The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a ceramic cutting insert, based on an oxide ceramic or a nitride ceramic or a mixed ceramic material, possibly containing whiskers, in a process comprising the powder metallurgical steps of providing a ready-to-press ceramic powder, pressing the ready-to-press powder into a compact of desired shape, sintering the compact to dense a ceramic blank followed by tumbling the ceramic blank, to remove sinter skin and provide an edge rounding.

The present invention relates to a method of making a ceramic cutting insert for metal machining and a ceramic cutting insert.
Ceramic cutting inserts are produced by powder metallurgical methods comprising milling, pressing and sintering. From the sintering process ceramic insert blanks are obtained. As a result of the pressing operation, the blanks have rather sharp cutting edges and also sinter skin as a result of the sintering process. However, sharp edges break too easily when used and sinter skin may contain surface defects acting as crack initiation points for an insert in operation. The sintered blanks must therefore be subjected to post-sintering treatment. Normally, there is also a need to perform a post-sintering treatment in order to obtain cutting inserts having the correct final shape and dimensional tolerances.
Ceramic insert materials for metal machining are of the hard but brittle type, thus easily obtaining surface defects, such as chipping, if surface treated in an inappropriate way. For this reason, care must be taken during the post-sintering treatment not to cause damage to the insert blank surface and particularly to the sharp, as-sintered, cutting edge. In some circumstances, such as when surface treating particular ceramic material grades, special measures must be taken in order not to cause unacceptable surface defects and hence rejection of the finished insert.
The common way of shaping ceramic insert blanks and removing the sinter skin is by using abrasive rubbing tools, such as conventional grinding wheels. However, grinding of ceramic blanks, in order to obtain the desired final shape, is known to be an expensive procedure requiring precision grinding equipment as well as extensive manual handling of the blanks or, alternatively, the use of expensive equipment for automated handling. In order to obtain an edge rounding of the cutting edge it is also necessary to perform a second post-sintering step, normally in the form of a brushing operation.
The resulting edge rounding can be described by a W/H ratio, where W is the width of the edge rounding along a rake face and H is the width of the edge rounding along a clearance face. In order to obtain the expected service life of the cutting insert, the W/H ratio achieved by the treatment must be within a certain tolerance.
The tumbling process has been used for many years for surface preparation and treatment of metal and metal alloy articles, for example for achieving deburring, radiusing or polishing of components for gas turbine engines, such as blades, vanes and nozzles.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,869,329 discloses a method of treating inserts for rock bits for drilling comprising a composite material of, e.g., tungsten carbide bonded with Co or a Ni—Fe composition, using extended vibratory tumbling in order to increase their fracture toughness.

Ceramic cutting insert and method of making same


The disclosure concerns a standby tray for making a sheet at the position above a processing tray. The sheet on the standby tray is dropped and supplied onto the processing tray. The upper end of the center area of a shutter supporting the rear end of the sheet on a sheet discharge tray which is slidable to the sheet discharge section of the standby tray or processing tray is made lower than the upper end of the peripheral area of the shutter. Movable portions of the shutter are extended when the sheet discharge tray is slid to close the sheet discharge sections of the processing tray and/or standby tray.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet post-processing apparatus that performs post-processing for a sheet on which an image has been formed in an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a printer, or a composite device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there was developed a sheet post-processing apparatus, which is disposed adjacent to the sheet discharge section of an image forming apparatus main body for the purpose of performing post-processing for a sheet on which an image has been formed in the image forming apparatus. The sheet post-processing apparatus performs post-processing for a sheet, such as sorting of printed sheets discharged from the image forming apparatus or stapling thereof. The sheet post-processing apparatus performs post-processing for a succeeding sheet after completion of the post-processing for a preceding sheet. In order for the sheet post-processing apparatus to wait until the post-processing for a preceding sheet has been completed, an apparatus in which a retreating path is formed in the middle of a path reaching to a stapler is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication (Kokoku) No. H6-99070.
However, in the case where the retreating path is formed in the middle of a path reaching to a stapler as described above, the length of a sheet path extending from the discharge section of the image forming apparatus main body to the stapler is increased. This may prevent size reduction of the entire apparatus.
In light of the above, an apparatus in which a processing tray for use in staple processing and a standby tray which retains a sheet to be supplied to the processing tray in a standby mode are vertically provided to reduce the length of the sheet path has been proposed. In this apparatus, a sheet is dropped from the standby tray and is supplied onto the processing tray. Further, such an apparatus has a sheet discharge tray on which a sheet discharged from the standby tray or processing tray is placed and a rear end guide that supports the rear end of the sheet on the discharge tray between the discharge tray.
However, if deformation of a sheet occurs when the sheet is discharged from the standby tray or processing tray to the sheet discharge tray, the sheet is caught by the rear side which may result in sheet jamming. Further, if the rear guide contacts a sheet when the sheet is aligned on the processing tray, the rear guide serves as resistance too adversely affecting the sheet alignment performance.
Further, in some cases, the sheet discharge tray is slid on the side surface of the post-processing apparatus main body, with the sheet placed thereon, so as to be disposed adjacent to the position of the standby tray or processing tray. If the rear end of the sheet on the discharge tray is slipped from the upper end of the rear guide at this time, the sheet may be fed back to the processing tray or standby tray side.
To cope with the above problems, a small-sized sheet post-processing apparatus that prevents sheet jamming from occurring when the sheet is discharged from the standby tray or processing tray to the discharge tray without adversely affecting the sheet alignment performance made in the processing tray has been desired. Further, a sheet post-processing apparatus that prevents the sheet placed on the discharge tray from being fed back to the backside at the time of the slide of the discharge tray has been desired.

Sheet post-processing apparatus with back feed prevention


A method for forming a via in a sapphire substrate with a laser machining system that includes an ultrafast pulsed laser source. The sapphire substrate is provided. Pulses of laser light are substantially focused to a beam spot on the first surface of the sapphire substrate such that each focused pulse of laser light ablates a volume of the sapphire substrate having a depth less than the substrate thickness. The beam spot of the focused laser light pulses is scanned over a via portion of the first surface of the sapphire substrate. The sapphire substrate is moved in a direction substantially normal to the first surface to control the volume of the sapphire substrate ablated by each pulse of laser light to be substantially constant. The pulsing and scanning steps are repeated until the via is formed extending from the first surface to the second surface of the sapphire substrate.

In the field of high frequency electronic circuit design, gallium arsenide (GaAs) microwave monolithic integrated circuits (MMIC's) were demonstrated in the 1970's. Since then, many resources have been put into extending the maximum operating frequency (fmax) of GaAs products (e.g., MESFET, PHEMT, HEMT, and HBT technologies) into the hundreds of gigahertz (GHz). However, due to its superior material properties, Gallium nitride (GaN) may provide a superior alternative GaAs. GaN may offer, for example, higher efficiency and a higher operating voltage with lower current, thereby allowing the design of circuitry with approximately ten times the power density of a GaAs PHEMT.
The choice of substrates on which to grow GaN-based MMIC's is an important factor in device performance. It may be desirable, for example, to provide a substrate with low electrical conductivity to limit RF losses through the substrate to ground (i.e., a non-insulating substrate is equivalent to a lossy transmission line to ground at high frequencies). Accordingly, materials such as sapphire or SiC may be used as substrates for GaN devices. Sapphire is a particularly attractive candidate for substrate material due to its cost effectiveness and low-loss characteristics.
However, MMIC's desirably incorporate via holes through the substrate to provide adequate ground contacts to a backside metallization formed thereon. Additionally, such vias may desirably provide thermal contact to assist in heat dissipation from the MMIC to the package. For a 100 μm thick sapphire substrate, for example, 8 to 10 via holes having diameters between 30 and 60 μm may be desired per 1 mm2 chip. This adds up to approximately 60,000 vias for a standard 4 inch wafer, and approximately 150,000 vias for a standard 6 inch wafer. Due to sapphire's materials characteristics, however, it may be cost prohibitive, inefficient, and generally undesirable to mechanically machine 60,000 to 150,000 via holes approximately 100 μm or deeper into sapphire substrates using standard machining techniques.
It may also be cost prohibitive and undesirable to machine this many via holes into sapphire using a dry etch or ion beam milling. Dry etch or ion beam milling techniques require a mask to be placed over the sapphire with holes in the mask at the desirable via hole locations. The mask, however, may be undesirably thick and generally impractical for forming a large number of via holes at a desired spacing on a tough sapphire substrate.

Via hole machining for microwave monolithic integrated circuits


The present invention is directed to the use of electromagnetic radiation, acoustic energy, and surfactant injection to recover hydrocarbon-containing materials from a hydrocarbon-bearing formation.

Heavy and extra heavy oil and bitumen represent the largest deposit types of recoverable hydrocarbons in the world. As an example, the proven, recoverable heavy oil reserves (including oil sands) in Alberta, Canada are greater that all of the light oil reserves of the Middle East. As used herein, heavy and extra heavy oil refers to a hydrocarbon-containing material having an American Petroleum Institute ("API") gravity, or specific gravity, of no more than about 22.5° API, and bitumen to a hydrocarbon-containing material having an API gravity of no more than about 10° API. By way of comparison, light crude oil is defined as having an API gravity higher than about 31.1° API, and medium oil as having an API gravity between about 22.3° API and 31.1° API. Bitumen will not flow at normal temperatures, or without dilution, and is "upgraded" normally to an API gravity of 31° API to 33° API. The upgraded oil is known as synthetic oil.
To recover heavy oil and bitumen, its viscosity is reduced. In one common commercial method of recovering heavy oil and bitumen, steam is injected under pressure into the oil-bearing formation. The steam heats up the formation, including the oil and/or bitumen, causing it to flow under the force of the steam (and other fluid(s)) pressure to a recovery well where it is pumped to the surface for refining. In one steam-assisted technique, known as SAGD, or Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage, steam is used to heat the oil which then flows downward (under the force of fluid pressure and gravity) to horizontal recovery wells placed beneath the oil formation. Another heavy oil recovery method ignites injected gas to create a high temperature, high pressure firefront which sweeps through the oil formation, pushing some of the oil ahead of it. In other heavy oil recovery methods, various forms of fluid injection (such as carbon dioxide, water, steam, surfactants (which reduce the viscosity of the fluid layer between the oil and the ground formation), alkaline chemicals, polymers, etc.) are performed.
The use of electromagnetic energy (usually electrical or Radio Frequency or RF) to heat the heavy oil formation has been known for several years. This technology was introduced during the 1970s when there was widespread interest in exploiting oil shale reserves. There have been several variations of this technology, ranging from relatively low frequency through radio frequency and microwaves. These have included multi-probe "closed" field heating arrangements, single probe heating arrangements, and radiating configurations.
By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,799,641 to Bell discloses a method for production enhancement through electrolytic means whereby a direct electrical current causes oil flow through electro-osmosis. Another electro-osmosis technique is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,466,484 to Kermabon. Other disclosures (for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,507,330 to Gill, U.S. Pat. No. 3,874,450 to Kern, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,638 to Whitting) describe attempts to heat the near-wellbore region as well as more distant parts of the reservoir by electrical methods.
Kasevich in U.S. Pat. No. 4,301,865 disclosed the use of an underground array of RF emitting rods, which enclose a defined volume that is to be heated. The array is used specifically for the recovery of oil shale kerogen.
Bridges, et al., in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,140,180; 4,144,935; 4,790,375; 5,293,936; 5,621,844; 4,485,868; and 5,713,415, disclose arrangements of underground RF heating elements and associated transformer and cable equipment, all applicable to volumetric heating of a closely defined space at or near the production well.
Elligsen, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,499,536, suggests the injection of RF absorbent materials in the well region as a means of enhancing the local heating effect.
Yuan, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,631,761, suggests the use of electrode configurations around the well as a means of further controlling the heating effect in conjunction with RF probes, such as those suggested by Bridges, et al.
Both Haagensen, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,620,593, and Jeambey, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,912,971, propose true underground antennas for RF (and microwave) heating. Haagensen further proposes a modified waveguide to be placed within the well casing. The waveguide, however, at the only available, relevant microwave frequency is still far too large to fit within any standard well casing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,927 to Supernaw describes the use of a hypothetical directional antenna to direct energy selectively at the bottom region of a production zone to improve steam recovery.
In general, RF thermal stimulation techniques have encountered several pitfalls. These pitfalls include localized charring around the heating probes, limited field penetration, electrical downhole component failure, and the like. These pitfalls have led to improvements in electrical components as well as attempts to create a more uniform energy distribution throughout the heating zone.
The use of acoustic energy to stimulate heavy oil recovery has been known for a considerably long time. U.S. Pat. No. 3,378,075 to Bodine and U.S. Pat. No. 4,437,518 to Williams describe the use of sonic transmitters as a means of stimulating oil well production. U.S. Pat. No. 2,670,801 to Sherborne is one of the earliest disclosures of the use of sonic energy for this purpose. Wesley, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,650, further discloses the use of an explosive, ablative, electric spark as a means of generating a high-intensity acoustic wave at or near a subsurface oil formation to stimulate oil production.
More recently, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,186,228 and 6,279,653 to Wegener, et al., disclose the use of electro-acoustic transmitters inside a wellbore to improve oil production from an oil-bearing formation. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,227,293 and 6,427,774 to Huffman, et al., and Thomas, et al., respectively, describe a means of generating coupled electromagnetic and acoustic pulses to stimulate oil production at much greater distances from the wellbore than was previously possible using direct acoustic generation within the wellbore. It is speculative if the electromagnetic pulse so generated could retain appreciable power density at the extended distances exceeding 6,000 feet. Meyer, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,405,796, teaches the use of acoustic stimulation near the acoustic slow wave frequency in conjunction with fluid injection displacement as a means of stimulating oil flow. Abramov, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 7,059,413, describe the use of a high intensity ultrasonic field near the bottom of the wellbore to generate heat and directly reduce the oil viscosity. This technique uses high frequency electrical heating of the well casing to maintain the oil at a relatively low viscosity.
Prior art techniques can have drawbacks.
The prior art techniques commonly use one or more stimulation techniques in conjunction with one or more wellbores drilled from the ground surface to intersect at least one oil-bearing stratum in a subterranean oil-bearing formation. The vertical string introduces several natural barriers which prevent the techniques from being commercially practical or at least introduces a large measure of additional cost or engineering difficulty related to energy loss and the necessity to locate the electrical equipment on the surface of the ground above the oil formation from where the energy must then be transmitted down a drill hole to access the oil formation. The barriers include inaccessibility of the stimulation device(s) after being placed, well completion at the surface and downhole end, operational unreliability of the stimulation device(s) and repair difficulties from location of the device(s) in the well casing, difficulty in keeping potentially harmful and/or flammable liquids from the device(s), well casing incompatibility with the stimulation actuators, creation of a means at the bottom of the drill casing whereby the energy can be transferred into the formation, and inability to recover the installed hardware. In particular, the limited size of standard drill casings, as well as the prohibitive cost of oversize casings, greatly restrict the size and complexity of components which can be reliably placed therein.
Prior art techniques seek to thermally stimulate the entire reservoir at one time followed by production from the entire reservoir over a period of up to five or ten years. To accomplish this, the entire reservoir must be thermally stimulated periodically over the production life of the reservoir. The unit of thermal energy required to produce a barrel of hydrocarbon-containing material can be relatively high. Moreover, heat can be lost heating up country rock and groundwater in proximity to the reservoir.
Many prior art techniques use vertical, rather than horizontal, hydrocarbon removal from the reservoir, along a typically long wellbore. Vertical hydrocarbon removal can raise recovery costs and lower recovery of hydrocarbons due to the pumping pressure and/or drive pressure (such as from steam introduced into the reservoir) required to overcome the effect of gravity.
Prior art techniques are generally unable to recover more than approximately 20% of the heavy oil in place, resulting in an overall inefficiency and loss of resource potential.

Stimulation and recovery of heavy hydrocarbon fluids


A ski sled with adjustable boot blocks and a rider-operated weight-transfer device for rider-controlled steering. The boot blocks are provided with fixed and/or variable angle adjustment devices for changing the angle of the ski bottoms with respect to the snow surface, and the toe-in angle of the skis with respect to each other. Further, the boot blocks are provided with lengthwise adjustment mechanisms so that the boot blocks may be attached to any standard ski binding used on any ski without modification or any special attachments to the bindings or the skis.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ski sled with boot blocks and a rider-operated weight-transfer device for steering. The boot blocks are provided with fixed and/or variable angle adjustment devices for changing the angle of the ski bottoms with respect to the snow surface, and the toe-in angle of the skis with respect to each other. Further, the boot blocks are provided with lengthwise adjustment mechanisms so that the boot blocks may be attached to any standard ski binding used on any ski without modification or any special attachments to the bindings or the skis.
2. Description of Background Art
A variety of snow sleds are available, some requiring the rider to be in a lying down, prone position, while others are provided with a seat. Conventionally, in order for a snow sled to be steerable, either of two mechanisms is used. In the first steering mechanism, the sled has two runners fixed to a mid and rear portion the sled body. The front end of these runners are not fixed to the sled body and can be flexed laterally with respect to the direction of travel, thus enabling the sled to turn. In the second steering mechanism, one or two runners are attached at the front of the sled body by means of a pivot mechanism, thus allowing them to be turned laterally with respect to the direction of travel. Two more runners are fixed to the sled body rearward of the front runner(s).
Each of the above steering mechanisms is complicated. Moreover, conventional sleds do not emulate the experience of skiing.

Ski sled with boot blocks and ride-operated weight transfer device for steering


A rotatable output shaft, a rotatable rotary plate member coupled with the output shaft, rotary weight members supported by the rotary plate member, a guide member fixed in motionless condition having a partially arc shape at a side where the rotary weight members rise, and rotation engagement members pivotally supported by the rotary place member are provided. Each of the rotary weight members includes a circular plate section, and a weight section fixed to the circular plate section to bias a position of the center of gravity of each rotary weight member from the axis of the circular plate section. Each of the rotary weight members is adapted to rotate in one direction when an outer circumference side surface of the circular plate section is driven by the outer circumference side surface of each rotation engagement member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotation maintaining device capable of keeping rotation of its output shaft over a long time.
2. Description of the Related Art
Expected has been a rotational mechanism capable of retaining its rotational energy with the smallest loss to utilize it in a power generation system or other various systems.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 1996-061214A describes an example of the rotation retaining mechanism for keeping its turn as long time as possible.
This rotation retaining mechanism has a shaft of rotation, a rotor provided with radial arms and attached to the rotation shaft, long slide weights freely movable along the respective arms of the rotor, and a circular guide for eccentrically rotating the slide weights with respect to the center of the rotation shaft.
The rotation retaining mechanism described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 1996-061214A intends to turn its rotation shaft based upon the principle of leverage in which a rotational moment of the slide weight moving downwardly becomes larger than a rotational moment of the other slide weight moving upwardly, caused by decentering the rotational orbits of the slide weights with respect to the center of the rotation shaft.
Inventors of this application had been prepared and tested devices similar to the rotation retaining mechanism described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 1996-061214A in order to develop a rotation retaining device capable of keeping its rotation over a long time. However, according to such devices, it was impossible to keep the rotation for many hours.
According to the consideration of the inventors, it became apparent that, in the rotation retaining mechanism described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 1996-061214A, a rotational angle rate of the slide weights caused by the difference between the rotational moments is decreased due to the friction between the slide weights and the circular guide, and this decreasing speed of the angle rate is fast in comparison with the amount of the angle rate. Thus, such rotation retaining mechanism cannot keep the rotation for many hours.
Under these circumstances, the inventors of this application have investigated and studied to provide a new rotation retaining device capable of keeping rotation of its output shaft over a long time, by reducing the friction between members as much as possible and by keeping the difference between the rotational moments as long time as possible.


A heat sink fixing device for fixing a heat sink on a printed circuit board is disclosed. The fixing device comprises a connecting portion fixed on one side of the heat sink, an extension portion connected with the connecting portion, a first pin extended downward from partial lower edge of the extension portion for plugging into the printed circuit board, and a second pin extended downward from partial lower edge of the connecting portion and connected with the first pin for plugging into the printed circuit board. The heat sink fixing device can strengthen the pin structure, increase the tin soldering area and fix the heat sink on the printed circuit board firmly.

The heat sink is a requisite component used to deal with the heat-dissipating problem in various electronic devices for a long time. Take the power supply of a liquid crystal display or notebook as an example; the electronic components disposed on the printed circuit board (PCB) include the capacitor, resistor, inductor, transformer, diode, metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET), die, and so on. When the power supply is operated, these electronic components will produce heat at different levels. If the heat cannot be dissipated efficiently, the electronic components will be out of order due to the overheated condition, and even more, the whole system might shut down. Therefore, the heat sink is an important component to the power supply for solving the heat-dissipating problem thereof.
For dissipating heat in an efficient way, the heat sink is usually attached on the high power component such as the chip. Due to the limitation of the circuit layout and the space arrangement, the high power transistor can be secured on the heat sink that is fixed on the printed circuit board, so that a heat-dissipating area can be provided in the direction perpendicular to the printed circuit board for dissipating the heat of the transistor. Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a schematic diagram showing a conventional structure for fixing the heat sink on the printed circuit board. As shown in FIG. 1, the fixing device 2 is disposed at the bottom of the heat sink 1 for fixing the heat sink 1 on the printed circuit board 3. The fixing device 2 of the heat sink 1 comprises a connecting portion 21 and a pin 22, wherein the connecting portion 21 is riveted on one side at the bottom of the heat sink 1 and the pin 22 is extended downward from the lower edge of the connecting portion 21. When the heat sink 1 is to be fixed on the printed circuit board 3, the pin 22 of the fixing device 2 is plugged into the corresponding pinhole 31 on the printed circuit board 3. Then, the heat sink 1 is secured on the printed circuit board 3 after the tin soldering process.
The fixing device 2 of the heat sink 1 is often made of a thin metal plate in order to increase usable space for the printed circuit board 3. However, since the heat sink 1 has a certain weight, in the processes of assembling, delivering or using, the fixing device 2 may become deformed and thus fails to carry the heat sink 1 efficiently if the mechanical strength of the pin 22 is not strong enough or the soldering area of the pin 22 is too small to secure the heat sink 1 on the printed circuit board 3 well. Further, the shaking force may be passed to the transistor (not shown) secured on the heat sink 1 through the fixing device 2, resulting in the break of the pins of the transistor which are plugged onto the printed circuit board 3. Moreover, the aforesaid force may also be passed to the printed circuit board 3 through the pins of the transistor, resulting in the damage of the copper foil on the printed circuit board 3 or the break of the solder ball between the pin 22 of the fixing device 2 and the printed circuit board 3. The above conditions may cause the collapse of the heat sink 1, and further result in a bad connection or even short circuit of the printed circuit board 3.
Therefore, it is required to develop a fixing device that can fix the heat sink on the printed circuit board firmly.


A disclosed specific absorption rate measurement system according to an embodiment of the present invention measures a specific absorption rate of electromagnetic waves from a radiating source absorbed in a dielectric medium. The system includes a measurement portion that measures a first electric field vector on an observation surface which is a two-dimensional surface in the dielectric medium; an electric field calculation portion that calculates a second electric field vector in a point excluded from the observation surface in accordance with electric field components of the first electric field vector measured on the observation surface, the electric field components being parallel to the observation surface; and a calculation portion that calculates the specific absorption rate from the calculated second electric field vector.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a measurement system and a method which measure a Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) at which electromagnetic energy from a radiating source, such as a mobile phone or the like, is absorbed in a dielectric medium during exposure.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) is a rate at which electromagnetic energy from a radiating source is absorbed in a dielectric medium and specifically defined as a value proportional to the second power of electric field strength (|E|2) as expressed by the numeric equation (1).
                    SAR        =                              σ                                                                      E                                            2                                ρ                                    (        1        )            where σ represents the electric conductivity (S/m) of a dielectric medium, and ρ is the density (kg/m3) of the medium. The unit of measurement of SAR is W/kg. The SAR is specifically used to evaluate electric energy absorbed in a human body when a mobile phone or the like is used near the human body (see non-patent document 1).
When measuring the SAR, the electromagnetic field generated in the dielectric medium is detected by an electric field probe using, for example, a small dipole antenna and a diode, and the measured electric field is converted into a SAR value in accordance with the equation (1).
FIG. 1 shows an example of a related art of SAR measurement system. This SAR measurement system includes tissue-equivalent liquid 101 (called "phantom") having predetermined dielectric constants so as to simulate a human body, a phantom shell 102, an electric field detection probe 103, a probe scanning robot 104, a signal cable 105, an electric field detection apparatus 106, and a measurement control and data analysis processing apparatus 107. In this measurement system, a mobile phone 108 as a radiating source is supported by a supporting apparatus 109 and the electromagnetic field generated in the phantom by the mobile phone 108 is measured. Specifically, the electromagnetic field in the phantom is 3-dimensionally measured by the electromagnetic probe 103 scanned by the probe scanning robot 104, and thus a 3-dimentional SAR distribution is obtained.
However, since this method takes a long time in measuring the SAR, an SAR measurement method as follows has been proposed for the purpose of reducing measurement time. Namely, the electromagnetic field and thus SAR in the medium is measured only 2-dimensionally and the SAR distribution along the remaining direction (phantom depth direction) is empirically estimated, thereby realizing a faster measurement in this proposal. (see non-patent document 2). In addition, there has been proposed another method where the 2-dimensional SAR data and the SAR data in phantom depth obtained along only one line in the depth direction are used to estimate the 3-dimensional SAR distribution using an appropriate approximate expression (see non-patent document 3). Moreover, there has been yet another proposal where two different sets of 2-dimensional data of amplitude and phase of electric field or magnetic field are measured and the SAR distribution in phantom depth is calculated in accordance with the two sets of the 2-dimentional data so as to estimate the 3-dimensional SAR distribution (see patent-related document 1).                [Patent-related document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2006-47297.        [Non-patent document 1] Thomas Schmid, Oliver Egger, and Niels Kuster, "Automated E-Field Scanning System for Dosimetric Assessment," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory and Tech., Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 105-113, January 1996.        [Non-patent document 2] M. Y. Kanda, M. G. Douglas, E. D. Mendivil, M. Ballen, A. V. Gessner, and C. K. Chou, "Fast Determination of Mass-Averaged SAR from 2-D Area Scans," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory and Tech, Vol. 52, No. 8, pp. 2013-2020, August 2004.        [Non-patent document 3] O. Marckel, J. Ch. Bolomey, and G. Fleury, "Parametric model approach for rapid SAR measurements", IMTC2004, Instrumentation and Meas. Tech. Conf., pp. 178-183, Como, Italy, May 2004.

Specific absorption rate measurement system and method


Embodiments of the present concept provide gaming devices and gaming systems that are configured to implement means for enhancing game play. Here, various embodiments of this concept use game insertion techniques to enhance the game play experience for players. These game insertion techniques include placing bonus spins, free games, or other incentives within traditional game play. In one model, a gaming device may use a bonus spin routine to replace a losing game outcome with a winning game outcome. Here, the player may be shown the initial losing game outcome and then be notified that a bonus spin has been awarded, which ultimately results in the winning game outcome.

Game outcomes on gaming devices are typically determined at random where winning outcomes are awarded to a player in the form of money, credits, promotions, prizes, or other incentives, and losing outcomes typically result only in a lost wager. Player excitement is typically generated by providing the possibility of winning large awards for a relatively meager wager. Indeed, for most players, the excitement and gratification of gambling is tied to achieving wins. While these players will endure certain periods of loss, players will often press the spin and/or bet buttons as quickly as possible to pass through the losses to get to another win. Business principles require that most outcomes not be large winning outcomes for the player. Thus, many gambling sessions include extended periods that are devoid of large winning outcomes. Even during a more balanced gaming session, a great portion of time on a gaming device is spent watching reels spin (poker hands played, etc.) with a resulting loss. It is understood that these losses must be balanced with giving the player some incentive to keep playing, and casinos look for ways to maintain player interest in the gaming device besides providing wins.
Gaming machines typically operate with a random number generator (RNG) that generates a numeric code by which to determine a game outcome. For example, a slot machine is often constructed of 3 reels, with a multiplicity of symbols placed on each. Certain combinations of symbols that align on a center payline are designated as winning outcomes and are assigned award amounts. Other outcomes are losing outcomes that generally are not associated with an award. If each reel is equipped with 22 positions, there are 22×22×22 (10,648) possible combinations that can appear on a single payline.
By varying the quantity and value of symbols placed on each reel, a variety of payback percentages are obtainable. To help create more flexibility in generating payback percentages, some games use longer reel strips with more symbols or use virtual reel strips that map one or more possible outcomes to each position on a reel strip. Many games are created with multiple paytables that having varying payback percentages. Casino operators are typically able to select a particular paytable for each game. Thus, casinos in popular locations may choose paytables with lower payback percentages during peak days or hours and select paytables with a higher payback percentage at slower times to entice more gambling. Additionally, casinos in more remote locations may choose paytables with significantly higher payback percentages to attract players to their game floors. Hence, the flexibility afforded by providing multiple paytables in a single game is important for casinos.
Over the past 15 years or so, bonusing has become a popular method for incentivizing players. Bonuses can be controlled by a bonus engine (also known as a bonus server) to decide when to award a bonus at a particular game and how big that bonus award should be. Bonus wins of this nature are not funded by the base game's paytable. These bonuses, while exciting when received, are typically fairly large-value awards and hence are won relatively infrequently. Hence, they do not typically play a large role in most gaming sessions.

Means for enhancing game play of gaming device


An apparatus and method encode audio data, and an apparatus and method decode encoded audio data. An audio data encoding apparatus includes: a scalable encoding unit dividing audio data into a plurality of layers, representing the audio data in predetermined numbers of bits in each of the plurality of layers, and encoding a lower layer prior to encoding an upper layer and an upper bit of each layer prior to encoding a lower bit of each layer; an SBR encoding unit generating spectral band replication (SBR) data that has information with respect to audio data in a frequency band of frequencies equal to or greater than a predetermined frequency among the audio data to be encoded, and encoding the SBR data; and a bitstream production unit generating a bitstream using the encoded SBR data and the encoded audio data corresponding to a predetermined bitrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the processing of audio data, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method of encoding audio data and an apparatus and method of decoding encoded audio data, in which the bitrate of encoded audio data may be adjusted, and even when the audio data included in a bitstream to be decoded is encoded audio data of some of the layers of the encoded audio data, the audio data of all of the layers may be recovered.
2. Description of the Related Art
Bit sliced arithmetic coding (BSAC), which has been proposed by the applicant of the present invention, is a coding technique providing FGS (Fine Grain Scalability). In addition, BSAC is an audio compressing technique adopted as a standard by a moving picture experts group (MPEG)-4. BSAC is detailed in Korean Patent Publication No. 261253. Unlike BSAC, the advanced audio coding (MC) technique does not provide FGS.
When an encoder that uses the AAC encodes audio data, it can encode only audio data in some of the frequency bands of the audio data and transmit the encoded audio data to a decoder.
In this case, a spectral band replication (SBR) technique may be considered to recover the audio data in all frequency bands from the audio data in only certain encoded frequency bands that have been encoded using the ACC. In other words, the encoder that uses the AAC generates and encodes SBR data having information about audio data in frequency bands other than the certain encoded frequency bands and transmits the SBR data to the decoder together with the encoded audio data in the certain encoded frequency bands. The decoder can recover the original audio data by inferring the audio data in the frequency bands other than the certain encoded frequency bands. As such, the AAC and SBR techniques can be combined together.
Meanwhile, when an encoder that uses the BSAC encodes audio data, in contrast with the encoder that uses the AAC, the encoder that uses the BSAC can generate a base layer and at least one enhancement layer by dividing the audio data according to frequency bands, encode all of the layers of the audio data, and transmit only the audio data of selected encoded layers that include the base layer to a decoder. Here, since the selected layers are variable, the bit rate of the audio data encoded using the BSAC may be adjusted.
In contrast with the easy combination of the ACC and SBR techniques, combining the BSAC and SBR techniques incurs certain difficulties. That is, some of the encoded audio data layers to be transmitted to the decoder may vary on a case by case basis, and thus, different SBR data should be generated for all possible cases.
There is a demand for a scheme that is able to recover encoded audio data having layers using SBR data that is identical, regardless of the selected layers of the audio data to be transmitted to a decoder.

Apparatus and method of encoding audio data and apparatus and method of decoding encoded audio data


The present invention relates to filamentous fungal host cells and particularly Trichoderma host cells useful for the production of heterologous granular starch hydrolyzing enzymes having glucoamylase activity (GSHE). Further the invention relates to a method for producing a glucose syrup comprising contacting a granular starch slurry obtained from a granular starch substrate simultaneously with an alpha amylase and a GSHE at a temperature equal to or below the gelatinization temperature of the granular starch to obtain a composition of a glucose syrup.

Industrial fermentation predominately uses glucose as a feedstock for the production of a multitude of proteins, enzymes, amino acids, alcohols, organic acids, pharmaceuticals and other chemicals. In many applications, the glucose is produced from the enzymatic conversion of carbon substrates such as biomass and starch. Starch, which is abundantly found in green plants, accumulates as microscopic granules varying in diameter from 0.5 to 175 microns. The partial crystalline nature of these starch granules imparts insolubility in cold water. As a result, the solubilization of starch granules in water requires a tremendous amount of heat energy to disrupt the crystalline structure of the granule resulting in the solubilization of partially hydrolyzed starch. Numerous solubilization processes have been employed and these include direct and indirect heating systems, such as direct heating by steam injection. (See for example, STARCH CHEMISTRY AND TECHNOLOGY, eds R. L. Whistler et al., 2nd Ed., 1984 Academic Press Inc., Orlando, Fla.; STARCH CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY, Eds. G. M. A. Van Beynum et al., Food Science and Technology Series, Marcel Dekker Inc., NY; and THE ALCOHOL TEXTBOOK, 3rd Ed., Eds. K. Jacques, T. P. Lyons and D. R. Kelsall, 1999, Nottingham University Press, UK).
In general, two enzyme steps have been used for the hydrolysis of starch to glucose. The first step is a liquefaction step, and the second step is a saccharification step. In the liquefaction step, the insoluble starch granules are slurried in water, gelatinized with heat and hydrolyzed by a thermostable alpha amylase (EC.22.214.171.124, alpha (1-4)-glucan glucanohydrolase) in the presence of added calcium to produce a mash of dextrins. The resulting mash is generally cooled to about 60 to 65° C. In the saccharification step, the soluble dextrins (sugars) are further hydrolyzed to dextrose (glucose) by an enzyme having glucoamylase (EC 184.108.40.206, alpha (1,4)-glucan glucohydrolase) activity. Glucose may then be used as an end product or used as a precursor to be converted into other commercially important desired end products, such as fructose, sorbitol, ethanol, lactic acid, ascorbic acid (ASA) intermediates and 1,3 propanediol.
In the late 1950s, glucoamylases derived from Aspergillus niger were commercialized, and these enzymes significantly improved the conversion of starch to glucose. Another significant improvement occurred in the 1970s. A thermostable alpha amylase having improved thermostability, pH stability and lower calcium dependency was derived and commercialized from Bacillus lichenifonnis (U.S. Pat. No. 3,912,590).
Further industrial processes have been adopted by the starch sweetener industry for the enzyme liquefaction process (U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,778). Some of these processes include, a low temperature process (105-110° C. for 5-8 min) with lower steam requirements and a high temperature process (148° C.+/−5° C. for 8-10 sec), which improves gelatinization of the starch granules resulting in improved filtration characteristics and quality of the liquefied starch substrate (Shetty, et al., (1988) Cereal Foods World 33:929-934).
While enzyme starch liquefaction processes are well established, improvements with respect to yield loss, processing costs, energy consumption, pH adjustments, temperature thresholds, calcium requirement and the levels of retrograded starch would be desirable. In particular, it is well known that residual alpha amylase from the liquefaction step, under saccharification conditions, has an adverse effect on process efficiency and that the residual alpha amylase must be inactivated prior to saccharification by glucoamylases. Inactivation is generally accomplished by lowering the pH of the liquefied starch to pH 4.2 to 4.5 at 95° C. Another disadvantage of liquefaction processes is the alkaline isomerization of reducing groups. Alkaline isomerization results in the formation of a disaccharide, maltulose (4-alpha-D-glucopyranosyl-D-fructose). Maltulose lowers the glucose yield because it is resistant to hydrolysis by glucoamylases and alpha amylases. Further, it is difficult to control the formation of reversion reaction products catalyzed by active glucoamylases at high glucose concentration. Glucoamylases from Aspergillus niger are generally thermostable under the typical saccharification conditions. Therefore, a substantial amount of the glucoamylase activity may remain after the saccharification reaction. Solutions to some of the problems as discussed herein have been suggested by various researchers.
For example, Leach et al (U.S. Pat. No. 4,113,509 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,922,196) disclose a process for converting granular starch (refined) into soluble hydrolyzate by incubating the granular starch with bacterial alpha amylase at a temperature below the starch gelatinization temperature. Beta amylase was then used for hydrolysis to produce high maltose syrup.
European Patent Application No. 0350737 A2 discloses a process for producing maltose syrup by hydrolyzing a granular (purified) starch from corn, wheat, potato and sweet potato at 60° C. without the conventional liquefaction step (gelatinization followed by liquefaction at high temperature) using an alpha amylase from Bacillus stearothermophilus.
A multi-step process to convert granular (raw) starch to glucose using a glucoamylase demonstrating raw starch hydrolyzing capability has been previously described (U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,579). However, only 60% of the starch was hydrolyzed, which then resulted in an extensive recycling process.
Not only would it be advantageous to improved upon conventional processes for granular starch conversion, but also it would be desirable to provide processes resulting in increased expression and production of the enzymes used therefore. For example, glucoamylases having granular starch hydrolyzing activity with improved characteristics such as increased specific activity, different pH ranges and/or different levels of glycosylation may be particularly advantageous for use in industrial starch conversion. The present invention not only meets some of these needs but also results in an increase in the efficiency of producing various end products obtained from starch hydrolysis.

Expression of granular starch hydrolyzing enzymes in trichoderma and process for producing glucose from granular starch substrates


A method for forming a solder bump structure with increased height. A substrate having at least one metal bonding pad thereon is provided. A passivation layer is formed on the substrate, which substantially exposes the metal bonding pad. An under ball metallurgy (UBM) layer is formed on the exposed metal bonding pad. A dielectric layer and a resist layer are successively formed on the passivation layer, wherein the dielectric layer has a first opening to expose the UBM layer and the resist layer a second opening over the first opening. A solder bump is formed on the UBM layer in the first and second openings, and the resist layer is then removed.

The invention relates to a bumping process for semiconductor packaging and in particular to a solder bump structure with improved height and a method for forming the same.
Packaging is an essential step in the fabrication of integrated circuits, which protects the integrated circuits and provides a signal transmission interface for external circuits. Therefore, the development of packaging is affected by the development of integrated circuit technology and the function of electronic products.
A variety of packaging technologies have been developed, such as ball grid array (BGA), chip scale package (CSP), flip chip, and multi-chip module (MCM). In particular, flip chip is a commonly used packaging method, which employs a solder bump formed on a bonding pad for connection to the circuit board. The formation of the solder bump comprises solder ball mounting, printing, and electroplating.
FIGS. 1A to 1D illustrate a conventional method for forming a solder bump structure by electroplating. As shown in FIG. 1A, a substrate 100, such as a silicon substrate, is provided. The substrate 100 has a metal bonding pad 102 comprising, for example, aluminum or copper. A passivation layer 104, such as a silicon nitride layer, is formed overlying the substrate 100 and substantially exposes the metal bonding pad 102. A metal composite layer 106 is conformably formed on the passivation layer 104 and the exposed metal bonding pad 102, which is typically a metal stack of adhesion layer/barrier layer/wetting layer. In order to simplify the diagram, a single layer is depicted.
As shown in FIG. 1B, a dry pattern film 108 is formed on the metal composite layer 106, which has an opening 109 to expose a portion of the metal composite layer 106 overlying the metal bonding pad 102. Here, the opening region 109 is utilized in forming solder bump. Accordingly, the opening 109 is subsequently filled with a solder 110 by electroplating. The height of the solder is determined by the thickness of the dry pattern film 108.
As shown in FIG. 1C, the dry pattern film 108 is removed and the metal composite layer 106 uncovered by the solder 110 is then removed, exposing the underlying passivation layer 104. The remaining metal composite layer 106a acts as an under bump metallurgy (UBM) layer.
As shown in FIG. 1D, a reflow process is performed, such that the solder 110 forms a ball-shaped or hemiball-shaped solder bump 110a due to surface tension.
The height of the solder bump, however, affects reliability of packaging devices. As the size of the package is reduced, fatigue strength is degraded if the height of the solder bump is too low, reducing the bonding life. Moreover, during bonding the chip to the circuit board, the gap between the chip and the circuit board cannot be effectively filled with the underfill, thus forming holes therein.
Accordingly, the reliability of the flip chip method can be increased by providing higher solder bump. Generally, the methods for increasing the height of the solder bump are to increase the dry film thickness or size of the UBM layer, thereby increasing the capacity of the solder to accomplish the higher solder bump. Unfortunately, such methods may be detrimental for lithography or increase the occupied area of the chip, reducing the integration.
Taiwan Patent No. 90,117,002 discloses a method of flip chip bonding which employs double photoresist layers with different reactive spectrum to provide a higher solder bump. In this, method, however, the solder bump may collapse easily during removal of the double photoresist layers, such that the height of the solder bump cannot be effectively increased. Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 6,299,220 discloses a solder bump structure, as shown in FIG. 2. The solder bump structure comprises a substrate 200 having a bonding pad 202 and a passivation layer 204 thereon. A barrier layer 206 is disposed between the bonding pad 202 and the solder bump 210. Here, the solder bump 210 comprises a composite material. That is, the lower portion 208 of the solder bump 210 comprises a material with a relatively higher melting point and the upper portion 209 with a relatively lower melting point. When a reflow process is performed, the lower portion 208 of the solder does not melt thus preventing collapse of the solder bump, maintaining the height thereof. In this method, however, two materials are required, complicating the fabrication and increasing the cost.

Solder bump structure and method for forming the same


A buoyant liquid level indicator device is positioned within liquid drain apparatus having a trough accommodating liquid to form a liquid seal to prevent passage of gas through the liquid drain apparatus. The indicator device will float and be exposed to an outside observer only when a liquid seal is formed by the liquid drain apparatus.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,156, issued Mar. 9, 1993, discloses apparatus for draining liquid from a surface into a sewer through a passageway extending between the surface and the sewer and for forming a liquid barrier between the sewer and the surface to prevent the flow of gases from a sewer to a surface. The apparatus incorporates structure which facilitates the flow of drainage liquid therethrough.
While the apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,156 is highly effective, direct close visual inspection by an individual is required to determine whether or not sufficient liquid is in place in the apparatus to form a gas barrier. To determine whether such is the case, an inspector has to actually observe the interior of a conduit of the apparatus, either through holes in a grating at the top of the conduit or by removing the grating and directly viewing the conduit interior.

Drain apparatus with liquid trap and liquid level indicator


A system for maintaining SIP application session affinity, the system including a destination inspector configured to inspect a SIP request to determine whether the SIP request indicates as its destination a logical name of a SIP container, a request router configured to route the SIP request to the SIP container that is identified by the logical name if the SIP request indicates as its destination the logical name of the SIP container, and a destination assignor configured to assign the SIP request to a SIP container in accordance with a predefined assignment protocol if the SIP request does not indicate as its destination the logical name of a SIP container.

The present invention relates to computer networks in general, and more particularly to computer networks supporting Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).
SIP is used to establish, manage, and terminate computer-network based multimedia communications. In IBM® WebSphere® Application Server, (commercially available from International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y.), such communications, including IP telephony, presence, and instant messaging, may be provided in one or more SIP application sessions. (IBM and WebSphere are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation, registered in many jurisdictions worldwide,) Thus, for example, two different computer network-based conference calls would be represented by separate SIP application sessions. A SIP application server includes one or more SIP containers that invoke and terminate SIP application sessions, and manage requests and responses that are sent and received in the context of SIP application sessions. Each participant in a SIP application session is represented by a separate SIP session. Thus, for example, a SIP application session representing a computer network-based conference call having multiple participants would have multiple SIP sessions associated with it, where a separate SIP session is associated with each participant.
A large computer network-based system that manages hundreds or thousands of separate SIP application sessions may employ one or more clusters of SIP containers hosted by one or more SIP application servers, where each cluster is served by a SIP proxy server, and where SIP session data is not centrally managed. A SIP proxy server typically maintains a list of SIP containers with which the SIP proxy server is associated, where each SIP container is further identified by one or more unique logical names. A SIP request that does not identify its destination using the logical name of a particular SIP container is typically assigned by the SIP proxy server to a SIP container in a cluster in accordance with an assignment protocol, such as in accordance with a load balancing plan. Conversely, a SIP request that does identify its destination using the logical name of a particular SIP container is simply routed by the SIP proxy server to the indicated SIP container. However, a SIP request that does not identify its destination using the logical name of a particular SIP container may nevertheless include an identifier that relates to a particular SIP application session that is managed by a particular SIP container. For example, the SIP request may include a telephone number or other identifier associated with a particular conference call. Unfortunately, as the SIP proxy server is only able to route a SIP request based on whether or not the SIP request identifies its destination using the logical name of a particular SIP container, there is no guarantee that the SIP proxy server will route the SIP request to the SIP container that is managing the SIP application session associated with the conference call.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Maintaining session initiation protocol application session affinity in SIP container cluster environments


A ring network protection method for an optical transmission network relates to digital information transmission, and includes using the overhead byte APS/PCC in the ODUk to transmit the protection information of the APS. The method adds fields in the APS/PCC and further includes: (a) the network element in which the protection switching takes place in the OTN sends the protection switching information to other network elements through the fields set in the APS/PCC of the ODUk; and the network element which received the ODUk performs corresponding processing according to the fields carried by the APS/PCC in the ODUk and implements the protection switching for the OTN ring network.

The Automatic Protection Switching (APS) is a necessary technology for the ring network. The ring network needs to use the APS technology to guarantee the least loss of the user information when the physical link becomes invalid or the signal transmission quality deteriorates.
The Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) network is a kind of comparatively mature optical network and has been in use for more than ten years. The information transmission technologies of SDH network have been fully used in the field of information transmission. Among the information transmission technologies of SDH network, the Multiplex Section Protection (MSP) is the most distinctive and practical technology. It uses k bytes in the SDH multiplex section, i.e. two overhead bytes k1 and k2 to transmit the protection switching information of the APS, i.e. the signalling of the APS protocol, wherein the two overhead bytes k1 and k2 occupy two bytes in all. All the network elements that received the SDH multiplex section will process the APS protocol signalling in the two overhead bytes of the SDH multiplex section so as to implement APS for the services in the ring network.
The G.841 protocol is an international standard on the switching of the multiplex section instituted by the Telecommunication Standardization Sector of ITU (ITU_T) and describes in detail the coding of the k bytes and the switching rule of the MSP technology and provides a comparatively complete switching rule. The G.841 protocol is a basis for realizing protection for the ring network. The G.841 protocol allocates the switching request field, the requested destination network element field, the requested source network element field, requested long or short path flag field and the switch status field in the k bytes.
Although currently the G.841 protocol provides the comparatively complete switching rule, there still exist some problems which make it difficult to accomplish the protection switching of the ring network.
The optical transport network (OTN) technology is also proposed. This technology is a newcomer in the transmission field and mainly introduces some mechanisms of SDH in the wave division field.
The OTN technology also introduced the most distinctive and practical technology of the SDH technology, i.e., the MSP technology. Specifically, the overhead bytes in the Optical Channel Data Unit-k (ODUk), i.e. the APS/PCC are used to transmit the protection switching information of the APS, i.e. the APS signaling, and the overhead bytes occupy four bytes.
Since the ring network protection technology for the OTN adopts the SDH multiplex section protection mechanism, the same problem as that in the SDH APS exists, i.e. the ring network protection technology for the OTN cannot perform a well protection switching for the OTN network.

Protection method for ring network of optical transmission network


A method for providing messaging between a first communication device and a second communication device using a gateway is provided. The method comprises: receiving a first message from the first communication device addressed to the gateway; initiating a first session with the first communication device; initiating a second session with the second communication device; and sending a second message corresponding to the first message to the second communication device in the second session.

The present invention generally relates to data communications and more specifically to a system and method for providing messaging between a first communication device and a second communication device in separate sessions.
Many different telephony protocols exist. For example, devices may be communicating in any combination of a session initiation protocol (SIP), channel associated signaling (CAS), integrated services digital network (ISDN), signaling system 7 (SS7), CAS Ear and Mouth (E&M), CAS E&M revision 2 (R2), H.323, or any other non-ISDN like protocol. Each of these protocols provide different messages that are sent between devices. With various devices configured to communicate in different protocols, the situation where devices communicating in different protocols must communicate is likely to happen. In most cases, messages from one protocol do not directly map to messages in another protocol. That is, the protocols do not simply send messages with essentially the same meaning at the same time in which case all that would be needed is a direct translation from one syntax to another. Accordingly, in order for devices operating a different telephony protocols to communicate, a proxy or gateway is needed that includes definitions and complicated coding to define how to translate from every supported protocol to every other supported protocol. In other words, if there are three supported protocols, #1, #2, and #3, there must be separate translations from protocol #1 to protocols #2 and #3; from protocol #2 to protocols #1 and #3; and from protocols #3 to protocols #1 and #2. Thus, a geometric fan-out of translations for each supported protocol is required.
The above approach includes many disadvantages. For example, in the case of a SIP protocol, a SIP conversion is typically only described for conversion to and from modern protocols such as SS7 and to protocols as old as ISDN. There are no provisions at all for conversion from SIP to CAS E&M, CAS R2, or any other non-ISDN protocol older than ISDN. Thus, providing the needed definitions and coding to convert from SIP to an older protocol would require many man hours and large amounts of money. Additionally, because each supported protocol must be translated between every other supported protocol, the amount of coding and definitions needed is large and expensive to maintain and support.
Also, even if the needed definitions and coding for the translation are implemented, when two devices communicate, a session is created where the devices communicate directly. Thus, both devices need to know the identity of each other because they must send messages directly to each other. With security being a growing concern among entities, communicating through a single session is undesirable because some entities would like to keep their identity anonymous to the other device.

Gateway for conversion of messages between multiple protocols using separate sessions


A network overclock control circuit for a computer includes an RC circuit, first and second comparator circuits, and first and second switch circuits. A signal pin of a network indicating lamp is connected to input terminals of the first and second comparator circuits via the RC circuit. Output terminals of the first and second comparator circuits are respectively connected to first and second clock pins of a clock chip via the first and second switch circuits. When network has little traffic, the first and second comparator circuits control the first and second switch circuits to output low level signals. When network has medium to high traffic, the first and second comparator circuits control the first and second switch circuits to output high and low level signals. When network is overloaded, the first and second comparator circuits control the first and second switch circuits to output high level signals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an overclock control circuit.
2. Description of Related Art
The technique of overclocking is to make a central processing unit (CPU) run at a higher speed by adjusting the working frequency to be above the normal frequency. For example, the working frequency of Pentium IV 2.4 can be adjusted to 2800 MHz, thus improving the speed of the CPU.
Conventionally overclocking of the CPU is achieved manually by a user, however the steps involved are complicated and if not done right can lead to problems and instability with the device using the CPU.
What is desired, therefore, is to provide an overclock control circuit for automatically adjusting CPU frequency of a computer according to a status of a network.

Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (ShenZhen) Co., Ltd.


A cleaning head for removing contaminants from a data storage media, the cleaning head having a cleaning surface comprising a self-assembled monolayer, with the cleaning surface leading a read/write transducer. The self-assembled monolayer is selected so as to have a terminal functional group that has a high affinity to the contaminant(s) desired to be attracted and/or removed.

Hard disc drives are common information storage devices having a series of rotatable discs that are accessed by magnetic reading and writing elements. These data elements, commonly known as transducers, or merely as a transducer, are typically carried by and embedded in a slider that is held in a close relative position over discrete data tracks formed on a disc to permit a read or write operation to be carried out.
As distances between the slider and the disc decrease, due to the ever-growing desire to reduce the size of the disc drive and to pack more data per square inch, the potentially negative impact due to contamination on the slider increases. Unwanted contaminants on the slider can adversely affect fly height behavior, such as with elevated or decreased fly height, create fly asymmetry in roll or pitch character, produce excessive modulation, and even result in head-disc crashing or contact, all possibly due to contaminant build up on the slider. All of these mechanisms result in degraded performance of the read or write operation of the head (e.g., skip-writes, modulated writers, weak writes, clearance stability and settling, and incorrect clearance setting).
What is needed is a mechanism to remove and/or control contaminants from between the slider and the disc surface while maintaining acceptable contact sensing between the transducer and the disc.


A mechanical arrangement for processing pipes by cutting using a cutting beam has a cutting head, a pipe holder, a catching lance and a stripper. The stripper is transferable relative to a processing axis of the cutting head in the longitudinal direction of the pipe to various positions by means of a positioning movement.

One known mechanical arrangement for processing pipes by cutting using a cutting beam includes a cutting head, a pipe holder, a catching lance and a stripper. The cutting beam may be directed from the cutting head onto a pipe to be processed, along a processing axis of the cutting head, which axis forms the cutting beam axis when the cutting beam is switched on and is in the transverse direction of the pipe. The cutting beam and the pipe are movable relative to each other in the circumferential direction of the pipe, with at least one pipe portion being severed. The pipe holder, viewed in the longitudinal direction of the pipe, is disposed on one side of the processing axis of the cutting head and is provided for fixing the pipe to be processed. The stripper is disposed on that side of the processing axis of the cutting head which is opposite the pipe holder in the longitudinal direction of the pipe. The catching lance is insertable into the interior of the pipe to be processed on that side of the processing axis of the cutting head which is opposite the pipe holder in the longitudinal direction of the pipe and may in so doing be arranged with a projecting length relative to the stripper in the longitudinal direction of the pipe and towards the processing axis of the cutting head. The at least one severed pipe portion may be deposited on the catching lance on the side of the stripper which is towards the processing axis of the cutting head, and the pipe portion(s) deposited on the catching lance may be stripped off the catching lance by the stripper by virtue of the catching lance being movable relative to the stripper in the longitudinal direction of the pipe with a withdrawal movement away from the processing axis of the cutting head.
A mechanical arrangement of the kind described above is sold by the company TRUMPF©, 71254 Ditzingen, Germany, under the product name TUBEMATIC® RC. It is known in the prior art, to use such a device, with a laser cutting beam produced in a laser cutting head, for the cutting of pipe portions from long metal pipes. For that purpose, the pipe to be processed is clamped by a longitudinal end in a chuck that is rotatable about the axis of the pipe and which is for its part mounted on a feed carriage which is displaceable in the longitudinal direction of the pipe. To sever the individual pipe portions, the pipe to be processed is repositioned by displacing the feed carriage relative to the laser cutting head in the longitudinal direction of the pipe by the respective pipe portion length. During the repositioning movement of the pipe to be processed, the laser cutting head is in its inoperative state. Following a repositioning movement, the laser cutting beam is directed onto the pipe to be processed and the pipe is rotated about the pipe axis by rotating the chuck disposed on the feed carriage. By that means the laser cutting beam makes a continuous severing cut in the circumferential direction of the pipe. On the side of the laser cutting head which is opposite the chuck and the feed carriage in the longitudinal direction of the pipe, a catching lance in the form of a so-called "catcher" is arranged. The catcher is a cooling and/or flushing lance of the kind described in detail in EP 1 454 700 A1.
Before processing of a pipe by cutting is commenced, the catcher, mounted on a catcher slide, is moved relative to the laser cutting head in the longitudinal direction of the pipe into a working position. Once the catcher is in the working position, the processing axis of the laser cutting head extends through a collecting aperture made in the wall of the catcher. Between the laser cutting head and the catcher slide, a stripper is rigidly mounted on the machine bed of the prior-known arrangement, i.e. is mounted such that its position does not change. When the catcher is in the working position, the stripper is arranged close to the catcher slide and the catcher passes through it in the longitudinal direction of the pipe.
When the pipe to be processed is being positioned in the longitudinal direction of the pipe prior to the making of a severing cut, the catcher runs into the interior of the pipe at the longitudinal end of the pipe facing it. Metal spatter produced in the interior of the pipe during the cutting operation passes through the collecting aperture in the wall of the catcher into the interior of the catcher and is removed therefrom. When the severing cut has been completed, the severed pipe portion is deposited under the action of gravity on the catcher. With the laser cutting beam switched off, the pipe to be processed is then repositioned by displacing the feed carriage in the longitudinal direction of the pipe. The end of the pipe that is the leading end in the repositioning operation shifts the pipe portion already deposited on the catcher in the direction towards the catcher slide. If a second severing cut is now made, the pipe portion severed in the process is also deposited on the catcher. These procedures may be repeated until the entire length of the catcher is occupied by pipe portions threaded onto it. The catcher slide then travels, together with the catcher mounted on it, in the longitudinal direction of the pipe away from the laser cutting head. The pipe portions threaded on the catcher are consequently stripped off the catcher by the stripper mounted in a fixed position on the machine bed of the prior-known arrangement and fall onto an unloading ramp where they are finally removed from the vicinity of the mechanical arrangement.

Mechanical arrangement for processing pipes by cutting using a cutting beam


According to an aspect, a display device includes: a plurality of pixels aligned in row and column directions, each of the pixels including a drive element; a plurality of scan lines each coupled with the drive elements included in the pixels aligned in the row direction to transmit thereto a scan signal for selecting the pixels row by row; a plurality of signal lines each coupled with the drive elements included in the pixels aligned in the column direction to write display data; and a display control unit. The display control unit alternately repeats a display period and a stop period. In a latter term of the stop period, display control unit provides the display data written in the respective pixels in a row that has been selected during the display period immediately before the stop period, to the signal lines corresponding to the respective pixels.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a display device and an electronic apparatus, and particularly to a display device and an electronic apparatus that have a stop period of stopping display between display periods.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recent years have seen increasing demands for display devices for use in mobile devices, such as mobile phones and electronic paper devices. Some of such display devices (such as one disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 7-134278) include a display area arranged with pixels in a matrix and switching elements provided for each pixel, and are driven by an active matrix method.
Some of the display devices driven by the active matrix method alternately repeat a display period of performing a display operation to display an image and a stop period of stopping the display operation. Such display devices may generate streak defects or unevenness in the image caused by the display operation in the display period immediately after the stop period.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a display device and an electronic apparatus that can suppress generation of streak defects or unevenness.


An apparatus and process are presented that provide for the separation of hydrogen peroxide from a solution having an acid and hydrogen peroxide.

Currently the most widely practiced industrial scale production method for hydrogen peroxide is an indirect reaction of hydrogen and oxygen employing alkylanthraquinone as the working material. In a first catalytic hydrogenation step, the alkylanthraquinone, dissolved in a working solution comprising organic solvents (e.g. diisobutylcarbinol and methyl naphthalene), is converted to alkylanthrahydroquinone. In a separate autoxidation step, this reduced compound is oxidized to regenerate the alkylanthraquinone and yield hydrogen peroxide. Subsequent separation by aqueous extraction, refining, and concentration operations are then employed to give a merchant grade product. In order to be economical, the alkylanthraquinone process requires large scale production of hydrogen peroxide to justify the cost of the subsequent extraction and purification of the hydrogen peroxide.
The direct production of hydrogen peroxide from hydrogen and oxygen is one route to produce hydrogen peroxide without the costly separation and purification associated with the alkylanthraquinone process. However, there are problems associated with this, such as working with combustible mixtures of hydrogen and oxygen in the gas phase, and the low solubility of hydrogen and oxygen at relatively low pressures in water.
It would be convenient and a savings to be able to produce hydrogen peroxide without the complex processes associated with large scale production, or using processes that require continuous addition of chemicals which would require storage and careful handling. In addition, a simpler process that would enable economic production of hydrogen peroxide on a small scale and the periodic production of hydrogen peroxide on an as needed basis can provide for usage of hydrogen peroxide in areas where it would otherwise be inconvenient, such as the need to buy and store hydrogen peroxide.
An aspect of the problem is the separation and recovery of hydrogen peroxide from any chemicals used in the production of the hydrogen peroxide. For small scale processes with periodic production, it is desired to recover substantially all of the intermediate chemicals in use in the process beyond water and air.

Hydrogen peroxide recovery with hydrophobic membrane


A method for controlling a robot wherein a procedure is carried out with the robot while maintaining the robot immobile in axes that are not required to carry out the procedure.

Industrial robots and manipulators are utilized to carry out an increasing variety of functions. While it is always desirable to accurately process and manipulate a workpiece accurately, there may be times when it is particularly important. Some applications require tolerances of ±0.1 mm for geometries smaller than 20 mm. Accurate processing and manipulation of workpieces requires accurate set up and calibration as well as movement of robots and manipulators.


Provided is an organic light-emitting device in which light extraction efficiency for the luminescent color of each of organic light-emitting elements can be improved without an increase in driving voltage and a reduction in emission efficiency. The organic light-emitting elements for respective luminescent colors are different from each other in thickness of an electron injection layer, and the concentration of a metal or a metal compound in an electron injection layer is adapted to increase as the thickness of the electron injection layer decreases.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic light-emitting device to be used in, for example, a flat panel display, a projection display, or a printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Organic light-emitting elements (organic EL elements or organic electroluminescence elements) have been actively researched and developed these days. It has been known that an aluminum-lithium alloy or a magnesium-silver alloy is used in the cathode of any such organic light-emitting element in order that electron injection efficiency may be improved. It has been also known that an extremely thin layer (having a thickness of 5 to 10 Å) of a dielectric substance such as lithium, lithium fluoride, magnesium oxide, or potassium fluoride is inserted into an electron injection layer in contact with the cathode.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-270171 discloses a constitution in which an electron injection layer (having a thickness of 10 to 3,000 Å) having a metal capable of functioning as a donor (electron-donating) dopant is provided in contact with a cathode. Examples of a disclosed metal to be used as the donor dopant include alkali metals, alkali earth metals, and transition metals including rare earth elements.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-270172 discloses a constitution in which an electron injection layer (having a thickness of 10 to 2,000 Å) having a metal oxide or a metal salt as a dopant is provided in contact with a cathode.
Meanwhile, efforts have been made to improve the light extraction efficiency of an organic light-emitting element. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-323277 discloses a constitution in which an organic compound layer contacting with from an organic light-emitting layer to a metal electrode is formed so as to have such a thickness that an optical distance from a light-emitting interface to an interface between the organic compound layer and the metal electrode is substantially equal to an odd multiple of ¼ of the wavelength of emitted light. Such constitution maximizes light interference between the emitted light and returned light by reflection on the metal electrode, thereby improving light extraction efficiency.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-132189 discloses a constitution in which an organic compound layer is formed so as to have such a thickness that an optical distance between an anode and a cathode is equal to an integral multiple of ½ of the wavelength of emitted light. Such constitution provides a resonator structure in which light beams reflected between the anode and the cathode intensify each other, thereby improving light extraction efficiency.
In a conventional constitution using a single layer of an electron injection material such as lithium fluoride (LiF) or potassium fluoride (KF) as an electron injection layer, a thickness capable of electron injection is extremely small, specifically, 5 to 10 Å, so that it has been difficult to improve light extraction efficiency by controlling the thickness of the electron injection layer. On the other hand, in the case of an electron injection layer obtained by doping an organic compound with an electron injection material, a thickness capable of electron injection is 50 to 3,000 Å.
However, extensive studies made by the inventors of the present invention have shown that, even in the case of an electron injection layer obtained by doping an organic compound with an electron injection material, electron injection efficiency reduces with decreasing thickness of the layer, with the result that the voltage at which a light-emitting element is driven increases. Further, a reduction in emission efficiency has occurred as a result of the loss of the optimum carrier balance in some cases. For example, there arises the following problem: when the thickness of the electron injection layer of an organic light-emitting element capable of emitting blue light having a short wavelength is reduced for improving the light extraction efficiency of the element, an increase in driving voltage of the element and a reduction in emission efficiency occurs.
The present invention provides an organic light-emitting device including a plurality of organic light-emitting elements different in luminescent color from each other, in which light extraction efficiency for the luminescent color of each organic light-emitting element can be improved without an increase in driving voltage of the element and a reduction in emission efficiency.


An apparatus for providing storage control in a network of storage controllers is disclosed. The apparatus includes an owner storage controller; an I/O performing component, an ownership assignment component, a lock manager and a messaging component. The ownership assignment component assigns ownership of metadata for data to an owner storage controller. The lock manager controls the locking of metadata during I/O. The messaging component passes messages among storage controllers to request metadata state, to grant locks, to request release of locks, and to signal lock release. The I/O is performed on data whose metadata is owned by an owner storage controller, subject to compliance with metadata lock protocols controlled by the owner storage controller, and any copy of the data held from time to time is maintained in a coherency relation with the data.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to computer storage controllers in general, and in particular to a method for providing shared storage to multiple storage controllers. Still more particularly, the present invention provides multiple storage controllers to participate in advanced storage functions where the ownership and locking at a metadata level can be distributed among any one of the storage controllers.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of computer storage systems, there is an increasing demand for the so-called advanced functions. Advanced functions go beyond the simple input/output (I/O) functions of conventional storage systems. Advanced functions depend on the control of the metadata used to retain state information related to the real or user data stored in a computer system. The manipulations available using advanced functions enable various actions to be applied quickly to virtual images of data, while leaving the real data available for use by user applications. One example of such an advanced function is Flash Copy.
The Flash Copy function is sometimes known as the Point-In-Time copy or TO-copy. At the highest level, Flash Copy is a function where a second copy of some data is made available. The second copy's contents are initially identical to that of the first copy. The second copy is made available instantly, which means, in practical terms, that the second copy is made available in much less time than would be required to create a true, separate, physical copy, and that the second copy can be established without any unacceptable disruption to the operations of an application that is using the first copy.
Once established, the second copy can be used for a number of purposes, including backups, system trials and data mining. The first copy continues to be used for its original purpose by its associated application. If backup were to be performed without Flash Copy, the application must be shutdown before the backup can be taken, and then the application will be restarted again. Since it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a time window during which an application is sufficiently idle to be shut down, therefore the cost of performing a backup is relatively high. As such, there is a significant value in the ability of Flash Copy to allow backups to be taken without stopping any on-going application.
Flash Copy achieves the illusion of the existence of a second copy by redirecting read I/O addressed to the second copy (henceforth referred to as "Target") to the original copy (henceforth referred to as "Source"), unless that region has been subject to a write. When a region has been the subject of a write (to either Source or Target), then in order to maintain the illusion that both Source and Target own their own copy of the data, a process is invoked to suspend the operation of the write command, and without it having taken effect, issues a read of the affected region from the Source, applies the read data to the Target with a write, then (and only if all steps were successful) releases the suspended write. Subsequent writes to the same region do not need to be suspended since the Target already has its own copy of the data. Such copy-on-write technique is well-known and is used in many environments.
There are many variations as to how Flash Copy can be implemented. These variations show through in the various features of an implementation. For example, some implementations allow reads and writes to the Target, while others only allow reads. Some implementations allow only limited update to the Target, and some require the Target to be the same size as the Source, while others permit it to be smaller.
However, all implementations rely on some data structure that governs the above decisions, namely, the decision as to whether reads received at the Target are issued to the Source or the Target, and the decision as to whether a write must be suspended to allow the copy-on-write to take place. The data structure essentially tracks the regions that have been copied from the Source to the Target, as distinct from those that have not.
Maintenance of such data structure (hereinafter called metadata) is the key to implementing the algorithm behind Flash Copy. Other advanced functions such as Remote Copy (also known as continuous copy or remote mirroring) or Virtualization rely on similar data structures. The metadata for each of those advanced functions differs, but in all cases, it is used to maintain state information, such as the location of data, the mapping of virtualized files to real storage objects, etc. The metadata is held in a persistent storage.
A function such as Flash Copy is relatively straightforward to implement within a single processor complex, as is often employed within modern storage controllers. With a little extra effort, it is possible to implement fault tolerant Flash Copy, such that two or more processor complexes can have accesses to a copy of the metadata. Thus, in the event of a failure of the first processor complex, the second processor complex can be used to continue operation, without loss of access to the Target Image.
However, the I/O capability of a single processor complex is limited. There is a finite limit as to the capability improvement of a single processor complex, which is measured in terms of either I/Os per second, or bandwidth (in megabyte/second) has a finite limit, and thus a constraint will be imposed on the performance of user application(s) eventually. Such limit arises in many implementations of Flash Copy, but a good example is in storage controllers. A typical storage controller has a single processor complex that dictates a limit on the performance capability of that storage controller.
Additional storage controllers can be installed. But the separate storage controllers do not share access to the metadata, and therefore do not cooperate in managing a Flash Copy image. The storage space becomes fragmented, with functions such as Flash Copy being confined to the scope of a single controller system. Both Source and Target disks must be managed within the same storage controller. A single storage controller disk space may become full, while another has some spare space, but it is not possible to separate the Source and Target disks, placing the Target disk under the control of the new controller. This is particularly unfortunate in the case of a new Flash Copy, where moving the Target is a cheap operation, as it has no physical data associated with it.
As well as constraining the total performance possible for a Source/Target pair, the constraint of single controller storage functions adds complexity to the administration of the storage environment. The administrative cost is often cited as the biggest cost in the total cost of ownership of storage. It would be significantly advantageous to reduce system cost and complexity by removing all possible arbitrary constraints.
A simple method of allowing multiple controllers to participate in a shared Flash Copy relationship is to assign one controller as the Owner of the metadata, and have the other controllers forward all read and write requests to that controller. The owning controller processes the requests as if they come directly from its own attached host servers, using the algorithm described above, and completes each request back to the originating controller. The main drawback of such method is that the burden of forwarding each I/O request is too great, possibly doubling the total system-wide cost, and hence approximately halving the system performance.
It is known in the field of distributed parallel database processing to have a distributed lock management facility that enables resources to be assembled into lock clubs and to assign lock club owners that in turn control all locking for their assigned regions and issue locking control messages to I/O-requesting clients. Such a system is implemented at the logical resource level, and does not allow for control of locks among storage controller systems, nor does it provide any form of lock management at a metadata level. It also introduces considerable overhead in the case of storage virtualization, when real data segments may be held in widely distributed physical media.
It has been suggested in the academic literature, for example, in Scalable Concurrency Control and Recovery for Shared Storage Arrays" by Amiri et al., that it is possible to use distributed lock management at the device level in storage controller networks. However, it is known that such lock management techniques are inhibited by the burden of messaging that must take place among the storage controllers, leading to long latency periods and increased potential for deadlocks and repeated retries.
Consequently, it would be desirable to provide a low-cost, high-performance, scalable scheme that allows for multiple storage controllers to participate in advanced storage functions where the ownership and locking at a metadata level can be distributed among any one of the storage controllers.

Method and apparatus for providing storage control in a network of storage controllers

International Business Machines Corporartion