This invention provides a signal-processing method that makes it possible to acquire, relatively easily and surely, a highly reliable normalized impulse-response signal without relying on the signal-correction processing after normalization. The signal-processing method of this invention includes a low-frequency extraction step, a high-frequency extraction step and a synthesizing step. In the low-frequency extraction step, only the low-frequency component is extracted from the spectrum of the first normalized signal NS1 obtained by normalizing the target signal Stgt in the time domain. In the high-frequency extraction step, only the high-frequency component is extracted from the spectrum of the second normalized signal NS2 obtained by normalizing the target signal Stgt in the frequency domain using the reference signal Sref. In the synthesizing step, the low-frequency component, derived from the first normalized signal NS1, and the high-frequency component, derived from the second normalized signal NS2, are synthesized to obtain a normalized impulse-response signal NS.

The use of an ultrasonic B-mode echo image is a method widely used in the medical field, and many apparatuses for obtaining such an image have been proposed (see Patent Document 1). Briefly, an ultrasonic B-mode echo image is an image of a reflected-signal sequence of which an ultrasonic-wave incident on an object is reflected and returned. When it is assumed that the ultrasonic waves have traveled straight without having scattered, a reflection occurs due to the difference in the resistance value (characteristic-acoustic impedance) at the travel destination, the same as in the case of an electrical signal. Therefore, if the distribution of the characteristic-acoustic impedance is known, it is possible to estimate what kind of reflected signal-sequence has returned. In other words, if the distribution of the acoustic property is known, it is possible to estimate that which the B-mode image is supposed to have observed, conversely.
However, as for target objects of non-uniform thickness (depth) such as biological tissue or the like, the reflected waveform that penetrates and returns from such tissue reflects the result of ultrasonic-waves incident on the target object having undergone enormous scattering and absorption in various ways of traveling (the result of multiple reflection). For this reason, it is considered difficult to convert such a reflected waveform into acoustic properties such as a characteristic-acoustic impedance or the like, and this method has not been studied in the past. Also, since an ultrasonic B-mode echo image tends to be an image disturbed by speckle noise caused by multiple reflections of ultrasonic waves within a biological tissue, it is considered unsuitable for displaying the internal structure of such biological tissue with a high degree of accuracy. Therefore, of the conventional apparatus, a countermeasure such as an acoustic filter is required, although there is the problem that such a configuration is complicated.
Furthermore, regarding a normal ultrasonic-diagnostic apparatus that displays an ultrasonic B-mode echo image, at least information about the layered structure within a biological tissue such as skin or the like can be obtained. However, the obtained image is a reflected image of the interface between such structured layers of different characteristic-acoustic impedances, and such a reflected image is insufficient to perceive the internal structure of such biological tissue. Specifically, it is insufficient to perceive the difference in acoustic impedance within such biological tissue. In other words, it was easy to understand sensuously the reflected image obtained by the prior art whereof the interface of such layered structure existed. On the other hand, it was difficult to understand sensuously how the characteristic acoustic impedance of the intermediate region surrounded by such interface existed. Therefore, it has been desirable to construct an ultrasonic-tomographic image of a very thin target object to be measured, one having a layered structure in a fashion that makes it sensuously easy to understand such a layered structure based on the information obtained by using ultrasonic waves.
In light of such circumstances, the inventors of this invention have already proposed an improved ultrasonic-image construction apparatus (se e.g. Patent Document 2). This apparatus is configured so as to include a substrate having a known acoustic property, an ultrasonic transducer that transmits and receives ultrasonic waves via a base material, a computing unit, an image-constructing unit, and the like. In this device, a target substance and a reference substance having a known acoustic property are arranged in contact with a substrate having a known acoustic property. Then, in this state, an ultrasonic pulse is transmitted, an ultrasonic wave is incident on the target substance and on the reference substance via the substrate, and response signals (target signal and reference signal) are received from the target substance and the reference substance respectively. Next, the target signal is deconvoluted (that is, normalized) in the frequency domain using the reference signal, thus obtaining a normalized impulse-response signal. Based on this normalized impulse-response signal, calculation is performed to estimate the acoustic-property distribution in the depth direction (specifically, the characteristic acoustic-impedance distribution) in consideration of the influence of multiple reflections. Since the reflection coefficient inside the soft tissue is small, the acoustic property distribution in the depth direction can be estimated by a simpler calculation when the influence of multiple reflections is small enough to be ignored. Then, image data is constructed based on the obtained acoustic property distribution in the depth direction, so that a desired ultrasonic-tomographic image is obtained.

Ultrasonic image construction method, apparatus and signal-processing method

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CORPORATION TOYOHASHI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY


Method for performing an elevator rescue run in an emergency situation, the elevator comprising and elevator car, a counter weight, a rope suspending the car and the counterweight, a drive motor, an emergency brake for stopping the car in an emergency situation, and a motor drive unit for supplying drive power to and for controlling the drive motor, having the following rescue run sequence steps:                (a) operating the motor drive unit in a zero speed demand mode for holding the car at its present position;        (b) lifting the brake, while holding the car in the zero speed demand mode;        (c) determining the preferred movement direction of the car based on the power data as obtained by the motor drive unit; and        (d) performing the rescue run in the direction of the determined preferred movement direction.

The present invention relates to a method for performing an elevator rescue run in an emergency situation, the elevator comprising an elevator car, a counterweight, a rope suspending the car and the counterweight, a drive motor, an emergency brake for stopping the car in an emergency situation and a motor drive unit for supplying drive power to and for controlling the drive motor, as well as a corresponding elevator.
For safety reasons elevators are constructed so as to immediately stop the the car in an emergency situation during its travel in the elevator shaft. Practically, power to the drive motor and the emergency brake is interrupted, causing the drive motor to stop driving the car and causing the emergency brake to fall in and to stop the car almost immediately. Since such stopping will normally not occur at a landing, but randomly at any location within the elevator shaft, passengers will get trapped in the elevator car. In such an emergency situation it is mandatory to free the passengers from the elevator car as soon as possible. This requires the presence of a technician or qualified personnel at the elevator site and it may take some time before such qualified person arrives.
In most cases the emergency situation is caused by a power failure in the main power supply to the elevator. Emergency situations may also be caused by defects in the elevator itself, for example an interruption of the safety chain, with the elevator control, the encoder, etc. While after a power failure the elevator takes up operation once power is again available, other situations require the presence of a qualified person as mentioned above.
There are two different emergency situations, i.e. an emergency situation in which car and counterweight are in an unbalanced condition, i.e. once the brake is lifted, the car starts moving by gravity. U.S. Pat. No. 6,196,355 B1 discloses an electrical elevator rescue system for freeing the passengers in this kind of situation. However, there also is the balanced load condition, i.e. even after lifting the brake the car will remain at its position. Due to the fact that normally elevators are designed to be in a balanced condition for the most common operational conditions, such a balanced load condition is not uncommon.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,821,476 teaches a carry-along emergency device including an emergency DC power supply, a switching device for alternatively feeding DC voltage for windings of the drive motor and an actuator for releasing the elevator brake. The switching device typically is a rotary switch having 6 contacts which are connected to the windings of the drive motor so that in the course of rotating the switch from one contact to the next contact the windings of the elevator motor are successively energized, thus advancing the car and the counterweight step by step.
Another approach for moving the elevator car in a balanced load condition is described in EP 0 733 577 A2, which suggests to provide a separate rescue drive means for moving the car in a balanced load condition.
The problem with any such construction resides in the fact that the respective methods of operation require the presence of a technician or a qualified person at the elevator site. Particularly, once such qualified person arrives at the elevator, he has to control the rescue run from a service panel board. The typical rescue operation is different for the balanced load condition and the unbalanced load condition. At the beginning, while monitoring the movement of the car, the technician will lift the emergency brake. To this effect normally the service panel board is typically provided with a "brake release button". The technician will actuate the brake release button and, if the car is in an unbalanced load condition, the car will start moving. The technician will use the emergency brake for stopping the car, once the car has accelerated to a certain speed. By repeatedly opening and closing the emergency brake ("stutter braking"), due to gravity the car will move to an appropriate landing where the passengers may leave the car. If the car is in a balanced load condition, the car will not move, once the brake has been opened. In such a situation motive force to the car may be provided for example by the apparatus as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,821,476 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,376,471.
The respective methods for performing the elevator rescue run of the prior art are complicated and require particular skills in for being performed.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method for performing an elevator rescue run which is simple and reliable.


A building controller unit having a building controller adapted to control one or more building components of a building, and a license file stored within the building controller unit for storing software license information. In some cases, the building controller unit may include a license server for granting and/or denying software access requests from one or more software applications running external to the building controller unit based on the software license information stored in the building controller unit.

Many modern building control systems, or building automation systems, include a programmed, computerized, "intelligent" network of building controllers that monitor and control the mechanical, lighting and/or other systems of a building. The use of building control systems can, for example, reduce energy use, reduce maintenance costs, and/or increase the comfort of a building. In many cases, the building controllers used in such building control systems are application specific controllers, or embedded building controllers, that are adapted to control a particular function and/or region of a building. Such embedded building controllers come in a wide range of sizes and capabilities that are application specific for controlling a particular type of device or system within a building.
Many building control systems have a personal computer or other general purpose computer or workstation connected to the building control system network. Building control software is typically run on the personal computer or workstation, and is used to help control and/or monitor the operation of the overall building control system. The building control software can, for example, help setup, configure, program and/or monitor the various embedded building controllers on the network, as well as monitor and control the operation of the overall building control system. The building control software typically communicates with the various embedded building controllers that are connected to the building control network.
In many cases, the building control software is licensed to the end user, and the license can contains certain restrictions. For example, the license may restrict the number of devices on the network, the number of devices that can be managed on the network, the number of points in the system, the functionality or features of the building control software available to an end user, and/or the number of users on the network or that can simultaneously access the building control software. In addition, licenses for building control software can be tied to a particular personal computer that is connected to the building control system network and the license may not be easily transferred to another personal computer. These are just a few example licensing restrictions that are commonly associated with building control software.
Typically, to enforce the license restrictions, a license file is provided that includes the authorization for the building control software. In some cases, the license file is provided on a hardware dongle, sometimes known as a hardware key or token. A hardware dongle is a small hardware device that is typically directly connected to the general purpose computer running the building control software, such as the above-referenced personal computer or workstation. The hardware dongle typically authenticates the use of the building control software on the computer or workstation. In some cases, the hardware dongle is connected to the computer or workstation via a PCMCIA interface, a USB interface, a parallel port interface, or a printer port interface. When the hardware dongle is not connected to the computer or workstation, the building control software typically runs in a restricted mode or not at all, depending on license terms. The use of hardware dongles can have certain disadvantages including, for example, a relatively high cost of implementation, a relatively high amount of technical support, physical access to the personal computer, and/or manually moving the hardware dongle from one personal computer to another to transfer the license.
Rather than using a hardware dongle, and in some cases, a license file is installed on the hard drive of the general purpose computer or workstation that runs the building control software, such as the above-referenced personal computer or workstation. In such cases, the license file may be "keyed" to a unique hardware identification of the personal computer. During use, the building control software may read the license file to authenticate the use of the building control software and/or functions provided therein. As with hardware dongles, this approach has certain disadvantages. For example, installing the license file on the hard drive of the computer or workstation that runs the building control software may require a new license file to be issued from the manufacturer whenever the user wishes to run the building control software on a different computer or workstation, or when the original computer or workstation fails or needs to be upgraded. However, in some cases, when a license is reissued, there may be no way to verify that the old license is no longer being used. Also, technical support may be required when installing and maintaining the license file.

Embedded building conroller with stored software license information


The invention features an isolated gene silencing regulatory element that includes 5' TACNNTAC 3'. Vectors, transgenic plants and seeds thereof that include such a gene silencing regulatory element are also disclosed. The invention further provides methods of decreasing the transcription of a DNA sequence in a transgenic plant using the isolated gene silencing regulatory element.

This application relates to nucleotide regulatory sequences and their binding factors.
Plants have evolved a diverse array of mechanisms for protection against a variety of pathogenic organisms. Pathogen-derived signals such as elicitins, harpins, fungal cell wall fragments, avirulence (avr) gene products, and metabolites specified by avr gene products are recognized by receptors that trigger a conserved set of defense responses. Perception of these signals induces changes in protein phosphorylation that are thought to affect a variety of defense responses. Such defense responses include lignification of cell walls, induction of pathogenesis-related (PR) genes such as those encoding chitinases and glucanases, production of antimicrobial phytoalexins, induction of systemic acquired resistance, and generation of reactive oxygen species involved in crosslinking of cell wall proteins and induction of programmed cell death. These responses are instrumental in suppressing the growth and spread of a pathogen within the plant host.
Many of these defense responses are dependent on the transcriptional induction of specific genes in response to appropriate signals. For example, when solanaceous plants such as tobacco and potato are challenged by a pathogen or elicited by various pathogen factors, a major metabolic shift occurs where sterol production is suppressed and sesquiterpene phytoalexin synthesis is induced. The first step specific to sesquiterpene phytoalexin biosynthesis is a cyclization of the isoprenoid intermediate FPP by enzymes generically referred to as sesquiterpene cyclases. In tobacco, the sesquiterpene cyclase 5-epi-aristolochene synthase (EAS) produces 5-epi-aristolochene, followed by the addition of two hydroxyl groups to yield capsidiol. The sterol-specific branch of the isoprenoid biosynthetic pathway also extends from the intermediate FPP. Declines in sterol biosynthesis have been correlated with suppression of squalene synthase enzyme activity, and the induction of sesquiterpene biosynthesis with an induction of a sesquiterpene cyclase enzyme activity. Because these two enzymes are positioned at a putative branch point in the pathway, the induction of one enzyme and the suppression of the other were interpreted as an important mechanism controlling carbon flow and, hence, end product formation.

Transcriptional silencing elements and their binding factors


The present invention includes a system for and a method of identifying the location of contact pads on interconnect layers of printed circuit boards or metal layers of integrated circuits. The invention groups the conductive surfaces into rectangular areas and applies a mask to the identified rectangular areas by aligning a corner of the mask with the corresponding corner of the rectangular area. Once aligned, the remaining corners of the mask are checked to see whether there is an underlying conductive material present at all corners thereby identifying a suitable location for a contact pad. The invention further includes an alignment of alternate corners of the mask with the corresponding corner of the rectangular area if previous attempts to identify a contact pad were unsuccessful.

Multilayer circuit boards and integrated circuits are well known in the art. Currently, printed circuit boards can contain 8 metal layers and are typically designated Metal 1 through Metal 8. Each layer includes conductive material. To simplify interconnect design, typically, the conductive material in each layer runs in a specific lengthwise direction parallel to the length or width of the substrate (e.g., PC board or chip die) where the direction between successive layers alternates in direction. For instance, Metal 1 may include conductive material which runs in the xe2x80x9cxxe2x80x9d direction, while Metal 2 includes conductive material which runs only in the xe2x80x9cyxe2x80x9d direction and Metal 3 includes conductive material which runs only in the xe2x80x9cxxe2x80x9d direction. Typically, various layers in a printed circuit board or the wiring layer of an integrated circuit are electrically connected to one another by boring or etching a hole between the layers which are to be connected and filling all or a portion of that hole with a metal conductor which connects the conductive material (i.e., wiring) of the first layer with the conductive material of the second layer.
For example, a hole may be drilled in Metal 2 and a connection may be made between the conductive material in Metal 2 and the conductive material in Metal 1. Multilayer boards are well known in the art and connections between various layers of multilevel boards are described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,722 issued to Tamm et al. on Sep. 16, 1997 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,004,619 issued to Dippon et al. on Dec. 21, 1999, both of which are incorporated in their entirety herein and are assigned to the assignee of the present patent application. Typically, on each connected layer, a contact pad is included to ensure that the hole drilled between the layers contacts the conductive material on each of the layers. Such contact pads are usually wider than the minimum wiring width in part, so that when the through hole is formed, sufficient material surrounds the hole so that the wiring is not broken and sufficient area is provided to join or bond the metal conductor (or xe2x80x9cjumperxe2x80x9d) to the interconnecting layer.
The present invention is directed to a system and method which identifies the location of contact pads on interconnect layers of printed circuit boards or metal layers of integrated circuits. The invention groups the conductive surfaces into rectangular areas and applies a mask to the identified rectangular areas by aligning a corner of the mask with the corresponding corner of the rectangular area. Once aligned, the remaining corners of the mask are checked to see whether there is an underlying conductive material present at all corners thereby identifying a suitable location for a contact pad. A further embodiment of the invention includes an alignment of alternate corners of the mask with the corresponding corner of the rectangular area if previous attempts to identify a contact pad were unsuccessful.

System for and method of efficient contact pad identification


An apparatus, method, system, computer program and product, each capable of extracting embedded information from a document. The method includes inputting the document having the embedded information, wherein the embedded information is arranged in an embedded area of the document so as to form a grid pattern, obtaining a horizontal regression line representing a horizontal line of the embedded area and a vertical regression line representing a vertical line of the embedded area, moving the horizontal regression line and the vertical regression line across the embedded area to respectively obtain a plurality of horizontal parallel lines and a plurality of vertical parallel lines, detecting a location of the embedded information based on intersection points formed by the plurality of horizontal parallel lines and the plurality of vertical parallel lines, extracting the embedded information from the location detected by the detecting step, and outputting the embedded information to an output device.

The following disclosure relates generally to an apparatus, method, system, computer program, and product, each capable of extracting embedded information from a document.
Information that is not perceptible to the human eye is often embedded into a document for the purpose of establishing the ownership of the document, tracking the origin of the document, protecting the document from unauthorized alteration, checking the integrity of the document, etc. In order to achieve such purposes, the embedded information needs to be extracted with high accuracy. However, due to its imperceptible nature, extracting the embedded information often requires some effort and time.
For example, the embedded information may be embedded in the form of a dot pattern. In order to extract the dot pattern with high accuracy, various forms of image processing are often applied to specify the location of the dot pattern. In one example, a filter capable of detecting the dot pattern may be applied to the document. In another example, additional information indicating the location of the dot pattern may be previously embedded in the document in a corresponding manner with the dot pattern.

Extracting embedded information from a document


A magnetic sensor whose electronic components will never become fatally damaged as the result of an external force. In this magnetic sensor, electronic components located near a connector are connected to a base and disposed in such a manner that the longitudinal axis of those electronic components are substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the base. A crack generating region is formed between the connector electronic component disposed near the connector. The crack generating region yields application of an external force on the base.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic sensor, for example, for detecting the speed of revolution of a gear-shaped magnetic rotor.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 7 is a side view of a conventional magnetic sensor, and FIG. 8 is a sectional side view of the magnetic sensor shown in FIG. 7. This magnetic sensor includes a main portion 1 of the sensor and a connector 2 connected to the main portion 1.
The main portion 1 of the sensor includes: a cylindrical case 3 made of a synthetic resin; a main electric circuit 4 placed in the case 3; a rectangular-shaped permanent magnet 5 disposed at an end of the main electric circuit 4; a Hall element 6 serving as a magnetoelectric device disposed in front of the permanent magnet 5; and an O-ring 7 for sealing the connection between the main portion 1 of the sensor and the connector 2.
The main electric circuit 4 includes: a base 8 made of a resin; a plurality of electronic components 9 each encapsulated in its own ceramic package and mounted on the base 8; and interconnecting lines 10 for making electric connections among the electronic components 9.
FIG. 9 is a plan view of an insert 11 from which the interconnecting lines 10 and terminals 17 of the connector 2 will be formed. The insert 11 includes: an interconnecting material 12; a terminal material (not shown); a dual-structure land 14 having a bent portion 13 located at its end; and ties 15.
The main electric circuit 4 may be produced as follows. First, insert molding is performed with the insert 11 so as to form the base 8. The ties 15 are then cut off thereby forming the interconnecting lines 10 from the interconnecting material 12 and also forming the terminals 17 from the terminal material. Then, the respective electronic components 9 are bonded, by means of soldering, to the corresponding lands 14 which serve as their electrodes. Thus, the main electric circuit 4 is obtained. In the above structure, the bent portion 13 of each land 14 is bent in such a manner that the bent portion 13 becomes higher in position than the surface of each interconnecting line 10 and terminal 17 so that molten solder is prevented from flowing outside the land 14 due to interfacial tension.
In the above magnetic sensor, when the gear-shaped magnetic rotor 16, which is made of a magnetic material and disposed near the magnetic sensor, is rotated, the recessed portions 16a and the protruding portions 16b of the magnetic rotor 16 alternately approach and pass by the Hall element 6. This creates a corresponding change in the magnetic field which is applied to the Hall element 6 after emerging from the permanent magnet 5. The above change in the magnetic field is detected as a change in voltage by the Hall element 6. The change in voltage generated by the Hall element 6 is amplified and converted to a pulse signal by the electronic components 9. The resultant electric signal in pulse form is transmitted to a computer unit (not shown) via the terminal 17 so as to detect the speed of revolution of the magnetic rotor 16.
In the conventional magnetic sensor described above, when the main electric circuit 4 is put into the case 3 in the production process, a great force can be accidentally exerted on the end portion of the main electric circuit 4 as shown in FIG. 10(b). Such a force can bend the main electric circuit 4 along its axis A. As a result, a great amount of bending moment occurs at the connector-side end portion of the base 8, and a crack 18 can occur across the base 8 at the connector-side end portion as shown in FIG. 10(a). Those electronic components 9A located on the crack 18 can be damaged (For example, chip breakage), which can result in a fatal failure.
Thus, it is a general object of the present invention to solve the above problem. More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide a magnetic sensor whose electric components will never become fatally damaged as the result of an external force.

Magnetic sensor having a main electrical circuit base with a crack forming area


A waste containing organic solids is fed into a boiler after it has been subjected to a hydrothermal reaction treatment in the presence of water. A slurry containing the waste is held under high-temperature and high-pressure conditions to cause a hydrothermal reaction such that an acidic slurry is formed during part of or throughout the process of the hydrothermal reaction. Thereby the content of oxygen in the waste relative to carbon atoms in building molecules of the waste is reduced. This concurrently causes removal of halogens in said building molecule and transferring the halogens into the slurry. The slurry then is cooled and dewatered and fed into a combustion section of the boiler. The waste slurry to be subjected to the hydrothermal reaction can be sorted into two portions for separate storage. One portion is a waste slurry the pH of which will increase as a result of the hydrothermal reaction. The other portion is a waste slurry the pH of which will decrease during the hydrothermal reaction. The two slurries are combined together and subjected to the hydrothermal reaction, with their relative amounts of supply being adjusted such as to form an acidic slurry either during part of or throughout the process of the hydrothermal reaction. Wastes can be supplied as a mass of high heat value into the boiler in such a manner that organic matter is transferred by a smaller amount into the aqueous phase during the hydrothermal reaction, and there is no scale deposit on the surfaces of those areas of the system components in contact with the liquid.

This invention relates to a method of feeding wastes into a boiler, more particularly, to a method of heat treatment by which municipal wastes, night soil, sewage sludge, industrial wastes and other forms of wastes that contain organic matter, are converted into a fuel in the presence of water such that it can be fed into a boiler, as well as a method by which high-moisture wastes containing halogens can be converted into a fuel for supply into a boiler.
The following is one method in the R&D stage for feeding wastes into a boiler. A solids-containing waste is finely divided and converted into a slurry, from which inorganics such as glass, tiles and pebbles, metals, etc. are removed as much as possible. If the waste is already of a fine size and need not be ground or if it is substantially free of solids as in the case of sludge or liquid waste, it may optionally be passed through a screen to remove coarse solids. Then, the slurry is pressurized, heated to a suitable temperature between 250.degree. C. and 350.degree. C. depending upon the type of waste and held at that temperature typically for several tens of minutes in order to cause a hydrothermal reaction. As a result, the organic matter in the waste is dehalogenated and/or deoxygenated in the form of CO.sub.2 such that it is converted to carbides (generally called "char"), pitch or tar-like oil, from which an aqueous phase is removed to form a fuel.
In this method, the slurry to be pressurized is mixed with a sufficient amount of alkali to ensure that the slurry remains alkaline and will not become acidic even if it is subjected to a hydrothermal reaction. This alkali addition is performed in order to increase the yield of oil as a reaction product, and examples of the alkali commonly added include Na.sub.2 CO.sub.3, NaOH and Ca(OH).sub.2. If hydrochloric acid or other strong acids are formed during the reaction, the pH of the slurry decreases so much that those parts of the reactor, e.g. heat exchangers, pipes and other system components, which are in contact with the liquid will be attacked by severe corrosion and alkalies must be added in order to prevent this problem.
Such method, however, has had the following limitations. If a hydrothermal reaction is performed in the presence of an alkali, there will be extensive production of alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, organic acids and other reaction products that are not easily separable from water. This means that as the result of treatment by the hydrothermal reaction, a substantial portion of high heat value of the feed waste is transferred into the aqueous phase and by subsequent removal of the aqueous phase from the reaction products, such portion of high heat value is lost, resulting in a lower fuel yield.
In addition, the effluent resulting from the removal of the aqueous phase has very high BOD and COD levels (>several tens of thousand ppm) and cannot be treated easily.
Further in addition, if the waste contains alkaline earth metal elements such as calcium and magnesium, the latter will enter into a precipitation reaction with sulfate and carbonates that have formed in consequence of the sulfur oxides and carbonic acid that have occurred in the hydrothermal reaction, causing scale deposition on the surfaces of those areas of the reactor, heat exchangers, pipes and other system components which are in contact with the liquid; the scale will gradually grow until operation of the system is no longer possible.


A disk controller (HDC) constituting an interface between a disk drive (HDD) and a host system executes a series of command processes on a command issued from the host system. The HDC includes a command processing unit composed of command processing circuits that divide the series of command processes into a plurality of command processing steps and execute the individual command processing steps independently. Each of the command processing circuits is constructed so that its operating state may be controlled by the status code set in the command status register included in a command status circuit. The CPU of the HDD can refer to and change the command status register. Furthermore, the CPU decodes the specific command from the host system that the HDC does not support and controls the command processing unit via the command status circuit. This enables the CPU to cause the command processing unit to process the specific command.

This invention relates to a drive control apparatus which is applied to a disk storage system, such as a hard disk drive or an optical disk drive, has an interface function between a disk drive and a host system, and particularly controls data transfer.
A conventional external storage device, such as a hard disk drive (HDD), is generally incorporated in the body of a personal computer or provided outside a personal computer, for example. According to a command from the computer body (hereinafter, referred to as the host system), the storage device stores the data on a disk serving as a recording medium or reads the data from the disk and transfers it to the host system.
The HDD is roughly composed of a drive mechanism, a microcontroller, and a drive controller. The drive mechanism is roughly divided into a spindle mechanism that holds a disk in place and rotates it and a head driving mechanism that drives a head. The microcontroller is mainly made up of a microprocessor (CPU) and provides recording/reproducing control of data to a disk, head driving control, and disk rotating control.
In the HDD, the drive controller is also called a hard disk controller (HDC) and constitutes an interface between the disk drive and the host system and provides data transfer control (HDD data input/output control) between them. Receiving a command issued from the host system, the HDC executes a series of command processes and carries out data transfer control between the host system and the disk drive. In data transfer, the HDC uses a buffer memory (buffer RAM) to store the write data from the host system or the read data read from the disk into the buffer memory. In the write command processing, the HDC transfers the write data from the buffer memory to the disk. The write data is transferred as far as the head in the form of write current and is magnetically written on the disk. In the read command processing, the HDC transfers the read data from the buffer memory to the host system.
The command processing executed by the HDC starts with a command accepting process, followed by a series of processes, including a command recognition process, a BUSY setting process, a cache hit judging process, a data transfer process, a command address updating process, an interrupt generating process, and a BUSY clearing process. Hereinafter, the series of command processes, including the related operation of the CPU and buffer RAM, will be explained.
When the host system has issued a command (a read command or a write command), the HDC accepts the command and executes the process of recognizing the command. At this time, the HDC sets a BUSY flag in a drive status register 30 included in a control register group (see FIG. 3) in the HDC (BUSY set process), the BUSY flag indicating that the disk drive is in the BUSY state (during command execution). In the drive status register 30, for example, an error flag indicating that an error has occurred in the preceding command execution, a flag indicating a data transfer request, and a flag indicating that the disk drive is in the READY state (the command wait state) are set in addition to the BUSY flag.
The control register group is a register group which can be referred to by the host system and the CPU of the HDD and which includes an error register 31, a cylinder register 32, a head register 33, a sector count register 34, a sector number register 35, a command register 36, and a data register 37, in addition to the drive status register 30, as shown in FIG. 3, under the IDE (intelligent drive electronics) interface standard or the ATA interface standard. The error register 31 holds the contents of an error in the operation of the HDD. The cylinder register 32 holds the cylinder (track) number to be accessed on the disk. The head register 33 holds the head number selected in the HDD. The sector count register 34 holds the number of sectors transferred. The sector number register 35 holds the logical sector number obtained by address conversion in the command process. The command register 36 holds the command from the host system. The data register 37 holds the write data in the case of a write command and the read data in the case of a read command.
The HDC recognizes in a command recognition process whether the command is a write command, a read command, or a specific command other than a write and read commands. When it is a specific command other than a write and read commands, the HDC will pass control to the CPU. In the case of a read or write command, the HDC executes a cache hit judging process. In the cache hit judging process, it is judged whether the same address has been accessed. Specifically, in the case of a write command, it is judged whether or not an address to be accessed has been secured in the buffer RAM. If it has been secured (hit), the HDC stores the write data transferred from the host system at the address secured in the buffer RAM. In the case of a read command, it is judged whether or not the read data has been stored at the address to be accessed in the buffer RAM. If it has been stored (hit), the HDC reads the relevant read data from the buffer RAM and transfers it to the host system. Namely, the HDC transfers the read data directly from the buffer RAM to the host system without accessing the disk of the HDD. This eliminates the time required to access the disk and achieves high-speed data transfer.
After the CPU has prepared for data transfer, the HDC executes the data transfer process according to the data transfer instruction from the CPU. When the address to be accessed has not been hit in the cache hit judging process in the case of a write command, the HDC stores the write data in the buffer RAM after the CPU has prepared for reception of the write data (has secured an address in the buffer RAM). Additionally, when the address to be accessed has not been hit in the cache hit judging process in the case of a read command, the HDC stores into the buffer RAM the read data read from the disk under the control of the CPU. Furthermore, the HDC updates the command address, clears the BUSY flag after the CPU has issued a command end instruction, and goes to the command reception state. Namely, the HDC sets in the drive status register 30 a flag indicating that the disk drive is in the READY state.
As described above, after receiving a command from the host system, the HDC executes a series of commands one after another, and changes the various flags according to the contents of each of the command processes. The method of executing such a series of command processes serially, however, results in the complicated structure of the HDC because the method has a lot of condition flags and executes various operations according to the condition flags. This makes it very difficult to find defects in the processing steps in the stage of designing the HDC. Even if defects have been found after the HDC has been designed, it is impossible, for example, for a CPU to correct the defects and execute part of the command processing substitutively. To solve the problem, it is desirable that the series of command processes should be divided into a plurality of command processing steps and each of the common processing steps be executed independently. Furthermore, a method of enabling a CPU to refer to the operating state of each of the command processing steps is preferable. These methods, however, have not been realized yet.

Disk system with command processing function


A monovalent cation containing well fluid composed of an aqueous brine containing at least 0.6 equivalents per liter of a water soluble monovalent cation salt, is substantially free of divalent cations, and an amount of a starch derivative selected such that the well fluid has the following characteristics: (a) a low shear rate viscosity greater than about 5,000 centipoise; (b) a high shear rate viscosity at 511 sec−1 in the range from about 15 to about 70 centipoise measured at 120° F. is described. The fluid may be formulated to be substantially free of xanthan gums and preferably has less than 0.25 lb/bbl of xanthan gum.

When drilling or completing wells in earth formations, various fluids typically are used in the well for a variety of reasons. The fluid often is aqueous. For the purposes herein, such fluid will be referred to as "well fluid." Common uses for well fluids include: lubrication and cooling of drill bit cutting surfaces while drilling generally or drilling-in (i.e., drilling in a targeted petroliferous formation), transportation of "cuttings" (pieces of formation dislodged by the cutting action of the teeth on a drill bit) to the surface, controlling formation pressure to prevent blowouts, maintaining well stability, suspending solids in the well, minimizing fluid loss into and stabilizing the formation through which the well is being drilled, fracturing the formation in the vicinity of the well, displacing the fluid within the well with another fluid, cleaning the well, testing the well, implacing a packer fluid, abandoning the well or preparing the well for abandonment, and otherwise treating the well or the formation. Brines (such as CaBr2) commonly are used as well fluids because of their wide density range and the fact that brines are typically substantially free of suspended solids. Additionally, brines typically do not damage certain types of downhole formations.
When drilling progresses to the level of penetrating a hydrocarbon bearing formation, special care may be required to maintain the stability of the wellbore. Examples of formations in which problems often arise are highly permeable and/or poorly consolidated formations. In these types of formations, a technique known as "under-reaming" may be employed.
In this process, the wellbore is drilled to penetrate the hydrocarbon bearing zone using conventional techniques. A casing generally is set in the wellbore to a point just above the hydrocarbon bearing zone. The hydrocarbon bearing zone then may be re-drilled, for example, using an expandable under-reamer that increases the diameter of the wellbore. Under-reaming usually is performed using special "clean" drilling fluids. Typical drilling fluids used in under-reaming are expensive, aqueous, dense brines that are viscosified with a gelling and/or cross-linked polymer to aid in the removal of formation cuttings. The high permeability of the target formation, however, may allow large quantities of the drilling fluid to be lost into the formation.
Once the drilling fluid is lost into the formation, it becomes difficult to remove. Calcium and zinc-bromide brines can form highly stable, acid insoluble compounds when reacted with the formation or substances contained therein. This reaction may reduce the permeability of the formation to any subsequent out-flow of the targeted hydrocarbons. The most effective way to prevent such damage to the formation is to limit fluid loss into the formation.
Thus, providing effective fluid loss control is highly desirable to prevent damaging the formation in, for example, completion, drilling, drill-in, displacement, hydraulic fracturing, work-over, packer fluid implacement or maintenance, well treating, or testing operations. Techniques that have been developed to control fluid loss include the use of fluid loss "pills." Significant research has been directed to determining suitable materials for the fluid loss pills, as well as controlling and improving the properties of the fluid loss pills. Typically, fluid loss pills work by enhancing filter-cake buildup on the face of the formation to inhibit fluid flow into the formation from the wellbore.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,300,286 (the '286 patent) and the related U.S. Pat. No. 6,576,597 (the '597 patent) describe clay-free well drilling and servicing fluids comprising an aqueous brine which contains at least 0.6 equivalents per liter (the '286 patent) or at least 1.2 equivalents per liter (the '597 patent) of a water soluble divalent cation salt, a particulate bridging agent which is insoluble in the aqueous brine, and a starch derivative which functions as a combination suspending agent and fluid loss control agent. The starch derivative is used in a concentration sufficient to provide the fluid with the following characteristics: (a) a low shear rate viscosity less than about 10,000 centipoise; (b) a high shear rate viscosity at 511 sec−1 in the range from about 15 to about 70 centipoise measured at 120° F.; (c) a fluid loss less than about 10 milliliters as measured at 185° F. and 250 psi differential pressure across a 5 micron disk for 30 minutes; and (d) anti-settling characteristics as exhibited upon static aging the fluid for 16 hours at 185° F. The patents further provides that the low shear rate viscosity can be increased without raising the high shear rate viscosity above about 70 centipoise by incorporating magnesium oxide and/or dipotassium hydrogen phosphate in the fluids.
The '286 patent further discloses that useful brines in the compositions and processes of the '286 patent contain at least 0.6 equivalents per liter of one or more water soluble divalent cation salts. Similarly the '597 patent discloses that useful brines in the compositions and processes of the '597 patent contain at least 1.2 equivalents per liter of one or more water soluble divalent cation salts. Preferred divalent cations are the alkaline earth metal salts and/or zinc salts. The preferred anion is a halide, most preferably chloride and/or bromide. Most preferred divalent cations are selected from the group consisting of calcium, magnesium, zinc, and mixtures thereof. The most preferred salts are selected from the group consisting of calcium chloride, calcium bromide, magnesium chloride, magnesium bromide, zinc chloride, zinc bromide and mixtures thereof. Further, the '286 patent notes that other water soluble salts must be present in the brine at a concentration no less than 0.6 equivalents per liter. Further the '597 patent specifically teaches that other water soluble salts may be present in the brine so long as they do not dilute the divalent cation concentration below about 1.2 equivalents per liter. Thus one of skill in the art would appreciate that a divalent cation is a required element in the inventions disclosed in the above references.
Because of a number of factors including environmental factors, compatibility factors, costs, etc. . . . , the use of divalent cations as disclosed above is not desireable. Thus, what is still needed are fluids which exhibit enhanced particulate suspension characteristics at lower viscosities and which are easier and more completely removed from wellbores, screens, and the like present in hydrocarbon-containing formations.

Monovalent cation-containing well fluids


Methods and systems are provided for communication between moving objects (e.g., a train) and land-based systems (e.g., base stations of mobile wireless networks). For example, wireless communication may be established between a train and one or more base stations arranged along a track travelled by the train. In some instances, multiple-input and multiple-output arrays may be configured, comprising antennas of one or more communication relays arranged on the train, and the one or more base stations. Communications may be performed concurrently via multiple communication channels, such as channels of a MIMO arrays, using cooperative communication schemes for example. Channel state information (CSI) may be stored, remotely or locally, such as in a data storage system, and for communicating via the communication channel(s), channel state information may be determined, such as depending on information defining the current location of communication relays used in establishing the channels.

The wide spread use of mobile communication devices for wireless data communication has made it a great challenge for manufacturers and operators of telecommunications networks to provide wireless data communication with sufficient bandwidth and broadband capacity. In particular, communication related issues may arise in transportation related use scenarios. For example, on trains, where typically a large number of users attempt to use broadband data communication services simultaneously through the same limited number of base stations in reach of the train, it may be very difficult to provide sufficient data communication capacity for a passing train. Moreover, the tremendous increase of the speed of trains has augmented this problem as data communication resources need to be provided very quickly, with great bandwidth and broadband capacity, and for very short periods of time.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.

Establishing wireless communication between a train and base stations


The driving unit includes: a first contact portion and a second contact portion that move relatively to each other while making contact with each other during driving; in which the second contact portion includes a coating layer at a contact face with the first contact portion, and the first contact portion and the second contact portion generate heat along with relative movement to vaporize a worn-away part of the coating layer.

In general, a small-sized camera module is mounted in mobile terminals, such as smartphones. A lens driving device having an autofocus function of automatically performing focusing during capturing of a subject (hereinafter referred to as "Autofocus (AF) function") and a shake-correcting function (hereinafter referred to as "Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) function") for reducing irregularities of an image by correcting shake (vibration) caused during capturing of an image is applied in such a camera module (see e.g., Patent Literature (hereinafter referred to as "PTL") 1).
The lens driving device having the AF and OIS functions is provided with an autofocus driving part for moving a lens part in the optical-axis direction (hereinafter, the autofocus driving part is referred to as "AF driving part") and a shake-correcting driving part for swaying the lens part in a plane orthogonal to the optical-axis direction (hereinafter, the shake-correcting driving part is referred to as "OIS driving part"). In PTL 1, a driving unit of an ultrasonic motor type is applied as the AF driving part and the OIS driving part.

Driving unit, optical-element driving device, camera module, and camera-mounted device


An aerodynamic component in the form of, for example, a fairing is provided. The fairing is attached or otherwise positioned at the entry of or within the fender well of the vehicle. In use, the fender well fairing aims to block entry of airflow into the interior area of the vehicle as well as reduces or eliminates direct impingement against interior surfaces of the fender well. This improves air flow, thereby reducing drag.

Numerous means have been sought to improve the fuel-efficiency of moving bodies and, especially, moving bluff bodies by reducing their aerodynamic drag. In the field of surface transportation and, particularly in the long-haul trucking industry, even small improvements in fuel efficiency can reduce annual operating costs significantly. It is therefore advantageous in the design of a vehicle to reduce drag forces, thereby increasing the aerodynamic properties and efficiency of the vehicle.
Most large long-haul tractors exhibit less than optimal aerodynamic performance during highway operation. At highway speeds, these conventional vehicles develop a substantial amount of turbulent airflow in and around various locations of the vehicle. One such location is the wheel openings define between the fender well and the tires. This area allows airflow, and especially cross flow, to impinge upon interior surfaces of the vehicle, thereby producing turbulent flow. This turbulence results in significant aerodynamic drag, increasing both fuel consumption and Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emissions of the tractor.


Provided is a fire alarm system including: a transmitter/receiver unit (4) for supplying a pulse voltage to power/signal lines (SG); a current value setting unit (5) for setting, as a current limiting value, an upper limit of a current output to the power/signal lines (SG) from the transmitter/receiver unit (4) when the pulse voltage is output; and a current control unit (6) for controlling the transmitter/receiver unit (4) to output a current having a value equal to or smaller than the current limiting value set by the current value setting unit (5). Accordingly, it is possible to prevent a malfunction from occurring in communications irrespective of a scale of the fire alarm system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fire alarm system including a plurality of terminal devices and a fire control panel connected to the plurality of terminal devices via power/signal lines.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a fire alarm system in which a plurality of terminal devices such as fire detectors are connected to a fire control panel via a pair of power/signal lines. In this fire alarm system, a pulse voltage (pulse signal) is supplied from the fire control panel to the terminal devices, and each of the terminal devices responds to the voltage supplied from the fire control panel. With unique addresses assigned to the plurality of terminal devices, the fire control panel calls the terminal devices in order based on the addresses. Then, the fire control panel receives information returned from the called terminal devices to collect information such as determination of fire and statuses of the terminal devices (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-288751).
The terminal device includes a constant voltage circuit, and returns a signal to the fire control panel in combination with the pulse voltage (referred to as "L voltage" when the voltage is lowered) for lowering a voltage of the pair of power/signal lines to a predetermined voltage by turning on/off the constant voltage circuit. At this time, a transmission current is caused to flow through the power/signal lines, and a line voltage of (transmission current)×(line resistance) occurs due to the transmission current and a line resistance of the power/signal lines.
The pulse voltage returned by the terminal device becomes (predetermined voltage)+(line voltage), and is received by the fire alarm system. This leads to a problem in that the fire alarm system fails to discriminate the pulse voltage returned by the terminal device when the line voltage becomes higher. In order to prevent this, the line resistance is previously defined based on a maximum transmission distance of the power/signal lines that can be extended from the fire alarm system. Then, a value of a current supplied to the power/signal lines and an upper limit value of the line voltage are limited based on the maximum transmission distance (maximum line resistance).
However, when a current limiting value with respect to the power/signal lines is uniquely limited, the maximum line resistance of the power/signal lines is uniquely limited in turn. On the other hand, a length of the power/signal lines, the number of connected terminal devices, and the like vary depending on an environment in which the fire alarm system is installed, and it is desired to provide a system that can flexibly handle the situations in accordance with an installation location or the like.


Disclosed are a connecting arrangement of a fiber composite component with a second component and a process for producing the arrangement. The second component comprises at least one flat section having one or more cut-outs which pass through the flat section. The flat section is arranged between at least two sublayers of the fiber composite component and at least one of the at least two sublayers with a layer thickness SF comprises one or more embossments which have an essentially even layer thickness SF and are molded into the one or more cut-outs.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a connecting arrangement for connecting a fiber composite component to a second component.
Furthermore, the invention relates to a method for producing such a connecting arrangement.
2. Discussion of Background Information
The combination of fiber composite components of any shape and size that are made of a fiber composite material with components made of other fiber composite materials or of non-fiber composite materials such as metal or plastic is well known.
As is known, the connection of fiber composite components of any shape and size that are made of a fiber composite material with components made of other fiber composite materials or of non-fiber composite materials such as plastic or metal or metallic structures is realized mainly by means of gluing, screw or rivet connection or by sewing. Connections of fiber composite components with components made of other plastics or fiber composite materials are mostly glued.
The publication DE 102 38 669 A1 describes a three-dimensional component which consists of a first component made from a metallic material connected to a component made from a fiber composite material. The disadvantage of such connections for which gluing has been used is often an insufficient or unreliable cohesiveness of the connection.
Connections of materials such as duraplastic fiber composite components with a thermoplastic component are very difficult to realize as well. The cohesiveness achieved is generally not satisfactory.
The production of screw and rivet connections of these components is also time-consuming and costly. Notably, a special connection component is needed for the production of these screw and rivet connections for the provision of which a separate production process is necessary and which has to be inserted during a further production stage. This has a strong influence on the manufacturing time and cost of the connection. In addition, this kind of connections is generally material-intensive, and despite this fact, a weakening of the material of the components, in particular of the fiber composite material of the fiber composite component can be observed.
The publication DE 196 08 127 A1 describes a method for the production of a three-dimensionally formed fiber composite component for which unformed layers of fiber are sewn together with local reinforcement parts such as metallic fixing components to form a planar, integral semi-finished fiber product. This semi-finished product is then formed into the three-dimensional component geometry and consolidated in a molding tool under the influence of pressure and heat.
The disadvantage of the connection of semi-finished fiber products by sewing is that separate machinery is needed for this production step and the sewing process is very time-consuming and costly. The sewing thread is an additional material which can influence the quality of the connection in an uncontrolled manner. Possible imperfections of the seam can represent a danger for the safety of the connection.

Connecting arrangement for connecting a fiber composite component to a second component


A method, apparatus, and computer program product for a dynamically configurable auto-healing battery are provided in the illustrative embodiments. Identification of a condition is performed within the battery. The battery comprises a set of cells a subset of which is electrically connected in a configuration such that the configuration delivers a first amount of electrical power from the battery. The battery further comprising a second set of spare cells. Responsive to the condition, a cell is selected from the subset. Responsive to the condition, a spare cell is selected from the set of spare cells. The selected cell in the subset is made electrically unavailable in the configuration. The selected spare cell is made electrically available in the configuration, resulting in eliminating an effect of the condition on a power output of the battery.

A battery is a commonly used source for supplying electrical power. A battery may store electrical power as electrical charge, or may produce electrical power through a chemical reaction. Some batteries are single-use, where upon use, the battery has to be replaced. Other batteries are reusable. The reusable batteries discharge when connected to a load circuit, and recharge when connected to a charging circuit.
A battery comprises one or more cells, each of which can hold an amount of the electrical charge or perform a portion of the chemical reaction. A cell in a battery produces a voltage, or potential difference, and supplies current to a load. A load is an electrical circuit including an electrical component with impedance.
More than one cell can be electrically connected to one another with a conductive material in a configuration to increase an output of the configuration. For example, when several cells are connected in series, the configuration produces a higher voltage than a single cell. As another example, when several cells are connected in parallel, the configuration produces a higher current than a single cell.

Dynamically configurable auto-healing battery

Lenovo Enterprise Solutions (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


A technique for calculating the angle from an auxiliary dot sequence indicating the track of a pattern and for performing pattern measurement is provided, thereby enabling achievement of high-accuracy pattern measurement with reduced influence of the roughness of pattern edges.

In semiconductor pattern dimension measurement, a high-resolution image sensed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) is used to obtain coordinates of pattern edges on an image; then, dimensions are calculated from edge coordinates of both ends thereof. If the pattern is a straight line and simultaneously is in parallel with the vertical direction or horizontal direction of a display image, it is possible to readily obtain the pattern dimensions from a difference of coordinate values in the horizontal or vertical direction of both edges. However, there is an exemplary case where special shape patterns having curved line portions are employed for the purpose of achieving higher density of semiconductor circuits. In these patterns, a direction indicating the shortest distance between edges to be regarded as a size value tends to vary continuously; so, mere use of the above-noted prior known method does not enable achievement of accurate dimension measurement. In addition, even where the pattern is a straight line, when the pattern is a pattern extending in a direction inclined with respect to the display image, it is similarly difficult to perform accurate dimension measurement.
It is noted here that Patent Literature 1 discloses therein a technique for performing measurement of a pattern inclined with respect to a display image; more specifically, a scheme for acquiring, based on a figure reflecting the shape of a very small or fine pattern, a signal waveform in a direction perpendicular to a tangent line of the contour of a graphic form and for detecting pattern edge coordinates to thereby measure the pattern shape.

Pattern dimension measurement method, pattern dimension measurement device, program for causing computer to execute pattern dimension measurement method, and recording medium having same recorded thereon


Methods for deposition of elemental metal films on surfaces using metal coordination complexes are provided. The metal complexes comprise thiophene, pyrrole or salen-based ligands. A substrate surface may be contacted with a vapor phase metal coordination complex such that a layer is formed on the surface comprising the metal coordination complex bound to the surface by the metal. The bound metal complex may then be contacted with a reducing gas such that an exchange reaction occurs between the bound metal coordination complex and the reducing gas, thereby dissociating the bound metal complex and producing a first layer of elemental metal on the surface of the substrate. The process can be repeated for additional layers.

Deposition of thin films on a substrate surface is an important process in a variety of industries including semiconductor processing, diffusion barrier coatings and dielectrics for magnetic read/write heads. In the semiconductor industry, in particular, miniaturization requires atomic level control of thin film deposition to produce conformal coatings on high aspect structures. One method for deposition of thin films with atomic layer control and conformal deposition is atomic layer deposition (ALD), which employs sequential, self-limiting surface reactions to form layers of precise thickness controlled at the Angstrom or monolayer level. Most ALD processes are based on binary reaction sequences which deposit a binary compound film. Each of the two surface reactions occurs sequentially, and because they are self-limiting, a thin film can be deposited with atomic level control. Because the surface reactions are sequential, the two gas phase reactants are not in contact, and possible gas phase reactions that may form and deposit particles are limited. The self-limiting nature of the surface reactions also allows the reaction to be driven to completion during every reaction cycle, resulting in films that are continuous and pinhole-free.
ALD has been used to deposit metals and metal compounds on substrate surfaces. Al2O3 deposition is an example of a typical ALD process illustrating the sequential and self-limiting reactions characteristic of ALD. Al2O3 ALD conventionally uses trimethylaluminum (TMA, often referred to as reaction "A" or the "A" precursor) and H2O (often referred to as the "B" reaction or the "B" precursor). In step A of the binary reaction, hydroxyl surface species react with vapor phase TMA to produce surface-bound AlOAl(CH3)2 and CH4 in the gas phase. This reaction is self-limited by the number of reactive sites on the surface. In step B of the binary reaction, AlCH3 of the surface-bound compound reacts with vapor phase H2O to produce AlOH bound to the surface and CH4 in the gas phase. This reaction is self-limited by the finite number of available reactive sites on surface-bound AlOAl(CH3)2. Subsequent cycles of A and B, purging gas phase reaction products and unreacted vapor phase precursors between reactions and between reaction cycles, produces Al2O3 growth in an essentially linear fashion to obtain the desired film thickness.
While perfectly saturated monolayers are often desired, this goal is very difficult to achieve in practice. The typical approach to further ALD development has been to determine whether or not currently available chemistries are suitable for ALD. Prior art processes for ALD have been most effective for deposition of metal oxide and metal nitride films. Although a few processes have been developed that are effective for deposition of some late transition metals, ALD processes for deposition of pure metal have generally not been sufficiently successful to be adopted commercially. There is a need for new deposition chemistries that are commercially available, particularly in the area of elemental metal films. The present invention addresses this problem by providing novel chemistries which are specifically designed and optimized to take advantage of the atomic layer deposition process. In fact, before the present invention, there were no commercially available atomic layer deposition precursors that are capable of producing thin films of many elemental metals. For example, there are known methods of depositing thin manganese metal films via physical deposition methods in back end of the line processes. However, the thin metal films deposited this way have been shown to migrate to SiO2 interfaces. This forms manganese oxide, which acts as a barrier layer and prevents copper diffusion. Better precursors and processes for the ALD of many elemental metals are desired.

Method of atomic layer deposition of elemental metal


The present invention relates to a method of pressure treating a bioactive composition comprising at least one bioactive component to prevent the growth of at least one unwanted microorganism while retaining a desired level activity of the at least one bioactive component. The bioactive component is selected from one or more proteins protein hydrolysates, one or more lipids or lipid hydrolysates, one or more carbohydrates, one or more probiotic factors, or mixtures thereof. The pressure treatment is at a predetermined pressure from about 350 to 1000 MPa.

The delivery of bioactive components (proteins, lipids or hydrolysates thereof, and probiotic microorganisms, for example) in food or other ingestible products is constrained by the need to provide a safe product with a useful shelf life while retaining bioactivity. Products with a useful shelf life are said to have a good keeping quality and are less prone to spoilage.
Delivery of bioactive components is desirable at least because such components are physiologically active when ingested and can have positive health benefits, including but not limited to bone health, immune benefits, anti-inflammatory activity, heart health and efficacy in cancer treatment.
Traditional means of ensuring a useful keeping quality have a negative impact on the bioactivity of food products and the like. In particular, thermal processing is not generally suitable for the production of commercially sterile bioactive products. For example, an analysis of immunoglobulin proteins in commercial dairy products revealed that although between 60% and 75% of the immunoglobulins are retained through pasteurisation, levels in UHT or canned (evaporated) milk are negligible (Li-Chan et al, 1995). Commercial sterility in acid foods may be achieved by employing a lower-temperature heating than that used in canning, but the sensitivity of immunoglobulins to denaturing under heating is exacerbated by acidification (Dominguez et al, 2001).
A probiotic microorganism is one that when administered in an adequate amount confers a health benefit on the host. While the live probiotic microorganism exhibits a bioactive effect, an inactivated probiotic microorganism may provide the bioactivity in a stable, less technically restricted format for use and distribution. In applications where it is undesirable to have live microorganisms because of their unwanted activities (such as enzyme or acid secretion, for example), inactivated microorganisms may be advantageous in still providing the bioactivity, without the unwanted activity resulting from their viability. International PCT application WO 20041032655 reports use of high pressure treatment to reduce microbial spoilage in foods and/or to render the food safe for consumption, while retaining viable desired cultures.
There are many processes in the manufacture of bioactive products, ingredients and foods that may result in a partial or complete loss of bioactivity. In the case of dairy-based ingredients and foods, processes that involve heating steps that may affect bioactivity include thermal pasteurisation, homogenisation, thermalisation, evaporation and drying. In the case of food processing, examples of heating steps that may affect bioactivity include heat treatments preceding fermentation, UHT-treatments, retorting, hot filling and hot packing. A bioactive component will typically be subjected to one or more of these heating steps during the manufacture of a food. This is particularly true of dairy-based products where processing always includes an initial pasteurisation step and typically includes further heating steps prior to packaging and sale. Korhonen et al (1998) report that heating to temperatures in the range 60° C. to 90° C. denatures proteins therefore reducing the activity of bioactive proteins.
Drying of products produced using pasteurised milk may be used to improve keeping quality with losses of up to 40% of immunoglobulins (Li-Chan, 1995), but commercial applications are then limited to direct consumption (for example, tablets) or fresh products (for example, yogurt) where the dried bioactive ingredient is not subsequently heated again. Losses due to drying and heating may be compensated for by supplementing intermediate or final products with the bioactive component of interest but this can increase the cost to the end consumer.
Pressure treatment with pressures above about 350 MPa has been reported to achieve commercially-useful improvements in keeping quality for meat, vegetable and fruit-based products (such as cooked ham, avocado products and juices respectively). However, Huppertz et al (2002) report that high pressure denatures whey proteins in milk. Additionally, Korhonen et al (1998) report that pressure treatments at pressures of about 500 MPa and above irreversibly denature proteins in most cases. Felipe et al (1997) report that appreciable levels of immunoglobulin denaturation occur in goat's milk at pressures of 500 MPa.
Masuda et al (2000) report that pressures of 400 MPa and above may not be used to improve the keeping quality of bovine colostrum because such pressures denature the immunoglobulin protein.
Tonello et al (1992) report that pressures of 200 MPa applied for 2 hours may be used to retain at least 85% of the immunoglobulin activity, although the microbial load of colostrum is reduced by less than 2-log cycles. The same process at 63° C. can reduce the microbial load below limits of detection (more than 7-log cycles), but at least 50% of the immunoglobulin activity is lost.
The need exists for a process that can provide a commercially useful keeping quality for a bioactive product such as a food or other ingestible product while retaining the bioactivity of at least one bioactive component.
Therefore it is an object of this invention to provide an improved or alternative method of preventing the growth of unwanted microorganisms while retaining at least a desired level of activity of at least one bioactive component or to at least provide the public with a useful choice.

High pressure processing of bioactive compositions


This invention belongs to the field of biochemical engineering and relates to a method of cyclic utilization of water during separation of succinic acid made by fermentation. This invention uses water from separation process for aerobic growth of E. coli AFP111 and production of succinic acid by anaerobic fermentation, obtaining final succinic acid concentration of 55 g/L and yield of 91.6%. Compared with results of fermentation using culture medium prepared from tap water, succinic acid concentration and productivity increased by 8.5% and 8.46%, respectively. An outstanding advantage of this invention is recovery and utilization of evaporated water during separation of succinic acid, realizing cyclic use of water during industrial production of succinic acid, which is an environment-friendly process. Also, as evaporated water generated during separation of succinic acid contains small amount of organic acids such as acetic acid and formic acid, if this water is used for aerobic growth of thalli, the small amount of organic acids contained therein can be used as gluconeogenesis carbon source, improving activity of some key enzymes in cell and favoring succinic acid production by anaerobic fermentation of thalli.

Succinic acid, also referred to as amber acid, is a dicarboxylic acid. It is an important C4 platform compound, which can be used for surfactant, detergent additive, and foaming agent etc. As ion chelating agent, it can be used for the electroplating industry. In the food service industry, it can be used as acidifier, pH modifier, flavor substance, and foodstuff modifier. It can also be used for production of medicine, antibiotics, amino acid, and vitamin.
There are two main methods for succinic acid production: chemical synthesis and micro-organism fermentation. The chemical method normally adopts butane and maleic anhydride for production by electrolysis. This method causes serious pollution, and has low conversion rate and high costs, seriously limiting the development of succinic acid market. Regarding production of succinic acid by micro-organism fermentation, since supply of raw materials is wide and cheap, this process is environment-friendly and has light pollution, and fixed CO2 can be absorbed during fermentation, thus effectively mitigating greenhouse effect, this method is a new way of utilization of the greenhouse gas of CO2 and has become a hot point of research in recent years. Since Escherichia coli has clear heredity background; is easy to operate, adjust, control, and cultivate; has simple requirements; and grows fast, it has been widely used in research in recent years, to obtain excellent strain that produces succinic acid.
The fermentation liquid that produces succinic acid by micro-organism fermentation needs to undergo pre-filtering, ultrafiltration, nano-filtration, concentration, and crystallization, to finally yield disodium succinate or succinic acid. During concentration of fermentation liquid, large amount of evaporated water and steam condensate is obtained. This evaporated water contains small amount of organic acids such as acetic acid and formic acid. Use of this water for aerobic cultivation of cells can promote cell metabolic capability by improving activity of some key enzymes in the cell, so that acid production performance of thalli is improved. Steam condensate generated during separation of succinic acid fermentation liquid does not contain organic acid or metallic ion, so that when used for thalli fermentation, osmotic pressure of the fermentation system will not increase. This condensate can be used for anaerobic fermentation stage of cells.

Method for reusing water in fermented butanedioic acid separation process


The present invention relates to a gene expression system in eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells, preferably plant cells and intact plants. In particular, the invention relates to an expression system having a RB47 binding site upstream of a translation initiation site for regulation of translation mediated by binding of RB47 protein, a member of the poly(A) binding protein family. Regulation is further effected by RB60, a protein disulfide isomerase. The expression system is capable of functioning in the nuclear/cytoplasm of cells and in the chloroplast of plants. Translation regulation of a desired molecule is enhanced approximately 100 fold over that obtained without RB47 binding site activation.

Expression systems for expression of exogenous foreign genes in eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells are basic components of recombinant DNA technology. Despite the abundance of expression systems and their wide-spread use, they all have characteristic disadvantages. For example, while expression in E. coli is probably the most popular as it is easy to grow and is well understood, eukaryotic proteins expressed therein are not properly modified. Moreover, those proteins tend to precipitate into insoluble aggregates and are difficult to obtain in large amounts. Mammalian expression systems, while practical on small-scale protein production, are more difficult, time-consuming and expensive than in E. coli.
A number of plant expression systems exist as well as summarized in U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,834, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference. One advantage of plants or algae in an expression system is that they can be used to produce pharmacologically important proteins and enzymes on a large scale and in relatively pure form. In addition, micro-algae have several unique characteristics that make them ideal organisms for the production of proteins on a large scale. First, unlike most systems presently used to produce transgenic proteins, algae can be grown in minimal media (inorganic salts) using sunlight as the energy source. These algae can be grown in contained fermentation vessels or on large scale in monitored ponds. Ponds of up to several acres are routinely used for the production of micro-algae. Second, plants and algae have two distinct compartments, the cytoplasm and the chloroplast, in which proteins can be expressed. The cytoplasm of algae is similar to that of other eukaryotic organisms used for protein expression, like yeast and insect cell cultures. The chloroplast is unique to plants and algae and proteins expressed in this environment are likely to have properties different from those of cytoplasmically expressed proteins.
The present invention describes an expression system in which exogenous molecules are readily expressed in either prokaryotic or eukaryotic hosts and in either the cytoplasm or chloroplast. These beneficial attributes are based on the discovery and cloning of components of translation regulation in plants as described in the present invention.
Protein translation plays a key role in the regulation of gene expression across the spectrum of organisms (Kozak, Ann. Rev. Cell Biol., 8:197-225 (1992) and de Smit and Van Duin, Prog. Nucleic Acid Res. Mol. Biol., 38:1-35 (1990)). The majority of regulatory schemes characterized to date involve translational repression often involving proteins binding to mRNA to limit ribosome association (Winter et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA, 84:7822-7826 (1987) and Tang and Draper, Biochem., 29:4434-4439 (1990)). Translational activation has also been observed (Wulczyn and Kahmann, Cell, 65:259-269 (1991)), but few of the underlying molecular mechanisms for this type of regulation have been identified. In plants, light activates the expression of many genes. Light has been shown to activate expression of specific chloroplast encoded mRNAs by increasing translation initiation (Mayfield et al., Ann. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol., 46:147-166 (1995) and Yohn et al., Mol. Cell Biol., 16:3560-3566 (1996)). Genetic evidence in higher plants and algae has shown that nuclear encoded factors are required for translational activation of specific chloroplast encoded mRNAs (Rochaix et al., Embo J., 8:1013-1021 (1989), Kuchka et al., Cell, 58:869-876 (1989), Girard-Bascou et al., Embo J., 13:3170-3181 (1994), Kim et al, Plant Mol. Biol., 127:1537-1545 (1994).
In the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a number of nuclear mutants have been identified that affect translation of single specific mRNAs in the chloroplast, often acting at translation initiation (Yohn et al., supra, (1996)). Mutational analysis of chloroplast mRNAs has identified sequence elements within the 5′ untranslated region (UTR) of mRNAs that are required for translational activation (Mayfield et al., supra, (1995), Mayfield et al., J. Cell Biol., 127:1537-1545 (1994) and Rochaix, Ann. Rev. Cell Biol., 8:1-28 (1992)), and the 5′ UTR of a chloroplast mRNA can confer a specific translation phenotype on a reporter gene in vivo (Zerges and Rochaix, Mol. Cell Biol., 14:5268-5277 (1994) and Staub and Maliga, Embo J., 12:601-606 (1993).
Putative translational activator proteins were identified by purifying a complex of four proteins that binds with high affinity and specificity to the 5′ UTR of the chloroplast encoded psbA mRNA [encoding the D1 protein, a major component of Photosystem II (PS II)] (Danon and Mayfield, Embo J., 10.3993-4001 (1991)). Binding of these proteins to the 5′ UTR of psbA mRNA correlates with translation of this mRNA under a variety of physiological (Danon and Mayfield, id., (1991)) and biochemical conditions (Danon and Mayfield, Science, 266:1717-1719 (1994) and Danon and Mayfield, Embo J., 13:2227-2235 (1994)), and in different genetic backgrounds (Yohn et al., supra, (1996)). The binding of this complex to the psbA mRNA can be regulated in vitro in response to both redox potential (Danon and Mayfield, Science, 266:1717-1719 (1994)) and phosphorylation (Danon and Mayfield, Embo J., 13:2227-2235 (1994)), both of which are thought to transduce the light signal to activate translation of psbA mRNA. The 47 kDa member of the psbA RNA binding complex (RB47) is in close contact with the RNA, and antisera specific to this protein inhibits binding to the psbA mRNA in vitro (Danon and Mayfield, supra, (1991)).
Although the translational control of psbA mRNA by RB47 has been reported, the protein has not been extensively characterized and the gene encoding RB47 has not been identified, cloned and sequenced. In addition, the regulatory control of the activation of RNA binding activity to the binding site by nuclear-encoded trans-acting factors, such as RB60, have not been fully understood. The present invention now describes the cloning and sequencing of both RB47 and RB60. Based on the translation regulation mechanisms of RB47 and RB60 with the RB47 binding site, the present invention also describes a translation regulated expression system for use in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes.

RNA binding protein and binding site useful for expression of recombinant molecules


An intermediary node on a data communications network implements a flow control algorithm to control network congestion. The intermediary node receives messages destined for servers or other upstream nodes from clients or other downstream nodes and determines whether to forward the messages based on the flow control algorithm, which may be adaptive. The algorithm may consider explicit back-off messages received from upstream nodes, failure of upstream nodes to respond to messages forwarded by the intermediary node, and/or other criteria. When a back-off condition applies, the intermediary node refrains from forwarding messages it receives and sends back-off messages to nodes initiating the messages. Back-off messages may include a back-of time period and/or other back-off criteria.

In a large scale data communications network with millions of users, controlling the load on origin servers and network infrastructure is crucial. As the number of clients in a network increases, a server will receive an increasing number of requests to process. The number of requests may exceed the capacity of the server or of network infrastructure such as switches, gateways, and proxies, particularly during peak traffic or a maintenance period. Consequently, there is a need for a mechanism to gracefully reduce the number of incoming requests to a network server.
A basic solution currently employed is to increase the capacity of servers or infrastructure before an overload situation occurs. However, this approach is impractical in most cases, as it is usually hard to accurately estimate the growth of the number of clients or to predict peak levels. Further, this approach may be prohibitively expensive, as it requires design for the maximum possible traffic, which may be substantially greater than the normal traffic.
A better solution is to employ some form of flow control mechanism. In current technology, such mechanisms are defined between an origin server and individual clients, i.e., end-to-end. For example, an origin server may refuse a connection to a particular client, or it may return an incoming request to the issuing client, asking it to wait for a certain time before issuing any more requests. Similarly, infrastructure such as proxies may refuse connections or use connection end-to-end flow control. An example of current technology is the hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) flow control mechanism, allowing origin servers to return an error response to a client, indicating that the service is temporarily unavailable and that requests should be suspended for a certain period of time. Another example is the flow control mechanism provided by transport control protocol (TCP), which allows flow control end-to-end on individual TCP connections. This type of solution is better than relying on capacity planning alone, but it can only be used once a client has actually made a request. It is not possible with these schemes to take preventative measures, holding off requests from other clients before they have actually reached the origin server or some congested infrastructure element. In a large network with millions of users, this can be a serious problem.

Method and apparatus for controlling network traffic


A system controller 115 includes a table data storage 131 storing table data for calculating the order of priority of each destination, and a priority destination list creator 132 for creating a priority destination list based on the table data in such a manner that priorities of destinations that suit the preferences of the user will set high based on destination conditions set by the user and the stored table data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the technical field of navigation apparatuses for providing route guidance of movable bodies.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, navigation apparatuses for assisting traveling of movable bodies, such as vehicles, by displaying a map on a display such as a liquid crystal display panel mounted in a vehicle or the like. Such navigation apparatuses enable the setting of two or more destinations, and route search and guidance to the final destination in orders of user's preference or from the shortest to longest linear distance from the current position.
The latest navigation apparatus can also store and hold route data set prior to traveling to check the traveling route based on the stored data during traveling of a vehicle, or can store and hold the traveling history so that it can be referred to the next time the vehicle travels on the same route (for example, see Japanese Patent No. 3,019,793.
Although the above-mentioned type of navigation apparatus indicates a route from the current position to the final destination via each destination based on the entire travel time and the entire distance, it does not enable the setting of the route while indicating destinations matching user's preferences such as history information on the destinations selected according to the preferences of the user or where the user has visited before.

Navigation apparatus, navigation method, route data creation program, and server in navigation system