A resonant circuit includes a substrate; a MEMS resonator including a fixed electrode and a movable electrode formed above the substrate and having a first terminal and a second terminal, the movable electrode having a movable portion opposing at least a part of the fixed electrode; and a voltage applying unit applying a bias voltage to the MEMS resonator, the voltage applying unit including a voltage divider circuit that includes a compensation resistance formed of a same layer as that of the movable portion to allow a resistance value to be changed by a thickness of the layer and a reference resistance formed of a layer different from that of the movable portion and connected to the compensation resistance to output a junction potential between the compensation resistance and the reference resistance to at least one of the first and the second terminals of the MEMS resonator.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a resonant circuit, a method for producing the resonant circuit, and an electronic device. Particularly, the invention relates to a structure of a resonant circuit utilizing a MEMS resonator and a method for producing the resonant circuit, as well as to an electronic device including the resonant circuit.
2. Related Art
In the recent electronic device market, products using MEMS (micro electro-mechanical system) technology are becoming increasingly popular. The MEMS products are electro-mechanical devices (MEMS devices) having a micro structure (a MEMS structure) formed on a substrate by using a semiconductor-manufacturing technology. Specific examples of the devices using the MEMS technology include micro sensors such as acceleration sensors, angular velocity sensors, inertial sensors, and pressure sensors. Market demands for the sensors are rapidly growing these days. Thus, the MEMS technology has great potential in creating new devices. In the future, a variety of practical applications of the MEMS devices, alone or in combinations, are expected to be sequentially achieved by utilizing characteristics of micro structures such as micro mechanical relays (switches) and variable capacitance elements.
A new practical example of the MEMS technology is a resonant circuit including a MEMS resonator. The resonant circuit with the MEMS resonator is typically operated by an electrostatic driving and capacitive sensing system or a piezoelectric driving and piezoresistive sensing system. Particularly, the former system is highly consistent with a semiconductor process such as a CMOS process and thus can be regarded as an effective system for miniaturization and cost reduction. In the electrostatic driving and capacitive sensing system, there is formed a MEMS resonator having a movable electrode and a fixed electrode to sense electrostatic force-induced vibration of the movable electrode by a change in capacitance between the movable electrode and the fixed electrode. FIGS. 3A and 3B show common examples of transmission characteristics and phase characteristics of a resonant circuit. Examples of the resonant circuit shown in the drawings are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,249,073, 6,424,074, and JP-A-2004-58228.
In the resonant circuit described above, the resonance frequency is changed by structural size variation in the MEMS resonator. Accordingly, to secure precision of resonance frequency, it is necessary to reduce variations in structural sizes of the resonator in production of the resonant circuit. If the variations cannot be reduced, the resonance frequency needs to be corrected at a trimming step or the like performed after the production. This makes a production process of the resonant circuit complicate, leading to an increase in production cost.
Among the structural sizes of the MEMS resonator, particularly, a thickness of a movable portion of the movable electrode has directly great influence on the resonance frequency. In addition, the movable portion has an extremely small thickness of a few um or smaller, so that even a small thickness variation causes a significant change in the resonance frequency.

Resonant circuit, method of producing same, and electronic device


A method and system can implement error and event log correlation in an apparatus and include extracting one or more log information associated with a storage location and creating a flexible structure of the one or more log information. The one or more log information is translated to a database store based on a user input. A match level is determined between an event and error data through the one or more log information extracted. When the match level exceeds a predetermined value, a relationship between the event and error data is created through an algorithm and a shareable entry is created for the relationship in a format usable by another apparatus.

Log analysis has long been a key tool for system administrators to observe, learn and automate their environments. With growth in data and computing needs, the volume of the logs have vastly increased, and the scale of performing analysis becomes more difficult to get timely, useful and clear data and appropriate triggers for enabling automation using traditional tools. The log files contain a multitude of information. The log files may bring together insights which include: frequency of information, issues logged, events, alerts, anomalies, etc. Discovering correlations between multiple sources may be complex and time consuming. However, the benefits of such correlations may help in root cause analysis, discovering event flows, and determining the behavior-based connections that exist within complex system environments.
In the information technology (IT) landscape and support services, proactive monitoring and maintenance adds to benefits and cost savings. In the case of incident monitoring, alerting from complex machine-generated logs may be critical for such success and savings. Machine logs and error logs may be complex and are difficult to analyze manually. Different IT systems may have different error logs and event logs formats. In a heterogenic landscape with multiple systems where most of them may be connected for a business program monitoring. Proactive identification and remedy of a situation helps business benefit.
With IT landscape evolving and businesses adopting multitude of systems and software which may be interconnected and derive business outcomes, managing such systems, software becomes complex. Preventive and proactive maintenance may be pervasive to avert business loss and cost savings as such.
Distributed applications and services by their nature may be complex pieces of software that comprise many moving parts. In a production environment, it is important to be able to track a system, trace resources, utilization of resources, and proactively monitor the health and performance of the system. System performance may depends on a number of factors. Each factor may typically be measured through key performance indicators (KPIs), such as the number of database transactions per second and/or the volume of network requests that are successfully serviced in a specified time frame. Some of these KPIs might be available as specific performance measures, whereas others might be derived from a combination of metrics.
In any case, determining poor and/or good performance may require a detailed understanding of the level of performance at which the system should be capable of running and thus requiring observing the system while the system is functioning under a typical load and capturing the data for each KPI over a period of time—given the complex landscape, manual gathering of such information and monitoring, managing, reporting, remedying real-time on a production environment may be impossible without automation. Dynamically adjusting the level of detail for performance monitoring process may require higher level support operations to provide quick insights in real-time and to remedy the system issues.

Method and system of automatic event and error correlation from log data


The retardation film has a slow axis with an angle of 10 to 80° with respect to a longitudinal direction thereof and contains cellulose acylate having a degree of acyl substitution of 2.0 to 2.7 and a regulating agent. The retardation film has an in-plane retardation, measured at a wavelength of 550 nm, Ro550, of 115 to 260 nm. The retardation film has a ΔRo is 3 to 30 nm, where ΔRo is Ro550−Ro450, where Ro450 is the in-plane retardation of the film measured at a wavelength of 450 nm. The retardation film without the regulating agent has an in plane retardation, measured at a wavelength of 550 nm, Rc550, and ΔRc(Rc550−Rc450) equal to or greater than 0, where Rc450 is the in-plane retardation measured a wavelength of 450 nm.

Recent years, an organic electroluminescence element (hereinafter referred to simply and occasionally as "organic EL element") in which a voltage is applied to a luminescent layer provided between electrodes to cause the luminescent layer to emit light has been actively researched and developed. Because of having excellent properties: luminous efficacy, low-voltage drivability, lightweight and low cost, the organic EL element is utilized as a planar type illumination, a light source for an optic fiber, a backlight for a liquid crystal display, a backlight for a liquid crystal projector, and various other light sources for a display device and others, and great interest has been shown therein.
In the organic EL element, electrons and holes are injected, respectively, from a negative electrode and a positive electrode, and recombined together in the luminescent layer to thereby cause the luminescent layer to emit visible light corresponding to luminescence properties thereof.
The positive electrode is made of a transparent electrical conductive material. Among various transparent electrical conductive materials, indium tin oxide (ITO) is primarily used, in view highest electrical conductivity and relatively large work function, thereby being capable of obtaining high hole-injection efficiency.
On the other hand, the negative electrode is generally made of a metal material. Among various metal electrodes, metal materials such as Mg, Mg/Ag, Mg/In, Al and Li/Al are primarily used, in view of electron-injection efficiency and from the point of work function. Such a metal material has high light reflectance, and therefore takes on a function of reflecting light emitted from the luminescent layer to increase an outgoing light amount (light-emission brightness), in addition to its function as an electrode (negative electrode). That is, light emitted toward the negative electrode is specularly reflected by a surface of the metal material of the negative electrode, and extracted as outgoing light from the transparent ITO electrode (positive electrode).
However, in the organic EL element having such a structure, due to the negative electrode having a mirror surface with strong light reflectivity, outside-light reflection undesirably becomes prominent in a non-luminous state. That is, there is a problem that reflected glare of indoor lighting is so terrific during observation, and it becomes difficult to achieve color expression of black under bright conditions, i.e., contrast under bright conditions is extremely poor for use as a light source for a display device.
As measures for improving this problem, there has been disclosed a technique using a circularly polarizing element as a means to prevent the outside-light reflection by the mirror surface (see, for example, the following Patent Literature 1). In a circularly polarizing element disclosed in the Patent Literature 1, an absorption-type linear polarizer and a retardation film having an in-plane retardation of substantially a quarter-wavelength are laminated in such a manner that optical axes thereof intersect at 45° or 135°.
Assume here that the retardation film having an in-plane retardation of substantially a quarter-wavelength is formed, for example, using one sheet of stretched film. In this case, due to wavelength dispersion in which a refractive index of a resulting stretched film varies with respect to each wavelength, the retardation can become approximately just a quarter-wavelength with respect to a certain wavelength, but it can deviate from a quarter-wavelength with respect to another wavelength. As a result, depending on wavelength, the above retardation film is likely to fail to function as a retardation film having an in-plane retardation of a quarter-wavelength. That is, there is a problem that, when the retardation film is configured to function as a retardation film having an in-plane retardation of a quarter-wavelength with respect to green light of 550 nm wavelength, it becomes difficult to completely prevent reflection of red light having a longer wavelength and blue light having a shorter wavelength, as compared to the green light, and, in particular, a deviation of retardation with respect to blue light is large, resulting in bluish reflected hue.
In this situation, for preventing reflection for all wavelengths of visible light, it is necessary to have a reverse wavelength dispersion property (in which a retardation value becomes larger as the wavelength becomes longer) capable of exhibiting a quarter-wavelength retardation value in the entire wavelength range. As a film capable of exhibiting such a reverse wavelength dispersion property, there have been known films described in the following Patent Literatures 2 to 4.
The Patent Literatures 2 discloses a retardation plate, wherein a specific resin is used to form a single layer having a reverse wavelength dispersion property capable of exhibiting a λ/4 retardation value in the entire wavelength range. The Patent Literatures 2 also discloses that a retardation film obtained by providing a perpendicularly-oriented liquid crystal layer on an obliquely-stretched cellulose acylate film has a quarter-wavelength retardation in a wide wavelength range, and an organic EL display device provided with the retardation film is improved in terms of hue fluctuation due to outside-light reflection. However, an elongated circularly polarizing plate produced by using the retardation film described in the Parent Literature 2 has a problem that, due to degradation of outside-light reflection preventive property, a hue thereof in a non-luminous state is shifted from black. The retardation film described in the Patent Literature 2 is configured to use a component other than the cellulose acylate to develop the retardation and the reverse wavelength dispersion property, which causes a problem of a large variation in the reverse wavelength dispersion property due to stress.
The Patent Literature 3 discloses a retardation film, wherein a cellulose acylate resin containing cellulose ether is used to form a single layer having a reverse wavelength dispersion property. However, the retardation film described in the Parent Literature 3 has a problem that a wavelength dispersion property varies according to changes in humidity environment. This results in a problem that a hue of an obtained circularly polarizing plate undesirably varies. Moreover, the retardation film described in the Patent Literature 3 is configured to use the cellulose acylate resin to develop the reverse wavelength dispersion property, which causes a problem that the hue is more likely to fluctuate in an environment where humidity fluctuates.
The Parent Literature 4 discloses a retardation film, wherein a cellulose acetate resin containing a compound with a specific structure is used to form a single layer having a reverse wavelength dispersion property. However, an elongated circularly polarizing plate produced by using the retardation film described in the Parent Literature 4 has a problem that both the hue variation and the hue fluctuation along with humidity environments occur. Moreover, the retardation film described in the Patent Literature 4 is insufficient in terms of retardation developability, and therefore a film thickness thereof needs to be increased to achieve a quarter-retardation, which caused a problem of an increase in cost and difficulty in thickness reduction of an image display device.

Retardation film, elongated circularly polarizing plate and organic EL display produced using said retardation film


The animal wrap for touch training is a combination of a front body portion harnessing the lower neck, forelegs, and the chest, and a rear body portion that has rear leg loops. The two wrap segments can be joined to each other by hook and loop fastening, and the leg loops are wrapped around the forelegs and hind legs and secured by hook and loop fastening material. No leash is used, as touch training is designed to apply gentle pressure to the animal's body. The front and rear portions are made from elastic fabric. The animal wrap kit includes a tail wrap and a face wrap in addition to the body portions. The face wrap is wrapped around on the head or face to bring awareness to the head region. The tail wrap is worn to either raise or lower a tail and bring awareness to the rear region of the animal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to animal harnesses, and more particularly to a wrap for an animal's body designed especially for use with the process of touch training.
2. Description of the Related Art
Touch training has been used by animal trainers to treat animal behaviors ranging from overactive and aggressive to shy and introverted. In order to touch train an animal a person is required to wrap the body in a specific manner using constrictive wear made of elastic fabrics, such as bandages or shirts. The constrictive wear soothes and comforts the shy, introverted animal and tends to tame an overactive animal. The traditional way to wrap animals is to use ACE™ bandage wraps and pin them to the body of the animal. Frequently owners new to the technique of wrapping find the bandages fall, shift or move, making the process of securing the wraps in the proper position difficult. A wrap for touch training is therefore desired that is configured for immediate use.
The related art of interest describes various dog harnesses, but none discloses the present invention used for touch training of an animal without a leash, reins, or other tether. The relevant art of interest will be discussed in the order of perceived relevance to the present invention.
C. J. Puotinen in a 4-page article entitled "It's a Wrap!", published by Whole-Dog-Journal.com, on Dec. 6, 2002, describes body wrapping of dogs to calm and focus dogs. The various body wraps described are a T-shirt wrap and elastic bandage wraps such as a half-body wrap, full-body wrap, and an anxiety wrap. None of the elastic bandage wraps resemble or suggest the structure of our invention requiring separable body portions and a tail portion. In the full body dog wrap described by Puotinen, the front and back portions are secured to each other by safety pins, and each leg loop is secured by safety pins as well. The pins require some manipulation, and the body wrap tends to slip off and is not secured snugly, consequently not applying the pressure desired in touch therapy.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,769,939 issued on Nov. 6, 1973, to Lowell Wais et al. describes a restraining and training harnessing device comprising a cord leash attached to a harness consisting of elastic cords around the dog's neck and crossing its neck to encircle the forelegs. The dog is prevented from making any movement when the harness is pulled to draw the legs together. The device is distinguishable for being limited to the front legs and requiring a leash.
U.S. Reissue Pat. No. Re. 32,547 reissued on Nov. 24, 1987, to Robert C. Reed describes an exercising harness requiring a leash for dogs, horses and the like animals comprising a chest harness connected by elastic cords to the hocks of the rear legs. The harness is distinguishable for requiring a leash and rear leg attachments.
U.S. Patent Publication 2002/0073936, published on Jun. 20, 2002, describes a training device. The device is worn on either elongated muzzles or brachiocephalic muzzles. The device replaces collars and guides a dog by applying pressure to its head.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,030 issued on Jun. 23, 1998, to Marcus L. Acoff describes a dog training and conditioning apparatus comprising a collar, a back strap attached to the collar, and a chest strap attached to the collar and to a weighted vest having an upper and lower portion. The chest strap is also provided with weights. The apparatus is distinguishable for requiring the addition of weight to the chest strap and the vest.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,329,885, issued on Jul. 19, 1994, U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,083, issued on Dec. 6, 1994, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,676,093, issued on Oct. 14, 1997, to Joseph S. Sporn describe leash controllable dog training harnesses. In these devices, a harness includes a pair of loops crossing the dog's chest and attached to a leash in the '885 patent, a harness around the chest attached to straps on the front legs in the '083 patent, and a harness around the neck and between each front leg in the '093 patent. The devices are distinguishable for requiring a leash to control the animal, and straps between the front legs traversing the animal's chest.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,295 issued on Aug. 11, 1998, to Linda A. Schmid et al. describes a dog training leash including a neck band and a chest band connected on the back by a leash. The device is distinguishable for requiring a leash and bands for the neck and chest.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,992,352 issued on Nov. 30, 1999, to Peter L. Borchelt et al. describes a dog halter comprising an interconnected neck, side and cheek straps. The dog halter is distinguishable for requiring a neck strap interconnected with side and cheek straps.
Other halters or harnesses are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,275, issued to A. A. DeGroot on Nov. 20, 1984; U.S. Pat. No. 4,566,255, issued to A. A. DeGroot on Jan. 28, 1986; U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,515, issued to D. D. Brown et al. on Apr. 30, 1996; U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,030, issued to M. L. Acoff on Jun. 23, 1998; European Patent Number 1,216,614, published on Jun. 26, 2002; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,595,156, issued to R. E. Curran on Jul. 22, 2003 (halter secure to front of dog's head).
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus, an animal wrap for touch training solving the aforementioned problems is desired.


Methods and apparatuses for managing file extensions in a processing system. An exemplary method of managing file extensions in a digital processing system involves a user interface and a plurality of files, each file having a name that comprises a filename and an extension. The method includes associating a file with an indicator which is user selectable for a single file in a plurality of files in said digital processing system and which indicates how to display an extension of the file, and assigning a value to the indicator, and displaying a displayed name of the file in the user interface in a style determined by the indicator.

Digital processing systems use heavily the type information of files (the type of files, or file types). For example, a user interface associates a type of files with an application program so that a standard user operation on one of the files starts the associated application program to operate on that file, such as a mouse click, or a double click on the icon of a file starts the associated program to open that file.
Many digital processing systems, such as machines running Windows OS (Windows machines) and the World Wide Web (the Web), rely heavily on the use of file extensions to store the type information of files. FIG. 1 shows a typical file name on a Windows machine or on the Web. A file name 12 has a filename 14 and an extension 16. For example, a file named "memo.doc" has a filename "memo" and an extension ".doc". Other known extensions associated with other types of files include: ".xls"; ".nfs"; ".pdf"; ".ppt" and many others.
Some digital processing systems rely on their file systems to store the type information. For example, Mac OS, which runs on Macintosh computers, has traditionally relied on the ability of its proprietary file system (HFS/HFS+/AFP) to store the type information. When a file on a Mac is transferred to a Windows machine or the Web, the HFS metadata of the file is lost. The type information of the file is lost, since the Mac OS does not use extensions to store the type information. In order for such a system to interoperate well with Windows machines and the Web, it is desirable that it can also manage extensions.
FIG. 2 shows an example of a method for displaying file extensions in the prior art. The user is given a choice with respect to all files to see no extension, all extensions, or unknown extensions. The user's choice is saved as a preference in the system and applies to all files. The extensions of the files are either shown or hidden in the user interface, according to the user's preference and whether the extension of the file to be displayed is known to the system or not. The name of the file saved in memory 402 (e.g. hard drives, floppy diskettes, or other non-volatile memories) contains a filename and an extension. If the user's preference is found to show all extensions in operation 404, operation 406 displays a displayed name of the file in the user interface. The displayed name contains both the filename and the extension. If the user's preference is to show no extension, operation 408 displays a displayed name of the file. The displayed name does not contain the extension. If the user's preference is to show unknown extensions, operation 410 checks whether the extension of the file is known to the system or not. If the extension of the file is of an unknown type, operation 406 makes the extension visible in the user interface for all such files having unknown extensions; otherwise, operation 408 makes the extension invisible in the user interface. Thus, the visibility of the extension of the files in the system is controlled by a single parameter that stores the user's preference.
FIG. 3 shows a method for processing the inputs for the name of a file in the prior art. An input 302 may involve a user typing in a name for a file or downloading a file from another system over a network or copying a file from a storage device (e.g. a Zip disk). When it is determined that an input 302 is given to a newly created file (e.g. a file downloaded from another system over a network or copied from a storage device) in operation 304, then operation 306 follows and the input is taken as a file name that contains a filename and an extension. When it is determined that the new name is given to replace the original name of the file in operation 304, operation 308, following the procedure in FIG. 2, checks if the extension of all the files with this extension are currently visible or not in the user interface according to a setting that reflects the user's preference. This setting is for all files, and is not individually selectable for each file. If the extension of the file is visible in the user interface, operation 306 replaces the filename and the extension of the file with those in the input 302. If the extension of the file is invisible in the user interface, operation 310 replaces the filename of the file with the input. In this case if the new input contains an extension, the filename of the file is renamed to have that extension, while the extension of file remains unchanged.
While these prior methods and systems give a user certain degrees of control over the visibility of the file extensions in the user interface, these systems and methods are prone to certain problems. For example, on a system that uses the method shown in FIG. 2, the user cannot selectively make the extensions of some of the files visible, while making the extensions of the other files with the same extensions invisible. If the user chooses to hide all extensions, a file named according to the date, "11.9.00", appears as "11.9" in the user interface. If a new file is given the name "image.jpeg", it is displayed as "image" in the user interface. It is not shown as what the user types. If a user changes the displayed name of the file to "image.jpeg" in the user interface, the name of the file is actually changed to "image.jpeg.jpeg", which has a second extension, according to the method in FIG. 3.
If the user chooses to show all extensions, extensions are shown everywhere, even if the user does not want them or understand what they mean. If the user renames a file "image.jpeg" to "image" in the user interface, the name of the file is changed to "image", which no longer has an extension, when the method in FIG. 3 is used. The type information stored in the extension of the file is lost. The user may not be able to open this file.
If the user chooses to show only unknown extensions, a file named "11.9.00" will be appropriately shown in the user interface as "11.9.00", since ".00" is not a known extension. However, ".mp3" is a known extension. The user cannot see the extension of the file "sound.mp3", even if the user is interested in seeing it. If the user renames the displayed name in the user interface to "sound.mp3", the file is actually named to "sound.mp3.mp3" according to the method in FIG. 3.
Thus, it is desirable to have a user-friendly method to manage the extensions of the files.

Method and apparatus for managing file extensions in a digital processing system


Hibiscus ‘Panama Bronze’ is an ornamental variety, crossed and cultivated in Georgia. The plants of the new Hibiscus variety display new growth with an intense bronze color in high light that matures to a green color with bronze edging, deeply cut foliage, stable foliage color, very large flowers, thrives in hot an humid conditions, and flowers heavily during short days (November to April) in zone 10. ‘Panama Bronze’ can be grown in the garden or in a container.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Hibiscus, botanically known as Hibiscus acetosella×Hibiscus radiatus, and herein referred to as 'Panama Bronze.'
The new Hibiscus is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Tifton, Ga. The objective of the Hibiscus breeding program is to create new plant cultivars with ornamental leaf distinctions and abundant flowers.
The new Hibiscus originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor during 2005, of the Hibiscus acetosella 'Panama Red' (co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/881,889) as the female and Hibiscus radiatus (not patented) as the male, or pollen parent. The cultivar 'Panama Bronze' was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in 2006.
Asexual reproduction of the new Hibiscus by vegetative terminal cutting in a controlled environment in Tifton, Ga. since 2006, has shown that the unique features of this new Hibiscus are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.

University of Georgia Research Foundation


The invention provides methods for isothermal amplification of RNA. The methods are particularly suitable for amplifying a plurality of RNA species in a sample. The methods employ a composite primer, a second primer and strand displacement to generate multiple copies of DNA products comprising sequences complementary to an RNA sequence of interest. In another aspect, the methods employ a single primer (which is a composite primer) and strand displacement to generate multiple copies of DNA products comprising sequences complementary to an RNA sequence of interest. In some embodiments, a transcription step is included to generate multiple copies of sense RNA of an RNA sequence of interest. The methods are useful for preparation of nucleic acid libraries and substrates for analysis of gene expression of cells in biological samples. The invention also provides compositions and kits for practicing the amplification methods, as well as methods which use the amplification products.

The ability to amplify ribonucleic acid (RNA) is an important aspect of efforts to elucidate biological processes. To date, RNA (generally, mRNA) amplification is most commonly performed using the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method and variations thereof. These methods are based on replication of RNA by reverse transcriptase to form single stranded DNA complementary to the RNA (cDNA), which is followed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification to produce multiple copies of double stranded DNA. Although these methods are most commonly used, they have some significant drawbacks: a) the reactions require thermocycling; b) the products are double stranded, thus rendering them less accessible to binding to probes; c) the reactions are prone to contamination with products of prior amplification, thus requiring strict containment of reaction mixtures; and d) the exponential nature of amplification of these methods renders them prone to generate pools of products which do not truly reflect the representation of the various RNA sequences in the input total RNA sample, due to unequal efficiency of amplification of different sequences, and the nature of exponential amplification which is based on replication of amplification products rather than on continued replication of the input target RNAs.
Total cellular mRNA represents gene expression activity at a defined time. Gene expression is affected by cell cycle progression, developmental regulation, response to internal and external stimuli and the like. The profile of expressed genes for any cell type in an organism reflects normal or disease states, response to various stimuli, developmental stages, cell differentiation, and the like.
Various methods for the analysis of gene expression have been developed in recent years. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,744,308; 6,143,495; 5,824,517; 5,829,547; 5,888,779; 5,545,522; 5,716,785; 5,409,818; EP 0971039A2; EP0878553A2. These include quantification of specific mRNAs, and the simultaneous quantification of a large number of mRNAs, as well as the detection and quantification of patterns of expression of known and unknown genes. The analysis of gene expression profiles is currently one of the most powerful tools in the study of cellular differentiation and cellular development, and in the investigation of normal and disease states of various organisms, in particular in human. This analysis is crucial for gene discovery, molecular medicine and drug discovery processes.
Amplification of the total cellular mRNAs prepared from any cell or tissue is generally critical for gene expression profiling. Although analysis of non-amplified mRNA is feasible, a significant amount of starting mRNA would be required. However, the total amount of sample mRNA that is available is frequently limited by the amount of biological sample from which it is derived. Biological samples are often limited in amount and precious. Moreover, the amount of the various mRNA species is not equal; some species are more abundant than others, and these are more likely and easier, to analyze. The ability to amplify mRNA sequences enables the analysis of less abundant, rare mRNA species. The ability to analyze small samples, by means of nucleic acid amplification, is also advantageous for design parameters of large scale screening of effector molecule libraries, for which reduction in sample volume is a major concern both for the ability to perform very large scale screening or ultra high throughput screening, and in view of the limiting amounts of library components.
Therefore, there is a need for improved RNA amplification methods that overcome drawbacks in existing methods. The invention provided herein fulfills this need and provides additional benefits.
All references cited herein, including patent applications and publications, are incorporated by reference in their entirety.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Compositions for amplification of RNA sequences using composite primers


A method of preparing biodegradable moldable products and films includes the steps of preparing biodegradable, hydrophobic, modified starch, and forming a thermoplastic product, comprising the modified starch, and optionally a miscible and biodegradable plasticizer, and/or a compatible filler.

Traditionally, plastics have been formulated to result in strong, light-weight, durable, and bioresistant polymeric materials. It is the durability and indestructibility that makes plastic the material of choice for many applications. However, these same properties are problems when the plastics enter the waste stream. The recent trend is to create biodegradable plastics, most of such plastics being first commercialized in the mid 1980's..sup.1
Among the first biodegradable plastics made were blends of non-biodegradable polyolefins with starch which were at best only partially biodegradable. These plastics are not compatible with waste management infrastructures such as composting. Moreover, at that time the appropriate infrastructures capable of dealing with biodegradables did not exist. Instead of composting, these products generally ended up in sanitary landfills.
Landfills, in general, are a poor choice as a repository of plastic and organic waste. The landfills are plastic-lined tombs designed to retard biodegradation by providing little or no moisture with negligible microbial activity. Organic waste, such as lawn and yard waste, paper, and food waste should not be entombed in such landfills to be preserved for posterity. Accordingly, there is a growing trend to divert these materials into composting facilities which allow them to be biodegraded to produce humus or compost. This compost can then be used as a valuable soil additive for new plant growth.
When plastics are designed to be biodegradable, utilizing renewable resources as the major raw material component, the plastics can become part of an ecologically sound mechanism.
Biodegradation of such natural materials produces valuable compost as the major product, in addition to water and carbon dioxide. Such carbon dioxide is fixed, or neutral carbon dioxide, and therefore does not contribute to an increase in the greenhouse gases.
Rowell, Schultz and Narayan published a book on the emerging technologies from materials and chemicals from biomass..sup.2 In the first chapter of that book, Narayan discusses the need for environmentally compatible polymers based on renewable resources. In that book is included a discussion of tailor-made cellulose-polystyrene graft polymers which were used as compatibilizers/interfacial agents to prepare cellulosic-polystyrene alloys and wood-plastic alloys (Ch. 5, pp 57-75)..sup.2 The graft copolymers function as emulsifying agents and provide for a stabilized, fine dispersion of the polystyrene phase in the continuous phase of the cellulosic matrix.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,891,404 to Narayan et al..sup.3 discusses a specific nucleophilic displacement reaction used to prepare such graft polymers which are disclosed to be biodegradable thermoplastic copolymers exhibiting a high capacity for stabilized biodegradable blends of polysaccharides and synthetic thermoplastic polymers. The patent discusses the problems relating to the making of cellulose/starch natural biopolymers and the problem of controlling the molecular weights and degree of substitution of such polymers. Earlier papers by Narayan and Stacy et al..sup.4,5 further discuss biodegradable natural/synthetic graft copolymers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,095,054 to Lay et al.,.sup.6 issued Mar. 10, 1992, discloses the use of water as a plasticizer for starch (referred to as starch "destructurization") in order to make the material processable in for example an extruder. Products derived therefrom, tend to have the problem of rapidly losing water to the environment by evaporation. As a result this type of material tends to become brittle with age. These materials are also highly water sensitive which is undesirable for the majority of applications of thermoplastic products.
To address this issue of water sensitivity, the patent includes various blends of destructurized starch with a variety of synthetic petroleum-based plastics. These lends, along with the earlier starch-filled polyolefins, are at best only biodisintegratable and not fully biodegradable..sup.12,31-33 Similar starch-polyolefin compositions have been reported by the Fertec group..sup.7
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,655 to Lacourse et al.,.sup.8 issued Sep. 5, 1989, discloses water-soluble high amylose starch based compositions containing poly(vinyl alcohol). This biodegradable modified starch product intended for loose fill, or "peanut-shell"-type foam packaging applications, for example, contains a hydroxy propylated starch having a very low degree of substitution. This type of modified starch is highly hydrophilic and water soluble; the starch contains about 5% by weight propylene oxide corresponding to a theoretical degree of substitution of 0.19. This is a very low degree of substitution compared with the maximum degree of substitution for starch which is 3.0 according to the three available hydroxyl groups on the anhydroglucose repeat unit. The poly(vinyl alcohol) typically used as a blend component further adds to the water-sensitive nature of these materials. In the case of peanut-shell packaging, the water solubility of such starch-based foams is in fact a positive as this allows the material to be disposed of in an environmentally friendly fashion by simply washing them with water down the drain; the material subsequently biodegrades in the sewer system. For other applications, however, which utilize moldable compositions for various packaging applications, fast food cutlery, plates, cups, etc., the need for moisture resistance is of ultimate importance.
The prior art on biodegradable materials is restricted to starch-based materials in which the starch component is hydrophilic (water sensitive). No prior art exists on making hydrophobic, thermoplastic modified starches as fully biodegradable products which are readily processable on conventional plastics processing equipment such as extruders, injection molders, etc. There are a number of patents and publications in the literature relating to modification of starch by esterification and etherification reactions. Most commercial modified starch products have low degree of substitution (DS) levels, are generally made by reactions in water with excess anhydride, and are designed to alter their solution properties for food applications or adhesion to paper. Acetylated starches, for example, have been known for more than 100 years. Starch acetates ranging from about 0.3 to about 1 DS are typified by water solubility..sup.9 Starch esters which are commercially available for consumption, used for example in salad dressings, have a degree of substitution which typically is lower than 0.1 DS. For example, starch succinate derivatives are cleared for food use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) up to a 4% treatment level, which is equivalent to 0.07 DS..sup.10
Highly acetylated starches, historically, were of some interest because of their organic solvent solubility and their thermoplasticity for film and fiber applications analogous to thermoplastic cellulose esters. In spite of this early development, high DS starch esters have not been developed commercially because they could not compete with similar cellulose derivatives in terms of strength and cost..sup.9 Of primary focus were starch triesters, which fell short in strength and impact properties..sup.11,12 Such high-DS starch esters are characterized by their crystalline properties exhibiting clear melt transitions..sup.13 These high-DS starch esters are not biodegradable. Rivard et al. showed that under anaerobic conditions starch esters above substitution levels of DS=1.7 were not biodegradable..sup.14 We have obtained similar results in our laboratory under composting conditions.
In the present invention, we have designed starch esters with the appropriate degree of substitution, prepared by a unique homogeneous base-catalyzed system under anhydrous conditions, that allows us to obtain starch ester compositions having good mechanical properties while maintaining complete biodegradability. This requires starch ester compositions described in the present invention, to have an intermediate degree of substitution, preferably ranging from 0.4 to 2.5 DS, more preferably from 1.0 to 2.0, and most preferably from 1.2 to 1.7 DS. The latter range of compositions have the most preferred balance in mechanical properties, water resistance, processability and the rate of biodegradation. The starch esters prepared by the present invention are predominately amorphous polymers; little or no residual native starch crystallinity remains due to the homogeneous modification process employed. Without being restrictive, the absence of a new crystalline structure for the starch esters produced by this process relates to the range of intermediate degrees of substitution to give non-crystalline copolymers. High DS starch triesters approach the structure of a homopolymer having the needed macromolecular chain regularity required for crystallization. By designing starch esters of intermediate degree of substitution, prepared in a homogenous modification process, the placement of ester groups on the anhydroglucose repeat units is expected to follow a statistically random distribution pattern. This results in irregular macromolecular chains, giving rise to novel amorphous thermoplastics with unique properties.
In addition, most high DS starch ester preparations in the prior art,.sup.15-22 involve aqueous heterogeneous systems with excess anhydride, resulting in broad DS distribution profiles and therefore poor mechanical properties and poor moisture resistance. The economics of such processes are unfavorable due to hydrolysis of the anhydride, whereas high yields are obtained in the present invention which employs anhydrous conditions. The use of organic solvents such as organic acids,.sup.23 or dimethyl sulfoxide with sulfuric acid catalyst,.sup.24 is also reported in the prior art, although molecular weight breakdown of the starch and starch ester products is inevitable under those conditions..sup.25,26
The present invention achieves good processability and mechanical properties by controlling the degree of substitution and molecular weight of the product. When anhydride is used as the esterification reagent, molecular weight breakdown of starch and starch esters is minimized by addition of a neutralizing agent to the reaction mixture. The control of molecular weight is achieved by neutralization of the acid by-product throughout the reaction in an excess of the neutralizing agent. This is in contrast with prior art high DS starch esters which either yielded degraded products.sup.25,26 having significantly reduced molecular weights and consequently reduced mechanical properties, or utilized processes which are commercially unattractive due to high solvent recovery costs as well as issues regarding toxicity and safety as in the case of pyridine..sup.16,25-29 In another method, claimed to be commercially more attractive than the pyridine-based process described the art prior to 1972, a 212% molar excess of acetic anhydride was used to acetylate starches to high substitution levels..sup.15,30 In contrast, in the present invention high yields (up to 96%) are obtained using equimolar levels of anhydride relative to starch hydroxyl moieties. Without being restrictive, this improvement is attributed to the highly effective acylation catalyst and anhydrous conditions. Prior art.sup.15-30 reveals significant hydrolysis of the anhydride reagent to occur due to the relatively high water levels present during the reaction. Furthermore, the absence of incomplete starch granule destruction, as clearly evidenced in the literature,.sup.30 indicates that these types of processes result in heterogeneous starch substitution. The homogeneous base-catalyzed process employed in the present invention, affords starch esters having a more uniform and narrow substitution profile than prior art.
This control of substitution and molecular weight results in starch ester compositions having good moisture resistance and excellent mechanical properties, not obtained with the previous inventions.
A key aspect of this invention is that these compositions are fully biodegradable (complete mineralization), as opposed to blends of biodegradable starch compositions with conventional petroleum-based plastics described earlier..sup.12,31-33 As discussed, such blend compositions are at best biodisintegratable and not fully biodegradable. In composting, the non-biodegradable components will be persistent resulting in an irreversible build-up of these components in the environment causing reduced productivity and fertility of the soil..sup.34 Even if such "biodegradable" blend compositions, described in the prior art, are partially biodegradable, the resulting compost will have very little value. In fact, these recalcitrant components will be present in the final compost at significantly higher concentration levels than in the original waste mixture..sup.34

Method of preparing biodegradable modified-starch moldable products and films


A method for providing a dielectric film having enhanced adhesion and stability. The method includes a post deposition treatment that densifies the film in a reducing atmosphere to enhance stability if the film is to be cured ex-situ. The densification generally takes place in a reducing environment while heating the substrate. The densification treatment is particularly suitable for silicon-oxygen-carbon low dielectric constant films that have been deposited at low temperature.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the formation of dielectric layers during fabrication of integrated circuits on semiconductor wafers. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for providing a dielectric film having a low dielectric constant that is particularly useful as a premetal or intermetal dielectric layer.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of the primary steps in the fabrication of modern semiconductor devices is the formation of a thin film on a semiconductor substrate by chemical reaction of gases. Such a deposition process is referred to as chemical vapor deposition or xe2x80x9cCVD.xe2x80x9d Conventional thermal CVD processes supply reactive gases to the substrate surface where heat-induced chemical reactions take place to produce a desired film. Plasma enhanced CVD techniques, on the other hand, promote excitation and/or dissociation of the reactant gases by the application of radio frequency (RF) or microwave energy. The high reactivity of the released species reduces the energy required for a chemical reaction to take place, and thus lowers the required temperature for such PECVD processes.
Semiconductor device geometries have dramatically decreased in size since such devices were first introduced several decades ago. Today""s fabrication plants are routinely producing devices having 0.25 xcexcm and even 0.18 xcexcm feature sizes, and tomorrow""s plants soon will be producing devices having even smaller geometries. In order to further reduce the size of devices on integrated circuits, it has become necessary to use conductive materials having low resistivity and insulators having a low dielectric constant. Low dielectric constant films are particularly desirable for premetal dielectric (PMD) layers and intermetal dielectric (IMD) layers to reduce the RC time delay of the interconnect metalization, to prevent cross-talk between the different levels of metalization, and to reduce device power consumption. Undoped silicon oxide films deposited using conventional CVD techniques may have a dielectric constant (k) as low as about 4.0 or 4.2. One approach to obtaining a lower dielectric constant is to incorporate fluorine in the silicon oxide film. Fluorine-doped silicon oxide films (also referred to as fluorine silicate glass orxe2x80x94xe2x80x9cFSGxe2x80x9d films) may have a dielectric constant as low as about 3.4 or 3.6. Despite this improvement, films having even lower dielectric constants are highly desirable for the manufacture of integrated circuits using geometries of0.18 xcexcm and smaller. Numerous films have been developed in attempts to meet these needs including: a spin-on glass called HSQ (hydrogen silsesqui-oxane, HSiO1.5) and various carbon-based dielectric layers, such as parylene and amorphous fluorinated carbon. Other low-k films have been deposited by CVD using an organosilane precursor and oxygen to form a silicon-oxygen-carbon (Sixe2x80x94Oxe2x80x94C) layer.
While the above types of dielectric films are useful for some applications, manufacturers are always seeking new and improved methods of depositing low-k materials for use as IMD and other types of dielectric layers. For example, after deposition at low temperature, a silicon carbon or Sixe2x80x94Oxe2x80x94C film is often quite porous. Consequently, the film tends to absorb moisture. The absorbed moisture generally degrades the properties of the film. In the case of a low-k film, moisture tends to increase the dielectric constant of the film and is detrimental to film adhesion. The porosity is normally reduced during the previously described thermal cure. However, if the cure is performed ex-situ, the film is exposed for a time to moisture from the ambient atmosphere.
The method of the present invention provides a new and improved post-deposition treatment process. The method of the present invention deposits and densities and cures an insulating layer. The post-deposition densification treatment further enhances adhesion by reducing shrinkage of the deposited film. The post-deposition densification takes place in a reducing environment. In one embodiment, the deposited film is treated in a reducing environment of ammonia for approximately 1 to 5 minutes at a temperature of approximately 400xc2x0 C. Curing can be done in either a vacuum or conventional furnace environment. The densification is particularly useful for enhancing the stability of a film that is to be cured ex-situ, i.e. after removing the substrate from vacuum.
The densification is beneficial for films deposited by a low-temperature CVD process. In one embodiment, the insulating layer is deposited from a process gas of ozone and an organosilane precursor having at least one silicon-carbon (Sixe2x80x94C) bond. During the deposition process, the substrate is heated to a temperature less than about 250 C. In some embodiments, the organosilane precursor has a formula of Si(CH3)xH4-x where x is either 3 or 4 making the organosilane precursor either trimethylsilane (TMS) or tetramethylsilane (T4MS). In other embodiments, the substrate over which the carbon-doped oxide layer is deposited is heated to a temperature of between about 100-200xc2x0 C. and the deposition is carried out in a vacuum chamber at a pressure of between 1-760 Torr.
The method is particularly useful in the manufacture of sub-0.2 micron circuits as it can form a PMD or IMD film with a dielectric constant below 3.0. The film has good gap fill capabilities, high film stability and etches uniformly and controllably when subject to a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) step. The method is particularly useful when, for throughput reasons, the substrate containing the deposited film is removed from vacuum for curing in a furnace.
These and other embodiments of the present invention, as well as its advantages and features, are described in more detail in conjunction with the text below and attached figures.

Post-deposition treatment to enhance properties of Si-O-C low K films


Heating control information recognizing unit recognizes heating control information of an object to be heated from an image of the inside of heating chamber captured by imaging unit, and heating controller controls heating unit based on the heating control information. When it is difficult for heating control information recognizing unit to perform recognition, disposing position guide unit guides the object to be heated to a capturing range of imaging unit. It is thus possible to recognize the heating control information with a simple configuration including a single camera functioning as imaging unit.

A microwave oven, which is a typical heating cooker, is convenient in that it can heat food placed in a container without using a pot or a frying pan. Clerks at stores selling box lunches and side dishes or other food in containers may offer a service of heating purchased food in a microwave oven to provide heated food.
Such a heating service will be described below. The containers of box lunches and side dishes usually have an indication of an optimum heating time for heating such food in a microwave oven. A store clerk checks the indication and sets the heating time in a microwave oven before heating the food. The microwave oven has an operation unit including numeric keys, for example, allowing manual setting of the heating time (minute (min.), second (sec.)).
In some cases, the microwave oven has a plurality of operation buttons, to which different heating times are allocated. In those cases, the store clerk selects a button corresponding to the food to be heated, thereby heating the food or the like under heating control suitable for that food, to provide heated food to a customer.
As in the former configuration, when a user sets a heating time (min., sec.) using numeric keys, the user may find the setting cumbersome because of a number of operations required. In the latter configuration, that is, when different heating times are allocated to respective operation buttons, the user may not be able to remember the correspondences between the buttons and the heating times as food types increase.
In order to eliminate such cumbersome operations and mistakes, there has been proposed a method in which a microwave oven stores in advance the heating control content for each product, a store clerk reads barcode information (code information) attached to a product using a barcode reader, and the microwave oven reads the heating control content corresponding to the product from the code information for the purpose of properly heating the product.
In addition to the method of using a barcode reader, there has been also proposed a method in which a microwave oven includes a camera that captures an image of the inside of a heating chamber of the microwave oven, a bar code portion is extracted from an image of a product put into the heating chamber, the bar code is read, the heating control content corresponding to the product is read from code information, and proper heating is performed (see PTL 1, for example).
If heating control information is directly attached to the product as the code information instead of reading the heating control information corresponding to the product from the code information, it is not necessary for the microwave oven to store in advance the heating control information for each product.
These methods reduce clerks' operational load to enable an error-free heating service.

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


The invention comprises a medicinal aerosol composition comprising a propellant, an excipient comprising a functionalized polyethyleneglycol, and a drug. The invention also comprises particulate medicinal compositions comprising particles with a mean mass aerodynamic diameter of less than about 10 microns that incorporate an excipient comprising a functionalized polyethyleneglycol.

The delivery of a therapeutically active compound (i.e., a drug) to a living organism is generally affected by a number of parameters beyond the actual chemical identity and pharmacological activity of the drug.
Medicinal aerosols can be an effective way to introduce a drug into the pulmonary system via oral or nasal inhalation, but there are a number of important parameters governing medicinal aerosol compositions that affect their performance. The relative importance of these parameters can vary depending on the type of dosage form used (e.g., metered dose inhaler or MDI, dry powder inhaler, nebulizer) and the type of drug being delivered, but will usually include such things as the concentration of drug in the dosage form, the particle size of the aerosol that is delivered to an organism, the physicochemical stability of the composition, and the ability of particles delivered to the pulmonary system to be absorbed by the body.
In order to achieve certain desirable properties or an acceptable balance of properties it is sometimes desirable to incorporate various excipients into a medicinal aerosol composition. As used in this application, an "excipient" refers broadly to any formulation additive other than the primary active drug moiety used to improve some aspect of the formulation. Many different excipients have been suggested for use in medicinal aerosols, for such things as solubilizing drug, physically stabilizing or dispersions of drug particles, increasing the emitted particle size, and so on. But many proposed excipients, while perhaps providing one or more benefits, suffer from drawbacks that make them otherwise undesirable for use, such as toxicological problems, manufacturing difficulties, limited solubility or detrimental interactions with other product components. Hence, there is an ongoing need for new and effective excipients that are useful in medicinal aerosols, particular pressurized medicinal aerosols using hydrofluorocarbon propellants, such as HFC-134a and HFC-227. Although tremendous research investment has been made over the last decade, formulating CFC-free pressurized metered dose inhalers that are suitable in terms of the stringent functional and therapeutic requirements today continues to be of major importance.

Medicinal aerosol compositions with a functionalized polyethyleneglycol excipient


A system that collects parametric information that reflects local weather conditions receives signals from sensors. The signals are transmitted to a server that combines the information contained within the signals with weather data to determine local weather conditions and develop forecasts. The local weather conditions and forecasts may be transmitted to a vehicle and may be combined with navigation information to optimize travel routes.

1. Technical Field
This application relates to a system that reports weather conditions, in particular, a system that reports weather conditions to an operator of a vehicle.
2. Related Art
Weather information and forecasts for wide regional areas are broadcasted for pubic use. The weather information may be transmitted on traffic message channels (TMC). Some vehicles may have TMCs. The weather information may be stored in a TMC receiver, and made available to the operator of the vehicle at the operator's convenience. The system may display or audibly transmit the weather information.
Because broadcasted weather information is regional, the weather may vary considerably throughout the region. Further, the weather conditions and forecasts may not be updated on a consistent basis. Therefore, a driver using this information may change plans or routes unnecessarily. Thus, there is a need to provide local weather forecasts.

System for determining weather information and providing ambient parameter data


A quick coupler circuit includes a cylinder to attach and/or detach an attachment to and/or from a construction machine by expansion and/or contraction, a flow pump to supply fluid to the cylinder, a valve through which fluid for operating the cylinder passes, a spool valve which includes a spool, to move along an axial direction, and to form a pressure at a node of the flow pump according to movement of the spool, an electronic proportional pressure reducing valve to control the spool valve, a switch to perform an ON/OFF operation, and a controller to output a control current to the electronic proportional pressure reducing valve in response to the operation of the switch. The controller is maintains control current which it outputs during the switch's ON operation for a predetermined period of time after the switch's OFF operation.

Generally, an excavator is a construction machine that mainly performs operations such as excavating, loading, shredding, ground clearing, etc. and is composed of a boom, an arm, and a bucket which are operated by hydraulic oil being supplied from a hydraulic pump to a hydraulic cylinder by the user manipulating an operation lever.
In FIG. 1, the construction machine 1 includes a lower traveling body 2, an upper revolving body 3 pivotally installed on the lower traveling body 2, and a working machine 4 installed on the upper revolving body 3 to be operatable in a vertical direction.
Further, the working machine 4 includes a boom 5 formed in a multi-joint shape and whose rear end is rotatably supported on the upper revolving body 3, an arm 6 whose rear end is rotatably supported on a front end of the boom 5, and a bucket (an attachment) 7 rotatably installed at a front end side of the arm 6. Hydraulic oil is supplied by the user manipulating a lever, and the boom 5, the arm 6, and the bucket 7 are operated by a boom cylinder (a working actuator) 8, an arm cylinder (a working actuator) 9, and a bucket cylinder (a working actuator) 10, respectively.
Meanwhile, a construction machine 1 in which an arm 6 has various types of attachments 7 such as a bucket, a breaker, a crusher, and the like which are detachably installed at a front end thereof is known. In such a construction machine 1, since the attachments 7 are configured to be exchangeable, one construction machine 1 may be used in a versatile and multifunctional manner. Further, a construction machine 1 which includes a quick coupler circuit and in which attachments 7 are easily and rapidly attached and detached by an operator manipulating a switch is known.
However, a method of a user moving a working device to increase a pressure, that is, a manual pressurizing method, is applied as the conventional quick coupler operating method applied to small or medium construction machine equipment.
In such a quick coupler operating method in which the pressure is manually applied, a low engine speed may become a problem and a pressure which is high enough to release the quick coupler cylinder sufficiently may not be made by the manual operation for pressurization. In addition, there is inconvenience in that two or more switches should always be provided in order to control a construction machine using the manual pressurizing method.
In the existing Japanese Patent No. 5,462,724, only a quick coupler circuit of a construction machine capable of simply controlling a time or timing of boosting, stabilizing an operation of a working machine during boosting of a hydraulic pump and improving fuel efficiency, is disclosed. Therefore, even with the technique in the above-described patent, there still remains a convenience problem of the user of the construction machine, which is caused by the application of the manual pressurizing method described above.

Quick coupler circuit of construction machine with automatic pressurization system


A bumper beam for mounting to a frame assembly of a motor vehicle at one end of the motor vehicle includes opposing end portions adapted to be mounted to the frame assembly of the motor vehicle and a centrally disposed intermediate portion extending between the end portions. The end portions and the intermediate portion define an upper wall, a lower wall, and a central wall between the upper and lower walls. The upper and lower walls each have an elongated arcuate flange that extends from a free end of a respective upper and lower wall along a length of the bumper beam. The arcuate flange of each of the upper and lower walls defines an outwardly facing concave surface and an inwardly facing convex surface.

Automotive designers are continually trying to balance the need for lightweight, fuel efficient automobiles with safety standards and regulations imposed by the government and insurance companies. One such automotive component subject to heavy regulation is bumper assemblies with regard to crash safety standards. The bumper assembly is traditionally comprised of a bumper beam made of a metallic material with the requisite strength to conform to governmental standards for low and high speed crashes. Often, the strong metallic beam is heavy and adds significant weight to the vehicle thereby reducing fuel efficiency. There is a need in the automotive industry to develop a bumper assembly having a bumper beam with an increased strength to weight ratio by lowering the overall weight of the bumper assembly. The improved bumper assembly must still be strong enough to provide excellent performance in high speed and low speed crashes.
Automotive manufacturers desire components that are affordable and easy to produce in a mass production operation. Traditional bumper assemblies are roll-formed whereby a flat steel strip passes through a series of rollers to shape the steel into a desired form, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,360,441. Complex bumper beam designs, while providing the necessary strength to conform to safety standards, add to the time and cost of the manufacturing process. There is a need in the automotive industry to produce a bumper beam that provides strength adequate to conform to safety standards, lightweight to improve fuel efficiency and simple to manufacture.


A system for an internal combustion engine, the engine having an intake and exhaust manifold, the system comprising a heat exchanger configured to extract energy from at least a heat source that heats a first portion of intake air, a spark plug coupled to the engine, an intake passage configured to deliver said first portion of heated intake air to the engine and to deliver a second portion of intake air which bypasses said heat source, and a controller configured to direct said second portion of intake air to the engine at least when utilizing said spark plug to initiate combustion and flame propagation of an air-fuel mixture, and to at least temporarily cause said first portion of intake air to flow during said spark ignition combustion so that a temperature of said first portion of intake air is maintained above a selected value.

An internal combustion engine may utilize various types of combustion. For example, spark ignition (SI) of a homogenous mixture during the expansion stroke is one example. This method relies on a timed spark from a sparking plug in order to achieve ignition of an air/fuel mixture within the combustion chamber. Another type of combustion is homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI), which occurs when the temperature of the air/fuel mixture within combustion chamber attains the autoignition temperature of the specific fuel. HCCI can be used to provide greater fuel efficiency and reduced NOx production under some conditions.
In one example approach utilizing HCCI combustion, heat exchangers may be used to extract energy from the exhaust or engine coolant to heat a portion of the intake air and thereby provide heated air for attaining autoignition as utilized during the HCCI mode. In addition, unheated air may also be provided. Such a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,675,579, for example.
In the above system, when the engine operates in SI mode, unheated air may be used to reduce engine knock while achieving desired engine performance. However, the inventors herein have recognized that the heated air in the hot-air passage may become stagnant and therefore gradually cool during such operation. As a result, the stagnant air in the hot-air passage may be of insufficient temperature or contain insufficient energy to achieve autoignition of the air/fuel mixture when needed. Under such conditions, when transitioning from SI mode to HCCI mode, combustion in the HCCI mode may be degraded until the "cooled" hot air is purged from the system and heated air reaches the engine. Alternatively, the HCCI mode may be delayed until such air may be purged, thus delaying the desired transition.
As such, in one embodiment, a system for an internal combustion engine, the engine having an intake and exhaust manifold, the system comprising of a heat exchanger configured to extract energy from at least a heat source that heats a first portion of intake air, a spark plug coupled to the engine, an intake passage configured to deliver said first portion of heated intake air to the engine and to deliver a second portion of intake air which bypasses said heat source, and a controller configured to direct said second portion of intake air to the engine at least when utilizing said spark plug to initiate combustion and flame propagation of an air-fuel mixture, and to at least temporarily cause said first portion of intake air to flow during said spark ignition combustion so that a temperature of said first portion of intake air is maintained above a selected value.
In this way, it is possible to maintain a ready reserve of heated air in the hot-air passage thus providing the energy necessary for attaining autoignition of the air/fuel mixture when performing a substantially rapid transition from SI mode to HCCI mode.

System and method for maintaining heated intake air


An LED light source with an attached heat sink includes larger fins, smaller fins, a mounting platform and light emitting diodes attached to the mounting platform. The larger fins are oriented parallel to the smaller fins. The larger fins are integrally formed with a first base, and the smaller fins are integrally formed with a second base. The bottom surface of the second base contacts the larger fins, which are more than twice as tall as the smaller fins. There are more than twice as many smaller fins than larger fins per distance perpendicular to the fins. Ducts are formed between the larger fins and the bottom surface of the second base. Intake holes pass through the first base into each duct near the end of the duct that is blocked by an end wall. The mounting platform with the LEDs is attached to the bottom of the first base.

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) provide an energy-efficient light source and are increasingly being used instead of fluorescent and halogen gas lamps for high capacity lighting needs, such as street lamps. In order to increase the amount of light generated, LEDs are often incorporated into street lamps, which can lead to significant problems of overheating. The performance and lifetime of the LEDs is degraded if the operating temperature exceeds a threshold level. The useful life of an LED street lamp is sometimes specified as the number of hours of operation before which the luminous output of the lamp drops to half of its initial output. Empirical data suggests that there is an inverse exponential relationship between the useful life of an LED lamp and the amount by which the average operating temperature exceeds a threshold level. For example, some phosphors in LEDs have been found to degrade if the temperature of the phosphor exceeds 165 degrees Celsius over an extended period. Thus, dissipating the heat generated by the LEDs in the street lamp is a problem that must be solved.
The LEDs of a street lamp are enclosed by the shell of the street lamp. The shell typically has a metal upper cover and a transparent lower cover. The shell typically has openings at the top that allow the heat generated by the LEDs to escape. However, the openings at the top allow dust, moisture and insects to enter the shell, which can accumulate in the transparent lower cover and block much of the light that is generated by the LEDs.
FIG. 1 (prior art) shows an existing LED street light 10 that does not permit dust, moisture and insects to obstruct the transparent lower cover 11 through which the generated light shines onto the street. Transparent lower cover 11 is kept free of dust, moisture and insects by completely sealing off the lower compartment of the shell of the street lamp. Consequently, most of the heat generated by the LEDs must be dissipated through the upper compartment. The heat is transmitted from the LEDs to a heat conducting plate 12. The heat then passes on to heat-dissipating fins 13 via a heat guiding piece 14. Heat is dissipated out of the upper compartment by fans 15 that blow heated air out of venting slots 16 in the upper cover 17. For additional details on this prior art method of dissipating heat from a street lamp, see U.S. Pat. No. 7,278,761 to Kuan entitled "Heat Dissipating Pole Illumination Device."
This prior art method of dissipating heat from an LED street light has multiple disadvantages. First, although dust, moisture and insects are prevented from entering the lower compartment of the street lamp shell, they will nevertheless enter the upper compartment through the venting slots 16 in the upper cover 17. The dust, moisture and insects that fall through the venting slots 16 will collect in the upper compartment and clog the fans 15 and the spaces between the fins 13, thereby reducing the ability of street lamp to dissipate heat. Second, the fans 15 have moving parts and will likely malfunction, especially if they are subjected to the dust, moisture and insects that enter through the venting slots 16. Moreover, the fans 15 also require a power supply, which might not be able to be shared with the LEDs. Finally, the fans 15 add to the cost of the street lamp.
A method is sought for dissipating heat from an LED street lamp that does not allow dust, moisture and insects to enter through venting slots in the upper cover of the street lamp and that does not require fans.

Low profile heat sink with attached LED light source


Instance documents related to policy enforcement are gathered according to a business requirement. The instance documents are instantiated from corresponding schema documents. An instantiated context model, including references to the gathered instance documents, is generated from a context model definition. A policy set to be enforced using the instantiated context model is generated according to the gathered instance documents. An enforcement sequence of policies in the policy set is determined. The policies are applied to the instantiated context model according to the enforcement sequence.

The present invention relates to Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) of a computer network system, particularly to a method for enforcing context model based SOA policies and a policy engine.
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a software system architecture which is realized by connecting independent functional entities capable of completing specific tasks to meet requirements of business integration in an Internet environment. The SOA is a component model which links different function units (called services) of an application through interfaces and contracts properly defined among these services, wherein the definition of the interfaces is independent of the hardware platform, operating system and programming language for realizing services. The SOA uses the service-oriented modeling technique and WEB service technique to accomplish loose coupling between systems and thus realize integration and cooperation between the systems.
The SOA policy is an important component of the SOA system and is used for declarative description and execution of the SOA system behavior. In the SOA system, the usage of the SOA policy spans different phases across the SOA lifecycle, including design time validation, deployment time policy publication and package and runtime service selection, change management and impact analysis.
Generally, the SOA policy may be classified into the following types in different layers:                Business policy for business decision making and industry guideline compliance, etc.        Application policy for service selection during service invocation, etc.        Governance policy for enforcing rules for standards compliance, and defining system behaviors for a governance process, etc.
A main feature of SOA is that all the data and contexts are described in XML language, and a document containing such data and the contexts is called an SOA metadata document. Generally, the SOA metadata document may include: a service metadata document for describing contents relating to a service, a runtime information document for describing contents relating to the runtime information, and a document for describing other business contents. For example, the service metadata document may use Web Service Description Language (WSDL), XML Schema Definition (XSD), Web Service Policy (WS-Policy), Service Component Definition Language (SCDL), Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), Service Component Architecture (SCA) policy, etc. The runtime information document may use Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Representational State Transfer (REST), etc. The document for describing other business contents may use Service Data Object (SDO), Web Ontology Language (OWL), etc.
Next some policy engines in the prior art will be briefly described.
I. Business Policy Engine
In the prior art, there are many business policy engines, such as ILOG JRule Engine, Drools, Mandarax, JLisa, JEOPS, OpenRules, etc.
The ILOG JRule Engine is a flexible, high performance execution platform suitable for standalone use with a J2SE or J2EE application. This Engine supports strong policy/rules language customization, for example, Business Action Language (BAL, which uses natural language syntax to define the policies/rules), ILOG Rule Language (IRL, which uses Java- or XML-like syntax to define the policies/rules), Business Rule Language Definition Framework, Java Language Integration which uses Java expression directly in IRL, etc.
Drools is an open source object-oriented policy/rule engine for Java. Drools provides for declarative logic programming and is flexible enough to match the semantics of the user's problem domain. Drools is an implementation of JSR94 specification. The related detailed description may be found in http://java-source.net/open-source/rule-engines/drools.
Mandarax is an open source Java class library for deducting policies/rules. It provides an infrastructure for defining, managing and querying policy/rule bases. The related detailed description may be found in http://java-source.net/open-source/rule-engines/mandarax.
JLisa is an open source framework for building business policies/rules accessible to Java and it is compatible with JSR94 specification. The related detailed description may be found in http://java-source.net/open-source/rule-engine s/jlisa.
The Java Embedded Object Production System (JEOPS) is an open source Java based Forwarding Chaining policy/rule engine. This engine is used to power up the business process by the policies/rules in Java Application Servers, client applications, and Servlets. The related detailed description may be found in http://java-source.net/open-source/rule-engines/jeops-the-java-embedded-object-production-system.
OpenRules is a full-scale open source business policy/rule management framework. It efficiently uses MS Excel, Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and open source Java libraries to create, deploy, execute and maintain different policy/rule engines with complex business logic. The related detailed description may be found in http://java-source.net/open-source/rule-engines/openrules.
Some policy/rule engines may support Forwarding Chaining for reasoning a set of policies/rules applied to specific policy subjects. The so-called Forwarding Chaining is a forwarding chaining for the set of rules in a rule system. Particularly, if the execution of rule 1 changes a state of a target system on which the current set of rules operates and causes rule 2 to be matched and executed, the reasoning from rule 1→ rule 2 is called forwarding. Thus, if there exists a chaining of rule 1→ rule 2 . . . → rule n, the reasoning of the rule engine on the whole chain is called forwarding chaining. The forwarding chaining is a mechanism which allows the policies/rules applied to the same knowledge space to be inter-triggered, that is, the execution of one policy/rule is triggered by the execution of another policy/rule.
In the forwarding chaining mechanism, the policies/rules are parsed as a memory model, and variables referenced in the condition part and action part of the policy/rule are represented as memory variables. During the execution of forwarding chaining, the deduction is done by updating the memory variables and interchanging states across the different policies/rules. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the existing forwarding chaining mechanism. As shown in FIG. 1, "WM" represents working memory which could be regarded as a storage unit of variables of the policies/rules. The variable may be changed by another rule's execution. In the forwarding chaining mechanism, the most time consuming step is matching the WM with the condition part of the policy/rule. This step is to discover the effective WMs which have been changed by a rule's execution and which will trigger another rule.
There are lots of forwarding chaining algorithms in the prior art and the most famous is RETE algorithm. The main features of this algorithm are: (1) state-saving, i.e. after each change to the WM, the state (result) of the matching process is saved in α and β memories (after next change of the WM, many of the results are usually unchanged, so the RETE algorithm avoids a lot of re-computation by keeping these results between successive WM changes); (2) sharing of nodes between productions with similar conditions, i.e. at the output of the network, when two or more productions have a common condition, the RETE algorithm uses a single α memory for the condition, rather than creating a duplicate memory for each production, and in the β part of the network, when two or more productions have the same conditions, the same node are used to match these conditions, thereby avoiding duplication of the matching.
However, the existing business policy/rule engines have the following limitations:
1. The existing business policy/rule engines focus on enforcement of business policy/rule, and take no care of other types of SOA policy.
2. The existing business policy/rule engines lack dedicated solutions for the SOA feature, i.e. using XML format. For example, RETE algorithm assumes that both the policies/rules and the context to be validated will be parsed as the memory model to interchange states across different policy/rule's execution. However, in XML, Document Object Model (DOM) consumes a lot of memories and it is difficult to locate specified elements in a large XML document. Thus, the policies/rules and the applied model in XML format are not adapted to be loaded as the memory model periodically. In addition, the traditional way to validate the XML content does not require a memory model, and thus RETE algorithm will lose its position.
3. The existing business policy/rule engines always define their own policy/rule formats. So the policies/rules defined for one engine are difficult to be widely adopted and reused.
4. The existing business policy/rule engines cannot deal with the feature of using the XML language in the SOA system. So a complex mechanism needs to transform information and be integrated in the SOA system. For example, ILOG policy/rule engine is encapsulated as policy/rule services for usage in a FileNet workflow system.
5. In the existing business policy/rule engines, policy/rule expressions have fixed terminologies, such as Java specific expression, reserved XML structure or terms (RuleML, SWRL, etc.). It will lead to rigid engine implementation or reasoning infrastructure. In addition, application domain and contexts to which the policies/rules are applied are also fixed.
II. Application Policy Engine
In the prior art, there are some application policy engines which may be used in the SOA system. Typically, these application policy engines are based on ontology, such as IBM WebSphere Business Service Fabric (WBSF), Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL) engine, SweetRules engine, TRIPLE engine, SEW engine, etc.
WBSF is a dynamic assembler for selecting service endpoint leveraging ontology. It only uses terms in OWL file to define a condition part of the policy.
SWRL is based on a combination of OWL DL and OWL Lite sublanguages of the Web Ontology Language (OWL) with Unary/Binary Datalog RuleML sublanguages of Rule Markup Language (RuleML). It extends the set of OWL axioms to include Horn-like policies/rules. It thus enables Horn-like policies/rules to be combined with an OWL knowledge base.
The SweetRules engine is an open source integrated set of tools for semantic web rules and ontology. It revolves around the Rule Markup/Modeling Language (RuleML) emerging standard for semantic web rules and supports the related SWRL and the OWL standard for semantic web ontology. The related detailed description may be found in http://java-source.net/open-source/rule-engine s/sweetrules.
The TRIPLE engine is a semantic Web engine supporting RDF and a subset of OWL Lite. Its syntax is based on F-logic and supports an important fragment of first-order logic. The related detailed description may be found in http://triple.semanticweb.org.
The SEW engine is an implementation of a RDF schema engine. It includes some XML schema data type support and may read RDF graphs serialized in RDF/XML and N-TRIPLES formats.
However, such application policy engines only support one-step reasoning and are adapted to a specific industry, rather than other fine grained policy subjects, such as a project, an application or a service. Additionally, it also relates to many complex standards, which leads to the application policy engines being complex.
III. Service Modeling Language (SML) Based Engine
SML is defined by IBM, Microsoft, BEA, Intel etc. for XML based IT service management. It provides a rich set of constructs for describing models of complex IT services and systems. The SML model is a set of interrelated XML documents. The XML documents contain information about the parts of an IT service, as well as the constraints which each part must satisfy for the IT service to function properly.
The documents in a SML model include definition documents and instance documents.
A definition document is described with XML Schema Definition (XSD) language and Schematron Schema language and is a subset of documents in the SML model that describes the schemas and polices/rules that govern the structure and content of the documents in the model. The SML specification define two kinds of definition documents, i.e. XML schema documents which conform to SML's profile of XML schema and policy/rule documents which conform to SML's profile of Schematron. The policy/rule documents are Boolean expressions that constrain the structure and content of the documents in the model.
An instance document is in XML format and is a subset of documents in the SML model that describes the structure and content of the modeled entities.
However, the SML based engine is only for IT system management because the SML's original goal is for system management, model drive modularity, re-use and standardization, such as Microsoft System Management Server. In addition, the SML based engine is only for one-step validation of system configuration and report. SML utilizes Schematron as policy/rule expression to validate its instance documents. According to the Schematron specification, the policies/rules within the standard Schematron may only report a diagnosis message in text string format when there is a violation to policy/rule restrictions. The SML specification extends the capability of validation report to bring in structured output, but this extension only provides a standard output of elements or attributes, without further semantics.

Enforcing context model based service-oriented architecture policies and policy engine

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


The invention herein relates to a kind of multi-angle all-purpose ratchet screwdriver that consists mainly of a serrated ratchet wheel on a screwdriver chuck, a ratchet-angle locking plate at the hinged juncture between the handle and the screw driver chuck, and a threaded positioner plate which, when tightened, exerts pressure on the ratchet wheel and the ratchet-angle locking plate, thus, securing the ratchet-angle locking plate against the ratchet wheel on the screwdriver chuck, while also attaining the objective of securing the ratchet-angle locking plate to the screwdriver chuck at various angles. Furthermore, there is a removable accessories holder inside the handle that is secured by a guide seat held against the accessories holder by a snap-fit fast-open cover, which allows the quick removal and replacement of the cover by simply pulling or pushing, and the accessories holder below can then be naturally slid out of the handle, without falling out unnecessarily, to attain the objective of changing screwdriver accessories.

Based on the structural design of conventionally utilized adjustable-angle screwdrivers, most can only be firmly adjusted at two to three angles. Typically the usable adjustments are limited to perpendicular, straight or 45-degree angles. However, with regard to elaborate precision designed and exact assembled machine parts or mechanical devices, screwdrivers with these limited angles are completely unusable. Moreover, with regard to certain specific mechanical devices, if the product has few additional functions, or even no additional functions, then its relative added value is reduced and its relative natural market competitiveness is lowered. Unless there is low price cut-throat sales, adapting to market conflicts will be impossible.

Multi-angle all-purpose ratchet screwdriver


A three-dimensional pose of the head of a subject is determined based on depth data captured in multiple images. The multiple images of the head are captured, e.g., by an RGBD camera. A rotation matrix and translation vector of the pose of the head relative to a reference pose is determined using the depth data. For example, arbitrary feature points on the head may be extracted in each of the multiple images and provided along with corresponding depth data to an Extended Kalman filter with states including a rotation matrix and a translation vector associated with the reference pose for the head and a current orientation and a current position. The three-dimensional pose of the head with respect to the reference pose is then determined based on the rotation matrix and the translation vector.

Background Field
Embodiments of the subject matter described herein are related generally to pose determination of a subject in images, and more particularly to estimating the three-dimensional pose of a subject's head using images with depth data.
Relevant Background
Many computing devices include cameras that are capable of capturing multiple images, e.g., in a stream of video frames. For example, many personal computers include a camera, such as a web cam, that is capable of capturing images of the user. Additionally, devices, such as cellular telephones, smart phones, and tablet computers typically include cameras of subjects, such as the user with a forward facing camera or others with a back facing camera.
Identifying the location of the subject, and more particularly, the subject's head in the image is useful for many applications, such as telepresence, and gaming. However, identifying and tracking the position of a subject's head in a series of images is problematic for conventional systems.