sensors.
For example, improvements may be cited that comprise the generator of Technetium disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,782 referred to a 99Mo/99mTc generator system, including a sorbent column loaded with a composition containing 99Mo. The sorbent column has an effluent end in fluid communication with an anion-exchange column for concentrating 99mTc eluted from the sorbent column. A method of preparing a concentrated solution of 99mTc includes the general steps of:                a. providing a sorbent column loaded with a composition containing 99Mo, the sorbent column having an effluent end in fluid communication with an anion-exchange column;        b. eluting the sorbent column with a salt solution to elute 99mTc from the sorbent and to trap and concentrate the eluted 99mTc on the ion-exchange column; and        c. eluting the concentrated 99mTc from the ion-exchange column with a solution comprising a reductive complexing agent.
Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 4,782,231 discloses a standard component 99mTC elution generator useful for medical purposes and consisting of prefabricated component parts. The main generator column of the device may be used both as an irradiation container and an elution container, enabling the user to supply activated or non-activated parts. The main generator column, made from neutrons, as little activatable materials, serves first as a reactor irradiation ampoule, and, after having been activated in the reactor by neutrons and after a simple adjustment, the main generator column simply serves directly as the generator column. It is filled with water insoluble molybdates or polymolybdates (with the molybdenum content in the range 10-40%), easily releasing 99mTC generated by radioactive decay of the mother 99Mo formed in it by neutron activation. This column filling serves originally as target material for reactor irradiations, and afterwards, it is directly used as the generator elution matrix.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,110 discloses a technetium-99m generator, its preparation and its use, wherein silica gels modified with amino groups or magnesium silicates are suitable carrier materials for technetium-99m generators since they retain copper(II) ions well and thus produce a copper-free elute.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,053 describes a Technetium-99m generator, that has a matrix having a compound of molybdenum-99 bound into or forming the matrix, the compound of the molybdenum-99 being substantially insoluble in an eluant, which can be used in a radiopharmaceutical and the molybdenum compound permitting diffusion of technetium-99m therethrough and elution therefrom. The molybdenum compound, which can be a monomolybdate, an isopolymolybdate or a heteropolymolybdate and zirconium molybdate, is preferred, although other cation molybdates may be used. Methods of preparation of the generator include dissolving irradiated molybdenum trioxide in alkaline solution and precipitating the molybdate at a selected pH and packing the precipitate in a finely divided form into a column.
None of the above mentioned generators embrace apiece of equipment like, the one described below, including novel features and performing new functions.
The proposed system of this invention, when incorporated to a radioisotope generator, substantially enhances its general usefulness and mainly adds previously unknown features.

System for the control, verification and recording of the performance of a radioisotope generator's operations


Disclosed is an irritation grenade (1) comprising a receptacle (2) with at least one compartment (12) within which an effective charge (3) is accommodated and which ends in one respective discharge port (21, 22) on opposite sides of the receptacle (2) while being locked by means of a closure (15). A rocker-arm type igniter (4) is provided to ignite the effective charges. The combustion gases of the effective charges (3) are deflected in part by parts of the rocker-arm igniter (4) such that the irritation grenade is displaced when the effective charges (3) are ignited. In order to prevent this from happening, the cross section of the discharge ports (21, 22) of the compartments (12) is embodied smaller on the side opposite the rocker-arm igniter (4) than the cross section of the discharge ports (21) on the side of the rocker-arm igniter (4) such that recoil forces which are generated when the effective charges (3) are burned and act upon the irritation grenade (1) are substantially identical on both opposite sides.

The invention relates to an irritation grenade to create irritation or shock to a human being.
Among other things, irritation grenades are used in hostage situations or aircraft hijackings in order to overpower the perpetrators. The irritation grenade is mainly in the form of a hand grenade with a preferably cylindrical receptacle that possesses at least one, and preferably several, chambers, e.g., drilled holes, extending parallel to the longitudinal axis and occupying the entire length of the receptacle. Said chambers contain active or effective charges such as sound or flash loads. A manually-operable igniter, usually a rocker-arm igniter, ignites a pyrotechnic delay charge that ignites the individual effect charges via ignition channels. These charges create a shock effect such as, for example, a very loud noise, a blinding flash, or similar, achieving an irritation or shock effect to the perpetrator and allowing him to be captured.
An irritation grenade of the type discussed above is known from WO 94/08200 in which a total of six compartments that transfix the entire length of the irritation grenade are positioned about the central axis of the irritation grenade and that are sealed by plugs at the upper and lower end, into which the particular effect charge is placed. Upon ignition of the effect charges the plugs are instantly ejected by the increasing inner pressure within the compartments, after which the combustion gases exit upward and downward from the receptacle via the now opened discharge ports. During this, recoil acting on the irritation grenade in opposing directions should be canceled out. It has been nevertheless shown, that after ignition of an effective charge, the irritation grenade may be displaced by several meters. Such an uncontrolled displacement presents the hazard of injury for any persons in the vicinity, particularly with those irritation grenades with several time-offset effects, but not only with them.


A system with a gas turbine engine is provided. The gas turbine engine includes a first combustor comprising a first fuel nozzle, a second combustor comprising a second fuel nozzle, and a first fuel pressure oscillation system. The first fuel pressure oscillation system includes a first rotary device coupled to a first fuel circuit. The first fuel circuit is disposed along a first fuel passage leading to the first fuel nozzle. The first rotary device is configured to generate a first fuel pressure oscillation through the first fuel nozzle. The gas turbine engine also includes a second fuel pressure oscillation system having a second rotary device coupled to a second fuel circuit. The second fuel circuit is disposed along a second fuel passage leading to the second fuel nozzle, and the second rotary device is configured to generate a second fuel pressure oscillation through the second fuel nozzle.

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to systems and methods for reducing modal coupling of combustion dynamics. In particular, the system and methods may be incorporated into a gas turbine or other turbomachine.
Gas turbine systems generally include a gas turbine engine having a compressor section, a combustor section, and a turbine section. The combustor section may include one or more combustors (e.g., combustion cans), each combustor having a primary combustion zone. A fuel and/or fuel-air (e.g., oxidant) mixture may be routed into the primary combustion zone through fuel nozzles, and the combustion zone may be configured to combust the mixture of the fuel and oxidant to generate hot combustion gases that drive one or more turbine stages in the turbine section.
The generation of the hot combustion gases can create combustion dynamics, which occur when the flame dynamics (also known as the oscillating component of the heat release) interact with, or excite, one or more acoustic modes of the combustor, to result in pressure oscillations in the combustor. For example, one mechanism of combustion instabilities may occur when the acoustic pressure pulsations cause a mass flow fluctuation at a fuel port which then results in a fuel-air ratio fluctuation in the flame zone. When the resulting fuel/air ratio fluctuation (e.g., heat release oscillation) and the acoustic pressure oscillations have a certain phase behavior (e.g., in-phase), a self-excited feedback loop results.
Combustion dynamics can occur at multiple discrete frequencies or across a range of frequencies, and can travel both upstream and downstream relative to the respective combustor. For example, the pressure waves may travel downstream into the turbine section, e.g., through one or more turbine stages, or upstream into the fuel system. Certain downstream components of the turbine section can potentially respond to the combustion dynamics, particularly if the combustion dynamics generated by the individual combustors exhibit an in-phase and coherent relationship with each other, and have frequencies at or near the natural or resonant frequencies of the components. In general, "coherence" refers to the strength of the linear relationship between two dynamic signals, and is strongly influenced by the degree of frequency overlap between them. In certain embodiments, "coherence" can be used as a measure of the modal coupling, or combustor-to-combustor acoustic interaction, exhibited by the combustion system.
Accordingly, a need exists to control the combustion dynamics, and/or modal coupling of the combustion dynamics and/or the combustor-to-combustor phase of the combustion dynamics, to reduce the possibility of any unwanted sympathetic vibratory response (e.g., resonant behavior) of components in the turbine system.

Systems and methods for a fuel pressure oscillation device for reduction of coherence


A liner assembly includes a first ring member, a second ring member, a corrosion barrier ring, a first liner, and a second liner. The first ring member includes a body member having a first end and a second end. The first end has a flange extending substantially perpendicularly therefrom. The second ring member includes a body member having a first end and a second end. The second end has a flange extending substantially perpendicularly therefrom. The body member of the first ring member extends along a face of the first liner a first distance beyond an inner diameter of the first liner. The body member of the second ring member extends along a face of the second liner a second distance beyond an inner diameter of the second liner.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coupling system utilized in connecting end-to-end lined pipe used in oil wells and the like, and, more particularly, to a lining system for use in a joint between two pipe segments and a method of connecting two unmodified pipe segments with a lining system which will prevent corrosion and maximize the inner diameter of the bore.
2. Description of Related Art
Many downhole oil-production operations are carried out in highly corrosive environments resulting from production and/or re-injection of hydrocarbons and formation of brinewaters containing salts and gases, such as hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide which can pass through the pipe interior.
To provide a useful life to the lengths of steel pipes that are used in such environments, corrosive resistant liners are installed within each pipe length before it is installed into the downhole string. Appropriate threaded coupling assemblies are required to connect the pipe in an end-to-end relationship. Coupling assemblies are also required to connect the internal liners that provide protection for the pipe and pipe threaded connection area against internal corrosion.
There are a large number of pipe end constructions and thread constructions employed by various pipe manufacturers to assure against fluid and gas leakage. Due to the presence of unique metal-to-metal torque shoulders and metal-to-metal seal areas, many of these pipe end and thread constructions known in the art require a custom built liner or coupling assembly unique to the pipe end and potentially even a custom pipe end thread design to accommodate an internal lining system.
One method known in the art utilizes an internal lining system that requires the insertion of a rigid plastic tube inside steel tubing and filling the annular space between the plastic tube and steel tubing with mortar. The inner rigid plastic tube, or liner, is capped or terminated at the end of the pipe with a flange, known as a "flare". The flare ends provide a surface area for compression of a bather ring, such as an elastomeric bather ring, in the coupling assembly.
An obstacle with insertion of such an assembly is that the threaded pipes or couplings need to be machined and threaded with special provisions to accommodate the lining process. This proves to be ineffective in time and cost as well as productivity.
Additionally, it has been discovered that such liner systems decrease the inner diameter of pipe and prevent tooling from easily traveling through the well bore. Still further, conventional liner systems also fail to adequately protect the liner face. This leads to liner strands being dislodged along the inner diameter of the liner, thereby negatively effecting product performance reliance.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a standardized or universal internal liner coupling assembly that can accommodate the wide variety of pipe end constructions currently in use without the need for special modifications to proprietary pipe end threads and couplings. A further need exists for a liner coupling assembly that maximizes the inner diameter of the lined pipe while also preventing strands of liner from dislodging along the inner diameter of the liner.


Nanoparticles and methods of making nanoparticles are provided. The nanoparticles may include semiconductor nanocrystals. A shell may encapsulate a nanoparticle core, and the shell may include non-organic material and may be silica. The shell may also include additional species such as PEG. In some embodiments, a passivation layer is in contact with the core.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to nanoparticles and methods for making nanoparticles, and in particular, to semiconductor nanocrystals that exhibit improved hydrophilicity.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Nanoparticles are microscopic particles of matter having dimensions on the nanometer scale. Of particular interest are a class of nanoparticles known as semiconductor nanocrystals, or quantum dots, that exhibit properties that make them particularly useful in a variety of applications. Because of quantum confinement effects, semiconductor nanocrystals can exhibit size-dependent optical properties. The particles give rise to a class of materials whose properties include those of both molecular and bulk forms of matter. When these nanoparticles are irradiated, more energy is required to promote the electrons to a higher state, leading to an increase in energy release in the form of photons and light emission in a color that is characteristic of the material. The resulting photons that are released typically exhibit a shorter wavelength than those released from a bulk form of the same material. The quantum confinement of electrons and holes in three dimensions contributes to an increasing effective band gap with decreasing nanocrystal size. Therefore, smaller nanocrystals typically exhibit shorter emitted photon wavelength. For example, nanocrystals of cadmium selenide (CdSe) can emit across the entire visible spectrum when the size of the crystal is varied over the range of from two to six nanometers.
Another aspect of semiconductor nanocrystals is that crystals of a uniform size typically are capable of a narrow and symmetric emission spectrum regardless of excitation wavelength. Thus, if nanocrystals of different sizes are employed, different emission colors may be simultaneously obtained from a common excitation source. These capabilities contribute to the nanocrystals' potential as diagnostic tools, for example, as fluorescent probes in biological labeling and diagnostics. These nanocrystals, or quantum dots, exhibit high emission stability over long periods of time, thus providing advantages over conventional biological probing dyes. One class of semiconductor nanocrystals are the cadmium chalcogenides. These include, for example, cadmium selenide and cadmium telluride nanoparticles.
It is known that improved quantum yields of semiconductor nanocrystals can be obtained by passivating the nanocrystals by reducing the incident of surface non-radiative recombination sites. Surface passivation can be achieved, for example, by coating a material around the nanocrystals. See, e.g., Alivisatos et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,255,198. The coatings can be inorganic or organic although inorganically coated quantum dots are typically more robust and exhibit less degradation of photo luminescence quantum yield in solution than do organically passivated quantum dots.
For semiconductor nanocrystals to be useful in biological applications, it is preferred that the crystals are water soluble, photo-stable and non-toxic. Some quantum dots may exhibit water solubility but are typically not photo-stable and are toxic. Other nanocrystals have been coated, for example, with short chain water soluble molecules, such as thiols, to render the nanocrystals soluble. However, these organically coated quantum dots have been shown to be unstable and exhibit deteriorating photo-luminescent properties. Others, such as Bawendi et al. in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,319,426 and 6,444,143, hereby incorporated by reference, have synthesized semiconductive nanocrystals having an organic layer that also includes linking groups for the attachment of hydrophilic groups that can provide improved water solubility.
Some have proposed coating nanocrystals using silicate as a precursor. These methods use silane as a surface primer to deposit a thin shell of silica in water. The silica shell can then be thickened using the Stöber method. These procedures, however, are complicated and time-consuming. Others have used microemulsions as a technique for silica coating. In particular, using reverse microemulsions, monodispersed silica particles can be synthesized. Encapsulation of nanoparticles within silica can lead to an enhancement in chemical stability and photo-stability. This has been done in nanoparticles having a zinc sulfide (ZnS) core/two photon dye/silica particles and the encapsulated dye within the silica shell has exhibited enhanced luminescence and lifetime. However, synthesized TOPO semiconductor nanocrystals are water insoluble and thus silica cannot be precipitated with the nanocrystals within the aqueous domains of the microemulsion.

Coated water-soluble nanoparticles comprising semiconductor core and silica coating

Agency for Science, Technology and Research


An image processing apparatus includes an obtaining unit configured to obtain a tomographic image including an optic disc portion and a macula portion of a fundus of a subject's eye, an analysis unit configured to analyze the optic disc portion and the macula portion of the fundus in the tomographic image, and a display control unit configured to display side-by-side, on a display unit, a display pattern indicating a result of analyzing the optic disc portion, and a display pattern indicating a result of analyzing the macula portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for processing a tomographic image of the fundus of a subject's eye, and a method for processing the tomographic image.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ocular tomographic imaging apparatus, such as an optical coherence tomograph (OCT), is capable of three-dimensionally observing a state inside the retina layer. In recent years, this tomographic imaging apparatus has attracted attention for the usability for performing disease diagnoses with higher accuracy.
A time domain OCT (TD-OCT) combining a wide-band light source with a Michelson interferometer is a form of the OCT. The TD-OCT scans a delay of a reference arm to measure interference light of backward scattering light of a signal arm and light from the reference arm, thus obtaining information about the depth resolution. However, high-speed image acquisition is difficult to achieve by using such a TD-OCT. Accordingly, as a method for obtaining an image at higher speed, a spectral domain OCT (SD-OCT) is known to obtain an interferogram by using a wide-band light source and a spectroscope. Further, a swept source OCT (SS-OCT) is known to employ a technique for measuring spectrum interference by using a high-speed wavelength sweep light source and a single channel photodetector (as discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,501). The spectroscope used by the SD-OCT splits and diffracts interference light by using a diffraction grating in space. Therefore, crosstalk interference light may easily occur between adjacent pixels of a line sensor. Interference light from a reflection surface located at a depth position Z=Z0 vibrates at a frequency Z0/n with respect to the number of waves k. Therefore, with increasing depth position Z0 (specifically, with increasing distance from the coherence gate position), an oscillating frequency of the interference light increases, resulting in increased effects of crosstalk of the interference light between adjacent pixels of the line sensor. This means that, with the SD-OCT, performing tomographic imaging at a deeper position causes remarkable degradation in sensitivity. On the other hand, the SS-OCT which does not use a spectroscope is more advantageous in tomographic imaging at a deep position than the SD-OCT.
Further, the spectroscope of the SD-OCT causes a loss of interference light due to the diffraction grating. With the SS-OCT on the other hand, the sensitivity can be easily improved, for example, by performing differential detection of interference light without using a spectroscope. Therefore, the processing speed of the SS-OCT can be improved with an equivalent sensitivity to that of the SD-OCT. The high processing speed enables obtaining a tomographic image having a wide viewing angle.

Image processing apparatus and image processing method


The present invention provides a doripenem intermediate compound shown by formula (XIV), wherein PNB is p-nitrobenzyl, and HX is an acid; and when HX is a monobasic acid, n=1; and when HX is a polybasic acid, n=2. The present invention also provides a process for preparing the doripenem intermediate compound (XIV). In addition, the present invention provides a process for preparing doripenem (I) from the doripenem intermediate compound (XIV) in a simple manner, with a high yield and low production costs. The new mono-protected doripenem intermediate compound provided in the present invention contains only one protecting group, reducing the difficulty and complexity in the subsequent de-protection step by catalytic hydrogenation, increasing the yield of the catalytic hydrogenation reaction, and thus reducing the production cost of the final product. The process is easy to operate and suitable for industrialized production.

The antibiotics of carbapenems represented by imipenem, meropenem, and biapenem, etc., have characteristics of broad-spectrum and super-strong antibacterial activity, β-lactamase stability and low toxicity, etc., which make them have become one of the most important antibacterial drugs for the treatment of severe bacterial infections.
Doripenem, with chemical name of (+)-(4R,5S,6S)-6-[(1R)-1-hydroxyethyl]-4-methyl 7-oxo-3-[[(3S,5S)-5-[(aminosulfonylamino)-methyl]-3-pyrrolidinyl]thio]-1-azabicyclo[3.2.0]hept-2-ene-2-carboxylic acid, and structure shown in formula (I), is researched and developed by Japanese Shionogi & Co., Ltd, and came to market for the first time in Japan in 2005 under the trade name of "Finibax", it belongs to antibiotics of 1-β methyl-type carbapenems, with broad-spectrum antibacterial activity. In recent years, various methods for preparing doripenem have been developed, in these methods, doripenem is usually prepared by reacting the parent nucleus compound (II) of carbapenem antibiotic compounds with the side-chain compound (III) of doripenem to obtain the intermediate compound (IV), and then removing the protecting group through catalytic hydrogenation, the reaction process is as follows:

According to the above reaction route, Organic Process Research & Development 2003, 7, 846-850 reported the following method for preparing doripenem (I):

In this method, the doubly-protected doripenem intermediate compound (VII) is prepared with yield of 88%, however, the intermediate compound (VII) is an amorphous foamy solid which is not easy to be purified and stored, while the purity of the intermediate compound (VII) has great impact on the subsequent step where de-protection is performed by catalytic hydrogenation (the yield of the subsequent step where doripenem (I) is obtained by removing protecting groups through catalytic hydrogenation is only 73%), therefore, this method is not a preferred method for industrial production of doripenem (I).
Patent EP0528678 reported a method for preparing doripenem by purifying the intermediate compound (VII) through column chromatography and then performing de-protection through catalytic hydrogenation. Although purification of the intermediate compound (VII) through column chromatography improves the yield of the subsequent step where the protecting groups are removed by catalytic hydrogenation (doripenem (I) can be obtained with yield of 84.8% by removing the protecting groups of the purified intermediate compound (VII) through catalytic hydrogenation), but the step of isolating and purifying the intermediate compound (VII) through column chromatography undoubtedly increases the production costs of doripenem and reduces the production efficiency, therefore, this method is also not a preferred method for industrial production of doripenem (I).
In order to overcome the difficulty in purification of the doubly-protected doripenem intermediate compound (VII), Patent CN101613351 reported a method for isolating and purifying the intermediate compound (VII). In this method, the methanol solvate crystal (VIII) of the doripenem intermediate compound (VII) is obtained from the doubly-protected doripenem intermediate compound (VII) under the specified condition (adding methanol successively into the solution of the intermediate compound (VII)):

Although the doubly-protected doripenem intermediate compound crystal (VIII) with a purity of above 98% can be obtained by this method at a certain yield (the maximum yield is 87%), which provides convenience for the purification of the intermediate compound (VII), this method needs a long operation time (it requires to stir for 8 hours to achieve yield of 87%), reducing the production efficiency, therefore, the method is still not a preferred method for industrial production of doripenem (I).
Patent WO2007009354 reported a method for preparing doripenem (I) by the route shown below:

In this method, a tri-protected doripenem intermediate compound (X) is firstly prepared, then doripenem (I) is prepared by de-protection reaction where catalytic hydrogenation is performed. Although this method avoids the step of removing protecting groups in the side-chain compound, this brings difficulties in the subsequent step where de-protection is performed by catalytic hydrogenation since the resulting intermediate compound (X) is an amorphous foamy solid which is not easy to be purified and stored; in addition, the intermediate compound (X) contains three protecting groups, increasing the complexity of de-protection by catalytic hydrogenation. The above two aspects result in low yield (49%) of the subsequent step where de-protection is performed by catalytic hydrogenation, therefore this method is not a preferred method for industrial production of doripenem (I).
In addition to the above three methods, Chinese Journal of Pharmaceuticals (2006, volume 37, No 6, Pages 361-363) also reported a method for preparing doripenem (I) by the route shown below:

In this method, as the protecting group of the side-chain compound (XI) is not consistent with that of the parent nucleus compound (II), the protecting groups of the doripenem intermediate compound (XII) are respectively removed with different methods in twice, which undoubtedly increases the reaction steps, reduces the use efficiency of the parent nucleus compound (II) and increases the production costs.
Further, since the doripenem intermediate compound (XIII) is directly subjected to de-protection by catalytic hydrogenation without purification, resulting in a low yield (58.1%) of the subsequent step where de-protection is performed by catalytic hydrogenation, therefore, this method is also not a preferred method for industrial production of doripenem (I).
Summarizing the above four methods, it can be seen that the protected doripenem intermediate compounds (such as intermediate compounds (VII), (X) and (XIII)) prepared by the existing preparation methods are not easy to be purified and stored, which brings many difficulties in the subsequent step where de-protection is performed by catalytic hydrogenation; additionally, the multiple protecting groups (such as intermediate compounds (VII) and (X)) also increase the complexity and difficulty in the subsequent step where de-protection is performed by catalytic hydrogenation, reduce the yield of the step where de-protection is performed by catalytic hydrogenation and increase the production costs, therefore, it is particularly important and urgent to find a protected doripenem intermediate compound which is easy to implement industrial production and purification and a more efficient method for de-protection by catalytic hydrogenation.

Doripenem intermediate compound, preparation process therefor and use thereof, and preparation process for doripenem

Shenzhen Haibin Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.


An imaging processing unit signal-processes main picture data outputted from an imaging device. A zoom processing unit subjects the signal-processed main picture data to picture resize processing. A display picture management unit subjects the signal-processed main picture data to resize processing by the zoom processing unit to generate display picture data, aside from the main picture data recorded onto a recording medium at the time of photographing, and temporarily stores the display picture data in a memory area set inside or outside the integrated circuit. A display picture processing unit subjects the main picture data and the display picture data to display processing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a picture recording device which records main picture data obtained by photographing onto a recording medium, and more specifically, relates to a technique shortening time necessary to display when a picture id selected in reproduction mode.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, many digital cameras have been commercialized and widespread at home. Most of digital cameras have display units such as LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) so as to be able to check a photographed picture on the spot.
In recording processing of a digital camera, picture data obtained by photoelectric conversion is recorded onto a recording medium (portable recording medium) such as a semiconductor memory by performing compression processing. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is typically applied as compression processing. Two kinds of picture data including main picture data where the number of pixels is set before photographing and thumbnail picture data with picture size smaller than that of the main picture data are recorded into a file.
In reproduction processing of a digital camera, arbitrary picture data is selected from a plurality of pieces of picture data recorded onto a recording medium, and the selected picture data is resized to display size to be displayed on the display unit of the camera body. Alternatively, display picture data including a group of pictures obtained through pasting a plurality of pieces of picture data recorded onto a recording medium on a display frame region is displayed on the display unit of the camera body.
A conventional digital camera typically uses picture data recorded onto a recording medium in reproducing and displaying. It is necessary to increase the number of pixels for recording picture data of higher resolution. According to the advancement of image pickup devices and the like, the number of pixels is increasing year by year. In proportion to it, a size of a picture file recorded onto a recording medium is also increasing.
As a result, time and load required for reading processing, extension processing and picture resize processing of main picture data with high-definition from a recording medium are increasing. When a picture is selected in reproduction mode, it cannot be displayed immediately. A sense of discomfort in operation cannot be erased because picture is not displayed soon even if it is selected in reproduction mode. When display is changed, since time for reproduction processing of picture data displayed next is required, picture data cannot be selected quickly.
There is a digital camera that can change picture data quickly by displaying thumbnail picture data in place of main picture data. The thumbnail picture data has a picture quality lower than that of the main picture data with high-definition.
Further, there is a devised configuration in which picture display of thumbnail picture data is performed first, extension processing of main picture data is performed during the display, and display is changed from the thumbnail picture data to the main picture data when extension processing of the main picture data is completed. However, the main picture data is handled also in this improvement. Thus it is difficult to reduce load.
Except the example described above, as illustrated in Japanese laid-open patent document (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2005-236496), there is also a devised configuration in which display picture data matched with display size is stored aside from main picture data and thumbnail picture data, and then the display picture data is displayed after performing extension processing thereto. However, it takes long time to read the display picture data from a recording medium. Since picture data is recorded onto a recording medium in this configuration, the number of pictures recorded onto the recording medium is reduced.
Aside from reproduction of one picture, in reproduction of display picture data including a group of pictures, since a plurality of pieces of picture data are read from a recording medium and then are pasted on the display frame region for display, reading processing of picture data equal to number of pieces displayed on one screen from the recording medium, extension processing of the read picture data, and resize processing to arbitrary size have to be performed. It takes long time as in reproduction of one picture.


There is provided an eyeglass frame shape measuring apparatus includes an eyeglass frame holding unit which holds an eyeglass frame, and a measuring unit which measures a shape of a rim of the eyeglass frame by tracing a contour of the rim of the eyeglass frame. The measuring unit includes a tracing stylus which is inserted into a groove of the rim, a tracing stylus moving unit which moves the tracing stylus in a radial direction of the rim, and a rotating unit which rotates the tracing stylus moving unit about a first axis set to pass through an inside of the contour of the rim such that the tip of the tracing stylus traces the rim along the contour of the rim, and which is disposed on a rear side of the eyeglass frame held by the eyeglass frame holding unit.

An eyeglass frame shape measuring apparatus includes an eyeglass frame holding unit which holds an eyeglass frame, and a measuring unit which moves a tracing stylus inserted into a rim of the held eyeglass frame along a contour of the rim (refer to JP-A-2011-122898, JP-A-2000-304530 and JP-A-2000-314617). The eyeglass frame shape measuring apparatus includes a moving mechanism which moves the measuring unit to each of measurement positions of a right rim and a left rim in order to measure the right rim and the left rim held by the eyeglass frame holding unit. The eyeglass frame holding unit includes two sliders which are movable to be open and closed in order to hold the right rim and the left rim of the eyeglass frame by interposing the rims therebetween in a longitudinal direction (upper-lower direction of eyeglasses when worn).
However, in a related-art eyeglass frame shape measuring apparatus, a main mechanism of the measuring unit is disposed on a front side (a side opposite to an eye side of a wearer) of the eyeglass frame held by the eyeglass frame holding unit. In such a configuration, it is difficult to measure a high-curve frame.
In the apparatus of JP-A-2011-122898, in order to measure a high-curve frame, a tip of the tracing stylus is configured to be tiltable on a rear side of the eyeglass frame. However, since the measuring unit is disposed on a front side of the eyeglass frame, the apparatus employs a mechanism which causes a holding mechanism of a tracing stylus shaft to largely move outward further than a contour of the rim, so that a size of the mechanism of the measuring unit would increase.
In the apparatus of JP-A-2000-304530, since the measuring unit is disposed on the front side of the eyeglass frame, the tip of the tracing stylus is configured to tilt on the front side of the eyeglass frame. Therefore, there would be a problem in that the tip of the tracing stylus does not precisely come into contact with a rim groove when measuring the high-curve frame, and there would be another problem in that the tracing stylus easily deviates from the rim groove. That is, this apparatus cannot support measurement of the high-curve frame.
In the apparatus of JP-A-2000-314617, a tracing stylus shaft and a tilt angle of the tip of the tracing stylus are fixed, and therefore, there would be a problem in that the tracing stylus does not precisely come into contact with the rim groove when measuring the high-curve frame, and there would be another problem in that the tracing stylus easily deviates from the rim groove.
Further, in a related-art eyeglass frame holding unit, guide mechanisms which move two sliders to be open and closed are disposed at both right and left ends of the sliders, respectively. Since an operator holds the right and left temples of the eyeglass frame with one's hands, it is difficult to set the frame between two sliders in the related-art apparatus. Particularly, in a configuration where the eyeglass frame is disposed in a substantially horizontal direction, or in a configuration where a measuring mechanism is provided on a rear side (an eye side of a wearer) of the eyeglass frame, it would be more difficult for the operator to set the eyeglass frame. Further, the related-art apparatus requires a large space in a left-right direction, so that a size of the apparatus would increase.

Eyeglass frame shape measuring apparatus


A vehicle seat includes a stopping structure that stops forward tilting rotation of a seatback between the seatback and a base on a floor. The stopping structure includes a stopping portion provided on one of the seatback or the base, and a stopper that is provided in a state supported in a cantilevered manner on the other of the seatback or the base, and that extends to a position overlapping with the stopping portion in a seat width direction. The stopping structure is configured to stop the forward tilting rotation of the seatback by abutment of the stopping portion and the stopper. A deformation inhibiting member that minimizes deformation in the seat width direction from the stopper abutting against the stopping portion following forward tilting rotation of the seatback, is provided on the other of the seatback or the base.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle seat. More particularly, the invention relates to a vehicle seat provided with a stopping structure that stops forward tilting rotation of a seatback between the seatback and a base on a floor.
2. Description of Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-52530 (JP 2010-52530 A), for example, describes a vehicle seat that has a walk-in function that increases the space for a person to get into and out of a back seat by switching a seatback to a forward tilting position. Forward tilting rotation of the seatback is able to be stopped by a stopping portion provided on a side frame of the seatback abutting against a stopper pin provided on a side frame of a seat cushion. The stopper pin is attached to a tip end of a rotating link that is pivotally connected to the side frame of the seat cushion. When the stopping portion abuts against the stopper pin, the stopper pin is received by another stopper link that is pivotally connected to the side frame of the seat cushion, thus stopping forward tilting rotation of the seatback.


A radio transmission power control circuit includes a radio frequency (rf) downconverter that produces a downconverter output representative of the difference between a first downconverter input based on a transmitted signal of a radio transmitter and a second downconverter input based on a local oscillator signal. A receiver baseband circuit processes the downconverter output to produce an analog power signal representative of the transmitted signal. A digital to analog converter converts the analog power signal to a representative digital power signal. A feedback control circuit produces a transmitter gain control signal to control transmitted signal power so as to minimize the difference between the digital power signal and a power reference signal.

Accurate control of the power transmitted by a radio is important for a variety of reasons:                Regulatory bodies, such as the FCC, limit the maximum power of radio transmissions.        Transmitted output power level can have an uncertainty on the order of 10 dB without closed loop control.        Radio link range is a function of transmitted power such that higher power results in a link that can be maintained over a longer distance.        Accurately controlling the transmitted power to the minimum needed to maintain a link minimizes interference with other radios and minimizes power dissipation.
Most radio transmitters use some form of closed-loop control as shown in FIG. 1 to control output power. The transmitter is represented as a modulator 10, which outputs a modulated radio-frequency signal. The output of modulator 10 typically is amplified in multiple stages at least one of which is a variable-gain RF amplifier (VGA) 11, and another of which is a power amplifier (PA) 12. The output of PA 12 is then transmitted out antenna 13. A directional coupler 14 at the output of the PA 12 produces a power sensing signal that is proportional to the power transmitted by antenna 13. The power sensing signal is detected by the power detector 15 which produces a dc voltage proportional to the power sensing signal at its input. The output of power detector 15 is input to a feedback amplifier 16, which controls the gain of the VGA 11 to minimize the difference between the output of power detector 15 and a reference voltage input (Ref) to the feedback amplifier 16. The circuit shown in FIG. 1 may be part of a half-duplex transceiver in which the transmitter and the receiver alternately cycle such that they are not both on at the same time.
Power detector 15 is typically either a diode detector or a logarithmic amplifier. Diode detectors are inexpensive, but they have limited dynamic range (˜20 dB) and suffer from temperature dependence. Logarithmic amplifiers can be very accurate, but their frequency range is limited. Present state-of-the-art logarithmic power detectors have a maximum frequency on the order of 2.5 GHz. That frequency can be increased, but only at the expense of increased power dissipation.
In addition, the analog closed-loop system shown in FIG. 1 is more complicated if the rf output from modulator 10 includes a varying modulation envelope, since the loop will attempt to regulate away the varying envelope. This effect can be addressed by using a partly digital loop which digitizes the output of power detector 15.

Radio transmitter with accurate power control


A connector, method of connecting, and connector assembly preventing potting from disrupting the physical and electrical connection of a mated electrical connector assembly that can be connected and/or disconnected without cutting wires and with a single hand.

Connector assemblies typically include a plug connector having a plug housing containing pin contacts mated to a receptacle connector having a receptacle housing containing socket contacts. The plug housing and the receptacle housing are physically mated, which physically and electrically connect the pin and socket contacts to form an electrical connection.
Such connectors are used for fluorescent ballast light applications. In these application, a plug connector and a receptacle connector are mated by use of tools and/or require more than one hand. The use of tools and/or multiple hands is inconvenient and undesirable.
Upon being mated, these connectors may be contained within a ballast box. Often, a fluid which converts into a foam or solid is introduced into these boxes as potting. This foam or solid prevents the mated connectors from being separated without cutting the wires.
Therefore, there is an unmet need to provide a connector and connecting method that allows the physical and electrical connection of a mated electrical connector assembly to occur outside of the potting region and can be connected and/or disconnected without cutting wires that does not require tools and may be connected and/or disconnected with a single hand.


A policy-controlled access security system for managing access security to electronic agents in cloud based multi-tenant systems includes a client device, a mid-link server, and a web server. A local application running on the client device requests for access to an electronic agent of a remote application of the web server. Policies are determined corresponding to the electronic agent for controlled access to the electronic agent. A token for the electronic agent is correlated with a plurality of tokens for identifying a user application associated with the token. The remote application corresponding to the token from the request is compared with the user application. Based on the comparison an authorization is determined by the mid-link server corresponding to the token for accessing the electronic agent. The policies are enforced on the client device and the access to the electronic agent is provided based on the policies via the web server.

This disclosure relates in general to electronic agent security systems and, but not by way of limitation, to policy-controlled access security and token management for electronic agents among other things.
Popular electronic agents used by organizations boost innovation, improve communication, and develop efficient processes for businesses. Various software tools and mobile applications of the electronic agents are available nowadays that provide enhanced functionalities crucial for communication use of the organizations. However, the electronic agents accompany privacy issues, abuse of recording, sharing and access rights, and involvement of unauthorized third parties that might raise security concerns for the organizations. The misuse of transcript function, unwarranted communication, and access to extremely confidential and sensitive information are some of the major problems faced by the organizations while using the electronic agents.
Unrestricted use of the electronic agents by employees may pose threat to the security and integrity of the organizations. The ill-use of the electronic agents may result in legal matters, disputes, and assault leading to ransom or public acknowledgement. This may in turn cause financial loss and reputational damage to the organizations.

Electronic agent scribe and communication protections


Fully lipid-encapsulated therapeutic agent particles of a charged therapeutic agent are prepared by combining a lipid composition containing preformed lipid vesicles, a charged therapeutic agent, and a destabilizing agent to form a mixture of preformed vesicles and therapeutic agent in a destabilizing solvent. The destabilizing solvent is effective to destabilize the membrane of the preformed lipid vesicles without disrupting the vesicles. The resulting mixture is incubated for a period of time sufficient to allow the encapsulation of the therapeutic agent within the preformed lipid vesicles. The destabilizing agent is then removed to yield fully lipid-encapsulated therapeutic agent particles. The preformed lipid vesicles comprise a charged lipid which has a charge which is opposite to the charge of the charged therapeutic agent and a modified lipid having a steric barrier moiety for control of aggregation.

The concept of using lipid particles as carriers for therapeutic agents has been considered by numerous people. Formulations have relied on complexation of therapeutic agent to the outside of the lipid particle, or actual entrapment of the therapeutic agent, although the ability to make formulations of either type depends on a matching of the characteristics of the lipids and the therapeutic agent, as well as the methods employed to make the particle. In the case of particles with entrapped therapeutic agents, the entrapment method may be passive, i.e., the lipid particles are assembled in the presence of the therapeutic agent, some of which happens to get trapped; or active, i.e, the therapeutic agent is drawn or forced into the interior of a lipid particle as a result of an induced gradient of some type. Notwithstanding the many efforts to utilize lipid particles as carriers, there remain problems which may limit actual applications of lipid-entrapped therapeutic agents. These include low levels of therapeutic agent incorporation on a drug/lipid basis, low efficiency's of capture of the therapeutic agent, and lack of a suitable procedure for larger scale manufacturing of the lipid-encapsulated therapeutic agent particles.
Large scale manufacturing of fully lipid-encapsulated therapeutic agent particles has not been achieved where there is a significant electrostatic interaction between the lipid and the therapeutic agent. A basic problem is aggregation. Aggregation normally results when charged lipid is mixed with oppositely charged therapeutic agent, resulting in a solution containing a milky flocculent mass which is not useable for further processing, let alone for therapeutic use. The aggregation problem has prevented the development of therapeutic compositions which could be of great utility.
Bench scale formulations using charged lipid and oppositely charged therapeutic agent have been successfully achieved using cationic lipids and anionic nucleic acids in a passive encapsulation process described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,705,385 to Bally et al. (PCT Applic. No. WO 96/40964; See also U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 08/484,282; 08/485,458; 08/660,025; and 09/140,476) and PCT patent Applic. No. WO 98/51278 to Semple et al. (See also U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/856,374) all assigned to an assignee of the instant invention and incorporated herein by reference. See also Wheeler et al. (1999) Stabilized plasmid-lipid particles: Construction and characterization. Gen. Ther. 6:271–281. These techniques employ an aggregation preventing lipid, such as a PEG-lipid or ATTA-lipid (disclosed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/996,783 which is incorporated herein by reference), which effectively prevents complex aggregate formation. Resulting fully lipid-encapsulated therapeutic agent particles have excellent pharmaceutical characteristics, such as controlled size (in the 30–250 nm range), full encapsulation (as measured by nuclease resistance, for example) and stability in serum.
WO98/51278 describes a bench scale procedure for the preparation of the lipid-encapsulated therapeutic agent particles using passive entrapment. This known method employs the two basic steps of lipid hydration and liposome sizing. In the lipid hydration step, a cationic lipid solution (95% EtOH solvent) is added dropwise into an agitated reservoir containing polynucleotide therapeutic agent in citrate buffer (pH 3.8) to a final composition of 40% EtOH, 9.9 mg/ml lipid and 2.0 mg/ml polynucleotide. Lipid particles resulting from this hydration step are typically 400 nm diameter and greater, which is too large for general use as a therapeutic. Because of this, extensive post-formulation processing such as high temperature extrusion (at 65° C.) and optionally freeze-thawing (from liquid nitrogen to 65° C. waterbath) is required to obtain suitably-sized lipid particles. The efficiency of encapsulation using this is fairly high (60–90%) in terms of recovered final drug:lipid ratio, but the absolute efficiency of incorporation of starting polynucleotide into the final particle formulation is sub-optimal (25–45%).
Commercial large scale manufacturing of these particles is not efficiently achieved using traditional methods employed in the liposome field. These problems exist notwithstanding the great deal of art on the manufacturing of liposome/drug formulations that has emerged since the first description of liposome preparation by Bangham, AD. et al. (1965) "The action of steroids and streptolysin S on the permeability of phospholipid structures to cations", J. Mol. Biol. 13, 138–147.
Known large scale manufacturing techniques for lipid particles can be broadly classified into the following categories: 1) Lipid Film Hydration (i.e. Passive entrapment); 2) Reverse Phase Evaporation; 3) High-Pressure extrusion; 4) and Solvent injection (dilution) (see for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,752,425 and 4,737,323 to Martin et al). Particular instruments for lipid particle manufacturing disclosed in the art include: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,270,053 and 5,466,468 to Schneider et al; Isele, U. et al. (1994) Large-Scale Production of Liposomes Containing Monomeric Zinc Phthalocyanine by Controlled Dilution of Organic Solvents. J. Pharma. Sci. vol 83 (11) 1608–1616; Kriftner, R W. (1992) Liposome Production: The Ethanol Injection Technique, in Bruan-Falco et al., eds, Liposome Derivatives, Berlin, Springer-Verlag, 1992, pp. 91–100; Kremer et al. (1977) Vesicles of Variable Diameter Prepared by a Modified Injection Method. Biochemistry 16 (17): 3932–3935; Batzri, S. and Korn, ED. (1973) Single Bilayer Liposomes Prepared Without Sonication, Bioch. Biophys. Acta 298: 1015–1019.
None of the above noted methods or instruments are suitable for scale up of formulations of charged lipid and oppositely charged therapeutic agents with the excellent pharmaceutical characteristics of Bally et al., supra, and Semple et al., supra. The manufacturing techniques set out in Bally et al., supra, and Semple et al., supra were developed only for 1–100 ml preparations, and are cumbersome and lead to unsustainable inefficiencies in large scale manufacturing (i.e. at the scale of 20–200 liters).
The instant invention provides, for the first time, methods for the large-scale preparation of fully encapsulated lipid-therapeutic agent particles where the lipid and therapeutic agent are oppositely charged. These particles are useful as therapeutic compositions and for experimentation and otherwise. It is an object of this invention to provide such methods.

Methods for preparation of lipid-encapsulated therapeutic agents


A computer-implemented method for decoding brain imaging data of individual subjects by using additional imaging data from other subjects includes receiving a plurality of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) datasets corresponding to a plurality of subjects. Each fMRI dataset corresponds to a distinct subject and comprises brain activation patterns resulting from presentation of a plurality of stimuli to the distinct subject. A group dimensionality reduction (GDR) technique is applied to the example fMRI datasets to yield a low-dimensional space of response variables shared by the plurality of subjects. A model is trained to predict a set of target variables based on the low-dimensional space of response variables shared by all subjects, wherein the set of target variables comprise one or more characteristics of the plurality of stimuli.

State-of-the-art functional MRI (fMRI) experiments often use complex stimuli, with the ultimate goal being to identify what in the brain activation encodes characteristics of those stimuli (e.g., visual, semantic, etc.). This is often done by learning a mapping that associates the presence of each characteristic with its effect on the pattern of brain activation across voxels. This is then used to decode those features from new brain imaging data. The mapping is learned with data for a single subject, and works only on that subject. Any general conclusion about stimulus representations can only be drawn by comparing, post-hoc, the brain regions associated with each characteristic, across subjects. Furthermore, functional MRI data are very noisy, so it may be difficult to learn the mapping for certain subjects.
Conventional approaches rely on there being multiple subjects on whom corresponding fMRI datasets—using the same stimuli—were acquired. For example, one conventional technique averages data from multiple subjects. This requires first aligning subjects based on their anatomical scans—with any registration technique—and then applying the same transformation to functional imaging data, averaging the resulting transformed data across subjects. This reduces noise but destroys any fMRI activation that is not focal and does not overlap across people. This is an issue because it is already known that information resides in the overall distributed pattern of brain activation, rather than just in specific locations. A second conventional technique combines data from multiple subjects into a single representation using a group dimensionality reduction method. This is effective but means that all subjects must be available for use at both the time we learn the mapping learning and the time we use it for testing; any results obtained pertain to the group, rather than individual subjects.

Decoding from brain imaging data of individual subjects by using additional imaging data from other subjects


Provided is a sorting apparatus including: a flow channel device including a flow channel through which a fluid including particles flows and an operation electrode portion that causes a dielectrophoretic force to act on the particles in the flow channel; and a controller configured to detect characteristics of the particles flowing through the flow channel, generate a voltage signal by a pulse modulation using a square pulse based on the detected characteristics of the particles, and output the voltage signal to the operation electrode portion.

The present disclosure relates to a sorting apparatus and a sorting method for sorting particles of cells and the like using a dielectrophoretic force.
From the past, as a method of sorting particles in a fluid by an electromagnetic force, there are the following two methods, for example. One is a method of performing an electrophoresis of charge particles by forming a DC electric field in a flow channel. The other is a method of performing an electrophoresis of particles while depending on a complex permittivity of a medium and particles by forming a DC or AC electric field in a flow channel and giving a spatial heterogeneity, that is, an electric field intensity gradient to the electric field. As an example of the latter method of performing an electrophoresis, there is a cell sorting apparatus (cell analysis/sorting system) disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2012-98075 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document 1).
The cell sorting apparatus includes a cell sorting chip that includes a micro flow channel, for example. This apparatus measures, when a fluid including cells flows through predetermined flow channels in the chip, a complex impedance and a complex permittivity among the flow channels and sorts the cells based on the measurement result. The chip includes a signal detection electrode (measurement portion) for measuring a complex impedance and a complex permittivity of cells and detecting signals. The chip also includes as a cell sorting means, on a downstream side of the signal detection electrode, an operation electrode (electric field application portion) having a predetermined shape, that is provided for forming a DC or AC electric field for imparting an appropriate dielectrophoretic force to the cells (see, for example, paragraphs (0025), (0028), etc. in specification of Patent Document 1).


In a storage system management device, a method for graphically displaying a component of a data storage system. The method includes mapping, by the storage system management device, each component of a set of components of the data storage system to at least one graphical image of the component, displaying, by the storage system management device, a tree table of the set of components of the data storage system, and outputting, by the storage system management device, at least one graphical image of a component of the set of components selected from the tree table.

A typical data storage system stores and retrieves data for one or more external host devices. Conventional data storage systems typically include processing circuitry and a set of disk drives electrically coupled to the processing circuitry. The processing circuitry includes one or more ports, such as Ethernet ports, that allow the host devices to connect to the processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is typically configured to perform load and store operations on the set of disk drives on behalf of the host devices.
In certain data storage systems, the disk drives of the data storage system are distributed among one or more separate disk drive enclosures and processing circuitry serves as a front-end to the disk drive enclosures. The processing circuitry presents the disk drives of the enclosures to the host device as a single, logical storage location and allows the host device to access the disk drives such that the individual disk drives and disk drive enclosures are transparent to the host device.

Dynamic graphical display of components in a data storage system


The present invention is directed to an MRI enhancing device deployable in a body. In one embodiment, the MRI enhancing device is formed of a wire loop and a capacitor that is at least partially formed by the wire used in forming the wire loop.

The present invention relates generally to intravascular devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to tunable MRI enhancing devices, such as filters and balloon catheters.
Tracking of catheters and other devices positioned within a body may be achieved by means of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system. Typically, such a magnetic resonance imaging system may be comprised of a magnet, a pulsed magnetic field gradient generator, a transmitter for transmitting electromagnetic waves in radio frequency (RF), a radio frequency receiver, and a controller. In a common implementation, an antenna is disposed either on the device to be tracked or on a guidewire or catheter (commonly referred to as an MR catheter) used to assist in the delivery of the device to its destination. In one known implementation, the antenna comprises an electrically conductive coil that is coupled to a pair of elongated electrical conductors that are electrically insulated from each other and that together comprise a transmission line adapted to transmit the detected signal to the RF receiver.
In one embodiment, the coil is arranged in a solenoid configuration. The patient is placed into or proximate the magnet and the device is inserted into the patient. The magnetic resonance imaging system generates electromagnetic waves in radio frequency and magnetic field gradient pulses that are transmitted into the patient and that induce a resonant response signal from selected nuclear spins within the patient. This response signal induces current in the coil of electrically conductive wire attached to the device. The coil thus detects the nuclear spins in the vicinity of the coil. The transmission line transmits the detected response signal to the radio frequency receiver, which processes it and then stores it with the controller. This is repeated in three orthogonal directions. The gradients cause the frequency of the detected signal to be directly proportional to the position of the radio-frequency coil along each applied gradient.
The position of the radio frequency coil inside the patient may therefore be calculated by processing the data using Fourier transformations so that a positional picture of the coil is achieved. In one implementation this positional picture is superposed with a magnetic resonance image of the region of interest. This picture of the region may be taken and stored at the same time as the positional picture or at any earlier time.
In a coil-type antenna such as that described above, it is desirable that the impedance of the antenna coil substantially match the impedance of the transmission line. In traditional impedance matching of MRI coils, shunt-series or series shunt capacitor combinations suffice to tune the coil. In such traditional applications, the capacitors almost never pose a size constraint. However, for intravascular coils, miniaturization of the tuning capacitors is necessary.
Discrete components have been employed to construct matching and tuning circuits on intravascular devices. Such components are bulky and are not easily incorporated into the design of the device. Also, placement of the tuning capacitors away from the coil without a reduction in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is desirable. It has been proposed to use open circuit stub transmission lines as a means of fabricating arbitrary or trimmable capacitors and to use short-circuited stubs as tuning inductors. Such probes are tuned by trimming the length of the coaxial cables. However, these circuits still result in a relatively large device that is not ideal for intravascular navigation.
Also, in the past, an active MRI self-expanding stent design has been developed. In this design, a surface mountable capacitor was mounted to a stent to produce an LC circuit using the stent as a coil. However, in order to match the resonating frequency of the circuit to the Larmor frequency, the surface mount capacitor had to be tuned prior to implementation. The resonant frequency of such a circuit depends on the diameter of the expanded stent, and is thus not known prior to implementation. Therefore, any tuning procedure prior to implementation carries the risk of mis-tuning. Also, as discussed above, the addition of a surface mount capacitor increases the thickness of the stent.


A wire connector which comprises a connector body and a turn-and-press member; the connector body is a member made of a plastic material, and is formed in shape with an injection molding; both sides of the connector body have two fastening hooks respectively, which each has a hook hole for receiving a turn-and-press member; the connector body embeds a plurality of conductive copper pieces arranged separately and regularly one another. The lower both ends of the turn-and-press member has two fastening studs respectively, and the lower edge thereof has a plurality of wire holes arranged separately and regularly;such wire holes are at an angle in relation to the flat surface of the turn-and-press member. An electrically conduction can be made upon the member being turned and pressed in a simple and sure operation manner.

Generally, electrical wires are connected by soldering or riveting method, which requires a considerable manpower aside from having unstable conduction result; as a result, the quality of an electric product might be affected. Recently, there has been a blade type of wire connector, which can cut the wire insulator for conduction, and can improve the assembling efficiency, but still has some drawbacks, such as the wire size being an important factor; for example, if the wire is too fine, the blade will be unable to cut the copper core of a wire, and a desired conduction result can not be obtained.


Phase locked loops that can adjust the frequency of a clock signal are provided. A transmitter adjusts its data transmission rate in response to the clock signal to accommodate different data transmission protocols. A phase locked loop can add or drop cycles from an input clock signal in response to one or more signals from a receiver. The signals from the receiver indicate the transmission rate of the incoming data signal. The phase locked loop can drop cycles from the clock signal to decrease the frequency of the clock signal. The transmitter then decreases its data transmission rate in response to the reduced frequency of the clock signal. The phase locked loop can also add cycles to the clock signal to increase the frequency of the clock signal. The transmitter increases its data transmission rate in response to the increased frequency of the clock signal.

The present invention relates to phase locked loop circuits, and more particularly, to phase locked loop circuits that are used to control the data rates of signal transmitters.
Phase locked loop circuits are well known to those of skill in the art. Phase locked loops circuits are used in signal processing applications.
A typical phase locked loop includes a phase detector, a charge pump, a loop filter, and a voltage controlled oscillator. The phase detector produces an output signal that is proportional to the phase difference between an input signal and a clock signal. The output signal of the phase detector is also proportional to the frequency difference between the input signal and the clock signal.
The charge pump and the loop filter together act as a low pass filter. The low pass filter filters the output signal of the phase detector to produce a DC voltage. The DC voltage is proportional to the phase difference between the input signals of the phase detector.
The oscillator outputs the clock signal. The phase of the clock signal is dependent on the output of the loop filter. The clock signal is provided to one of the input terminals of the phase detector. The phase detector compares the clock signal from the oscillator to the input signal of the phase locked loop. An amplifier may be used to step up the voltage at the output of the phase detector.
In some types of communication systems, data is transmitted with a predetermined structure called a frame. The frame contains a header section and a payload section. The actual data resides in the payload section. Different data transfer protocols may require a different amount of data bits in the frame. Data transmission from one such protocol to another can only be performed if the frame is adjusted.
Phase locked loop circuits may be used to generate a clock signal that is used by a transmitter to transmit data. It would therefore be desirable to provide a phase locked loop that can adjust the frame for particular data transmission protocols.

Phase lock loop with cycle drop and add circuitry


The present invention is directed to preventing the load to be required for blind detection in a mobile station apparatus (UE) from increasing and switching between SU-MIMO and MU-MIMO dynamically, even in the event the system bandwidth is expanded. The present invention has a DCI format selection section (209) that selects identification information which identifies between a DCI format for SU-MIMO and a DCI format for MU-MIMO, a control signal generation section (210) that generates control signals including the identification information and including the DCI format for SU-MIMO or MU-MIMO, having the same number of bits, and a transmission section that transmits the control signals to a mobile station apparatus.

In a UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) network, for the purposes of improving frequency usage efficiency and improving the data rates, system features which are based on W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) are maximized by adopting HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) and HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access). For this UMTS network, for the purposes of further increasing high-speed data rates, providing low delay and so on, long-term evolution (LTE) has been under study.
In the third-generation mobile communication system, it is possible to achieve a transmission rate of maximum approximately 2 Mbps on the downlink by using a fixed band of approximately 5 MHz. Meanwhile, in a system of the LTE scheme, it is possible to achieve a transmission rate of about maximum 300 Mbps on the downlink and about 75 Mbps on the uplink by using a variable band which ranges from 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz. Furthermore, in the UMTS network, for the purpose of achieving further broadbandization and higher speed, successor systems of LTE have been under study (for example, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A)). For example, in LTE-A, there is a plan to expand the maximum system band for LTE specifications, which is 20 MHz, to approximately 100 MHz.
Also, in a system of the LTE scheme, a MIMO (Multi Input Multi Output) system is proposed (see, for example, non-patent literature 1), as a radio communication technique to transmit and receive data by a plurality of antennas and improve the data rate (frequency usage efficiency). In the MIMO system, a plurality of transmission/reception antennas are provided in the transmitter/receiver, so that different transmission information sequences are transmitted from different transmission antennas, at the same time. On the other hand, on the receiver side, taking advantage of the fact that fading variation is produced between transmission/reception antennas, by separating and detecting the information sequences that have been transmitted at the same time, it is possible to increase the data rate (frequency usage efficiency).
In a system of the LTE scheme, single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO), in which all the transmission information sequences that are transmitted from different transmission antennas are directed to the same user, and multiple-user MIMO (MU-MIMO), in which transmission information sequences that are transmitted from different transmission antennas are directed to different users, are defined. In the LTE system of Release 8 (Rel. 8), SU-MIMO and MU-MIMO are defined with different transmission modes, and are both defined with different downlink control channel (DCI (Downlink Control Information)) formats. For example, SU-MIMO is set in transmission mode 3 (open loop) and transmission mode 4 (closed loop), and MU-MIMO is set in transmission mode 5. The number of bits in the DCI format and information to be contained in the DCI format vary between these transmission modes. It is possible to switch between these transmission modes semi-statically.
Each transmission mode can be set in two DCI formats depending on usage. For example, in transmission mode 5, which corresponds to MU-MIMO, DCI formats 1D and 1A are defined. In the same transmission mode, it is possible to switch the DCI format dynamically. On the mobile station apparatus (UE) side, blind detection of the DCI format, which is selected in the base station apparatus, is performed. Consequently, as the number of DCI formats increases, the number of searches for blind detection increases. However, in the LTE system of Rel. 8, two DCI formats are allowed to be included for one transmission mode.
On the other hand, in the LTE system of Release 9 (Rel. 9), SU-MIMO and MU-MIMO, which use user-specific reference signals for demodulation (UE-specific RSs), are defined with the same DCI format (DCI format 2B). Consequently, in the LTE system of Rel. 9, SU-MIMO, in which the maximum number of transmitting streams is two, and MU-MIMO, in which the maximum number of users to multiplex is two, can be switched dynamically. Also, given that the transmission mode to include DCI format 2B includes, besides this, DCI format 1A alone, it is possible to maintain the number of searches for blind detection on the mobile station apparatus side the same number of times as in Rel. 8.

Base station apparatus, mobile station apparatus and control information transmission method


A front-loading type clothes washing machine comprises a washing tub, a drum which is rotatable within said washing tub about a horizontal or inclined center of rotation and capable of containing the items to be washed, a door assembly for closing the tub and an annular bellow-type gasket interposed between the door assembly and the washing tub. The washing machine further comprises a safety device having a sensor disposed in the zone of the annular gasket and adapted to detect when at least an item of laundry is present in said zone, in order to prevent any possible damage to such item of laundry.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clothes washing machine of the drum type. The invention relates particularly to a washing machine of the front-loading type comprising a control unit, a washing tub, a drum which is rotatable within said washing tub and capable of containing the items of laundry to be washed, a door assembly for closing the tub and an annular bellow-type gasket interposed between the door assembly and the washing tub.
In the above type of washing machines with a horizontal or near-horizontal drum axis, there is a danger both during washing and during spin-drying that an item of laundry can partially extend beyond the drum opening in a zone between the door, particularly its domed central wall member of glass and of circular shape, and the bellow-type gasket or a portion thereof, so that this item can become caught between such gasket and the glass door.
If this takes place during the washing process, the friction that occurs, as the drum rotates, between the item of laundry and the door gasket will have an adverse effect such that it may result in the transfer of any detergent residues and/or sludge deposits present on the gasket to the item of laundry. Moreover, since this item of laundry has been withdrawn from the washing process, this may result in the gasket and piece of laundry sustaining wear and tear owing to friction.
If this should occur during spin-drying, the piece of laundry in question will inevitably be damaged, i.e. the fabric will be mechanically destroyed and the gasket seal will also sustain considerable wear and tear.
2. Description of the Related Art
The current state of the art, particularly in washing machines with high-speed spin-drying functions, involves the application of a laundry guard or diverter, which is designed to divert the piece of laundry inside the machine back to the drum. The current state of the art does not frequently achieve this, or does not do so adequately, for some items of laundry (i.e. socks and the like) as well as for large quantities of laundry.
In this case the laundry guard or diverter causes extra damage to the laundry since at a high number of revolutions per minute, it bounces against the laundry guard at high speed instead of sliding onto the gasket surface.
It would thus be desirable, and this is the aim of the present invention, to provide a clothes washing machine having a system capable of avoiding the above-mentioned disadvantages and to avoid this kind of damage to the laundry in a very reliably way.


When applying a method and an arrangement for purifying water, an inflow of contaminated water is converted to a pressure elevated flow which is divided in a purifying unit into a purified outflow and a contaminated outflow, which in turn is divided into a return flow and a reject flow. With the intention of providing a large return flow under high pressure for the purpose of rinsing clean the filter unit during operation, the return flow includes a first return flow (return conduit 24) which is recycled to the pressure-elevated flow (pressure conduit 16) and which is larger than the inflow, and further includes a second return flow which is pressure-restricted with respect to the first return flow, and the second return flow is returned to the inflow.

The present invention relates to a water purification method, in which an incoming flow of contaminated water is converted to a pressure-elevated flow which through reversed osmosis, nanofiltration, or ultrafiltration in a purification unit is divided into a purified outflow and a non-purified or contaminated outflow which, in turn, is divided into a return flow and a reject flow. The invention also relates to an arrangement for carrying out the method.
It is known in water purification processes in which reversed osmosis (RO) and ultrafiltration (UF) are employed that the quotient between the flow of purified water and contaminated water can be increased when some of the waste water is allowed to circulate through the purification process. It is also known within RO-technology and UF-technology to allow the major part of the waste water either to return to a point which lies upstream of the pressure boosting pump or to allow the water to be returned to a point downstream of that pump for circulation in a high-pressure region with the aid of a separate circulation pump.
The advantage with the first system lies in its simplicity, while the disadvantage with the system is that it requires a relatively high degree of pump work. Consequently, the first system is applied preferably on small plants which do not require the highest energy efficiency. A divided flow can be taken from the maximum nominal flow relatively easily. The second system which employs internal circulation is more complicated, since it requires an additional pump and circulation flow conduits. Although this system is more energy effective, it is more expensive to provide, because of the intricate control system required to take a divided flow from the maximum nominal flow with low energy losses.

Method and apparatus for purifying water


A device management (DM) server. The server comprises a memory, a processor, and an application programming interface (API), wherein the secondary DM server makes available a subset of the functionality of a DM server and when accessed through a portal, initiates a DM session with a short message service (SMS) system type message, notifies the mobile communication devices associated with a trusted third party of secondary DM server via the short message service system type message, and makes available firmware to be downloaded from a sandbox of the secondary DM server and tested by a limited number of the mobile communication devices associated with the third party, wherein the sandbox is an area in a memory to isolate untested firmware or firmware under test from the environment outside the sandbox.

Mobile phones are electronic devices that are used for mobile voice and/or data communications based on wireless network connectivity, which can be provided by base stations known as cell towers or sites. Such electronic devices may be associated with a mobile network operator directly or through a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). The mobile virtual network operator is the wireless communication services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure or the radio spectrum over which the mobile virtual network operator provides services to the customers. A mobile virtual network operator may have its own customer relationship management, marketing, customer service, or billing support systems. Mobile phones associated with the mobile virtual network operator may be activated, configured, or updated by the mobile network operator.

Secondary open mobile alliance device management platform


In one aspect the invention relates to a high bandwidth shallow mesa semiconductor photodiode responsive to incident electromagnetic radiation. The photodiode includes an absorption narrow bandgap layer, a wide bandgap layer disposed substantially adjacent to the absorption layer, a first doped layer having a first conductivity type disposed substantially adjacent to the wide bandgap layer, and a passivation region disposed substantially adjacent to the wide bandgap layer and the first doped layer.

For high-bit-rate, long-haul fiber-optic communications p-doped/intrinsic/n-doped (PIN) photodiodes and avalanche photodiodes (APDs) are frequently used as photodetectors due to their high sensitivity and bandwidth. Planar and mesa structures are two commonly used configurations for PIN Photodiodes and APDs. Mesa structure PIN photodiodes and APDs are sometimes grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) or metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). These fabrication techniques allow the thickness of the layers and the wafer to be accurately controlled.
Referring to FIG. 1, a mesa structure PIN 2 known in the prior art is shown. The structure includes a top metal contact 8, two bottoms metal contacts 12, a p-doped Indium Gallium Arsenide (InGaAs) ohmic contact layer 64 lattice matched to Indium Phosphide (InP), a p-doped InP layer 68, an intrinsic narrow bandgap InGaAs absorption layer 76 lattice matched to InP, a n-doped InP layer 80, and passivation regions 32.
In fabrication after the layers 80, 76, 68, 64 are sequentially deposited, the mesa structure 84 is formed by chemical etching through the p-doped layers 64, 68 and the intrinsic absorption layer 76. Next, the exposed sidewalls of the p-doped layers 64, 68 and the intrinsic absorption layer 76 that define the mesa structure 84 are passivated with dielectric materials, such as SiO2 or SiNx. As part of this process, defects are inevitably introduced into the p-doped layers 64, 68 and the intrinsic absorption layer 76. The intrinsic InGaAs absorption layer 76 has a low bandgap and the mesa etching introduced defects create extra intraband energy levels. These in turn lead to a high dark current. The dark current in InGaAs PIN photodiodes and APDs fabricated according to the above method is one factor in the generally low reliability of these devices. The low reliability of these devices includes low sensitivity and high noise. These disadvantages significantly restrict the use of InGaAs PIN photodiodes and APDs in optical communications systems.
Referring to FIG. 2, a planar structure PIN photodiode 4 known in the prior art is shown. The structure 4 includes a top metal contact 8, two bottom metal contacts 12, an intrinsic InGaAs layer 16, an intrinsic InP layer 20, an intrinsic absorption InGaAs layer 76, a n-doped InP layer 28, passivation regions 32, a p-doped InGaAs diffusion region 36, and a p-doped InP diffusion region 40.
During fabrication of the planar structure PIN photodiode 4, the n-doped InP layer 28, the intrinsic InGaAs layer 76, the intrinsic layer InP 20, and the intrinsic InGaAs layer 16 are sequentially deposited. The p-doped regions 36 and 40 are then formed by diffusing, for example, Zinc (Zn) or Cadmium into the top central region of the device 4. After the diffusion step, the top metal contact 8 and the passivation regions 32 are added.
Although avoiding the introduction of defects into the intrinsic InGaAs layer 76 during passivation, planar structure PIN photodiodes 4 have disadvantages in device performance and design flexibility. The introduction of the p-dopant by diffusion is not a precise process, and, therefore, the thickness of the p-doped regions 36 and 40 cannot be accurately controlled. In some instances the p-dopant diffuses into the intrinsic InGaAs layer 76. In other instances the p-dopant does not diffuse completely through the intrinsic InP layer 20, or even through the intrinsic InGaAs layer 76. Another disadvantage of planar structure PIN photodiodes 4 is their higher parasitic capacitance. The parasitic capacitance exists between the conductive substrate and device pad. Mesa structure devices can avoid this problem, however, by employing a semi-insulating substrate.
An additional disadvantage of planar structure PIN photodiodes 4 is that their fabrication process is complex. In particular, the diffusion process requires that the surface of the layer to be doped be carefully prepared. A further disadvantage of planar structure PIN photodiodes 4 is the control of hazardous materials as part of the dopant diffusion. For example, in Zn diffusion, As, P, Zn3P2, and Zn3As2, are heated to approximately 550C. At this temperature, small evaporated and inhaled doses are lethal.
What is needed are PIN photodiodes and APDs that overcome the disadvantages of current PIN photodiodes and APDs.

Methods of fabricating planar PIN and APD photodiodes


A compiler for compiling a server application is disclosed wherein the server is configured to automatically generate an API (Application Programming Interface) for use is a client device. The API allows communication between the client device and the compiled server application.

In computer gaming, it is commonplace to communicate over a network to provide additional functionality. This communication is often performed between a server and a client device. In order to assist in communication between a client device and a server, an Application Programming Interface (API) is often used to provide an interface layer at the client.