A method for constructing a model representative of a heterogeneous medium from data expressed in different time scales with application to hydrocarbon characterization. The method first estimates sequentially, from the data expressed in each different time scale, parameters or physical quantities of the model, described for each different time scale. Second, a scale factor allowing conversion of a model described in a time scale into a model described in another time scale is determined. This determination is carried out by minimizing the dissimilarity between a parameter estimated in a time scale and this parameter estimated in the other time scale. Finally, estimation of a single model is performed, by taking simultaneously an account of the data expressed in the various time scales, and using the scale factor found previously for the time scale conversions.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for constructing a model representative of a heterogeneous medium such as the subsoil, described by several parameters (which can be physical quantities or combinations of physical quantities) from data expressed in different time scales.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The following documents, mentioned in the description hereafter, illustrate the state of the art:    Aki, K., and Richards, P. G., 1980, Quantitative Seismology: Theory and Method, Vol.1: W.H. Freeman and Co    De Nicolao, A., Drufuca, G., and Rocca, F., 1993, Eigenvalues and eigenvectors of Linearized Elastic Inversion: Geophysics, 58, 670-679.    Gaiser, J. E., 1996, Multicomponent Vp/Vs Correlation Analysis: Geophysics, 61, 1137-1149.    Garotta, R., Granger, P-Y., and Dariu, H., 2000, Elastic Parameter Derivations from Multi-component Data, 70th Ann. Internat. Mtg., Soc. Expl. Geophys., Expanded Abstracts, 154-157.    Lebrun, D., Richard, V., Mace, D., and Cuer, M., 2001, SVD for Multi-Offset Linearized Inversion: Resolution Analysis in Multicomponent Acquisition: Geophysics, 66, 871-882.    Tonellot, T., Macé, D., Richard, V., and Cuer, M., 2001, Joint Stratigraphic Inversion of Angle-Limited Stacks, 71th Ann. Internat. Mtg., Soc. Expl. Geophys., Expanded Abstracts, 227-230.
In general terms, inversion is a technique allowing estimation of a model described by one or more parameters from indirect data. This technique is generally used when the parameters cannot be directly measured. This technique implies that one knows how to solve the problem of predicting the data when the parameters of the model are known (modelling allowing obtaining data referred to as synthetic data).
This is for example the case within the context of oil exploration where geological and petrophysical data characterizing a three-dimensional reservoir where only seismic data can generally be measured on a large scale are sought. In this context, the purpose of inversion is to determine parameters such as the impedances in relation to P waves or S waves, or the density, from seismic data coming from waves emitted in the medium by a seismic source. These waves are propagated in the subsoil and reflected on the medium discontinuities. They are recorded by pickups coupled with the underground formation and collected by an acquisition device. The seismic data used within the context of the description of the method thus contain information on the amplitude variation with the offset (source-receiver distance), that is with the incidence angle; they are referred to as prestack seismic data. Several wave types are propagated in an elastic medium. P waves (compressional waves or longitudinal waves) which correspond to a displacement in the direction of propagation and S waves (shear waves or transverse waves) which correspond to a displacement in a plane perpendicular to the direction of propagation and are not propagated in a fluid medium can be mentioned from among the most commonly used waves in the petroleum industry. These P and S waves are propagated at different velocities, velocity Vp of the P waves being higher than velocity Vs of the S waves. They reflect at the subsoil discontinuity interfaces and are recorded by the acquisition device. P waves can reflect in waves of the same type (PP reflections) or in waves of the other type (PS reflections). Terrestrial acquisition techniques and new marine acquisition techniques, for which the receivers are laid on the sea bottom and record the 3 displacement components (x,y,z) (multicomponent seismic data), allow the P and S waves reflected in the subsoil to be directly recorded. PP reflections, referred to as PP data, correspond to the record of a signal (seismogram) coming from waves transmitted in P type waves and reflected in P type waves in the subsoil. The amplitude of this signal is variable as a function of the time referred to as PP time. Similarly, PS reflections, referred to as PS data, correspond to the record of a signal coming from waves transmitted in P type waves and reflected in S type waves in the subsoil. The amplitude of this signal is variable as a function of the time referred to as PS time. The P and S waves being propagated at different velocities, a single geologic reflector will thus correspond to a signal variation at a time PP and at a time PS, these times being different. Besides, since these two signal variations correspond to reflections of different types, they have different values.
In the case of a medium such as the subsoil, the descriptive physical quantities are generally the impedance thereof in relation to these P waves or S waves, or its density. It is clear that the larger the number of physical quantities available to characterize the medium, the better the medium is described. This is why, in the petroleum industry, it has become equally important to estimate the P impedances and the S impedances. Each of these two physical quantities contains different information, which is necessary to correctly characterize a reservoir.
From the PP data, it is possible to carry out an inversion allowing estimation of the P impedances, the S impedances and the density. This is also the case with the PS data. However, several authors (De Nicolao et al., 1993; Lebrun et al., 2001) showed that, among the three parameters conventionally used and mentioned above, the P impedance (or more precisely its relative variation)
      Δ                          Ip    Ipis the best determined parameter from the PP data; on the other hand, the confidence that one can have in the relative variation of the S impedance is more limited and depends on factors such as the noise level, the range of incidence angles available and the errors on determination of the velocity model. However, if PS data are available, it is possible to reliably estimate the relative variation of the S impedance, hence an ever-growing interest in the acquisition and processing of multicomponent seismic data. As for density, it is difficult to estimate whatever the type of data used.
In the petroleum industry, inversion methods were developed, allowing accounting for single-component seismic data, corresponding to a given reflection type, direct data and geologic data on the subsoil. An a priori model (1D, 2D or 3D) of one or more parameters characteristic of the medium is constructed by interpretation of the known direct or indirect data, and covariance operators describing the uncertainties on this a priori model and the uncertainties on the indirect data recorded are defined. The starting point is from an initial model (the a priori model for example) and synthetic seismograms which constitute the response of the model are calculated. They are compared with the real seismograms obtained by seismic exploration and the differences observed are minimized step by step according to norms associated with the covariance operators selected as a function of an evaluation of the uncertainties on the a priori model and the seismic records.
The various known approaches differ notably in the number of parameters describing the medium, the dimension of the a priori model, and the abundance of possibilities provided when taking into account the uncertainty parameters. They consist in obtaining the optimum model minimizing a cost function, the sum of a cost function referred to as seismic, and of a cost function referred to as geologic. The seismic cost function represents the difference (in the sense of the norm induced by the covariance operator relative to the data) between the observed data (real seismograms) and the synthetic data associated with the current model. The geologic cost function measures the difference between the current model and the a priori model (in the sense of the norm induced by the covariance operator relative to the medium).
There are methods for estimating several parameters in a medium. Among these approaches is the method described in French Patent 2,800,473 filed by the Assignee, which allows obtaining an optimum model in 2 or 3 dimensions (2D or 3D), described by several parameters from indirect data corresponding to a single type of data (PP for example).
When several types of data are available (PP and PS for example), it is necessary to be able to invert the data jointly so as to take advantage of the information contained in the P impedance estimated from the PP data and in the S impedance estimated from the PS data. The difficulty of the problem lies in the fact that, the PP and PS data being supplied at different time scales (the P and S velocities are different), a solution has to be found to associate with precision the events corresponding to a single geologic reflector; this amounts to estimating the ratio of the P and S velocities, denoted by γ.
Two types of approach can be considered for jointly inverting prestack multicomponent seismic data.
The first approach first estimates the P and S velocity models (by migration and focussing analysis for example) and in taking, as data of the joint inversion, the results (expressed in depth) of a prestack depth migration. This approach is attractive but remains delicate because sufficiently precise P and S velocities have to be estimated.
The second approach considers the results of the time migration as inputs for the joint inversion and thus has to solve the crucial problem of matching the arrival times of the PP and PS reflections. It is in this context that the method according to the invention should be seen.
Various matching techniques, directly from the PP and PS data, exist (Gaiser, 1996) but they implicitly presuppose that the contrasts of the P and S impedances are similar or at least have like signs, which is not always the case, in particular at the reservoir level. In Garotta et al.'s approach (2000), the amplitudes of the P and S data, in a lateral position and at a given time (but for different incidence angles), are used to calculate the conventional AVO (Amplitude Versus Offset) attributes by means of linear regression methods:    the ordinate at the PP origin, referred to as PP "intercept" and expressed in PP time,    the PP "gradient" expressed in PP time,    the PS "gradient" expressed in PS time.
The relative variation of ratio (γ) of the P and S velocities can then be expressed by a formula involving γ, the PP intercept, the PP gradient and the PS gradient converted to PP time using γ. On the other hand, for a given association of the PP and PS times, the corresponding γ can be calculated. Ratio γ calculated by Garotta et al. is the ratio which minimizes the difference between the relative variation of γ from the propagation times and the relative variation of γ from the AVO attributes.

Method and constructing a model of a heterogeneous medium described by several parameters from data expressed in different time scales


Streaming media technology includes a back buffer configured to begin at a stream frame most recently played by the streaming media player. The back buffer continues, for each played frame of the stream, for a length determined by a nominal fill and an offset. In some embodiments, the offset is determined in runtime. In some embodiments the runtime-determined offset is determined by the position of a keyframe in the vicinity of the nominal fill. The keyframe in the vicinity of the nominal fill can be a keyframe next earlier, next later, or nearest in the stream to the location of the nominal fill.

Referring to FIG. 1, "streaming" refers to the process of delivering serialized information 110, especially encoded sound, video, or multimedia (referred to herein as a "stream"), in a more or less steady and more or less ordered flow that the recipient, e.g., a client/player 120, can access as the stream 110 is being transmitted, e.g., after intermediate storage in a buffer 130. The word "streamed" is usually applied to information distributed over information technology (IT) networks, as most other delivery systems are either inherently streaming (e.g., broadcast radio and television) or inherently non-streaming (e.g., books, video cassettes). While the inherently streaming media are primarily deterministic in nature, the communications medium for streaming over IT networks, e.g., wired and wireless portions of the Internet and 3G wireless communications infrastructure, are less deterministic and more subject to variable connectivity.
Streaming is typically conducted using a stream server 140 that delivers the stream 110 as a series of messages to the client 120. The server 140 and the client 120 exchange command and status information 150, typically via the same communication media used for delivering the stream 110. Examples of video formats for streamed information include Adobe Flash® Video (FLV), Apple Computer Quicktime™ video, Microsoft Windows™ Media Video (WMV), and Real Networks Inc. Realvideo™. The client 120 typically is at some distance from the server 140.
Typically to begin a stream, the client 120 transmits to the stream server 140 a command 150, specifying the content and a position within the content from which to begin streaming. This causes the server 140 to begin streaming information 110 to the client 120. When a threshold amount, e.g., tt, of the information 110 has been downloaded to a buffer 130 in volatile memory at the client 120, the client 120 begins playing the content, e.g., from t0 by positioning a playhead 122 of the client at t0 and playing in the direction of tm. Typically, based on exchange of command and status information 150 between the client 120 and the server 140, the server 140 attempts to keep the buffer 130 supplied with sufficient data so that normal speed playback can be sustained. However, to conserve server processing resources and communications channel bandwidth, the client 120 and the server 140 also cooperate to prevent the buffer 130 from being filled beyond a maximum size tm. At the client 120, the stream 110 is played in order without permanent storage of the stream 110 by the client, e.g., no stream content is shown in FIG. 1 to the reverse side of the playhead 122.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A new type of animal control system and a new method of use of the animal control system is presented for controlling small, wild animals and rodents without killing or maiming. The control system is in the form of a portable kit that includes a launching device, a plurality of thermoplastic hollow projectiles, a supply of a natural animal control agent for loading into the projectiles, and a means for transferring and storing the control agent. The method of use of the control system involves filling the projectiles with the control agent and then sealing the projectiles prior to loading the projectiles into the launching device. The launching device is then aimed at an area that is being controlled by the animal and then the projectiles are discharged from the gun so as to disperse the control agent about the area being controlled. The control agent causes a biological reaction in the animals and rodents when they detect the scent of the control agent. The biological reaction causes a fear and intimidation response in the brain of the animals and rodents, such that they will voluntarily and permanently vacate the nest out of fear for its life and of its young. The control agent is a urine, marking gland oil or a combination of oil and urine, from a known predator of the animal or rodent.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an animal and rodent control system and to a method of use of the subject system. In particular, it relates to an animal and rodent control system that is capable of delivering a unique liquid control agent to a targeted area which is considered to be a hazardous area because it is being defended or occupied by a small wild animal such as a raccoon or a rodent such as a possum. More particularly, the invention relates to a system that comprises a portable kit that includes a plurality of hollow, frangible projectiles; a gas or compressed air projectile launching device; a means for filling the projectiles; and a supply of select, natural liquids and/or oils that will be dispensed into the projectiles, said select, natural liquids uniquely capable of permanently repelling the small animal or rodent without the need to maim, kill or harm the animal and/or rodent.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Community expansion and suburban growth has led to the destruction of the natural habitats for many of our small-to-medium sized animals, birds and reptiles. As a result, it is not uncommon to find deer, raccoons, opossums, skunks, badgers, rats, mice and other small animals or rodents resorting to foraging of restaurant or home garbage cans. Furthermore, it is common for some small animals like raccoons, opossums, weasels, squirrels and skunks, to take up residency inside the attic and crawl space areas of homes or in the sheds and pole barns located on the property. Once inside, these small animals are extremely difficult to remove and many of them have been known to carry the rabies virus. The raccoon is also known to be one of the most vicious and tenacious animals out of this group when defending its young or when it feels trapped or cornered.
Along those lines, many forms of traps have been invented to deal with this problem. Early forms of such traps included snares that are designed to choke to death the animal that is snared. Others use clamping jaws or arms to maim the animal to the point it dies or outright kills the animal. The public outcry and lobbying efforts of the PETA organization has led to the development of more humane traps that restrain the animal, thereby allowing the return of the still-alive animal back into the wild. However, a problem with those types of traps is that they require a human to remove the trap and enclosed animal from the area in which it was caught. Many times, a handler of such traps is bitten or scratched by the animal, which leads to the possibility and fear of contracting rabies. Due to the rabies potential, many animal control experts would prefer to outright kill the animal rather than worry about its safety. However, traps that are designed to kill the animal have been outlawed in many areas of the country. Furthermore, whatever type of trap, it must be placed in the same area where the animal is habitating and/or controlling in order for it to be effective. Placing and setting a trap can be extremely dangerous to the animal control expert as most of these animals will fight rather than vacate the area while a trap is being set. Moreover, once the trap is set, many animals will suspiciously avoid going near the trap, making it useless.
In rural areas, farmers take the most expedient and effective means for removing the animal; they simply shoot and kill it. However, that means to an end is not practical in suburban settings for several reasons. First and foremost, are the laws that prevent such measures. Discharging a firearm within city limits is a criminal misdemeanor, as is carrying a gun without a permit. Furthermore, firing live ammunition in a suburban setting could lead to catastrophic results. Moreover, the public outcry against shooting and killing the animals, even if they are considered to be known pests or varmints, would be unending. Furthermore, shooting live ammunition inside a house would likely destroy the area surrounding the target.
Another methodology that has been used with limited success is the use of chemicals and poisons that are designed for digestion by the animal. However, some small animals and rodents have become tolerant to the chemicals and/or poisons. For example, rats have become especially tolerant to certain poisons, while raccoons have been found to be immune to chemical repellents such as benzaldehydes, cinnamic aldehydes, and methyl salicylate, among others. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,686,255, a chemical methodology for repelling small animals is disclosed. There, the inventor claims that certain cyclohexyl compounds and cyclohexyl isocyanates and thiocyanates, when applied to an animal or to its habitat, can act as an effective animal repellent. However, applying these chemicals requires the administrator to directly touch the animal itself or enter the zone being occupied by the animal. In either situation, the administrator is placing himself in an unsafe and compromised position. The inventor is not aware of a commercially available chemical product that has been found to be effective over a broad range of applications with different types of small animals and rodents.
One of the biggest drawbacks of using chemicals and/or poisons for animal control is that these chemicals and poisons are very heavily regulated by the EPA since they are considered hazardous materials. Materials regulated by the EPA require special permits to purchase and use such materials along with extensive training, reporting and inspections. Furthermore, the costs for obtaining the permits, the costs to train, and the special carriers needed to transport and/or dispense such materials create an onerous burden. Many small animal and pest control companies cannot adequately deal with these burdens, let alone afford the licensing fees and other related costs to even consider use of most chemical and/or poisons and methods.
Due to the longstanding nature of the varmint problem, one might expect that an effective and safe solution would be in common use, but this is not the case. There is still a long-felt need to provide an effective means of controlling such small animals without killing or maiming them and doing so in a manner that complies with municipal codes and state laws and regulations that pertain to discharging a firearm within city limits or pertain to the perceived inhumane treatment of these animals or rodents. One such methodology invented by the present applicant, involves the new use of a compressed gas/air launching device to deliver a control agent to an area defended or controlled by a small wild animal or a rodent or even a family of the same. Dispersion of the pre-selected control agent in or about the nesting area of the animal or rodent will permanently rid the area of that animal, and it does so in a manner that does not violate any laws and is completely safe, as will be explained later herein. To date, the inventor is not aware of any system that provides a safe means for an animal control professional to permanently and safely rid an area of an unwanted small wild animal or rodent without the use of chemicals or poisons and which demands no special permits to operate said system.
As mentioned above, the present invention involves the use of a compressed air/gas launching device that fires non-lethal projectiles which are an integral component in controlling the small animals and rodents. Prior to consideration as an animal control system and methodology, the introduction and popularity of compressed air/gas launching devices and their associated projectiles grew out of a new type of interactive game where the participants engaged in pretend, combative war games. In that gaming application, teams of players were provided with a compressed gas launching device, known as a paintball gun, and a number of spherically shaped projectiles, known as paintballs, which function as the ammunition. The paintballs were filled with a non-toxic, water-soluble paint or dye, and when a competitor was struck by a paintball, it would rupture and mark the participant as being "killed," all without injury to the participant. As an outgrowth of the game, the paintball gun was later adapted by police departments and the U.S. military, where similar, but more advanced systems were developed as an effective means for conducting training exercises without the use of live ammunitions.
Police departments have especially embraced paintball systems because steadily-rising crime rates have led to an increased need for technologically-enhanced, non-lethal crime fighting devices in response to the proliferation of excessive use of force claims against law enforcement agencies. Such claims have significantly increased as the public has become more aware of and made more sensitive to the use of lethal force. This has been found to be especially true in situations where lethal force may not be required, such as where suspects are armed with dangerous, but non-lethal objects like sticks, rocks, screwdrivers, chairs, etc. Non-lethal paintball systems were found to be a perfect fit for temporarily incapacitating, slowing, repelling or inhibiting a suspected criminal and/or for marking such individuals for later identification. Moreover, the risk that a criminal will surround himself with or be in close proximity to innocent people when officers are trying to subdue him/her, thereby increases the complexity of subduing a suspect without applying lethal force. In those specific situations, it was common to use non-lethal devices such as stun guns, mace, tear gas, and liquid pepper spray devices that impair the vision, breathing or other physical or mental capabilities of the target. However, those types of non-lethal devices are designed for use when operating in close range to a subject, where the safety of the user may be at risk. The adaptation of paintball gun systems in the implementation of vision and breathing impairing pepper powders and liquids has proven to be very successful and especially beneficial since a paintball can be launched from a safe distance away. However successful these systems were in impairing or incapacitating a human being with the pepper powders, they were never used for animal control purposes or ever tested to determine if they would cause the same reactions in wild animals.
Instead, early improvements related to paintball systems involved the development of an improved, non-lethal projectile for delivering a marking substance to its target. That improvement was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,254,379, issued to Kotsiopoulos, et al., which is incorporated herein by reference. That disclosure was directed primarily to a paint ball gun and improved projectile that delivered a non-pressurized payload of a paint or dye to a human target and expelled the paint or dye onto the target upon impact so as to "mark" the target. Prior to development of the Kotsiopoulos paintball, a traditional paintball was formed from a pair of hemispheres made of a gelatinous material similar to that used to encase oral medicines. As with the casing of oral medicines, the gelatin paintballs were soluble in water. Water soluble vegetable dyes are often used as the coloring agent added to increase the opacity of the mark left by the breaking paint ball. The vegetable dye colorants, usually being dissolved in water, cause the gelatin based shell of the traditional paintball to dissolve. The same problem occurs with other liquid components, such as chemical mixtures, thereby limiting the applications where a gelatin shell can be used. To combat the difficulties presented by the low water tolerance of a gelatin paintball, the water soluble colorant solutions were commonly mixed with ethylene glycol and polyethylene glycol, or in propylene glycol. However, those mixtures were found to be especially troublesome as they were generally considered to be toxic substances and contact with human skin was found to be problematic. While glycol-based marking colorants prevented the internal destruction of the paintball shell, a gelatin shell paintball nonetheless remained exceedingly vulnerable to the vagaries of the external environment. For instance, rain, sweat from a user's body, and even high humidity were found to alter or damage the gelatin shell on its outside surface, thereby rendering the paintball inaccurate or in many cases unusable. The Kotsiopoulos paint ball on the other hand, was formed of two semi-rigid, plastic shell portions that were joined together to form a rigid paintball shell that was impervious to water. By design, that paintball would entirely fracture upon impact with the target and locally disperse the internal pay load. One drawback of the Kotsiopoulos paintball is that it is a smaller projectile compared to typical gelatin paintballs, such that the volume of the agent carried therein is limited by the smaller, internal volume of the paint ball shell. Subsequently, various other developments were made to improve the gelatin type of paintball projectile so as to improve its range, path of delivery, and effectiveness in dispersing the control agent to specific areas surrounding the target. Such developments are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,546,874, 6,393,992, and 5,965,839, all to Vasel, et al.
In a totally different application, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,772,694 to Pierce, III, et al., a paintball gun and projectile were found to be especially useful in the delivery of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and other biocides to areas that are very difficult to reach or involve hazards in reaching those areas. In that disclosure, a typical paintball gun was used to launch a capsule-like projectile to disperse biocides to the tops of tall trees and for the use in dispensing pesticides to hard-to-reach nests, or nests that were especially dangerous, like hornet or wasp nests. One drawback of the Pierce system was that it had a relatively short effective range of about 30 feet due to the type of projectile being fired.
Other than the above aforementioned applications, the present inventor is unaware of any system that is capable of controlling a small, wild animals or rodents using the methodology and the kit components that are disclosed and described herein.

Method and system for controlling small wild animals and rodents


A cache storage device is provided between a client and a storage device so that an area to be accessed by the client can be locked or excluded in advance.

The present invention relates to a technique for improving response performance in data transmission between a server and a storage device through a network and reducing overhead at the time of occurrence of a fault.
The mainstream of the connection form of a storage device (hereinafter also referred to as "storage") changes from Direct Attached Storage (DAS) of a computer (hereinafter referred to as "server") direct-coupling type to Storage Area Network (SAN) of a network coupling type. FC-SAN using a fibre channel is generally used as a transmission system for achieving SAN.
On the other hand, Ethernet (registered trademark) lagged behind the fibre channel in transmission performance is being improved with the advance of network technology so as to be applied to SAN. This is called IP-SAN to be-distinguished from FC-SAN. Although there are several candidates for means of achieving IP-SAN, iSCSI (Internet SCSI) is said to be a leading candidate.
In iSCSI based on Ethernet (registered trademark) low in reliability, TCP/IP protocol is used in order to ensure reliability on data transmission. There is however a problem that overhead for data transmission increases though the use of TCP/IP ensures reliability.
For example, TCP is of a connection type. A process of compensating the sequence of data transmitted through a TCP layer, a process of correcting error and a process of retransmitting data at the time of occurrence of a fault are carried out. Particularly, overhead due to the process of retransmitting data at the time of occurrence of a fault increases in proportion to the connection distance between the server and the storage and exerts influence on performance.
As means for solving the problem on the retransmission process in TCP, there has been proposed a method in which a device (hereinafter referred to as "cache device") for temporarily storing (hereinafter referred to as "caching") data is disposed between the server and the storage so that a request given from the server can be cached by the cache device. When a retransmission process occurs, data, etc. are retransmitted from the cache device, not from the server, so that the overhead can be reduced.
The idea of the aforementioned cache device is employed as "Web cache" in Web access technology. Specifically, in the Web, it is general that a page acquired from a server is temporarily cached by a local cache device.
If consideration is given to the fact that the page is updated in real time on the server side, it is necessary for this type Web cache to guarantee freshness of the page cached by the local cache device, i.e., coincidence of data in the page cached by the local cache device with data in the page managed by the server.
In a protocol HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol) for achieving Web access, a method of locally judging, on the basis of information such as Age defined in a header of response packet to a request given to the Web server, whether data cached by the local cache device can be used or not, is used as means for guaranteeing the freshness. Incidentally, the data allowed to be cached locally are limited to data corresponding to read commands (for reading data from the server).
A data caching method used in a file system has been further disclosed in JP-A-11-24981 and JP-A-2001-290787.
In JP-A-11-24981, there has been disclosed a technique which is used in a system having a file server connected to a network, and clients connected to the network through a cache server (as a kind of cache device) and in which a file high in access frequency is prefetched on the cache server to achieve high-speed file access.
In JP-A-2001-290787, there has-been disclosed a technique which is used in a system having a server, cache servers and clients connected to one another through a network and in which data are distributed through only a cache server low in load on data distribution to a client as a data requester and little in delay of communication time to thereby prevent wasteful data from being accumulated on other cache servers.

Cache storage system that enables exclusion of locking of an area to be accessed


An image recovery algorithm that recovers completely lost blocks in an image/video frame using spatial information surrounding these blocks. One application focuses on lost regions of pixels containing textures, edges and other image features that pose problems for other recovery and error concealment algorithms. The algorithm of this invention is based on the iterative application of a generic de-noising algorithm and does not require any complex preconditioning, segmentation, or edge detection steps. Utilizing locally sparse linear transforms and overcomplete de-noising, good PSNR performance is obtained in the recovery of such regions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to algorithms for recovering missing data in a digital signal, and more specifically for predicting lost regions of data in the signal using information surrounding these regions. The algorithms are primarily directed to recovering an image/video-frame by predicting lost regions of pixels in the image/video-frame using spatial information surrounding these regions. The techniques of the algorithms may be embodied in software, hardware or combination thereof and may be implemented on a computer or other processor-controlled device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many image and video compression applications the decoder frequently has to contend with channel corrupted data and therefore has to resort to image recovery and error concealment algorithms. Throughout the years, many techniques have been proposed that enable decoders to avoid the severe consequences of channel errors. In the case of images, the lost or erroneous data has to be predicted spatially, while for video both temporal and spatial prediction can be attempted. However, previous techniques suffer from various problems, including too many prediction errors, too application, procedure or data coordinate specific, able to handle only certain regions of specific size, shape and/or type of data, limited robustness and/or adaptability, and requiring special information such as motion vectors for video frames.


Articles including an orthodontic bracket having a base for bonding the bracket to a tooth are disclosed. A first part of an at least two-part adhesive is on the base of the bracket and a release substrate is in contact with the adhesive.

Orthodontic treatment involves movement of malpositioned teeth to orthodontically correct positions. Tiny orthodontic appliances known as brackets are connected to exterior surfaces of the patient's teeth, and an archwire is placed in a slot of each bracket. The archwire forms a track to guide movement of the teeth to desired positions for correct occlusion. End sections of the archwire are often received in appliances known as buccal tubes that are fixed to the patient's molar teeth. In recent years it has become common practice to bond orthodontic appliances directly to the surface of the tooth.
For many years, it was common practice to apply orthodontic adhesive to the base of directly-bonded appliances immediately before the appliances were placed on the tooth. In some instances, a quantity of adhesive was dispensed onto a mixing pad or dispensing well and a small spatula or other hand instrument was then used to apply a small dab of adhesive to each appliance. In other instances, a quantity of adhesive was dispensed from a syringe directly onto the base of the appliance.
Adhesive precoated brackets are known and offer significant advantages to the orthodontist. Adhesive precoated brackets have a bonding base upon which the manufacturer may apply a precise quantity of adhesive such as a photocurable adhesive. When it is desired to mount the bracket on a tooth, the bracket is simply removed from the package and placed directly onto the tooth surface.
Adhesives used on precoated brackets are, in general, more viscous (i.e., less fluid) than other available orthodontic bonding adhesives. The higher viscosity ensures that the adhesive retains its shape and does not separate or distort when the bracket is lifted from the package for use. However, some orthodontists prefer the use of less viscous (i.e., more fluid) adhesives in order to facilitate manipulation of the bracket before the adhesive is cured. For example, brackets with less viscous adhesives are relatively easy to slide along the tooth surface when an effort is made to align the bracket in a proper, precise orientation on the tooth before the adhesive is cured.
Some practitioners prefer two-part chemical-cure adhesives (such as UNITE brand adhesive, from 3M Unitek Corporation) over light-curable adhesives. Orthodontic brackets precoated with one part of a two-part adhesive on the base of the bracket have been reported. After the bracket is removed from the package, a second part is applied to the bracket base and/or the tooth surface, and the bracket is then applied to the surface of the patient's tooth. Reported packages for brackets precoated with one part of a two-part chemical-cure adhesive include, referring to FIG. 1, an assembly 10 having a carrier 12 with arms 14 and 15 to suspend the bracket 16 with adhesive 22 in the container 18, and, referring to FIG. 2, an assembly 10 with container 18 having an uneven, dimpled, or "V" shaped reservoir 19 in contact with the adhesive 22 on bracket 16. Presently, there is a need in the art for improved configurations for delivering brackets precoated with chemical-cure adhesives to the practitioner.

Orthodontic brackets including one part of an at least two-part adhesive on the base of the bracket


This application discloses a decoding method for an OvXDM system, including: generating an augmented matrix B related to a received symbol information sequence; performing singular decomposition on the augmented matrix B; and performing decoding by using a total least square method, to obtain a decoded output information sequence. This application further discloses an OvXDM system. In a specific implementation of this application, decoding is performed by using the total least square method.

In conventional decoding in an OvXDM (Overlapped X Division Multiplexing, overlapped X division multiplexing) system (where X represents any domain and may be time T, space S, frequency F, hybrid H, or the like), for example, Viterbi decoding, a node in a trellis diagram needs to be accessed constantly, and two storages are provided for each node, where one storage is used to store a Euclidean distance of a relatively optimal path to the node, and one storage is used to store the relatively optimal path to the node. For an M-dimensionally modulated system with K times of overlapping, the number of nodes in the trellis diagram is MK. In a decoding process, each node needs to be expanded. Therefore, the quantity of nodes determines the decoding complexity, and the decoding complexity increases exponentially as the quantity of times of overlapping increases. It is well known that in the OvXDM system, spectral efficiency increases as the number K of times of overlapping increases. Therefore, a higher number K of times of overlapping is preferred. However, in a conventional decoding algorithm, for example, Viterbi decoding, when the number of times of overlapping reaches a specific value (K>8), the decoding complexity increases drastically, and a prior-art decoding method cannot meet the real-time decoding requirements.

Decoding method, apparatus, and system for OvXDM system

SHEN ZHEN KUANG-CHI HEZHONG TECHNOLOGY LTD


The invention relates to pockets for a garment, and methods for manufacturing same. An example pocket includes an opening with a pocket bag extending from the opening within an inner portion of the garment, the pocket bag including an inner material portion and an outer material portion with connecting means fixedly connecting a first region of the inner material portion and a first region of the outer material portion to divide the pocket bag into a first compartment and a second compartment, the connecting means extending substantially upwards from a bottom portion of the pocket bag.

During training (e.g., during a run), athletes often carry objects with them that are often held in pockets of the garments of the wearer. Example objects include, but are not limited to, wallets, money, keys, credit cards, credit card holders, snacks, phones, pagers, portable music players and other portable electronic devices, training aids (e.g., GPS enabled performance and/or location monitors), and the like. However, objects located within pockets such as the hip pockets of a garment for the lower portion of the body (e.g., shorts or sweat pants) can, during the athletic activity, move around significantly due to the motion of the athlete and potentially affect the performance of the athlete and/or damage the object being held within the pocket. In addition, objects such as portable electronic devices being utilized for entertainment during a training session (e.g., portable music players connected to headphones being worn by the athlete) can be bumped and jogged to a sufficient extent that they fail to function correctly (e.g., by skipping or otherwise distorting the music being played) and/or dislodge the connector between headphone and device. Such disruptions and irritations can significantly diminish the enjoyment of an athletic activity.
Traditional garment pockets either fail to address such considerations or require complex structures with significant additional material and manufacturing effort to attempt to address this issue.

Pocket, and means for manufacturing same


A laser machining apparatus includes a laser nozzle for supplying an assistive gas to remove undesirable materials and applying a laser beam at an angle, which is inclined with respect to a surface of a workpiece, a sputter blocking jig disposed over a region of the workpiece that is irradiated with the laser beam, so as to lie across directions in which the laser beam is scattered, and for blocking sputtered particles that are generated from the surface by the applied laser beam, and a joint connecting the laser nozzle and the sputter blocking jig to each other. The joint moves the laser nozzle and the sputter blocking jig in synchronism with each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laser machining apparatus, which applies a laser beam at an angle that is set to be inclined with respect to the surface of a workpiece, in order to form oblique holes in the surface of the workpiece.
2. Description of the Related Art
Aircraft engines, e.g., gas turbine engines, burn fuel in a combustor by injecting the fuel into the combustor while at the same time sending combustion air, which is compressed by a rotary compressor, into the combustor. During burning of the fuel, the combustor produces a high-temperature combustion gas under high pressure, and delivers the combustion gas in order to rotate a centrifugal or axial-flow gas turbine.
Since the combustor burns fuel and generates high-temperature combustion gas, the combustor is exposed to a considerably high-temperature environment. The gas turbine has turbine blades, which also are exposed to the high-temperature environment. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2008/0223835 A1 (hereinafter referred to as "Prior Art Document 1") and U.S. Patent Application Publication 2012/0051941 A1 (hereinafter referred to as "Prior Art Document 2") disclose cooling holes formed obliquely in the surface of the combustor for introducing secondary air into the combustor, so as to bring about a cooling effect that lowers the temperature of the combustor surface.
According to Prior Art Document 1 and Prior Art Document 2, a laser beam is applied to a machining surface of the combustor in order to form oblique holes, which function as cooling holes. When the laser beam is applied to the machining surface of the combustor, the laser beam is reflected by the machining surface, which tends to cause sputtering. Consequently, molten metal scum (hereinafter referred to as "dross") frequently is produced by the laser beam and becomes deposited on a machining surface that is machined subsequently. Such dross is liable to lower the accuracy with which the laser beam machines the machining surface, and to increase the period of time required to machine the machining surface.
Occasionally, a practice is carried out to set the angle at which the laser beam is applied to the machining surface to a considerably small value, to thereby elongate the oblique holes that serve as cooling holes. If the angle at which the laser beam is applied to the machining surface is of a small value, then the wall thickness of the workpiece, which is machined by the laser beam, increases, thereby increasing the period of time required to machine the workpiece with the laser beam and resulting in a tendency to produce even more dross.
According to one solution, as disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication 2009/0151996 A1 (hereinafter referred to as "Prior Art Document 3"), a sacrificial layer is provided on the surface of a workpiece, so as to control the tapered shape of a hole to be formed in the workpiece, and to prevent burrs from being formed as well as to prevent sputtered particles from becoming deposited on the workpiece.


Provided is an antiviral agent against animal viruses. The antiviral agent contains a protein or a nucleic acid sequence encoding the protein, as an active ingredient, the protein having binding ability and degrading ability to foreign nucleic acid chains invaded in an animal cell and that has no cytotoxicity to the animal cell itself. Also provided is an antiviral animal cell containing the protein according to the present invention, or the nucleic acid sequence encoding the protein. The antiviral agent and antiviral animal cell exhibit advantageous effects in that they selectively degrade foreign nucleic acid chains invaded in an animal cell and have no cytotoxicity to the animal cell, thus causing no death of the animal cell.

Antiviral agents developed to date are mostly non-protein drugs that exhibit superior antiviral activities such as viral adsorption inhibition, viral penetration inhibition, viral uncoating inhibition, transcription (or translation) inhibition of viral nucleic acid (e.g., viral thymidine kinase inhibition, viral reverse transcriptase inhibition, viral polymerase inhibition, and viral mRNA-capping inhibition) and viral protein synthesis inhibition according to the type of viruses infected and that have relatively low toxicity.
There are several patents associated with antiviral drugs. For example, Korean Patent Application No. 10-2001-0021449, targeting viral transcription inhibition, discloses fusion proteins that inhibit expression of RNA on proviral long terminal repeats (LTRs) in a cell nucleus.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,849,800 discloses an amantadine associated with viral uncoating.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,924 discloses an acyclovir as an antiviral drug that inhibits biosynthesis of viral nucleic acid. The acyclovir is a medication prepared by modifying a sugar in nucleic acids and is used to treat herpesvirus infections. The acyclovir competes with deoxyguanosine triphosphate (dGTP) and is incorporated into viral DNA, thus terminating DNA replication.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,108,993 and 5,026,687 disclose zidovudine and dideoxyinosine, respectively, reverse transcriptase inhibitors used to treat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,962,725 discloses nelfinavir that suppresses activities of HIV proteases to prevent HIV from producing required proteins.
In addition, arildone and pleconaril are known as antiviral drugs that mediate binding of viruses with host cells, followed by penetration and uncoating. These drugs are reported to inhibit uncoating of capsid proteins from RNA genomes.
Trifluorothymidine is known to be a pyrimidine analogue which is introduced into DNA and thus causes growth of mutants during DNA replication. Foscarnet is known to be bound to herpes DNA polymerase to inhibit DNA replication. Ribavirin and neoplanocin A are known to be guanosine and adenosine analogues that inhibit formation of mRNA cap structures to suppress RNA synthesis.
Other antiviral drugs such as saquinavir, ritonavir and indinavir suppress activities of HIV proteases to prevent HIV from producing required proteins.
However, these antiviral drugs have side effects such as an increase in potential infection rates and continuous occurrence of drug-resistant virus strains in a short time (Magden, et al., Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 66:612-621, 2005).
Antibodies, known as immune proteins, are widely used to treat viral diseases. But, clinical use of the antibodies is restricted to passive immunization which involves neutralization mechanism of antibodies against specific viruses. For example, palivizumab was known (Cardenas, et al., Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther 3:719-726, 2005), which is an antibody directed against an epitope in the A antigenic site of F-glycoprotein present in a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) envelope.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,818,216 discloses novel anti-RSV antibodies which can permit administration of lower dosages owing to their superior affinities, compared to conventional anti-RSV antibodies.
However, these antibodies have fundamental problems in that variation in the antigen structure of genes by mutants inhibits the antibody from recognizing the antigen any more, thus making it impossible to realize antiviral activity of the antibody specific for the antigen.
The reason for such a problem is that developments of antiviral antibodies are targeted on viral gene products. An alternative to solve this problem is to develop viral nucleic acid-targeting antibodies. However, there is no antibody associated with the alternative reported to date. A nuclease was reported as an enzyme degrading nucleic acid. The nuclease transferred into host cells is very cytotoxic to the cells and thus causes the fundamental problem of cell death. Such a problem inevitably restricts the developments of viral nucleic acid-targeting antibodies.
Meanwhile, there are only a few of antibody proteins known as catalytic antibodies that bind to antigens and at the same time exhibit enzymatic activities on the antigens. Some anti-DNA, anti-RNA and anti-DNA/RNA antibodies are known as naturally-generating catalytic antibodies (Buneva, et al., Appl Biochem Biotechnol 75: 63-76, 1998; Jang, et al, cell Mol Life Sci 60:309-320, 2003).
In addition, the only anti-DNA catalytic antibody known in the art is BV04-01 that has a structure based on recombinant single-chain variable fragment (scFv) and exhibits catalytic activity as an anti-DNA catalytic antibody degrading single- and double-strand DNAs (Gololobov, et al., Mol Immunol 34:1083-1093, 1997).
However, RNase activity, anti-virus activity on animal cells and protection possibility of self-derived nucleic acid of BV04-01 were not reported at all.

Sungkyunkwan University Foundation for Corporate Collaboration

Ajou University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation

Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency


A first communication device generates and transmits a frame that is configured to cause one or more second communication devices in a wireless local area network (WLAN) to refrain from transmitting during a set of repeating time segments, and the frame is generated to include an indication of a time period of the time segments in the set of repeating time segments, the time period being less than a duration of a beacon interval of the WLAN such that multiple ones of the time segments occur within one beacon interval. Alternatively, the frame is configured to cause one or more second communication devices in the WLAN to refrain from transmitting during a time segment that begins in conjunction with an end of transmission of i) the frame or ii) a packet that includes the frame, and the frame is generated to include an indication of a time duration of the time segment.

Wireless local area networks (WLANs) have evolved rapidly over the past two decades, and development of WLAN standards such as the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 Standard family has improved single-user peak data rates. One way in which data rates have been increased is by increasing the frequency bandwidth of communication channels used in WLANs. For example, the IEEE 802.1 in Standard permits aggregation of two 20 MHz sub-channels to form a 40 MHz aggregate communication channel, whereas the more recent IEEE 802.11ax Standard permits aggregation of up to eight 20 MHz sub-channels to form up to 160 MHz aggregate communication channels. Work has now begun on a new iteration of the IEEE 802.11 Standard, which is referred to as the IEEE 802.11be Standard, or Extremely High Throughput (EHT) WLAN.
The current version of the IEEE 802.11 Standard (referred to herein as "the IEEE 802.11 Standard" for simplicity) provides a mechanism for quieting a WLAN for testing for the presence of a nearby radar system. For example, an access point (AP) transmits a "Quiet Element" that prompts all client stations in the WLAN to refrain from transmitting during a quiet period, and the AP makes various measurements (e.g., power measurements, detection of WLAN packets, a received power indicator histogram, etc.) during the quiet period for various purposes, such as to detect the presence of other WLANs, measure interference power, determine if a radar system is detected on a communication channel of the WLAN, etc. If the AP detects significant interference or a radar system, for example, the AP may instruct the client stations to move to a different communication channel.


A new and distinct cultivar of Mandevilla plant named ‘VOG 051’, characterized by its compact, upright and mounding plant habit; strong stems; freely flowering habit; and dark greyed purple-colored flowers.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Mandevilla plant, botanically known as Mandevilla hybrida and hereinafter referred to by the name 'VOG 051'.
The new Mandevilla plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Pennant Hills, New South Wales, Australia. The objective of the breeding program is to create new compact shrub-type Mandevilla plants with strong stems and numerous attractive flowers.
The new Mandevilla plant originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in Pennant Hills, New South Wales, Australia in December, 2003, of a proprietary selection of Mandevilla hybrida identified as code number X02.5, not patented, as the female, or seed parent with Mandevilla hybrida 'Sunmandecrim', disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 15,539, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Mandevilla was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled greenhouse environment in Macquarie Fields, New South Wales, Australia in November, 2005.
Asexual reproduction of the new Mandevilla plant by cuttings in Macquarie Fields, New South Wales, Australia, since December, 2005, has shown that the unique features of this new Mandevilla plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.

Protected Plant Promotions Australia Pty. Ltd.


Exemplary embodiments are directed to characterizing a solid state photomultiplier (SSPM). The SSPM can be exposed to a light pulse that triggers a plurality of microcells of the SSPM and an output signal of the SSPM generated in response to the light pulse can be processed. The output signal of the SSPM can be proportional to a gain of the SSPM and a quantity of microcells in the SSPM and a value of an electrical parameter of the SSPM can be determined based on a relationship between the output signal of the SSPM and an over voltage applied to the SSPM.

The Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) is multipixel (multi-SPAD) silicon photodiode with a number up to a few thousand independent micropixels (with typical size of 10-100 um) joined together on common substrate and working on common load. Each pixel detects the photoelectrons with a gain of about 106. Solid state photomultipliers (SSPMs), which are also commonly referred to as MicroPixel Photon Counters (MPPC) or MicroPixel Avalanche Photodiodes (MAPD) have become popular for use as photosensors. For example, SSPMs have been employed in scintillator based nuclear detectors. Typically, SSPMs are implemented as Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM).
The gain of an SSPM operating in Geiger mode is proportional to the overvoltage (Vov), e.g., the difference between the applied bias voltage (Vbias) and breakdown voltage (Vbr). The Geiger mode process typically results in a well defined single photo electron (SPE) pulses, which can be used to identify breakdown voltage Vbr and the capacitance (Cu-cell) of individual microcells. Conventional approaches have typically utilized intrinsic dark counts or very short, low intensity light pulses (e.g., with an average of 0.1 to 1 detected photon) to detect SPE pulses. That is, the intensity of light pulses is typically specified to trigger on average 0.1 to 1 u-cell per pulse. These conventional approaches work well for small devices (e.g., ˜1 mm2) and when the dark count rate is small. However, for many SSPM-based detector applications, e.g. a PET scanner, larger SSPMs are constructed (e.g., with a typical size of 10-100 mm2).
While SSPMs have a good single photoelectron pulse (SPE) response to low intensity light that can be used for absolute calibration and defining the breakdown voltage, it becomes increasingly difficult to measure SPE pulses as the size of an SSPM increases. One reason for this can be attributed to an increase in dark counts as the size of an SSPM increases. Moreover, conventional approaches to SPE calibration are typically implemented with a high gain low noise amplifier, which can prohibit use readout electronics designed for detection of relatively large signals from scintillators. Therefore, conventional SPE calibration approaches are generally unavailable for calibrating a fully assembled SSPM-based detector using the detectors readout electronics. Even if an SSPM-based detector includes an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) with a special high gain mode for the calibration, the high dark count rate can still present a challenge to use of SPE pulses to calibrate large area SSPMs.

Characterization and calibration of large area solid state photomultiplier breakdown voltage and/or capacitance


An optical member according to one or more embodiments includes an optical plate and an optical film. In an embodiment, the optical plate includes an incident part receiving light provided from the exterior and an emitting part emitting the light. The optical film is attached to the incident part and includes a first conductive layer, a second conductive layer facing the first conductive layer and polarized particles disposed between the first conductive layer and the second conductive layer. Thus, light sources of a backlight assembly may be individually driven regardless of the type of light source and the disposition of the light sources, and image display quality may be improved by improving a contrast ratio by realizing various gradation voltages.

1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to an optical member, a backlight assembly and a display device having the optical member. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to an optical member for displaying an image on a display panel, a backlight assembly and a display device having the optical member.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a liquid crystal display (LCD) device displays an image using electrical and optical characteristics of liquid crystal. LCD devices have a thinner thickness, lighter weight, lower power consumption and lower driving voltage than other types of display devices, and thus, LCD devices are being widely used in various fields.
An LCD device includes an LCD panel displaying an image using the light transmissivity of liquid crystal and a backlight assembly disposed under the LCD panel to provide light to the LCD panel.
The LCD panel includes a first substrate having switching devices for driving each one of a plurality of pixel regions, a second substrate facing the first substrate and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the first substrate and the second substrate.
The backlight assembly includes a light source that generates light for displaying the image on the LCD panel. For example, the light source may be a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL), a hot cathode fluorescent lamp (HCFL) or a light-emitting diode (LED).
Recently, a local dimming system that divides the light source into a plurality of regions and controls each region has been developed. The local dimming system may be embodied by classifying the light source as either a line-shape light source or a block-shape light source.
A local dimming backlight assembly for driving the local dimming system includes a point light source such as a diode that is a definitive type of light source because the point light source is capable of respectively driving each region and emitting straight light. For example, when a linear light source such as a CCFL instead of a point light source is used for the local dimming system, a driving unit that is different from a driving unit of the local dimming backlight assembly that uses the point light source is required.
Thus, for the local dimming system, the type of light source is restricted and the driving unit corresponding to the type of light source is required. Also, a gradation voltage level capable of controlling a voltage applied to the light source is restricted.

Optical member, backlight assembly and display apparatus having the same


An electrode assembly for a semiconductor device includes a contact layer formed on a semiconductor substrate and consisting mainly of a rare-earth metal or metals, or a silicide thereof, or a mixture thereof, and a diffusion barrier layer formed on the contact layer and consisting mainly of iron or an iron alloy. The assembly is bonded to a mount by a solder layer formed on the diffusion barrier layer and consisting mainly of lead and tin.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electrode assembly for a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to an electrode assembly which is bonded between a semiconductor substrate and its mount with a solder consisting mainly of lead and tin.
2. Description of the Related Art
The recent advance in semiconductor technology has brought about the development of various kinds of semiconductor devices. The external electrical connection of any such device has a critical bearing on its performance. While it is essential to employ an electrode for the electrical connection of a semiconductor device to enable it to perform the desired function, the device does not show any satisfactory performance if the lead wire, etc. connected to the electrode causes the diffusion of impurities, or if its electrical connection to the semiconductor is incomplete for the complete transmission of signals.
The external electrical connection of a semiconductor device has usually been achieved by bonding a semiconductor substrate to its mount. The substrate has a chromium or titanium layer and a nickel layer formed one upon the other on its back surface and these electrode layers are bonded to the mount with a solder layer. The chromium or titanium layer forms a layer of contact with the semiconductor, while the nickel layer is a layer for preventing the diffusion of tin from the solder to the substrate. This arrangement makes it possible to maintain the satisfactory electrical connection of the device, while preventing the diffusion of impurity (tin in the solder) to the substrate.
The recent advance in semiconductor technology has, however, created a demand for an electrode construction capable of electrical connection with a lower resistance to a silicon wafer having a high resistivity to obtain a device of higher accuracy in performance. The electrode construction as hereinabove described has too high a contact resistance to achieve any ohmic connection with a satisfactorily low electrical resistance.
It is known that rare-earth metals or rare earth silicides having a low Schottky-barrier height offer a lower contact resistance than chromium or other metals. See e.g. Applied Physics Letters 36(7), 594 (1980) and 38(8), 626 (1981). The rare-earth metals, or silicides are, however, too easily oxidized by reacting with oxygen to be suitable for use in any ordinary electrode construction. If a layer of TiW or tungsten is used as a layer for preventing the diffusion of tin from a solder to a semiconductor, it is possible to prevent the oxidation of a rare-earth metal, or silicide, but the use of any such layer does not make any readily acceptable electrode, since it can only poorly be wetted with the solder.
An electrode assembly comprising layers of a rare-earth metal, nickel and gold may be derived from a known combination of chromium, nickel and gold. It can satisfactorily be bonded with a solder and prevent the diffusion of tin therefrom, but as nickel diffuses into reacts with the rare-earth metal and a semiconductor upon heat treatment at a temperature of about 250.degree. C., it cannot maintain a low specific contact resistivity at varying temperatures, and is, therefore, a construction which is totally unacceptable for practical use.
There has also been proposed an electrode construction which includes an iron-alloy layer for preventing the diffusion of tin. Japanese Patent Application laid open under No. Sho 63-60537 discloses a combination of iron silicide, iron and an Fe-Sn alloy. This construction has, however, the drawback that it cannot maintain a satisfactorily low specific contact resistivity at the interface with a semiconductor and form a contact having a satisfactorily low resistance with a silicone wafer having a high resistivity, though it can effectively prevent the diffusion of tin through iron.

Electrode assembly for a semiconductor device


An apparatus for estimating rotor position for brushless motors capable of accurately estimating rotor position even though power source voltage fluctuates is provided. First, the power source voltage is detected, and voltage is supplied only for a certain period of time and a current response is detected. The current detection value is multiplied by the ratio of a reference voltage to the power source voltage detected to correct the current detection value. Specifically, the peak current detection value is corrected upwardly or downwardly in each direction. A voltage supplying direction in which the current detection value is maximized is searched for to estimate the rotor position and a brushless motor is started.

There have been conventionally known brushless motors in which a coil is placed on the stator side and a rotor having magnetic poles is rotated and thus a brush in contact with the rotor is eliminated. In such a brushless motor, it is required to estimate the position where the rotor is at a stop (hereafter, referred to as "rotor position") when the motor is started. However, it is difficult to estimate rotor position unlike in motors having a brush.
The simplest method for estimating the rotor position of a brushless motor is to detect it with a sensor. In this case, however, increase in the number of parts and other like problems result. To cope with this, there have been conventionally proposed methods of supplying voltage to a coil installed in a stator and estimating the rotor position from change in the current passed through the coil. (Refer to Patent Document 1, for example.)
In the technology disclosed in the above patent document, rotor position is estimated by: supplying voltage so that magnetic flux in the direction perpendicular to the direction of rotation of a rotor is produced at predetermined angular intervals; and measuring the magnitude of wiring current that is the current passed through a coil. More specific description will be given. When so-called magnetic saturation, in which change in magnetic flux density is reduced even though current is increased, occurs in a coil, the inductance of the coil under a certain voltage is reduced. For this reason, a phenomenon of increase in current occurs. At this time, magnetic saturation is prone to occur by the magnetic flux produced by the rotor itself at an angle corresponding to the rotor position. In conventional technologies, therefore, rotor position is estimated by: supplying voltage more than once so that the direction of magnetic flux is changed at predetermined angular intervals; and detecting the wiring current in each case and comparing the peak of the wiring current.
(Patent Document 1) JP-A-S63-69489 (USP4876491)
It will be assumed that a brushless motor is used for a vehicle fuel pump. In this case, voltage supplied to a coil is from a vehicle battery and thus there is a possibility of fluctuation in voltage. For example, voltage drop may be caused by vehicle electric equipment or voltage rise may be caused by a battery externally connected at the time of failure or the like.
In the technology disclosed in Patent Document 1, at this time, voltage is supplied so that magnetic flux in the direction perpendicular to the direction of rotation of the rotor is produced at predetermined angular intervals and the magnitude of wiring current is measured. The technology is on the assumption that voltage is constant in every direction of comparison. However, if power source voltage fluctuates in midstream when a vehicle battery is used or on other like occasions, the comparison of wiring current peak does not make sense anymore and the accuracy of rotor position estimation is degraded.

Apparatus for estimating rotor position of brushless motors and system and method for controlling start-up of brushless motors


A magnesium-taurine compound and its method of synthesis. The compound is synthesized by reacting taurine and magnesium in a 2:1 molar ratio. The resulting mixture is diluted with methanol and the remaining clear filtrate is crystallized from methanol. This compound may be administered orally as a nutritional supplement or may be administered orally or intravenously for treatment of thrombotic or embolic stroke.

Magnesium is nutritionally important for maintenance of vascular integrity, but is often deficient in fatty, refined modern diets (Seelig et al., Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 27:59-79, 1974). Deleterious vascular effects of magnesium deficiency include cardiac arrhythmias and hypertension (Anderson et al., Can. Med. Assoc. J., 113:199-203, 1975). Magnesium supplements have been shown to reduce such hypertension (Dyckner et al., Brit. Med. J., 286:1847-1849, 1983; Motoyama et al., Hypertension, 113:227-232, 1989; Ryan et al., Ann. Clin. Res., 16:81-88, 1984). intravenous administration of magnesium salts in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction (MI) has been found to decrease the subsequent incidence of arrhythmias and to improve survival. Intravenous magnesium also exerts a therapeutic effect in hypertensive crises, such as that occurring in, for example, intractable arrhythmias. (Ryan et al., 1984; Iseri, Drugs, 16:81-88, 1984; Shechter et al., Arch. Intern, Med., 152:2189-2196, 1992).
Increased extracellular magnesium prevents neuronal calcium overload, is the physiological gating mechanism for the NMDA calcium channel and may reduce calcium influx through other channels or damaged membranes. This calcium-antagonist activity may play a role in the protection of anoxic hippocampal neuron cell cultures (Rothman, Science 220, 536-537, 1983). Hypermagnesemia has also been shown to promote vasodilation of the cerebral arteries.
The efficacy of thrombolytic therapy for acute MI is well established. Intraarterial streptokinase or urokinase has been shown to recanalize thrombotically occluded arteries (Puca, J. Neurosurg. Sci., 37:63-70, 1993; Hacke et al., Stroke, 19:1216-1222). Tissue plasminogen activator (TPA) has also shown promise in promoting urgent recanalization in stroke patients (Brott et al., Stroke, 23:632-640, 1992) . Subsequent to removal of a thrombotic occlusion, adjunctive measures are necessary for optimization of neuron salvage in the ischemic zone and prevention of potentially fatal complications, including reocclusion of the thrombotically cleared artery (Coller, New Engl. J. Med., 322:33-42, 1990).
Cellular calcium overload via influx through voltage-sensitive L-type and NMDA calcium channels is believed to be the main cause of much of the neuronal and vascular dysfunction subsequent to cerebral ischemia (White et al., J. Am. Med. Assoc., 251:1586-1590; Wong et al., Stroke, 21:494-501, 1990). Calcium channel antagonists have been evaluated for promoting neuron salvage and patient survival following cerebral ischemia; however, clinical efforts to assess calcium channel antagonists in acute stroke therapy have so far yielded equivocal, and in some instances disappointing, results (Gelmers et al., New Engl. J. Med., 318:203-207, 1988; Trust Study Group, Lancet, 336:1205-1209, 1990).
Taurine is an amino acid present in high concentrations in excitable and secretory tissue. Its role in cardiac function has received particular attention (Huxtable, Physiol. Rev., 72:101-163, 1992; Schaffer et al., Taurine in Health and Disease, pp. 171-180, 1994). Although taurine can be synthesized endogenously from the amino acid cysteine, in mammals it is derived principally from the diet and is thus considered a "conditionally essential" nutrient. Conventional diets supply 40-400 mg of taurine daily, while vegetarian diets are extremely low in this amino acid (Huxtable, 1992).
The main function of taurine in mammals appears to be the regulation of transmembrane ionic movements, especially the regulation of calcium distribution (Schaffer et al., 1994; Huxtable, 1992; Schaffer et al., Taurine: Functional Neurochemistry, Physiology and Cardiology, pp. 217-225, 1990). Taurine exerts an antihypertensive action in various animal models of hypertension and may also have clinical antihypertensive activity. Taurine also has direct anticonvulsant activity as demonstrated in animal studies and suggested by clinical reports.
Taurine exerts a platelet stabilizing effect both in vitro and, after oral administration, ex vivo (Hayes et al., Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 49:1211-1216, 1989; Atahanov, Arzneim-Forsch/Drug Res., 42:1311-1313, 1992). Taurine can also improve the survival and functional recovery of temporarily hypoxic neurons, while impeding calcium influx (Schurr et al., Life Sci., 40:2059-2066, 1987; Malcangio et al., Psychopharmacology, 98:316-320, 1989). Taurine can reduce the adverse effects of excitotoxic neurotransmitters and drugs, while blocking NMDA-mediated calcium influx. Acute intravenous administration of taurine reduces the incidence of arrhythmias in animals treated with arrhythmogenic agents and multi-gram doses have been shown to be effective in the treatment of ischemic congestive heart failure (Azuma et al., Curr. Ther. Res., 34:543-557, 1983). Thus, increased taurine intake appears to be beneficial to vascular health.
To insure optimal magnesium status, magnesium supplements are frequently advisable. Magnesium supplements are especially important for diabetics, as these individuals typically display reduced intracellular, plasma and bone levels of magnesium. Magnesium oxide is commonly used as a dietary supplement, although the bioavailability of the magnesium in this salt is far from optimal. Soluble magnesium salt complexes with good nutritional availability, including citrate and glycinate, typically are low in magnesium, the majority of the complex consisting of the counteranion which has no nutritional utility.
There is a need in the art for a magnesium-containing composition in which the magnesium is complexed with a counteranion which itself has nutritional and therapeutic/prophylactic utility and would complement the vascular-protective benefits of magnesium. The present invention addresses this need.

Pharmaceutical composition for rapid thrombolytic therapy


A system for monitoring user activity in an instant messaging session on a computer network periodically sends an activity message to other participants in the instant messaging session if the user has actively entered data during a first predetermined time interval. The system periodically sends a new activity message at intervals corresponding to the first predetermined time interval so long as the user is actively entering data during each time interval. If the user has not entered data during the first predetermined time interval, the system will not send an activity message. Other participants in the instant messaging session receive the activity message and generate an activity indicator on their respective displays. The computer receiving the activity message displays an activity indicator on the computer display in response to receipt of an activity message and starts a timer to measure a second predetermined time interval. If another activity message is not received within the second predetermined time interval, the activity indicator is deleted from the display.

Computer networks, such as the Internet, are extensively used for storage and retrieval of a vast reservoir of information. Person-to-person communication, in the form of electronic mail (e-mail), has also become widely accepted as a replacement for conventional mail and facsimile. Any individual who has access to the Internet can establish an e-mail account and communicate with other individuals on the Internet.
A new form of e-mail communication, known as instant messaging, is gaining popularity among users of the Internet. As shown in a recent popular movie, "You've Got Mail," two individuals can engage in an ongoing electronic communication without the need for entering the message recipient's e-mail address for each individual transmission. The advantage of instant messaging is that two or more individuals may engage in an ongoing electronic "chat" by simply typing the message on the keyboard and pressing the "Enter" button on the computer keyboard or by clicking on a "Send" icon on the computer display screen.
Unlike telephonic communication, when participants know that a person is speaking, participants in an instant messaging session do not know that somebody is preparing a message for transmission. Without a cue that the other person is transmitting information, it is difficult to have a smooth conversational flow. One mechanism that addresses this problem is employed by a UNIX "talk" program, which performs a character-by-character transmission of an instant message. That is, each time individual types of a single character on the computer keyboard, that character is transmitted to all other participants in the instant messaging session. Because other participants are essentially watching the person type, there are clear cues that a user is "talking."
However, this approach has several limitations. First, character-by-character transmission greatly increases the flow of network traffic because each character requires one or more data packets to be sent to each participant in the instant messaging session. In addition, many users do not like to be "watched" as they type, as their typing errors and incomplete thoughts are transmitted before they can be corrected. Finally, message recipients are often distracted by watching the flickering screen in which characters appear one time as a complete message is formed. Therefore, it can be appreciated that there is a significant need for a system and method that will provide the desired notification of user activity in a computer network. The present invention provides this, and other advantages, as will be apparent from the following detailed description and accompanying figures.

System and method for activity monitoring and reporting in a computer network


An elevator controller 7 is provided with logic 48 which automatically calculates a motor time constant (.tau..sub.R), a torque constant (K.sub.T *), and a magnetizing current (Id) for a field-oriented motor/drive system by calculating a transient inductance L.sigma., injecting a variable input frequency sinewave into a q-axis reference current I.sub.qREF and varying the input frequency while calculating an imaginary part of a rotor impedance Imag(Z.sub.R) to obtain a frequency (F.sub.PEAK) at which the maximum value of Imag(Z.sub.R) occurs, then calculating .tau..sub.R from F.sub.PEAK. K.sub.T *, Id, and a total motor voltage V.sub.M are calculated and Id is varied until a ratio of rated motor voltage (Vph.sub.-- RATED) to V.sub.M is within a predetermined tolerance of one. The procedure is performed with the rotor locked.

It is known in the art of field-oriented (or vector-controlled) motor drives and motor speed controls that such drives and controls require knowledge of the motor parameters such as the rotor time constant (.tau..sub.R), torque constant (K.sub.T *), and rated magnetizing current I.sub.dRATED.
One technique used to determine these motor parameters is to analyze the motor in an engineering laboratory using a dynamometer and expensive test equipment and performing time consuming, highly technical tasks by a skilled technician or engineer. However, in modernization or retrofit applications, where a new drive replaces an older drive in an existing elevator system, it is not convenient or cost effective to remove the motor from the elevator system for evaluation of the motor.
Also, it is desirable to determine the motor parameters based on measurements made on the motor at standstill. While techniques exist to determine the motor parameters while the motor is running (at no-load and under-load), it is not always practical to run such tests in an elevator application. In particular, a no-load test is not practical because this would require unroping the elevator or disconnecting the motor from the gearbox. Further, performing a test under load, i.e., with the motor connected to an elevator, is not practical because it is necessary to have approximately correct motor parameters to start the elevator moving to obtain measurements of the motor running under-load. Also, it is desirable that the technique for determining such motor parameters be wholly contained within the drive control itself, so that field commissioning of retrofit or modernization drives may be performed by installers and service personnel without requiring specific motor/drive tuning skills.

Automatic calibration of field-oriented elevator motor drive parameters using standstill motor measurements