Methods and systems for detecting sensor orientation characteristics using marker-based localization are disclosed herein. In one aspect, a robotic device can: receive a map of a horizontal marker plane that includes mapped positions of a first marker and a second marker arranged in the horizontal marker plane; receive, from a sensor configured to scan a two-dimensional sensor plane, sensor data indicative of positions of the first and second markers relative to the sensor; determine measured positions of the first and second markers based on the sensor data and a current position of the sensor; determine a difference vector between a first vector that connects the mapped positions of the first and second markers and a second vector that connects the measured positions of the first and second markers; and determine, based on the difference vector, an orientation of the two-dimensional sensor plane relative to the horizontal marker plane.

One or more robots and/or other actors, such as human actors, can move throughout a space, such as the interior of part or all of a building and/or its surrounding outdoor regions, to perform tasks and/or otherwise utilize the space together. One example of a building is a warehouse, which may be used for storage of goods by a variety of different types of commercial entities, including manufacturers, wholesalers, and transport businesses. Example stored goods may include raw materials, parts or components, packing materials, and finished products. In some cases, the warehouse may be equipped with loading docks to allow goods to be loaded onto and unloaded from delivery trucks or other types of vehicles. The warehouse may also use rows of pallet racks to allow for storage of pallets, flat transport structures that contain stacks of boxes or other objects. Additionally, the warehouse may use machines or vehicles for lifting and moving goods or pallets of goods, such as cranes and forklifts. Human operators may be employed in the warehouse to operate machines, vehicles, and other equipment. In some cases, one or more of the machines or vehicles may be robotic devices guided by computer control systems.
Mobile robotic devices can be used in a number of different environments to accomplish a variety of tasks. For example, mobile robotic devices can deliver items, such as parts or completed products, within indoor environments, such as warehouses, hospitals and/or data centers. When mobile robotic devices are deployed, they can localize themselves within an environment in order to navigate and accomplish tasks within the environment. This localization can be done using various localization sensors and techniques

Detecting sensor orientation characteristics using marker-based localization


The present disclosure relates to an electrode for eloxing a component, in particular a component of a vehicle brake system, comprising an electrolyte inlet for feeding an electrolyte into the electrode, an inlet channel, which connects the electrolyte inlet to an electrolyte outlet opening formed in the region of an outer surface of the electrode, an electrolyte inlet opening formed in the region of the outer surface of the electrode at a distance from the electrolyte outlet opening, an electrolyte flow path, which runs between the electrolyte outlet opening and the electrolyte inlet opening along the outer surface of the electrode and is designed to bring a surface portion of the component, which surface portion is to be eloxed, into fluid contact with the electrolyte flowing through the electrolyte flow path, an outlet channel, and an electrolyte outlet.

For reasons of weight many components of a vehicle braking system are manufactured from aluminum, whose mechanical abrasion resistance is often inadequate without additional treatment, especially when movable components are accommodated therein, for example displaceable pistons.
Anodizing, an electrolytic oxidation of aluminum, is a known method of surface finishing for producing an oxidic protective layer on aluminum by anodic oxidation. In contrast to the galvanic coating methods the protective layer is not deposited on the workpiece but rather an oxide is formed by conversion of the topmost metal layer. It affords a layer of, for example, 5 to 25 μm in thickness, which protects lower layers from corrosion and forms an extremely hard and scratch-resistant surface.
An electrical oxidation voltage is used to produce a homogeneous planar oxidation layer made of aluminum oxide [Al2O3] for example. This comprises generating a current Iox according to a defined current density A/dm2. A homogeneous, planar blocking layer (dielectric) having pronounced phyllotopographic nonuniformities is initially formed by electrochemical means. The field lines generated by the potential are concentrated at positions of low layer thicknesses and penetrate the blocking layer.
This commences permanent formation of an aluminum oxide layer from the atomic aluminum under the blocking layer [2Al+3H2O+6eAl2O3+6H]. Within the electrolyte the current is carried by the hydrogen ions [H+], wherein at the cathode the hydrogen ions [H+] are reduced to molecular hydrogen [2H++2eH2].
In contrast with a galvanic coating process the uppermost visible layer is always the "oldest" while the oxide/aluminum interface is always the "youngest".
The anodized layer thus develops from the outside inward. However, the growing oxide layer represents an ever greater resistance/an ever greater potential barrier for ion transport. In this connection, layer thickness is proportional to oxidation potential.
EP 3 088 115 A1 discloses a process, and an apparatus suitable for performance thereof, for producing a workpiece by electrochemical erosion of a starting material.
DE 10 2012 112 302 A1, DE 10 2006 034 277 A1, DE 103 41 998 A1 and WO 03/014424 A1 disclose processes and apparatuses for producing galvanic coatings.
DE 10 2008 027 094 A1 discloses a housing block for a vehicle braking system, wherein a chamber wall of a chamber of the housing block is, at least in regions, selectively surface treated.
WO 2006/041925 A1 discloses a valve for a braking system.
DE 10 2013 110 659 A1 and EP 2 857 560 B1 disclose processes for producing oxide layers on metals such as aluminum by oxygen plasma.
DE 20 2008 010 896 U1 discloses a material made of a metal or an alloy thereof having an oxide layer obtained by anodic oxidation with subsequent melt treatment.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,029,907 B2 discloses a process for producing resistant layers on metals by laser treatment.
DE 10 2004 047 423 B3 discloses nickel alloys applied without external current.
DE 103 27 365 B4 discloses an article having an anticorrosion layer produced by application of an anticorrosion solution as a layer on a metal surface and subsequent pre-drying, drying, curing and/or crosslinking of the obtained layer.
WO 2004/091906 A2 discloses the use of an article whose surface comprises a composite material.
DE 101 63 743 B4 discloses an article made of steel whose surface is covered by a coating containing a finely divided magnesium alloy comprising a phase of Mg17Al12 bound in a nonmetallic matrix. The nonmetallic matrix contains at least one binder based on a silicate and/or silane.


A method of fabricating a non-volatile memory is provided. A plurality of stack gate strips is formed on a substrate and a plurality of source/drain regions is formed in the substrate beside the stack gate strips. A plurality of dielectric strips is formed on the source/drain regions. A plurality of word lines is formed on the stack gate strips and the dielectric strips. Thereafter, the stack gate strips exposed by the word lines are removed to form a plurality of openings. A plurality of spacers is formed on the sidewalls of the openings and the word lines. A dielectric layer is formed over the substrate. A plurality of contacts is formed in the dielectric layer and the dielectric strips between two adjacent word lines.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a memory device and fabricating method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a non-volatile memory (ROM) and fabricating method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Non-volatile memory is a type of memory that permits multiple data writing, reading and erasing operations. Moreover, the stored data will be retained even after power to the device is removed. With these advantages, non-volatile memory has become one of the most widely adopted memory devices for personal computer and electronic equipment. Furthermore, non-volatile memory also has the advantages of occupying a small volume, having a fast access speed and consuming very little power. In addition, data can be erased in a block-by-block fashion so that the operating speed is further enhanced.
A typical non-volatile memory comprises an array of memory cells. The horizontally laid memory cells are serially connected through a word line and the vertically laid memory cells are serially connected through a bit line. In general, the strip-like source/drain regions buried within the substrate serve the bit lines. However, because the source/drain regions are buried within the substrate, contacts are required to connect the source/drain regions electrically with an external circuit. In the process of forming such contacts, problems resulting from a misalignment between the contacts and the source/drain regions must be avoided. Although the misalignment problem can be ameliorated through an increase in the width of the source/drain regions, this also increases the size of each device as well. Hence, from the point of view of device integration, this is no a solution.

Non-volatile memory and fabricating method thereof


A rear seat apparatus for a vehicle is disposed on a rear elevated portion of a stepped floor of the vehicle. At least a rear seat cushion of the rear seat apparatus is allowed to swing toward the front of the vehicle from a horizontal seating state, in which a passenger may sit on the rear seat cushion. The rear seat apparatus has a connection mechanism for connecting the rear seat cushion to the rear elevated portion of the floor. The connection mechanism allows the rear seat cushion to be moved by approximately 90 degrees toward the front of the vehicle and then slid downward so as to be brought into an upright state, in which a front portion of the rear seat cushion is held on a front lower-level portion of the floor. The connection mechanism also allows the rear seat cushion to be moved by approximately 180 degrees from the seating state toward the front of the vehicle so as to be brought into an overturned state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rear seat apparatus for a vehicle, and particularly to a rear seat apparatus for a vehicle disposed on the elevated rear portion of a stepped floor of the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional rear seat apparatus for a vehicle, which is disposed on the elevated rear portion of a vehicle floor, has a structure disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 3-189245.
As shown in FIG. 26, in the conventional rear seat apparatus for a vehicle, a rear seat 90 is composed of a seat cushion 91 and a seat back 92. The seat back 92 can swing toward the front of a vehicle (in the direction of arrow S1 in FIG. 26), pivoting on a first hinge 93. The seat cushion 91 is connected at a front bottom portion 91A thereof to a vehicle floor 96 by means of an L-shaped link arm 94, thereby allowing it to swing toward the front of the vehicle (in the direction of arrow S2 in FIG. 26).
In this rear seat apparatus, when the seat cushion 91 and the seat back 92 are swung forward to respective positions shown in FIG. 27, a rear surface 92A of the seat back 92 serves as an article supporting surface on which an article 98 is placed.
However, in this rear seat apparatus, as shown in FIG. 27, when the seat cushion 91 is in an upright state, a clearance 99 is formed between the seat back 92 and the seat cushion 91, making it difficult to provide a spacious luggage room with a flat floor.
Also, in this rear seat apparatus, when the vehicle receives an impact from its front end in the state in which the seat cushion 91 stands upright with the article 98 being placed on the rear surface 92A of the seat back 92 as shown in FIG. 27, the article 98 will move forward (in the direction of arrow Y in FIG. 27) and hit against the seat cushion 91. When the article is already in contact with the seat cushion 91 (as represented by a two dots-and-dash line in FIG. 27), an inertial force of the article 98 acts on the seat cushion 91. Accordingly, in order to reliably prevent the seat cushion 91 from moving forward due to a thrust of the article 98, it is necessary to sufficiently reinforce the link arm 94 supporting the seat cushion 91, a support portion for the link arm 94, a front seat 99, and the like, resulting in a significant increase in weight.


System and method embodiments are provided to optimize uplink multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) beamforming for uplink and compression for fronthaul links transmission in cloud radio access network (C-RANs). In an embodiment, cloud-computing based central processor (CP) obtains channel state information for a mobile device (MD) being served by a plurality of access points (APs) in a C-RAN, and generates a channel gain matrix in accordance with the channel state information. A weighted sum-rate maximization model is then established using the channel gain matrix in accordance with power constraints of transmission from the MD to the APs and capacity constraints of fronthaul links connecting the APs to the CP. The CP calculates a transmit beamforming vector for the MD and a quantization noise covariance matrix for the APs jointly by applying a weighted minimum-mean-square-error successive convex approximation algorithm, or separately by applying an approximation algorithm, to solve the weighted sum-rate maximization model.

To meet increasing demands of communications in wireless networks, for instance due to increase use of smartphones, tablets, and video streaming, advanced network architectures including heterogeneous radio access networks (RANs) are being developed. The heterogeneous RANs include various types of access points including macro-level access points such as base stations (BSs) as well as smaller coverage access points such as so-called small cells. In many architectures, inside the coverage area of macro-level access points are the nested smaller cells (e.g., Femto and Pico cells). This provides a wide network coverage area with an increased communication capacity to serve users where needed. One challenging issue to be addressed in heterogeneous networks is mitigating signal interference between access points within coverage areas. In the terminology of Long Term Evolution based networks, Access to as base stations that provide cellular coverage. Within cells, the signal interference caused by other access points is referred to as inter-cell interference. A cloud radio access network (C-RAN) is a RAN architecture that offloads at least some encoding/decoding functionalities of BSs to a cloud-computing based central processor (CP). The C-RAN architecture allows coordination and joint signal processing across multiple cells through corresponding links between the BSs and the CP, also referred to as fronthaul links. However, there is a need for efficient schemes that can take advantage of the C-RAN architecture to improve overall communications performance and mitigate the inter-cell interference between the cells.

Systems and methods for optimized beamforming and compression for uplink MIMO cloud radio access networks

The Governing Council of the University of Toronto


A thyristor valve test system based on cooperation of logic functions of software, wherein the test system comprises: a thyristor valve (5) to be tested, a VBE (3) and a tester (4), and the VBE (3) has a dedicated test mode, the tester (4) provides three steps for each test item. The thyristor valve (5) to be tested and the VBE (3) are connected by optical fibers (1), and the thyristor valve (5) to be tested and the tester (4) are connected by cables (2), and there is no connection between the VBE (3) and the tester (4).

The trigger system of Ultra-high-voltage DC transmission generally includes a control protection system (PCP), a valve-based electronic device (VBE) and a thyristor control unit (TCU), wherein the control protection system is responsible for generating a control pulse (CP) to send to the VBE, and the VBE is a bridge between the PCP and the TCU, which is responsible for converting the CP into an firing pulse (FP) under certain conditions and sending the FP to the TCU. The TCU is a device for monitoring, control, and protection at the converter valve tower. The monitoring function of TCU mainly includes: when the voltage of thyristor is greater than a certain threshold value, the TCU sends a indication pulse (IP) with a pulse width 1 to the VBE; when the thyristor level has a protective firing, the TCU sends a IP with a pulse width 2 to the VBE. The control function mainly refers to that when the TCU receives the FP, it sends a firing signal to the gate of thyristor to turn on the thyristor. The protection function mainly includes: when the thyristor level is in a reverse recovery period and suddenly applied with a forward voltage of amplitude 1, the TCU sends a firing signal to the gate of thyristor to turn on the thyristor; at any time when the thyristor level is applied with a voltage of amplitude 2, the TCU sends a trigger signal to the thyristor gate level to turn on the thyristor.
These monitoring, control and protection functions based on TCU have a significant impact on the operation of the converter valve. At the engineering site where the thyristor valve is applied, it is necessary to perform special functional tests on the thyristor valve before putting it into use, after annual inspection or equipment failure. The control and protection functions of the TCU can be verified by the electrical signals at the thyristor level. The monitoring function of the TCU needs to be verified by the optical signal it returns. When testing at the engineering site, the fiber laying and all the connections between TCUs and VBEs have been completed. Therefore, for the tests in the past, the fibers connected to the TCU and the VBE are generally pulled out, and then the TCU and the tester are connected with another fiber, as shown in FIG. 1, so that the optical signal can be directly transmitted between the TCU and the tester to meet the needs of the test. However, there is a big risk in such approach, that is, when testing each thyristor level, at least two fiber insertions and removals on the TCU are required. If the testing for thyristor levels is not successful, the optical fiber may be inserted and removed multiple times during the inspection process, and each insertion and removal of the optical fiber may cause contamination and wear on the optical interface of the optical fiber and the TCU, affecting the transmission of the optical signal. In the past, at engineering sites, there have been cases where after completing the functional test on the thyristor valve by the tester and recovering the original fiber, an optical path failure was found in subsequent tests. Since all the optical paths will be tested uniformly after the completion of the fiber laying in the early stage, it indicates that the optical path failure is caused by repeated insertion and removal during the test of the thyristor valve by the tester, and the workload of the optical path test is huge, and it is impossible to perform a retest, so the damaged fiber path will be left out into the subsequent test process, causing impact.

Thyristor valve test system based on cooperation of logical functions of software


A resist film of a positive type containing a photoacid generator is formed on a substrate. Then, pattern exposure is performed by selectively irradiating the resist film with exposure light. Thereafter, first heating is performed on the resist film subjected to the pattern exposure. After the heating, first development is performed on the resist film, thereby forming a first resist pattern. Subsequently, the first resist pattern is exposed to a solution containing a thermal acid generator and containing neither polymer nor a cross-linking agent. After the exposure, second heating is performed on the first resist pattern. Second development is then performed on the first resist pattern, thereby forming a second resist pattern made of the first resist pattern having a reduced size.

The present invention relates to pattern forming methods for use in, for example, processes for fabricating semiconductor devices
With increasing integration of semiconductor integrated circuits and downsizing of semiconductor elements, there has been a demand for acceleration of the development of lithography techniques. At present, pattern formation is performed by photolithography using mercury lamps, KrF excimer lasers, ArF excimer lasers, or the like, as sources of exposure light. In addition, resolution is increased by employing immersion lithography. Further, the use of extreme ultraviolet light having a shorter wavelength as exposure light is also studied.
In this manner, various techniques are studied for pattern miniaturization. Among these techniques, a technique for obtaining a finer pattern by trimming an already formed resist pattern through etching has been recently proposed.
A conventional pattern forming method for obtaining a fine pattern with a trimming technique through etching will be described with reference to FIGS. 9A-9D, 10A, and 10B.
First, a chemically amplified positive resist material having the following composition is prepared.
Base polymer: poly(2-methyl-2-adamanthyl methacrylate (50 mol %)—γ-butyrolactone methacrylate (40 mol %)—2-hydroxy adamantane methacrylate (10 mol %)) . . . 2 g
Photoacid generator: triphenylsulfonium trifluoromethanesulfonic acid . . . 0.05 g
Quencher: triethanolamine . . . 0.002 g
Solvent: propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate . . . 20 g
Next, as shown in FIG. 9A, the chemically amplified resist material is applied on a substrate 1, and then is heated at a temperature of 90° C. for 60 seconds, thereby forming a resist film 2 with a thickness of 120 nm.
Then, as shown in FIG. 9B, the resist film 2 is irradiated with exposure light which is ArF excimer laser light having a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.93 through a mask 3, thereby performing pattern exposure.
After the pattern exposure, as shown in FIG. 9C, the resist film 2 is heated with a hot plate at a temperature of 110° C. for 60 seconds.
Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 9D, the resist film 2 is developed with a 2.38 wt % tetramethylammonium hydroxide developer, thereby obtaining a first resist pattern 2a made of an unexposed portion of the resist film 2 and having a line width of 60 nm.
Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 10A, the first resist pattern 2a is ashed with an oxygen-based etching gas. Consequently, as shown in FIG. 10B, upper portions and side portions of the first resist pattern 2a are trimmed, thereby obtaining a second resist pattern 2b having a reduced (shrunk) line width of 50 nm.


A cutting insert includes a top surface, a bottom surface and a plurality of peripheral side surfaces. The top and bottom surfaces and the side surfaces are joined to form rounded cutting corners. A plurality of cutting edges are formed at an intersection between the top surface and the plurality of side surfaces. A pair of asymmetric chip formers are proximate opposite rounded cutting corners. A distance between the opposite rounded cutting corners and the asymmetric chip formers varies in such a way that a ratio of a chip thickness and the distance is substantially constant as a function of a depth of cut.

The invention relates in general to a cutting insert that may be detachably mounted on a tool holder for cutting a workpiece, and in particular to a cutting insert for performing an external or internal turning operation on a workpiece with an asymmetric chip former for superior chip control at depth of cuts lower than the rounded cutting corner of the cutting insert.
In a typical turning operation, the thickness of the chip varies along the cutting corner or nose radius of the cutting insert. At low depths of cut, chip control becomes even more challenging due to narrow and thin chips.

Cutting insert with asymmetric chip former


In one embodiment, an antivirus system logs in-transit e-mails in a computer network. Upon receipt of an updated pattern file for an antivirus scan engine, the log may be checked to determine if the computer network has been exposed to a computer virus identified in the updated pattern file. If so, antivirus actions, such as antivirus scanning of a client computer that has been infected by the virus, may be remotely initiated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer network security, and more particularly but not exclusively to antivirus systems.
2. Description of the Background Art
Computer viruses, worms, Trojans, and spyware are examples of malicious codes that have plagued computer systems throughout the world. Although there are technical differences between each type of malicious code, malicious codes are commonly collectively referred to as "viruses." For example, commercially available "antivirus software" is designed to scan a computer for viruses as well as worms and other malicious codes. Antivirus software typically includes a scan engine and a pattern file. The pattern file includes signatures of known viruses. To scan a file for viruses, the scan engine compares the contents of the file to signatures of viruses identified in the pattern file. The pattern file is periodically updated to include signatures of newly discovered viruses.
Computers belonging to a computer network may receive data from computers outside the network. While inter-network data transfers advantageously allow for rapid exchange of information, it also allows viruses to rapidly spread from one computer network to another. To minimize possible damage in the event of a virus outbreak, it is important for a network administrator to quickly assess the vulnerability of the computer network so that corrective or preventive actions may be performed in time. Currently, there is no effective means of automatically determining the vulnerability of a computer network.

Network security system with automatic vulnerability tracking and clean-up mechanisms


The present invention provides a communication device and a digital encoding method thereof. The communication device comprises a first and a second emitting devices respectively communicating at a first and a second communication channels. Each emitting device emits the same piece of data through continually emitting the same signal section for six times. The signal section is encoded in five bits. A receiving device alternately jumps between the first and second communication channels to receive signal sections emitted by the first and second emitting devices. The time of the receiving device at each communication channel comprises a phase lock time and a reception time of a whole signal section. The present invention has the advantages of having a very good quality of data transmission, reducing the cost, saving installation space, and facilitating the operation.

Along with continual development of the information industry and frequent usage of the Internet and personal computers, fast circulation of data arises, and the distances between different regions seem shortened. Generally, when a personal computer is used, it is necessary to take cable length into consideration because a cable is used to connect a data input device like a keyboard, a mouse, or a joystick with the computer. A user can only input data within a certain small range, resulting in low efficiency of mobility. Therefore, wireless keyboards, mice, or joysticks appear due to progress of wireless communication.
When both a conventional wireless mouse and a conventional wireless keyboard are used, two sets of receiving modules are disposed on a host computer to respectively receive individual data emitted by internal emitting modules of the mouse and the keyboard. In addition to having a high cost, this way of design requires a larger space for disposition. On the other hand, because the time division multiple access (TDMA) is utilized when a conventional emitting module transmits signals, a much higher transmission speed is required to achieve a good quality of reception, resulting in a higher power consumption.
Accordingly, the present invention aims to propose a communication device making use of frequency jumping to receive data of multiple emitting devices and an encoding way thereof for signal transmission.

Communication device and digital encoding method thereof


There is provided a melting furnace with an agitator. The melting furnace with an agitator includes a melting furnace that contains melt, and an agitator that agitates the melt by an electromagnetic force. The agitator includes a first electrode that is provided at an arbitrary position of the melting furnace so as to come in contact with the melt contained in the melting furnace, a second electrode that is provided near a bottom wall of the melting furnace so as to come in contact with the melt, a first magnetic field device that is provided outside the melting furnace so as to face the bottom wall of the melting furnace and makes a north pole face the bottom wall, and a second magnetic field device that is provided outside the melting furnace so as to face the bottom wall of the melting furnace and makes a south pole face the bottom wall. The first and second magnetic field devices are disposed with a gap in a certain direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a melting furnace with an agitator.
2. Background Art
In an automotive industry, an electric industry, and a building-products industry, aluminum has been widely used to make products in recent years. In each industry, strenuous efforts have been made to obtain an aluminum melt having uniform composition during the manufacture of products. In general, three main kinds of means have been used to achieve this object at present.
First means is electromagnet type stirrer. In this technique, commercial power is used as energy for generating a magnetic field that is required for moving an aluminum melt. In this technique, there are shortcomings in that a ratio where power is converted into heat during the generation of the magnetic field is large, high power consumption is required, and it is difficult to perform maintenance.
Second means is mechanical agitation. This is relatively inexpensive, but there is a shortcoming in that running cost is large.
Third means is vacuum pumping. This requires meticulous attention in operation, and is limited to small performance.


A vehicle system for detecting a jamming signal may include a receiver configured to receive a signal, the signal having signal properties. A controller may be in communication with the receiver configured to determine a jamming event probability based at least in part on the signal properties.

Vehicles are equipped with various types of communication devices that perform and facilitate various functions. In particular, radio frequency (RF) is commonly employed to communicate between devices. For example, a remote keyless entry (RKE) system, which allows one to remotely lock and unlock automobile doors, employs RF communication. When a button is pushed on the remote key or keyfob, the remote transmits a coded signal to a receiver unit in the vehicle. When a valid RF signal is transmitted to the receiver unit, the remote entry controller locks or unlocks the vehicle doors.
However, there remains the prospect that a foreign RF pulse will interfere with the intended system's RF transmission or reception. For example, an RF transmission of greater amplitude may block an RF transmission of lesser amplitude if they are similar distances from the vehicle receiver. Similarly, an RF transmission of lower amplitude may also block an RF transmission of greater amplitude if the stronger transmission is much farther from the vehicle than the lower power transmitter. Consequently, there are multiple scenarios for which commands sent by valid transmitters for a vehicle system may not be received by corresponding receivers. For instance, an RKE receiver will not receive the key fob RF transmission causing the doors to remain unlocked unbeknownst to the vehicle occupants. The result being valuables within the vehicles are left unprotected against potential thieves. Likewise, a foreign RF pulse may interfere with other vehicle systems, e.g., a tire sensor RF transmission to the tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) receiver, thus blocking TPMS messages. As such, there is a need to detect and report occurrences of RF jamming for, at least, the above reasons. These situations of RF jamming could be unintended or intended, but may have the same result regardless of the reason for the jamming.

RF jamming detection and mitigation system


Enables search and test for at least one value in layers of audience specific data comprising language, regional, regulatory and/or cultural specific values per layer. The word “audience” for the purposes of this specification means a group of document consumers such as people or computers that are associated with a language, country, region, regulation, culture or any other user defined division. A search utilizing at least one embodiment of the invention occurs with respect to data that makes use of rule-based inheritance. Testing multiple audience layers for all values that meet a specific fine or coarse grained search criteria allows quality assurance testing across all target audiences for a document before publication.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention described herein pertain to the field of computer systems. More particularly, but not by way of limitation, one or more embodiments of the invention enable a user to search hierarchically layered audience specific data comprising language, regional, regulatory and/or cultural specific divisions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known systems store data associated with multiple languages using techniques that are memory and labor intensive. These systems do not take advantage of values that are identical in across languages and do not allow for inheriting values and searching values within separate localizations. Internationalization efforts to date allow for language, country and locale variations, but do not allow for further subdivisions based on regional, regulatory, cultural variations or any user desired subdivision. When searching for a value using these systems, each independent data set must be searched in order to find a value existing in a particular localization.
Known systems do not allow for a subdivision of labor that allow certain workers to perform layered data entry and other workers to perform searching and testing for missing values or inherited values.
For at least the limitations described above there is a need for a system that quickly enables a user to search and test layers of audience specific data comprising language, regional, regulatory and/or cultural specific values per layer.


The present disclosure relates to cementitious fluids comprising additives configured to form a permeable cement matrix after curing of the cement. The cementitious fluids can comprise a cementitious medium (e.g., a cement slurry) with a plurality of fibers dispersed therein. The fibers can be hollow, can be porous, and can be degradable. The cementitious fluid particularly can be used in methods of stimulating hydrocarbon bearing formations. Specifically, the cementitious fluid can be injected into the formation to form or enlarge a fracture, and the fluid can be cured to form the permeable cement matrix, said permeability arising from a loosely assembled tubular network and/or passages remaining after degradation of the fibers.

Recent developments in fracturing technology have led to significant increases in the recovery of oil and gas deposits, such as natural gas deposits bound in tight shale formations. Hydraulic fracturing technologies are the primary means for well stimulation to increase the permeability of the reservoir and enhance recovery of oil and gas. During hydraulic fracturing, a fluid is pumped down into the wellbore at a pressure sufficient to cause fractures in the reservoir, and proppants suspended in the fracturing fluid are used to keep the fractures open and enable gas to subsequently flow into the wellbore. The fracturing fluid will often contain viscosifying or gelling agents to increase the viscosity so that proppants can be suspended in the fracturing fluid during the process.
Although in-place, unconventional resources are substantial, recovery efficiencies are commonly low in these reservoirs. Although improved technologies have increased recovery percentage, significant performance gains are still to be made. Additionally, the widespread proliferation of new gas wells and the use of modern drilling and extraction methods have been identified as a global conservation issue. The alternative to hydraulic fracturing is to drill more wells in an area, a solution that is often economically or geographically prohibitive. Several hurdles to significant technology advancements still remain.
In aqueous fracturing fluids, the proppants must be suspended using a combination of additives and turbulent flow. As flow naturally slows, the proppants have a tendency to settle, leading to reduced permeability and potential damage to surface equipment or long horizontal laterals. Conventional fracturing fluids are also not suitable for unconsolidated reservoirs because the formation material can re-consolidate around the proppants or the proppants can get embedded into the formation, leading to reduced permeability.
Long-term production also can suffer with known fracture methods. For example, as the well is produced, changes in pressure and fluids cause proppant shift, resulting in premature closure and rapidly declining production over the life of the well. Also, proppant debris generated during the fracturing process is mobilized over time, obstructing the pathway and resulting in loss of flow capacity for hydrocarbon. Relatedly, the gelling agents used to suspend the proppant ultimately block the pores and reduce the permeability of the reservoir.
Water use in known fracture methods also is a concern. A significant volume of water is required for fracture operations, and the balance is either lost to the formation as leak-off or returned as flowback water that must be treated. A growing number of challenges and limited options are associated with properly treating and disposing of hydrofracturing wastewater in light of strict regulations and high treatment costs
To address fracture efficiency, a host of fracturing fluid additives and proppants are under development and in practice. For slickwater fluids, known to be inherently poor proppant carriers, viscoelastic surfactant gel fluids are one of many gelling additives that have been considered. Principally, these fluids use surfactants in combination with inorganic salts to create ordered structures, which result in increased viscosity and elasticity. Engineered proppants are also increasing in utility, providing uniform, spherical packing and reducing the production of fines typically produced at high pressure and impact. Thus far, engineered proppants have been limited in utility because of their high cost relative to sand.
Non-aqueous fracturing fluids are gaining attraction for several reasons, including environmental and economic concerns surrounding flowback and produced water and potential for more efficient production through elimination of both aqueous phase trapping from capillary retention of the water, and residual gels and surfactant. Non-aqueous fluids include polymer/methanol-based, oil-based, and gas-based systems; each of these approaches has limitations, from the perspectives of cost, safety, and/or reliability. Oil- and alcohol-based fracturing fluids suffer from cost pressures and health and environmental safety concerns due to flammability and environmental impact. Pure and binary gas mixtures of CO2 and N2 have been employed to a limited extent to date. The main disadvantage of these fluids is safety (i.e., pumping a gas at high pressure), and proppant dispersion has been a challenge.
Improvements in additive and proppant technologies are also being employed to increase long-term production. Much emphasis has been placed on reducing polymer concentration and/or adding breakers to cleave the polymer chains after placement. Polymer residue tends to block the pore spaces between proppant particles and, due to fluid loss to the formation, polymer additives are left at higher concentrations, leaving a gelled mass. Encapsulated breakers and crosslinked fluids are being employed to improve performance without increasing concentration. Reducing proppant flowback after treatment is also under investigation. As greater fracture widths and higher proppant concentrations are becoming the norm, up to 20% or even 50% of proppant can be produced back resulting in premature closure or termination of production. Resin-coated proppant that can be cured after placement for flowback control has gained in popularity. Although less expensive than engineered ceramic proppants, the utility of resin-coated proppant has been limited because of concerns around hydrocarbon permeability through the resin and the higher cost as compared with uncoated sand. These limitations have led to the use of resin-coated proppants at just the end of each fracture stage. Fiber-laden fracturing slurries also have been used to improve fracture geometries and enhance production. Fibers and fiber bundles aid in proppant suspension and can be made degradable to reduce concerns over residue blocking pores.
A wide variety of processes, technologies, and management strategies are under development and in use to address the foregoing problems. One proposal for stimulating subterranean formations has been through use of a fracturing fluid comprising a permeable cement composition. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,044,224, which proposes the use of cements formulated with degradable polymer additives or dehydrated salts that dissolve over time as the salts hydrate. Removal of such additives is intended to form natural voids in the cement matrix; however, unless the proposed voids are interconnected, they do not contribute to enhanced production. Additionally, increases in void volume must be carefully balanced with mechanical strength, as too much porosity can cause collapse of the structural unit. Accordingly, there remains a need for further materials useful in fracture fluids.

Cementitious fracture fluid and methods of use thereof


Technologies are generally described for scaling a voltage regulator implemented as an integrated circuit (IC) that includes a power transistor configured to convert an input voltage to an output voltage, and a feedback loop configured to regulate the output voltage in response to a voltage change. At least one component of the voltage regulator may be selected for scaling, and a range of scaling factors may be identified for the component. An optimal coefficient may be determined for the scaling factors within the identified range through an empirical formulation and/or by running a circuit simulation based on parameters associated with voltage, load current, and load capacitance, for example. The optimal coefficient may be a coefficient that when applied to the component optimizes the performance of the IC and thus, the component may be scaled based on the optimal coefficient to achieve an optimized performance of the IC.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Current voltage regulators implemented as integrated circuits (ICs) may include components such as an error amplifier, a power device, and a feedback, for example, where the components may lack scalability. The purpose of the voltage regulator may be to maintain an output voltage at a particular value regardless of a fluctuation in current consumed by a load of the IC. The voltage regulator may maintain the output voltage by implementing a regulation loop to sense a difference of the output voltage from the particular value and adjust conductivity of the power device in order to compensate for the sensed difference. Current attempts to design such voltage regulators may face operational difficulties, such as lack of stability under a variety of operating conditions, and transient output voltage fluctuations in response to a sudden change in the current consumed by a load of the IC, preventing optimal IC performance.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Scaling voltage regulators to achieve optimized performance


An oscillating signal in an oscillator is caused to phase shift toward the phase of an input signal coupled to the oscillating signal. The resonant frequency of the oscillator is about equal to an integer multiple of the frequency of the input signal. The input signal may be generated in a pulse generator to have an input pulse duration less than or equal to that of the oscillating signal. The oscillator circuit may be used as a filter to filter pulse width variations or to filter jitter from a reference clock. The oscillator circuit may also serve as a buffer by amplifying the input signal. Phase interpolation can be obtained by coupling at least one input signal with at least one oscillating signal.

Communication circuits use clock multipliers to convert a lower frequency reference clock, rclk, to a higher frequency bit clock, bclk. For example, the preferred embodiment uses a clock multiplier to convert a 156 MHz reference clock to a 1.248 GHz bit clock, a multiplication factor of eight. As described in pending patent application Ser. No. 09/557,640, filed Apr. 25, 2000, prior art communication systems have employed phase-locked loops (PLLs) and delay-locked loops (DLLs) to perform clock multiplication. PLL clock multipliers suffer from increased jitter because they integrate phase error over many reference clock cycles, and DLL-based clock multipliers introduce jitter due to device mismatch. The above referenced application shows how a multiplying-DLL-based clock multiplier can be used to give low jitter by eliminating both of these effects.

Phase controlled oscillator circuit with input signal coupler


A computer-implementable method and system for performing a multi-level search. The method includes performing a primary search that involves executing a query submitted by a user, and returning primary search results (a list of documents, for example). The method further includes automatically performing a secondary search. The secondary search involves identifying at least one third-party source of information based on the query, and automatically assessing a semantic interpretation of the query. The secondary search utilizes the identified at least one third-party source of information and the semantic interpretation of the query to derive secondary search results, which are displayed along with the primary search results.

A typical search engine searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of documents where the keywords were found. Thus, such search engines are essentially limited in functionality to helping users locate documents of interest.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.


A thin direct-type backlight capable of realizing high brightness uniformity is provided by a specific configuration of the direct-type backlight whereby high light beam utilization ratio is maintained while periodical unevenness of the light emitting surface is suppressed. In a direct-type backlight device having a plurality of linear light sources in parallel, a reflection plate and a light diffusion plate, at least one of main surfaces of the light diffusion plate is provided with a prismatic ridges having a sawtooth-shaped cross-section. The apex angle “y” (degree) of the prismatic ridge of the light diffusion plate, the distance “a” (mm) between centers of the adjacent linear light sources, and the distance “b” (mm) from a center of the linear light sources to a surface of the light diffusion plate facing the light source satisfy the relationship of 80×(b/a)+15<y<180×(b/a)+70.

Conventionally, as a backlight device of a liquid crystal display, devices equipped with a cold cathode fluorescent lamp as a light source have been widely used. There are some types of such display devices which are called as an edge light type and a direct type. The edge light type device includes a thin tubes of the cold cathode fluorescent lamps arranged at a side edges of a light guide plate, and the light which has been input from the side edge repeatedly reflects in the light guide plate, and then emitted from a main surface of the light guide plate.
On the other hand, the direct type backlight device includes a combination of a plurality of the cold cathode fluorescent lamps arranged in parallel, a reflection plate provided behind the cold cathode fluorescent lamp, and a light diffusion plate serving as a light emitting surface. In contrast to the edge light type, the number of the cold cathode fluorescent lamps can be increased, and therefore, brightness on the light emitting surface can be easily increased.
However, the direct-type backlight device has a problem of poor brightness uniformity on the light emitting surface. Particularly, periodical unevenness in brightness caused by the high brightness at portions right above the cold cathode fluorescent lamps is a major problem. That is, if the brightness uniformity on the light emitting surface is poor, unevenness in display occurs on a display screen of a liquid crystal display.
In the direct-type backlight device, it is possible to improve the brightness uniformity by decreasing intervals between the cold cathode fluorescent lamps. However, such a solution results in an increased number of the cold cathode fluorescent lamps, leading to complicated manufacturing process and increased power consumption for lighting. Alternatively, it is possible to improve the brightness uniformity by increasing the distance between the cold cathode fluorescent lamps and the light diffusion plate. In that case, however, the backlight becomes thick, and a liquid crystal display cannot be made thin.
Conventionally, various measures to improve the brightness uniformity have been taken. For example, there have been proposed a method in which a light amount correction pattern consisting of a strip or a dot pattern is printed on the light diffusion plate to decrease light beam emitted right above the cold cathode fluorescent lamps (Patent Document 1, FIG. 6), and a method in which a wavy reflection plate is used to focus reflection light from the reflection plate in a region corresponding to midpoint between the cold cathode fluorescent lamps (Patent Document 2).
However, if the light amount correction pattern is printed as means for improving the brightness uniformity, a part of the light beam is blocked. Therefore, utilization ratio of the light beam emitted from the cold cathode fluorescent lamps decreases, leading to insufficient brightness. The application of the wavy reflection plate complicates the configuration of the device.
For producing the light diffusion plate used in the direct-type backlight device, a material containing a transparent resin and a light diffusing agent dispersed therein is often used. However, if concentration of the light diffusing agent is increased to improve the brightness uniformity, brightness is decreased. In order to solve this problem, there has been proposed a light diffusion plate having a pattern such as a prism form on the surface thereof for exerting diffusing effect by the surface pattern without decreasing the brightness (Patent Documents 3, 4, and 5). However, such a prismatic pattern on the surface of the light diffusion plate alone can not achieve sufficient improvement in the brightness uniformity.
List of the Prior Art Documents:    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H6-273760, FIG. 6    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-174813 A    Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H5-333333 A    Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H8-297202 APatent Document 5: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-182418 A


A mirror device for use inside a vehicle which includes a front seating area, a rear seating area, a sun visor within the front seating area, and a rear seat within the rear seating area. The rear seat has a top surface. The mirror device includes a mirror having a reflective front surface and a rear surface. The mirror device additionally includes an attachment system configured for attaching the mirror alternatively to the sun visor within the front seating area or generally near the rear seat top surface within the rear seating area.

The invention relates to attachment systems for mirrors for use in vehicles, particularly for observing infants and children.
The invention disclosed and claimed herein is related to the mirror and attachment system disclosed in Kane U.S. Pat. No. 6,857,753, titled "Panel Attachment System," the entire disclosure of which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference.

Blue Ridge International Products Company


[Problem] Provided is a technique for bonding chips efficiently onto a wafer to establish an electrical connection and raise mechanical strength between the chips and the wafer or between the chips that are chips laminated onto each other in the state that resin and other undesired residues do not remain on a bond interface therebetween.

In the electronic field, a higher packaging density has been desired for mounting electronic devices. Thus, attention has been paid to a technique of bonding already-packaged semiconductor integrated circuits (chips) onto a wafer (substrate) in a flip chip mounting manner. Chips have metal regions in a bump (projection) form or plate form. Electrical connection can be established through the metal regions between the chips and a wafer; or, in the case of laminating the chips three-dimensionally, between the laminated chips. In order to raise the mechanical strength of anyone of the chips, the chip may have a moiety to be bonded to the wafer or to different one of the chips. The moiety may be formed as one or more metal regions. By use of the metal region(s) to establish electrical connection and raise mechanical strength between the chips and the wafer or between the laminated chips, the transfer and reception of electrical signals can be made speedy between the chips and the wafer or between the laminated chips, and the packaging density in electronic-device-mounting can be made high.
For chip-bonding in the flip chip mounting manner, a method has been developed which makes use of non conductive resin (or non conductive paste, NCP). Chips are pushed into a layer of the NCP painted onto a surface of a substrate onto which the chips are to be bonded, so that metal regions of the chips are brought into contact with metal regions or other predetermined moieties of the upper of the substrate to pre-bond the chips to the substrate. Thereafter, the resultant structure is subjected to a predetermined heat treatment to attain main bonding. Thus, electrical connection is established and mechanical strength is raised between the chips and the wafer (substrate). The NCP is a material adopted generally, following the adoption of a lead-free technique for chip-on-wafer bonding. The NCP has a function of bonding or pre-fixing chips onto a substrate, and further the NCP is filled into a gap between the bonded chips and the wafer to raise mechanical strength between the chips and the wafer. Thus, the NCP is used as an under fill material for protecting the bond surface therebetween from the environment.
As a flip chip mounting manner using no NCP, a manner has been formed in which chips having bumps the respective tips of which are made of soldering material are bonded onto predetermined moieties of a substrate. In general, at the time of solder bonding, a flux is used to improve the solder in wettability. Thus, after the completion of the bonding, a process of removing residues of the flux is performed. However, the removal of the flux tends to be increased in difficulty with an increase in the packaging density in chip-mounting and a rise in the minuteness of microstructures of the bond surface.

Chip-on-wafer bonding method and bonding device, and structure comprising chip and wafer

Abstract: [Solution] A method for bonding plural chips each having a chip-side-bond-surface having metal regions to a substrate having plural bond portions has the step (S1) of subjecting the metal regions of the chip-side-bond-surface to surface activating treatment and hydrophilizing treatment; the step (S2) of subjecting the bond portions of the substrate to surface activating treatment and hydrophilizing treatment; the step (S3) of fitting the chips subjected to the surface activating treatment and the hydrophilizing treatment onto the corresponding bond portions of the substrate subjected to the surface activating treatment and the hydrophilizing treatment to bring the metal regions of the chips into contact with the bond portions of the substrate; and the step (S4) of heating the resultant structure, which includes the substrate, and the chips fitted onto the substrate.


A method for performing an adaptive modulation and coding scheme in a mobile communication system. Including receiving a signal and selecting a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) level from an MCS subset of an MCS set considering information derived from the signal, by a mobile station. The MCS subset is selected in accordance with a service type related to the mobile station and the MCS subset is configured with one or more MCS levels, the MCS set is represented by 5 bits and the MCS subset is represented by 4 bits to indicate MCS value, respectively, and the 4 bits of the MCS subset is a part of the 5 bits of the MCS set.

Unlike a voice communication based service type, a high-speed multimedia data communication service is characterized in that data packets are not constantly arrived from a receiver but intermittently transmitted. Therefore, there may be a case where a lot of packets are suddenly arrived from the receiver. In order to provide a packet service to a plurality of users, resources such as time, symbol and power should commonly be used among the users.
Since a channel condition between a packet and its subsequent packet is varied, it is difficult to equally apply the existing power control to such a variable channel condition. Also, since the high-speed multimedia data communication service allows data, which are relatively more than those of the existing voice, communication service type, to be transmitted and received during a transmission and reception interval, an advanced modulation scheme, various diversity schemes and error correction coding schemes are used. Among them, the existing link adaptation scheme for coping with channel condition variation between data packets will be described.
If channels of uplink/downlink are divided into a frequency domain, the channels are different from each other. Accordingly, a general link adaptation scheme is to apply a transmission and reception scheme most suitable for channel information by exchanging the channel information between a transmitter and a receiver. Representative examples of the existing link adaptation scheme include an adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) scheme and a power control scheme.
The power control scheme is to maintain transmission quality by controlling the power in accordance with a radio link, thereby ensuring quality of a link under a fixed transmission rate status such as the voice communication service. On the other hand, since a multimedia data service requires various transmission rates, various transmission qualities, and so on depending on service type, a link adaptation scheme which is different from that used in the existing voice based service is required. Since the AMC scheme is the link adaptation scheme efficient for multimedia data transmission, the AMC scheme is to vary a transmission rate (not transmission power) to be suitable for a channel environment. In case of the power control, the transmission power is varied depending on channel to obtain a fixed signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR) or signal-to-Interference ratio (SIR).
On the other hand, since AMC scheme determines a proper transmission rate depending on channel characteristics, the transmission power is basically fixed. The transmission rate is determined by MCS level, which relates to previously defined modulation and channel coding combination. The MCS level is determined depending on receiving SNR. The MCS level which satisfies a target frame error rate and has the highest efficiency is selected depending on the SNR. In order to support the AMC, a mobile station should know information of receiving SNR and forward channel quality information to a base station.
For example, a high speed downlink packet access (hereinafter, referred to as "HSDPA") which is a wideband code division multiple access (WCDNA) wireless packet service uses a high speed dedicated physical control channel (hereinafter, referred to as "HS-DPCCH"), so that each user equipment can select a base station having the most excellent channel status to feed back modulation and coding information suitable for the corresponding channel, wherein the AMC scheme is applied to the WCMA wireless packet service. A channel quality information (hereinafter, referred to as "CQI") bit is allocated to the HS-DPCCH. The CQI bit is information fed back from a receiver to indicate the channel status. The CQI bit may represent the MCS level or may simply represent an appropriate SNR. Accordingly, the number of MCS levels, which is used by the transmitter and the receiver, may be varied depending on the information quantity of the CQI bit.
For example, in case of using MCS set as illustrated in Table 1 below, minimum 5 bits or greater are required for MCS set of all cases. In this case, the MCS set have a total of 32 MCS levels, and each combination of modulation and coding schemes from 0 to 31 is expressed by a decimal number, and is referred to as MCS index or CQI index.
For example, If CQI bit, which is fed back, is 01000, it represents MCS level having MCS index of 8 among the MCS set having a total of 32 MCS levels. This means that the base station transmits data to a mobile station by selecting a coding rate of 7/8 and a QPSK modulation scheme depending on the above feedback information. In other words, the system selects MCS level suitable for the channel status among the previously set MCS set, by using either channel information fed back from the receiver, or MCS index information (for example, CQI).
TABLE 1(CQI index)Coding RateModulation 0 (00000)1/5QPSK 1 (00001)1/4QPSK 2 (00010)1/3QPSK 3 (00011)1/2QPSK 4 (00100)3/5QPSK 5 (00101)2/3QPSK 6 (00110)3/4QPSK 7 (00111)4/5QPSK 8 (01000)7/8QPSK 9 (01001)1/216-QAM10 (01010)3/516-QAM11 (01011)2/316-QAM12 (01100)3/416-QAM13 (01101)4/516-QAM14 (01110)5/616-QAM15 (01111)7/816-QAM16 (10000)8/916-QAM17 (10001) 9/1016-QAM18 (10010)10/1116-QAM19 (10011)11/1216-QAM20 (10100)1/264-QAM21 (10101)3/564-QAM22 (10110)2/364-QAM23 (10111)3/464-QAM24 (11000)4/564-QAM25 (11001)5/664-QAM26 (11010)7/864-QAM27 (11011)8/964-QAM28 (11100) 9/1064-QAM29 (11101)10/1164-QAM30 (11110)11/1264-QAM31 (11111)164-QAM
Generally, CQI information for sharing channel information between the base station and the mobile station is mainly used for a frequency division duplexing (hereinafter, referred to as "FDD") system which has different channels between an uplink and a downlink. The CQI which is fed back is used for determination of the MCS level and scheduling of the base station. The channel information or the MCS level index information may be fed back at a constant time period, or may be fed back when there is a request of the mobile station. The channel information or the MCS index information is transmitted using an error correction code (hereinafter, referred to as "ECC") to enhance reliability. The transmitter notifies the receiver of the selected MCS level through the downlink by considering feedback of the receiver.
An orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (hereinafter, referred to as "OFDM") system can have different channels depending on a frequency band, and can apply different MCSs depending on the frequency band. Therefore, the OFDM system uses a link adaptation scheme by feeding back channel information at a constant frequency band unit.
Also, since a system which uses a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) scheme can apply different MCS levels to each signal which is spatially transmitted, the system may feed back channel information spatially. The existing AMC scheme uses adaptive MCS level depending on the channel status. Namely, the existing AMC scheme uses the adaptive MCS level by fixing one MCS set between the system and the mobile station. Accordingly, channel information of the same quantity is always fed back, and the transmitter notifies the selected MCS level through the downlink.
Therefore, in case that a channel is slowly varied due to slow moving speed of the mobile station and the MCS level which sufficiently considers the channel status through the AMC can be used, MCS set having small MCS granularity can use a proper MCS level per receiving SNR, and higher system performance can be obtained. Also, a closed-loop multiple antenna scheme such as beam-forming and precoding, which is suitable for the higher system performance, can be used.
However, in case that a channel is fast varied due to fast moving speed of the mobile station, or in an open-loop system such as diversity scheme which does not require feedback information except for CQI information, since it is likely that channel information measured during reception is greatly varied, if MCS granularity is small, the system may fail to transmit data at a required transmission rate within a fast time. In this respect, the MCS granularity should be greater than 1 dB interval.
Furthermore, the high speed wireless data service requires fast data processing in view of its characteristics as described above. For example, in high speed data packet access (HSDPA) of the WCDMA, a part which manages and controls the AMC and hybrid automatic repeat request (hereinafter, referred to as "HARQ") should be located close to a wireless interface, thereby efficiently operating the AMC and the HARQ. In the existing voice based communication, since a part which is in charge of scheduling of data is located in a radio network controller (RNC), latency in processing time occurs.
For this reason, methods for properly coping with variation of the channel environment and enhancing efficiency are required. Also, in order to reduce complexity of the system due to high speed data, it is necessary to reduce feedback overhead of the mobile station. This is likewise applied to multicast traffic.

Method for performing an adaptive modulation and coding scheme in mobile communication system


A method of pumping an oilfield fluid from a well surface to a wellbore is provided that includes providing a clean stream; operating one or more clean pumps to pump the clean stream from the well surface to the wellbore; providing a dirty stream including a solid material disposed in a fluid carrier; and operating one or more dirty pumps to pump the dirty stream from the well surface to the wellbore, wherein the clean stream and the dirty stream together form said oilfield fluid.

In special oilfield applications, pump assemblies are used to pump a fluid from the surface of the well to a wellbore at extremely high pressures. Such applications include hydraulic fracturing, cementing, and pumping through coiled tubing, among other applications. In the example of a hydraulic fracturing operation, a multi-pump assembly is often employed to direct an abrasive containing fluid, or fracturing fluid, through a wellbore and into targeted regions of the wellbore to create side "fractures" in the wellbore. To create such fractures, the fracturing fluid is pumped at extremely high pressures, sometimes in the range of 10,000 to 15,000 psi or more. In addition, the fracturing fluid contains an abrasive proppant which both facilitates an initial creation of the fracture and serves to keep the fracture "propped" open after the creation of the fracture. These fractures provide additional pathways for underground oil and gas deposits to flow from underground formations to the surface of the well. These additional pathways serve to enhance the production of the well.
Plunger pumps are typically employed for high pressure oilfield pumping applications, such as hydraulic fracturing operations. Such plunger pumps are sometimes also referred to as positive displacement pumps, intermittent duty pumps, triplex pumps or quintuplex pumps. Plunger pumps typically include one or more plungers driven by a crankshaft toward and away from a chamber in a pressure housing (typically referred to as a "fluid end") in order to create pressure oscillations of high and low pressures in the chamber. These pressure oscillations allow the pump to receive a fluid at a low pressure and discharge it at a high pressure via one way valves (also called check valves).
Multiple plunger pumps are often employed simultaneously in large scale hydraulic fracturing operations. These pumps may be linked to one another through a common manifold, which mechanically collects and distributes the combined output of the individual pumps. For example, hydraulic fracturing operations often proceed in this manner with perhaps as many as twenty plunger pumps or more coupled together through a common manifold. A centralized computer system may be employed to direct the entire system for the duration of the operation.
However, the abrasive nature of fracturing fluids is not only effective in breaking up underground rock formations to create fractures therein, it also tends to wear out the internal components of the plunger pumps that are used to pump it. Thus, when plunger pumps are used to pump fracturing fluids, the repair, replacement and/or maintenance expenses for the internal components of the pumps are extremely high, and the overall life expectancy of the pumps is low.
For example, when a plunger pump is used to pump a fracturing fluid, the pump fluid end, valves, valve seats, packings, and plungers require frequent maintenance and/or replacement. Such a replacement of the fluid end is extremely expensive, not only because the fluid end itself is expensive, but also due to the difficulty and timeliness required to perform the replacement. Valves, on the other hand are relatively inexpensive and relatively easy to replace, but require such frequent replacements that they comprise a large percentage of plunger pump maintenance expenses. In addition, when a valve fails, the valve seat is often damaged as well, and seats are much more difficult to replace than valves due to the very large forces required to pull them out of the fluid end. Accordingly, a need exists for an improved system and method of pumping fluids from a well surface to a wellbore.


A power semiconductor device that includes a plurality of gate structure each having a gate insulation of a first thickness, and a termination region, the termination including a field insulation body surrounding the active region and having a recess that includes a bottom insulation thicker than the first thickness.

The present invention relates to power semiconductor devices and a method of fabricating a power semiconductor device.
MOSgated devices, such as power MOSFETs and IGBTs are very well known, and have a gate electrode, usually made of conductive polysilicon, which must be electrically insulated from the source electrode (or emitter electrode) and yet must be electrically connected to an external metallic gate conductor or gate pad, usually of aluminum. In a self aligned contact power MOSFET, contact to the source is made in the active area, using spacer technology. However, the gate metal-to-gate polysilicon contact at the gate pad has required the use of a separate photo mask step.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,893,923, assigned to the assignee of the present application, discloses a power MOSFET (FIG. 1) which includes a recess formed in the field oxide in the termination region thereof. The recess is formed during the active mask step in which the field oxide layer is etched to define the active area and the bottom thereof is oxidized during the gate oxidation step. Thus, the oxide in the bottom of the recess is the same thickness as the gate oxide in the device.
The present invention provides certain improvements over the process and the device disclosed in the prior art.


A plurality of write data is received and combined to obtain backup write data. The plurality of write data is stored in storage. On a storage controller, the plurality of write data is released without waiting for a confirmation associated with writing the plurality of write data to the storage. The backup write data is stored.

When a storage controller issues a write instruction (also referred to as a program instruction) to solid state storage (e.g., NAND Flash), the solid state storage is sometimes unable to successfully commit the write data. This is referred to as a failure to program or a program failure. Although a straightforward solution is for the storage controller to save write data until that write data has been successfully committed to solid state storage, this is an unattractive solution because of the amount of storage required. For example, although it only takes on the order of hundreds of microseconds for the storage controller to send the write instruction to the solid state storage, it actually takes on the order of milliseconds for the solid state storage to perform the write (successfully or not). Meanwhile, a host may be transferring 500 Mbs of write data to the storage controller. The bottleneck is therefore at the solid state storage. Storing all of the write data would require the storage controller to save large amounts of information. When solid state storage systems (e.g., which include the storage controller and solid state storage) are used in low cost systems, the higher cost associated with larger amounts of DRAM or SRAM to store write data is unattractive. New techniques to recover from program failure which require less storage would be desirable.

Recovering from a program failure by combining write data


A propulsion rudder for use with a water vessel, preferably an unmanned surface water vessel. The propulsion rudder includes a rotating base, a rudder assembly, and a thrust assembly. In one embodiment, the rudder assembly may comprise two vertical mast rudders connected by an upper horizontal wing, with the thrust assembly mounted on the horizontal wing. In a second embodiment, the rudder assembly may comprise an annular airfoil with the thrust assembly mounted on a mast and positioned in the center of the annular airfoil. The thrust assembly may be a propeller, a turbine, a ramjet, or a rocket.

The present invention is directed to a propulsion rudder for a water-based drone. Specifically, the inventive propulsion rudder has an integrated power/control module that provides for effective horizontal steering in any direction.
It is the purpose of the invention to create an integrated power/control module system that can more effectively guide water surface vessels, preferably unmanned drones. The inventive system also aides in maintaining vessel stability, position, an orientation when said vessel is not under propulsion. Current unmanned water drones rely on less efficient thrust and steering designs.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved thrust design for a water-based vessel that produces sufficient thrust and provides adequate steering control. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides other related advantages.


Using a transmittance adjusting device decreasing a transmittance of at least from 460 nm to 500 nm, which is a wavelength range between a point of end of a first optical absorption peak of hemoglobin and a point of start of a second optical absorption peak of hemoglobin, to between 20% and 70% for illuminating light from an illuminating light supply section or reflected light from an object, during observation of the inside of a body cavity, enhanced display of vessels with color reproduction that has no difference from that in observation under visible light, enabling color reproduction similar to that in observation under visible light and further enhanced display of vessels.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transmittance adjusting device, an observation apparatus and an observation system, which adjust light with specific wavelengths to enhance contrast for observation of an object in the inside of a body.
2. Description of the Related Art
Endoscope apparatuses enabling, e.g., inspection of the inside of an organ, identification or treatment of an affected site by means of insertion into a body cavity of a patient without dissection have widely been used.
For such endoscope apparatuses, while ones that display a color observation image of the inside of a subject on a monitor using white color illuminating light close to natural light for normal observation have generally been used, in recent years, endoscope systems enabling narrow band imaging (NBI) in which light with two specific wavelengths is irradiated have been disclosed for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-289278, the endoscope systems enabling observation with improved contrast of, e.g., blood vessels near the superficial portion of the mucous membrane of the inner wall of a body cavity to easily determine an affected region.
In contrast to the endoscope system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-289278, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-93343 discloses a technique in which an endoscope apparatus is provided with a red-color component cut filter that eliminates components with wavelengths causing deterioration of contrast of, e.g., the mucous membrane and blood vessels in the inside of a body cavity (long wavelengths) to ensure minimization of red-color components in a color image, enabling enhanced display of contrast between the mucous membrane and the blood vessels, and the other tissues.
Furthermore, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-102684 discloses a technique in which an electronic endoscope apparatus is provided with a wavelength calibration filter that cuts off light with wavelengths of red-color components as long as such cutoff does not impair the color image, suppressing occurrence of halation, because mucous membranes in a living body largely reflect such light with red-color components.

Transmittance adjusting device, observation apparatus and observation system


A golf putter grip pattern is disclosed. The golf putter grip has a top end, a bottom end, a substantially flat front portion, a substantially curved rear portion, a first side, and a second side. The first and second sides are in between the front portion and the rear portion. The present invention may further include a pattern disposed on the golf putter grip that aids the golfer in perfecting the golf putter swing.

The present invention relates to golf putting and, more particularly, to a golf putter grip pattern.
The correct putting stroke is poorly understood and difficult to execute consistently. Current grip patterns do not provide any landmarks for the X, Y and Z planes of the three dimensional space where the putter operates. For example, the current grips do not provide alignment aids for the loft plane and the swing plane of the putter.
Even small differences in position of a finger or a fingertip can have dramatic consequences on a resulting putt. There are specific requirements on which motor components of the human musculoskeletal system control the loft plane and control the swing plane of the putter during the backswing and through-swing. Failing to provide landmarks for the parts of the hand on the grip that control these planes is a serious deficiency in the patterns that currently exist.
As can be seen, there is a need for an improved golf putter pattern that aids in the putter swing.


A latch mechanism for a cabinet having a drawer slideably disposed therein and moveable between opened and closed positions. The drawer has an elongated drawer pull having an elongated latch member that is slideably disposed under the drawer pull for longitudinal sliding between latching and unlatching positions. A latch is integrally disposed on one end of the latch member and has a latch surface. A protrusion having a protrusion surface is coupled to the cabinet and disposed in a position to be in abutting relationship with the latch when the drawer is in the closed position and the latch member is in the latching position and being in non-abutting relationship when the latch member is in the unlatching position. A spring is integrally provided on the latch member and is connectable to the drawer for biasing the latch member to the latching position.

The following disclosure relates to devices having multiple drawers, and has particular application to apparatus and methods for preventing at least one drawer from accidentally opening in a multi-drawer device, such as a cabinet or the like.
Cabinets and other multi-drawer devices are constructed so that each drawer either automatically latches when closed, requires positive operation of an actuator to be latched, or has no latch at all. Drawers in filing cabinets are usually of the former character, while drawers in rolling cabinets must be positively actuated to latch them closed. The present application deals with a latch mechanism that is placed in its latched position automatically when the drawer is closed. It should be understood that latch mechanisms are separate from key-operated locks that may be included in cabinets. This application deals with the former, not locks.
In some latch mechanisms, the actuator is pivoted or rotated between its latched and unlatched conditions. When the cabinet is of the rolling type, that is, it may be moved from place to place on its rollers, such latch mechanisms can tend to inadvertently open, particularly if the floor is uneven. Known mechanisms incorporating a sliding structure have an actuator which is grasped by the user at a particular point to open it. Certain known drawer latch mechanisms require the use of two hands, one to unlatch the mechanism and the other to grasp the drawer pull and open the drawer. Such mechanisms are unsightly because their actuators are visible.
Other sliding latch mechanisms for a cabinet drawer are known to comprise a drawer latch mechanism which is less likely to open inadvertently when the cabinet in which it is used is rolled from one place to another, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,902. The user can grasp the latch mechanism at any point along its extent to open the drawer. The drawer latch mechanism is substantially concealed by the drawer pull. That mechanism can be unlatched and the drawer opened with one hand.
Various types of multi-drawer devices are provided with mechanisms to prevent at least one drawer from accidentally opening. However, many prior designs utilize multiple complex components and are not easily retrofitted to older multi-drawer devices without redesign of the multi-drawer devices. Examples of certain prior latching devices are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,388,902 and 5,403,139.
While some of these designs may be adequate for some uses, they tend to require the complete redesign of multi-drawer devices in order to incorporate the latching feature and are difficult to retrofit in existing multi-drawer devices.


The trailing edge region of a nozzle airfoil is provided with a cooling configuration wherein post-impingement cooling air flows between radially spaced ribs defining convective cooling channels into a generally radially extending plenum. Cooling air in the plenum is split between film cooling holes for film cooling the pressure side of the trailing edge region and for flow about downstream pins for pin cooling the downstream regions of the opposite sides of the airfoil. The cooling air exiting the pins is directed through convective channels defined by a second set of radially spaced ribs and through exit apertures on the pressure side of the trailing edge.

The present invention relates to a trailing edge air cooling configuration for a turbine nozzle, and particularly relates to a hybrid convective channel and pin cooling configuration for the trailing edge portion of a gas turbine nozzle vane.
Gas turbine nozzle cooling is typically achieved by locating impingement inserts within the airfoil cavities, e.g., two or more cavities of the first stage nozzle of a gas turbine. The pressure and suction sides of the vane are thus impingement cooled. The post-impingement cooling air is then either discharged through film holes along the airfoil surface to provide an insulating barrier of cooler air between the hot gas stream and the airfoil or sent to an additional circuit to convectively cool the airfoil trailing edge. The additional trailing edge circuit is required due to geometric limitations of the vane, i.e., there is insufficient space within the airfoil cavity to extend the aft impingement insert to the trailing edge. Furthermore, three-dimensional advanced airfoil nozzle vanes have a high degree of bowing and twist. This lengthens the trailing edge region where impingement cooling using inserts is not mechanically practical.
Various trailing edge air cooling circuits have been proposed and utilized in the past. Certain circuits use pins extending between the opposite sides of the airfoil for receiving the post-impingement cooling flow for cooling the trailing edge portion. Pin cooling, however, is associated with a substantial pressure drop and is practical over very short distances. Turbulative convective channel designs have also been employed, resulting in a lower pressure drop. However, those designs often achieve insufficient cooling efficiency to meet cooling performance requirements for the nozzle vane. There are also examples of pin cooling and convective channel cooling circuits coexisting in the same design. However, there has developed a need for even further cooling efficiencies, particularly for nozzle vanes having a high degree of bowing and twist in enhanced three-dimensional aerodynamic designs which will meet the cooling requirements for these advanced aerodynamic designs.

Turbine nozzle trailing edge cooling configuration


An apparatus and method for directly determining the crystalline structure of a protein crystal. The crystal is irradiated by a finely collimated x-ray beam. The interaction of the x-ray beam with the crystal produces scattered x-rays. These scattered x-rays are detected by means of a large area, thick CCD which is capable of measuring a significant number of scattered x-rays which impact its surface. The CCD is capable of detecting the position of impact of the scattered x-ray on the surface of the CCD and the quantity of scattered x-rays which impact the same cell or pixel. This data is then processed in real-time and the processed data is outputted to produce a image of the structure of the crystal. If this crystal is a protein the molecular structure of the protein can be determined from the data received.

This invention relates to the use of a charged coupled device (CCD) for the direct detection of scattered x-rays used in the determination of the structure of a protein crystal.
Currently, the scattered x-rays used to determine the structure of a crystalline material are detected using film or in the alternative a scintillating or phosphorescent material which when illuminated by a scattered x-ray gives off a visible light. In the latter case the phosphor is coupled with a device which is capable of detecting the light given off by the phosphor and converting it into electronic data which is used to determine the position and intensity of the scattered x-rays. Often a CCD is used in conjunction with the phosphor to determine the position and frequency of the x-rays which are scattered off of a crystallized version of a molecule. With a CCD a single photon can generate a measurable electrical charge. The CCD employs a two dimensional array of cells or pixels, each of which acts as an independent x-ray detector, thus, allowing many scattered x-rays to be stored in the cells of the CCD and then read and recorded.
Generally, CCD-based imaging devices compromise sensitivity and resolution due to smearing and spatial distortion of the image caused by the presence of the scintillating or phosphorescent material between the crystal and the CCD. This is due to the alteration of the path of the x-rays upon interacting with the scintillating or phosphor material. Since, after the x-ray interacts with the light emitting material, the photons emitted do not necessarily follow the exact path of the initial x-ray. This results in a decrease in the resolution or a smearing of the measured point of impact on the CCD of two successive x-rays traveling along the same or close to the same path.
As related above, the prior art CCD-based imagery employs an intermediate light generating transducer, such as a phosphor, to transform the incident x-rays to a light source. The photons from the light source are converted by the CCD to electrical signals. The conversion step of using the phosphor was instituted with the x-rays since the majority of x-rays striking a typical CCD would pass through the CCD without detection. This results from the CCD being too thin.
An alternate method of detection was proposed by Antonuk et al. as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,649, in which, the use of a CCD is avoided in lieu of a thin film amorphous silicon device. Antonuk's patent teaches a thin-film, flat panel, pixelated detector array which serves as a real-time digital image and dosimeter for x-rays or gamma rays. The detector is a plurality of photodiodes made of hydrogenated amorphous silicon arrayed in columns and rows on a glass substrate. Each photodiode is connected to a thin film field effect transistor also located on the glass substrate; the combination of which forms one pixel. For megavoltage beams, a photon to electron conversion layer is located directly above and in contact with a phosphor or scintillating layer. Since each sensor is adjacent to and connected to its corresponding field effect transistor, the area available for detection in reference to the total area of the detector is drastically reduced.
Applicants in their invention provide for the direct detection of the scattered x-rays without an intermediate phosphor or scintillation layer. By using a large area, thick CCD device, applicants can detect the scattered x-rays directly and on a real-time basis. Use of a thick CCD as a direct detection device for use in detecting breast cancer is described in U.S. patent application entitled "High Resolution Mammography", Ser. No. 08/697,536, filing date Aug. 26, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,742,659, which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
One object of this invention is provide a device which is capable of directly discerning, in real-time, the frequency and position of x-rays scattered by a protein crystal initially subjected to an incident x-ray beam.
Another object of this invention is the employment of a large area, thick CCD to provide a high resolution image of the pattern generated by the scattered x-rays resulting from the interaction of the protein crystal and the incident x-ray beam.
Additional advantages, objects and novel features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following and by practice of the invention.

Direct detection of x-rays for protein crystallography employing a thick, large area CCD

The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy


System and method for detecting a glitch is disclosed. An embodiment comprises increasing a bias voltage of a first capacitor, sampling an input signal of a first plate of the first capacitor with a time period, mixing the input signal with the sampled input signal, and comparing the mixed signal with a reference signal.

Audio microphones are commonly used in a variety of consumer applications such as cellular telephones, digital audio recorders, personal computers and teleconferencing systems. In particular, lower-cost electret condenser microphones (ECM) are used in mass produced cost sensitive applications. An ECM microphone typically includes a film of electret material that is mounted in a small package having a sound port and electrical output terminals. The electret material is adhered to a diaphragm or makes up the diaphragm itself. Most ECM microphones also include a preamplifier that can be interfaced to an audio front-end amplifier within a target application such as a cell phone. The output of the front-end amplifier can be coupled to further analog circuitry or to an A/D converter for digital processing. Because an ECM microphone is made out of discrete parts, the manufacturing process involves multiple steps within a complex manufacturing process. Consequently, a high yielding, low-cost ECM microphone that produces a high level of sound quality is difficult to achieve.

Glitch detection and method for detecting a glitch