The invention provides novel universal primers that can amplify the fragment of cytochrome b gene of any animal species in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reveal the identity of the biological material of any unknown animal origin and a method for identification of the specific animal from a given biological sample.

A large number of studies in evolutionary biology utilize phylogenetic information obtained from mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. It has been identified a potent molecule to distinguish the phylogenetic depth of different lineages to family, genus and species in molecular taxonomy1–66. A vast database of the sequences of cytochrome b gene of different animal species has accumulated in public databases such as GenBank, NCBI (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) etc. We have utilized this capacity of cytochrome b gene in establishing the identity of the origin of animal parts and product to its family, genus and species sources. The technique developed is based on a pair of universal primer that can amplify a small fragment of cytochrome b gene from a vast range of animal species.
Establishing identity of confiscated animal parts and products is a great challenge to law enforcement agencies because none of the methods available till date is too efficient to reveal the identity of animal remains beyond a reasonable doubt. Morphological markers, described for certain species allow the identification of complete specimen of animals67. However, a complete specimen is confiscated very rarely by the investigation agencies; therefore, these marker are not practical in wildlife forensics. The biochemical traits such as the bile characteristics68 blood heam analysis69,70 etc. have also been employed in wildlife forensic for identification of individual species. The difficulty of these markers are that these markers are limited in number and are rarely found in their natural forms in which these were originally described as the characteristic of a particular species.
The molecular approaches such as micro-satellite based identification71, Restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of mitochondrial genes or PCR based species specific STS markers require the prior information of the species to establish the identity72,73. These methods also need a significant amount of DNA material to be analysed. We may not have the prior information about the species origin of confiscated animal parts and product in forensics, therefore, these methods are not really useful and practical in wildlife identification. The technique invented by us is universal, therefore does not require any background information to establish the identity of any unknown confiscated remains at family, genus and species sources. Being a PCR based procedure it can be applied with trace amount of any biological material. Because the amplicon length is small (472 bp); therefore, it can work perfectly with the mutilated remains, which are commonly seized by the crime investigation agencies. It does not require the large amount of genetic material i.e. DNA to be analyzed to establish the identity, hence, can detect a minute amount of adulteration in food products. The procedure described is simple and very fast. Due to the said advantages, the procedure invented by us is most suited for forensic wildlife identification.

Universal primers for wildlife identification

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research


An item of seating furniture includes a chassis, a seat part having a pivotable inclination, a back part pivotable relative to the seat part, and a foot part, which is connected to the seat part via a foot-part adjustment mechanism and can be pivoted out. To adjust the item of seating furniture from an upright sitting position into a lying position, the seat part is moved forward relative to the chassis. In the sitting position, the foot part is pivoted in, substantially underneath the seat part. In the lying position, the foot part is pivoted out, in front of the seat part, such that the seat part is extended by the foot part. When being pivoted into a lying position, the back part moves forward, together with the seat part, relative to the chassis, and therefore, in any pivoted position, the back part does not project, or only insignificantly projects, beyond the rear edge of the item of seating furniture.

Exemplary embodiments of the invention relate to a piece of seating furniture having a chassis, a seat part pivotable in the inclination, a back part pivotable relative to the seat part, and a foot part that can be pivoted out and is connected to the seat part via at least one foot-part adjustment mechanism, wherein, in order to adjust the piece of seating furniture from an upright sitting position into a reclining position, the seat part is displaced forwards relative to the chassis, wherein the foot part is pivoted in substantially below the seat part in the sitting position and is pivoted out in front of the seat part in the reclining position in such a way that the seat part is extended by means of the foot part.
In particular, the present invention relates to such seating furniture in which the backrest can be pivoted in a wall-away manner and which is therefore colloquially also referred to as sofas with wall-away function. This means that, when pivoted into a reclining position, the backrest moves forward together with the seat part relative to the chassis, so that the backrest does not, or only insignificantly, project beyond the rear edge of the seating furniture in any pivoted position.
From the publications DE202016104352U1 and US020150272329A1 (FIGS. 10, 11), seating furniture is known which, in addition to such a wall-away function, also has a floor-free design with a foot part pivoted in approximately parallel below the seat part and a slim design in the front seat area.
Furthermore, the seat part, the back part and the foot part of the above-mentioned seating furniture can be adjusted by means of linear actuators.
However, the disadvantage of the seating furniture known from the above-mentioned publications is that in each case a relatively short footrest is used that is pivoted in approximately parallel underneath the seat part, as a result of which, when the footrest is pivoted out, the user's feet protrude over the front edge of the footrest and thus have no support surface, so that the comfort of lying down for the user is restricted.
Based on the described prior art, exemplary embodiments of the invention are directed to further designing a seat of the generic type in such a way that, when using one or more linear actuators for adjusting the seat part, the back part and the foot part, the reclining comfort of the seat is improved.
In order to increase the reclining comfort of a piece of seating furniture according to the invention, a substantially longer footrest, which is pivoted in approximately parallel below the seat part, should be implemented in comparison with the seating furniture known from the printed publications DE202016104352U1 and US020150272329A1, so that, in the pivoted-out position of the foot part, a complete supporting surface for the feet of the user is ensured.
The adjustment mechanism used for pivoting the foot part should be designed to save installation space, so that a slim design of the seating furniture is possible in the front seat area and the foot part can be arranged below the lowest point of the adjustment mechanism.
Due to a lever geometry of the foot-part adjustment mechanism according to the invention in combination with an arrangement of the linear actuator for the seat-part/foot-part adjustment according to the invention, a substantially longer footrest pivoted in approximately parallel below the seat part can be used for the foot part than in seating furniture known from the prior art, since
on the one hand, during a first phase of pivoting of the seating furniture from the sitting to the reclining position, the footrest is guided closer to the seat part and with a "flatter" curve of movement than in the known seating furniture, and
on the other hand, in order to increase the distance between the front edge of the seat part and the support plane of the seating furniture, the inclination of the seat part is always adjusted first and only then is the foot part extended.
In accordance with the invention, this achieves a reclining length of the pivoted-out foot part such that a complete supporting surface for the user's feet is ensured.

Seating furniture having a wall-away function and a foot part that can be pivoted out


Transpalatal orthodontic appliances are disclosed which utilize a shape-memory or superelastic alloy member as the force-supplying member of the device. Suitable alloys include the nickel-titanium (NiTi) alloys, the titanium-molybdenum alloys (TMA), and any other alloy composition which possesses superelastic or shape-memory characteristics. The alloy composition may preferably have a working rang of at least about 30% and a modulus of elasticity not exceeding about 15.times.10.sup.6 psi.

Orthodontic appliances are known for repositioning teeth so as to achieve optimum formation of the maxillary and mandibular dental arches. Sometimes expansion of the dental arches is required and other times contraction thereof is required. Orthodontic archwires are used to move teeth, but are not generally suitable to expand or constrict a dental arch. This may be accomplished using transpalatal arches or expansion or constriction appliances.
One such device, the transpalatal arch bar, can be used to expand or contract the dental arches and to rotate, intrude, extrude and/or torque particular teeth in a patient. Transpalatal arch bars and similar related appliances are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,792,529, 4,592,725, 4,815,968 and 4,886,451. These devices are typically formed of relatively stiff (high modulus of elasticity) stainless steel wire having a U-shaped loop segment or a torsion-spring coil convolution, to supply the desired corrective forces. One drawback associated with such devices is that the spring-like forces supplied by the device are initially high but decrease a the expansion takes place and thus the device must be re-adjusted or replaced at periodic intervals until the desired tooth movement has been achieved.
Another type of device known for correcting transverse dental arch discrepancy is the rapid palatal expander (RPE). Such devices may be used to expand the maxillary arch. The device is affixed, i.e., either bonded or banded, to opposing teeth in the maxillary arch, typically first molars and/or first bicuspids. The transpalatal portion of the device has an expansion screw which the patient turns a predetermined amount each day. Turning the expansion screw in the palatal expander supplies the expansive forces of the device. As with the transpalatal arch bar, the initial force is high, but rapidly decreases as the teeth are moved.
Rapid palatal expanders have several drawbacks, including one or more of the following. The device provides a single force which tends to tip teeth. The forces exerted may be initially as high as 11 lbs., which causes tissue destruction and patient discomfort. Since the devices are patient activated, the cooperation of the patient is required, as is proper training. Furthermore, these devices tend to be bulky and therefore obtrusive to the tongue, which may affect speech and which may adversely affect oral hygiene. Additionally, these devices cannot be fabricated at chair side by the clinician.

Transpalatal orthodontic appliance of superelastic or shape-memory alloy


Disclosed is a novel enantiomeric synthesis ceramide-like inhibitors of UDP-glucose: N-acylsphingosine glucosyltransferase. Also disclosed are novel intermediates formed during the synthesis.

Glycosphingolipids (GSLs) are a class of naturally occurring compounds which have a multitude of biological functions, including the ability to promote cell growth, cell differentiation, adhesion between cells or between cells and matrix proteins, binding of microorganisms and viruses to cells, and metastasis of tumor cells. GSLs are derived from glucosylceramide (GlcCer), which is produced from ceramide and UDP-glucose by the enzyme UDP-glucose: N-acylsphingosine glucosyltransferase (GlcCer synthase). The structure of ceramide is shown below:

The accumulation of GSLs has been linked to a number of diseases, including Tay-Sachs, Gaucher's, and Fabry's diseases (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,051,598). GSLs have also been linked to certain cancers. For example, it has been found that certain GSLs occur only in tumors or at abnormally high concentrations in tumors; exert marked stimulatory or inhibitory actions on tumor growth when added to tumor cells in culture media; and inhibit the body's normal immunodefense system when shed by tumors into the surrounding extracellular fluid. The composition of a tumor's GSLs changes as the tumors become increasingly malignant and antibodies to certain GSLs inhibit the growth of tumors.
Compounds which inhibit GlcCer synthase can lower GSL concentrations and have been reported to be useful for treating a subject with one of the aforementioned diseases. A number of potent inhibitors of GlcCer, referred to herein as "amino ceramide-like compounds", are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,051,598, 5,952,370, 5,945,442, 5,916,911 and 6,030,995. The term "ceramide-like compounds" refers to analogs of ceramide in which: 1) the primary alcohol is replaced with a substituted amino group; and 2) the alkenyl group is replaced with an aryl group, preferably phenyl or substituted phenyl. The corresponding N-deacylated compounds are referred to as "sphingosine-like compounds."
Unfortunately, known methods of preparing amino ceramide-like compounds are poorly suited for manufacturing on an industrial scale. Because of the two chiral centers, most known syntheses generate four diastereoisomers, resulting in the need to separate diastereomers by chromatography and to isolate the desired enantiomer by crystallization after derivitization with optically active reagents, e.g., dibenzoyltartaric acid isomers (see, for example, Inokuchi and Radin, Journal of Lipid Research 28:565 (1987)). Neither of the processes are amenable to large scale preparations. Enantioselective synthesis of amino ceramide-like compounds using diastereoselective reductions have been reported (Mitchell, et al., J. Org. Chem. 63:8837 (1998) and Nishida, et al., SYNLETT 1998:389 (1998)), but require over ten steps, some of which utilized expensive reagents such as diisobutylaluminum hydride (DIABAL) and Garner Aldehyde (tert-butyl (R)-(+)-4 formyl-2,2-dimethyl-3-oxazolidine carboxylate). Thus, there is a critical need for enantioselective syntheses of amino ceramide-like compounds which are more economical and efficient, and involve fewer steps than known syntheses.


The industrial burner comprising a mixing chamber, which is provided with at least one opening into a furnace room, through which opening at least a partially-mixed fuel flow from the mixing chamber dispenses into the furnace room during operation. A combustion air supplier, through which the mixing chamber is supplied with combustion air during operation, and a fuel supplier, with which fuel is introduced into the mixing chamber, are provided. The fuel supplier can switch between a first and a second operation state, wherein in the first operation state, fuel is introduced into the mixing chamber at a first angle, and in the second operation state, fuel is introduced into the mixing chamber at substantially the same axial position with respect to the opening as in the first operation state and at a second angle with respect to the axial direction of the mixing chamber.

For conversion of fuel energy into heat, so-called impulse or high-speed burners are used. The fuel and the combustion air are mixed together and ignited in a high-heat resistant combustion chamber manufactured mostly out of ceramic material. The resulting hot combustion gas flows through a nozzle-shaped outlet with high speed in the heating space, which is formed either by the furnace room itself or by the inner space of a radiant tube. The outlet of the combustion chamber can be constricted in a nozzle-shaped manner or can be formed by a nozzle crown, wherein the axes of the nozzle openings are parallel to each other or are oriented so as to diverge from each other. The mechanical energy of the gas stream, which is being discharged from the combustion chamber and which partially originates from the fuel, serves to mix and circulate the gases in the heating room, which further assists the temperature equalization in the desired manner. Such a burner is for example described in DE 34 22 229 A1.
Furthermore, from EP 0 293 168 A2 an industrial burner is known that includes a high-heat resistant combustion chamber disposed outside of the furnace room. The fuel guiding device includes a primary fuel nozzle, which opens at a rear wall of the combustion chamber that opposes the combustion gas outlet, and a secondary, heat-insulated fuel nozzle extending through the combustion chamber, which secondary nozzle opens near the combustion gas outlet. This burner is operated according to a two-stage combustion, wherein less that 50% of the total fuel supplied to the burner is introduced via the primary fuel nozzle into the combustion chamber, which is continually supplied with the entire amount of the combustion air. This primary fuel is burned with a high air surplus by forming a long flame that reaches up to the mouth of the secondary fuel nozzle near the outlet of the combustion chamber. The combustion of the remaining fuel introduced via the secondary fuel nozzle takes place directly in the radiant tube with a low air surplus.
Similarly, a burner operable according a two-stage operation is known from EP 0 685 683 B1, in which two fuel outlets are provided in a combustion chamber separated from each other in the axial direction; the outlets are selectively supplied with fuel in a first and in a second combustion operation state. In particular, when starting up the burner, the fuel supply device, which discharges into the combustion chamber separated from the nozzle-shaped outlet of the combustion chamber in the furnace room, is used in order to introduce fuel into the combustion chamber and to enable combustion in the combustion chamber. In the second operation state, the other of the fuel outlets is solely utilized, which introduces the fuel immediately proximate to the combustion chamber outlet, so that unburned fuel adjacent to the air arrives at the furnace room unmixed with the combustion air. The mixing of the fuel and the combustion air then first takes place in the furnace room.
Starting therefrom, it is an object of the invention to provide an industrial burner that is simple to construct for low NOx-emissions and is flexible to operate, and a method for operating the industrial burner.

Industrial burner and method for operating an industrial burner


An apparatus for controlling a variable displacement compressor has an information detector and a controller. The information detector detects information about the thermal load on the refrigeration circuit. The controller determines a target value that reflects the displacement of the compressor based on the information about the thermal load detected by the information detector, and outputs the target value as a command value. When determining that the compressor is in a heavy load state based on information about a load on the compressor, the controller changes the command value to a value that causes the displacement of the compressor to become smaller than a displacement that corresponds to the determined target value.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling the opening of a control valve in a variable displacement type compressor included in a refrigeration circuit.
A variable displacement type compressor disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-2183, for instance, has a structure in which lubricating oil contained in refrigerant gas flowing in a discharge passage from a compression chamber to an external refrigerant circuit is separated. In other words, the compressor is equipped in the discharge passage with a separation chamber for separating lubricating oil contained in the refrigerant gas. A crank case accommodating a crank mechanism communicates with the separation chamber through an oil return passage.
On the oil return passage, there is provided a control valve which can vary the opening of the oil return passage with a control signal from outside. The refrigerant gas is supplied from the separation chamber to the crank case via the control valve. The control valve regulates the displacement of the compressor.
In the configuration using the control valve, the inlet control valve is closed when the displacement of the compressor is to be maximized. As a consequence, no lubricating oil is supplied from the separation chamber to the crank case through the oil return passage. Especially when the displacement of the compressor is at its maximum, the compressor is at a high temperature, resulting in increasing requirement for lubrication.

Apparatus for variable displacement type compressor


A golf practice device is disclosed that simulates the response of natural turf when impacted by the golf club head. The device comprises a platform for supporting the golfer and a divot simulator insert installed in a cavity area within the platform. The divot simulator insert has a base; a tray rests on top of the base with a simulated turf surface fitted therein. A cover is provided to conceal the interior and strengthen the base. When a ball placed on the simulated turf surface is struck by a golf club, the force imparted to the device sends the tray together with the simulated turf surface sliding forward, thus simulating the feel of hitting off natural turf and taking a divot. Means comprising compression springs fitted over guide rails are provided to control the sliding forward and retraction to their original position of the tray and the simulated turf surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a golf practice device, and more particularly to a golf practice device that (1) has a platform for supporting the golfer and securing a divot simulator insert installed therein, and (2) the divot simulator insert includes a surface component that yields and moves when impacted by the head of a golf club to simulate the response of natural turf and facilitate the practice and development of a correct golf swing.
2. Prior Art
To be skilled at the techniques of golf requires a golfer to practice regularly beyond the time spent on playing the game on golf courses. Many indoor/outdoor golf practice facilities have been created to accommodate golfers' need to practice, and the use of golf practice mats at these facilities is a common and long-established practice. The conventional golf practice mats are available in a variety of materials and have a surface layer simulating natural grass. These mats generally perform adequately for practicing wood shots off a tee. However, they are deficient for practicing iron shots and may actually impede the development of a correct swing.
A correct iron shot requires the golf club head to impact the golf ball on the downswing momentarily before it reaches the lowest point of the swing arc, i.e., the path of the golf club head during a swing. The descending club head will naturally remove a small patch of turf, known as a divot, below or immediately in front of the ball. Conventional golf practice mats are generally of stiff, unyielding construction and do not allow the action of taking a divot. A correct golf swing practiced on such a mat will actually produce the wrong "feel" as the club head, after hitting the ball, is impeded by and bounces off the mat. Further, to lessen the shock to the wrists and elbows and risk of injury, the golfer may alter his swing to "scoop" or sweep the ball off the mat cleanly instead of hitting "down and through" and thus develop an incorrect way of hitting iron shots. Also, when the golfer makes an incorrect swing and strikes the mat behind the ball, i.e., making a "fat" shot, the shock from hitting a hard and unyielding surface can lead to injuries to elbows and other joints. To make matters worse, the fear of experiencing pain may cause the golfer to tense up and produce more bad shots thus negating the benefit of practice. Lastly, some golf practice mats have a surface layer consisting of long fibers or inverted brushes to help reduce club head bounce and risk of injury. However, these mats may have too much "give" and more closely simulate fringe grass than fairway turf.
Many golf practice devices have been conceived over the years incorporating a hitting surface that yields or moves when struck by the head of a golf club to simulate the response of natural turf; some are designed to be portable so golfers can carry and use them at golf practice facilities. Examples are shown in the following U.S. patents or pending applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,156,396 issued to Florian discloses a device consists of a base pad formed of a resilient elastomeric material and an artificial grass carpet positioned on the base pad. When a golf ball on the carpet surface is struck, the carpet slides a limited distance and is then returned by an elastic biasing mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,443 issued to Glaser discloses a device comprises a mat with an insert, which further consists of a continuous belt extending around parallel rollers to create a movable ball supporting surface and a tray holding deformable material placed beneath the belt upper surface. Striking of the belt upper surface depresses the belt downwardly while rotating it toward the front of the mat.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,888,147 issued to Luedtke discloses a device comprises an anchor piece and a divot piece connected by elastic rubber bands.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,967 issued to Guyer discloses a device consists of a support frame, a mat and a tray with a set of casters that roll on descending ramps attached to the frame. When a golf ball is hit from the mat, the mat and tray deflect downwardly, the mat slides partially off the tray and the tray rolls down the ramps. The mat and tray return to the original position via a tension spring means.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,966 issued to Miller discloses a device comprises a frame, multiple layers disposed in spaced relation to each other on the frame, and a base attachment. The base attachment possesses guide means and rubber band means to control the sliding forward and back of the frame member.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,611 issued to Moller discloses a device comprises a mat affixed on top of a bladder filled with gas or liquid and disposed within a base board. The mat and bladder slide forward and optionally downward when struck by a golf club, and are returned by spring means.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,442 issued to Walker discloses a device comprises a sliding pad mounted in a U-shaped stance pad. The sliding pad is in tongue and groove relation with the stance pad over short length near its exposed end, the rest being free to propagate a wave ahead of a swinging golf club's head to simulate the feel of taking a divot.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,685 issued to Ballinger, et al. discloses an apparatus that includes a platform for the golfer to stand on, a main frame connected to the platform adjacent thereto, and an inner frame covered with artificial turf surface and mounted within the main frame. The inner frame pivots forward and then downward in a generally arcuate path when the surface is impacted by the golf club head. The platform can be folded to form a carrying case in which the components can be stored.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,896 issued to O'Brien discloses a device comprises a hitting surface slidably positioned within a frame and supported by a static surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,130,283 issued to Lindquist discloses a device with artificial turf secured to a cushioned support that is movable in the direction of the ball flight and compressible when the surface is struck. The movable and compressible portion returns via a spring means.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,712,628 issued to Boss, Jr. discloses a device comprises a rigid housing containing rollers which support an endless belt with simulated grass outer surface. A platform beneath the upper portion of the belt pivots about one end and is held against the inner surface of the belt by an elastic means.
While these devices may accomplish their stated objectives to some extent, they suffer from one or more of the following limitations: (1) being too complex or too expensive to manufacture to be economically viable; (2) employing materials or involving parts that tend to fatigue or break with repeated use; (3) having an excessively high profile and requiring the golfer to stand on an elevated platform; (4) showing visually distracting elements such as rubber bands, cords and gaps on or around the hitting surface; and (5) requiring extraneous means such as spikes to anchor the device to the ground, which is impractical when the ground is hard surface such as concrete.
Co-pending application Ser. No. 11/070,320 by the same inventors of this application discloses a device that is portable and incorporates a base extension which can be slid under a platform for maintaining stability during use. The device comprises a simulated turf surface fitted in a tray slidably positioned on a base. The tray slides forward when struck by a golf club head; means are provided to return it to its original position. The limitation of the device is that it must be disposed adjacent to an extraneous platform.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A computer, including a processor and a memory, the memory including instructions to be executed by the processor to determine a plurality of received signal strength indicators or time of flight values for a mobile device from each of a plurality of sensors included in a vehicle, determine a location of the mobile device with respect to the vehicle by processing the received signal strength indicators or time of flight values with a neural network wherein each received signal strength indicator is input to an input neuron included in an input layer of the neural network wherein each input neuron inputs at least one received signal strength indicator or time of flight value, and operate the vehicle using the located mobile device.

Vehicles can be equipped with computing devices, networks, sensors and controllers to acquire data regarding the vehicle's environment and to operate the vehicle based on the data. Vehicle sensors can provide data about a vehicle's environment, e.g., concerning routes to be traveled and objects to be avoided in the vehicle's environment.


Data is allocated into multiple memories with selective variable replication for maximizing performance by minimizing concurrent memory access conflicts. Requirements for concurrent access are summarized in a transformed concurrent access graph. Graph vertices are merged to disallow variable replication. All potential graph merges that cause a reduction in machine cycle time are identified. The ratios of saved cycles/memory cost in bytes are then computed for each potential merge. The potential merges are then sorted by their saved cycles/bytes ratio. Finally, potential merges resulting in replicated variables are selected based on their cycles/bytes ratios until a predefined memory target size is achieved. Either graph coloring or clique partitioning can be used to allocate variables into memory banks.

Programmable digital signal processors (DSPs) often use multiple data memory banks to facilitate the exploitation of parallelism in accessing operands from memory. To utilize this capability, however, the data must be properly partitioned and distributed among different memory banks.
To illustrate the importance of data partitioning on execution performance, consider an N.sup.th order FIR (finite impulse response) filter algorithm executed by a hypothetical DSP similar to the Motorola DSP560001. This hypothetical DSP has two data-memory banks that can each be accessed once every clock cycle. But to fetch the elements of arrays A (the data) and B (the filter coefficients) in parallel, the arrays must be stored in separate memory banks. Conversely, if the arrays are stored in the same memory bank, the elements of the arrays would have to be fetched sequentially, and the execution of the code would be slowed down. The ability to access multiple memory banks in parallel with other operations is fundamental to most DSPs. However, failure to properly distribute the data among the memory banks can limit the exploitation of such parallelism and can therefore degrade execution performance.
Data partitioning is currently performed manually by the programmer, who must typically resort to the use of assembler directives or compiler pragmas to control the partitioning of data in a program. As programs become larger and more sophisticated, it becomes very difficult to partition data manually and to ensure that the partitioning results in optimal execution performance. Automatic data partitioning is therefore becoming a necessity, especially with the current trend towards a heavier reliance on high-level languages to program DSPs. Automatic data partitioning relieves the programmer from this task and helps improve performance across an entire program.

Data allocation into multiple memories for concurrent access


To provide an objective lens driving device that drives an objective lens for converging light on a recording surface of an optical disk, not only in a focusing and a tracking directions but also in an inclining direction of an optical axis of the objective lens, four support members are fixed to outer edge portions of a lens holder, and positions where the other support members are fixed to at least one of the lens holder and a fixing section are located inside the four support members fixed to the outer edge portions of the lens holder.

The present invention relates to an optical disk apparatus, and in particular, to an optical disk apparatus comprising an objective lens driving device for driving an objective lens converging light on a recording surface, in a focusing direction, a tracking direction, and an inclining direction of an optical axis of the objective lens.
To achieve appropriate recording and reproduction in optical disk apparatuses, in which the recording density is continuously improved, objective lens driving devices are required which drive an objective lens converging light on a recording surface of the optical disk apparatus, not only in a focusing and a tracking directions but also in an inclining direction of an optical axis of the objective lens, thereby correcting even the inclination of an optical disk. Such an objective lens driving device is disclosed in, for example, in JP-A-6-162540 specification or JP-A-10-275354 specification.
In JP-A-6-162540 specification, a support member for supporting an objective lens holder for free inclined movement is shaped like eight parallel straight lines having one end secured to a side surface of the objective lens holder and the other end secured to a supporting and fixing section of a base, and supports a movable portion for free movement and inclined movement in three directions: the focus direction, the tracking direction, and the inclining direction.
In JP-A-10-275354 specification, there are provided an objective lens and a pair of support members for supporting the objective lens and the pair of support members are disposed in a plane orthogonal to the optical axis of the objective lens. The pair of support members each have one end connected to the objective lens and the other end connected to a fixed portion. And, with respect to rigidity indicating how difficult it is for the objective lens to rotate around the direction orthogonal both to the optical axis and a longitudinal direction of the support member, the one end side of the pair of support members is less rigid than the other end side thereof.
In the optical disk apparatus, to promptly and accurately align, light converged by the objective lens in the focusing direction, the tracking direction, and the inclining direction of the optical axis of the objective lens, by consuming only a small amount of power, the operational sensitivity of the objective lens driving device in each direction must be improved so that when the device is operated in a predetermined direction, a cross action corresponding to movement in another direction is reduced.
When M denotes a moment that acts around the center of the support members supporting the movable portion including the objective lens, on the fixing section when a drive voltage V is applied, Ki denotes a spring constant of each support member, and Li denotes a distance from the center of the support members to the fixing position of each support member, a static operational sensitivity St in the inclining direction of the optical axis of the objective lens is expressed by:                     St        =                  M                                    V              ·                              Σ                i                                                                                k                i                            ·                              L                i                2                                                                        (                  Equation                                xe2x80x83                              1                )
where the subscript i denotes the order of one of the plurality of support members. This equation indicates that to improve the operational sensitivity in the inclining direction, the moment acting around the center of the support members must not only be increased, but the spring constant of the support members must be reduced, and the distance from the center of the support members to the fixing position of each support member must also be reduced.
In the above mentioned JP-A-6-162540 specification, however, the eight linear support members are secured to the side surfaces of the lens holder and the distance from the center of the support members to the fixing position of each support member is large, so that this device does not have a sufficiently improved operational sensitivity.
On the other hand, in the above mentioned JP-A-10-275354 specification, a pair of support members are used wherein one end side thereof is made less rigid than the other end side thereof to obtain an operational sensitivity in the inclining direction. With this configuration, however, the rigidity also decreases in the focusing direction and the tracking direction, and cross action is likely to occur when the center of the support members deviates even slightly from the center of the action of a driving force.
The present invention is achieved in view of these points, and it is an object thereof to provide an objective lens driving device that improves operational sensitivity and reduces cross action in the case when light converged by an objective lens is driven and controlled to propagate in a focusing direction, a tracking direction, and a inclining direction of an optical axis of the objective lens.
To attain this object, the present invention provides an objective lens driving device including: an objective lens for converging light on a recording surface of an optical disk; a lens holder for holding the objective lens; and a plurality of support members for supporting a movable portion including the lens holder in such a manner that the movable portion can operate relative to a fixing section in a focusing direction, a tracking direction, and an inclining direction of an optical axis of the objective lens, in which four of the plurality of support members are fixed to outer edge portions of the lens holder, and at least one of the positions where the other support members are fixed to one of the lens holder or a fixing position of the fixing section is located inside the four support members fixed to the outer edge portions of the lens holder. The four support members fixed to the outer edge portions of the lens holder can restrain cross action, which may occur during an operation in each direction, while the other support members disposed for the inclining operation are fixed inside the four support members fixed to the outer edge portions of the lens holder, thereby reducing the distance from the center of the support members and improving the operational sensitivity in the inclining direction.
Additionally, according to the present invention, the support members fixed inside the four support members fixed to the outer edge portions of the lens holder can each have a coil-shaped portion or two or more bent portions or two or more coil-shaped bent portions to reduce the spring constant of the support members and improve the operational sensitivity in the inclining direction.
The above configuration serves to reduce cross section and improve the operational sensitivity in the inclining direction, thereby enabling the objective lens driving device and the optical disk apparatus to be stably driven and controlled.

Objective lens driving device and optical disc apparatus


A compressor including a shaft, a flange to support shaft, and a muffler to reduce noise generated in a compression chamber of the compressor. The flange including a plurality of noise reductions units each of which is formed to have a different volume and at least a portion of the noise reduction unit is covered by the muffler.

In general, a compressor applied to a refrigeration cycle of a refrigerator or an air conditioner includes a hermetically sealed container forming an outer appearance, a compression unit for compressing a refrigerant inside the hermetically sealed container, and a drive unit for providing compression power according to the compression of the refrigerant. One side and the other side of the hermetically sealed container are provided with a suction pipe for guiding the external refrigerant to the inside of the hermetically sealed container and a discharge pipe for discharging the refrigerant compressed by the compression unit to the outside of the hermetically sealed container, respectively. The compressor is provided with a muffler for reducing noise generated when the refrigerant is discharged.
In order to reduce noise generated when the compressed refrigerant is discharged from a compression chamber of the compressor, the shape of the conventional muffler and the number of discharge holes need to-be changed or a resonator needs to be applied to the inside of a cylinder.


Certain embodiments of the present invention provide a catheter monitoring system including a catheter input module (CIM) adapted to be connected to at least one catheter, an amplifier base, and a host adapted to process data from the amplifier base. The CIM is adapted to be connected to an amplifier base during a study. The amplifier base is adapted to receive data from the CIM when the CIM is connected to the amplifier base.

The present invention generally relates to catheter monitoring. In particular, the present invention relates to systems and methods for a hot-swappable catheter input module.
The normal pumping of the heart results from the ordered contraction of the muscles of the heart, the myocardium. When the myocardium is electrically stimulated, it contracts. The sinoatrial node (SA node) generates an electrical impulse that is propagated to the myocardium. Typically, the SA node spontaneously generates the electrical impulse. Certain problems may occur when the electrical impulse is generated and/or propagates incorrectly.
An electrophysiology (EP) study may include one or more tests performed to acquire data about the electrical signals in the heart. An EP study is performed by placing one or more catheters into a patient's heart. The catheters monitor the electrical signals in the heart. A catheter may include one or more leads for relaying the monitored signals to a catheter monitoring system such as an EP laboratory system. In some situations, a catheter may be used to stimulate the heart by introducing electrical impulses in an EP study.
For example, to perform an EP study, three intracardiac (IC) catheters may be placed into a patient's heart to monitor the electrical signals as they travel through the heart and cross the three catheters. The catheters may be connected to input ports on a catheter input module (CIM) that is part of the monitoring system. Each catheter may have one or more data channels. A data channel includes a signal electrode and a reference electrode. The reference electrode may come from a lead in the catheter or from an auxiliary or external reference, for example.
Current systems utilize an amplifier to receive and amplify input from IC catheters. The number of inputs available for the IC catheters may be fixed based on the amplifier model purchased. Thus, when additional catheter inputs are desired, a user must replace the entire amplifier with a different model, incurring additional cost and system downtime. In other current systems, the amplifier may utilize one or more CIMs. In such systems, when additional catheter inputs are desired, the catheter monitoring system must be powered down and opened up for the new CIM hardware to be installed.
As discussed above, current systems do not support the addition of additional catheter inputs to the hardware during a study. However, the number of catheter inputs needed during a study can change. For example, during a study a healthcare practitioner may determine an additional catheter is desired to be included in the study. As another example, at the beginning of a study, only a subset of the leads from a catheter may be used. During the study, the healthcare provider may decide to utilize additional leads. If additional catheter inputs are not available when desired during the study, the study will have to be closed before the amplifier can be replaced or powered down so additional CIMs can be added.
In addition, when adding a new CIM, there is a possibility that the CIM will be damaged if the power is left on by mistake. That is, a user may accidentally attempt to add a CIM while the catheter monitoring system is still powered on. This may result in permanent damage to the CIM and/or the catheter monitoring system.
Thus, there is a need for a hot-swappable catheter input module.

Systems and methods for a hot-swappable catheter input module


A method (300) and control arrangement (210) for controlling a vehicle (100) to freewheel with engine off. The vehicle (100) has an engine (260) for propelling the vehicle (100) and a hydraulic power steering system (400). The hydraulic power steering system (400) comprises a primary power steering pump (270a) arranged to be driven by the engine (260) and a secondary power steering pump (270b). The method (300) includes: determining (301) when to start freewheeling the vehicle (100) with its engine off; and prior to starting the freewheeling of the vehicle (100) with engine off, determining (302) to start the secondary power steering pump (270b).

Freewheeling functionality with engine running on idle (and the gearbox in neutral/open clutch) has been in production for many years in heavy trucks. The later versions are based on look-ahead systems that in advance can calculate the length of the freewheeling based on road gradient data from a map-database.
While these systems save a lot of fuel, it would be possible to save even more by shutting off the engine completely.
It is a well-known problem that auxiliary systems in conventional vehicles traditionally have been driven by the engine, which makes shutting-off the engine difficult in situations where operating the auxiliary systems are required. The most typical case is the power-steering system, that traditionally have been driven directly by the engine.
A known solution to achieve power steering while the vehicle engine is off, is to replace the engine driven system with an electrical power steering system, and/or a hydraulic system with two different pumps. A drawback of using two pumps is that the losses in the system become unnecessarily large if both pumps are activated continuously.
A two-pump system may be used in so called dual-circuit steering systems, which system generally is installed to achieve power steering redundancy (if the engine mounted pump fails, the engine fails, etc.). All known solutions either run the secondary pump continuously, or starts it when it detects a pressure/flow drop in the primary circuit, i.e. after the engine is shut off.
Document US 2012/0160594 A1 discloses a power steering system which obtains an assistance force of a steering operation according to actuation of a pump. The power steering system comprises a first pump associated with a combustion engine and a second pump associated with an electric motor.
It would be desirable to further explore and develop power steering of vehicles, in particular in freewheeling scenarios, with the engine switched off.

Method and control arrangement for controlling vehicle freewheel with engine off and power steering


According to the disclosure hypoxia-mediated adipogenic inhibition involves the repression of PPARγ2 expression and its activity is a common mechanism for adipogenic inhibition by a variety of stimuli. The present disclosure relates to methods and compositions for regulating adipogenesis. The disclosure provides compositions comprising one or more DEC1/Stra13 fragments of capable of inhibiting PPARγ2 promoter activity. These fragments, e.g. the basic helix loop helix domain or amino acids 1-141, have substantially the same PPARγ2 promoter repressing activity as the full length polypeptide. The present disclosure provides methods of inhibiting adipogenesis comprising contacting a cell with a fragment of DEC1/Stra13. The invention further relates to methods and compositions of inhibiting angiogenesis in a tumor comprising contacting a tumor or tumor cell with a DEC1/Stra13 agonist.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/360,689 filed Feb. 28, 2002.
This invention was made with government support under National Institutes of Health Grants CA88480 and CA67166 and under National Institutes of Health Cancer Biology Training Grant CA09302. The government has certain rights in the invention.
Molecular oxygen (O2) is vital to nearly all forms of lives on earth perhaps via its role in energy homeostasis, embryogenesis and differentiation. In response to hypoxia or low O2 tensions, mammals increase the expression of a wide variety of genes including erythropoietin, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and glycolytic enzymes to stimulate erythropoiesis, angiogenesis, and glycolysis (Bunn and Poyton, 1996). Most of these hypoxia-regulated genes are transcriptionally induced by the hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1), a member of the basic helix-loop-helix Per, AhR and Sim (bHLH-PAS) family (Semenza and Wang, 1992; Wang et al., 1995a). Under normoxia, HIF-1α protein becomes hydroxylated at proline-564 in its O2-dependent degradation domain (Ivan et al., 2001; Jaakkola et al., 2001), and is targeted by the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) protein for proteosome-mediated degradation (Maxwell et al., 1999; Ohh et al., 2000). Under hypoxia, HIF-1α becomes stabilized, translocates to the nucleus, and dimerizes with the O2-independent HIF-1β to initiate gene expression (Jewell et al., 2001; Kallio et al., 1997). The importance of cellular responses to hypoxia in development and differentiation is demonstrated in mouse models in which homozygous deletion of either HIF-1α or HIF-1β is embryonically lethal. The HIF-1α-/- embryos succumb between 9 and 10 days post coitus (d.p.c) to loss of mesenchymal cells and impaired vascular development (Iyer et al., 1998; Ryan et al., 1998). The HIF-1-/- embryos die by 10.5 d.p.c due to vascular deficiencies in the yolk sac and/or placenta (Kozak et al., 1997; Maltepe et al., 1997). Interestingly, mice heterozygous for HIF-1α exhibit increased weight loss when subjected to chronic hypoxia (Yu et al., 1999), reinforcing the essential and complex role HIF-1α plays in cellular homeostasis in a low O2 environment.
During the first trimester, a human embryo is located in a low O2 environment (3% O2) (Rodesch et al., 1992). In rat embryos, O2 tensions are low before 9.5 d.p.c (Mitchell and Yochim, 1968). The establishment of uteroplacental circulation relies on cytotrophoblast invasion into the uterine spiral arterioles. Studies indicate that cytotrophoblasts proliferate with a poorly differentiated phenotype at low O2 tensions and differentiate into a highly invasive phenotype at high O2 tensions (Caniggia et al., 2000; Genbacev et al., 1997). High O2 tensions also favor terminal differentiation of megakaryocytes into platelets (Mostafa et al., 2000). In contrast, differentiation of other cell types seems to prevail at lower O2 tensions. At 3% O2, rat mesencephalic precursor cells exhibit higher growth rates and higher levels of differentiation into a dopaminergic phenotype than at 20% O2 (Studer et al., 2000). Low O2 tensions have been found to promote osteochondrogenesis. Mesenchymal stem cells from rat bone marrow display enhanced colony-forming capability and increased proliferation at 5% O2 as compared to 20% O2, and they produce more osteocytes when implanted in vivo (Lennon et al., 2001). These observations suggest that the effect of O2 on cell differentiation is extensive and cell-type specific.
Peripheral evidence in the literature supports a role of HIF-1 in adipogenesis. Using a subtraction cloning approach, Imagawa et al. (1999) found that HIF-1α mRNA is transiently induced in 3T3-L1 (L1) preadipocytes upon treatment with the adipogenic hormone cocktail containing insulin, dexamethasone and 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (DM). However, the consequence of such transient HIF-1α expression was never investigated. Interestingly, adipogenesis can be inhibited by 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), which requires the aryl-hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), also a member of the bHLH-PAS family (Alexander et al., 1998; Phillips et al., 1995). Since AhR activates gene transcription by dimerization with HIF-1β (Probst et al., 1993), it is a reasonable hypothesis that inhibition of adipogenesis may be a function shared by some members of the bHLH-PAS family such as HIF-1α/β and AhR/HIF-1β.
Pathophysiological evidence exists that suggests a correlation between hypoxia and adipogenesis. For example, children with cyanotic heart disease have less body fat due to apparent adipocyte hypocellularity (Baum and Stern, 1977). High altitude training is well known to cause weight loss that is attributed in large part to body fat reduction (Armellini et al., 1997; Westerterp et al., 1994a). Strenuous physical training, on the other hand, is also attributed to significant loss of body fat (Van Etten et al., 1994; Westerterp et al., 1994b). Besides other physiological changes, hypoxia occurs in exercising skeletal muscles, as characterized by an increase in the expression of HIF-1 and VEGF (Gustafsson and Kraus, 2001; Gustafsson et al., 1999). Under hypoxia, fatty acid oxidation is impeded and glycolysis is augmented to maintain energy homeostasis. If the stored fat is not used under hypoxia, there is less need to increase or renew adipose tissue via adipogenesis. Experimentally, rats exposed to hypoxia experience significant fat loss (Mortola and Naso, 1997; Tanaka et al., 1997). Thus, reduction of adipose tissues can be caused by tissue hypoxia.
Adipocyte differentiation results from sequential induction of transcription factors C/EBPβ, C/EBPδ, PPARγ, and C/EBPα (Rangwala and Lazar, 2000; Rosen and Spiegelman, 2000). C/EBPβ and C/EBPδ are induced immediately but transiently upon IDM treatment to mediate the expression of PPARγ and C/EBPα (Christy et al., 1991; Wu et al., 1995; Yeh et al., 1995). In contrast to C/EBPδ, C/EBPβ is able to induce spontaneous differentiation in L1 cells and enhance the adipogenic potential in NIH-3T3 fibroblasts (Wu et al., 1995; Yeh et al., 1995). Highly specific for adipose tissues, PPARγ plays a critical role in the expression of most adipocyte-specific genes (Tontonoz et al., 1995) and is able to convert non-adipogenic mesenchymal cells such as fibroblasts and myoblasts to adipocytes (Hu et al., 1995; Tontonoz et al., 1994). Although developmentally necessary for adipogenesis (Wang et al., 1995b), C/EBPα is not always expressed during adipocyte differentiation especially in cells that already express C/EBPβ. For example, C/EBPα is not involved in the expression of GLUT-4, the insulin-responsive glucose transporter, in 3T3 cells ectopically expressing C/EBPβ and C/EBPδ (Wu et al., 1998). These data suggest the PPARγ and C/EBPβ may be potential targets for adipogenic intervention.
The effects of hypoxia are manifested by HIF-1 regulated genes. We and others have identified a hypoxia-induced gene DEC1/Stra13, a member of the Drosophila hairy/Enhancer of split (HES) family of bHLH transcription factors (Ivanova et al., 2001). The HES proteins play important roles in cell differentiation by repressing gene expression (Kageyama and Ohtsuka, 1999; Staal et al., 2001). During embryonic development, DEC1/Stra13 is expressed in neuroectoderm, and in some mesoderm and endoderm derived structures (Boudjelal et al., 1997). In P19 embryonal carcinoma cells, overexpression of DEC1/Stra13 promotes neuronal differentiation and inhibits mesodermal and endodermal differentiation (Boudjelal et al., 1997). In differentiating L1 cells, DEC1/Stra13 expression is increased approximately 2-fold within 1 hr of IDM treatment, followed by a rapid decrease within 24 hr (Inuzuka et al., 1999). At present, the role of DEC1/Stra13 during adipogenesis is ill defined.
Given the importance of O2 sensing in embryonic development, as well as energy homeostasis and cell differentiation, O2 tensions may control adipose tissue function by regulating adipogenesis. Since fatty acid metabolism requires mitochondrial respiration, hypoxia prevents the use of fatty acids and thus may obviate the need for more adipose tissue. Therefore, we have investigated whether hypoxia inhibits adipogenesis through the HIF-1 dependent induction of the DEC1/Stra13 gene expression. As mentioned above, adipocyte differentiation in vitro is determined by precisely orchestrated expression of the C/EBPs and PPARγ. We have thus determined whether the C/EBP family or PPARγ is the critical target of DEC1/Stra13, and whether overexpression of DEC1/Stra13 is sufficient to inhibit adipocyte differentiation. The regulation of adipogenesis by hypoxia opens new directions for research in understanding how the microenvironment regulates cell differentiation both under physiological settings as well as during the malignant progression of tumors.

Methods and compositions for regulating adipogenesis

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


A system includes a server having a database stored thereon, an operator device, and a coordinating device communicatively coupled with the server and with the operator device, wherein the coordinating device comprises a processor and a memory, and wherein the memory is configured to store instructions thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the coordinating device to perform various steps. The steps include receiving account data, from the server, corresponding with an account of a plurality of accounts saved to the database, receiving preference data, from the operator device, corresponding with preferences of an operator of the operator device and relating to the account data. The steps also include generating an avatar reflecting the account data in accordance with the preference data, and displaying the avatar on a display.

The present disclosure relates generally to a system and method for customer and customer service interaction. In particular, the present disclosure relates to generating and/or utilizing tools indicative of customer-related information to facilitate improved customer service.
Many product and service oriented businesses provide real-time customer service. For example, a banking institution may provide telephone or text-to-chat customer service for various products and/or services associated with the banking institution, such as checking services, savings services, credit services, credit protection services, loan services, and others.
When a customer contacts a business (e.g., such as the banking institution described above, or a customer service department thereof) seeking assistance, it may be difficult to quickly and efficiently identify a reason for the contact from the customer. For example, traditional techniques may require, among other steps, excessively querying the customer (e.g., via a human or digital customer service representative) to determine the reason for the contact from the customer. Results from the customer service representative querying the customer may be inaccurate and/or time consuming, which may waste resources and frustrate the customer. Further, traditional techniques may not effectively inform the customer service representative of important information associated with the customer. Accordingly, improved identification and understanding of the customer, and improved customer service, may be desired.

United Services Automobile Association (USAA)


A workflow design system provides user interface controls that allow a workflow author to focus on the steps of the workflow before deciding on how to control the flow of the workflow. With the system, an author can change the control flow of a workflow without re-ordering the sequence of steps within the workflow. The workflow design system allows the author to define a sequence of steps and then drag a control block over these steps to capture them within the control block. The author can also later remove the control block without affecting the sequence of steps if his needs change. In addition, the system presents error-handling workflows side-by-side with the main workflow, so that the author can modify the main workflow and notice the effects and any corresponding changes for error handling workflows at the same time.

Information Technology (IT), according to the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), refers generally to the study, design, development, implementation, support, or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware. Most organizations of more than a handful of employees include an IT department responsible for a variety of tasks, including deployment of new computer hardware and applications, maintenance of one or more networks, monitoring of servers, and so forth. IT management applications, such as MICROSOFT System Center solutions, help organizations manage their IT environments, from physical to virtual, across desktops, devices, and datacenters. These applications are designed to provide a single window into IT services to allow proactive planning, deployment, management, and optimization across IT platforms. IT management applications capture and aggregate practical knowledge about infrastructure, policies, processes, and recommended practices so IT professionals can build manageable systems and automate operations to reduce costs, improve application availability, and enhance service delivery.
A common task in an IT department is the creation of scripts and workflows that help the IT department to automate some of its functions. For example, IT personnel may want to automate the steps involved in deploying new desktop computers for new employees, or the steps involved in deploying new servers to a data center. Today, IT personnel use a process to create these workflows that closely resembles computer programming. IT personnel often spend an extensive amount of time learning a particular scripting language, understanding control flow constructs (e.g., if, while, and goto statements), and understanding error and exception handling.
Although a programming environment provides a powerful environment for automation, the environment often does not map well to the way people think about IT problems. Many existing tools for authoring workflows have a graphical look and feel that makes the IT personnel think using the tools will be as easy as making a flow chart. Unfortunately, the terminology and design flow take their cues from developer tools. This often leads to disappointment and frustration, which wastes time and takes the IT professional away from other productive tasks he/she could be completing.
One area that demonstrates this disconnect is how existing tools handle control blocks. A basic workflow is a sequence of steps, where each step performs some function (e.g., reboot computer, install software, and check for updates). Control Block is the term that refers to a class of workflow controls that change a normal sequential flow of a workflow. For example, an IF/ELSE control block will change the flow of a workflow depending on some condition being true or false. Other examples of control blocks include FOR EACH, DO-UNTIL, WHILE, and TRY-CATCH. The typical experience includes the author placing one of these control blocks onto a design surface and then adding a sequence of steps that the control block influences within the control block's shape. This forces the author to first think about the workflow's control and then think about the work that needs to be done. This is similar to a developer's experience while developing code. First, the developer declares a control block (a loop for example), and then (in languages such as C++, C#, JavaScript, and Java) the developer places the lines of code within curly braces. However, many workflow authors (particularly those that have not had experience developing software or scripts) think instead about the work that needs to be done and then they go back and think about the control flow.
Another example of this disconnect is how error handling is authored. Traditional authoring environments have the main workflow and error handling workflows in different, disconnected views. The author views either the main workflow or the error workflow. While this is fine for a developer who develops using text, for an IT professional authoring a workflow visually, this is very difficult. Often what goes into the error handling workflow is determined by what is in the main workflow.

Simplified user controls for authoring workflows


A high-cut-off frequency, high-speed HBT is obtained by suppressing the diffusion of impurities to the utmost by lowering a heat treatment temperature in the step subsequent to the formation of a high concentration base layer. A base electrode for a base layer is made of a metal or an intermetallic compound which extends the emitter layer to reach at least a part of the base layer. The metal or intermetallic compound forms Schottky barrier with an emitter layer having a wide forbidden width ,and ohmic contacts with the base layer with a narrow forbidden band. The barrier potential of the Schottky junction formed between the intermetallic compound or metal and the emitter layer is higher than the diffusion potential of a pn junction between the base layer and the emitter layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method of making the same, and more particularly to improvements to the base electrode of an Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor (HBT).
2. Description of the Related Art
Bipolar transistors play an important role as a high-speed integrated circuit device because of their capability of outputting a large load drive force. In order to operate a bipolar transistor at high speed with low power consumption, it is effective to increase the cut-off frequency and to reduce the quantity of electric charges stored in the transistor. To this end, the base layer must be thin so as to reduce the electron transmit time.
In conventional silicon transistors, the emitter impurity concentration is required to be higher than the base impurity concentration to improve the emitter injection efficiency. However, as the base is thinned, a punch-through breakdown voltage is lowered. To obtain a high punch-through breakdown voltage, the base concentration is required to increase. As a result, the emitter/base junction becomes a high impurity concentration pn junction, in which a band-to-band tunnel current is tend to increase, which hinders a normal transistor operation. When the collector-emitter breakdown voltage is kept at about 3 volts in the silicon transistor, the lower limit of the base thickness is about 50 nm and the upper limit of the corresponding cut-off frequency is about 50 GHz considering the above-discussed situations.
To make the base layer thinner and to make the cut-off frequency higher over these limits, a hetero-emitter structure in which the forbidden band width of the emitter is larger than that of the base is attracting attention. In the hereto-emitter structure, since the injection of, for example, positive holes from the base of an npn transistor to its emitter is suppressed due to the difference of widths between the forbidden bands of the base and emitter, the injection efficiency is not lowered even if the emitter concentration is lowered below the base concentration. Therefore, the emitter and base concentrations can be determined independently from the injection efficiency, so that the base concentration can be increased enormously compared to the conventional homojunction transistors. As a result, the base thickness can be reduced and therefore the cut-off frequency can be made higher.
In order to realize such heterojunction bipolar transistor, it is required to coincide the position of the heterojunction with the position of the pn junction between the emitter and base with the accuracy in the order of 1 nm. Further, it is required to increase the base concentration in order to reduce the base thickness. However, it is very difficult for the existing technology to satisfy these two requirements at the same time. This is because, in the fabrication of bipolar transistors for example, diffusion techniques are employed to form the emitter and the base as well as to form the high concentration layer for the leading electrode. During high temperature treatment in the diffusion process, highly concentrated impurities doped into the base layer are likely to diffuse, which deviates the position of the pn junction from the position of the heterojunction.
In order to realize higher speed bipolar transistors, the base layer must be as thin as in the order of 10 nm. Therefore, it has been a problem to be solved how to form the high concentration layer to lead the base electrode.
As discussed above, the conventional HBT has a problem that highly concentrated impurities doped into the base layer are diffused in the high temperature treatment of the diffusion process when forming the high concentration layer for leading the base electrode, and therefore the position of the on junction deviates from the position of the heterojunction.

Heterojunction bipolar transistor with base electrode having Schottky barrier contact to the emitter


The present disclosure relates to a resistive exercise harness, a rack for use with the harness, and a cart for transporting one or more of the harness, the rack, or weights. The resistive exercise harness can be used to perform various functional movements/exercises and simulate loaded carries/movements relevant to certain occupations/sports/recreations. The resistive exercise harness can promote efficient biomechanics and decrease mechanical stresses on a user's knees and/or lower back relative to other resistive exercises such as a barbell squat. The rack can be assembled in a variety of indoor/outdoor environments for harness usage and disassembled for convenient storage and/or transportation. The cart can interface with the harness and disassembled rack for convenient storage and/or transportation in a variety of indoor/outdoor environments.

Certain exercise activities/movements and occupational/sport/recreational movements require one to overcome a resistive load, such as lifting, carrying, pushing or pulling an object. One may be at risk for discomfort and/or injury if mobility, strength and stability motor control are deficient, and biomechanics are inefficient while performing these activities or movements.
Existing similar exercise/strengthening devices/equipment are unable to provide the combination of comfortably increasing resistive loads, promoting efficient biomechanics to decrease mechanical stresses and/or incidence of injury on certain areas of the body (such as the knees and/or lower back), and diversity to perform various functional movements/exercises or simulate occupational/sport/recreational movements in a variety of environmental settings with easy portability. Other devices that have shoulder straps may create increased pressure against the front of the shoulder region under moderate to heavy loads causing discomfort and/or injury to muscle, nerves, and/or blood supply/circulation. Other resistive exercises, such as barbell squats, may potentially increase mechanical stresses and/or incidence of injury due to increased torque and/or axial loads on the spine and increased load/demand on structures of the knees and lower back.

Resistive exercise harness, rack and cart


An assembly for being dragged by a vessel, wherein the assembly includes a filtering system and a fluidum guiding system, wherein the filtering system is suitable for filtering large volumes of fluidum, and wherein the fluidum guiding system defines a channel configured such that at least in a channel portion the current velocity of the fluidum guided through that channel portion is reduced downstream, and wherein the fluidum guiding system and the filtering system are mutually arranged such that current velocity of fluidum filtered in the filtering system is reduced for decreasing drag.

The present invention relates to an assembly of a filtering system and a fluidum guiding system, wherein the filtering system is suitable for filtering large volumes of fluidum.
The present invention further relates to a vessel comprising an assembly according to the invention.
The present invention further relates to the use of an assembly according to the invention for collecting particles from sea in particular pollution, like plastic particles.
Such an assembly is known from WO9701680A1 which discloses a floating debris collection device comprising flotation members which define a channel into which water and floating debris can flow at a first end towards a second end, first and second closure means for the channel adjacent said first and second ends respectively, the first and second closure means each being adapted to restrict floating debris but not water in the channel from flowing out of the channel; the first closure means being movable between an open position in which water and floating debris can flow into the channel and a closed position in which floating debris but not water in the channel is substantially restricted from flowing out of the channel; and means sensitive to the direction of water flow with respect to the channel for moving the first closure means between said open and closed positions. However the assembly of WO9701680A1 is not particularly suitable for being dragged through the water.
It is also known, from e.g. GB 369,715 A, to use instruments for determining the nature and quantity of planktonic organisms present in sea water. These instrument typically consist of an open-ended cylinder which is configured to be dragged at relatively high speed. In addition these scientific instruments are intended to filter low volumes of sea water and the residu having quantities as required for research purposes.
Filter systems described in the prior art, such as in FR2061978A5, have a relatively high drag, as such filter systems have a configuration in which the velocity of the fluid is increased towards the filtering system such that current velocity of fluidum filtered in the filtering system is increased.

Sustainable filtering device for collecting floating debris


In a equipment for manufacturing polycrystal silicon by depositing it on filament cores electrically heated, by means of thermal decomposition of monosilane gas, a bridge for connecting said filament cores is constituted by tantalum, molybdenum, tungsten or zirconium. Preferably the sectional shape of the connection bridge may be of upturned triangle, tear droplet or rectangle.

As the technology in the semiconductor field develops there are demanded semiconductor single crystals which are manufactured according to the FZ process, particularly silicon single crystals, having larger diameter, and at present even such single crystals as having 6 inch diameter are manufactured. The diameter of polycrystal silicon to be a rod for obtaining single crystals of such a large diameter is not necessarily the same as that of a single crystal to be obtained because, for example, in the case of using a slender rod, it is possible to enlarge the diameter of the rod due to the technique with a stuffing operation. However, the smaller in diameter the more the longer rod is required, and a problem of charging the longer rod into the FZ machine arises, so that a blank having a diameter almost same as that of the single crystal intended to obtain is required.
As are disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 12358/78 and 23457/80, the polycrystal silicon to be a rod for manufacturing a silicon single crystal is obtained in such a way that for example, a monosilane gas is supplied onto electrically heated filament cores and then thermally decomposed for deposition thereon. If it is intended to obtain polycrystal silicon which is crushed for use, it is most general for a bridge for electrically connecting filament cores in the manufacturing equipments to use silicon materials described in said publication by using the carbon referred to in Publication No. 23457/80 even from the viewpoints of preventing the bridge from contamination by heterogeneous material and of subsequent processing.
In such a case of using silicon materials, polycrystal silicon deposits on the filament cores and the connection bridge to the same amount as the polycrystal silicon. However, as shown in FIG. 4 (II), as the deposition develops and the connection bridge portion thickens, the gas flow within the thermal decomposition furnace varies, the polycrystal silicon which deposits on the filament cores is deformed particularly in the neighbourhood of the joints of the connection bridge with the filament cores, when said joints become slender than other portions and at the same time the initial central axis is moved. A polycrystal silicon rod used in the FZ process needs to be of uniform diameter, so that when such a rod is used in the FZ process deposition must be continued until the slender portions increase their diameter to satisfaction, and then the outer diameter of the rod must be ground so as to obtain a predetermined diameter. Naturally, the larger the diameter, the more the grinding loss increases even in the same grinding ratio, and the more the diameter into a rod changes, the more the grinding loss increases.
Referring to the grinding of the outer diameter, it does not answer the purpose that the outer periphery of the rod becomes uniformly thick, but the rod is ground up to a predetermined diameter so that the resistivity of the intended single crystal may become a predetermined value. Such grinding is employed in any case of embedding or coating of impurities to the outer surface of a polycrystal rod, doping by gaseous impurities, and control between the resistivity of the filament cores and the resistivity to a finished product whose diameter has increased to as desired.
For these reasons it is specifically necessary for polycrystal silicon used in the FZ process that the crystals are of uniform diameter from their manufacturing state in order to realize shortening of growth time, reduction of material or electric charges, reduction of processing steps, reduction of grinding loss, and the like.
However, sufficient measures for solving such problems have not so far been taken.

Bridge for connecting cores in a manufacturing equipment of polycrystal silicon


An apparatus including a collapsible body, a base, and a cap. The body including a spring element coupled to the body to apply an extension force. The spring element having a helical geometry. The collapsible body has a high visibility characteristic. The base is coupled to a first end of the body and has a shape to secure the body and the spring element relative to the base and to receive the body in a collapsed state. The base includes a base coupling element to secure the body in the collapsed state. The cap is coupled to a second end of the body opposite the first end, the cap to, at least partially, close the second end of the body.

Markers are frequently implemented at the scene of an accident, construction, or other hazard which benefits from demarcation. Markers draw the attention of people in the vicinity whether they are passing through or persisting in the area for work, residence, diversion, or otherwise. Markers draw attention to potential hazards with color, reflection, size, signage, and the like.