A telecommunications system having at least one base unit and a plurality of portable units is arranged to enable automatic re-registration of a portable unit with the system. The portable unit includes system and unit identity detectors and a registration sequence generator. The registration sequence generator is connected to a timer which monitors the elapse of time since a signal from a base unit of the system intended for the portable unit is received. The registration sequence generator generates a re-registration request in the event the monitored elapse of time is greater than a predetermined period and a signal from a base unit of the system is received which is not intended for the portable unit. With the system described portable units can automatically re-register with the system after being out of range of a base unit without the need for a separate beacon signal.

The present invention relates to a telecommunications system and particularly but not exclusively to a digital time-division duplex radio communications system with a plurality of portable units or handsets and two or more base units forming a cordless telephone system.
Conventionally with a telecommunications system such as a CT2 wireless system which has many handsets and many base units each covering a respective cell in which one or more of the handsets may be found, the location of each of the handsets is monitored by repeated polling of the handsets at regular intervals. In this way incoming calls may be directed quickly to the correct base unit for communicating with the handset for which the call is intended. In this way the inefficiencies of multiple cell broadcast or of a handset search may be avoided. However, when the handset has been turned off or has moved out of range of the base units, typically the system searches for the handset for a given length of time and then either ceases to perform any searching for the handset or performs relatively infrequent searches. In situations such as this an incoming call would either be notified that the handset is unavailable or the call would be redirected for example to a voice mail facility.
Where continued but infrequent searches are performed by the system for the missing handset, when the handset re-enters the range of the system in due course the handset is polled in the usual manner and the usual procedure is followed enabling the handset to re-register its location. The disadvantage of this is that the handset could be within range of the system for some considerable time before it is polled and so calls may unwittingly be re-directed unnecessarily. In systems where all searching for the handset ceases after a predetermined period of time, it is necessary for the handset to be re-registered with the system before it can receive calls again. Such re-registration is usually performed either manually by the user of the handset or automatically by the handset in response to a special beacon transmission. Each procedure has disadvantages. In the case of manual re-registration the user may be unaware that the handset had been moved out of range and that re-registration is therefore necessary; where the handset performs re-registration automatically the system must reserve some of its traffic capacity for beacon purposes which is a considerable overhead where conventional tracking of the handsets is also performed.


Polymer compounds obtained by polymerization of a fluorine-containing polymerizable monomer represented by the formula [1]

Polyamide and polyimide have been developed as representatives of organic polymers having high-degree heat resistance. They form a large market in electronic device field, engineering plastic field such as automotive and aerospace uses, fuel cell field, medical material field, optical material field, etc. At their center, many various polymers are put into practical use, such as polyimide represented by nylon, KEVLAR, etc.; polyamide acid and polyimide, which can be representative heat-resistant polymers; polyamide imide, which is a composite of them; and polybenzoxazole, polybenzthiazole, polybenzimidazole, etc. In particular, polyimide is again recently attracting attention as a material that is resistant to a lead-free solder step.
Polymerization of many of these heat-resistant polymers is conducted by successively generating a reaction, such as polyaddition or polycondensation, using plural types of monomers having a bifunctional or trifunctional reactive group in the molecule.
Regarding combinations of monomers in polymerization, there are known, in the case of polyamide, a method in which a diamine-type monomer is condensed with a dicarboxylic acid derivative, such as dicarboxylic acid, acid chloride or ester, and, in the case of polyamide acid or polyimide, a method by a polyaddition of diamine and acid dianhydride. As diamines that are generally used, aliphatic diamines, alicyclic diamines and aromatic diamines have been reported. From the viewpoint of polymerizability and heat resistance, however, there is preferably used an aniline-series monomer that has a supporting skeleton of a benzene single ring, biphenyl-type or polycyclic structure, in which a plurality of benzene rings are directly or indirectly bonded together, and that contains a plurality of amines in the molecule. On the other hand, in the case of polybenzoxazole and polybenzthiazole, there are used monomers having amine and hydroxyl group and amine and thiol group at ortho-positions of the benzene ring.
The purpose of simultaneously having an amine and another functional group in the molecule is explained, as follows. That is, there is conducted a design in which diamine is used as a polymerization site and at the same time hydroxyl group and thiol group are used as functional groups for intramolecular condensation cyclization, and in which a phenolic acid group is contained as a photosensitive functional group of these alkali-soluble groups and the like. However, there are reports of only the above-mentioned limited combinations in an attempt to contain plural types of functional groups together with diamine.
On the other hand, fluoro compounds have been developed or put into practical use in wide material fields, such as polyolefins and condensation polymers, mainly in advanced material fields, due to characteristics possessed by fluorine, such as water repellency, oil repellency, low water absorptive property, heat resistance, weather resistance, corrosion resistance, transparency, photosensitivity, low refractive index property and low dielectric property. In the condensation polymer field, an attempt to introduce fluorine into a diamine monomer has been conducted. There are reports of a diamine monomer in which hydrogen of the benzene ring has been replaced with fluorine atom or trifluoromethyl group, a diamine monomer in which a hexafluoroisopropenyl group has been introduced between two aromatic rings, and a fluorine-containing diamine monomer in which the benzene ring has been subjected to a hydrogen reduction. Furthermore, a bishydroxyamine monomer having a hexafluoroisopropenyl group as a central atomic group and aromatic hydroxyamines at its both sides has also been put into practical use. In this case, it is applied as a polybenzoxazole or hydroxyl-containing polyimide.
They are explained, for example, as fluorine-containing polybenzazoles in Non-patent Publication 1, etc. On the other hand, there have recently been conducted active researches and developments on photoresist materials, in which transparency of fluoro compounds in ultraviolet region, particularly in vacuum ultraviolet region, has been applied. It is an attempt to achieve adhesion to substrate, high glass transition point, photosensitivity due to acidity of fluorocarbinol group, alkali development property, etc., while achieving transparency at each wavelength for use by introducing fluorine. In particular, of fluorocarbinols, hexafluoroisopropyl group attracts attention due to its dissolution behavior, non-swelling property, high contrast, etc., and many researches and developments are conducted.
As assumed from photoresist development examples, hexafluoroisopropyl group, which is an acidic alcohol, has a potential for achieving a rapid, homogeneous, alkali solubility, while it maintains less swelling property. There have been, however, few reports of development examples of heat resistant polymers using a similar concept, that is, heat resistant polymers containing a hexafluoroisopropyl group as an acidic alcohol. Carboxylic group can be cited as a general acidic group. However, due to its high reactivity with amine, they say that it is difficult to make an amine having a carboxylic group in the same molecule exist stably.
Non-patent Publication 1: "Latest Polyimide, its basic and application" edited by Japan Polyimide Study Group, page 426.

Fluorine-containing polymerizable monomer and polymer compound using same

Abstract: in which A represents a single bond, oxygen atom, sulfur atom, CO, CH2, SO, SO2, C(CH3)2, NHCO, C(CF3)2, phenyl, or aliphatic ring; “a” and “b” each independently represent an integer of 0-2, and 1≦a+b≦4. This fluorine-containing polymerizable monomer can be used as an effective polymerizable monomer, which can exhibit water repellency, oil repellency, low water absorptive property, heat resistance, weather resistance, corrosion resistance, transparency, photosensitivity, low refractive index property, low dielectric property, etc., and can be used for advanced polymer material fields.


There is provided a method for establishing a communication session between a client device of a caller and a client device of a callee, comprising: iteratively attempting to establish a communication session, via a communication interface of a client device of a caller, to a communication address of a client device of one of a plurality of callees represented as contact members stored in an electronic address-book, wherein each respective iterative attempt includes; detecting failure of the establishment of the communication session; applying a set-of-rules associated with the respective contact member and stored in a set-of-rules repository, to attempt to establish a subsequent communication session via the communication interface; and attempting to establishing further communication sessions defined by a sequence of the set-of-rules when previous attempts at establishing communication sessions have failed; wherein each respective communication session allows human language based communication between the caller and the callee.

The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to communication session management and, more specifically, but not exclusively, to systems and methods for communication session management based on user rules.
A caller may attempt to establish a communication session with a callee using one of many available communication media, to one of many possible communication addresses. For example, a phone call may be made to a cellular phone, a landline at home, and a central number at a workplace. An email may be sent to a personal email address, or to a work email address. A text message may be sent to a mobile phone, or to a desktop application. Adding to the complexity of choices, are client devices, such as Smartphones, that have the capability to provide all of the communication media. Systems and methods are being developed to help users organized and better use the multiple available ways to communicate with each other.

Communication sequences based on user rules


A system for the scheduled transmission of signals from source stations to destination stations in a passive, static, Single-Hop Interconnection (SHI) employing a plurality of Shared Directional Multichannels (SDMs) in a power-efficient and cost-effective manner. The system provides a practical implementation of any SHI built from a plurality of smaller SDMs whose salient feature is a significant degree of parallelism at low hardware cost while retaining the simplicity and reliability of a passive interconnection. The system is a scheme for wiring a SHI to retain the useful features of a SDM design for connecting (m) Source Stations each having (a) outputs to (n) Destination Stations each having one input such that, for m=n, the power split losses are reduced to a provably optimal value of (2n/a) and component count reduced to anlog.sub.2 (n/a), which is optimal for the optimal power split constraint. A SHI for any number of source and destination stations with any input and output count can be optimally constructed by the method of this invention. The passive efficient SHI of this invention outperforms the conventional passive bus-oriented SHI in channel concurrency with fewer components.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to Single-Hop Interconnection (SHI) multichannel networks in general and, more specifically, to a SHI network signal transmission procedure for composing larger SHI networks from a plurality of smaller Shared Directional Multichannels (SDMs) while maintaining or improving wiring efficiency and concurrency.
2. Description of the Related Art
The evolution of modern data communications networks has steadily increased the demand for networks offering high data transmission speeds and high levels of data parallelism or channel concurrency. Data transmission rates are limited by the physical technology composing the network interconnection linkages and by the station transmission and reception capacities. Channel concurrency is limited by the requirement that multiple message signal transmissions remain distinguishable within the network when routed to the appropriate destinations. With standard bus-oriented network architectures, the number of concurrent message signals is less than or equal to the number of buses.
The art is replete with bus-oriented SHI techniques for improving channel concurrency within a communication network. Such techniques are not limited to any particular physical communication technology. Recent improvements in fiber optic transmission technology and the invention of the optical star coupler have given rise to an explosive growth of optical network applications. The optical data transmission analogy is favored because of the very high data transmission rates possible at optical frequencies. Unfortunately, this optical bandwidth does little by itself to improve channel concurrency in switched networks. Without circuit components capable of optical switching speeds or wavelength-selective components capable of exploiting multiple optical channels, concurrency limitations continue to be an obtrusive handicap for optical data transmission networks.
Alternate proposals for overcoming these optical switching limitations suggest using non-bus-oriented SHI networks, including those employing the SDM, such as those discussed by Matthew T. Busche, et al, "On Optical Interconnection of Stations Having Multiple Transmitters and Receivers", 1990 International Symposium on Information Theory and its Applications (ISITA '90), Hawaii, U.S.A., Nov. 27-30, 1990, Session 63-3, pp. 967-970. See also Y. Birk, et al, "Bus-Oriented Interconnection Topologies for Single-Hop Communications Among Multi-Transceiver Stations", IEEE Infocon '88, pp. 558-567, IEEE Computer Society Press, 1988. For an early discussion of non-bus-oriented SHIs, see Y. Birk, "Concurrent Communication Among Multi-Transceiver Stations Over Shared Media", PhD Dissertation, Stanford University, December 1986.
A SDM consists of a set of inputs, a set of outputs, and a specification of the subset of outputs reachable from each input. A SDM is used to form a SHI by connecting a transmitter to each SDM input and a receiver to each SDM output. When a transmitter transmits a message, the message is heard by all receivers reachable from it. A message is received successfully by a receiver if and only if (a) that receiver is the intended recipient, (b) that receiver is reachable from the transmitter, and (c) that receiver hears no other "colliding" message signal at the same time.
It has been shown in theory how a SDM can be used to construct passive, static, SHIs between a set of Source Stations (SSs), each SS with one or more transmitter outputs, and a set of Destination Stations (DSs), each DS having one or more receiver inputs; such a SDM permits a large number of concurrent, non-interfering message signal transmissions if every SS has at least two outputs and every DS has at least two inputs (Y. Birk, et al, "On the Uniform-Traffic Capacity of Single-Hop Interconnections Employing Shared Directional Multichannels", IBM Research Report RJ7859, December, 1990, IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y., referred to hereinafter as "Birk et al (1990)"). The terms "passive" and "static" as used herein denote that the SDM is fixed (no switches), and that there is a transmitter output in the SS and a receiver input in the DS for each (SS, DS) pair such that the latter can hear the message signal transmitted from the former without active components or repeater stations in the signal path.
The SHIs employing SDMs lend themselves to an implementation using optical fibers and directional star couplers. A directional star coupler is an element with several input fibers and several output fibers. An optical signal presented an any input is spread among all outputs but does not spread retrogressively to any of the other input fibers. The star coupler is unlike an optical switching coupler in that the optical signal at any input fiber is passively distributed equally among all output fibers.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,424, Michel Marhic discloses a method for interconnecting smaller star couplers to synthesize large single-mode stars. Marhic teaches the use of 2-star fiber optic couplers having two inputs and two outputs as building blocks to form 2N-star couplers of any desired size and shows that the power spreading losses in such 2N-star couplers is substantially equal to the factor associated with the larger of either the number of inputs (in-degree) or the number of outputs (out-degree) of the star.
More precisely, when all fibers used in a star coupler are of equal cross-section, as is usually the case, the ratio of the signal power presented at an input to the power emerging from any output is equal to the maximum of the "in-degree" or the "out-degree" of the star coupler. Therefore, for a SHI of (m) SSs each having (a) transmitter outputs and (n) DSs each having (b) receiver inputs, implemented by connecting each transmitter to a (1 by n/a) coupler and each receiver to a (m/b by 1) coupler, with fibers between the two coupler types, a signal must travel through a (1 by n/a) coupler followed by a (m/b by 1) coupler when traversing the SDM between transmitter and receiver. The practical problem with this scheme is that the signal power at a receiver must then be the transmitted power divided by n.sup.2 /(ab), assuming m=n. This quadratic spreading loss limits the number of DSs and SSs that may be connected passively to no more than 15-20.
The notation known in the art for an SDM-based SHI such o as discussed above is (a,b;m,n) denoting (#outputs, #inputs; #SSs, #DSs). As used herein, an "efficient" SHI denotes an SHI with a spreading loss that is linear in n=m. Heuristically, any wiring of an SDM-based SHI must permit the message signal to be split (n/a) ways because each transmitter must reach (n/a) receivers. Similarly, (m/b) signals must be combined at each receiver because each receiver is connected to (m/b) transmitter outputs. Therefore, the minimal power split intuitively possible is max(n/a, m/b).
In the above-cited Birk patent, Birk teaches a system for selecting the number of and specifications for several coupling stages and a wiring method that permits the interconnection of (m) SSs each having two transmitter outputs, and (n) DSs each having one receiver input, such that the power spreading loss is no more than twice the intuitively optimal value, increasing linearly in (n) rather than quadratically. However, the above-cited Birk patent does not consider the problem of optimally connecting a set of SSs to a set of DSs where neither (a) nor (b) is unity.
In the Birk et al (1990) reference cited above, it is shown to be theoretically possible to construct a third SHI from a plurality of first and second SDMs such that the number of concurrent non-interfering signal transmissions in the third SHI is the product of the respective channel signal concurrencies in the two constituent SDMs. However, until now, there was no available practical method for constructing such a SHI in a manner that avoids quadratic growth in wiring, power spreading loss and complexity, without sacrificing this gain in message concurrency. Using the above notation, the third SHI is described as (a.sub.1 a.sub.2, b.sub.1 b.sub.2 ; m.sub.1 m.sub.2, n.sub.1 n.sub.2) in terms of the two constituents, (a.sub.1,b.sub.1 ;m.sub.1,n.sub.1) and (a.sub.2,b.sub.2 :m.sub.2,n.sub.2).
For instance, Birk et al (1990) show how to choose the connections and schedule message transmissions such that, for (n) SSs, each with (a) transmitters, and (n) DSs, each with (b) receivers, the SHI (a,b;n,n) can sustain roughly (log.sub.2 n).sup.a+b-2 concurrent non-interfering signal transmissions for a uniform traffic pattern. While the performance reward for increasing the number of transmitters and receivers is substantial, the natural manner of directly configuring the wiring according to the station connection list requires numbers of wires and directional couplers and (for fiber optic implementations) transmission power that grow quadratically (in proportion to n.sup.2) with increasing numbers of stations.
With fiber-optic implementations, this quadratic spreading loss problem requires either active repeaters or a severe restriction on the maximum number of stations to 15-20 at the most. This limitation results from the above-mentioned peculiar power-spreading properties of the fiber-optic star coupler, for which the ratio of input power to output power is equal to max (in-degree, out-degree) rather than the out-degree alone.
The above-cited Birk patent teaches how, for b=1, a canonical SDM form can be used as a non-bus-oriented SHI offering a concurrency of k=( log.sub.a n choose (a-1))=( log.sub.a n )!/(a-1)!/( log.sub.a n -a+1)! with a power spreading loss of (2n/a). Birk teaches a procedure for efficiently transmitting signals in a specific interconnection when a=2b=2 or b=2a=2. However, the more general theoretical teachings by Birk et al (1990) for composing any two given SDMs to form a larger one, until now, have not been implemented in a manner that avoids quadratic spreading losses.
There is a strongly felt need in the optical network art for such a high concurrency passive SHI suitable for efficient signal transmission with a power split loss that grows linearly instead of quadratically with (n) and a component count that is optimal under the constraint of optimal power budget. The above-cited Birk patent solves this problem for a=1 or b=1, but does not teach or suggest means for efficient signal transmission through a SHI of general size without encountering quadratic increases in spreading loss and component count. The associated problems and unresolved deficiencies are clearly felt in the art and are solved by this invention in the manner described below.

Efficient single-hop interconnection network employing merged shared directional multichannels

International Business Machines Corporation


According to one embodiment, a display device includes an interference filter including following layers, and a display layer. The first common layer includes first and second regions. The second common layer faces the first common layer. The first spacer layer is provided between the first and second common layers and includes first and second portions facing the first and second regions. The thickness of the first portion is different from the thickness of the second portion. The second spacer layer faces at least one of the first and second portions through the second common layer and is made of the same material as that of the first spacer layer. The coating layer faces the second common layer through the second spacer layer.

The demand for display devices represented by a liquid crystal display, a plasma display, and an organic EL display is even more increasing as the digital terrestrial broadcasting has started, and the Internet and mobile phones have become popular. A color filter is arranged in such a display device. Color display is performed by red, green, and blue light components that have passed through the color filter. In general, a light absorption (absorption) color filter using pigments or dyes is used as the color filter. An absorption color filter transmits light in a specific wavelength region and absorbs light in other wavelength regions. For example, when white light enters a blue color filter, blue light components pass through the color filter, and green and red light components are absorbed by the color filter. This also applies to green and red color filters. Since the color filters absorb light, a loss of light occurs.
There is proposed a display device using an interference color filter in place of the absorption color filter. The interference color filter reflects light in wavelength regions other than a transmission wavelength region.

Interference filter, display device, and display device manufacturing method


A duct detector includes sampling tubes which slidably engage the detector with a fixed orientation to facilitate fluid flow. The tubes have a connector portion and a conduit portion. The connector portion and the conduit portion engage one another with a predetermined orientation.

It's been recognized that duct mountable ambient condition detectors can be useful in ambient condition monitoring systems, such as fire detection systems. Such detectors, which might respond to airborne smoke or gases, can be coupled to ducts which might be part of an HVAC which extends through a building or region being monitored. Such detectors are disclosed for example in Berneau et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,124,795 entitled Detector Interconnect System which issued Sep. 26, 2000, and which is assigned to the assignee hereof, as well as Fenne Design Pat. DES. 327,228 which issued Jun. 23, 1992, and is also assigned to the assignee hereof. The '795 and '228 patents are incorporated herein by reference.
Known duct detectors require one or more tubular conduits to redirect air from inside the associated duct, part of a building ventilation system, to the detector. The conduits or sampling tubes are formed with openings aligned along their length. The openings allow air to flow down the tube to the detector and return again to the system.
To ensure proper operation of the detector the openings must be aligned with the oncoming flow inside the system. The conduit must therefore be coupled to the detector housing or enclosure in a way that provides correct alignment and is secure to prevent disengagement or movement after installation.
Known configurations used to couple the conduits to detector housings or enclosures tend to be cumbersome and time consuming to install. Fasteners are often used to retain the sampling tubes. These usually require the use of hand tools and can be difficult to work with in the small dark spaces the detectors are frequently installed. Often the detector cover must be removed to install the tubes and gain access to the fasteners, adding to the time and effort required for installation. Should the sampling tubes be installed in the wrong position the cover must again be removed to release the tube and reposition it correctly.
One known coupling device is a formed flange fitted around the outer diameter of the conduit and fixed in place by a weld or a fastener as illustrated in FIGS. 1A & 1B. Another is a rectangular tab formed into the end of the conduit that is guided through slots and aligned with notches in the detector housing as in FIG. 2.
Both of the configurations of FIGS. 1A, 1B and 2 have disadvantages. Specialized production equipment is required to attach a separate flange or punch and form a tab. The equipment can be costly to purchase, require frequent maintenance, and may have high operating cost. A formed tab protruding from the end of the tube may be sharp and could injure an operator producing the tubes or a technician handling them during installation. An improved coupler design which eliminates the need for fastening or welding and utilizes less costly production equipment would be desirable.
Many man-hours could be saved and installation costs reduced if the coupling of these tubes was simple, quick, and did not require the use of tools or removal of the detector cover. In addition, insertion from both sides would be desirable.
HVAC systems used to condition air-within a building and often contain cooling coils, and humidifiers which expose the detector and sampling tubes to moisture. Condensation on the any surface of the sampling tubes could collect inside the detector and cause the detector to malfunction. Current sampling tube designs do little to prevent condensation from entering the detector enclosure. It would be desirable to provide a coupler that would route small amounts of moisture away from the detector and prevent accumulation in the enclosure.

Coupler for attachment of sampling tubes to duct detector


The present invention provides a method of forming a substantially planar SOI substrate having multiple crystallographic orientations including the steps of providing a multiple orientation surface atop a single orientation layer, the multiple orientation surface comprising a first device region contacting and having a same crystal orientation as the single orientation layer, and a second device region separated from the first device region and the single orientation layer by an insulating material, wherein the first device region and the second device region have different crystal orientations; producing a damaged interface in the single orientation layer; bonding a wafer to the multiple orientation surface; separating the single orientation layer at the damaged interface; wherein a damaged surface of said single orientation layer remains; and planarizing the damaged surface until a surface of the first device region is substantially coplanar to a surface of the second device region.

The present invention relates to semiconductor devices. In particular, the present invention provides a means for integrating at least two types of semiconductor devices, such as nFETs and pFETs, onto a planar silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate having different crystallographic orientation. The location of each device on the planar SOI substrate is dependent upon the performance that the device has on a particular crystal orientation.
For more than three decades, the continued miniaturization of silicon metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) has driven the worldwide semiconductor industry. Various showstoppers to continued scaling have been predicated for decades, but a history of innovation has sustained Moore's Law in spite of many challenges. However, there are growing signs today that metal oxide semiconductor transistors are beginning to reach their traditional scaling limits. A concise summary of near-term and long-term challenges to continued CMOS scaling can be found in the "Grand Challenges" section of the 2002 Update of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). A very thorough review of the device, material, circuit, and systems can be found in Proc. IEEE, Vol. 89, No. 3, March 2001, a special issue dedicated to the limits of semiconductor technology.
Since it has become increasingly difficult to improve MOSFETs and therefore complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) performance through continued scaling, methods for improving performance without scaling have become critical. One approach for doing this is to increase carrier (electron and/or hole) mobilities. Increased carrier mobility can be obtained, for example, by building MOSFETS on Si surfaces that are orientated in directions different than conventional (100) Si. For example, the (100) crystal surface provides n-type field effect transistors (nFETs) with high performance, while the (110) crystal surface provides p-type field effect transistors (pFETs) with high performance.
Electrons are known to have a high mobility for a (100) Si surface orientation, but holes are known to have high mobility for a (110) surface orientation. That is, hole mobility values on (100) Si are roughly 2 ×–4× lower than the corresponding electron hole mobility for this crystallographic orientation. To compensate for this discrepancy, pFETs are typically designed with larger widths in order to balance pull-up currents against the nFET pull-down currents and achieve uniform circuit switching. PFETs having larger widths are undesirable since they take up a significant amount of chip area.
On the other hand, hole mobilities on (110) Si are approximately 2× higher than on (100) Si; therefore, pFETs formed on a (110) surface will exhibit significantly higher drive currents than pFETs formed on a (100) surface. Unfortunately, electron mobilities on (110) Si surfaces are significantly degraded compared to (100) Si surfaces.
Prior attempts to provide substrates having multiple orientations have not provided planar silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates for both nFET and pFET devices. SOI substrates are advantageous over bulk-Si substrates, since SOI substrates reduce parasitic capacitance within the integrated circuit and reduce individual circuit loads, thereby improving circuit and chip performance.
In view of the above, there is a need for providing integrated semiconductor devices that are formed upon a planar SOI substrate having different crystal orientations that provide optimal performance for a specific device. That is, there is an overwhelming need to create a planar SOI substrate which allows one type of device, such as, for example, a pFET, to be formed on a certain crystallographic surface, e.g., a (110) surface, while forming another type of device, such as, for example, an nFET, on another crystallographic surface, e.g., a (100) surface.

Structure and method for manufacturing planar SOI substrate with multiple orientations

International Business Machines Corporation


A torque motor comprises a rotor having a pair of permanent magnet groups, and a pair of stator cores. Each magnet group includes a plurality of plate and rod-shaped permanent magnets arranged in a circumferential direction. The magnet groups are arranged asymmetrically with respect to a rotary axis of the rotor. That is, one magnet group is displaced one-half angle of the pitch angle of each permanent magnet from the symmetric position of the other magnet group with respect to the rotary axis of the rotor. Alternatively, the stator cores are arranged asymmetrically with respect to the rotary axis of the rotor so that a front end of one stator core is displaced from the symmetric position of a front end of the other stator core in the circumferential direction. A circular arc angle for one of the stator cores ends facing the rotor is greater than a circular arc angle for the other stator core facing the rotor. Accordingly, a range of a torque generating angle of the motor is increased.

This invention relates to a torque motor and, more particularly to a torque motor which may be used as an actuator for a throttle apparatus of an internal combustion engine and the like.
As disclosed in JP-A 3-31529, a conventional torque motor has a rotor, a stator and a solenoid coil. The rotor includes permanent magnets shaped arcuately as a part of the rotor. The stator is made of magnetic substance to surround the rotor. The solenoid coil generates magnetic pole of the stator when it is energized. The rotor is rotatably actuated when the magnetic pole of the stator attracts a magnetic pole of the rotor, and such conventional torque motor may be used as an actuator for a throttle valve apparatus for an internal combustion engine.
It is proposed that a torque motor uses a plurality of plate-shaped permanent magnets on its outer periphery. In other words, a torque motor has a rotor comprising a rotor core and two permanent magnet groups arranged 180.degree. oppositely to each other, that is, symmetrically with respect to a rotary axis of the rotor. The permanent magnet groups are spaced apart from each other on the rotor core in the circumferential direction. The magnet group has a plurality of plate-shaped permanent magnets arranged in the circumferential direction on a part of the outer periphery of the rotor core, while the other magnet group has the same number of plate-shaped permanent magnets arranged in the similar manner on another part of the rotor core. The stator cores are joined at a pair of stator core connecting parts. The connecting parts for the corresponding magnet groups are provided 180.degree. oppositely to each other on the circumference of the rotor core. The rotor is held rotatably inside of a pair of stator cores between which solenoid units are sandwiched.
The above torque motor generates a torque varying in dependence on the rotational angle of the rotor. In other words, generated torque is reduced in certain range of rotational angle of the rotor.

Torque motor having uniform torque output characteristic


Embodiments of the present invention provide methods and system to reduce needless data traffic in leaf-spine switch fabric. In embodiments, in a static solution, data rates of data flows having a common destination port may be measured and responsive to the data flows having a combined data rate that exceeding a rate limit of the common destination port, one or more of the data flows may be limited. Embodiments may also comprise a global scheduler to provide dynamic data rate controls of traffic flows from source ports to destination ports in which to reduce the handling of data traffic that would otherwise be discarded due to oversubscription.

Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of data communications, and relates more particularly systems and methods of switching fabric data flow control in a network environment.
Description of the Related Art
When a large switching device is built using many smaller switching devices, a switch fabric may be a Clos architectural fabric organized in a leaf-spine topology. The switch fabric may include connections of the smaller switching devices configured as leaf nodes and spine nodes according to the leaf-spine topology. Input/Output (I/O) ports residing on the switching devices may receive data from other computing devices in a network. Upon receiving the data, the switch fabric may process the data in leaf nodes and spine nodes. And the I/O ports may then send the processed data to the network.
In a leaf-spine topology, it is possible for multiple ingress ports at a leaf node to send traffic to a common egress port on a destination leaf node. As a result, it is possible to have oversubscription at the common destination port. Oversubscription is a common occurrence in packet networks. The assumption is that different data flows generated by different users may require higher rate of utilization at different times, thus creating an opportunity to employ statistical multiplexing, improve the system utilization, and reduce the overall costs. However, this may result in temporary oversubscription of resources, and for this approach to succeed, it must not sacrifice the quality of service the end user expects, and therefore, must address issues such as congestion and proper handling of different priority traffic flows. Especially, in a Clos fabric organized in a leaf-spine topology, it is possible for traffic destined to one output port to consume more than its fair share of the fabric resources through the spine node, only to get discarded at the destination leaf node.
Accordingly, there is a need to minimize the potential for wastage of resources in a leaf-spine switch fabric, reduce the internal fabric congestion, and ensure that traffic destined for a given output port has a good chance of being transmitted out of the system before being allowed to consume resources in the switch fabric.

Reducing internal fabric congestion in leaf-spine switch fabric


A method and a device to increase the efficiency of dialysis for the removal from blood of substances that are more or less tightly bound to carriers such as albumin. According to the invention this is accomplished by a simultaneous significant increase of the flow rate of the dialysis fluid and of the area of the membrane that separates the blood from the dialysis fluid, compared to conventional dialysis.

For people who have lost all or most of their kidney or liver functions, it is necessary to find alternative ways of cleaning the blood. One common alternative is dialysis, in which the waste products in the blood are transported across a membrane to a cleaning fluid. In hemodialysis, the most common form of dialysis, blood is removed from the body, and is led to an external device, the dialyzer, which contains a membrane with blood flowing on one side and a dialysis fluid flowing on the other side of the membrane. The blood is then returned to the body. Due to the concentration difference between the blood and the dialysis fluid across the membrane, waste products in the blood will be transported by diffusion to the dialysis fluid. At the same time any excess fluid may be removed by ultrafiltration, which is achieved by creating a pressure difference across the membrane.
This dialysis procedure can be very effective for substances that are dissolved in the body fluids, including the blood plasma. The driving force for the transport across the membrane is the concentration difference, and as long as this concentration difference is maintained, the transport rate can be high. For substances with a zero concentration in the dialysis fluid, the transport rate can be calculated as the product of the blood concentration and a factor known as the dialyzer clearance. The clearance value can be viewed as the fraction of the blood flow that is totally cleared from the substance in question, and is measured in ml/min.
The main determinants for the clearance (Cl) are the flow rates of blood (Qb) and dialysis fluid (Qd), and the transport capacity of the membrane. The membrane can be characterized by its mass transfer coefficient, koA, which is proportional to the membrane area, and can be interpreted as the clearance that would be obtained at very large flow rates of blood and dialysis fluid. An equation for the dialyzer clearance can be derived theoretically by calculating the concentration profiles along the dialyzer. Considering a mass balance at each point along the dialyzer, taking into account the mass transported by the flows, and the diffusion across the membrane, leads to a set of differential equations for the concentrations along the dialyzer in the direction of the blood flow. The mass removal rate needed for the calculation of clearance is then obtained from the blood flow rate and the calculated change in the blood concentration. In the absence of any ultrafiltration clearance is given by equation 1
                    Cl        =                              Q            b                    ·                                                    (                                  1                  -                                      ⅇ                    f                                                  )                            ·                              Q                d                                                                    Q                d                            -                                                Q                  b                                ·                                  ⅇ                  f                                                                                (        1        )            wherein e denotes the exponential function, and the exponent f is calculated from equation 2
                    f        =                              k            0                                          A                                      (                                                1                                      Q                    d                                                  -                                  1                                      Q                    b                                                              )                                                          (        2        )
For the derivation of equations 1 and 2 it is assumed that both blood and dialysis fluid are perfectly mixed at each point along the dialyzer. The concentration is thus assumed to vary along the dialyzer according to the calculated concentration profiles, but the concentrations are assumed to be independent of the distance from the membrane. It is also assumed that the flows are equally distributed in the whole dialyzer. Even with these limitations the equations have been shown in practice to well describe the dependence of clearance on the flow rates of blood and dialysis fluid. These equations, with a correction for ultrafiltration when needed, are therefore often used to describe the capacity of dialyzers.
A closer study of equations 1 and 2 reveals that the clearance can never exceed either of Qb, Qd, or koA. The dialysis fluid flow rate Qd and the koA are limited only by the available equipment, but the blood flow rate is limited by the rate at which blood can be obtained from the blood access in the patient. This is for dialysis normally in the range 200-500 ml/min. This limits the maximum efficiency that can be obtained in dialysis treatments, and has lead to fairly standardized values for Qd and membrane koA used in normal dialysis treatments, since the cost of higher flow rates and koA cannot be justified by a better efficiency.
If Qd is increased when Qb and koA are fixed, clearance will increase to a certain fraction of the blood flow rate, which is determined by koA. Already at a Qd of twice the blood flow rate clearance is close to this limit, and little is gained by going higher. Dialysis fluid flow rates in standard hemodialysis are therefore normally in the range 500-800 ml/min.
If instead koA is increased when Qd and Qb are fixed, clearance will approach Qb independently of Qd (as long as Qd is higher than Qb). The increase is noticeable even at koA values up to 3-4 times the blood flow rate, but for economical and practical reasons dialyzer koA values in standard hemodialysis are usually limited to the range 500-1000 ml/min.
The analysis above is valid for substances that are dissolved in fluids such as plasma. But many substances are to a large extent bound to carriers such as albumin. Examples of substances that can bind to albumin are butyric and valeric acid, thyroxine, tryptophane, unconjugated bilirubin, mercaptans, and aromatic amino acids. A number of drugs are known to have a high binding rate to albumin in cases of accidental overdosage or suicidal intoxications by e.g. tricyclic antidepressants, digoxin, digitoxin, theophylline or a benzodiazepine.
Hemoglobin may also act as a carrier, e.g. for carbon monoxide or cyanide. These substances have a high affinity to hemoglobin, and will replace oxygen, which significantly decreases the ability of the blood to transport oxygen.
In many cases it may be important to have a high removal rate also for substances in the blood that to a large extent are bound to proteins or other carriers, such as fungus toxins. But the situation is different from that of the dissolved substances discussed above. Even with a large total amount of partly protein bound and partly dissolved substance in the blood, the plasma concentration may be low, since most of the substance may be bound. The concentration gradient across the membrane will then be small, so that the transport rate in dialysis will be low, as will the treatment efficiency.
Previous attempts to solve this problem have focused on adding a carrier to the dialysis fluid as well. For albumin bound toxins, a common solution is to add albumin to the dialysis fluid. Substances transported across the membrane into the dialysis fluid will then bind to the albumin in the dialysis fluid. This will keep the concentration low in the dialysis fluid, so that the transport across the membrane can continue without a disappearing concentration gradient. The capacity of the dialysis fluid to carry protein bound substances thus becomes much greater, see e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,744,042.
With most of the substance bound to carriers, the concentration gradient is still small, and even better results may be achieved if the membrane itself is also modified to enhance the transport. This has been suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 5,744,042, where the membrane is primed with albumin so that the inner and outer membrane surfaces are covered with albumin, which adheres to the surfaces. Thus, sites are created within the membrane that can act as mediators for the transport across the membrane.
A major disadvantage with adding a carrier like albumin to the dialysis fluid and/or to the membrane is that it is very expensive. It is therefore desirable not to waste this dialysis fluid including albumin. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,744,042 it is suggested to put a cleaning cartridge in the dialysis loop that will remove the bound substances from the carrier to regenerate the dialysis fluid. By doing so only a small amount of dialysis fluid is needed since it can be reused over and over again. The problem is that this fluid will be saturated with all the solutes that are not removed by the cartridge, and it was therefore necessary to introduce a second loop of dialysis in order to clean the primary dialysis fluid, and also to remove any excess fluid that is normally accumulated in a patient between treatments.

Method and device for the removal of partially protein bound substances


The present invention relates generally to an optical interconnection module for vertical optical coupling and a method of manufacturing the optical interconnection module. The optical interconnection module includes an optical waveguide. The optical waveguide includes substrate on which electrode pads and a predetermined circuit pattern are formed; a light source unit provided on the substrate and configured to generate an optical signal and emit the signal to an outside; an optical detection unit for receiving the optical signal from the light source unit and converting the optical signal into an electric signal; drive units provided on the substrate and configured to drive the light source unit and the light detection unit in response to electric signals supplied through the electrode pads; and a cladding layer, a core layer layered on the cladding layer, and an elliptical reflecting mirror surface placed on an end of the core layer facing the light source unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an optical interconnection module for vertical optical coupling and a method of manufacturing the optical interconnection module.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the majority of electronic systems, the electrical connections between circuit boards, chips or systems are implemented using a metallic wire. However, as the amount of information is getting larger and transmission speed dramatically increases, electrical problems, such as skew in clock signals and electromagnetic interference (EMI), restrict speed of today's electronic systems to the limit of a few GHz. Furthermore, thermal dissipation is another big problem in high speed electronic systems. To overcome such problems, optical interconnection is introduced into circuit board level. Optical interconnection has great advantage over electronic wiring, not causing any EMI and thermal problems. However, vertical coupling of light on circuit board is a big challenge in routing optical signals, on the basis that most of opto-electronic components are packaged as a form of surface-mounted device.
Recently, optical coupling technologies using an optical transceiver (transmitter/receiver) module has been developed. Optical coupling methods in optical transceiver modules include: (1) a method of directly coupling an photo-detecting device to a ribbon optical fiber or a multi-channel optical connector having a reflecting mirror inclined at an angle of 45°, (2) a method of coupling optical transceiver devices to a polymer optical waveguide having a reflecting mirror, which is cut at an angle of 45°, and (3) a method of perpendicularly integrating optical transceiver devices, which are packaged in a single module, with a multi-channel optical connector.
In the above cases, a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) array is commonly used as an optical transmission device, that is, a light source, while a photodiode array is used as a phto-detection device, that is, a detector.
Various optical interconnection modules for vertical coupling of light into an optical waveguide have been developed.
For example, an optical module disclosed in Korean Patent Application No. 2000-7003642 is designed in such a way that light emitted from a VCSEL is reflected through 90° at the end portion of optical waveguide and is transmitted to an optical fiber, which is connected to an optical connector, along a core formed in a substrate.
Meanwhile, Korean Unexamined Patent Publication 2003-94712 discloses a parallel optical interconnection transceiver module including an optical waveguide with a lens-type reflecting surface. This structure has advantage in reducing coupling loss caused by misalignment between optical components at coupling stage.
FIG. 1 shows the structure of the optical waveguide 40 having the curved reflecting surface that is disclosed in Korean Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-94712.
Referring to FIG. 1, a curved reflecting surface 44 has a predetermined curvature, which is formed at an end of the core 42 of the optical waveguide 40.
The core 42 is made of polymer or epoxy-based material transparent to specified wavelength range. The reflectance of light incident at the reflecting surface 44 strongly depends on the shape of it. To increase reflectance, reflecting surface 44 is circularly rounded with predetermined curvature.
However, a conventional 45° reflection mirror surface or the curved reflecting mirror surface disclosed in FIG. 1 has a problem in that light incoming from a light source unit 30 is not totally reflected and some rays of the light leak out of the optical waveguide, thus causing loss.
Furthermore, the two mirror surfaces, 45° reflection mirror and circularly curved mirror, can not focus incoming rays 3-dimensionally into the core, leading to light leakages in a lateral direction (the direction from the right side to the left side of the optical waveguide), because even the circularly curved mirror (a piece of cylindrical surface) has a two-dimensionally varying shape.

Optical interconnection module and method of manufacturing the same


To provide a process for producing a lithium-containing composite oxide for a positive electrode of a lithium secondary battery, which has a large volume capacity density, high safety, excellent durability for charge and discharge cycles and excellent low temperature characteristics.

Recently, as the portability and cordless tendency of instruments have progressed, a demand for a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery such as a lithium secondary battery which is small in size and light in weight and has a high energy density, has been increasingly high. As a cathode active material for the non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery, a composite oxide of lithium and a transition metal or the like (sometimes referred to as a lithium-containing composite oxide) such as LiCoO2, LiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2, LiNiO2, LiNi0.8Co0.2O2, LiMn2O4 or LiMnO2, has been known.
A lithium secondary battery using LiCoO2 among them as a cathode active material and using a lithium alloy or carbon such as graphite or carbon fiber as a negative electrode, can obtain a high voltage at a level of 4V, whereby it has been widely used as a battery having a high energy density.
However, in the case of the non-aqueous type secondary battery using LiCoO2 as a cathode active material, further improvement of the capacity density per unit volume of the positive electrode layer and the safety, has been desired. On the other hand, there has been a problem of deterioration of the cyclic properties such as gradual reduction of the battery discharge capacity due to repetitive charge and discharge cycles, a problem of the weight capacity density or substantial reduction of the discharge capacity at a low temperature.
In order to solve these problems, it has been proposed in Patent Document 1 that the average particle size of LiCoO2 as a cathode active material, be from 3 to 9 μm, the volume occupied by a group of particles having a particle size of from 3 to 15 μm, be at least 75% of the total volume, and the intensity ratio of the diffraction peaks at 2θ=about 19° and 2θ=45° as measured by means of X-ray diffraction analysis using CuKα rays as a radiation source, be of a specific value, so that it becomes an active material excellent in the coating properties, the self-discharge characteristics and the cyclic properties. Further, in Patent Document 1, it has been proposed that the cathode active material is preferably one which does not substantially have such a particle size distribution that the particle size of LiCoO2 is 1 μm or smaller, or 25 μm or larger. With such a cathode active material, the coating properties and the cyclic properties have been improved, but, the safety, the volume capacity density and the weight capacity density, have not yet been fully satisfactory.
Further, in order to solve the problem related to the battery characteristics, Patent Document 2 proposes to replace 5 to 35% of Co atoms with W, Mn, Ta, Ti or Nb to improve the cyclic properties. Further, Patent Document 3 proposes to use hexagonal LiCoO2 as a cathode active material to improve the cyclic properties, wherein the c axis length of the lattice constant is at most 14.051 Å, and the crystal lattice size of (110) direction of the crystal lattice is from 45 to 100 nm.
Further, Patent Document 4 proposes that a lithium-containing composite oxide of the formula LixNi1-mNmO2 (wherein 0<x<1.1, 0≦m≦1), of which the primary particles are plate-like or columnar, the ratio of (volume standard cumulative 95% size−volume standard cumulative 5% size)/(volume standard cumulative 5% size) is at most 3, and further, the average particle size is from 1 to 50 μm, has a high initial discharge capacity per weight and further is excellent in the charge and discharge cyclic durability.
Further, Patent Document 5 proposes to lithiate a cobalt compound powder in the form of secondary particles with an average particle size of 0.5 to 30 μm formed by agglomeration of primary particles of cobalt hydroxide, cobalt oxyhydroxide or cobalt oxide with an average particle size of from 0.01 to 2 μm. However, also in this case, it is not possible to obtain a cathode active material having a high volume capacity density, and further, the material is insufficient also with respect to the cyclic properties, the safety or the large current discharge properties.
As described above, in the prior art, with respect to a lithium secondary battery employing a lithium-containing composite oxide as a cathode active material, it has not yet been possible to obtain one which sufficiently satisfies all of the volume capacity density, the safety, the coating uniformity, the cyclic properties and further the low temperature characteristics.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-6-243897
Patent Document 2: JP-A-3-201368
Patent Document 3: JP-A-10-312805
Patent Document 4: JP-A-10-72219
Patent Document 5: JP-A-2002-60225

Lithium-containing composite oxide and its production process


A method of generating a particle is disclosed, the particle being for delivery of a polynucleotide to a target cell. The method comprises (a) contacting the polynucleotide with a composition comprising cationic molecules, wherein the cationic molecules condense the polynucleotide by electrostatic interactions to generate a complex, wherein the cationic molecules are not comprised in a liposome; and (b) covalently binding the complex to a targeting moiety at a pH equal to or below about 4.5, thereby generating the particle for delivery of the polynucleotide agent to the target cell. Use of the particles and compositions comprising same are also disclosed.

The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to cell-targeting nanoparticles comprising polynucleotide agents and uses thereof.
Most cancers are not uniform and contain subpopulations of cells that are relatively resistant to chemo/radiotherapy. These cells are not eliminated by treatment and may be the source of cancer recurrence. One leading theory is that tumors are initiated by such rare drug-resistant cells within the tumor, called cancer stem cells or tumor-initiating cells (T-IC), which share properties with normal tissue stem cells. These cells can self renew and can be passaged indefinitely both in vitro and in vivo and can differentiate into multiple cell lineages. Importantly, they are much more malignant than the bulk of tumor cells in immunodeficient mice, forming tumors with many fewer cells, and frequently the tumors are more metastatic.
One common feature of all T-IC is a high expression of CD44 named (CD44high). CD44high with or without several other markers (such as CD133, CD24low or CD24+, CD166 and EpCAM) is found in blood and solid tumors, among them breast, pancreatic, leukemia, brain and melanoma.
Most cancer stem cells are relatively drug resistant and more malignant than the bulk of tumor cells. Therefore it is imperative to develop therapies that address this subpopulation in order to treat different type of cancer stem cells successfully.
Although it is only recently that RNA interference (RNAi) was shown in mammals, the prospect of harnessing RNAi for human therapy has developed rapidly. Phase I and II clinical studies using siRNAs to treat macular degeneration and respiratory syncytial virus infection have been encouraging.
However, many of these promising therapies were performed by locally injecting siRNAs into a xenotransplanted tumor. The greatest obstacle for harnessing RNAi for cancer therapy is systemically delivering siRNAs to silence gene expression not only in a primary tumor, but also in occult metastases and disseminated disease.
Particles have been developed that systemically target leukocytes. Such particles were formed by mixing siRNAs with a fusion protein composed of a cell targeting moiety (antibody fragment or cell surface receptor ligand against an internalizing leukocyte integrin) and an RNA binding peptide such as protamine [Peer et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104, 4095-4100 (2007)]. Intravenous injection of siRNA fusion protein nanoparticles specifically target and inhibit pulmonary hematopoietic cell tumors. In addition, it has been shown that lipid-based nanoparticles decorated with anti-integrin antibody can selectively deliver siRNAs to leukocytes involved in gut inflammation [Peer et al., Science 319, 627-630 (2008)]. This platform can be used to target different cell surface receptors by changing the antibodies decorating the particle's surface. However, this is a sophisticated strategy that cannot address the ability to target cancer stem cells.
International Application WO2009/020270 and Jiang et al [Biopolymers, Vol. 89, No. 7, 2008] teach a delivery system for nucleic acids using a composition comprising polyethyleneimine and hyaluronic acid. The composition is generated at a pH above 4.5. The particles generated had a zeta potential of 3.6, 13.2 and 24.9 with a size of 21 nm.
Taetz et al. [Oligonucleotides, Vol. 19, No. 2, Epub April 2009] teaches reacting liposomes which have been previously attached to hyaluronic acid with siRNA to produce lipoplexes for the treatment of cancer. The size of the lipoplexes were between 100-200 nm with a zeta potential of about −40 mV.
Surace et al [Molecular Pharmaceutics, Vol. 6, No. 4, pages 1062-73 teaches using liposomes previously attached to hyaluronic acid to form lipoplexes together with plasmid DNA. Lipoplexes displayed a negative zeta potential and a mean diameter between 250-300 nm.
Han Su-Eun et al [Journal of Drug Targeting, Vol. 17, No. 2, February 2009] teach a delivery system for nucleic acids using a composition comprising polyethyleneimine and hyaluronic acid. The composition is generated at a pH above 4.5. The particles generated had a zeta potential between 45-70 mV and are about 185 nm in diameter.
Herringson et al [Journal of Controlled Release, Vol. 139, No. 3, pages 229-238] teaches encapsulation of siRNA into neutral stealth liposomes and engraftment with CD4 ligand. The liposomes had a mean diameter of 243 nm and a zeta potential of −11.5 mV and −1.5 mV.
Chono et al., Journal of Controlled Release, Volume 131, Issue 1, 6 Oct. 2008, Pages 64-69, teaches nanoparticle formulation comprising liposomes, protamine and hyaluronic acid for systemically delivering siRNA into a tumor.
Additional background art includes U.S. Pat. No. 7,544,374 and U.S. Patent Application No. 20090155178 which teaches non-homogeneous populations of particles of lipidated glycosaminoglycans as gene delivery materials.

Cell-targeting nanoparticles comprising polynucleotide agents and uses thereof


A method for manufacturing a field emitter, includes the steps of: providing a CNT yarn segment; attaching the CNT yarn segment to a heat conductor; and burning the CNT yarn segment thereby yielding a remaining portion of the CNT yarn segment for use as a field emitter. It is proper to manufacture a plurality of field emitters with essentially even field emission properties using the present method.

Since being discovered in 1991, CNTs have been synthesized by numerous methods such as laser vaporization, arc discharge, pyrolysis, plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, and thermal chemical vapor deposition. CNT yarns can be made of CNTs as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,045,108 incorporated by reference thereto. The CNT yarns would enable macroscopic CNT devices and structures to be constructed.
CNT yarns can be also be utilized as field emission source because ends of CNT yarns have a good field emission property. However, different CNT yarns may have different field emission properties depending on differing CNT yarn end shapes. Different CNT yarns usually have quite different CNT yarn end shapes. Moreover, CNT yarn length is difficult to control. Therefore, production of multiple CNT yarns with similar field emission properties has proved problematic.
It is therefore desirable to find a new manufacturing method which can overcome the above mentioned problems.


The amount of wear on the vanes of a sliding vane rotary pump is determined by inserting a wear inspection dip stick into a wear inspection port providing in a housing of the sliding vane rotary pump. The wear dipstick includes one or more mark providing an indication of the amount of wear on the vanes, and a marking member which provides an indication of current vane length and allows a maintenance person to easily determine when a pump replacement is required.

Sliding vane rotary pumps are well known for use in a variety of applications, and are particularly common in aeronautical and aviation applications. These devices are commonly used, for example, in powering gyroscopically controlled flight instruments in airplanes. Proper maintenance to prevent the failure of these devices is therefore very important.
Sliding vane rotary pumps typically comprise a rotor, a housing or stator, and a plurality of vanes. The rotor includes radial slots which receive the vanes, and can be constructed of either carbon, carbon composite, or hardened metal materials. The stator is typically constructed of a hardened metal material and the interior comprises an ellipsoidal cavity which receives the rotor. The vanes are typically constructed of carbon or carbon composites, and, as the rotor rotates, are caused by gravity to slide in and out of the slots as the rotor moves within the cavity, extending and retracting synchronously with the relative rotation of the rotor to provide compression and expansion of the air and therefore to produce a pumping pressure.
The sliding motion of the vanes, however, results in a significant degree of friction which is exacerbated by the atmospheric pressures induced when used in aviation applications. While a number of efforts have been made to mitigate the frictional wear from the sliding vanes, including, for example, employing various coatings on both the vanes and the rotor, wear and breakage of the vanes remains problematic, as the friction developed between the vane and the rotor is eventually destructive to the pump. As the vanes reciprocate in the rotor slots, friction causes the vanes to wear, eventually shortening the vanes until they no longer reciprocate in the slots properly. Eventually, the shortened vanes lead to pump failure. Although the wear on the vanes can be monitored to some extent on the aircraft's vacuum gauge, which provides an indication if the pump is not operating correctly, there is generally little warning of a pending failure, as pump performance and efficiency are generally unaffected by wear on the vanes until a total or near total failure occurs.
To prevent such failures, the operation time of the pump is monitored and the number of hours of operation is used as a benchmark for determining when to replace the pump. While generally effective in preventing pump failure, replacing the pump based entirely on hours of operation is expensive, resulting in premature pump replacement even when no significant wear has occurred, and further incurring costs in the form of maintenance time, down time for the vehicle and equipment expense. To reduce the equipment costs, the pump can be removed from the equipment and disassembled to evaluate the amount of wear. Again, however, this operation requires a high degree of maintenance activity, significant vehicle down time, and is highly dependent on the opinion of the evaluator.
Another alternative, in which the length of the vanes are visually monitored, has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,450,789. Here, a "view port" is provided in a back of the housing of the pump. Through the view port, a maintenance person can examine the length of the vanes with reference to the width of the port and/or an associated calibration hole. While providing a means for viewing the rear on the vane, the view port can be difficult to access in the vehicle, and further requires a judgment call on the part of the maintenance personnel examining the pump.
There remains a need, therefore, for an easy, consistent and effective way to gauge the wear on a vane in a dry air sliding vane pump without requiring removal or disassembly of the pump.

Method and apparatus for measuring vane wear in a sliding vane rotary pump


A nutating pump is disclosed which has a modified piston and housing or casing that provides two distinct pump chambers or areas. Output from the first pump chamber is delivered during a first half of the dispense cycle or the piston movement cycle. A substantial portion of this output is held for delivery by the second chamber during a second part or half of the dispense cycle. Thus, the output generated by the pump is not altered or reduced, it is delivered over the entire piston movement cycle as opposed to prior art pumps which deliver all of the fluid during a first half or first portion of the piston movement cycle. In this way, superior pulse modification is achieved as fluid is delivered across the entire piston movement cycle as opposed to a first half or first portion of the piston movement cycle. In additional embodiments disclosed, two distinct chambers are also provided but each chamber generates its own output as the piston includes two machined or flat sections for active pumping. Thus, each chamber generates its own positive output flow but the flow from each chamber is delivered during a different half of the piston movement cycle. Thus, the flow is still distributed throughout the entire piston movement cycle. In the first embodiment with a first and second chamber, the second chamber essentially acts as a holding station for fluid to be delivered during a second half of the piston movement cycle.

1. Technical Field
Improved nutating pumps are disclosed with piston designs that provide output flow in both the first and second parts of the piston rotation/reciprocation cycle thereby providing about, half the normal flow rate during the first part of the cycle as a conventional piston but also about that same flow rate during the second part of the cycle in contrast to prior art nutating pumps where there is no flow rate for second part or intake portion of the cycle. The result is smoother, reduced pulsation flow and an overall cycle dispense amount about equal to a conventional nutating pump but with less pulsations and splashing. The nutating pumps have numerous applications where accuracy and speed are important.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nutating pumps are pumps having a piston that both rotates about its axis liner and contemporaneously slides axially and reciprocally within a line or casing. The combined 360° rotation and reciprocating axial movement of the piston produces a sinusoidal dispense profile that is illustrated in FIG. 1A. In FIG. 1A, the sinusoidal profile is graphically illustrated. The line 1 graphically illustrates the flow rate at varying points during one revolution of the piston. The portion of the curve 1 above the horizontal line 2 representing a zero flow rate represents the output while the portion of the curve 1 disposed below the line 2 represents the intake or "fill." Both the pump output and pump intake flow rates reach both maximum and minimum levels and therefore there is no linear correlation between piston rotation and either pump output or pump intake.
The colorant dispensers disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,398,513 and 6,540,486 (Amsler '513 and Amsler '486) utilize a nutating pump and a computer control system to control the pump. Prior to the system disclosed by Amsler et al., existing nutating pumps were operated by rotating the piston through a full 360° rotation and corresponding axial travel of the piston. Such piston operation results in a specific amount of fluid pumped by the nutating pump with each revolution of the piston. Accordingly, the amount of fluid pumped for any given nutating pump is limited to multiples of the specific volume. If a smaller volume of fluid is desired, then a smaller sized nutating pump is used or manual calibration adjustments are made to the pump.
For example, in the art of mixing paint, paint colorants can be dispensed in amounts as little as 1/256th of a fluid ounce. As a result, existing nutating pumps for paint colorants can be very small. With such small dispense amount capabilities, the motor of such a small pump would have had to run at excessive speeds to dispense larger volumes of colorant (multiple full revolutions) in an appropriate time period.
In contrast, larger pumps may be used to minimize the motor speed. When small dispense amounts are needed, a partial revolution dispense for such a larger capacity nutating pump would be advantageous. However, using a partial revolution to accurately dispense fluid is difficult due to the non-linear output of the nutating pump dispense profile vs. angle of rotation as shown in FIG. 1A.
To address this problem, the disclosures of Amsler '513 and '486 divide a single revolution of the pump piston into a plurality of steps that can range from several steps to four hundred steps or more. Controllers and algorithms are used with a sensor to monitor the angular position of the piston, and using this position, calculate the number of steps required to achieve the desired output. Various other improvements and methods of operation are disclosed in Amsler '513 and '486.
The sinusoidal profile illustrated in FIG. 1A is based upon a pump operating at a constant motor speed. While operating the pump at a constant motor speed has its benefits in terms of simplicity of controller design and pump operation, the use of a constant motor speed also has inherent disadvantages, some of which are addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,749,402 (Hogan et al.).
Specifically, in certain applications, the maximum output flow rate illustrated on the left side of FIG. 1A can be disadvantageous because the output fluid may splash or splatter as it is being pumped into the output receptacle at the higher flow rates. For example, in paint or cosmetics dispensing applications, any splashing of the colorant as it is being pumped into the output container results in an inaccurate amount of colorant being deposited in the container but also colorant being splashed on the colorant machine which requires labor intensive clean-up and maintenance. Obviously, this splashing problem will adversely affect any nutating pump application where precise amounts of output fluid are being delivered to an output receptacle that is either full or partially full of liquid or small output receiving receptacles.
For example, the operation of a conventional nutating pump having the profile of FIG. 1A results in pulsed output flow as shown in FIGS. 1B and 1C. The pulsed flow shown at the left in FIGS. 1B and 1C, at speeds of 800 and 600 rpm respectively, results in pulsations 3 and 4 which are a cause of unwanted splashing. FIGS. 1B and 1C are renderings of actual digital photographs of an actual nutating pump in operation. While reducing the motor speed from 800 to 600 rpm results in a smaller pulse 4, the reduction in pulse size is minimal and the benefits are offset by the slower operation. To avoid splashing altogether, the motor speed would have to be reduced substantially more than 20% thereby making the choice of a nutating pump less attractive despite its high accuracy. A further disadvantage to the pulsed flow shown in FIG. 1A is an accompanying pressure spike that cause an increase in motor torque.
In addition to the splashing problem of FIG. 1A, the large pressure drop that occurs within the pump as the piston rotates from the point where the dispense rate is at a maximum to the point where the intake rate is at a maximum (i.e. the peak of the curve shown at the left of FIG. 1A to the valley of the curve shown towards the right of FIG. 1A) can result in motor stalling for those systems where the motor is operated at a constant speed. As a result, motor stalling will result in an inconsistent or non-constant motor speed, there by affecting the sinusoidal dispense rate profile illustrated in FIG. 1A, and consequently, would affect any control system or control method based upon a preprogrammed sinusoidal dispense profile. The stalling problem will occur on the intake side of FIG. 1A as well as the pump goes from the maximum intake flow rate to the maximum dispense flow rate.
The splashing and stalling problems addressed by Hogan et al. are illustrated partly in FIG. 2 which shows a modified dispense profile 1 a where the motor speed is varied during the pump cycle to flatten the curve 1 of FIG. 1A. The variance in motor speed results in a reduction of the peak output flow rate while maintaining a suitable average flow rate by (i) increasing the flow rates at the beginning and the end of the dispense portion of the cycle, (ii) reducing the peak dispense flow rate, (iii) increasing the duration of the dispense portion of the cycle and (iv) reducing the duration of the intake or fill portion of the cycle. This is accomplished using a computer algorithm that controls the speed of the motor during the cycle thereby increasing or decreasing the motor speed as necessary to achieve a dispense curve like that shown in FIG. 2.
However, the nutating pump design of Hogan et al. as shown in FIG. 2, while reducing splashing, still results in a start/stop dispense profile and therefore the dispense is not a pulsation-free or completely smooth flow. Despite the decrease in peak dispense rate, the abrupt increase in dispense rate shown at the left of FIG. 2 and the abrupt drop off in flow rate shown at the center of FIG. 2 still provides for the possibility of some splashing. Further, the abrupt starting and stopping of dispensing followed by a significant lag time during the fill portion of the cycle still presents the problems of significant pressure spikes and bulges and gaps in the fluid stream exiting the dispense nozzle. Any decrease in the slope of the portions of the curves shown at 1a, 1c would require in increase in the cycle time as would any decrease in the maximum fill rate. Thus, the only modifications that can be made to the cycle shown in FIG. 2 to reduce the abruptness of the start and finish of the dispensing portion of the cycle would result in increasing the cycle time and any reduction in the maximum fill rate to reduce pressure spiking and motor stalling problems would also result in an increase in the cycle time.
Accordingly, there is a need for approved nutating pump with an improved control system and/or a method of control thereof where by the pump motor is controlled so as to reduce the likelihood of splashing and "pulsing" during dispense without compromising pump speed and accuracy.

Nutating pump with reduced pulsations in output flow


A system and method for determining a traffic sign violation are provided. The method may include obtaining a traffic rule corresponding to the traffic sign. The method may further include acquiring, by at least one camera, video data associated with a scene around a traffic sign. The video data may include a series of frames. The method may further include identifying the vehicle in the series of frames and determining whether the vehicle violates the traffic rule based on the series of frames. In response to the determination that the vehicle violates the traffic rule, the method may further include obtaining information of the vehicle and transmitting the information of the vehicle to a server.

A traffic sign is a sign standing at the side of or above roads to give instructions or provide information to road users, such as drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, etc. Usually, every traffic sign is associated with a specific traffic rule that a vehicle, a motorcycle, or a pedestrian should comply with. For example, a stop sign is associated with a rule that requires any vehicle or motorcycle to be fully stopped for a certain time period (e.g., 3 s) before proceeding. However, the number of traffic signs in an area is too huge comparing with limited police resources (e.g., traffic polices) or traffic monitoring facilities, which makes it impossible to monitor violations around certain traffic signs such as stop signs in the community streets, near a school or a hospital, etc. Therefore, it is desirable to provide systems and methods for automatically monitoring traffic around a traffic sign and detecting traffic sign violations.

Systems and methods for monitoring traffic sign violation

SHANGHAI TRUTHVISION INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A chlorinated propylene-based polymer of the present invention having a weight average molecular weight (Mw) as measured by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) of 5,000 to 100,000 and a chlorine content of 0.1 to 70% by mass has the following properties:                (1) it has a high solubility in a non-aromatic solvent having a low environmental burden even when it has a low degree of chlorination, and        (2) it can be inhibited from suffering a decrease in the properties inherent to polypropylenes, such as durability, mechanical properties, appearance and hydrophobicity, by regulating its degree of chlorination at a low value.

Resins obtainable by chlorination of polyolefins have excellent properties in dissolution thereof in organic solvents and, therefore, are now industrially produced and used in a variety of fields. In particular, resins having a high chlorine content are used as corrosion-proof coatings for outdoor constructions, while resins having a low chlorine content which can adhere to polyolefin articles are used in an ink for polyolefin films or in a primer for coating polyolefin moldings.
Polyolefines are generally insoluble in aromatic organic solvents such as toluene and xylene but become soluble in organic solvents when chlorine is introduced thereinto.
Various methods are known to chlorinate polyolefins. They may be roughly classified into a method in which a polyolefin is chlorinated in the form of a suspended liquid (see Japanese Patent Publication No. Showa 36(1961)-4745, for example), a method in which a polyolefin is chlorinated in the form of a solution (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Showa 48(1973)-8856, for example), and a method in which a polyolefin is chlorinated in the form of a bulk (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Showa 46(1971)-737, for example). The suspended liquid chlorination method is carried out in such a manner that a polyolefin in the form of fine particles is suspended in water and chlorine gas is blown into the resulting suspended liquid while irradiating ultraviolet rays or after addition of a radical generating agent. After termination of the chlorination, the chlorinated product is separated from water and dried. The solution chlorination method is performed by dissolving a polyolefin in a chlorine-containing organic solvent which is inert to chlorine, such as carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, methylene chloride or trichloroethane, for example. Chlorine gas is blown into the resulting solution to chlorinate the polyolefin while irradiating ultraviolet rays or after addition of a radical generating agent. The product is separated from the solvent to obtain a chlorinated polyolefin. A method is also known in which a hydrocarbon solvent is used (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Heisei 03(1991)-197510, for example). The bulk chlorination method is performed in such a manner that a polyolefin in the form of powder is chlorinated by contact with chlorine gas using, for example, a fluidized bed system.
A chlorinated polypropylene, which can be dissolved in organic solvents and is easy to handle, is particularly utilized in various applications. Because of low solubility of polypropylene being the base polymer, it has been difficult to obtain a satisfactory solubility unless the chlorination degree is made high. In this case, however, a reduction of durability, etc. of the base polymer is inevitably caused.
As a problem of chlorinated polypropylenes, there may be mentioned a future trend for non-toluene type products. It is most likely that the use of aromatic solvents will be prohibited within three to five years from now. In the current industry, toluene is used in all products. Study and development are thus being made with a view toward the realization of non-toluene products after five years from now.

Chlorinated propylene polymer, process for producing the same and use of the same


An electrical device to be electrically mounted to a cooling mounting structure so that the electrical device is in intimate physical contact with the mounting structure for cooling the electrical device. The electrical device having a first pivot allowing contact for allowing the electrical device to be pivoted as it is mounted to the cooling mounting structure so that the electrical device is in intimate physical contact with the cooling mounting structure and for providing an electrical connection to the cooling mounting structure and the electrical device further having a second nonpivot allowing contact having a shape for providing electrical contact with the mounting structure when the electrical device is in intimate physical contact with the cooling mounting structure.

The present invention relates to electrical devices which can be electrically connected to a mounting structure in a manner that allows intimate contact between the electrical device and the mounting structure.
The present invention is particularly useful for electronic devices which carry both high current rated leads and low current rated leads. Standard electronic packages which are rated at 50 amps or above typically have large lugs to carry these high levels of current. Standard electronic packages which are rated at less than 50 amps typically have wire leads which are to be soldered to printed circuit boards. If such packages can be properly cooled, they can carry larger amounts of current.
It has been difficult in the past, however, to mount such packages to provide proper electrical connections and at the same time provide adequate cooling for the packages. This problem is particularly acute when the electrical package, such as an insulated gate bipolar transistor, has both high and low amperage leads. The high amperage leads may carry current as high as 50 or more amperes and must be attached to large bus bars. The low amperage leads, on the other hand, carry typically less than 3 amperes and must access a printed circuit board. A mounting arrangement must be provided for allowing the high amperage leads to be connected to the large bus bars and the low amperage leads to be connected to printed circuit boards while at the same time facilitating intimate physical engagement with a cooling surface for cooling the electrical package.

Pivotable electrical connection apparatus