The present invention describes an integrated computer-based graphical interface, methods and systems providing a shell environment for development and deployment for graphic information storage and retrieval, visual modeling and dynamic simulation of complex systems. In the current implementation the system comprises libraries of knowledge-based building-blocks that include sets of icons representing chemical processes, the pools of entities that participate in those processes, and the graphical description of those entities, encapsulating both information and mathematical models within the modular components, in the form of tables and in the form of component icons, and a plurality of methods are associated with each of the icons. The models are built by interconnecting each pool to one or several processes, and each process to one or several pools, resulting in complex networks of multidimensional pathways. A number of functions and graphical interfaces can be selected from the menus associated with each icon, to extract in various forms the information contained in the models build with those building blocks. Those functions include the creation of interactive networks of pathways, graphic selection of complex predefined queries based on the relative position of pools of entities in the pathways, the role that the pools play in the processes, and the structural components of the entities of those pools, and quantitative simulations. The system integrates inferential control with quantitative and semi-quantitative simulation methods, and provides a variety of alternatives to deal with complex dynamic systems and with incomplete and constantly evolving information and data.

A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer-based interface, methods and systems for graphic information storage and retrieval, visual modeling and dynamic simulation of complex systems, that includes in general sets of processes and their participants, and more specifically chemical processes, and which result in complex networks of multidimensional pathways, encapsulating both information and mathematical models within modular components, and integrates inferential control with quantitative and semiquantitative simulation methods, providing a variety of alternatives to deal with complex dynamic systems.
B. Related Applications
This application is related to the patent entitled "Computer-Based System, Methods and Graphical Interface for Information Storage, Modeling and Simulation of Complex Systems Organized in Discrete Compartments in Time and Space" invented by the same inventor and filed with this application in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This application is incorporated here by this reference.
C. Description of the Prior Art
1. Computer-Aided Physiological and Molecular Modeling and Artificial Intelligence in Molecular Biology
a) Most computer-aided physiological and molecular modeling approaches have resulted in computer models of physiological function are numerical mathematical models that relate the physiological variables using empirically determined parameters. Those models, which can become quite complex, aim at modeling the overall system.
b) Both molecular biology and medicine have been fields of previous activity in the application of artificial intelligence (AI). In molecular biology, although there were some early systems such as Molgen and Dendral, the activity has intensified recently as a consequence of the explosion in new technologies and the derived data, mostly related with the Human Genome project and the handling of large amounts of sequence data generated, relating to both DNA and proteins. There has also been an increased interest in computer methodologies in 3D structural models of molecular interactions. As an example, the topics covered in symposia such as the recent Second International Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology, 1994, Stanford University, CA. (see the reference to its Proceedings for a current state of the art, which here included by reference) cover areas as wide as machine learning, automatic generation of representations, inductive and deductive reasoning, case-based reasoning, computational linguistics applied to both text and DNA or protein sequences, constraint propagation, bayesian inference, neural networks, qualitative modeling, expert systems, object-oriented databases, simulation, knowledge acquisition technologies, and knowledge base maintenance. In those and many other published papers, there are as many objectives and as many approaches as there are teams. The projects, however, are in most cases of academic interest, and in few cases it has been attempted to develop finish products for commercial distribution. Here, only two projects will be mentioned that have some common objectives with the system that is the object of this invention. Discussions over other previous approaches are also included in those references.
c) The Molgen group at the Stanford University's Knowledge Systems Laboratory has been studying for several years scientific theory formation in the domain of molecular biology, as reported in by Karp, P. D. and Friedland, P. (included here by reference). This project relates to the system object of this invention in that both "are concerned with biochemical systems containing populations of interacting molecules . . . in which the form of knowledge available . . . varies widely in precision from quantitative to qualitative", as those authors write. However, the domain of Molgen is a small subset of the domain of the system object of this invention. Within the Molgen group, the Ph.D. dissertation of P. D. Karp (included here by reference), focused on applying that research to the design of a computer-assisted reasoning and hypothesis formation system. In the process, the author "developed a qualitative biochemistry for representing theories of molecular biology", as he summarizes in an abstract with the same name the AI Magazine, Winter 1990, pp 9-10. In particular, he developed three representation models to deal with the biochemical pathways related to the tryptophan operon in bacteria, called declarative device models, each having different capabilities and using different qualitative reasoning approaches. Only chapter 3, dealing with those models, have relevance in the context of this invention. The first model uses IntelliCorp's KEE (a commercial product) frames to describe biological objects and KEE rules to describe chemical reactions between the objects, which he recognizes to have serious limitations because is not able to represent much of the knowledge available to biologists. The objective of the second model, which is an extension of the fixed state-variable network of deKleer and Brown, is to predict reaction rates in a given reaction network, incorporating a combination of quantitative and qualitative reasoning about state-variables and their interdependencies. The drawbacks are that this model is not able to incorporate a description of the biological objects that participate in the reactions, and in addition it does not have a temporal reasoning capabilities, representing just an static description of the state variables and their relationships. The third model, called GENSIM and used for both prediction and hypothesis formation, is an extension of model 1, and is composed of three knowledge bases or taxonomical hierarchies of classes of a) biological objects that participate in the trp-operon gene-regulation system, b) descriptions of the biological reactions that can occur between those objects, and c) experiments with instances of those classes of objects. The GENSIM program predicts experimental outcomes by determining which reactions occur between the objects in one experiment, that create new objects that cause new reactions. GENSIM is also further used in conjunction with the HYPGENE hypothesis-formation program that will not be further discussed here. Characteristics of the GENSIM program that may be relevant, although different, for the system of this invention are:
chemical objects are homogeneous populations of molecules, objects can be decomposed into their component parts, and identical objects synthesized during a simulation are merged; PA1 chemical processes are frames arranged in an inheritance class hierarchy, which represent reactions between those populations as probabilistic events with two subpopulations, one that participate in the reaction and one that does not; PA1 restrictions are specified in the form of preconditions for chemical reactions to happen. PA1 those Forbus-style processes can create objects and manipulate their properties, but cannot reason about quantitative state variables such as Quantities. In his words, "processes are described as KEE units . . . specify actions that will be taken if certain conditions hold", and in that sense are like production-rules; PA1 temporal reasoning is not available, resulting again in static representations and simulating only behavior in very short time intervals. PA1 1. interpret, represent and describe the attributes, characteristics and composition of chemical and biochemical entities, such as those participating in chemical, biochemical, cellular, physiological, patho-physiological or pharmacological reactions (hereinafter called chemical entities), as well as the parallel and serial sets of processes in which they interact and by which they are regulated; PA1 2. compile such information and data and to store them in a more compact knowledge form, to construct a library of basic and reusable building blocks; PA1 3. interactively integrate sets of building blocks, using the basic paradigm of "Clone, Connect and Configure", into more complex knowledge structures, constructing dynamic models of the behavior of those chemical entities and processes; PA1 4. interactively integrate those simple models into more complex models that result in multidimensional networks of interacting pathways, which in turn can be reused as building blocks for even more complex models; PA1 5. programmatically integrate those models into multidimensional networks of interacting pathways, including branching and merging of pathways, cross-talk between pathways that share elements, and feed-back and forward loops; and PA1 6. dynamically simulate, optionally using the encapsulated absolute-valued or scaled-valued parameters and variables, the kinetic interactions represented in selected pathways, as defined within those more or less complex models. PA1 1. An Attribute Table contains information and data that describe the characteristics of that object in many different ways. It contains a set of slots that vary for different classes of objects. Each slot may have a simple value of the types integer, float, symbol, text, or truth-value, or it may contain parameters, variables or other objects, each with its specific Attribute Table. The values of parameters and variables are computed by generic formulas that apply to all the instances of a class. The values of a particular instance of a variable may also be computed by a formula defined in its Attribute Table. Simulated formulas may contain algebraic, difference and differential equations. PA1 2. A Menu with various options which upon selection perform specific tasks related to that particular object. The options available vary for different classes of objects and, within each class, depend on the operation mode. PA1 3. An optional Subworkspace that contains a set of other objects and/or other bioObjects, with their corresponding sets of associated structures. PA1 4. With this architecture, interactive tasks are defined within the Menu, and biological information and data is encapsulated in two formats, either in the form of a table or visually by icons. PA1 1. taxonomic reasoning, such as that used in the classification of entities and processes; PA1 2. numeric algorithms, PA1 3. graphic and connectivity reasoning, such as that used when referring to iconic objects and their connections; PA1 4. default reasoning, such as that provided by the default values of variables and parameters, which are based either on available knowledge, informed assumptions, or guesses, and which are used in the absence of overriding information; PA1 5. data-driven reasoning, which is propagated forward; PA1 6. goal-driven reasoning, which is propagated backward; PA1 7. event-driven reasoning, which propagates when a precondition is satisfied; PA1 8. time-driven reasoning, which propagates when the specified time interval elapses; and PA1 9. constraint propagation throughout the network. PA1 1. The functional structure of the system in consideration, which is constructed using experimentally obtained qualitative information, such as the identification of the chemical entities involved, the knowledge about their structural and functional characteristics, and about the relationships and qualitative interactions between those entities. This information is mapped into the knowledge structures represented by the different classes of bioObjects, and into the connections and relations that connect and relate these knowledge structures. The graphical environment merges data and information flow with sequential control, and the system supports both arithmetic and symbolic expressions. PA1 2. The mathematical component is represented by a set of model differential and algebraic equations that define the system's variables and describe their behavior, together with the set of associated parameters that control the behavior of the variables and the system as a whole. The model can be then view as a set of embedded block diagram representations of the underlying equations that can be used to ask what if questions, and for dynamic numerical simulation and prediction of the effects of perturbations on the system. PA1 3. The combination of both components allows the use of the same model for both symbolic and numerical simulations and predictions, and to reason about the origin and reasons of the outcome.
2. Knowledge-Based and Model-Based System Shells
a) Several knowledge-based system shells have been used as tools allowing fast development of domain-specific applications. HERACLES, one of the first shells was developed by generalizing and separating the domain specific knowledge of NEOMYCIN from the underlying expert system methodology (see W. J. Clancey, "From GUIDON to NEOMYCIN and HERACLES in Twenty Short Lessons: ORN Final Report 1979-1985", in AI Magazine, August 1986, p.40-60, August 1986).
b) A knowledge-based system interprets data using knowledge added to the system by a human domain expert. This knowledge-base may contain diverse forms of knowledge, represented at each end by: a) shallow knowledge or heuristics, such as human experience and interpretations or rules-of thumb; and b) deep knowledge about the system behavior and interactions. The systems that mainly based in the first type of knowledge are in general referred to as knowledge-based expert systems, and the logic is represented in the form of production rules. In the more advanced real-time expert systems, inferencing techniques are usually data-driven using forward chaining, but can also employ backward chaining for goal-driven tasks and for gathering data. The inference engine searches for and executes relevant rules, which are separate from the inference engine and therefore, the representation is intrinsically declarative.
c) Model-based systems can be derived from empirical models based on regression of data or from first-principle relationships between the variables. When sufficient information to model a process--or part of it--is available, a more precise and compact system can be built.
d) Object-oriented expert systems allow a powerful knowledge representation of physical entities and conceptual entities. In those systems, data and behavior may be unified in the class hierarchy. Each class has a template that defines the types of attributes characteristic of that class and distinguish it from another types of objects. Manipulation and retrieval of the values of the data structures may be performed through methods attached to a object's class. The structure of the object system, typically hierarchical, maintains associations among facts and relations between objects.
e) There is a number of commercially available shells and toolkits that facilitate the development of domain-specific knowledge-based applications. Of those, real-time expert-system shells offer capabilities for reasoning on the behavior of data over time. Each of the real-time object-oriented shells from various vendors offers its set of advantages, and each follows a different approach, such as compiled versus interpretative, and offers a different level of graphic sophistication. The specific shell currently selected for the implementation of this invention is Gensym Corporation's G2 Version 3.0 system, which is designed for complex and large on-line applications where large number of variables can be monitored concurrently. It is able to reason about time, to execute both time-triggered and event-triggered actions and invocations, to combine heuristic and procedural reasoning, dynamic simulation, user interface, database interface capabilities, and other facilities that allow the knowledge engineer to concentrate on the representation and incorporation of domain-specific knowledge to create domain-specific applications.
f) G2 provides a built-in inference engine, a simulator, pre-built libraries of functions and actions, developer and user-interfaces, and the management of their seamless interrelations. A built-in inspect facility permits users to search for, locate, and edit various types of knowledge. The text editor interactively guides the expert in entering and editing knowledge. Among G2's Inference Engine capabilities are: a) a focus mechanism with meta-knowledge determines which knowledge structures to invoke, and allows concurrent focus and asynchronous events; b) data structures are tagged with time-stamp and validity intervals which are considered in all inferences and calculations, taking care of truth maintenance; and c) intrinsic to G2's tasks are managed by the real-time scheduler. Task prioritization, asynchronous concurrent operations, and real-time task scheduling are therefore automatically provided by this shell. G2 also provides a graphic user interface builder, which may be used to create graphic user interfaces which are language independent and allow to display information using colors, pictures and animation. Dynamic meters, graphics, and charts can be defined for interactive follow-up of the simulation. It also has debugger, inspect and describe facilities. The knowledge bases can be saved as separated modules as ASCII files. The graphic views are also saved in an ASCII format, and can be shared with networked remote CPUs or terminals equipped with X Windows server software.

Computer-based system, methods and graphical interface for information storage, modeling and stimulation of complex systems


A positioning device working with a fixer for handheld, portable, mobile devices includes a securing member coupled to the fixer that serves to hold a mobile device in position. The securing member has a locking unit and a first connecting portion for engaging with the fixer. The securing member can secure the fixer onto an external article with the locking unit securing the securing member to the external article, so as to rapidly, removably suspend the mobile device at a nearby handrail. Thereby, the mobile device is strongly positioned over the external article by the locking unit and prevented from swinging or being displaced.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a positioning device that is configured to work with a fixer for handheld, portable, mobile devices to hold and suspend a mobile electronic device, such as a mobile phone, a portable game player, an electronic book, a GPS device or a tablet computer.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, handheld, mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablet computers have been popular, and nowadays almost everyone has one. While these mobile devices are relatively compact and light-weight, holding them in hand for a sustained time period is still a significant, accumulative burden to muscle, and this is particularly true for people lacking exercise.
There are some fixers designed for small-size mobile devices, but these fixers commonly fail to provide the advantages desired by users, such as being easy to mount and dismount, being compact and light, and being retractable, thereby being more portable.
The existing fixing tools for mobile devices are mainly using a flexible hose ended with a clamp that is configured to hold the whole tool on a table plate. While such an existing fixing tool is effective in suspending a mobile device over a table, it is structurally weak and tends to deform and come down after a long term of suspension. Also due to its weakness, for operating the mobile device, a user has to first use one hand support the mobile device from its back and then use the other hand to touch the touch screen. Thus causes the existing fixing tools to be unfavorable to mobile device operation.
Moreover, in the existing fixing tool, the clamp can only work well with a planar support. However, when leaving a house and used in a public transportation vehicle, such as a MRT train, a subway or a bus, where there are only vertical mopstick handrails, the fixing tool fails because its clamp cannot engage with the handrails effectively. The above-mentioned problems are for us to solve.

Positioning device working with fixer for handheld, portable, mobile device


A joint spacer for an orthopedic procedure including a first plate, a second plate, a coupling device, and a spacer insert receiving portion. The first plate includes a first bone facing surface and a first inner surface. The second plate includes a second bone facing surface and a second inner surface facing the first inner surface. The coupling device couples the first plate and the second plate together. The spacer insert receiving portion of at least one of the first inner surface or the second inner surface is configured to receive at least one spacer insert between the first plate and the second plate to space the first plate and the second plate apart a distance corresponding to an optimal interval between bones of a joint.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure, which is not necessarily prior art.
During a total knee arthroplasty, some orthopedic surgeons prefer to balance the flexion and extension gaps with a gap spacer. This typically involves inserting individual spacers of different thicknesses one spacer at a time until the ligaments are properly tensed. An individual spacer must thus be removed and replaced each time an adjustment of the flexion/extension gaps is desired. Some systems include a single primary spacer block and a plurality of shims that can be added to the block to increase the overall thickness of the primary block. To make an adjustment, the primary spacer block must be removed and shims must be either added or removed from the primary spacer block. With both systems, the spacer must be undesirably removed from the joint for the flexion/extension gap to be adjusted.
After the femur and tibia have been prepared, the surgeon must determine the thickness of the tibial bearing insert to be implanted. Tibial bearing trial systems typically include a tibial trial and a plurality of bearing inserts of different thicknesses, which can be selectively coupled to the tibial trial. The bearing inserts must be individually inserted into the joint space and coupled to the tibial trial until the bearing of the desired thickness is identified.
A joint spacer and bearing trial that can be provided with different thicknesses without having to remove the spacer from the joint space would thus be desirable.

Spring loaded adjustable joint spacer/bearing trial system


Aspects of the invention relate to a ring seal for a turbine engine. The ring seal can be made up of a plurality of circumferentially abutted ring seal segments. Each ring seal segment can comprise a plurality of individual channels. The channels can be generally U-shaped in cross-section with a forward span, and aft span and an extension connecting therebetween. The channels can be positioned such that the aft span of one channel can substantially abut the forward span of another channel. The plurality of separate channels can be detachably coupled to each other by, for example, a plurality of pins. The ring seal segment according to aspects of the invention can facilitate numerous advantageous characteristics including greater material selection, selective cooling, improved serviceability, and reduced blade tip leakage. Moreover, the configuration is well suited to handle the operational loads of the turbine.

FIG. 1 shows an example of one known turbine engine 10 having a compressor section 12, a combustor section 14 and a turbine section 16. In the turbine section 16 of a turbine engine, there are alternating rows of stationary airfoils 18 (commonly referred to as vanes) and rotating airfoils 20 (commonly referred to as blades). Each row of blades 20 is formed by a plurality of airfoils 20 attached to a disc 22 provided on a rotor 24. The blades 20 can extend radially outward from the discs 22 and terminate in a region known as the blade tip 26. Each row of vanes 18 is formed by attaching a plurality of vanes 18 to a vane carrier 28. The vanes 18 can extend radially inward from the inner peripheral surface 30 of the vane carrier 28. The vane carrier 28 is attached to an outer casing 32, which encloses the turbine section 16 of the engine 10.
Between the rows of vanes 18, a ring seal 34 can be attached to the inner peripheral surface 30 of the vane carrier 28. The ring seal 34 is a stationary component that acts as a hot gas path guide between the rows of vanes 18 at the locations of the rotating blades 20. The ring seal 34 is commonly formed by a plurality of metal ring segments. The ring segments can be attached either directly to the vane carrier 28 or indirectly such as by attaching to metal isolation rings (not shown) that attach to the vane carrier 28. Each ring seal 34 can substantially surround a row of blades 20 such that the tips 26 of the rotating blades 20 are in close proximity to the ring seal 34.
During engine operation, high temperature, high velocity gases flow through the rows of vanes 18 and blades 20 in the turbine section 16. The ring seals 34 are exposed to these gases as well. Some metal ring seals 34 must be cooled in order to withstand the high temperature. In many engine designs, demands to improve engine performance have been met in part by increasing engine firing temperatures. Consequently, the ring seals 34 require greater cooling to keep the temperature of the ring seals 34 within the critical metal temperature limit. In the past, the ring seals 34 have been coated with thermal barrier coatings to minimize the amount of cooling required. However, even with a thermal barrier coating, the ring seal 34 must still be actively cooled to prevent the ring seal 34 from overheating and burning up. Such active cooling systems are usually complicated and costly. Further, the use of greater amounts of air to cool the ring seals 34 detracts from the use of air for other purposes in the engine.
As an alternative, the ring seals 34 could be made of ceramic matrix composites (CMC), which have higher temperature capabilities than metal alloys. By utilizing such materials, cooling air can be reduced, which has a direct impact on engine performance, emissions control and operating economics. However, CMC materials have their own drawbacks. For instance, CMC materials (oxide and non-oxide based) have anisotropic strength properties. The interlaminar tensile strength (the "through thickness" tensile strength) of CMC can be substantially less than the in-plane strength. Anisotropic shrinkage of the matrix and the fibers can result in de-lamination defects, particularly in small radius corners and tightly-curved sections, which can further reduce the interlaminar tensile strength of the material.
Thus, there is a need for a CMC ring seal construction that can minimize the limiting aspects of CMC material properties and manufacturing constraints.


An apparatus for equalizing pressure in a middle ear includes a hand held air source for providing a continuous flow of air at a predetermined rate and a tapered sealing nostril plug adapted to be inserted into a nostril. The tapered nostril plug has a channel therethrough for delivering the continuous flow of air. The channel of the tapered plug is adapted to be placed in communication with the air source, and a controller is coupled to the air source to limit the pressure provided at the channel of the nostril plug to substantially no more than 3.0 pounds per square inch.

The present invention is related to an apparatus for equalizing the pressure in the middle ear. More specifically, the present invention relates to a portable, hand-held apparatus which may be used to equalize the pressure in the middle ear.
An imbalance between the pressure in the middle ear and the ambient pressure can result in the sensation of ear clogging, generally referred to as Eustachian Tube Dysfunction (ETD). Patients often suffer from ETD as a result of a cold, allergies, or descent in an aircraft from high altitude. ETD, if not treated or naturally relieved, may lead to chronic traumatic inflammation of the middle ear, also known as aerotitis media, aviator's ear, otic barotrauma, barotitis media, and aviation otitis.
The middle ear cavity communicates with the pharynx via the Eustachian tube. The Eustachian tube is usually closed, however, it opens during swallowing and yawning. in order to equalize the pressure in the middle ear the Eustachian tube must be opened.
Sufferers of ETD and aerotitis media have attempted to relieve any discomfort due to the affliction by yawning, swallowing, chewing gum, and closing the nostrils and blowing lightly to attempt to equalize the pressure in the middle ear. These methods, however, yield unpredictable results.
In extreme cases, fluid may build up behind the ear drum leading to complications including hearing loss. While some sufferers of ETD and aerotitis media have minimal discomfort which lasts merely during the descent or ascent in an airplane, others have more serious symptoms. In these cases, it is often necessary for a sufferer of aerotitis media to visit an Otolaryngologist who manually equalizes the middle ear pressure with the environment.
The Otolaryngologist normally employs one of two methods to equalize the pressure in the middle ear. The first method employed involves the use of steroids and/or antibiotics to alleviate any discomfort. An alternate method, known as the Politzer maneuver, requires the Otolaryngologist to use a tube to force air from a balloon into the sufferer's nose. When the sufferer swallows, the Eustachian tube opens, and air is forced into the middle ear to equalize the middle ear pressure. The Politzer maneuver is difficult to administer because the delivery of the air from the balloon by the doctor must occur simultaneously with swallowing by the patient.
It is an object of this invention to provide a portable, compact, hand-held apparatus which may be easily transported to alleviate any discomfort of an ETD or aerotitis media sufferer.

Apparatus for equalizing the pressure in the middle ear


A method for making light emitting diode includes following steps. A substrate having an epitaxial growth surface is provided. A first semiconductor layer, an active layer, and a second semiconductor layer is epitaxially grown on the epitaxial growth surface of the substrate in that sequence. A cermet layer is formed on the second semiconductor layer. The substrate is removed to form an exposed surface. A first electrode is applied to cover the entire exposed surface of the first semiconductor layer. A second electrode is applied to electrically connected to the second semiconductor layer.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to semiconductor structures, a light emitting diode, and a method for making the same.
2. Description of Related Art
Semiconductor structures fabricated by gallium nitride for light sources, such as blue, green, and white light sources, have long lifetime, high energy conversion efficiency, and are green. Therefore, the semiconductor structures are widely used as the light sources in large screen color display systems, automotive lighting, traffic lights, multimedia displays, optical communication systems, and so on.
A semiconductor structure used in a standard light emitting diode (LED) includes an N-type semiconductor layer, a P-type semiconductor layer, and an active layer located between the N-type semiconductor layer and the P-type semiconductor layer. In operation, a positive voltage and a negative voltage are applied respectively to the P-type semiconductor layer and the N-type semiconductor layer. Thus, holes in the P-type semiconductor layer and electrons in the N-type semiconductor layer can enter the active layer and combine with each other to emit visible light, and the visible light is emitted from the semiconductor structure. However, near field evanescent waves emitted from the active layer are internally reflected inside the semiconductor structure, so that a large portion of the light emitted from the active layer remain in the semiconductor structure, thereby degrading the light extraction efficiency of the LED.
What is needed, therefore, is to provide a semiconductor structure for solving the problem discussed above.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A few-particle-induced low-pressure TEOS process is disclosed. First, a lot of semiconductor substrates are arranged on a boat and transferred into a TEOS reactor. Silicon oxide films are then deposited on the semiconductor substrates by performing a low-pressure TEOS process. Before the substrates are sent out of the reactor, an annealing process is performed by injecting oxygen gas into the reactor to solidify the oxide films on the corners of the boat""s flanges.

The present invention relates to a low-pressure TEOS process, more specifically, to a low-pressure TEOS process inducing few particles.
Dielectric materials, such as oxide, nitride, oxynitride, phosphosilicate glass (PSG) and borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG), play a significant role in the field of semiconductor industry. All of the dielectric materials contain silicon and are generally deposited by performing atmospheric chemical vapor deposition (APCVD), low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD), or plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). There are two kinds of reactive gases for forming a dielectric film containing silicon in semiconductor industry, e.g. silane-based (silane) gases and TEOS-based (Tetra-Ethyl-Ortho-Silicate) gases.
TEOS is an organic silicate containing silicon and oxygen, and it is in liquid phase under room temperature and atmospheric pressure. During a deposition process, the TEOS liquid is heated to a temperature between 40 to 70xc2x0 C. in order to increase its saturation vapor pressure. In the meanwhile, the semiconductor substrate needs to be heated to a temperature between 700 to 750xc2x0 C. under low pressure (about 0.5 torr). The low-pressure TEOS process is widely applied in the semiconductor industry because of its good step coverage, such as the process for forming dielectric sidewall spacer.
The low-pressure TEOS process is generally performed in a reactor of tubular type. The reactor is composed of annealed quartz, containing a heater surrounding its outer sidewall for heating. During a deposition process, a lot of semiconductor substrates standing side by side in a boat are transferred into the reactor. Please refer first to FIG. 1, which shows a schematic diagram of a boat. The boat 20 has lots of flanges 30 in its internal sidewall, each of which can carry one semiconductor substrate 10. After the deposition process is accomplished, the substrates are transferred out of the reactor together with the boat.
However, according to the prior art, a plenty of particles 40 are generally produced on the semiconductor substrate 10 around the regions in contact with the corners of the flange after the deposition process, as shown in FIG. 2. From EDS (Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy) data, the particles 40 are affirmed to be composed of silicon oxide. For this reason, we can conclude that the particle contamination results from the low-pressure TEOS process. During the deposition process, the silicon oxide films are deposited not only on the semiconductor substrates, but also on the flanges of the boat. Because the corners of the flanges have much larger geometric curvature, the oxide films deposited on the corners of the flanges have larger stress, which results in poorer adhesion. The poor adhesion will frequently induce particles falling on the surface of the substrates.
According to the prior art, the boat should be changed and cleaned after a several of runs to prevent particle contamination. Therefore, not only the production throughput decreases, but also the loading of maintenance engineers largely increases in accordance with the prior art.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a few-particle-induced low-pressure TEOS process.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of enhancing the throughput of a low-pressure TEOS process.
A few-particle-induced low-pressure TEOS process is disclosed. First, a lot of semiconductor substrates are arranged on a boat and transferred into a TEOS reactor. Silicon oxide films are then deposited on the semiconductor substrates by performing a conventional low-pressure TEOS process. Before the substrates are sent out of the reactor, an annealing process is performed by injecting oxygen gas into the reactor to solidify the oxide films on the corners of the boat""s flanges. The annealing process is performed under a pressure between 0.3 torr to 0.7 torr for a duration between 10 minutes to 50 minutes, and the substrates keep being heated to a temperature between 700 to 750xc2x0 C. during the annealing process.
Another few-particle-induced low-pressure TEOS process is disclosed in another embodiment. First, a lot of semiconductor substrates are arranged on a boat and transferred into a TEOS reactor. Silicon oxide films are then deposited on the semiconductor substrates by performing a conventional low-pressure TEOS process. Before the substrates are sent out of the reactor, an annealing process is performed by injecting oxygen gas into the reactor to solidify the oxide films on the corners of the boat""s flanges. After sending the boat out of said reactor, a next lot of semiconductor substrates are arranged on the boat and then transferred into the TEOS reactor. Thereafter, the steps mentioned above are repeated for 5 to 15 times to accomplish the low-pressure TEOS process for 5 to 15 lots of semiconductor substrates. After that, the boat is sent into the reactor without carrying semiconductor substrates. Finally, a strengthening annealing process is performed by injecting oxygen gas into the reactor to solidify the oxide films on the corners of the boat""s flanges.

Few-particle-induced low-pressure TEOS process


A combustion engine comprising an exhaust system containing a particulate filter (10, 52) for trapping particulate matter in engine exhaust passing through the exhaust system. A particulate trapping medium (18) inside a casing is selectively operable to a relatively lesser porosity for trapping particulate matter in the exhaust and to a relatively greater porosity for facilitating removal of trapped particulate matter during cleaning.

A known system for treating exhaust gas passing through an exhaust system of a diesel engine comprises a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) associated with a diesel particulate filter (DPF). The combination of these two exhaust gas treatment devices promotes chemical reactions in exhaust gas and traps diesel particulate matter (DPM) as exhaust flows through the exhaust system from the engine, thereby preventing significant amounts of pollutants such as hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, soot, SOF, and ash, from entering the atmosphere.
While an engine is running, the existence of certain conditions enables regeneration of a DPF to be initiated. Various techniques are available for developing temperatures sufficiently high to initiate regeneration and thereafter control on-going regeneration. Regeneration is essentially a chemical process that cleans a DPF by burning off trapped DPM. For any of various reasons, not all trapped DPM may be burned off by regeneration. Moreover, the burning of trapped DPM may contribute to the build-up of ash, a non-combustible particulate.
Consequently, it may be either necessary or desirable to occasionally use a physical or mechanical process, rather than a chemical process, to remove particulate matter, such as DPM and/or ash, from a DPF. The use of compressed air has been proposed as one way to remove the particulate matter.
Compressed air is an appropriate medium because it is readily available in service facilities and shops and it is environmentally friendly. Cleaning a DPF by compressed air has involved certain manual operations such as removing the actual filter module from a casing and manually manipulating a compressed air nozzle across a face of the module. Dislodged matter is ejected from an opposite face and collected in some type of collector for subsequent disposal.
When a DPF has been used to an extent where regeneration and mechanical cleaning are unable to sufficiently clean it, it must be replaced.
In light of this background, it is believed that improvements in the mechanical cleaning of diesel particulate filters would enjoy commercial acceptance. For example, a cleaning device and method that would minimize the amount of labor required would be beneficial. Likewise, a device and method that could clean a diesel particulate filter more thoroughly and that could extend the useful life of the filter would be desirable. The ability to satisfactorily clean a diesel particulate filter without having to remove the actual filter module from its casing also would have obvious advantages.
An improvement that would allow an engine to keep running with the exhaust treatment system remaining effective to trap DPM during on-going mechanical cleaning could also be considered desirable.

Particulate filter having expansible capture structure for particulate removal

International Truck Intellectual Property Company, LLC


A fluid-filled type active vibration damping device including: a pressure-receiving chamber; an equilibrium chamber; an orifice passage permitting fluid flow between the two chambers; an oscillation member oscillated by an electromagnetic actuator; an intermediate chamber; and a pressure transmission passage through which pressure fluctuations produced in the intermediate chamber is applied to the pressure-receiving chamber. The intermediate chamber is provided independently of the equilibrium chamber. The pressure transmission passage comprises a filter orifice tuned to higher frequency than the orifice passage. A movable plate is provided for limiting an amount of fluid flow through the filter orifice. A leak hole is formed for continuously interconnecting the intermediate chamber and the pressure-receiving chamber, and a liquid column resonance frequency of the leak hole is set to not more than half of that of the filter orifice.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a fluid-filled type vibration damping device that utilizes vibration damping effect on the basis of the flow action of the fluid filling the interior. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a fluid-filled type active vibration damping device capable of exhibiting active vibration damping effect by exerting the oscillation force generated by an electromagnetic actuator on an intermediate chamber.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is known a vibration damping device including: a first mounting member attached to one component of the vibration transmission system; a second mounting member attached to the other component of the vibration transmission system; and a main rubber elastic body elastically connecting the first and second mounting members. Such a vibration damping device is applied to an automotive engine mount or the like, for example. There is also known a fluid-filled type vibration damping device further including: a pressure-receiving chamber whose wall is partially defined by the main rubber elastic body; an equilibrium chamber whose wall is partially defined by a flexible film; and an orifice passage interconnecting the pressure-receiving chamber and the equilibrium chamber in order to attain vibration damping effect utilizing flow action of the fluid sealed therein. Additionally, there has been proposed a fluid-filled type active vibration damping device further incorporating an intermediate chamber whose wall is partially defined by an oscillation member oscillated by an electromagnetic actuator, and is capable of exhibiting active vibration damping effect by exerting pressure fluctuations within the intermediate chamber on the pressure-receiving chamber through a pressure transmission passage. Such a device is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. JP-A-2009-162281.
It has been attempted on the fluid-filled type active vibration damping device as to providing another orifice passage in addition to the orifice passage connecting the pressure-receiving chamber and the equilibrium chamber, with the aim of achieving vibration damping effect against vibrations in multiple frequency ranges. For example, the aforementioned Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. JP-A-2009-162281 discloses a structure in which a second orifice passage is provided for connecting the intermediate chamber and the equilibrium chamber, in addition to the orifice passage connecting the pressure-receiving chamber and the equilibrium chamber.
However, further research conducted by the inventors has shown that, in some instances, the second orifice passage connected to the intermediate chamber may appreciably deteriorate the active vibration damping effect based on pressure control of the intermediate chamber by the oscillation member.
This problem is likely to occur with map control rather than feedback control when employed as control means of the electromagnetic actuator. Accordingly, the inventors supposed that this problem was caused by such an instance that the pressure control was not able to follow the sharp change in spring characteristics due to resonance action of the second orifice passage. Therefore, the inventors addressed removal of the second orifice passage connecting the intermediate chamber and the equilibrium chamber.
However, it has led to the discovery that mere removal of the second orifice passage will not sufficiently improve the vibration damping characteristics, and poses an inherent problem of difficulty in obtaining the sufficient active vibration damping effect based on pressure control of the intermediate chamber by the oscillation member.

Fluid-filled type active vibration damping device


A locking slide latch comprises components that are easily assembled without the need for separate fasteners or adhesives. A preferred latch comprises a gripable base member having a spring member mounted thereon, a locking member rotatably mounted on the spring member and a rotatable lock plug mounted in the spring member and contacting the locking member. These components are assembled together without the use of separate fasteners or adhesives, thereby simplifying assembly and allowing for interchangeability of parts to meet varying latch requirements. The latches are preferably manufactured from corrosion resistant materials such as plastics, composites and corrosion resistant metals, and are highly suitable for use in automotive, recreational vehicle and marine applications.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to slide latches for doors, panels and the like. The latches incorporate a locking feature and are resistant to corrosion, making them useful in automotive, recreational vehicle, marine and other applications.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Various types of slide latches are known. These latches are inserted in a cut-out opening of one panel and are slidable in the plane of the panel to engage a second panel or frame member. Conventional slide latches are typically non-locking and can be relatively complex to assemble and susceptible to corrosion.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,841,674 and 3,850,464 to Bisbing, et al., which are hereby incorporated by reference, disclose slide latches of one-piece or two-piece construction that do not include a locking feature.
The present invention has been developed in view of the foregoing, and to overcome the deficiencies of the prior art.


A hetero junction bipolar transistor provides a contact area an area between an emitter (or collector) electrode and a wiring formed on the electrode that is larger than that of the emitter (or collector). A variation in voltage applied to an emitter (or collector)-base junctions is prevented and a stable operation of the transistor is attained. In addition, when an etching operation is carried out, an insulation film is formed on a side part of a mask. A patterning of the emitter (or collector) is then carried out and thus an emitter (or collector) having a size approximate to that of the mask is formed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a hetero junction bipolar transistor (hereinafter abbreviated as HBT) and its manufacturing method.
2 Description of the Related Art
In a prior art system, a spacing between each of the electrodes and a size of each of the electrodes has been made small to realize a high integration and a high operation speed of an HBT. Such an HBT has been made by a process described in Jap.Pat.Laid-Open No.Sho 63-4677. That is, a first semiconductor layer acting as a collector, a second semiconductor layer acting as a base, a third semiconductor layer acting as an emitter, an emitter electrode film in ohmic contact with the third semiconductor layer and an insulation film are piled up in sequence on a substrate of the semiconductor. The insulation film is patterned to a predetermined shape. Thereafter this insulation film is used as a mask, and then the emitter electrode film and the third semiconductor layer are etched to expose the surface of the second semiconductor layer. Then, a first insulation side wall film is formed on the side walls of the emitter electrode layer. The third semiconductor layer is patterned to a predetermined shape. A base electrode film connected to the second semiconductor layer is formed on an entire surface. In addition, the second insulation side wall film is piled up on the side part of the base electrode film, this is used as a mask for etching an exposed portion of the electrode film. A bipolar transistor manufactured by this process shows an advantage that its base electrode is separated from the emitter electrode due to its self-alignment, so that an electrode size or a inter-electrode spacing is made minute thereby realizing a high integration of the elements and at the same time a reduction in its parasitic resistance or parasitic capacitance.
Jap.Pat.Laid-Open No.Sho 62-159464 describes a method for providing connecting portion of the emitter electrode and base electrode to the wiring on the non-active region arranged in the semiconductor substrate.
The prior art described in the aforesaid Jap.Pat.Laid-Open No.Sho 63-4677 has a disadvantage that a junction area has a large area due to no technical consideration on the connection between the emitter electrode and the wiring even though a fine emitter electrode, a fine emitter region and a short distance between the emitter region and the base region could be attained.
The prior art described in the aforesaid Jap.Pat.Laid-Open No.Sho 62-159464 was made such that some contact portions among the emitter electrode, base electrode and wirings are provided on the inactive semiconductor region and showed a problem in that an applied voltage to the emitter-base junction is non-unified due to a resistance of the emitter electrode. In addition, in forming the emitter region, a so-called side etching phenomenon is caused to etch in a lateral direction the semiconductor layer, from which the emitter is formed. The phenomenon presents a problem in forming a fine emitter size.

Hetero junction bipolar transistor with improved electrode wiring contact region


A humidity measurement device comprises a capacitance measurement unit (101) and a microcontroller (102). The capacitance measurement unit (101) is used to output a frequency signal of a humidity-sensitive capacitor (C1) by the humidity-sensitive capacitor (C1) and a frequency signal of a reference capacitor (C2) by the reference capacitor (C2) respectively. The microcontroller (102) is used to obtain a frequency value of the humidity-sensitive capacitor (C1) and a frequency value of the reference capacitor (C2) based on the frequency signal of the humidity-sensitive capacitor (C1) and the frequency signal of the reference capacitor (C2), and obtain a current ambient humidity value by using a linear function relationship of a frequency difference between the humidity-sensitive capacitor (C1) and the reference capacitor (C2) and a humidity value. A humidity measurement method includes using the said humidity measurement device to measure a current ambient humidity value.

Nowadays, humidity measurement has become an essential tool in environmental monitoring for HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), communications base stations, building security, etc.
Currently, commercially available electronic devices for humidity measurement used in environmental monitoring achieve the measurement, conversion and transmission of humidity by activating a humidity-sensitive element. Generally, the humidity-sensitive element may be capacitive, or resistive. In resistive humidity-sensitive elements, the effect of humidity is the change in the electrical resistance of a material. The electrical resistance can vary dramatically, and is in a logarithmic relationship with the humidity to be measured, causing inconvenience in measurement and conversion, and limited range of measurement. The measurement range for relative humidity is normally between 20% RH and 95% RH with an accuracy of about 5%. In capacitive humidity-sensitive elements, the effect of humidity is the change in the electrical capacitance of a material, which is in a substantially linear relationship with the humidity to be measured. The measurement range can be 0% RH to 100% RH, hence the full range, with an accuracy of about 1% to 3%. As a result, humidity-sensitive capacitors are generally used for industrial use, e.g., as humidity-sensitive elements, while humidity-sensitive resistors are generally used for commercial use, e.g., as hygrometers.
However, both types of humidity-sensitive elements have the problem of high-temperature drift, and may have reduced accuracy due to condensation or dust, or even break down or be damaged in severe conditions.

BEIJING POLYMER SENSING TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


Methods, systems, and non-transitory computer readable storage media are disclosed for determining parameters for digital campaign content in connection with executing digital campaigns using a rank-one assumption and a best-arm identification algorithm. For example, the disclosed system alternately explores response data in the first dimension and response data in the second dimension using the rank-one assumption and the best-arm identification algorithm to estimate highest sampling values from each dimension. In one or more embodiments, the disclosed system uses the estimated highest sampling values from the first and second dimension to determine a combination with a highest sampling value in a parameter matrix constructed based on the first dimension and the second dimension, and then executes the digital campaign using the determined combination.

Digital campaigns typically require campaigning entities to generate digital content and then provide the digital content to recipients in one or more audience segments. For example, a digital campaign can involve sending emails or digital advertisements with text, images, or other content/parameters to recipients within a given audience segment. A campaigning entity can determine that a campaign is successful based on user responses to the content, such as impressions, click-through rate, or other metrics that measure user engagement with the digital content. Accordingly, entities typically invest significant amounts of time, money, and resources in determining the parameters for the campaigns (e.g., the content to provide to recipients and to which recipients to provide the content) that result in optimal engagement metrics for the campaign.
To determine campaign parameters that result in optimal engagement metrics, some conventional systems test different versions of content and/or different audience segments by utilizing a method commonly referred to as A/B/n testing. Conventionally, A/B/n testing involves determining multiple different versions of a campaign and then testing each of the different versions. For example, an A/B/n test for an email campaign can include sending a small number of different email versions with certain parameters to a small subset of recipients. The conventional systems then use the response data for each of the tests to select a version for wide scale execution of the campaign.
While conventional systems that test each combination of parameters in a campaign are able to determine an adequate combination for wide scale execution, such systems are incapable of scaling to large numbers of possible combinations. Specifically, for large numbers of possible parameter combinations, conventional methods of testing each combination result in an excessive number of tests. For instance, while a campaign with 2 parameters of a first type and 3 parameters of a second type result in 6 different possible combinations (and therefore, 6 different tests), a campaign with 10 parameters of a first type and 20 parameters of a second type would result in 200 different possible combinations. Real world situations can involve tens of thousands of combinations. Accordingly, testing larger and larger numbers of combinations takes increasing amounts of time, making complete A/B/n testing for these scenarios inefficient and unrealistic for most real-world scenarios.
Furthermore, processing and executing complete A/B/n testing in such cases can use large amounts of an entity's computing, networking, and other resources. In particular, to test many different versions of a campaign, an entity must first generate the content for the campaign, which can require content creators (or computing resources) to create the many different versions and store the many different versions. Additionally, testing the many different versions of the campaign uses network resources to send the many different versions to various groups of recipients, while also collecting response data from the many recipients. Thus, not only can the process for testing many different versions be very inefficient and take a long time, the process can also be very resource intensive.
These and other disadvantages exist with respect to conventional campaign testing systems.

Multivariate digital campaign content exploration utilizing rank-1 best-arm identification


A method for treating silage to enhance aerobic stability by inhibiting growth of yeast strains associated with spoilage of silage is disclosed. The method comprises treating silage or feed with a composition comprising killer yeast strains, or the antimicrobial components produced thereby. According to the invention, strains of Saccharomyces exiguus have been purified and isolated which are nontoxic, safe, do not assimilate lactate and which improve aerobic stability of silage, are disclosed. Portions of these strains have been sequenced to further characterize the invention.

This invention relates generally to the silage process, to microorganisms, and use of the same in treating animal feed and silage to enhance aerobic stability, thus preventing spoilage.
The ensiling process is a method of moist forage preservation and is used all over the world. Silage accounts for more than 200 million tons of dry matter stored annually in Western Europe and the United States alone. The concept involves natural fermentation, where lactic acid bacteria ferment water soluble carbohydrates to form organic acids under anaerobic conditions. This causes a decrease in pH which then inhibits detrimental microbes so that the moist forage is preserved. The process can be characterized by four different phases.
Upon sealing in the storage unit, the first phase is aerobic, when oxygen is still present between plant particles and the pH is 6.0 to 6.5. These conditions allow for continued plant respiration, protease activity and activity of aerobic and facultative aerobic microorganisms.
The second phase is fermentation which lasts several days to several weeks after the silage becomes anaerobic. Lactic acid bacteria develop and become the primary microbial population thereby producing lactic and other organic acids, decreasing the pH to 3.8 to 5.0.
The third phase is stable with few changes occurring in the characteristics of the forage so long as air is prevented from entering the storage unit.
The final phase is feedout when the silage is ultimately unloaded and exposed to air. This results in reactivation of aerobic microorganisms, primarily yeast, molds, bacilli and acetic acid bacteria which can cause spoilage.
Aerobic instability is the primary problem in silage production. Even before storage units are open for feedout, silage can be exposed to oxygen because of management problems (i.e., poor packing or sealing). Under these types of aerobic conditions, rapid growth of yeast and mold cause silage to heat and spoil, decreasing its nutritional value.
Aerobic instability can be a problem even in inoculated silage that has undergone what would traditionally be considered a xe2x80x9cgoodxe2x80x9d fermentation phase, namely a rapid pH drop, and a low terminal pH. The yeast which contribute to instability in these conditions may be those which are tolerant of acid conditions and can metabolize the lactic acid produced by lactic acid bacteria during fermentation.
Management techniques that can be used to help prevent this condition involve using care to pack the silage well during the ensiling process and, also, using care in removing silage for feeding to minimize the aeration of the remaining silage.
Management (compaction, unloading rates) largely affects the movement of oxygen into silage. During feedout, air can penetrate 1 to 2 m behind the silage face so that exposure to oxygen is prolonged. Fermentation acids and pH inhibit the rate of microbial growth, but spoilage rates are affected also by microbial numbers and the rate of aerobic microbial growth on available substrates.
It is possible to use both chemical and biological additives in making silage to promote adequate fermentation patterns especially under sub-optimal conditions. Biological additives comprise bacterial inoculants and enzymes. Bacterial inoculants have advantages over chemical additives because they are safe, easy to use, non-corrosive to farm machinery, they do not pollute the environment and are regarded as natural products. Silage inoculants containing principally homofermentative lactic acid bacteria have become the dominant additives in many parts of the world. Their function is to promote rapid and efficient utilization of a crop""s water soluble carbohydrates resulting in intensive production of lactic acid and a rapid decrease in pH. Inoculants also reduce aerobic spoilage and improve animal performance.
Several problems, however, with lactic acid bacteria inoculants have been encountered. These problems primarily include failure to dominate fermentation and failure to inhibit adverse microbial activity. Other problems associated with lactic acid bacteria inoculants include infection by phage, failure to grow well on certain crops, bacteria not being viable at the time of application, and the epiphytic nature of the lactic acid bacteria population. Because these types of homofermentative lactic acid bacteria inoculants do not always prevent or reduce undesirable microbial activity, several new approaches have been tried.
A review of the silage process and the use of inoculants can be found in FMS Microbiology Rev. 19 (1996) 53-68, Weinberg, ZNG., and Muck, R E, xe2x80x9cNew trends and opportunities in the development and use of inoculants for silagexe2x80x9d, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The concept of heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria in an inoculant has gained recent favor. The idea is that increased levels of undissociated volatile fatty acids, such as acetate, may inhibit other microbes that initiate aerobic deterioration. Heterofermenters have the ability to convert lactic acid to acetic acid in the presence of oxygen, and the acetate produced may inhibit other deleterious organisms. With such a mechanism, one-third of the lactic acid dry matter consumed will be lost as carbon dioxide. However a small loss of 1% or perhaps up to 2% dry matter may easily offset much larger losses by aerobic microorganisms. Concerns with heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria include effects on animal performance as well as the identification of appropriate strains useful for the procedure. Different strains of even the same species do not have identical properties and vary in their fermentation characteristics.
PCT publication WO 97/29644 discloses a single strain of Lactobacillus buchneri (NCIMB 40788) which was found to inhibit the growth of spoilage organisms in the storage of silage. Other attempts to identify heterofermentative organisms for silage inoculants have included (Wyss et al., 1991, xe2x80x9cEinfluss von Luftstress und die Wirkung von spezifishen Zusatzen anf die arobe Stabilitat von Grasswelksilagenxe2x80x9d, Wirschaftseigene Futter, 37: 129-141), which used an inoculant comprising lactate and propionate producing organisms in wilted grass silage. Weinberg et al. (1995), xe2x80x9cThe effect of a propionic acid bacterial inoculant applied at ensiling, with or without lactic acid bacteria on the aerobic stability of Pearl-Millet and maize silagesxe2x80x9d, J. Appl. Bacteriol., 78:430-436 disclosed the use of Propionibacterium shermanii in millet, corn, sorghum, and wheat silages. Propionic acid was produced only in a wheat silage in which the pH decline was delayed and thus aerobic stability was improved. In all other silages the pH decline was rapid and the propionic acid bacteria could not proliferate.
Another attempt included select strains of Serratia rubidaea and Bacillus subtilis along with L. plantarum. When used in bale grass silages the number of molds decreased significantly. Some improvement was also observed in high moisture ear corn. (Moran et al., (1993), xe2x80x9cThe development of a novel bacterial inoculant to reduce mold spoilage and improve the silage fermentation in big bale silage. In: Silage Research 1993, Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Silage Research (O""Kiely, P., O""Connell, M. and Murphy, J., Eds.) pp. 85-86, Dublin City University, Ireland). A similar composition to that for bale grass silage was developed for wheat silage which added Pediococcus strains to the composition. Pediococcus is capable of fermenting pentose sugars which result from hemicellulose hydrolysis in wheat silages. In a single trial with wheat silage, no improvement in the aerobic stability was observed.
The ensiling process is a complex one and involves interactions of numerous different chemical and microbiological processes. Further, different silages and different methods of ensiling present a variety of different needs. As can be seen a need exists in the art for further improvement in compositions and methods to improve the aerobic stability of silage.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and composition which can be used as an inoculant to improve aerobic stability of silage.
It is yet another object to provide novel yeast strains which can be used in compositions for improving aerobic stability.
It is a further object of the present invention to increase dry matter recovery of silage by reducing aerobic spoilage.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide an inoculant which is safe and nonhazardous for an additive to silage.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a natural additive composition for silage.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide quality silage material as determined by temperature, pH, dry matter recovery, nitrogen profile, color and microorganism count.
Other objects of the invention will become apparent from the description of the invention which follows.
According to this invention, forage materials which are to be stored are treated with particular yeast strains (xe2x80x9ckillerxe2x80x9d yeast) which inhibit the growth of wild yeasts that cause aerobic deterioration. These yeast strains also do not utilize lactate thus further preserving forage quality and inhibiting or retarding aerobic deterioration.
The invention provides a method of treating forage materials to enhance their preservation which comprises administering to the forage materials an effective amount of a killer yeast strain, its functional equivalents, or the forage preserving, or cytotoxic compositions produced thereby. According to the invention several strains of microorganisms have been identified from 18S rRNA sequencing to be from the class Saccharomyces exiguus, namely SE24, SE136 and SE151 which have been deposited with the ATCC, accession numbers 74441, 74442, 74443 respectively. Any one of these strains or any combination of the same may be used according to the invention.
As explained in more detail below, the microorganisms of the invention have a unique effect, different from and/or extending beyond their non lactate assimilation. The organisms produce antimicrobial factors likely proteinacious which are characterized by their ability to inhibit the growth of other yeast strains associated with the spoilage of silage or a variety of other spoilage organisms.
These substances may be isolated and purified by methods known to those of ordinary skill in the art. As such, the substances themselves may be used directly to treat animal feed or silage. In other words, it may not be necessary to use a microorganism as such in the compositions and methods of this invention.

Non-lactate-assimilating yeast for improving aerobic stability of silage


A curable organopolysiloxane composition comprising an organopolysiloxane containing alkenyl groups and phenyl groups, an organohydrogenpolysiloxane, a copolymer of a vinyl monomer and a vinyl monomer with hydrosilyl groups, and a platinum catalyst; a curing process that consists of two or more stages of thermal curing; an optical semiconductor device that has a light-transmitting portion made from a cured body of the aforementioned composition; and an adhesion promoter that consists of a copolymer of a vinyl monomer and a vinyl monomer with hydrosilyl groups.

Until recently, there were many proposals aimed at improving adhesion of hydrosilation-curable organopolysiloxane compositions, mainly to metal and organic resin substrates, especially to those made from thermoplastic resins. In the past, methods of curing consisted of applying a silane-type primer onto the surface of an adherend, and then curing a hydrosilation-curable organopolysiloxane composition on the primed surface. However, since application of the primer onto the surface was associated with some difficulties, many suggestions were made to provide hydrosilation-curable organopolysiloxane compositions that acquire improved adhesiveness themselves due to introduction of adhesion promoters. Typical examples of such adhesion improvers are the following: an organic silicon compound having in one molecule an epoxy group and a hydrosilyl group (see JP Examined Patent Application Publication [hereinafter referred to as Kokoku] S53-13508); an organic silicon compound having in one molecule an alkoxysilyl group and a hydrosilyl group (see JP Kokoku S53-21026 and JP Kokoku S58-26376); an organic silicon compound having in one molecule a vinyl group and an alkoxy group (see JP Kokoku H6-41563); an organic silicon compound having in one molecule a vinyl group and an epoxy group (see JP Unexamined Patent Application Publication [hereinafter referred to as Kokai] H6-145525); a radical polymer of 3-methacryloxypropyl tris(dimethylhydrogensiloxy) silane, and a radical copolymer of the last-mentioned polymer and a vinyl monomer (e.g., methylmethacrylate or α-methylstyrene) (see JP Kokai H8-291254). Appropriate radical polymers and copolymers that contain hydrosilyl groups are known as adhesion promoters for curable organic resins that are free of alkenyl groups (see JP Kokai 2001-240750).
On the other hand, known in the art is a curable organopolysiloxane composition that consists of an organopolysiloxane with linear-chain alkenyl groups and aryl groups, an organopolysiloxane with branched alkenyl groups and aryl groups, an organohydrogenpolysiloxane with aryl groups, and a hydrosilation reaction catalyst. This curable organopolysiloxane composition is suitable for forming a cured body of high strength that has high light transmittance and can be used in semiconductor devices as a sealing agent (see JP Kokai 2004-143361). Also known are semiconductor devices wherein light-transmitting parts are made from a light-permeable silicone resin (see JP Kokai H7-283441 and JP Kokai 2001-168398).
However, although in the initial stage the self-adhesive hydrosilation-curable organopolysiloxane compositions of the type disclosed in aforementioned JP Kokoku S53-13508 to JP Kokai H6-145525 show excellent adhesion to metals and organic resins, and especially to thermoplastic resins with polar bonds, the adhesion of the adhesive substance to an organic resin, and especially to a thermoplastic resin with polar bonds is deteriorated when the adherend undergoes a wet or dry heat treatment. JP Kokai 2004-14336 does not give any hints to the possibility of adding an adhesion promoter disclosed in JP Kokoku S53-13508 to JP Kokai H6-145525. JP Kokai H8-291254 does not teach that a curable organopolysiloxane can be a material with improved light transmittance properties suitable for use as light-transmitting parts, especially in semiconductor devices. Furthermore, since preparation of the aforementioned radical polymer of 3-methacryloxypropyl tris(dimethylhydrogensiloxy) silane and the radical copolymer of the aforementioned silane and a vinyl monomer (e.g., methylmethacrylate or α-methylstyrene) is carried out without the use of a chain-transfer agent, it is difficult to control the degree of polymerization and to provide recovery of the adhesion promoter that is well compatible with the organopolysiloxane.
JP Kokai 2001-240750 does not teach that radical polymers and radical copolymers with appropriate hydrosilyl groups can be used as adhesion promoters for hydrosilation-curable organopolysiloxane compositions. Neither is it shown that an addition of the aforementioned radical polymers or copolymers to the curable organopolysiloxane composition disclosed in JP Kokai 2004-143361 can improve adhesion during curing of the composition not only to metals, inorganic semiconductors, and ceramics, but also to organic resins, especially to thermoplastic resins having polar bonds. JP Kokai H7-283441 and JP Kokai 2001-168398 only mention light-permeable silicone resins.

Curable organopolysiloxane composition, method of curing thereof, semiconductor device, and adhesion promotor


A rice-based snack chip made from a dough including the dry ingredients of bumped rice kernels, long-grain pregelatinized rice flour, medium-grain course white rice flour and in which the bumped rice kernels are partially hydrated, bumped, partially dehydrated and fried as the chip is made.

The world of snack chips includes a wide variety of base materials, including, for example, potatoes, corn, taro, sweet potatoes and cheese, to name a few. Prior to the present invention, however, the use of rice as the primary base material for a snack chip has eluded the snack food industry.
In order for a snack chip to be commercially successful, it must taste good, look good, feel good when eaten and be capable of large scale production. The look good and feel good features usually translate into the chip having a structure that keeps the chip from crumbling during processing, packaging, transport or use (prior to reaching a mouth). Further, the structure of the chip wants to give it a fresh "crunchability" when eaten. The look good feature translates into the chip having a toasted appearance that is usually associated with crunchiness.
Some of the difficulties in using rice as a base material for a snack chip are that it does not naturally acquire a toasted appearance, it tends to crumble easily and is sticky when cooked and made into a dough, making it unusable with existing machinery commonly used to make chips from other base materials.
By the use of different forms of rice, the present invention overcomes these problems and produces a tasty snack chip that has desirable characteristics and necessary structural integrity.

Rice-based snack chip and method of making same


A portable corral panel is disclosed and which has a supporting leg structure pivotally secured to one side thereof with the supporting leg structure being pivotally movable from a stored position adjacent the panel member to an outwardly extending supporting position. An anchor plate is secured to the supporting leg structure to enable an anchor pin to be inserted therethrough into the ground to further stabilize the panel member.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a portable corral panel and more particularly to a portable corral panel having a supporting leg structure pivotally secured thereto which may be folded from a supporting position to a stored position.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many types of portable corrals and corral panels have been previously described. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,813 to Bixler et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,960,074 to Wilson; U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,876 to Harris; U.S. Pat. No. 5,115,763 to Wilson; and U.S. Pat. No. Des. 286,690 to Priefert. Portable corrals for the containment of livestock normally consist of a plurality of portable corral panels which are connected together in an end-to-end relationship. Although the portable corral panels of the prior art may be generally satisfactory, it is believed that the portable corral panels of the prior art do not have the requisite stability in use and if they are provided with some form of supporting structure, that supporting structure is not convenient to use and is not easily stored.


A wireless transmission system is provided in a place where two or more wireless networks uncoordinated to each other are located and are subjected to receive mutual interference. This system can transmit data correctly with no limitation of the use of communication apparatus even if the transmission is subjected to the interference from the other network. Namely in an ultra wide band wireless transmission system, orders of the slots of a frame are replaced randomly by a predetermined slot permutation pattern, and then the replaced slots are transmitted. The orders of received slots are restored to the original order by the predetermined slot permutation pattern. Thereby, a diversity effect to interference can be obtained. Consequently, even if two or more networks uncoordinated to each other, in which the ultra wide band wireless transmission system operates, are located closely, communication in each network can be performed correctly.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless transmission system, a wireless transmission method, a wireless reception method, a transmitting apparatus and a receiving apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the spread of a local area network (LAN) owing to computerization in recent years, a demand for a wireless LAN has risen owing to the problems of wiring construction in an office, the shortening of a construction period, a problem concerning an interior fine view, the complexity of maintenance, operation and management, and the like. As a wireless transmission system to be used for such a wireless LAN, the ultra wide band (UWB) wireless transmission system is known.
The ultra wide band wireless transmission system basically performs baseband transmission by the use of a signal composed of a pulse train having a very fine pulse width (for example, one nanosecond (ns) or shorter). The UWB wireless transmission system forms spread information by multiplying a prescribed wireless signal, for example transmission information, by a prescribed spread code sequence. Moreover, the UWB wireless transmission system generates a short impulse at the period of several hundreds nanoseconds, and uses a signal generated by changing the phase of the impulse or the time change of the impulse in accordance with the above-mentioned spread information as a transmission signal. On the other hand, an apparatus for receiving information discriminates an information bit of the impulse signal by means of the above-mentioned phase or the fine time change of the transmitted impulse. The apparatus for receiving information obtains a desired information bit by performing the reverse spread of the transmission signal by the use of a prescribed spread code sequence. Moreover, the occupied bandwidth of the UWB wireless transmission system is a bandwidth of the order of a gigahertz (GHz) such that a value obtained by dividing the occupied bandwidth by the center frequency thereof (for example, being within a range from 1 GHz to 10 GHz) becomes about 1. The bandwidth thereof is an ultra wideband in comparison with the bandwidths used in the so-called wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA) system, the cdma2000 system and a wireless LAN using a spread spectrum (SS) or the orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM).
Moreover, the ultra wide band transmission system has the feature in which the existing systems having a high signal power density characteristic at a specific frequency band is not easily subjected to interference owing to the low signal power density characteristic of the UWB system. Consequently, the UWB system is expected as a technique capable of overlaying the frequency bands used by the existing wireless systems. Moreover, because the USB system has a wide band, a hopeful view is taken on the USB system as a ultra high speed wireless transmission technique at a 100 Mbps level for the use of a personal area network (PAN).
On the other hand, if the case where two or more UWB wireless networks being uncoordinated with each other are existed in the same area is supposed in the UWB wireless transmission, it can be considered that the UWB wireless transmission may give large interference to each transmitter and receiver depending on their positional relationships. In such a case, because the UWB wireless transmission uses an ultra wideband in occupied bandwidth, there are no frequency channels for the escape of the interference. In the worst case, there is the apprehension that it becomes impossible to perform communication. Here, the expression "uncoordinated to each other" means that channel assignment information and the like are not shared by control stations that control individual network.
As one of means for solving the problem, the time division multiple access (TDMA) system is used in which a channel is divided into frames and resources are assigned to each frame.
The time division multiple access system performs continuous resource assignment over a comparatively long time in a frame to a single piece of communication in a network.
The conventional TDMA system adopts the following frame structure. An example of the frame structure is shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B.
In the TDMA system, as shown in FIG. 13A, for example, unit frames 1301, 1302 and 1303 of the TDMA system (called as "TDMA frames") are repeated. The length of each of the TDMA frames 1301, 1302 and 1303 is, for example, one microsecond.
In each of the TDMA frames 1301, 1302 and 1303, as shown in FIG. 13B, a beacon 1304 being an identifying signal including the assignment information of wireless resources (resource assignment information) is arranged at the head of the frame. Next to the beacon 1304, areas for terminal station (or users) included in the wireless network are assigned. In the example shown in FIG. 13B, areas (referred to as "user assignment areas") 1305, 1306 and 1307 which are assigned for a terminal station-A, a terminal station-B and a terminal station-C, respectively, are set in the order after the beacon 1304. The areas 1305, 1306 and 1307 which are assigned for each of the terminal stations-A, -B and -C may be variable in each frame.
Moreover, in an area other than the beacon 1304 and each of the user assignment areas 1305, 1306 and 1307, a contention period 1308 is set. The contention period 1308 is an area to be used for as a random access channel from a terminal station to a base station or communication between terminal stations. Because the contention period 1308 is not an interval assigned by the base station, contention of communication in the network can occur in the contention period 1308.
In communication using such a TDMA frame, for example, a terminal station demands resource assignment (a transmission demand) at the next frame in a random access channel (RACH) in the contention period 1308. Then, the base station determines user assignment areas for the resource assignment in the next frame in response to the demand. Furthermore, the base station informs the determination to each of the terminal stations-A, -B and -C by means of a beacon 1309 in the next frame. Then, each of the terminal stations-A, -B and -C performs communication on the basis of the resource assignment information of the beacon 1309.
If two or more uncoordinated UWB networks performing communication using the TDMA frames are arranged closely to each other, the interference to stations in the network easily occur continuously. In such a case, there is the problem in which the station having received the interference cannot restore data by error correction or the like, and the communication becomes impossible.
FIG. 14 shows a state in which two networks are arranged closely to each other. As shown in FIG. 14, a personal area network (hereinafter referred to as a "PAN")-X 1401 and a PAN-Y 1402 are arranged closely to each other in an uncoordinated state to each other. The PAN-X 1401 is composed of a base station-X 1403, a terminal station-A 1405, a terminal station-B 1406, a terminal station-C 1407 and a terminal station-F 1410, wherein all of the terminal stations-A 1405, -B 1406, -C 1407 and -F 1410 are controlled by the base station-X 1403. On the other hand, the PAN-Y 1402 is composed of a base station-Y 1404, a terminal station-D 1408 and a terminal station-E 1409, wherein both of the terminal stations-D 1408 and -E 1409 are controlled by the base station-Y 1404.
Moreover, the terminal station-C 1407 and the terminal station-E 1409 are at a positional relationship in which, if either of the terminal stations-C 1407 and -E 1409 performs wireless transmission, the wireless transmission interferes with a wireless signal received by the other.
FIGS. 15A and 15B show the states of the frames of the PAN-X 1401 and the PAN-Y 1402, respectively. FIG. 15A shows the state of a frame of the PAN-X 1401 at a certain point of time, and FIG. 15B shows a frame of the PAN-Y 1402 at the same point of time.
As shown in FIGS. 15A and 15B, a user assignment area 1501 assigned to the terminal station-F 1410 (the communication from the terminal station-F 1410 to the terminal station-C 1407 is supposed) and a user assignment area 1502 assigned for the transmission of the terminal station-E 1409 are in the state of overlapping in time with each other. As shown in FIGS. 15A and 15B, in the case where the user assignment areas to which the terminal station-C 1407 belonging to the PAN-X 1401 and the terminal station-E 1409 belonging to another PAN-Y 1402, both of the terminal stations-C 1407 and -E 1409 being located closely to each other, are assigned are in contention with each other, it is apprehended that the communication between the terminal stations-F 1410 and -C 1407 becomes impossible.
Consequently, it was necessary to impose some limitations on using communication apparatus constituting each network for avoiding the above-mentioned situation. For example, it was necessary to avoid such a situation in which two or more networks being uncoordinated to each other are located in the same area.

Wireless transmission system, wireless transmission method, wireless reception method, transmitting apparatus and receiving apparatus


Disclosed is a method for transmitting an uplink signal by a mobile station in a mobile communication system using an OFDMA scheme. The method includes estimating a downlink channel status by using a signal received from a base station; determining a precoding matrix by using the estimated downlink channel status; and transmitting a signal obtained by multiplying an uplink signal to be transmitted by the precoding matrix to the base station.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a mobile communication system, and in particular, to an apparatus and a method for transmitting an uplink signal in a mobile communication system using an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) scheme.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a 4th generation (4G) communication system, which is the next generation communication system, there is ongoing research to provide users with services having various Qualities of Service ('QoS') and supporting a high speed transmission.
As a scheme useful for high speed data transmission in wire or wireless channels, an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) scheme is now being actively researched. The OFDM scheme, which transmits data using multiple carriers, is a special type of a Multiple Carrier Modulation (MCM) scheme in which a serial symbol sequence is converted into parallel symbol sequences and the parallel symbol sequences are modulated with a plurality of mutually orthogonal sub-carriers before being transmitted.
In order to provide a high-speed and high-quality data service to a Mobile Station (MS), a Base Station (BS) must select an optimum modulation and encoding scheme based on a wireless channel environment. The wireless channel environment is determined by a number of factors, such as white noise, frequency selective fading, shadowing, Doppler effect due to movement of the MS, Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI) due to delay spread, etc. Therefore, the BS must select a proper Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) in response to the wireless channel environment changing due to the factors described above. To this end, an exact channel estimation is required to precede such a selection. Understandably, it goes without saying that the MS also can perform the channel estimation.
A pilot signal is used for the channel estimation. Conventionally, a receiver performs channel estimation by interpolating a pilot signal transmitted from a transmitter. Therefore, the more pilot signals received during a unit time interval, the more exactly the receiver can estimate a channel.
On an assumption that the transmitter is a BS and the receiver is an MS in the OFDMA mobile communication system, the BS can transmit a plurality of pilot signals' to the MS in the entire frequency bands, and the MS can exactly estimate a downlink channel by using the plurality of received pilot signals. However, when the transmitter is an MS and the receiver is a BS, the MS transmits a pilot signal in a frequency band that does not overlap that of another MS, and the BS estimates an uplink channel by using the received pilot signal from the MS. Therefore, the number of uplink pilot signals is inevitably smaller than or equal to that of the downlink pilot signals, which degrades the performance throughput of the uplink channel estimation. If the number of the uplink pilot signals is increased in order to solve this problem, just as many data signals are inevitably reduced, thereby decreasing the entire throughput.

Apparatus and method for transmitting an uplink signal in a mobile communication system using an OFDMA scheme

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology


A method of transferring an image includes the steps of; bringing an image bearer bearing an image thereon as a transfer origin in contact with a transferring objective (onto which the image is transferred) as a transfer destination; moving at least one of the image bearer and the transferring objective in a prescribed direction; and sequentially transferring the image borne on the image bearer onto the transferring objective in a contacting section in which the image bearer and the transferring objective contact each other in a direction in which the image does not pass through the contacting section.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a novel image transferring method, an image transferring system implementing the image transferring method, and an image forming apparatus with same.
2. Related Art
A conventional image transferring system transfers an image formed and rendered visible by developer from a transfer origin that bears the image onto a transfer destination using an electric transfer field. Another conventional transferring system transfers an image formed and rendered visible by ink drops from the transfer origin that bears the image onto the transfer destination. There is also a known system that transfers an image in a transfer station using either a pair of rollers or a roller and a belt.
To transfer an image using the electric transfer field in a conventional image transferring system, a prescribed member and a power supply for generating the electric transfer field are needed, thereby becoming a bottleneck to cost reduction.
Further, performance of the electric transfer field varies in accordance with an environmental condition, such as temperature, humidity, etc. A transfer condition also varies in accordance with temperature and humidity or the like as well. Thus, these member and power supply need to be made of prescribed material and avoid the impact of the environmental condition.
Further, with a system in which an image is formed by ink drops and is transferred on a transfer destination by pressing the image against the transfer destination, a transfer rate tends to decrease.
Further, when the image is transferred in a transfer section of a conventional system, an image generally passes through the transfer section and likely disturbs a transferred image.

Method of transferring image and image transferring system and image forming apparatus with same