A substrate processing apparatus includes a temperature detector and a controller. The temperature detector detects a temperature of processing liquid before the temperature of the processing liquid in pre-dispensing in progress reaches a target temperature. The controller sets discharge stop duration of the processing liquid in the pre-dispensing based on target temperature prediction duration. The target temperature prediction duration is prediction duration until the temperature of the processing liquid reaches the target temperature from a detection temperature. The detection temperature is the temperature of the processing liquid detected by the temperature detector before the temperature of the processing liquid reaches the target temperature. The target temperature prediction duration is determined based on a temperature profile. The temperature profile indicates a record of the temperature of the processing liquid changing over time when the pre-dispensing processing was performed in the past according to the pre-dispensing condition.

A substrate processing apparatus described in Patent Literature 1 is a single-wafer type that processes substrates one by one. The substrate processing apparatus mixes, in a supply pipe, a phosphoric acid aqueous solution at room temperature and a high-temperature sulfuric acid aqueous solution with a temperature higher than a boiling point of the phosphoric acid aqueous solution to generate a mixture of phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid, and water. The phosphoric acid aqueous solution mixed with the sulfuric acid aqueous solution is heated by heat of the sulfuric acid aqueous solution. Further, the phosphoric acid aqueous solution and the sulfuric acid aqueous solution are mixed whereby heat of dilution is generated. The phosphoric acid aqueous solution mixed with the sulfuric acid aqueous solution is heated not only by the heat of the sulfuric acid aqueous solution but also by the heat of dilution. Therefore, the phosphoric acid aqueous solution contained in the mixture is heated to near the boiling point, and the mixture containing the phosphoric acid aqueous solution heated to near the boiling point is discharged onto the substrate. The mixture is hereinafter referred to as "processing liquid". It is consequently possible to attain a high selection ratio and a high etching rate in the case of etching of a substrate with a silicon nitride film formed thereon. After the etching is performed for a predetermined duration, a valve is closed to stop discharge of the processing liquid from the nozzle.

Substrate processing apparatus and substrate processing method


The present invention accepts an acyclic concurrent control-flow graph (CCFG) and produces a sequential control flow graph (SCFG) that, when executed, behaves functionally like the CCFG would if it were run on concurrent hardware. An SCFG can be easily translated into a traditional sequential programming language such as C or assembly to be executed on a traditional sequential processor.

In the utilization of concurrent programming languages, it is often desirable to be able to convert a concurrent specification of a program into an equivalent sequential specification (for efficiency reasons, in order to be run on a sequential processor).
For example, real-time embedded computer systems (or more generally, reactive real-time systems) are often most effectively specified, from a functional level, in terms of a concurrent programming language. In terms of providing an executable for the embedded system, which can be executed with greater efficiency (in terms of both speed of execution and/or hardware resources), it is often most effective to provide a sequential executable that provides equivalent functionality to the current functional specification.
A very general form of concurrent programming is the specification of a concurrent control flow graph. A very general form of sequential programming is the specification of a sequential control flow graph. It is therefore desirable to have efficient procedures for converting a concurrent control flow graph into a sequential control flow graph.
A control flow graph (or CFG) is essentially a kind of flow chart, as that term is conventionally understood, that depicts the flow of control of a program as edges connecting nodes (where the nodes represent operations to be performed). Since these edges define possible flows of control, they may be referred to as "control edges." The nodes of a CFG comprise plain and conditional nodes, each with an expression. When control reaches a node, the node's expression is evaluated and control flows along one or more edges leaving the node. A plain node has a single outgoing edge and its expression is usually an assignment. Control leaves a conditional node along the edge whose label matches the value of the expression.
In a sequential CFG (or SCFG) there is only a single path of execution (or thread) through the CFG.
A concurrent CFG (or CCFG) is a CFG which also includes fork and join nodes, each of these nodes also having an expression. Fork and join nodes start and collect groups of parallel threads. Control flows out all edges leaving a fork, starting a group of threads that will wait at a matching join node before continuing. Fork and join nodes may nest, but control may not pass between threads. Specifically, all paths from a particular fork must meet for a first time at a unique join.
In addition to specifying a concurrent program in terms of a CCFG, it is often desirable to express the concurrent program in a higher-level programming language which is then translated into a CCFG. Alternatively, it may be desirable to express the concurrent program in terms of a graphical language that is then translated into a CCFG.
An example of a suitable concurrent programming language for specifying the functionality of an embedded computer system is the Esterel language. The Esterel language is described in Berry and Gonthier's "The Esterel Synchronous Programming Language: Design, Semantics and Implementation," Science of Computer Programming, volume 19 number 2 pages 87–152, November 1992 (Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, The Netherlands), which is herein incorporated by reference. This paper formally describes the semantics of the language.
Esterel has the control constructs of an imperative language like C, but includes concurrency, preemption, and a synchronous model of time like that used in synchronous digital circuits. In each clock cycle, an Esterel program restarts, reads its inputs, and determines its reaction.
FIG. 1 shows a simple Esterel program with two concurrent threads. The first thread waits for the START signal and emits REQUEST. If it receives GRANT in the same cycle, it emits the GOT signal. In alternating cycles, the other thread emits GRANT in response to REQUEST. The threads restart when the RESET signal appears because of the abort-when RESET construct inside the outer loop.
The translation of Esterel into the CCFG may be accomplished in a variety of ways. A particular translation of Esterel into a CCFG is presented herein by pairing Esterel statements with their corresponding implementation as a program fragment of "concurrent C." Concurrent C is a form of pseudo-code which is utilized in this patent for expository purposes. Concurrent C is essentially the same as standard C, with the addition statements that perform the fork and join functions. The translation of concurrent C into a CCFG can be accomplished by a variety of known methods. In this patent, Esterel statements are paired with their corresponding concurrent C program fragment, rather than with their corresponding CCFG fragment, for expository convenience.
FIGS. 2A through 2D depict the translations of the Esterel statements, that do not affect time, into concurrent C code. For each of these Figures, the Esterel statement is on the left and the concurrent C code translation is on the right.
The "exit" statement of Esterel throws an exception that can be caught by a surrounding "trap T in . . . handle T do." This only happens after all threads in the same group are done for the cycle. To handle this, each thread sets an exit level when it stops at the end of a cycle. This level indicates termination (level 0), pausing (level 1), or an exception (levels 2 and higher). Exceptions take precedence over pauses, so a group of threads responds only to the highest level.
A "pause" statement resumes in the next cycle. A pause statement is shown on the left side of FIG. 3A, with the right side depicting its translation into concurrent C. The operation of this concurrent C is as follows. The code sets its threads state to "k," making the "switch" statement surrounding the thread send control to the "case" label next cycle. Raising the exit level to 1 indicates this thread has paused. The branch to "join" stops the thread for the cycle.
The "await" statement is similar to "pause," but it also pauses in later cycles until its signal is present. An await statement is shown on the left side of FIG. 3B, with the right side depicting its translation into concurrent C.
Esterel's preemption statements, such as "abort," introduce the equivalent of nested "switch" statements in concurrent C. This is shown in FIG. 3C where an Esterel abort statement is shown on the left and is paired with its translation into concurrent C on the right side. In the first cycle, "abort" just runs its body. It restarts its body in later cycles only if the aborting signal is absent.
The Esterel "suspend" statement runs its body in the first cycle and pauses in later cycles when the suspending signal is absent, leaving its thread's state unchanged. This operation of suspend is depicted in FIG. 3D where an Esterel suspend statement is shown on the left and is paired with its translation into concurrent C on the right side.
The Esterel "signal" statement creates a new, absent copy of its signal. This operation of signal is depicted in FIG. 3E where an Esterel signal statement is shown on the left and is paired with its translation into concurrent C on the right side.
The Esterel "exit" statement raises its process's exit level to two or more depending on the exception. Since this terminates the thread and its process, there is no need to set the thread's state. This operation of exit is depicted in FIG. 3F where an Esterel exit statement is shown on the left and is paired with its translation into concurrent C on the right side.
In Esterel, "parallel" and "trap" statements are intertwined. An example of this is shown on the left side of FIG. 3G. An implicit trap surrounds each group of parallel threads, and the body of a trap is considered a separate thread. The trap/parallel combination resets the exit level for the enclosed process, runs the threads within, and handles the exit level they return. In the concurrent C translation of FIG. 3G, the process terminates if the level is zero (the switch falls through), pauses at level one, and handles exceptions at levels two and higher.
Furthermore, the concurrent C translation of the right side of FIG. 3G implements the Esterel "parallel" and "trap" statements as follows. The threads have two entry points: one taken in the first cycle, the other taken in later cycles that use "switch" statements to restart the threads. The "fork" statement passes control to each of its labels. The "join" waits until all the threads branch to it before continuing. A terminated thread sets its state to zero so control will go to the case 0: labels when other threads in the process continue to run.
In addition to the above pairings, the translation of Esterel nested abort statements into an CCFG is accomplished according to the following procedure. The following procedure also applies to the simpler situation of sequenced pause statements.
At the beginning of each clock cycle, every running Esterel thread checks the signals that might abort running blocks before resuming where it paused in the last cycle. Each CCFG thread simulates this behavior by saving its state at the end of a cycle and resuming at the beginning of the next with "switch" statements.
Nested aborts in the Esterel program are handled with nested switches in the concurrent C code. A thread's aborts form a tree with a signal at each node and a pause or group of threads at each leaf. Restarting a thread at the beginning of a cycle requires checking for abortion signals along the path from the root to the leaf that had control at the end of the last cycle.
Each node of the tree is translated into an "if" that checks the aborting signal and a "switch" that sends control to a child. The encoding of a thread's states (which corresponds to the leaves of the preemption tree) simplifies the decision at each switch. The edges leaving each node are numbered 0, 1, 2, etc. and become the "case" labels. The sequence of edge labels from the root to a leaf becomes the encoding for the leaf. These labels are packed into a single machine word so each switch statement can extract them with a mask and a shift. FIG. 4 depicts an example that illustrates state encoding with nested aborts (and sequenced pauses) on the left in Esterel and the translation into state-encoded concurrent C on the right. Code that sets exit levels (explained above) is not shown in FIG. 4.

Method and apparatus for converting a concurrent control flow graph into a sequential control flow graph

Abstract: Determining the order in which CCFG nodes will be run is the first step in the process. Control edges in the CCFG constrain the order in which CCFG nodes must run; communication between threads generally impose further constraints. An easy way to further constrain a valid order of CCFG nodes is to augment the CCFG with data dependence edges (representing inter-thread communication) and to then topologically sort the nodes in the augmented graph to produce an ordering.

Abstract: Once the CCFG nodes are ordered, the procedure for producing the SCFG from the scheduled acyclic CCFG simulates the execution of the CCFG under an operating system supporting concurrent threads and creates an SCFG that, when executed, will reproduce the functional behavior of the CCFG running under this simulated operating system. The effects of context switching are largely compiled away by this simulation process. Each context switch is done by a single assignment that stores the state of the thread being suspended and a single branch that restores the state of the thread being resumed.


Diffuse reflective materials attached to a structure formed by thermally induced phase separation of a thermoplastic polymer and a diluent providing enhanced flexibility and reflectivity especially in the visible wavelengths of 380-730 nanometers are described. Such materials find a wide variety of application among combinations with other reflective layers. The diffuse reflective articles are useful in backlight units of liquid crystal displays, lights, copy machines, projection system displays, facsimile apparatus, electronic blackboards, diffuse white standards, photographic lights and the like.

In contrast to specular or mirror reflection in which light is reflected back only at an angle equal to that of the incident radiation, diffuse reflection provides reflective light luminance at many angles. Typical diffuse reflectors used for example as white standards for various light measuring test instruments are made of white inorganic compounds (such as barium sulfate or magnesium oxide) in the form of pressed cake or ceramic tile, all of which are expensive, stiff, and brittle. Other diffuse reflectors are (1) microvoided particle-filled articles that depend on a difference in index of refraction of the particles, the surrounding matrix and optional air-filled voids created from stretching and (2) microporous materials made from a sintered polytetrafluoroethylene suspension.
Another useful technology for producing microporous films is thermally induced phase separation (TIPS). This technology has been employed in the preparation of microporous materials wherein thermoplastic polymer and a diluent are separated by a liquid-liquid phase separation as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,247,498 and 4,867,881. A solid-liquid phase separation process has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,256. The use of nucleating agents incorporated in the microporous material is also described as an improvement in the solid-liquid phase separation method, U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,989.
Effective but inexpensive diffuse reflective articles are still needed for the many diverse light management applications that are being developed.


Disclosed is a scanning apparatus having a cascade scanning optical system. The scanning apparatus includes: a first scanning optical system for deflecting a first scanning laser beam to scan a scanning surface; a second scanning optical system for deflecting a second scanning laser beam to scan the scanning surface, wherein each of the first and second scanning optical systems is a telecentric system; a beam splitter positioned such that a first portion of the first scanning laser beam which has been reflected by the beam splitter and a first portion of the second scanning laser beam which has passed through the beam splitter proceed to the scanning surface on a common line thereon extending in a main scanning direction in respective different adjacent ranges of the common line to generate a single scanning line on the scanning surface by a combination of the first portion of the first scanning laser beam and the first portion of the second scanning laser beam; and a first laser beam detector fixed at a position to detect a second portion of the first scanning laser beam which has passed through the beam splitter and a second portion of the second scanning laser beam which has been reflected by the beam splitter when the first and second laser beams start scanning the respective different adjacent rang of the common line.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scanning apparatus having a cascade scanning optical system. The scanning apparatus is provided with a plurality of laser scanning optical systems which are arranged along the main scanning direction and controlled to operate in synchronization with each other so as to realize a wide scanning line.
2. Description of the Related Art
A cascade scanning optical system having a plurality of laser scanning optical systems arranged along the main scanning direction to realize a wide scanning line is known. Such a type of scanning optical system is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 60-35712 (published on Feb. 23, 1985) or Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 61-11720 (published on Jan. 20, 1986). Each publication discloses a cascade scanning optical system having a pair of laser scanning optical systems each having a laser beam emitter, a polygon mirror serving as a deflecting device, an f.theta. lens, etc. The pair of laser scanning optical systems are synchronously driven to emit respective scanning laser beams to a photoconductive surface (scanning surface) of a photoconductive drum on a common line thereon extending in parallel to the axial direction of the photoconductive drum, i.e., extending in the main scanning direction. The pair of scanning laser beams respectively scan two adjacent ranges of the common line on the photoconductive surface so as to scan the photoconductive surface of the photoconductive drum in the main scanning direction in a wide range.
There is a fundamental problem to be overcome in such a type of cascade scanning optical system. Namely, how can a scanning line, made on the photoconductive drum by the scanning laser beam emitted from one laser scanning optical system of the cascade scanning optical system, be accurately aligned with another scanning line, made on the photoconductive drum by the scanning laser beam emitted from another laser scanning optical system of the cascade scanning optical system, so that the scanning lines are not apart from each other nor overlap each other in the main scanning direction, i.e., so as to form a straight and continuous scanning line using a combination of the separate scanning lines.
In the case where each laser scanning optical system of the cascade scanning optical system is designed as a non-telecentric system through which the incident angle of a scanning laser beam relative to the photoconductive surface of the photoconductive drum varies in accordance with a variation in the position of a scanning spot of the scanning laser beam on the photoconductive surface in the main scanning direction, a scanning line made through one laser scanning optical system will not be precisely combined with another scanning line made through another laser scanning optical system on the photoconductive surface of the photoconductive drum, i.e., those scanning lines will be apart from each other or overlap each other by a certain amount in the main scanning direction if the photoconductive surface deviates from its original position even by a slight amount.
In the case where each laser scanning optical system of the cascade scanning optical system is designed as a telecentric system through which the scanning laser beam of each laser scanning optical system is always incident on the photoconductive surface in a direction perpendicular to an axial direction of the photoconductive drum, specifically in a direction orthogonal to generatrices of the photoconductive drum, the aforementioned problem in the case of the non-telecentric system will not occur, but it is necessary for each laser scanning optical system to be arranged at different positions in the sub-scanning direction to differentiate the angles of respective laser beams relative to the photoconductive surface, in order to prevent the respective laser beams from interfering with each other. However, with such an arrangement, if the photoconductive surface deviates from its original position even by a slight amount, a scanning line made through one laser scanning optical system and another scanning line made through another laser scanning optical system on the photoconductive drum will deviate from each other in the sub-scanning direction, and accordingly the former and latter scanning lines will not be combined with each other in the main scanning direction, so that a wide scanning line made by a combination of those scanning lines which extend in the main scanning direction across the photoconductive surface of the drum cannot be formed.
The cascade scanning optical system is generally provided, for each laser scanning optical system, with a laser beam detector fixed at a position to detect the scanning laser beam before the scanning laser beam starts generating a scanning line, so that the scanning-commencement position of writing of each scanning line on the photoconductive surface of the drum can be detected using the laser beam detector. Each scanning line starts to be generated upon a predetermined time interval having been elapsed from the moment at which the laser beam detector detects a scanning laser beam.
However, in the case where one or more laser beam detectors deviates from its original position due to a deformation of the casing to which the laser beam detector is secured, caused by, for instance, a variation in temperature, humidity, etc., the scanning-commencement position of writing of each scanning line on the photoconductive surface also deviates from its original position even if each scanning line starts to be generated upon a predetermined time interval having been elapsed from the moment at which the laser beam detector detects a scanning laser beam. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 60-35712 (published on Feb. 23, 1985) discloses a way to overcome such a problem by an arrangement in which only one laser beam detector is provided. Such an arrangement is effective in the case where the laser beam detector deviates from its original position in a direction parallel to the main scanning direction. However, the arrangement is ineffective in the case where the laser beam detector deviates from its original position in a direction non-parallel to the main scanning direction.

Scanning apparatus having a cascade scanning optical system


A method of processing data includes: receiving, by a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, a PDCP Service Data Unit (SDU) from an upper layer; and deleting the PDCP SDU and a PDCP Packet Data Unit (PDU) corresponding to the PDCP SDU upon determining that a discard timer corresponding to the PDCP SDU is not expired and a preset condition is satisfied. The PDCP SDU is mapped to an Unacknowledged Mode (UM) or a Transparent Mode (TM) of a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer. Thus, the PDCP SDU will not reside in a UE cache, thereby reducing cache space occupied by the PDCP SDU.

At present, in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, when receiving an uplink Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) Service Data Unit (SDU) from an upper layer, a PDCP layer may add a discard timer for each SDU. If the discard timer of the PDCP SDU expires, or a PDCP state report confirms the PDCP SDU has been successfully sent, User Equipment (UE) will discard the PDCP SDU and a corresponding PDCP Packet Data Unit (PDU). If the PDCP PDU is already delivered to a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, the PDCP layer may notify the RLC layer to discard the PDU. After receiving a notification from the PDCP layer, the RLC layer may delete the PDCP PDU if the PDCP PDU is not yet mapped to an RLC data PDU.
When a PDCP SDU mapped to an RLC Acknowledged Mode (AM) is delivered to the RLC layer, if a successful sending instruction is not received from the RLC layer, it is required to resend an unsuccessfully-sent PDCP SDU during a PDCP layer re-establishment procedure. Thus, the unsuccessfully-sent PDCP SDU must be retained in the PDCP layer. A PDCP SDU mapped to an RLC Unacknowledged Mode (UM) or a Transparent Mode (TM) is discarded only when the discard timer expires.

Method and apparatus for processing data, user equipment and computer-readable storage medium

Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co., Ltd.


A method, performed by a transceiver, is described. The transceiver receives a null data packet announcement (NDPA) frame to initiate channel sounding and a null data packet (NDP), the NDP following the NDPA frame. A first report field including beamforming information and a second report field including signal to noise ratio (SNR) information is configured. First feedback data including the first report field and a second report field is split into a plurality of segments. The plurality of segments is transmitted in a single aggregated medium access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) including MPDUs. A retransmission request including a segment retransmission bitmap field indicating at least one segment of the plurality of segments for retransmission is received. In response to the retransmission request, second feedback data including the at least one segment indicated by the segment retransmission bitmap field is transmitted.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a wireless local area network (WLAN) system, and more particularly, to a channel sounding procedure between stations (STAs) in the WLAN system and an apparatus for supporting the procedure.
2. Related Art
With the advancement of information communication technologies, various wireless communication technologies have recently been developed. Among the wireless communication technologies, a wireless local area network (WLAN) is a technology whereby Internet access is possible in a wireless fashion in homes or businesses or in a region providing a specific service by using a portable terminal such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a laptop computer, a portable multimedia player (PMP), etc.
The IEEE 802.11n is a technical standard relatively recently introduced to overcome a limited data rate which has been considered as a drawback in the WLAN. The IEEE 802.11n is devised to increase network speed and reliability and to extend an operational distance of a wireless network. More specifically, the IEEE 802.11n supports a high throughput (HT), i.e., a data processing rate of up to above 540 Mbps, and is based on a multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) technique which uses multiple antennas in both a transmitter and a receiver to minimize a transmission error and to optimize a data rate.
With the widespread use of the WLAN and the diversification of applications using the WLAN, there is a recent demand for a new WLAN system to support a higher throughput than a data processing rate supported by the IEEE 802.11n. A next-generation WLAN system supporting a very high throughput (VHT) is a next version of the IEEE 802.11n WLAN system, and is one of IEEE 802.11 WLAN systems which have recently been proposed to support a data processing rate of above 1 Gbps in a MAC service access point (SAP).
The next-generation WLAN system supports the transmission of a Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) scheme in which a plurality of non-AP STAs accesses a radio channel at the same time in order to efficiently use the radio channel. According to the MU-MIMO transmission scheme, an AP can transmit a frame to one or more MIMO-paired STAs at the same time.
The AP and the plurality of MU-MIMO paired STAs may have different capabilities. In this case, a supportable bandwidth, modulation coding scheme (MCS), forward error correction (FEC), etc., may vary depending on an STA type, usage, channel environment, etc.
In the WLAN system, an AP and/or an STA can acquire information on a channel to be used to transmit a frame to a reception target AP and/or STA. This can be performed by using a channel sounding procedure. That is, a process in which a transmitter requests a receiver to send channel information to be used for frame transmission and reception and the receiver estimates a channel and feeds back channel information thereof to the transmitter can be performed before transmitting and receiving a data frame. Meanwhile, since the next generation WLAN system employs a wider channel bandwidth and a MU-MIMO transmission scheme, a more amount of channel information can be received from a transmission target AP and/or STA. In order to transmit a more amount of feedback information, the transmission target AP and/or STA needs to access to a channel for a longer period of time. When interference occurs in a part of the feedback information transmitted and received during this period, there is a need to discard whole feedback information and thus new feedback information is necessary. This may cause deterioration in terms of efficiency of resource usage and reliability of a channel sounding procedure. Accordingly, there is a need for a channel sounding method capable of solving the aforementioned problem in a next generation WLAN system.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for channel sounding in wireless local area network and apparatus for the same


When simulating behavior of particles in a space having regions and subject to analysis, by processes of a predetermined number fewer than the number of regions, a particle simulation apparatus assigns the regions of the predetermined number, which are selected in descending order of the number of particles included in each of the regions, to differing processes among the processes of the predetermined number. The particle simulation apparatus sequentially assigns unassigned regions in descending order of the number of particles included in each of the unassigned regions, to the process for which the number of particles included in the regions already assigned to each of the processes of the predetermined number is the smallest.

Simulation using a particle method has recently been used to execute fluid analysis to study flows of water and air, elastic body analysis to study the behavior of compressed rubber, and the like.
As to the simulation using the particle method, according to a conventional technique, a space to be analyzed is divided into plural regions, each of the divided plural regions is assigned to any of plural processes, and calculation of the behavior of particles is executed in parallel by the plural processes. For example, according to conventional technique, a region is divided such that calculation loads for the behavior of the particles are equalized by dividing the region such that the number of particles included in each of regions is equalized (see, for example, Murotani, Kohei; Koshizuka, Seiichi; Shioya, Ryuji; Ogino, Masao; Nagai, Eiichi; Fujisawa, Toshimitsu, and Anju, Akira, "Tsunami Inundated Analysis for Turbine Building of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Unit 1 Using MPS Method", Proceedings of the Conference on Computational Engineering and Science Vol. 20 (June 2015); Murotani, Kohei; Oochi, Masatoshi; Fujisawa, Toshimitsu; Koshizuka, Seiichi; Yoshimura, Shinobu, "Distributed Memory Parallel Algorithm for Explicit MPS using ParMETIS", Transactions of JSCES, Paper No. 20120012; and Tsuzuki, Satori and Aoki, Takayuki, "A Large-scale Particle-Based Simulation for Fluid-Structure Interaction using Dynamic Load Balance on a GPU Supercomputer", Proceedings of the Conference on Computational Engineering and Science Vol. 20 (June 2015)); and The cosmological simulation code GADGET-2″, Volker Springel, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 364, pp.1105-1134 (2005).

Computer-readable recording medium, computing machine resource allocation method, and particle simulation apparatus


The present disclosure provides a welding system capable of detecting a size of a welding material and automatically implementing appropriate arc starting parameters. The welding system includes a welder, a welding torch, and a sensor, in which the sensor is configured to detect the size of the welding material, directly or indirectly. The welder is automatically configured to produce an arc having the arc starting parameters determined from the size of the welding material detected by the sensor. The present disclosure decreases operational error by automatically changing arc starting parameters and/or welding parameters based upon a change in welding material size, rather than requiring an operator to manually change the arc starting parameters and/or welding parameters.

The invention relates generally to welding systems, including welders and welding torches. Specifically, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for detecting the diameter of a welding material used in a welding operation and automatically setting appropriate welding parameters.
Welding systems have become virtually ubiquitous throughout industry. Such systems are currently used in all industries, including manufacturing, physical plant construction, shipbuilding, pipeline construction, maintenance and repair, and so forth. Many welding applications may be complex projects that often require different types of welds to be made, including welds of different sizes. Such welds often require the use of welding material of different sizes. For example, a fine weldment may require the use of a relatively thin welding wire and a large, robust weldment may require the use of a relatively thick welding wire. In order to complete such a project, welding material of one size may need to be swapped out for a welding material of a different size. This may occur one of more times during a single welding operation or session. Generally, an operator must stop welding and manually change the welding material.
Additionally, for best performance, welding material of a certain size generally requires a specific set of welding parameters such as arc starting parameters. Amperage level is an example. As such, when welding material is changed, the operator generally must return to the welder to manually change and/or set one or more of these parameters. Unfortunately, this creates a higher probability of operator error for many reasons. For example, an operator may not be aware that arc starting parameters should be changed when changing the welding material, and even a user who is aware may forget to do so. It may also be the case that the user does change the arc starting parameters, but changes them to an incorrect setting. This may result in a decrease in productivity, as well as in poor weld quality. Accordingly, there exists a need for improved welding systems that overcome such drawbacks.


A sauna device, which achieves the above object and can produce a sauna effect even at low temperatures, includes: a heating device installed on a ceiling surface of a sauna chamber, the heating device including a flat-plate heating body having a heat radiating surface, a suction port on one side of the heating body, a supply port on the other side, and a duct-shaped air heating chamber formed at the back of the heating body; wherein hot air heated in the air heating chamber is blown out of the supply port down to near a floor surface where it is reversed and circulated in the sauna chamber to be drawn into the suction port for reheating; wherein a heat radiating area of the heating device for radiating heat into the sauna chamber is about 30-70% of the area of the ceiling surface of the sauna chamber, and the hot air blown from the supply port has a velocity enough to be able to come close to the floor surface of the sauna chamber.

A sauna bath that accommodates a large number of people at one time is generally called a "high-temperature sauna bath" which uses a red-hot heating body or an overheated steam heating body installed at a corner of a large sauna chamber to heat the chamber to high temperatures of 80-120.degree. C., normally at around 100.degree. C., thus properly heating the users sitting at locations sufficiently remote from the heating body (type A).
In recent years, a home-use small sauna device has been developed and is gradually beginning to be used. This kind of home sauna device normally uses a small far-infrared ray heating device that can be installed in a bathroom. The heating device includes a plurality of heating bodies having a circular heating surface and arranged at the top and bottom of the front surface of a box-like body of the heating device.
Further, another type that improves the heat efficiency of this home sauna device has a vertical duct provided at the back of the heating body-incorporated front surface to draw in heated air from the top of the duct and blow it out from below a chair on which the user is sitting, thereby enclosing the body of the user with hot air (type B).
In the case of the type-A large sauna bath, because the users receive radiant heat from the hot heating device, there are significant differences between the amounts of heat received by the users sitting at the front row and those at the rear. This naturally causes a large difference in the "sauna effect," the refreshing effect that stimulates perspiration and blood circulation to make users feel refreshed.
Because the users receive high-temperature radiant heat, they can stay in the sauna chamber for only a short period of time, from several to 20 minutes. To use this type of sauna bath requires the user to have a basic physical strength, and there are great variations in the sauna effect according to the physical strength of each user. The user who stay in the sauna for a short period cannot obtain a satisfactory sauna effect. Another disadvantage is that because a large space needs to be provided between the heating device and the users, a large chamber is required deteriorating the efficiency of space usage.
In the type-A large sauna bath, the user's body is subjected to high temperatures (for example, 80-120.degree. C.) that are usually not experienced in daily life. Blood pressure is said to rise at high temperatures more than 70.degree. C. and fall at temperatures below 60.degree. C. although there are variations depending on physical strength. Hence, not only is the use of such a high-temperature sauna bath not recommendable for elderly people or persons with weak physical strength, it is dangerous from the viewpoint of health care.
Generally, elderly people often dislike bath and this makes the work of a person taking care of them more laborious. On the contrary, sun-bathing, necessary for people staying in bed, is recommended for many elderly people and sick persons who are in the process of recovering.
Hence, if a sauna device is available which provides temperature conditions close to that of sun-bathing and still stimulates perspiration like the conventional sauna bath, it can make the bathing more readily acceptable for the elderly or sick person by raising body temperature before taking bath. If the body can be dried naturally after bath, during which communication may take place among elderly and sick persons and nursing personnel, this not only is advantageous for elderly people but can greatly lighten the burdens of the nursing personnel.
The type-B home sauna device is a low-temperature sauna device far smaller than the large type-A sauna bath and has the advantage of being able to be installed at a corner of an ordinary home bathroom so that both the bath and the low-temperature sauna can be used.
Because the home sauna device naturally uses a small space, however, it mainly uses radiant heat radiated from the front of the device to heat the body and there are significant temperature differences between the side of the body that receives radiant heat and the opposite side. Hence, to produce the sauna effect uniformly over the entire body, the user must change his or her body orientation with respect to the heating body at appropriate intervals of time. Therefore, this type of home sauna device, though small and easily installable, cannot provide the sauna effect close to that of the large-size sauna bath to the user as he sits in a relaxed attitude for a long period.
The type-A large high-temperature sauna device has the drawback that it cannot be recommended to elderly or physically weak persons because of high chamber temperature and still requires a large sauna chamber, which degrades the efficiency of space usage. The type-B small low-temperature home sauna device has the drawback of not being able to transfer heat efficiently to the user's body. The inventor of this invention conducted studies to eliminate these drawbacks.
We have developed a device (type C) in which a heating device having a planar heating body is installed on the ceiling portion to supply and discharge hot air from both sides of the ceiling portion to cause the hot air to flow down in the sauna chamber toward the floor surface thereby efficiently heating the body of the user through heat radiation and through direct thermal transfer by contact of hot air to stimulate perspiration.
Another device similar to this type-C sauna device built into the ceiling is a so-called bathroom ventilating/drying device, which has a fan and a heating body installed in the ceiling of the bathroom to blow hot air from the ceiling into the bathroom to heat the interior of the bathroom or which simply exhausts air from the bathroom to use it as a drying compartment. This type of device has found a growing use in newly built condominiums (type D).
The bathroom ventilating/drying device of type D, like an ordinary air conditioner embedded in the ceiling, has a small-area heating body and a fan built into the ceiling. Hence, not only is the volume of air that can be supplied not so large, but the supply port and the suction port are arranged too close together. As a result, a so-called "short-circuit phenomenon" results, in which hot air blown out of the supply port is drawn into the suction port before it reaches the middle of the height of the bathroom.
Once the short-circuit phenomenon of hot air takes place, only the heated air near the bathroom ventilating/drying device or the ceiling portion of the bathroom is circulated, causing overheat of the heater, failing to dry the washing completely.
Further, the bathroom ventilating/drying device has a filter such as a net at the suction port, and dirt trapped by the filter grows into a lump with the elapse of time, which may fall into the hot air circulation duct to contact the heater and ignite, starting a fire. Therefore, the bathroom ventilating/drying device currently on the market has a risk of fire.
When the bathroom is used as a drying compartment by exhausting air from the bathroom, a narrow air passage is automatically formed which connects the air supply port at the bottom of the bathroom door and the bathroom ventilating/drying device. Once this air passage is formed, external air cannot be positively blown against the laundry hung in the bathroom, with the result that the laundry fails to be dried even after the exhaust fan has been operated more than half a day.
Measurements of temperatures along the height in the bathroom incorporating the bathroom ventilating/drying device have shown that the floor surface has the lowest temperature in the bathroom while the ceiling portion is kept at high temperature. The bathroom ventilating/drying device can produce only a small heating effect by which the temperature of air in the upper part of the bathroom near the ceiling is slightly raised. It is therefore out of question to use the bathroom as a small home sauna chamber.
Results of many experiments conducted by the inventors of this invention have found that the problem with the conventional sauna device is that it does not utilize the heat transfer by directly blowing hot air to the user's body.
When room-temperature air is heated to temperatures higher than 70.degree. C.--the temperature that produces the sauna effect, the specific gravity of air decreases by as much as about 30-40%. The lower layer of air that does not reach the temperature at which the sauna effect is produced has a large specific gravity, while the upper layer of heated air is remarkably light.
It is therefore very difficult to blow hot air with a small specific gravity from the ceiling portion and causes it to flow down to or penetrate through an air layer near the floor surface to mix the high-temperature air and the low-temperature air. It is thus impossible to eliminate the large temperature difference that exists between the area close to the ceiling and the area close to the floor. Because the distance between the hot air supply port and the suction port in the bathroom drying device is relatively short, the hot air blown out of the supply port is easily short-circuited to the suction port, failing to heat the whole interior of the bathroom.
The inventor of this invention has long manufactured and marketed this type of sauna device and, based on this experience, developed the present invention by examining the problems with the conventional sauna devices of type A to type D.
It is an object of this invention to provide a sauna device which, though small in size, can produce an excellent sauna effect even for a user not familiar with sauna bath and which enables the user to efficiently use a narrow sauna chamber thereby producing a satisfactory sauna effect even at low temperatures of 40-65.degree. C., preferably at around 50.degree. C.
It is another object of this invention to provide a sauna device which gives the user a large amount of heat in a short period of time.
In the high-temperature sauna device, since the temperature is higher than 70.degree. C., the chamber is extremely dry so that, if water is added, the chamber will necessarily remain dry.
In more concrete terms, the high-temperature sauna device at 100.degree. C. can keep the humidity only at less than 1%, which is abnormally dry. In contrast to this, the low-temperature sauna device at 60.degree. C. can control humidity to 40% at 60.degree. C., 45% at 55.degree. C., 50% at 50.degree. C., 60% at 45.degree. C. and 70% at 40.degree. C.
High humidity in air means that air can hold an increased quantity of heat. As the heat quantity in air increases, the rate of heat transfer to body also increases. The quantity of heat given off to the body increases with the increased rate of heat transfer. This means that the increased heat quantity ensures a satisfactory sauna effect even at low temperatures.
Because a sufficient amount of heat can be imparted to the body through low-temperature air, the user no longer feels direct smarting heat rays on his skin, as experienced in the high-temperature sauna device, and can be warmed down to the core of his body in ways that are pleasant and soft to his body.
The present invention is intended to provide a sauna device that can supply a sufficiently large quantity of heat, even at low temperatures as mentioned above, to the user's body in a short period of time.


Methods, Apparatus and Program Products for predicting resource usage data, weather data and econometric data, such as: demands on resources such as electrical power, water supply, communications infrastructure; temperature, humidity, wind speed, solar radiation, and degree days; and commodity price, gross domestic product, and a price index.

Prediction of demands on resources such as electrical power, water supply, communications infrastructure and the like is of importance to planners for utilities and other bodies concerned with growth and meeting the demands of growth. Technologies for such predictions have existed and are in use, and have been found to suffer deficiencies in adaptability to data capture and analysis. Typically, such techniques have provided some reliable accuracy over limited spans of time and little or no accuracy over longer spans of time.
Referring to the electrical utility industry as an example, one of the key pieces of data used by electric system planners is load data. Planners have been using system peak usage hour data to plan the system. The system peak load hour data is weather adjusted to represent what load might be expected on a day that has the highest ambient temperature of any day for the past 10 or 20 years.
System peak hour data has been sufficient for planning the electric grid until now due to planners allowing for substantial margin for error. However, with the changing electric utility environment it is becoming necessary to get more usage of the existing infrastructure. As a consequence, there is greater need to have greater understanding about the electrical loading on different equipment such as transformers, feeder lines, and customer transformers.
A summer peaking system will typically see its peak load demand in the summer, perhaps in August or September, typically at 5 or 6 pm. It is well understood in the electric utility industry that not all loads see their peak usage at the same time of the day or on the same day of the year.
There is a great deal known about electric loads, but there has not yet been a way to cleanly represent the "typical" electrical demand in the form of an equation. There are several forecasting algorithms which will forecast load in the short term of 24-48 hours or the long term for an area using spatial load forecasting which will look out several years. However, there has been little done to forecast with much accuracy out 12 to 24 months.
Many of the methodologies for short and very long term forecasting use mathematical methodologies such as fuzzy logic, neural nets, stochastics and state estimation. The short term forecasting results of some of these methodologies can be quite accurate, but the accuracy drops off dramatically once they look past a week or two.
There has been a need to see past a week or two, but nothing has been found to work with sufficient accuracy, reliability and simplicity to be of much use to those who plan the electric grid. What is presented here is a methodology that is both simple enough and accurate enough to be of value for planning the power grid over the next one to two years. One to two years is the time frame of interest to a majority of distribution electric system planning which is also where a significant portion of the annual capital budget is spent.
What is here disclosed and taught is a new technology for such predictions which relies upon and implements a topologic space and surface analysis enabling insertion of future dates and generation of more accurate predictive values for resource demand.

Predictive method, apparatus and program product


A child's wagon is provided with a mobile base portion and a body portion that define a large inner cavity for storing various articles. Head, neck and tail assemblies may be provided so that the wagon resembles a desired animal. A frame assembly provides the head and neck with realistic movement when the wagon is moved. A cover for the wagon's inner chamber may be shaped like a saddle to support one or more children. Additional accessories such as saddlebags, bottle holsters, and a coiled cord pacifier may be provided. The tongue may be pulled manually or disassembled into a tow bar to be pulled by other motive devices.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wagons for children and more particularly to a child's wagon that resembles an animal, such as a horse, that can be ridden by a child while storing a plurality of toys and necessary supplies for the child inside the wagon.
2. Description of the Related Art
Small toy wagons have been built for children for generations. The wagons are easily identifiable as generally shallow, rectangular-shaped, open boxes that are supported by two pairs of wheels and pulled by a tongue extending from the forward end of the wagon. Over the years, various design improvements have been made to this basic design, such as providing a canopy that is supported above the wagon and positioned over the child riding within the wagon. Various shapes and configurations have also been provided, including those that resemble carriages, trucks, farm equipment and the like. However, regardless of the general design configurations, the usability has remained the same. The child and any toys or supplies traveling with the child sit within the wagon box. Adults or other children grasp a distal end of the tongue and pull the child from one location to another. Unfortunately, these structural configurations and designs have become mundane. Moreover, they provide very little additional storage once one or two children are seated within the wagon.
Accordingly, what is needed is a novel design for a children's wagon that is unique in its design and use to please children, while providing ample storage for toys and supplies.


A method of priming neural stem cells in vitro by adhesively culturing in a mixture of basic fibroblast growth factor, laminin and heparin to differentiate into specific neuronal phenotypes, including cholinergic, glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons, in a region-specific manner, when transplanted in vivo.

Many neurological disorders result from the loss of neurons through disease or injury, and these cells are not intrinsically replaced. Such neurological disorders include neurodegenerative disorders of the CNS, such as Parkinson's disease (PD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), multiple sclerosis, Huntington's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease). AD and ALS are due to the degeneration of cholinergic neurons. Such neurological disorders also include neurotrauma, such as spinal cord injuries, head injuries and stroke-related dementia. An exciting new strategy for the treatment of such disorders is to replace the damaged or lost neurons by implanting healthy neurons into the affected areas. For example, the implantation of fetal neurons into the brain of PD patients has resulted in the improvement of motor function. A potential therapeutic approach for treating AD, ALS and spinal cord injuries is to replace lost cholinergic neurons by the implantation of new, healthy cholinergic neurons.
Recent progress in the isolation and propagation of human stem cells in culture has generated a potentially unlimited donor source for such treatments. Current advances in the field include the isolation and propagation of human embryonic stem (ES) cells (Thomson et al. Science 1998; 282:1145) and germ (EG) cells (Shamblott et al. PNAS 1998; 95:13726). These cells are pluripotent, since they can become any cell type in the human body, including neurons. Multipotent neural stem cells have also been isolated successfully from both fetal CNS (see Villa et al. Exp. Neurol. 2000; 161:67-84; Carpenter et al. Exp. Neurol. 1999; 158:265-278; Svendsen et al. J. Neurosci. Methods 1998; 85:141-152); Uchida et al. PNAS 2000; 97:14720-14725; and Vescovi et al. Exp. Neurol. 1999; 56:71-83) or adult CNS (see Roy et al. Nat. Med. 2000; 6:271-277; Johansson et al. Exp. Cell Res. 1999; 253:733-736; and Palmer et al. Nature 2001; 411:42-43). The capabilities of self-renewal and multipotential differentiation render these stem cells an attractive and presumably unlimited donor source for cell replacement therapy to treat neurological disorders.
While such cells could serve as a source of new neurons to ameliorate many neural disorders, a critical issue is how to direct these pluripotent or multipotent stem cells toward a specific cell lineage in order to meet a desirable therapeutic requirement. For example, treating spinal cord injury, AD or ALS using a cell replacement strategy requires the differentiation of cholinergic neurons from these stem cells. Human or rodent stem cells are able to differentiate into specific neuronal types when grafted into either developing CNS (see Flax et al. Nat. Biotechnol. 1998; 16:1033; Brustle et al. Nat. Biotech. 1998; 16:1040-1044; Reubinoff et al. Nat. Biotech. 2001; 19:1134-1140; and Zhang et al. Nat. Biotech. 2001; 19:1129-1133) or neurogenic areas of the adult CNS (see Fricker et al. J. Neurosci. 1999; 19:5990-6005; Shihabuddin et al. J. Neurosci. 2000; 20:8727-8735; and Suhonen et al. Nature 1996; 383:624-627). However, these cells remain undifferentiated or become mainly glial cells when transplanted into non-neurogenic regions of the adult CNS, (see Svendsen et al. Exp. Neurol. 1997; 148:135-146; Sheen et al. Exp. Neurol. 1999; 158:47-62; Fricker et al. J. Neurosci. 1999; 19:5990-6005; Shihabuddin et al. J. Neurosci. 2000; 20:8727-8735; and Cao et al. Exp. Neurol. 2001; 167: 48-58). This indicates that in vitro priming or differentiation prior to grafting is necessary for these cells to become specific neuronal subtypes such as cholinergic neurons. There have been no reports on the generation of a significant number of cholinergic neurons from long-term mitogen-expanded human stem cells. Such neurons play key roles in motor function as well as learning and memory, and thus are highly relevant to clinical applications. It is a major obstacle that the majority of such cells do not differentiate into cholinergic neurons when grafted into non-neurogenic areas of the adult CNS. See Svendsen et al. Exp. Neurol. 1997; 148: 135-146; Sheen et al. Exp. Neurol. 1999; 158:47-62; Fricker et al. J. Neurosci. 1999; 19: 5990-6005; Shihabuddin et al. J. Neurosci. 2000; 20:8727-8735; and Cao et al. Exp. Neurol. 2001; 167: 48-58. Thus, there is a need for new methods to direct pluripotent or multipotent stem cells to differentiate into neurons of a specific lineage. For example, there is a need for methods to produce cholinergic neurons from stem cells and/or progeny thereof.

Method of producing region-specific neurons from human neuronal stem cells

Board of Regents, The University of Texas System


A reflective mask blank has a substrate (11) on which a reflective layer (12) for reflecting exposure light in a short-wavelength region including an extreme ultraviolet region and an absorber layer (16) for absorbing the exposure light are successively formed. The absorber layer (16) has an at least two-layer structure including as a lower layer an exposure light absorbing layer (14) formed by an absorber for the exposure light in the short-wavelength region including the extreme ultraviolet region and as an upper layer a low-reflectivity layer (15) formed by an absorber for inspection light used in inspection of a mask pattern. The upper layer is made of a material containing tantalum (Ta), boron (B), and nitrogen (N). The content of B is 5 at % to 30 at %. The ratio of Ta and N (Ta:N) falls within a range of 8:1 to 2:7. Alternatively, the reflective mask blank has a substrate on which a multilayer reflective film and an absorber layer are successively formed. In this case, the absorber layer is made of a material containing tantalum (Ta), boron (B), and nitrogen (N). The content of B is 5 at % to 25 at %. The ratio of Ta and N (Ta:N) falls within a range of 8:1 to 2:7.

In recent years, following the development of a highly-integrated semiconductor product, such as a semiconductor memory and a VLSI (Very Large Scale Integrated circuit), there arises a demand for a fine pattern exceeding a transfer limit in photolithography. In order to enable such a fine pattern to be transferred, proposal has been made of lithography using extreme ultraviolet light (hereinafter abbreviated to EUV light) having a shorter wavelength or the like. It is noted here that the EUV light means light of a wavelength band within a soft X-ray region or a vacuum ultraviolet region, specifically, light having a wavelength of about 0.2-100 nm.
In the meanwhile, proposal has been made of a reflective mask used as an exposure mask within a short-wavelength region including the EUV light or X-ray. The reflective mask has a basic structure comprising a Si or quartz substrate, a reflective layer formed on the substrate to reflect the EUV light or the X-ray, and an absorber pattern formed on the reflective layer to absorb the EUV light or the X-ray. Generally, the reflective layer comprises a multilayer film including thin films of at least two kinds of substances alternately laminated. In a direction inclined at several degrees (typically, 2 to 5 degrees) from a perpendicular direction to the mask, exposure light is incident to the mask. The exposure light is absorbed in an area where the absorber pattern is present. In a remaining area, the exposure light is reflected by the reflective layer. Therefore, a reflected image corresponding to the absorber pattern is formed. By reduction projection of the reflected image through an appropriate optical system onto a silicon wafer, transfer is carried out.
Japanese Patent Application Publication (JP-A) Nos. H7-333829 and H8-213303 disclose a structure including an intermediate layer formed between the reflective layer and the absorber, in addition to the above-mentioned basic structure of the reflective mask. Thus, the intermediate layer is formed in order to protect the reflective layer during patterning of the absorber, in particular, during etching so that the reflective layer as an underlying layer is not damaged by etching.
Now, referring to FIG. 1, description will be made of a method of producing a reflective mask used in the lithography using the EUV light (for example, the EUV light having a wavelength of about 13.4 nm within the soft X-ray region). FIG. 1 includes schematic sectional views sequentially showing a production process of an existing reflective mask.
A mask blank 101 is prepared by successively depositing, on a substrate 11 of quartz or the like, a laminate film 12 as a reflective layer for the EUV light (hereinafter called an EUV reflective layer), a buffer layer 13 (corresponding to the above-mentioned intermediate layer) formed on the laminate film for the purpose of protecting the EUV reflective layer in an absorber pattern forming step, an absorber layer 14 formed on the buffer layer to absorb the EUV light (hereinafter called an EUV absorber layer) (see FIG. 1(a)).
Next, the EUV absorber layer 14 as an absorber for the EUV light is processed to form an EUV absorber pattern having a predetermined pattern (see FIG. 1(b)).
Then, inspection is carried out to confirm whether or not the EUV absorber pattern is formed exactly as designed. For example, it is assumed that, as a result of the pattern inspection, detection is made of occurrence of a pinhole defect (a defect that the absorber layer is removed at a position where it should not be etched off, may be called a white (clear) defect) 21 resulting from adhesion of foreign matters to a resist layer during pattern formation and an underetching defect (a position where the absorber layer is not sufficiently removed due to underetching, may be called a black (opaque) defect) 22, as shown in FIG. 1(b). In this event, the pinhole defect 21 is repaired by depositing a carbon film 23 in a pinhole using focused ion beam (FIB) assisted deposition. The underetching defect 22 is repaired by removing a residual part 22a using FIB gas assisted etching to obtain a removed part 25 where the absorber layer 14 is removed. By irradiation energy during repair, a damaged part 24 (a part 24a removed by FIB and a part 24b penetrated by FIB ions) is present on a surface of the buffer layer 13 (see FIG. 1(c)).
Thereafter, by removing a part of the buffer layer 13 corresponding to the removed part 25 where the EUV absorber layer 14 is removed, a pattern 26 is formed so that the reflective mask for the EUV light is produced (see FIG. 1(d)).
When the reflective mask is exposed by EUV light 31, the light is absorbed in an area where the absorber pattern is present. In a remaining area (where the absorber layer 14 and the buffer layer 13 are removed), the EUV light 31 is reflected by the reflective layer 12 which is exposed (see FIG. 1(e)). Thus, the reflective mask can be used as a mask for the lithography using the EUV light.
As described above, in the above-mentioned mask production process, inspection is carried out, after the pattern is formed on the EUV absorber layer 14, to confirm whether or not the EUV absorber pattern is formed exactly as designed. The inspection of the mask pattern is carried out by the use of an inspecting apparatus using light having a wavelength of, for example, about 257 nm (generally, deep ultraviolet light having a wavelength of 190-260 nm). Specifically, by irradiating the mask with the light of about 257 nm, a pattern of a reflected image is produced to be subjected to the inspection. The inspection of the mask pattern is carried out after completion of the pattern forming step (step in FIG. 1(b)) for the EUV absorber layer 14 on a surface as described above. Based on the result of the inspection, the pattern is repaired if necessary. Specifically, the inspection is carried out by a difference in reflectivity between the surface of the buffer layer 13 exposed after the absorber on the surface is removed by patterning and the surface of the absorber as the remaining pattern when the light used in the inspection (hereinafter will be referred to as inspection light) is irradiated onto the mask. Therefore, if the difference in reflectivity for the wavelength of the inspection light between the surface of the buffer layer and the surface of the absorber layer is small, a contrast upon the inspection is insufficient so that defect inspection can not accurately be carried out.
Typically, in case of the existing reflective mask, the EUV absorber on the surface is formed by a tantalum film or a tantalum nitride film and the buffer layer is formed by a SiO2 film. For the inspection light having a wavelength of 257 nm, the difference between the reflectivity of the surface of the absorber and the reflectivity on the surface of the buffer layer is small so that the contrast upon the inspection is insufficient. As a result, a pattern defect can not sufficiently be detected during the inspection of the mask and an accurate defect test can not be carried out.
On the other hand, by inspection with an electron microscope using an electron beam, an EUV absorber film is damaged by the electron beam irradiated thereto. Therefore, practical use is difficult.
Proposal is also made of a method of using light of about 13.4 nm as an EUV light wavelength mentioned above to inspect a mask pattern. However, in order to equip the inspection apparatus with an EUV light source, an extremely high facility cost is required. Further, as compared with an existing inspection apparatus using an ultraviolet wavelength, a pattern inspecting step is increased in scale and complicated because a structure of holding a whole of an optical system in vacuum is required in order to avoid absorption in atmospheric air. In addition, a throughput is reduced due to a time required for evacuation into vacuum.
Referring to FIG. 1, description will be made of a specific example where the reflective layer 12 is a multilayer reflective film. Specifically, the multilayer reflective film comprising thin films made of substances different in refractive index and alternately laminated is generally used as the reflective layer 12. For example, as the multilayer reflective film for light having a wavelength of about 13 nm, a multilayer film comprising Si and Mo alternately laminated in about 40 periods is known.
In the specific example, it is assumed that the buffer layer 13 comprises a SiO2 film or a Cr film and the absorber layer 14 is made of Ta or a Ta alloy.
After the step in FIG. 1(d) (the step of removing a predetermined part of the buffer layer 13 on the reflective layer 12 to form the pattern 26), inspection for final confirmation is carried out to confirm whether or not the absorber pattern is formed in exact conformity with a specification. The final inspection of the pattern is also carried out by observing the contrast in reflection of the inspection light on the surface of the mask using deep ultraviolet light as the inspection light, in the manner similar to the above-mentioned first inspection after completion of the pattern forming step (the step in FIG. 1(b)) for the absorber layer 14.
Specifically, in the first inspection, the inspection is carried out by observing the contrast in reflection of the inspection light between the surface of the buffer layer 13 exposed in the area where the absorber layer 14 is removed and the surface of the absorber layer 14 in the area where the absorber layer 14 remains. On the other hand, in the inspection for final confirmation, the inspection is carried out by the contrast in reflection of the inspection light between the surface of the multilayer reflective film 12 exposed in the area where the buffer layer 13 is removed and the surface of the absorber layer 14 in the area where the absorber layer 14 remains.
Therefore, if the difference in reflectivity between the surface of the buffer layer 13 and the surface of the absorber layer 14 for the wavelength of the inspection light is small, the contrast during the first inspection is inferior so that the first inspection can not accurately be carried out. If the difference in reflectivity between the surface of the multilayer reflective film and the surface of the absorber layer for the wavelength of the inspection light is small, the contrast during the final inspection is inferior so that the final inspection can not accurately be carried out.
For example, in case where the deep ultraviolet light having a wavelength of 257 nm is used as the inspection light, the reflectivity of Ta or the Ta alloy used as the absorber layer for the EUV light is as relatively high as about 35%. On the other hand, the reflectivity of the buffer layer is about 40% in case of SiO2 and about 50% in case of Cr. Therefore, the difference in reflectivity is small so that a sufficient contrast can not be obtained in the pattern inspection. A Mo/Si periodic multilayer film generally used for the exposure light having a wavelength of about 13 nm has a reflectivity of about 60% for far ultraviolet light. In this case, it is also difficult to achieve a contrast sufficient to obtain an accurate result in the inspection for final confirmation.
On the other hand, it is possible to decrease the reflectivity for the inspection light by roughening the surface of the absorber layer. In this case, however, edge roughness after pattern formation is increased so that the dimensional accuracy of the mask is degraded.
In order to decrease the reflectivity, it is effective to add nitrogen. However, tantalum nitride (TaN) containing Ta with nitrogen added thereto is a crystalline substance. In particular, if a metal film is used as the buffer layer, a TaN film formed thereon has a granular structure. In this case also, the edge roughness after pattern formation is increased and the dimensional accuracy of the mask is degraded.

Reflection type mask blank and reflection type mask and production methods for them


A power supply device for realizing an electrical connection structure includes a wire harness arranged to electrically connect a body with a sliding door and having both ends fixed thereto and a bendable middle portion. A slider is arranged to contact the middle portion of the wire harness and move in synchronization with slide movement to guide the wire harness in a parallel direction. A box-shaped protector having a housing space to house the slider together with the middle portion of the wire harness therein is disposed on the sliding door. The slider is actuated toward the side to which a bent portion protrudes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connection structure for electrically connecting a stationary member to a movable member relative to the stationary member. In particular, the present invention relates to an electrical connection structure applied to a sliding door in an automobile for electrically connecting various electrical components mounted on the sliding door to a body of the automobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
An example of related art electrical connection structures for electrically connecting a sliding door to a body in an automobile is disclosed in Patent Document 1 (JP 2003-335188A, paragraphs 0017-0021, FIGS. 1-4). This electrical connection structure comprises a power-supply harness protector configured to house a wire harness therein that is always bent upward with a leaf spring and led out through a slit-like opening.
The power-supply harness protector includes a guide formed in a curved or tilted shape in a longitudinal cross section along the opening, and a harness inducer formed at an end of the guide having a gradually curved or tilted shape in height. A harness lead-out outlet is formed adjacent to the harness inducer as following the opening in the structure.
In the related art electrical connection structure, the power-supply harness protector as described above is arranged on either the sliding door or the body, while a harness-fixing portion is arranged on the other, such that the outlet is located at the same height as the harness-fixing portion. This allows the wire harness to be horizontally led out through the outlet to the harness-fixing portion at a position where the sliding door is either fully closed or fully open. This structure is effective to prevent the wire harness from damaging.
In the related art electrical connection structure described above, the wire harness is always bent upward with the leaf spring within the power-supply harness protector. Therefore, the power-supply harness protector has a larger outside shape, which presses spacing for arranging electrical components in the sliding door and limits the flexibility of laying out electrical components.
In the related art electrical connection structure described above, the harness-fixing portion is attached to the body, but remains swingable in the front-rear direction of the body, for example, about a fixed axis of a bracket serving as a fulcrum. Therefore, realizing this structure requires an increased number of components and increases various costs such as production and assembly costs.
In the related art electrical connection structure described above, the wire harness is simply led out through the opening and the outlet of the power-supply harness protector toward the harness-fixing portion. Therefore, this structure allows foreign matter to enter the inside of the power-supply harness protector through the opening and the outlet, wherein the foreign matter may damage the wire harness and affect the movement of the wire harness within the harness protector.
In the related art electrical connection structure described above, the power-supply harness protector includes a protector body and a protector cover composed of a synthetic resin. Therefore, environmental variations such as variations in temperature and humidity can bend the protector itself and, if an extreme dimensional error arises, the effects may possibly prevent movement of a resilient member as the protector which actuates the wire harness.
The present invention has been made in consideration of such the problems and has an object to provide an electrical connection structure which may improve the flexibility of layout, reduce costs, support movement of the wire harness, reduce the effects of environmental variations, and achieve smooth movement.


An electronic economic value representation distribution system. The potential user may specify the economic value representation. A password is required to lock in the representation and is stored in the issuer server. Information identifying the representation is linked to the password stored in the database. User can create the said representation by downloading from the issuer computer that may be printed on the user's printer connected to his personal computer. On presentation of the said economic value representation at verifier's terminal connected to issuer server, identifying data is transmitted to issuer server for verification. Upon successfully verifying said identifying information, user is requested to present the password locking the representation. Upon successful authentication of presented and successful reconciling with originating account, verifier is to provide user with services or amount valued by the economic representation.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an improved system and method for incorporating a password on a bearer financial instrument and proving ownership by requiring the legal user to authenticate using said first password over the network on presentation of the instrument. The bearer instrument is a representation of the owner's authority or rights and may include a machine to readable code representing an unique identifier or image capable of being read by a machine to obtain first verification of legitimacy of the document and presentation of said password to authenticate ownership. The system includes verifying module to verify the bearer instrument and authenticating of its ownership.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,598,477, issued to Berson, a customer submits information concerning a desired ticket (e.g., scheduling data pertaining to an airline flight). A data processing system sends ticketing information and encrypted validation data to a local printing system. The local system prints the ticket, which includes the validating information encoded in a two-dimensional barcode. The customer presents the ticket at flight time, where a validating system scans the barcode, transforms the data from physical form into digital form and validates it. If valid, the customer receives his boarding pass, luggage claim checks, etc.
The use of two-dimensional barcodes requires printers capable of producing, and barcode scanners capable of reading, such barcodes. Depending upon the number of sites at which tickets are printed or accepted, this may involve significant cost as the local validating device requires special decryption software. Second, the use of cryptographic means to secure the validation information requires a sophisticated key management scheme. This prior art concentrates on the validating the ticket itself rather than the holder of the ticket which is expressed in this application. Verification is done entirely remotely at the issuer server as compare to prior art, which is locally.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,216,227, issued to Goldstein, et al, although not directly related, teaches the use of large random numbers may be used in place of cryptographic security and uses a one dimension barcode as an alternative.
According to Goldstein who teaches away, "this scheme still possesses the disadvantages inherent in paper tickets, such as destruction or mutilation and the limitation to a single use. In addition, without further protection, the database of random numbers provides a single point of vulnerability. A person with access to the database could conceivably generate large quantities of bogus tickets."
In most prior arts the focus has been to ensure that the physical representation such as a ticket or smart card is legitimate and attached certain identifiable characteristics to be matched or reconciled on verification. This includes the new generation of smart cards where they stored biometrics of the holder and on presentation these biometrics are retrieved and check against the card holder. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,216,227, a smart card is used as a substitute to real tickets and which enables the users to store multiple ticket events. The main problem is that this biometrics suffers the same fate of being stolen and they cannot be change making identity theft more vulnerable. A password can be changed at anytime. Maintenance of issued cards is also another cost factor.
While matching physically known characteristics are well known as a way to proof ownership, there are instances where one can spoof the reader machine. Finger print readers uses a set of algorithms to identify pattern points on our prints but in test it has been shown that it can't distinguish between a real finger or one made out of a gummy mould. Other prior arts concentrated on authenticating the document itself in the belief that if the document is genuine then the holder with other identifications linked to the genuine document is sufficient to proof ownership by association. Therefore these prior arts teach incorporating security features but made no efforts to further prove ownership. Other prior arts teach comparing the physical known characteristics of the holder or owner such as biometrics to establish identity.

Computer program, system and method for on-line issuing and verifying a representation of economic value interchangeable for money having identification data and password protection over a computer network


Introduced here are synchronization modules designed to integrate streams of data acquired from multiple sources in a precise, repeatable manner. To improve the usability of data acquired from multiple sources, a synchronization module can tightly couple streams of data received from these sources so that the data is temporally aligned. For example, a synchronization module may tightly couple motion data generated by a motion sensor with location data generated by a location sensor and image data generated by an image sensor in a manner that lessens the incurrence of software overhead.

Entities have developed various hardware- and software-based technologies to process video and inertial sensor data. Historically, these technologies have employed batch processing in which code representative of rules is periodically executed on batches of data acquired from a source. While batch processing represents an efficient way to process large amounts of data, this approach is unsuitable for processing data related to time-sensitive scenarios.
Accordingly, entities have begun embracing processing data as it is streamed from a source. This approach may be referred to as "real-time processing." Real-time processing is normally employed to address time-sensitive scenarios by obtaining the insights needed to identify the most appropriate action(s) as quickly as possible. However, real-time processing is becoming increasingly difficult to employ in some time-sensitive scenarios due to the staggering amounts of data that must be processed.

Video imaging and inertial sensor data coupling


In a receiving apparatus equipped with a plurality of tuners, if a reception antenna is controlled in such a manner that a reception condition of a channel tuned by one tuner may become suitable, then a reception condition of the channel tuned by another tuner does not always become suitable. The receiving apparatus is provided with an antenna control unit which controls a reception antenna whose reception condition can be set, a first receiving unit, a second receiving unit, and a storage unit which stores thereinto tuning information such as a tuning channel, signal quality information, and a reception antenna setting condition. The receiving apparatus calculates a setting condition of the reception antenna capable of obtaining suitable receiving conditions in both the first and second receiving units by employing tuning information in a first channel and tuning information in a second channel.

The present invention generally relates to a broadcasting receiving apparatus and a reception antenna direction setting method. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a receiving apparatus and a reception antenna direction setting method, capable of simultaneously receiving a plurality of channels.
There are some cases that a plurality of transmission stations and a plurality of relay stations of broadcasting electromagnetic waves in terrestrial broadcasting systems are present with respect to one reception area. For instance, JP-A-2001-86019 discloses such a technical idea that while optimum setting information of a reception antenna with respect to each of tuning channels has been previously stored, when a tuning operation is carried out, this reception antenna is set based upon the stored setting information.

Receiving apparatus and reception antenna setting method


The present invention provides a process for the preparation of MTBE or ETBE wherein TBA is reacted with methanol or ethanol and an effluent is formed which contains the water of etherification and at least 1 mol lower alcohol per 2 mols MTBE or ETBE, this effluent is distilled to separate an overhead of lower alcohol and ether from a bottoms containing the water of reaction, and a lower alcohol/ether admixture from the overhead is reacted with isobutylene to form additional quantities of MTBE or ETBE.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for the preparation of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) or ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE) wherein tertiary butyl alcohol (TBA) is reacted with methanol or ethanol and an effluent is formed which contains the water of reaction and at least 1 mol of methanol or ethanol for each 2 mols of MTBE or ETBE, the effluent is distilled to separate a mixture of ether and methanol or ethanol overhead from a bottoms which comprises the water of etherification, unreacted TBA and methanol or ethanol, and the overhead, preferably after distillation to reduce the methanol or ethanol content, is reacted with isobutylene to convert the lower alcohol contained therein to additional quantities of alkyl tertiary butyl ether.
2. Description of the Prior Art
MTBE and ETBE are important chemicals of commerce which have great utility, for example, as gasoline blending agents.
In the oxirane propylene oxide/TBA process there are produced both propylene oxide and tertiary butyl alcohol in exceedingly large quantities. It is advantageous to form MTBE and ETBE using the TBA formed in the above process.
Methods are known for the formation of MTBE and ETBE by reaction of the lower alcohol with isobutylene as well as by reaction of the alcohol with TBA.
A problem with the production of MTBE and ETBE by reaction of the lower alcohol and TBA is that water is a co-product of the reaction which is very difficult to separate from product ether since the two form an azeotrope which is expensive to break.
A problem with the production of MTBE or ETBE by first dehydrating TBA to isobutylene which is then reacted with the lower alcohol is that for liquid phase dehydrations, water is the heavy component which builds up, killing the reaction. Vapor phase dehydration is very costly in terms of capital and operating expense. The reaction of isobutylene with methanol or ethanol is highly exothermic, requiring large recirculation to remove heat of reaction, and the formation of the ether-lower alcohol azeotropes causes large recycle of ether to remove excess alcohol.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,244 shows the preparation of MTBE by reaction of TBA and methanol. The patent shows the distillation overhead of a MTBE and methanol mixture which is separated by gasoline and water extraction.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,072 shows the reaction of TBA and methanol to form MTBE.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,925,989 describes a process for preparing MTBE by feeding TBA, isobutylene and methanol to a combination reactor distillation tower.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,138 shows MTBE recovery from a reaction effluent containing MTBE, TBA, methanol and water by azeotropic distillation and extraction techniques.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,921 shows MTBE production by reaction of TBA and methanol.
European Publication 0 502 265 shows an integrated process for the production of MTBE involving, in part, reaction of isobutylene with methanol.
European Publication 0 502 651 shows MTBE production by reaction of TBA and methanol.

Preparation of alkyl tertiary butyl ether


A universal serial bus (USB) hub includes detection circuits for a D− and a D+ connection of a USB port and a control circuit. The control circuit is configured to disable, detection circuits, respective impedances. After disabling the respective impedances, the USB hub is further configured to detect, at the detection circuits, respective values from the D+ connection and the D− connection. The USB hub is further configured to, based upon the respective values, switch the USB port between a device port configuration and a host port configuration.

The Universal Serial Bus (USB) 1.0 specification was originally developed in the 1990s to provide a bus and interface(s) to standardize communication between computers and peripheral devices, such as keyboards, printers, cursor pointing devices, external drives, and the like. Since then, USB has progressed into versions 2.0 and 3.0 and has become ubiquitous in computers as well as portable devices, such as smartphones, tablet computers, and MP3 players.
In USB communication, one device acts as a Host while another acts as a Device. The Host powers the bus, issues commands, and generally maintains control over the connection. The Device does not initiate any activity for control of the bus. For example, a personal computer acts as a Host to a USB "thumb" drive Device.
The On-the-Go (OTG) Specification allows a single Host and single Device to swap roles. For example, some tablet computers may function in a Device role and operate as a mass storage device when coupled to a personal computer Host, but may function as a Host when coupled to a peripheral device such as a keyboard.
USB hubs expand a single USB port into several so that more devices can be connected. A personal computer or automotive entertainment system, for example, may include multiple external USB ports but have an internal hub, rather than dedicated USB controllers for each port. As can be appreciated, difficulties can arise, however, in employing a USB hub with On-the-Go devices.
The FLEXCONNECT technology (for USB 2.0 and USB 3.0) produced by the Assignee of the present application are unique in the industry in that they can swap the upstream (Host) side port with one of the downstream (Device) side ports. In effect, a dual role (Host/Device) can take over the hub from the downstream port. Details on such a FLEXCONNECT-enabled hub may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 7,480,753, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein.

Automatic USB host detection and port configuration


An improved method and apparatus for discriminating between currency bills of different denominations uses an optical sensing and correlation technique based on the sensing of bill reflectance characteristics obtained by illuminating and scanning a bill along one of its dimensions. A series of detected reflectance signals are obtained by sampling and digitally processing, under microprocessor control, the reflected light at a plurality of predefined sample points as a currency bill is moved across an illuminated strip with a preselected dimension parallel to the direction of transport of the bill. The sample data is subjected to digital processing, including a normalizing process, whereby the reflectance data represents a characteristic pattern that is unique for a given bill denomination and incorporates sufficient distinguishing features between characteristic patterns for discriminating between different currency denominations. A plurality of master characteristic patterns are generated and stored using original bills for each denomination of currency to be detected. The pattern generated by scanning a bill under test and processing the data samples is compared with each of the prestored master patterns to generate, for each comparison, a correlation number representing the extent of similarity between corresponding ones of the plurality of data samples for the compared patterns. Denomination identification is based on designating the scanned bill as belonging to the denomination corresponding to the stored master pattern for which the correlation number resulting from pattern comparison is determined to be the highest, subject to a bi-level threshold of correlation.

A variety of techniques and apparatus have been used to satisfy the requirements of automated currency handling systems. At the lower end of sophistication in this area of technology are systems capable of handling only a specific type of currency, such as a specific dollar denomination, while rejecting all other currency types. At the upper end are complex systems which are capable of identifying and discriminating among multiple currency denominations.
Currency discrimination systems typically employ either magnetic sensing or optical sensing for discriminating between different currency denominations. Magnetic sensing is based on detecting the presence or absence of magnetic ink in portions of the printed indicia on the currency by using magnetic sensors, usually ferrite core-based sensors, and using the detected magnetic signals, after undergoing analog or digital processing, as the basis for currency discrimination. The more commonly used optical sensing technique, on the other hand, is based on detecting and analyzing variations in light reflectance or transmissivity characteristics occurring when a currency bill is illuminated and scanned by a strip of focused light. The subsequent currency discrimination is based on the comparison of sensed optical characteristics with prestored parameters for different currency denominations, while accounting for adequate tolerances reflecting differences among individual bills of a given denomination.
A major obstacle in implementing automated currency discrimination systems is obtaining an optimum compromise between the criteria used to adequately define the characteristic pattern for a particular currency denomination and the time required to analyze test data and compare it to predefined parameters in order to identify the currency bill under scrutiny. Even with the use of microprocessors for processing the test data resulting from the scanning of a bill, a finite amount of time is required for acquiring samples and for the process of comparing the test data to stored parameters to identify the denomination of the bill.
Most of the optical scanning systems available today utilize complex algorithms for obtaining a large number of reflectance data samples as a currency bill is scanned by an optical scanhead and for subsequently comparing the data to corresponding stored parameters to identify the bill denomination. Conventional systems require a relatively large number of optical samples per bill scan in order to sufficiently discriminate between currency denominations, particularly those denominations for which the reflectance patterns are not markedly distinguishable. The use of the large number of data samples slows down the rate at which incoming bills may be scanned and, more importantly, requires a correspondingly longer period of time to process the data in accordance with the discrimination algorithm.
The end result is that systems capable of accurate currency discrimination are costly and generally incapable of currency discrimination at high speeds with a high degree of accuracy.

Method and apparatus for currency discrimination