A procedure for translating ARM instructions of a first set into instructions of a second set for execution on an LX processor comprising a core provides a first set of registers corresponding to the ARM instructions and a second set of registers corresponding to the instructions that can be executed on the LX processor. Each register of the first set is mapped in a corresponding register of the second set designed to emulate the behavior of the first register, obtaining a unique independent translation of the first set into the second set. The translation is performed by a translation device external to the LX core without altering the core, and the translation operating without accessing resources of the core, by the translating device intercepting accesses of the core to the storage area reserved to the ARM instructions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the techniques for translating instructions that are to operate on different processors. The invention has been developed with particular reference to the possible application to the translation of instructions that can be executed on a processor of the ARM type into instructions that can be executed on a processor of the LX type, such as, for example, the microprocessor ST200-LX produced by STMicroelectronics, Srl, which is the assignee of the present application.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ARM microprocessor is typically a 32-bit pipelined scalar microprocessor, i.e., a microprocessor the internal architecture of which is constituted by different logic stages, each of which contains an instruction in a very specific state. Said state may be one of the following: loading of the instruction itself from the memory; decoding; addressing of a file of registers; execution; or writing/reading data from the memory. The number of bits refers to the width of the data and of the instructions on which the microprocessor operates. The instructions are generated in a specific order by compiling and executed in the same order. An LX microprocessor is typically a microprocessor of the type defined as very-long-instruction-word (VLIW) microprocessor, namely, a 128-bit pipelined VLIW microprocessor. A pipelined superscalar microprocessor possesses an internal architecture made up of different logic stages, some of which are able to execute instructions in parallel, for example in the execution step. Typically, the parallelism is of four instructions of 32 bits each (equal to 128 bits), whilst the data are expressed in 32 bits.
The processor is referred to as superscalar if the instructions are re-ordered dynamically in the execution step so as to supply the execution stages that may potentially work in parallel and if the instructions are not mutually dependent, thus altering the order generated statically by the compiling of the source code.
The processor is referred to as VLIW if, instead, the instructions are re-ordered statically during compiling and executed in the same fixed order, which cannot be modified in the execution step.
For more detailed information regarding the architecture of the microprocessors, reference may be made to the description given in the text: Computer Organization & Design: The hardware/software interface, D. A. Patterson & J. L. Hennessy, Morgan Kaufmann.
The ARM processor is a single-issue RISC machine, provided in any case with a sufficiently extensive set of addressing modes (the data-processing instructions support as many as nine different modes), and affords the possibility of conditional execution of all its instructions on the basis of the flags contained in the status register referred to as CPSR.
The LX processor is a four-issue VLIW processor, which in the sequel of the present description will always be illustrated in the single-cluster version. The LX processor, unlike the ARM processor, has only two addressing modes (from immediate and from register) and does not enable conditioned execution, but given the presence of four lanes operating in parallel, allows execution in parallel of a number of alternatives (with a maximum of 4 instructions) and then selection of the appropriate result once the condition on the execution has been evaluated.
The ARM microprocessor in the version 5, to which reference will be made hereinafter, possesses a 32-bit internal architecture that guarantees a 4-Gbyte address space and has 31 general-purpose registers, of which, however, only 16, designated by the references from R1 to R16, are accessible simultaneously.
There exist, in fact, seven different modes of operation necessary for handling the various types of exceptions to which the processor must respond:
USERnormal execution modeFIQfast interrupt controlIRWgeneric interrupt controlSUPERVISORprivileged mode for the operating systemABORTprotection of access to memory and/orvirtual memoryUNDEFINEDoperating code not defined, for emulationof coprocessorSYSTEMprivileged mode for particular operationsof the operating system.
Two of the 16 accessible registers have a particular role:                the register R15 is used as program counter (PC), i.e., it contains the address of the instruction to be executed;        the register R14 is used as link register (LR); i.e., it contains the address of the instruction to be executed following upon return from execution of a subroutine.
Furthermore, normally the register R13 is used by the software as stack pointer.
Two or more of the general-purpose registers are replicated for the various modes of operation in order to speed up handling of exceptions.
In the IRQ, Abort, Undefined and Supervisor modes, as compared to the User mode, only the registers R13 and R14 (i.e., link register and stack pointer) are replicated.
In the FIQ mode, to make the handling of the exception even faster, also the registers from R8 to R12 have been replicated.
The System mode, whilst presenting all the benefits of a privileged mode, sees all the same registers as the User mode.
Obviously, the program counter is not replicated in any of the modes.
In addition to the general-purpose registers, there is available a status register CPSR (the content of which is illustrated in Table 1) containing information on the result of the execution and on the mode of operation.
TABLE 13130292827268 76540NZCVQ(RAZ)  IFTMODE
where                N flag (negative flag): N=1 if the result of a operation is negative;        C flag (carry flag): C=1 if the result of an add operation generates carry or else if during the step of generation of the operands for a logic operation particular conditions have arisen; C=0 if the result of an operation of subtraction generates borrow;        V flag (overflow flag): V=1 if an arithmetic operation has generated overflow;        Z flag (zero flag): Z=1 if the result of an operation is zero;        Q flag: in the Extended versions Q=1 if the result of one of the operations of the group Enhanced DSP generates overflow or saturation.
The bits from 26 to 8 must not be modified and are read as zero.                I bit: if I=1, it disables the interrupt IRQ;        F bit: if F=1 it disables the interrupt FIQ;        T bit: if T=0 the processor is operating in the normal ARM mode; if T=1 the Thumb execution mode is active. In this mode, ARM interprets a reduced set of instructions, with operation codes, or opcodes, that occupy only 16 bits but with 32-bit register arithmetic, and sees simultaneously only 8 general-purpose registers.
The 5 least significant bits of the status register describe the mode of operation of the ARM processor, as may be seen from the following Table 2:
TABLE 2CPSR (4:0)MODE0b10000USER0b10001FIQ0b10010IRQ0b10011SUPERVISOR0b10111ABORT0b11011UNDEFINED0b11111SYSTEM
All the privileged modes, in addition to the register CPSR, then present a register SPSR, replicated for each mode. The register SPSR associated to a given mode is used for saving the status word contained in the register CPSR when the exception corresponding to that mode is raised; at the end of handling of the exception, the register CPSR will be restored with the value of the register SPSR. The instructions of the ARM processor may be classified in six groups:                data processing (addressing mode 1);        load&store word (32 bits) or unsigned byte (addressing mode 2);        load&store halfword (16 bits) or signed byte (addressing mode 3);        multiple load&store (addressing mode 4);        instructions for the coprocessors (addressing mode 5);        jumps.
The ARM processor enables the conditioned execution of almost all its instructions on the basis of the flags N, C, V, Z contained in the status register CPSR.
The condition is described in the four most significant bits of the opcode of the ARM processor.
Exceptions to the above are the instruction BLX (branch, link and exchange to Thumb state) and the instructions that refer to the coprocessors, which are not conditional.
The various combinations of the flags generate sixteen types of conditioned execution:                AL (always): the instruction is always executed);        NV (never): the instruction is never executed, is not defined, or else forms part of the non-conditional instructions referred to previously;        EQ(equal): Z=1;        NE (not equal): Z=0;        CS/HS (carry set—unsigned higher or same): C=1;        CC/LO (carry clear—unsigned lower): C=0;        MI (minus—negative): N=1;        PL (plus—positive or zero): N=0;        VS (overflow): V=1;        VC (no overflow): V=0;        HI (unsigned higher): C=1 and Z=0;        LS (unsigned lower or same): C=0 or Z=1;        GE (unsigned greater than or equal): N=V;        LT (signed less than): N!=V;        GT (signed greater than): Z=0 and N=V;        LE (signed less than or equal): Z=1 or N!=V.
There are eleven addressing modes of the ARM processor for the data-processing instructions:                Immediate;        direct from register;        logic shift to the left from register (the amount of the shift is contained in a register);        logic shift to the left from immediate (the amount of the shift is expressed by a 5-bit immediate contained in the opcode);        logic shift to the right from register;        logic shift to the right from immediate;        arithmetic shift to the right from register;        arithmetic shift to the right from immediate;        rotation to the right from register;        rotation to the right from immediate;        rotation through the carry flag.
The data-processing instructions are operations of a logic or arithmetic type that are executed by the 32-bit arithmetic logic unit (ALU) of the ARM processor.
The above operations can modify the value of the flags of the register CPSR on the basis of their result when the bit 20 (S bit) of the opcode is at a high level. The execution step of these operations always lasts just one clock cycle.
The ARM processor is then able to perform multiplications and multiplications-with-accumulation of numbers up to 32 bits, generating a 64-bit result that is split into two destination registers.
All the multiplication operations support only direct-from-register addressing, and their execution step lasts just one clock cycle, irrespective of the need or otherwise for performing the operation of accumulation at the end of the multiplication itself.
The operations of load&store in memory of Mode 2 act on words and unsigned bytes and support nine addressing modes, which in any case make use of a base register and a displacement:                base register +/− 12-bit immediate;        base register +/− offset register;        base register +/− scaled offset register (the offset register is shifted with modes similar to the data-processing instructions; the amount of the shift is described by an immediate);        base register +/− pre-indexed immediate (the base register is updated before accessing memory);        base register +/− pre-indexed offset register;        base register +/− pre-indexed scaled register;        base register +/− post-indexed immediate (the base register is updated after accessing memory);        base register +/− post-indexed offset register;        base register +/− post-indexed scaled register.
The operation of reading a 32-bit word from the memory does not require the address to be in itself word-aligned; the reading is made in any case, after which the word is rotated by 8, 16 or 24 if the address was not word-aligned but ended in 0b01, 0b10 or 0b11.
The operation of writing a word, instead, is self-aligned by ignoring completely the two least significant bits of the address; hence, it is not exactly the dual of the reading operation.
The operations of load&store in memory of Mode 3 act on halfwords and signed bytes and support only six of the nine addressing modes associated to Mode 2:                base register +/− 8-bit immediate;        base register +/− offset register;        base register +/− pre-indexed immediate;        base register +/− pre-indexed offset register;        base register +/− post-indexed immediate;        base register +/− post-indexed offset register.
Unlike what occurs in the case of the instructions of Mode 2, the reading and writing operations on halfwords (16 bits) entail the need for halfword-aligned addresses to be executed correctly.
The operations of multiple load&store of mode 4 contain within their opcode a 16-bit field that marks with a high-level bit the registers involved in the transfer.
The above operations present four addressing modes:                increment after: the list of registers is loaded into memory (for the store operations) or from the memory (for the load operations) starting from the address pointed to by a base register. The subsequent registers will be loaded into addresses obtained by incrementing by four (given that access is by words) the address of the previous access;        increment before: the basic address is first incremented by four and then used for the first access. The subsequent registers will be loaded into addresses obtained from the previous one by increment;        decrement after: as for increment after, but the next address is obtained by decrement;        decrement before: as for increment before, but the addresses are obtained by decrement.
The base register may optionally be updated at the end of the operation with the value of the next location pointed to if the bit 21 (W bit) of the opcode is at a high level.
There moreover exist instructions of multiple load&store which can be executed only in privileged operating mode and which enable loading of the program counter from the memory or accessing of the-general-purpose registers of the User mode.
The ARM processor then envisages a further two instructions that access the memory:                SWP: swap word;        SWPB: swap byte.
These instructions each access the memory twice, by loading into a first register the contents of a memory location pointed to by a base register and by writing in the same memory location the contents of a second register. If the first and the second register coincide, the contents of the register and of the memory location have been swapped.
The operations on the coprocessors of mode 5 comprise:                load from memory to coprocessor;        store from coprocessor to memory;        move from general-purpose register to coprocessor's register;        move from coprocessor's register to general-purpose register;        execute coprocessor's data-processing operation.
The instructions for the coprocessors are not described here. The ARM processor then envisages three jump instructions:                PC-relative conditioned jump (with and without storage of the return address): the 24-bit offset is contained in the opcode of the jump. To calculate the destination address, the offset is multiplied by four (in that each opcode of the ARM microprocessor occupies 32 bits) and extended with sign, and is then added to the current value of the program counter. It should be pointed out that, as a result of the architecture of the pipeline of the ARM processor, at the moment of updating, which takes place in the execution step, the program counter contains the address of the jump instruction incremented by eight;        unconditioned jump with change of mode: the processor performs a jump with 24-bit offset, stores the return address in the link register and enters Thumb mode, modifying the T bit of the status word;        conditioned jump with change of mode (with or without storage of the return address): the processor performs a jump to the address contained in an index register. The value of the index register is aligned by neglecting its least significant bit, which is used for deciding the mode of operation (if it is at a high level Thumb mode; otherwise ARM mode).
It is to be emphasized that, unlike the case of the LX processor, for the ARM processor the program counter forms part of the general-purpose registers; hence, any operation of data processing or of load from memory that will have R15 as destination register may generate a jump.
The commitment step of the operations that have the program counter as destination is therefore different from the normal load or data-processing instructions and must envisage restoring of the register CPSR with the value contained in the register SPSR associated to the current mode.
Two special instructions concern handling of the status registers:                MSR: moves an immediate or a general-purpose register of the current mode into one of the status registers of the current mode (CPSR or SPSR);        MRS: moves a status register of the current mode into a general-purpose register of the current mode.
The above instructions can be executed correctly only in a privileged execution mode and must not be used for modifying the T bit of the register CPSR, which would cause a transition from ARM mode to Thumb mode, or vice versa.
Accessing the register SPSR in the System mode, which does not see this register, has an unforeseeable effect on the execution.
There now follows a description of the architecture of the LX microprocessor.
The LX processor is a core with the possibility of assuming different configurations according to the use; in what follows, reference will be made to the 4-issue single-cluster version.
The entire architecture is 32-bit and has 64 general-purpose registers plus a program counter not accessible directly by the user.
Two of the general-purpose registers have, however, particular functions:                the register R63 is used as link register;        the register R0 contains always the value zero and is used for comparisons and assignments that cannot use explicitly a further immediate field, as will be clarified in what follows.
There then exists a series of special registers (always 32-bit ones) mapped in a reserved area that occupies the last 4 Kbytes of the address space of the LX processor, which is of 4 Gbytes.
These registers, among other things, comprise:                a status register PSW, which contains the mode of operation (either User or Supervisor) and information on the devices for the protection and management of the memory;        a stack register for the status register, used in the presence of exceptions;        a HANDLER_PC register, used in the presence of exceptions for containing the address of the exception handler;        other registers that contain information required for recognition and management of the exceptions;        registers for control of the protection unit for the program memory (IPU) and data memory (DPU).
In each cluster of the LX processor there are therefore four lanes, to each of which there is associated an ALU capable of executing the normal 32-bit logic-arithmetic operations. There are then two units capable of making the multiplications of a 16-bit number with a 32-bit number, with result truncated at 32 bits. These units are associated to lanes 1 and 3 of the cluster.
The LX processor enables just one access to memory for each cluster; hence, there exists a single Load&Store unit, which is able to execute operations on words, halfwords, or bytes and which may be associated to any one of the lanes of the cluster.
A unit referred to as Instruction Issue Unit allocates the operations contained in one and the same bundle or set of instructions on the lanes in such a way that the two least significant bits of the word address of each instruction determine the lane on which the instruction itself is run.
A direct consequence of this is that a multiplication instruction, which must be executed on an odd lane, must occupy an odd word address in the program memory. It is therefore necessary to make the alignment by inserting into the code, if necessary, NOP (no operation) instructions.
In each cluster there is then present a unit referred to as branch unit, which executes the jump operations. The LX processor performs the conditioned-jump operations on the basis of one of the branch-bit registers, a group of eight registers of one bit each, which contain the result of logic operations or comparison operations.
The value of a branch-bit register must be assigned at least two bundles before the corresponding conditioned jump occurs.
All the jump operations must occupy the first instruction of the bundle, and there cannot be two jump instructions within the same bundle, even if the two constructs are alternative.
The LX processor has just two addressing modes for the data-processing instructions:                from register;        from immediate.
The immediates may, however, be of two types: short and long.
The short immediates are 9-bit signed numbers, which are able to represent a number from −128 to +128 and are incorporated into the 32 bits of the opcode.
The long immediates are 32-bit signed numbers and occupy with the 9 least significant bits part of the 32 bits of the opcode. The remaining 23 bits are contained in one of the words adjacent to the opcode, with the constraint of being associated to lane 0 or lane 2 of the cluster, and hence occupying an even word address.
The operations of access to the memory enable only addressing by means of the base register plus 9-bit offset and, unlike what occurs in the case of the ARM processor, they involve alignment.
Accesses to words on addresses that are not word-aligned, as well as accesses to non-halfword-aligned halfwords, generate exceptions.
As regards the jump instructions, mention of which has already been made previously, there are conditioned-jump operations (BR, BRF), which make offset jumps (23-bit) and unconditioned-jump instructions (CALL, GOTO, RTI), which can make offset jumps (23-bit) or else jumps to the address pointed to by the link register, with the constraint that the link register must be modified at least three bundles before the corresponding jump.
There are then two instructions (SLCT, SLCTF), which enable a conditional MOV operation to be performed on the basis of the evaluation of a branch bit: if this has a high level, the first source register is brought into the destination register; otherwise, the second source register or an immediate is loaded according to the addressing mode.
Finally, it should be emphasized that the LX processor, unlike the ARM processor, does not contain a register of the flags, and that hence it is not able to point out automatically whether the arithmetic operations generate carry or overflow.
Already known to the art are various solutions that aim at enabling a given microprocessor to execute instructions of a set originally designed for a different processor.
For example, the European patent application EP-A-0 747 808 describes a dual-instruction-set processor that is able to interpret both the native code of an IBM PowerPC computer and the code for the Intel x86 family of processors.
The above-mentioned document describes the management of the system of virtual memory necessary for enabling multitasking of two applications developed for different instruction sets, but does not describe a translation process.
To carry out an efficient translation of the x86 instructions, the original structure of the PowerPC is extended with instructions and registers dedicated to the execution in x86 mode.
The issue logic of the core is moreover modified by the addition of units for decoding and translating x86 opcodes. These units work in parallel with the native decoding unit of the PowerPC, and on the basis of the current operating mode the choice is made as to which of the two decodings is to be applied. To enable determination of the operating mode of the processor, there is added a Control Unit Mode, which is responsible for handling switching between the x86 mode and the PowerPC mode.
The above unit is able to interact with the Memory Management Unit to enable a proper management of the system of virtual memory.

Process for translating instructions for an arm-type processor into instructions for a LX-type processor; relative translator device and computer program product


Oral compositions, such as oral gels, toothpastes and mouthwashes, containing an enzyme, a surfactant, a chelating agent and a fluoride ion source.

The formation of dental plaque is the primary source of dental caries, gingival and periodontal disease and tooth loss. Dental plaque is a mixed matrix of bacteria, epithelial cells, leukocytes, macrophages and other oral exudate. Bacteria comprise approximately three-quarters of the plaque matrix. Any given sample of dental plaque could contain as many a 400 different varieties of microorganisms. This mix includes both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, fungi and protozoa. Viruses have also been found in samples of dental plaque.
This matrix of organisms and oral exudate continues expanding and coalesces with other plaque growths situated nearby. The bacteria synthesize levans and glucans from sucrose found in the oral cavity providing energy for the microorganisms. These glucans, levans and microorganisms form an adhesive skeleton for the continued proliferation of plaque.
Calculus is a yellow or white mineralized deposit of bacterial plaque. Inorganic in nature, calculus consists primarily of calcium and magnesium phosphate and calcium carbonate. Calculus forms in layers as does plaque and is simply the mineralization of plaque's layered bacteria. Calculus is formed when plaque's protein-carbohydrate matrix accumulates calcium followed by the precipitation and mineralization of crystalline calcium phosphate. Once mineralized calculus is formed, another layer of bacteria adheres to the surface forming yet another layer of plaque which is subsequently mineralized into calculus.
The failure to retard or stop the proliferation of plaque is detrimental to oral health. Plaque formation leads to dental caries, gingival inflammation, periodontal disease and ultimately tooth loss. The present inventors recognize these problems and have developed a composition suitable for combating oral disease, preventing tooth loss, and leading to general oral well-being.
The use of a variety of agents to clean the oral cavity and reduce plaque and mouth malodor has been recognized for some time. Examples include: U.S. Pat. No. 3,696,191, Oct. 3, 1972 to Weeks; U.S. Pat. No. 3,991,177, Nov. 9, 1976 to Vidra et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,058,595, Nov. 15, 1977 to Colodney; U.S. Pat. No. 4,115,546, to Vidra et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,138,476, Feb. 6, 1979 to Simonson et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,140,758, Feb. 20, 1979 to Vidra et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,815, May 15, 1979 to Pader; U.S. Pat. No. 4,737,359, Apr. 12, 1988 to Eigen et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,981, Jan. 22, 1991 to Glace et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,992,420, Feb. 12, 1991 to Nesser; U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,939, Mar. 19, 1991 to Dring et al.; Kokai 02/105,898, published Apr. 18, 1990 to Kao Corporation; Kokai 03/128,313, published May 31, 1991 to Nippon Kotai Kenkyu and Kokai 03/223,209, published Oct. 2, 1991 to Lion Corporation; U.S. Pat. No. 4,652,444, Mar. 24, 1987 to Maurer; U.S. Pat. No. 4,725,428, Feb. 16, 1988 to Miyahara et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,355,022, Oct. 19, 1982 to Rabussay and PCT application WO 86/02831, published May 22, 1986 to Zetachron, Inc.
While the prior art discloses the use of various oral compositions for combating plaque, there is still a need for additional formulations which provide improved performance in combating oral disease along with increased user acceptance. The present inventors have discovered that by combining, in a suitable carrier, a chelating agent with a calcium binding coefficient of 10.sup.2 to 10.sup.5, a surfactant and an enzyme, superior cleaning results with an abatement in the formation of plaque and calculus.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an oral care product and methods of using the same that are effective in arresting the accumulation of plaque and preventing gingivitis. It is a further object of the present invention to provide an oral product and methods that by reducing plaque will abate subsequent calculus formation. It is still a further object of the present invention to provide consumers with a product that will clean the oral cavity and provide improved methods of promoting vitality of the oral cavity.
These objectives and additional objectives will become readily apparent from the detailed description which follows.


A cutter unit includes a cutter holder, a cradle, a cutter lever, a cradle lever, and a transmitting portion. The cradle faces the cutter holder and movable between a full-cut position and a half-cut position. The cutter lever is configured to be contactable with the cutter holder. The cradle lever is configured to be contactable with the cradle. The transmitting portion is configured to move the cutter lever and the cradle lever in interlocking relation therebetween. The transmitting portion is configured to shut off transmission of movement of the cutter lever to the cradle lever in accordance with only operation to the cutter lever out of the cutter lever and the cradle lever while the transmitting portion is configured to transmit movement of the cradle lever to the cutter lever in accordance with only operation to the cradle lever out of the cutter lever and the cradle lever.

There has been known a cutter unit for cutting a cut item such as a tape, label, and tube. Further, a printer including the cutter unit for printing image on and cutting the tape, label and tube is also known. For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-224924 discloses a cutter unit including a motor for driving a movable blade so as to cut a label sheet in cooperation with a cutting table.

Cutter unit selectively performing one of full-cutting and half-cutting, and printer including the same


The improved low cost Spill-Resistant Cup for storing and dispensing liquids resists spilling when shaken or vibrated suddenly. The improved cup has a scoop-like-baffle and a push tab that separates the body of the cup with the mouthpiece of the cover. An opening is created when the push tab is pressed and the push tab springs back to close the opening when the pressure is released. When the improved cup is tilted and the tab pushed down for pouring, such that the liquid level inside the storage chamber of the cup chamber is higher than the liquid level at the opening, no liquid pours out of the cup. The liquid starts to flow out of the mouth opening after the cup is tilted beyond a start-to-pour angle. The start-to-pour angle is reached when the cup is tilted permitting the outside air to pass through the opening of the scoop-like-baffle and into the storage chamber.

Man has used containers for storing and dispensing liquids for millennia. However, containers still have their problems. For example, full cups of soda or hot coffee sold in fast food restaurants being consumed in moving cars have caused many spilling accidents. Although these cups may be equipped with sealing lids with small mouth openings, spilling mishaps are still very common. Serious burns may result from a very hot coffee spill due to certain unavoidable mishap in a moving car. Therefore, there is a need for an improved low cost disposable cup and container, which ideally does not spill while drinking and, realistically is spill-resistant.
On the market, most low cost drinking cups for take out from a restaurant have attachable cover for customer to prevent spill. These covers are usually flat or have some forms of a dome shape with bent edges that fits snugly to the rim of the cup. A small opening is provided on the cover so that the user can drink from the cup with the cover remains attached. When the cup is shaken or vibrated suddenly due to unexpected breaking in a moving car or any other reason, spilling liquid splashed from the opening is common and often unavoidable. A simple low cost yet effective design to replace the current cup design and prevent the spill is needed. A U.S. Pat. No. 6,612,456 proposed a lid for the cup having a hinged portion of a re-closable opening for drinking. This design works well as long as the opening of the hinged re-closable portion is in the closed position. However, when the user opens the hinged portion for drinking, few if any will re-close the opened portion and thus lost its protective feature for spill prevention and making it no more different from most of the cups on the market.
This inventor has developed a number of spill-resistant containers; U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,098,850; 6,374,541; 6,460,741; and 6,758,375 using a hydrostatic principle in achieving the spill-resistant feature. The present invention simplifies the design and allows a scoop-like-baffle with a self re-closeable opening feature and a fitted mouthpiece to be made as an integral part of the cover and achieving the desired low cost spill-resistant cup.

Low cost spill-resistant cup for liquids


A vertical memory device and a method of fabricating the same are provided. The vertical type semiconductor device includes a common source region formed in a cell area of a semiconductor substrate. A channel region is formed on the common source region. The channel region has a predetermined height and a first diameter. A drain region is formed on the channel region. The drain region has a predetermined height and a second diameter larger than the first diameter. A first gate electrode surrounding the channel region.

1. Technical Field
Various embodiments generally relates to a vertical type semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a vertical type semiconductor device and a method of fabricating the same.
2. Related Art
The distribution rate of portable digital devices has been increasing day by day and ultra-high integration, ultra-high speed, and ultra-low power of memory devices, which are embedded in a limited size to process large capacity of data with high speed, have been required.
Studies on vertical memory devices have been actively progressed to meet these demands. Recently, the vertical structures are introduced into resistance memory devices which are spotlighted as next-generation memory devices.
The resistance memory devices are devices which select a memory cell through an access device, change a resistance state of a data storage material electrically connected to the access device, and store data. There are typically phase-change random access memories (PCRAMs), resistance RAMs (ReRAMs), magnetoresistive RAMs (MRAMs), and the like as the resistance memory devices.
Diodes or transistors may be employed as the access device of the resistive memory devices. In particular, the threshold voltage of the transistors is controlled to be low as compared with the diodes and thus the operation voltage thereof can be reduced, and the transistors have received attention again as the access device of the resistance memory devices by applying the vertical structure thereto.
That is, since the voltage of 1.1 V or more has to be applied to the diodes, there is a limitation to reduce an operation voltage of the diodes. Further, when the diodes are formed on a word line, a resistance of the word line is varied according to locations in the cells to cause word line to be bounced.
Since transistors in the related art are formed in a horizontal structure, the reduction rate is restricted. However, the vertical transistors can sufficiently ensure current drivability in the limited channel area. Further, voltage drop due to an external resistance component may be improved through reduction in a source resistance.
However, when a current vertical structure transistor is formed, a vertical structure transistor is formed by etching a semiconductor substrate in a cell area and a horizontal structure transistor is formed in the semiconductor substrate in a peripheral area. Therefore, desired degree of integration may not be obtained in a subsequent process due to a step between the cell area and the peripheral area. Further, there is a need for an alternative to compensate current drivability of the transistor lower than the diode.

Vertical type semiconductor device and fabrication method thereof


A polyamide and a process for preparing the polyamide are disclosed. The process comprises reacting in a reaction mixture a monomer selected from unsaturated carboxylic acids, esters of unsaturated carboxylic acids, anhydrides of unsaturated carboxylic acids, and mixtures thereof, and a first amine to form an intermediate reaction product in the reaction mixture, wherein the first amine is selected from RR1NH, RNH2, RR1NH2+, RNH3+ and mixtures thereof, wherein R and R1 can be the same or different and each contain between about 1 and 50 carbon atoms and are optionally substituted with heteroatoms oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus and combinations thereof, and reacting the intermediate reaction product and a second amine to form a polyamide, wherein the second amine is selected from R2R3NH, R2NH2, R2R3NH2+, R2NH3+ and mixtures thereof wherein R2 and R3 can be the same or different and each contain between about 1 and 50 carbon atoms and are optionally substituted with heteroatoms oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus and combinations thereof, wherein multiple of the R, R1, R2, and R3 are in vertically aligned spaced relationship along a backbone formed by the polyamide. In one version of the invention, the monomer is selected from maleic anhydride, maleic acid esters, and mixtures thereof. In another version of the invention, the first amine is an alkylamine, such as tetradecylamine, and the second amine is a polyalkylene polyamine, such as pentaethylenehexamine. In yet another version of the invention, the first amine and the second amine are olefinic or acetylenic amines, such as the reaction products of an alkyldiamine and an acetylenic carboxylic acid. The first amine and the second amine may be the same or different depending on the desired polyamide polymer structure.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to polyamides prepared by reacting a monomer selected from unsaturated carboxylic acids and esters and anhydrides of unsaturated carboxylic acids, and at least one amine.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known that the physical properties of an organic polymeric material can be altered by introducing specific functional groups into the polymer backbone. For instance, polymeric materials that can conduct electricity, that are magnetic, or that change some property such as color or refractive index under the influence of various external factors such as light, pressure, electric fields, magnetic field, pH changes, or temperature alterations have been prepared by adding functional groups to the polymer backbone. In all of these applications, one critical requirement is that some of the functional groups along the polymer backbone be aligned in a regular repeating fashion with very high density. Polymeric materials with very different properties can be made depending on the choice of the functional groups. Electron donor-acceptor pairs can be conductive or have optical properties that are influenced by electric or magnetic fields. An array of negatively charged groups is a typical arrangement sought for conducting organic polymers where the charge carriers are metal ions and protons. Hydrogels can be formed if charges are present on the side chains. Materials with special conductive, magnetic or electro-optical properties can be fabricated from polymers having specialized aromatic side chains.
In the background section of PCT International Publication Number WO 00/17254, several methods for introducing side chains to a main chain of a polymer are discussed and critiqued. For instance, it is reported in this document that one strategy for introducing side chains to a main chain of a polymer is to add the side chains to the preformed main chain. It is noted however, that this is generally not satisfactory because of the lack of predictability and reproducibility of stoichiometry, under-derivitization for stearic reasons, difficulty in accessing the interior of the polymer, poor solubility of the polymer, and inefficient coupling reactions. It further reported in WO 00/17254 that an alternative method for introducing side chains to a main chain of a polymer is to attach the desired side chain to each monomer prior to chain formation. It is stated that this method is generally more efficient but the subsequent coupling of the monomers often requires activating groups to be attached to one or both coupling sites.
WO 00/17254 provides one solution to the aforementioned problems associated with introducing side chains to a main chain of a polymer. In WO 00/17254, there is disclosed a process for synthesizing a novel polyamide from unsaturated lactones and amines. In the polymerization reaction, the condensation of a lactone with a variety of monofunctional or bifunctional amines is followed by ring opening of the resulting lactone to give a polyamide. The resulting polyamide has a regular, sequential alignment of side chains along the polyamide backbone. The polymerization process can produce cationic, anionic or neutral polymers depending on the nature of the side chain attached to the main chain of the polymer. It is reported that the side chains can be among other things: a very long alkyl chain which generates a bipolar structure; a molecular system with special electrical properties; a polyamine with metal complexation properties; or a carboxylate with cation exchange or capture properties. The disclosed process provides a good general method for the assembly of a continuous array of side chains along a polymer backbone in a quick and efficient manner, does not require activation of groups of the monomer, does not produce any by-products that have to be eliminated, proceeds under mild conditions, is compatible with a large spectrum of functional groups including alcohols, acids, phosphate groups, sulfonates, nitrites, amides and amines, can be carried out in a wide variety of solvents from aprotic solvents to water, and uses renewable resources instead of materials derived from fossil fuels.
While the polymerization process described in WO 00/17254 provides one solution to the aforementioned problems associated with known methods for introducing side chains to a main chain of a polymer, there is one disadvantage with the polyamide polymerization process of WO 00/17254. Specifically, the starting monomers for the polymerization process can be more expensive than other commercially available monomers. Therefore, there is a need for a less costly alternative monomer that produces a polyamide having a regular, sequential alignment of side chains along the polyamide backbone. Also, there is a need for a less costly polyamide material compared to the class of polyamides disclosed in WO 00/17254.
The foregoing needs in the art are met by a polyamide prepared by reacting a monomer selected from unsaturated carboxylic acids, esters of unsaturated carboxylic acids, anhydrides of unsaturated carboxylic acids, and mixtures thereof, and a first amine to form an intermediate reaction product in the reaction mixture, wherein the first amine is selected from RR1NH, RNH2, RR1NH2+, RNH3+ and mixtures thereof, wherein R and R1 can be the same or different and each contain between about 1 and 50 carbon atoms and are optionally substituted with heteroatoms oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus and combinations thereof, and then reacting the intermediate reaction product and a second amine to form a polyamide, wherein the second amine is selected from R2R3NH, R2NH2, R2R3NH2+, R2NH3+ and mixtures thereof, wherein R2 and R3 can be the same or different and each contain between about 1 and 50 carbon atoms and are optionally substituted with heteroatoms oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus and combinations thereof, wherein multiple of the R, R1, R2, and R3 are in vertically aligned spaced relationship along a backbone formed by the polyamide.
In one version of the invention, the monomer is selected from maleic anhydride, maleic acid esters, and mixtures thereof. In another version of the invention, the first amine is an alkylamine, such as tetradecylamine, and the second amine is a polyalkylene polyamine, such as pentaethylenehexamine. In yet another version of the invention, the first amine and the second amine are olefinic or acetylenic amines, such as the reaction products of an alkyldiamine and an acetylenic carboxylic acid. In an example embodiment of the invention, the polyamide is prepared by reacting the monomer and the first amine in a molar ratio of from 1:0.05 to 1:1 and adding the second amine in a molar ratio of monomer to second amine of from 1:0.05 to 1:1. The first amine and the second amine may be the same or different depending on the desired polyamide structure.
In one example embodiment of the invention, the polymerization process produces a polyamide of the formula:
wherein n is between about 50 and 10,000, wherein x is an integer in the range of 0 to 20, wherein y is an integer in the range of 0 to 20, wherein R contains between about 1 and 50 carbon atoms and is optionally substituted with heteroatoms oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus and combinations thereof, wherein R1 contains between about 1 and 50 carbon atoms and is optionally substituted with heteroatoms oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus and combinations thereof, wherein multiple of the R and R1 are in vertically aligned spaced relationship along a backbone formed by the polyamide, and wherein R and R1 are neutral, positively charged or negatively charged. In one version of the polyamide of the invention, R is alkyl. In another version of the polyamide of the invention, R1 is polyalkylenyl polyamine. In yet another version of the polyamide of the invention, R1 is an olefinic or acetylenic amino group.
The polyamide of the invention may be crosslinked with a crosslinking agent containing at least two functional groups capable of reacting with amino groups, such as isocyanate compounds having 2 or more xe2x80x94Nxe2x95x90Cxe2x95x90O groups, aldehyde compounds having 2 or more xe2x80x94CHO groups, phosphines having the general formula (A)2P(B) and mixtures thereof, wherein A is hydroxyalkyl, and B is hydroxyalkyl, alkyl, or aryl, and epoxy resins having epoxide end groups.
A polyamide in accordance with the present invention can be tailored for use in many different practical applications. For example, proper selection of two different amines for inclusion in the polymer will create a two-dimensional structure such that one side of the polyamide is non-polar or lipophilic and the other side of the polymer is polar or hydrophilic. Proper selection of the amines can also cause the polyamide to: (1) act as a hydrogel, (2) act as a flocculent, (3) provide surfaces that do not scale, (4) provide surfaces that are more bio-compatible, (5) provide surfaces that bind metals, (6) provide a reducing environment for reducing metal ions to a base metal, and (7) provide a material for use in micropatterning for electronic device manufacturing.
The polyamide, whether crosslinked or not crosslinked, is particularly useful as a coating for a substrate. In one coating application, the polyamide is used to coat a polymeric substrate which may comprise a natural polymer such as cellulose, or a synthetic polymer such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyurethane, silicone rubber, polytetrafluoroethylene, or any derivative of these polymers. In another coating application, an antithrombotic agent (i.e., a material that inhibits thrombus formation), such as heparin, is bonded to the polyamide coating to produce an article suitable for medical applications in which the article contacts blood. (As used herein, xe2x80x9cantithromboticxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cnon-thrombogenicxe2x80x9d refer to any material which inhibits thrombus formation on a surface.) In yet another coating application, the polyamide is used to coat surfaces in order to suppress biofilm formation. In still another coating application, the polyamide is used as an thin conductive film for electronic devices. Additionally, the polyamide may be used to coat oil and gas lines.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood upon consideration of the following detailed description, drawings, and appended claims.

Two dimensional polyamides prepared from unsaturated carboxylic acids and amines


The present invention provides methods of treating cancers, chemoprevention, selectively inducing terminal differentiation, cell growth arrest and/or apoptosis of neoplastic cells, and/or inhibiting histone deacetylase (HDAC) by administration of pharmaceutical compositions comprising potent HDAC inhibitors. The oral bioavailability of the active compounds in the pharmaceutical compositions of the present invention is surprisingly high. Moreover, the pharmaceutical compositions unexpectedly give rise to high, therapeutically effective blood levels of the active compounds over an extended period of time. The present invention further provides a safe, daily dosing regimen of these pharmaceutical compositions, which is easy to follow, and which results in a therapeutically effective amount of the HDAC inhibitors in vivo.

Throughout this application various publications are referenced by arabic numerals within parentheses. Full citations for these publications may be found at the end of the specification immediately preceding the claims. The disclosures of these publications in their entireties are hereby incorporated by reference into this application in order to more fully describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains.
Cancer is a disorder in which a population of cells has become, in varying degrees, unresponsive to the control mechanisms that normally govern proliferation and differentiation. For many years there have been two principal strategies for chemotherapeutic treatment of cancer: a) blocking hormone-dependent tumor cell proliferation by interference with the production or peripheral action of sex hormones; and b) killing cancer cells directly by exposing them to cytotoxic substances, which injure both neoplastic and normal cell populations.
Cancer therapy is also being attempted by the induction of terminal differentiation of the neoplastic cells (1). In cell culture models differentiation has been reported by exposure of cells to a variety of stimuli, including: cyclic AMP and retinoic acid (2,3), aclarubicin and other anthracyclines (4).
Despite many advances in the field of oncology, the majority of solid tumors remain incurable in the advanced stages. Cytotoxic therapy is used in most cases, however, it often causes significant morbidity to the patient without significant clinical benefit. Less toxic and more specific agents to treat and control advanced malignancies are being explored.
There is abundant evidence that neoplastic transformation does not necessarily destroy the potential of cancer cells to differentiate (1,5,6). There are many examples of tumor cells which do not respond to the normal regulators of proliferation and appear to be blocked in the expression of their differentiation program, and yet can be induced to differentiate and cease replicating. A variety of agents, including some relatively simple polar compounds (5,7-9), derivatives of vitamin D and retinoic acid (10-12), steroid hormones (13), growth factors (6,14), proteases (15,16), tumor promoters (17,18), and inhibitors of DNA or RNA synthesis (4,19-24), can induce various transformed cell lines and primary human tumor explants to express more differentiated characteristics.
Early studies identified a series of polar compounds that were effective inducers of differentiation in a number of transformed cell lines (8,9). Of these, the most effective inducer was the hybrid polar/apolar compound N,N′-hexamethylene bisacetamide (HMBA) (9). The use of this polar/apolar compound to induce murine erythroleukemia cells (MELC) to undergo erythroid differentiation with suppression of oncogenicity has proved a useful model to study inducer-mediated differentiation of transformed cells (5,7-9). HMBA-induced MELC terminal erythroid differentiation is a multi-step process. Upon addition of HMBA to MELC (745A-DS19) in culture, there is a latent period of 10 to 12 hours before commitment to terminal differentiation is detected. Commitment is defined as the capacity of cells to express terminal differentiation despite removal of inducer (25). Upon continued exposure to HMBA there is progressive recruitment of cells to differentiate. The present inventors have reported that MELC cell lines made resistant to relatively low levels of vincristine become markedly more sensitive to the inducing action of HMBA and can be induced to differentiate with little or no latent period (26).
HMBA is capable of inducing phenotypic changes consistent with differentiation in a broad variety of cells lines (5). The characteristics of the drug-induced effect have been most extensively studied in the murine erythroleukemia cell system (MELC) (5,25,27,28). MELC induction of differentiation is both time and concentration dependent. The minimum concentration required to demonstrate an effect in vitro in most strains is 2 to 3 mM; the minimum duration of continuous exposure generally required to induce differentiation in a substantial portion (>20%) of the population without continuing drug exposure is about 36 hours.
The primary target of action of HMBA is not known. There is evidence that protein kinase C is involved in the pathway of inducer-mediated differentiation (29). The in vitro studies provided a basis for evaluating the potential of HMBA as a cytodifferentiation agent in the treatment of human cancers (30). Several phase I clinical trials with HMBA have been completed (31-36). Clinical trials have shown that this compound can induce a therapeutic response in patients with cancer (35,36). However, these phase I clinical trials also have demonstrated that the potential efficacy of HMBA is limited, in part, by dose-related toxicity which prevents achieving optimal blood levels and by the need for intravenous administration of large quantities of the agent, over prolonged periods.
It has been reported that a number of compounds related to HMBA with polar groups separated by apolar linkages that, on a molar basis, are as active (37) or 100 times more active than HMBA (38). As a class, however, it has been found that the symmetrical dimers such as HMBA and related compounds are not the best cytodifferentiating agents.
It has unexpectedly been found that the best compounds comprise two polar end groups separated by a flexible chain of methylene groups, wherein one or both of the polar end groups is a large hydrophobic group. Preferably, the polar end groups are different and only one is a large hydrophobic group. These compounds are unexpectedly a thousand times more active than HMBA and ten times more active than HMBA related compounds.
Histone deacetylase inhibitors such as suberoylanilide hydroxamide acid (SAHA), belong to this class of agents that have the ability to induce tumor cell growth arrest, differentiation and/or apoptosis (39). These compounds are targeted towards mechanisms inherent to the ability of a neoplastic cell to become malignant, as they do not appear to have toxicity in doses effective for inhibition of tumor growth in animals (40). There are several lines of evidence that histone acetylation and deacetylation are mechanisms by which transcriptional regulation in a cell is achieved (41). These effects are thought to occur through changes in the structure of chromatin by altering the affinity of histone proteins for coiled DNA in the nucleosome. There are five types of histones that have been identified in nucleosomes (designated H1, H2A, H2B, H3 and H4). Each nucleosome contains two of each histone type within its core, except for H1, which is present singly in the outer portion of the nucleosome structure. It is believed that when the histone proteins are hypoacetylated, there is a greater affinity of the histone to the DNA phosphate backbone This affinity causes DNA to be tightly bound to the histone and renders the DNA inaccessible to transcriptional regulatory elements and machinery. The regulation of acetylated states occurs through the balance of activity between two enzyme complexes, histone acetyl transferase (HAT) and histone deacetylase (HDAC). The hypoacetylated state is thought to inhibit transcription of associated DNA. This hypoacetylated state is catalyzed by large multiprotein complexes that include HDAC enzymes. In particular, HDACs have been shown to catalyze the removal of acetyl groups from the chromatin core histones.
The inhibition of HDAC by SAHA is thought occur through direct interaction with the catalytic site of the enzyme as demonstrated by X-ray crystallography studies (42). The result of HDAC inhibition is not believed to have a generalized effect on the genome, but rather, only affects a small subset of the genome (43). Evidence provided by DNA microarrays using malignant cell lines cultured with a HDAC inhibitor shows that there are a finite (1-2%) number of genes whose products are altered. For example, cells treated in culture with HDAC inhibitors show a consistent induction of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21 (44). This protein plays an important role in cell cycle arrest. HDAC inhibitors are thought to increase the rate of transcription of p21 by propagating the hyperacetylated state of histones in the region of the p21 gene, thereby making the gene accessible to transcriptional machinery. Genes whose expression is not affected by HDAC inhibitors do not display changes in the acetylation of regional associated histones (45).
It has been shown in several instances that the disruption of HAT or HDAC activity is implicated in the development of a malignant phenotype. For instance, in acute promyelocytic leukemia, the oncoprotein produced by the fusion of PML and RAR alpha appears to suppress specific gene transcription through the recruitment of HDACs (46). In this manner, the neoplastic cell is unable to complete differentiation and leads to excess proliferation of the leukemic cell line.
Cutaneous T-cell lymphomas and peripheral T-cell lymphomas are forms of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Cutaneous T-cell lymphomas are a group of lymphoproliferative disorders characterized by localization of malignant T lymphocytes to the skin at presentation. CTCL frequently involves the skin, bloodstream, regional lymph nodes and spleen. Mycosis fungoides (MF), the most common and indolent form of CTCL, is characterized by patches, plaques or tumors containing epidermotropic CD4+CD45RO+ helper/memory T cells. MF may evolve into a leukemic variant, Sezary syndrome (SS), or transform to large cell lymphoma. The condition causes severe skin itching, pain and edema. Currently, CTCL is treated topically with steroids, photochemotherapy and chemotherapy, as well as radiotherapy. Peripheral T-cell lymphomas originate from mature or peripheral (not central or thymic) T-cell lymphocytes as a clonal proliferation from a single T-cell and are usually either predominantly nodal or extranodal tumors. They have T-cell lymphocyte cell-surface markers and clonal arrangements of the T-cell receptor genes. Approximately 16,000 to 20,000 people in the U.S. are affected by either CTCL or PTCL. These diseases are highly symptomatic. Patches, plaques and tumors are the clinical names of the different presentations. Patches are usually flat, possibly scaly and look like a "rash." Mycosis fungoides patches are often mistaken for eczema, psoriasis or non-specific dermatitis until a proper diagnosis of mycosis fungoides is made. Plaques are thicker, raised lesions. Tumors are raised "bumps" which may or may not ulcerate. A common characteristic is itching or pruritis, although many patients do not experience itching. It is possible to have one or all three of these phases. For most patients, existing treatments are palliative but not curative.
According to the National Cancer Institute, head and neck cancers account for three percent of all cancers in the U.S. Most head and neck cancers originate in the squamous cells lining the structures found in the head and neck, and are often referred to as squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck (SCCHN). Some head and neck cancers originate in other types of cells, such as glandular cells. Head and neck cancers that originate in glandular cells are called adenocarcinomas. Head and neck cancers are further defined by the area in which they begin, such as the oral cavity, nasal cavity, larynx, pharynx, salivary glands and lymph nodes of the upper part of the neck. It is estimated that 38,000 people in the U.S. developed head and neck cancer 2002. Approximately 60% of patients present with locally advanced disease. Only 30% of these patients achieve long-term remission after treatment with surgery and/or radiation. For patients with recurrent and/or metastatic disease, the median survival is approximately six months.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,369,108, 5,932,616, 5,700,811, 6,087,367 and 6,511,990, issued to some of the present inventors, disclose compounds useful for selectively inducing terminal differentiation of neoplastic cells, which compounds have two polar end groups separated by a flexible chain of methylene groups or a by a rigid phenyl group, wherein one or both of the polar end groups is a large hydrophobic group. Some of the compounds have an additional large hydrophobic group at the same end of the molecule as the first hydrophobic group which further increases differentiation activity about 100 fold in an enzymatic assay and about 50 fold in a cell differentiation assay. Methods of synthesizing the compounds used in the methods and pharmaceutical compositions of this invention are fully described the aforementioned patents, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The aforementioned patents do not disclose specific oral formulations of the HDAC inhibitors or specific dosages and dosing schedules of the recited compounds. Importantly, the aforementioned patents do not disclose oral formulations that have favorable pharmacokinetic profiles such as high bioavailability which gives rise to high blood levels of the active compounds over an extended period of time.
The class of compounds of the present invention may be useful for selectively inducing terminal differentiation, cell growth arrest and/or apoptosis of neoplastic cells and therefore aid in treatment of tumors in patients. Thus there is an urgent need to discover suitable dosages and dosing schedules of these compounds, and to develop formulations, preferably oral formulations, which give rise to steady, therapeutically effective blood levels of the active compounds over an extended period of time.

Methods of treating cancer with HDAC inhibitors


Disclosed is method for controlling interference in a wireless system having multiple sending and receiving nodes. In the method for controlling interference in a wireless system having multiple sending and receiving nodes, a plurality of receiving nodes share each other's channel information, each of the receiving nodes uses the shared channel information to calculate a precoding matrix which is fed back to the sending nodes, and each of the sending nodes uses each of the precoding matrices received as feedback to transmit a send signal to the receiving nodes, thereby controlling interference. Complete interference alignment can be achieved even by just sharing channel information between receiving nodes, and the invention can be employed not only for inter-cell interference but also for intra-cell interference environments.

With the development of digital wireless communication technology, a wireless communication system having a composite transmission/reception relationship is necessary between multiple nodes. The largest problem to be solved in this system is to control interference between the multiple nodes.
In a cellular mobile communication system, interference between multiple nodes is largely divided into intra-cell interference and inter-cell interference. For example, the intra-cell interference occurs when one transmission cell transmits a signal to multiple users. Here, the transmission node knows all transmission signals, and positive cooperation is possible upon transmission. An example of the positive cooperation is dirty-paper coding in a multiuser environment. On the other hand, the inter-cell interference occurs, for example, when multiple transmission cells respectively transmit signals to their own users. Here, one transmission node knows only its own transmission signal, and positive cooperation between cells is impossible.
In third generation partnership project (3GPP), one of standardizations bodies for 4G mobile communication systems, a coordinated multi-point transmission (CoMP) technique has been introduced to control the inter-cell interference. An example of an intra-cell interference environment is multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO).
To use channel capacity in which the inter-cell interference exists, a transmission node should be informed of channel state information including all channel matrices. A recently introduced interference alignment technique [Reference Literature 1: Cadambe and Jafar, "Interference Alignment and Degrees of Freedom of the K-User Interference Channel," IEEE Trans. Info. Theory] is known as a technique capable of maximally obtaining a spatial multiplexing gain or a degree of freedom. In this technique, the channel capacity may be obtained at a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). However, since the interference alignment technique is under the assumption that all reception nodes as well as transmission nodes should know channels between all nodes, implementation is difficult.
On the other hand, it has been confirmed that the channel capacity of a multiuser MIMO system, which is an environment where the intra-cell interference exists, may be obtained by the dirty-paper coding technique. However, a significantly complex coding technique such as a lattice code is required to implement dirty-paper coding, and also there is a difficulty that a transmission node should know channel state information (CSI) of all links.

Method and device for managing interference in neighbouring cells having multiple sending and receiving nodes

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


The invention concerns the technical field of micro-actuators used for mechanical, chemical, electrical or thermal functions in microsystems, for microelectronic applications such as chips, or biomedical functions such as microfluidics integrating cards. The invention concerns a micro-actuator comprising a so-called main chamber, made in a solid support and containing a so-called main pyrotechnic charge, the main chamber being sealed and delimited by solid support walls and by a deformable membrane, such that the gases emitted by the combustion of the main pyrotechnic charge, enable the volume of the chamber to be increased by deforming the membrane while maintaining intact the solid walls of the main chamber. The invention is characterized in that it comprises means for evacuating the gases from the main chamber.

Microactuators are miniaturized objects produced in solid supports, which may be semiconductors or insulators, for the purpose of forming microsystems such as, for example, microvalves or micropumps in fluid microcircuits, or microswitches in electronic microcircuits.
Microactuators using electrostatic, piezoelectric, electromagnetic and bimetallic effects have already existed for some time. A new generation of microactuators has started to appear, namely those using a pyrotechnic effect. In this regard, patent WO 98/22719 discloses a miniature valve for filling the reservoir of a transdermal administration device. The operating principle of this valve is based on the fragmentation of a substrate caused by the combustion gases from a pyrotechnic charge, said substrate initially separating a fluid reserve from an empty reservoir. This microvalve may, according to another embodiment, be used with an inflatable envelope. The combustion gases firstly cause the substrate to rupture and then the envelope to inflate for the purpose of pushing on a fluid so as to evacuate it. These microvalves have the double drawback of emitting substrate fragments into the microcircuit and of mixing the combustion gases with the fluid that they are supposed to release.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,111,221 discloses a non-miniaturized valve for interrupting, just once, the flow of a fluid between three concurrent ducts. This valve system includes a gas generator for inflating a bladder that is interposed at the intersection between the three ducts in order to completely close the fluid circuit. Various embodiments using in particular a piston that deforms the bladder under the action of gases are also present in the above document.

Double-effect pyrotechnic microactuator for microsystem and microsystem using same


Disclosed are various examples and embodiments of systems, devices, components and methods configured to treat mood disorders in a patient using a compact implantable neurostimulator and corresponding lead(s) that are shaped, sized and configured to be implanted beneath a patient's skin in the head or neck, and to stimulate one or more target cranial nerves. The one or more medical electrical leads comprising electrode(s) are positioned adjacent to, in contact with, or in operative positional relationship to, the one or more target cranial nerves of the patient. In some embodiments, electrical stimulation is provided to the one or more target cranial nerve(s) of the patient for periods of time ranging between 30 and 60 minutes, once or twice per day. In some embodiments, power is provided to the implantable neurostimulator transcutaneously by inductive, wireless, RF, acoustic, microwave, or other suitable non-invasive means.

A variety of therapies are known and have been employed to treat mood disorders and mood affective disorders such as depression, insomnia, and bipolar disorder, most notably the many different types of pharmaceutical drugs that have been developed for such purposes. Pharmaceutical drugs are commonly prescribed for such disorders, but also generally become quite expensive over time, and not uncommonly have significant side effects.
Besides pharmaceutical drugs, other methods have been developed to treat mood and mood affective disorders, such as out-patient or office-based transcranial magnetic stimulation methods to treat depression. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) methods to treat depression may also be administered in a patient's home by the patient, where surface electrodes are placed on the exterior of the head and held in place with a temporary adhesive or a device such as a head band. External transcutaneous electrical stimulation of nerves, whether peripheral or cranial, has met with limited and highly uneven and murky degrees of success over the years.
In the field of implantable nerve stimulation devices that have been developed to treat mood disorders such as depression and insomnia, implantable pulse generators employed to effect such treatments have frequently been found to be too large to implant in the head or neck of a patient, and therefore require the use of relatively long medical electrical leads that must be routed from the patient's shoulder or back to a nerve stimulation location in the patien's head or neck.
What is needed are improved and alternative means and methods of treating mood disorder and mood affective disorder patients. The present disclosure is directed to devices, systems, and methods that address one or more deficiencies in the prior art.

Systems, devices, components and methods for the delivery of electrical stimulation to cranial nerves to treat mood or mood affective disorders


An electrical fitting with an improved arrangement on the trailing end for securing metal clad or armored electrical cable to a panel or junction box. A connector body includes a trailing opening, an intermediate flange, and an open channel having a channel bottom and extending from the trailing opening to the intermediate flange. A bridge on the connector body adjacent the trailing opening bridges the open channel and is adapted to receive a clip member secured thereto. The clip member includes a base portion, at least one leg extending from the base portion, and two cable grabbing end portions on the leg. At least one of the end portions is bent at an angle with respect to the leg. The leg extends from the exterior of the connector body into the open channel and is cantilevered from the bridge to enable easy insertion of cable within the trailing opening. The open channel permits ample space for flexing of the leg of the clip member to further ease insertion of cables into the fitting. Bend lines on the leg direct the cable grabbing ends toward an inserted cable and thereby hold the cable against the bottom of the open channel. The end portions of the leg seat within a groove on the electrical cable and thereby secure it in place with respect to the electrical fitting.

Several prior art connectors have been proposed for the attachment of electrical cables to panels or electrical boxes. Some of these include a tubular body with a cavity on the trailing end and a split ring that is inserted within the cavity. Typically the split ring includes one or more cable gripping tangs for securing a cable to the trailing end of the connector. As a result of the limited space within the cavity, the length of the cable gripping tangs is limited. Thus the cable gripping tangs must be relatively short, making the tangs stiff and less flexible, which translates to a higher than desired amount of force required to insert a cable into the trailing end of the electrical connector.
An electrical fitting having an improved arrangement on the trailing end for the attachment of electrical cables was disclosed in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 11/300,859, which is commonly owned by the assignee of the present invention and the contents of which are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference thereto. Instead of the split ring being located within the tubular body as shown in the prior art, the improved arrangement included single or tandem cable gripping tangs that are fastened externally to the tubular body and therefore are easily accessible.
The present invention provides a duplex electrical fitting that incorporates the several advantages of the electrical fitting of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/300,859. The duplex electrical fitting includes increased space to allow enhanced flexing of the cable gripping tangs. With the duplex fitting of the present invention, the movement of the cable gripping tangs is much less restricted when a cable is secured thereto to the trailing end of the connector. The duplex electrical connector of the present invention thereby enables easier insertion of electrical cables to the trailing end of the connector and thereby enables the electrical fitting to accommodate a wider range of cable sizes.

Electrical fitting for snap in connection of cables


In at least some implementations, a fuel metering valve, includes a bobbin defining a passage and having one or more voids in the surface of the bobbin that defines the passage, aa wire coil around the bobbin and an armature. The armature is received within the passage in the bobbin and movable relative to the bobbin from a first position to a second position when electricity is supplied to the wire coil.

A variety of fuel injection throttle body configurations are known for supplying a fuel and air mixture to an internal combustion engine to support its operation in which a liquid gasoline fuel is injected into a main bore at a relatively high pressure typically in the range of 6 to 40 psi and sometimes up to 80 psi or more above ambient atmospheric pressure to facilitate mixing or dispersion of the liquid fuel in the fuel and air mixture supplied to the engine. To control the rate of flow of the mixture to the engine, a throttle valve with a planar valve head in the main bore is carried on a shaft that is rotated to move the valve head between an idle position, associated with low speed and/or low load engine operation, and a wide open or fully open position, associated with high speed and/or high load engine operation. A fuel pump is communicated with a pressure regulator and supplies liquid fuel at this high pressure to a fuel metering valve or injector which is opened and closed to discharge the appropriate quantity of fuel into the main bore for the current operating condition of the engine. The fuel metering valve is located downstream of the throttle body and proximate to the engine fuel intake port or engine intake valve pocket.


A unit for establishing contact between a liquid and a gas includes: a chamber having a vertical axis; a first series of contact sections disposed along the length of the vertical axis of the chamber; a second series of contact sections disposed along the length of the vertical axis of the chamber, alternated with the contact sections of the first series; and a liquid circulation system designed to circulate a liquid in the contact sections of the first series and in the contact sections of the second series in a separate manner.

Offshore hydrocarbon exploitation leads to the use of various treatment methods on oil platforms. However, when the sea is too deep, it is not possible to use stationary platforms, and floating platforms, often called FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Off-loading), are used. These floating platforms are subject to the movements of the sea, which they transmit to the equipment they bear. Among these, the columns, whether distillation or absorber columns, are among the most sensitive to movement. In fact, the effectiveness of this equipment depends on the quality of the contact between the descending liquid and the vapor that rises in the columns.
The most traditional method for establishing good contact between the liquid and vapor consists of forcing the gas to pass through ports formed in a tray on which the liquid flows. However, in such tray columns, the quality of the contact between the liquid and vapor depends on the horizontally of the trays; any angle relative to the horizontal, even a small one, can lead to dry a part of the tray from liquid, which then no longer ensures contact between the liquid and vapor. For that reason, operators of plants on floating platforms prefer random or structured packing over trays. Document FR 2777533 describes a floating maritime structure having a structured packing with a particular geometry designed to reduce the impact of the marine oscillations on the operation of the structure.
Random packing consists of metal or ceramic pieces that are positioned so as to fill the entire cross-section of the column, in a disordered manner. The complex shape ensures good contact between the liquid and the vapor. Structured packing consists of plates shaped and arranged together so as to ensure the passage of the gas and liquid with good contact.
FIG. 1 shows a traditional column arrangement equipped with packing. The configuration is similar for disordered packing and structured packing. The column here comprises two packing beds A and B. They are sprayed with liquid using distributors C and D that ensure the distribution thereof on the entire cross-section of the column. A collector E collects the liquid from the bed A; the liquid is then distributed by the distributor D on the bed B. The proper operation of the packing assumes that the liquid is regularly distributed over the entire cross-section of the column so as to avoid dry areas, which would cause part of the rising vapor not to be in contact with the liquid.
In traditional liquid distributors, the liquid coming from the top of the column arrives in a chute, the bottom of which is pierced with holes. Each of these holes is across from a secondary chute that it feeds with liquid. The secondary chutes, the bottoms of which are in turn pierced with distribution holes, ensure uniform spraying of the cross-section of the column.
Furthermore, in traditional liquid distributors, the chutes are open at the apex and the liquid level established inside is also subject to the movements of the FPSO. As a result, depending on the incline, the distribution holes are covered by a higher or lower liquid level. Since the flow rate through each hole depends on the liquid height submerging it, the flow rates are therefore not identical, which leads to irregular spraying of the cross-section of the column. Certain distribution ports may not be submerged in the liquid, which leads to dry areas in the packing. The liquid/vapor contact quality is therefore affected.
Document US 2008/0271983 proposes to modify the liquid distributor so as to ensure a regular distribution of the liquid over the entire cross-section of the column, irrespective of the incline. An illustration thereof is provided in FIG. 2, taken from that document.
The liquid is distributed on the cross-section of the column using primary 32 and secondary 33 chutes which, unlike traditional distributors, are closed. Each primary chute 32 is supplied by a vertical tube 31. The chutes are pierced on the lower surface thereof with ports that ensure the distribution of the liquid, whereof the diameter is calculated such that the liquid level is established relatively high in the vertical tube 31. Thus, the pressure differences that may appear at the perpendicular to each of the ports due to the incline of the column become negligible faced with the hydrostatic height produced by the liquid level in the vertical tube 31. A uniform distribution of the liquid may thus be ensured over the entire cross-section of the column. These distributors are described as pressure distributors.
However, the main drawback of this device lies in the height of liquid that is necessary in the vertical tube 31. In fact, for the device to be effective, this height must be significantly greater than the height variations between the different parts of the chutes that result from the incline of the column. The height of the vertical tube 31 therefore commonly reaches 3 to 4 m.
Furthermore, when the column is inclined, the liquid tends, within the packing, to accumulate on the side toward which the column is tilted, until it may encounter the shell on which it flows without returning toward the inside of the packing. The uniformity of the liquid distribution obtained using the pressurized distributor is thus broken. In order to avoid this harmful effect, it is necessary to collect the liquid and redistribute it approximately every 4 to 5 m so as to eliminate the edge effects.
As a result of the above, the height of a column following the model of that described in document US 2008/0271983 is significantly greater than a standard column, with an equal flow rate. This results in bulk and weight constraints that are difficult to reconcile with the constraints of a tight environment, such as that of floating platforms. Consequently, there is a need to design a new unit for establishing contact between a gas and a liquid that is capable of operating effectively on a floating platform despite the movements thereof, and having smaller sizes than the units of the state of the art.

Unit for establishing contact between a gas and a liquid for a floating platform


A forging machine has a machine frame (1), radial forging rams (2) each adapted to carry a die (5), distributed angularly in a common working plane around the system axis (5); radial pressure-fluid piston (12) and cylinder (11) units on the machine frame, each with its cylinder forming or connected to a respective ram and having a stroke corresponding to the required ram stroke; and crossheads (15) mounted adjustably on the machine frame and each supporting the piston of a respective piston and cylinder unit. The stroke position of each ram is adjustable by adjustment of the crosshead towards and away from the system axis. A flange (19) is provided on each cylinder (11) and, a ring (17) extends around each ram, at the radially inner side of the flange (19), and is connected to the adjustable crosshead. Ram return piston and cylinder units (20,22) are disposed between the ring and flange.

This invention relates to forging machines and more particularly to such machines having an adjustable stroke.
For the forging of workpieces having a distinct longitudinal axis, forging machines are employed which are provided with three or more rams equipped with dies, and distributed within a plane, and in particular with four such rams at 90.degree. to one another in an X arrangement. These rams act radially on the workpiece which is guided longitudinally along the system axis. The rams are guided in the machine frame and are constructed at their ends remote from the dies as cylinders of piston-and-cylinder units, or are connected to such units. The piston-and-cylinder units are dimensioned in accordance with the working stroke of the ram in order to minimize the compression volume, this being a major prerequisite for rapid stroke and a defined stroke end position. The stroking position, by which the pass contour produced by the dies is determined, is adjustable by means of crossheads which support the pistons of the piston-and-cylinder units and which are adjustable in the machine frame. A closed pass contour, as is necessary for certain types of work, is obtained through the use of replaceable sets of dies of the appropriate dimensions as in Peter Metzger, "Die numerisch gesteuerte Radial-Umformmaschine und ihr Einsatz im Rahmen einer flexiblen Fertigung" ["The numerically controlled radial forming machine and its employment in flexible manufacturing"], volume 5 of the reports issued by the Institut fur Umformtechnik [Institute of Forming Technology] of the University of Stuttgart, publishers: Springer-Verlag, Berlin - Heidelberg - New York, 1980, pages 36-39, 67-69, 112, 113, 129), or by means of dies which are transversely adjustable at the rams via die holders, said dies featuring mutually overlapping work and side surfaces and being adjusted such that they form a closed pass contour in the relevant stroke end position (European Application No. EP 0 228 030 B1; U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,796,456 and 4,831,864).
In order to achieve a compact design of such forging machines and, at the same time, minimum-clearance ram guidance, the rams according to European Application No. EP 0 228 658 B1 are constructed as pistons or cylinders of piston-and-cylinder units and directly guided, i.e. not offset, in the machine frame. Here -- if double-acting pistons are to be avoided owing to the more complicated seals required -- the pistons or cylinders serving as rams have to be provided with shafts which pass through the complementary cylinders or pistons, and the supporting crossheads which are adjustable in the machine frame, by means of which shafts the piston-and-cylinder units for the ram return strokes operate.

Forging machine with stroke adjustment means


Multi-port flow control valves are provided wherein the outlet ports may be opened in cascade fashion to allow fluid to flow through the outlet ports into at least two conduits in which the opening of the outlet ports is controlled by a signal indicating the need for fluid in the conduits. The valves are particularly useful for controller the supply of heating/cooling fluid to multiple heating/cooling coils employed to control reactions. In a preferred embodiment the opening of the ports is controlled according to the heat measured in the reaction.

PCT Patent applications PCT/EP02/04651, PCT/EP02/04646, PCT/EP02/04650 and PCT/EP02/04648 describe a system for measuring heat liberated or absorbed by a chemical or physical reaction. This information can be used for measuring and controlling reaction efficiency in steady state processes and reaction progress in unsteady state processes. The control is affected by measuring the temperature change in the heat transfer fluid to determine the quantity of heat liberated or absorbed by the reaction and adjusting the area of temperature control surface available to the reaction accordingly.
The earlier patent applications describe a system containing a series of heat transfer coils where individual heat transfer coils are designed such that the heat transfer area of the heat transfer pipe is matched (approximately given that U varies with flow, temperature and liquid properties and it varies with application) with the flow carrying capacity of the liquid such that:U.A.LMTD=m.Cp.(tsi-tso)(kW)where U=overall heat transfer coefficient (kW.m−2.K−1)                A=heat transfer area (m2)        m=mass flow rate of heat transfer fluid (kg/s)        LMTD=log mean thermal difference between service and process fluids (° C.)        Cp=specific heat of heat transfer fluid (kJ.kg−1K-−1)        (tsi-tso)=temperature (° C.) change in the heat transfer fluid between inlet and outlet
The system described in PCT Patent applications PCT/EP02/04651, PCT/EP02/04646, PCT/EP02/04650 and PCT/EP02/04648 is a variable area heat transfer system. Multiple coils are used in combination to match the desired operating conditions. The ability to transition between these coils in a smooth, bounce-less manner is of great importance to the stability of the system. Poor accuracy of the heat measurements can result from a crudely implemented system. The system described in the PCT Patent applications PCT/EP02/04651, PCT/EP02/04646, PCT/EP02/04650 and PCT/EP02/04648 utilizes multiple control and switching valves to bring individual coils into or out of operation. This is however a complicated system which can involve jumps in the system as one switches a new coil into action or as one switches a coil out of action. The use of a multi-port flow control valve, which whilst achieving a high degree of control also offers the additional benefits of a compact design, reduces the amount of control signals required and enables smoother transitions.


A turbine airfoil of a gas turbine engine, the airfoil constructed from a spar and shell, in which the spar includes a root with a plurality of spar cooling air supply channels extending toward the tip and having impingement holes formed along the spar to provide impingement cooling to the shell, and the shell includes a plurality of shell return channels extending from the tip toward the root to channel the impingement cooling air to collector cavities located in the root. With a plurality of spar supply channels and shell return channels, a serpentine flow cooling circuit with multi-impingement cooling of the shell is produced. The cooling air supplied to the spar is discharged out exit holes in the trailing edge in one embodiment, or out exit holes and leading edge film cooling holes in a second embodiment. The spar and shell are bonded together using a low pressure and high temperature bonding process that includes thin sheets containing boron. The bonds are formed between the platforms and the joints between the return channels and the supply channels.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to fluid reaction surfaces, and more specifically to a turbine airfoil having a spar and shell construction with internal cooling.
2. Description of the Related Art including information disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
As one skilled in the gas turbine technology recognizes, the efficiency of the engine is enhanced by operating the turbine at a higher temperature and by increasing the turbine's pressure ratio. Another feature that contributes to the efficiency of the engine is the ability to cool the turbine with a lesser amount of cooling air. The problem that prevents the turbine from being operated at a higher temperature is the limitation of the structural integrity of the turbine component parts that are jeopardized in its high temperature, hostile environment. Scientists and engineers have attempted to combat the structural integrity problem by utilizing internal cooling and selecting high temperature resistant materials. The problem associated with internal cooling is twofold. One, the cooling air that is utilized for the cooling comes from the compressor that has already extended energy to pressurize the air and the spent air in the turbine cooling process in essence is a deficit in engine efficiency. The second problem is that the cooling is through cooling passages and holes that are in the turbine blade or vane which, obviously, adversely affects the blade or vane's structural prowess. Because of the tortuous path (a serpentine path through the blade or vane) that is presented to the cooling air, the pressure drop that is a consequence thereof requires higher supply pressure and more air flow to perform the cooling that would otherwise take a lesser amount of air given the path becomes friendlier to the cooling air. While there are materials that are available and can operate at a higher temperature that is heretofore been used, the problem is how to harness these materials so that they can be used efficaciously in the turbine environment.
Also well known by those skilled in this technology is that the engine's efficiency increases as the pressure ratio of the turbine increases and the weight of the turbine decreases. Needless to say, these parameters have limitations. Increasing the speed of the turbine also increases the airfoil loading and, of course, satisfactory operation of the turbine is to stay within given airfoil loadings. The airfoil loadings are governed by the cross sectional area of the turbine multiplied by the velocity of the tip of the turbine squared, or AN2. Obviously, the rotational speed of the turbine has a significant impact on the loadings.
One prior art reference, U.S. Pat. No. 7,080,971 B2 issued to Wilson et al. on Jul. 25, 2006 and entitled COOLED TURBINE SPAR AND SHELL BLADE CONSTRUCTION, discloses a spar/shell construction that affords the turbine engine designer the option of reducing the amount of cooling air that is required in any given engine design. And in addition, allowing the designer to fabricate the shell from exotic high temperature materials that heretofore could not be cast or forged to define the surface profile of the airfoil section. In other words, by virtue of this prior art turbine blade, the shell can be made from Niobium or Molybdenum or their alloys, where the shape is formed by a well known electric discharge process (EDM) or wire EDM process. In addition, because of the efficacious cooling scheme of this invention, the shell portion could be made from ceramics, or more conventional materials and still present an advantage to the designer because a lesser amount of cooling air would be required. The cooling arrangement in this Wilson et al. patent is a single impingement cooling circuit. The blade is formed of a single spar that provides a rigid support for the shell that forms the airfoil surface. The spar includes a single central cavity that forms the cooling air supply passage with impingement holes to direct impinging air against the inside surface of the spar wall.
It is an object of the present invention to provide for a turbine airfoil of the spar and shell construction in which the internal cooling circuit includes multiple impingement cooling of the airfoil.
It is another object of the present invention to provide for a turbine airfoil of the spar and shell construction in which the shell also forms part of the internal cooling channels.

Turbine airfoil with a multi-impingement cooled spar and shell


Rate limiting systems and methods for regulating access to a shared network resource in a computing device accessed through an application programming interface. A rate limit associated with a shared network resource is assigned to a user for a time period. During the time period, access to the shared network resource is granted or denied repeatedly based upon the rate limit; a cost is calculated using a cost function; and, the rate limit is updated based upon the cost.

Cloud computing allows a large number of users ubiquitous access to shared computer resources. Typically, a user can use (i.e. provision) a shared network resource rapidly and with minimal management oversight. Benefits from employing shared network resources has lead to the nearly ubiquitous adoption of cloud computing by most internet-based services and applications.
However, in spite of its manifest benefits, a shared network resource can be a source of interdependences and coupling between different functions and users. For example, coupling occurs when a use of a shared network resource by a first user overwhelms the resource and a second user is left without access. In some circumstances the second user requires the shared network resource to complete a task. In this case the task will remain undone as long as the shared network resource is being used by the first user. This is sometimes referred to as the "noisy neighbor" problem.
A challenge for resource sharing is that each use of a resource is likely to differ in time it takes to complete as well as the stress it places on the resource. This problem is not solved by allocating a fixed number of uses of the shared network resource to each user over a given time period, as a user with more intensive uses will monopolize the resource.
Therefore a need exists for methods and systems for ensuring fair and reliable access to a shared network resource, and in particular to RESTful network resources (i.e., a resource that complies with the representational state transfer (i.e., REST model).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Dynamic rate limiting for networked resources