Raman spectroscopy systems include an analyte, a radiation source configured to emit incident radiation having a wavelength, and a detector that is capable of detecting only radiation having wavelengths within a detectable range that includes at least one wavelength corresponding to hyper Raman scattered radiation scattered by the analyte. The wavelength of the incident radiation is outside the detectable range. In particular systems, all wavelengths of radiation that are scattered in the direction of the detector impinge on the detector. Raman spectroscopy methods include providing an analyte and irradiating the analyte with incident radiation having a wavelength, providing a detector capable of detecting only wavelengths of radiation within a detectable range that does not include the wavelength of the incident radiation, and detecting Raman scattered radiation scattered by the analyte. A continuous path free of radiation filters may be provided between the analyte and the detector.

Raman spectroscopy is a well-known technique for analyzing molecules or materials. In conventional Raman Spectroscopy, an analyte (or sample) that is to be analyzed is irradiated with high intensity monochromatic radiation provided by a radiation source, such as a laser. A radiation detector detects radiation that is scattered by the analyte. The properties of the scattered radiation provide information relating to the analyte.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a conventional Raman system 10. The Raman spectroscopy system 10 includes an electromagnetic radiation source 12 that is configured to emit incident electromagnetic radiation 18, an analyte stage 16 on which an analyte (not shown in FIG. 1) may be positioned, and an electromagnetic radiation detector 14. The radiation detector 14 is configured to detect at least a portion of scattered radiation 20 that is scattered by the analyte. The Raman spectroscopy system 10 also includes various optical components 30 positioned between the electromagnetic radiation source 12 and the analyte stage 16 (for example, lens 32A and filter 34A), and between the analyte stage 16 and the detector 14 (for example, lens 32B and filter 34B).
The electromagnetic radiation source 12 may be a commercially available laser. The wavelength or wavelengths of incident electromagnetic radiation 18 that may be emitted by the electromagnetic radiation source 12 typically are in the visible region to the near infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The radiation detector 14 receives and detects at least a portion of the scattered radiation 20 that is scattered by an analyte disposed on the analyte stage 16. The detector 14 may include a device for determining the wavelength of the scattered radiation 20 (for example, a monochromator) and a device for determining the intensity of the scattered radiation 20 (for example, a photomultiplier). Typically, the scattered radiation 20 is scattered in all directions relative to the analyte stage 16.
Optical components 30 positioned between the electromagnetic radiation source 12 and the analyte stage 16 are used to collimate, filter, or focus the incident radiation 18 before the incident radiation 18 impinges on the analyte stage 16. Optical components 30 positioned between the analyte stage 16 and the detector 14 are used to collimate, filter, or focus the scattered radiation 20.
Referring to FIG. 2, an analyte 26 may be provided on the analyte stage 16 of the Raman spectroscopy system 10 (shown in FIG. 1) and irradiated with the incident radiation 18 emitted by the electromagnetic radiation source 12 to perform Raman spectroscopy using the Raman spectroscopy system 10. As the incident radiation 18 impinges on the analyte 26, at least some of the incident radiation 18 will be scattered by the analyte 26. FIG. 2 illustrates scattered radiation 20 that has been scattered by the analyte 26. A majority of the photons of the incident radiation 18 that impinge on the analyte 26 are elastically scattered by the analyte 26. In other words, the scattered photons have the same energy, and thus the same wavelength, as the incident photons. This elastic scattering of photons is termed "Rayleigh scattering," and radiation consisting of these elastically scattered photons is termed "Rayleigh scattered radiation" or "Rayleigh radiation." FIG. 2 also illustrates Rayleigh scattered radiation.
The Rayleigh scattering process can be further described with reference to the simplified Jablonski diagram shown schematically in FIG. 3, which illustrates various energy levels of a hypothetical analyte, such as the analyte 26 shown in FIG. 2. In FIG. 3, energy levels of the analyte are represented as horizontal lines. As seen therein, the ground state energy level (the lowest energy level) is shown at the bottom of the diagram, excited vibrational energy states are shown just above the ground state, excited electronic energy states are shown at the top of the diagram, and virtual excited states are shown between the excited electronic states and the excited vibrational states. As seen in FIG. 3, Rayleigh scattering typically involves absorption of a single photon of the incident radiation 18 by the analyte 26, which causes the analyte 26 to transition from the ground state to a virtual state followed by relaxation to the ground state. As the analyte 26 relaxes to the ground state, the analyte 26 emits a photon of scattered radiation 20 that has energy equal to that of the photon of the incident radiation 18. In this manner, the photon of the incident radiation 18 is considered to have been elastically scattered.
In addition to the Rayleigh scattering of photons, a very small fraction of the photons of the incident radiation 18 may be inelastically scattered by the analyte 26. Referring again to FIG. 2, Raman scattered radiation 22 is also emitted from the analyte 26. Typically, only about 1 in 107 of the photons of the incident radiation 18 is inelastically scattered by the analyte 26. These inelastically scattered photons have a different wavelength than the photons of the incident radiation 18. This inelastic scattering of photons is termed "Raman scattering," and radiation consisting of Raman scattered photons is termed "Raman scattered radiation" or "Raman radiation." The photons of the Raman scattered radiation can have wavelengths less than, or more typically, greater than the wavelength of the photons of the incident radiation 18.
The Raman scattering process can be further described with reference to the simplified Jablonski diagram shown in FIG. 3. When a photon of the incident radiation 18 collides with the analyte 26, energy can be transferred from the photon to the analyte 26, or from the analyte 26 to the photon. When energy is transferred from the photon of the incident radiation 18 to the analyte 26, the Raman scattered photon will have a lower energy and a corresponding longer wavelength than the incident photon. These Raman scattered photons having lower energy than the incident photons are collectively referred to in Raman spectroscopy as the "Stokes radiation." As seen in FIG. 3, 1st order Stokes Raman scattering typically involves absorption of a single photon of the incident radiation 18 by the analyte 26, which causes the analyte 26 to transition from a first energy state (for example, the ground state) to an excited virtual state. The analyte 26 then relaxes to an excited vibrational state of higher energy than the first energy state. As the analyte 26 relaxes to the excited vibrational state, the analyte 26 emits a photon of scattered radiation 20 that has less energy (and a longer wavelength) than the photon of the incident radiation 18. In this manner, the photon of the incident radiation 18 is considered to have been inelastically scattered.
When energy is transferred from the analyte 26 to a photon of the incident radiation 18, the Raman scattered photon will have a higher energy and a corresponding shorter wavelength than the photon of the incident radiation 18. These Raman scattered photons, which have higher energy than the incident photons, are collectively referred to in Raman spectroscopy as the "anti-Stokes radiation." As seen in FIG. 3, 1st order anti-Stokes Raman scattering typically involves absorption of a single photon of the incident radiation 18 by the analyte 26, which causes the analyte 26 to transition from an excited vibrational energy state to an excited virtual state. The analyte 26 then relaxes to a lower energy state (for example, the ground state) than the excited vibrational energy state. As the analyte 26 relaxes to the lower energy state, the analyte 26 emits a photon of scattered radiation 20 that has more energy (and a shorter wavelength) than the photon of the incident radiation 18. In this manner, the photon of the incident radiation 18 is considered to have been inelastically scattered.
The shift in energy (wavelength, frequency, or wave number) of the Raman scattered photons in relation to the Rayleigh scattered photons is known as the "Raman shift."
Raman scattering primarily involves one photon excitation—one photon relaxation process. These Raman scattering processes are often referred to as "1st order" Raman scattering processes. However, multiple photon excitation—single photon relaxation processes are also observed and are referred to as "hyper Raman scattering" processes. Two photon excitation—one photon relaxation scattering processes are referred to as "2nd order" hyper Raman scattering processes, three-photon excitation—one photon relaxation processes are referred to as "3rd order" Raman scattering processes, etc. These higher order Raman scattering processes are often referred to as "harmonics."
In 2nd order scattering processes, a molecule of the analyte 26 in an initial energy state absorbs the energy from two photons of the incident radiation 18 causing an energy transition in the analyte 26 to a virtual excited state, followed by relaxation to a final energy state and emission of a single scattered photon. If the final energy state is the same as the initial energy state, the scattering process is referred to as hyper Raleigh scattering (not represented in FIG. 3). If the final energy state is higher than the initial energy state, the scattering process is referred to as 2nd order Stokes hyper Raman scattering. Finally, if the final energy state is lower than the initial energy state, the scattering process is referred to as 2nd order anti-Stokes hyper Raman scattering. The Stokes and anti-Stokes 2nd order hyper Raman scattering processes are also represented in the Jablonski diagram shown in FIG. 3.
The Raman scattered radiation that is scattered by the analyte 26 (including the hyper Raman scattered radiation) is often referred to as the "Raman signal."
Information may be obtained from hyper Raman scattered radiation that cannot be obtained from 1st order Raman scattered radiation. In particular, vibrational information may be suppressed in Raman scattered radiation due to symmetry issues, thereby resulting in what are often referred to as "silent modes." These silent modes may not be suppressed in the hyper Raman scattered radiation.
Referring again to FIG. 2, when the analyte 26 is irradiated with the incident radiation 18, the scattered radiation 20 may include Raman scattered radiation 22, which may comprise 1 st order Raman scattered radiation 22A (Stokes and anti-Stokes) and higher order hyper Raman scattered radiation 22B (Stokes and anti-Stokes), in addition to Rayleigh scattered radiation 24.
The Raman scattered radiation 22 is detected using the radiation detector 14. The wavelengths and corresponding intensity of the Raman scattered radiation 22 may be determined and used to provide a Raman spectral graph. Analytes 26 generate unique Raman spectral graphs. The unique Raman spectral graph obtained by performing Raman spectroscopy can be used to obtain information relating to the analyte 26 including, but not limited to, the identification of an unknown analyte 26, or the determination of physical and chemical characteristics of a known analyte 26.
Raman scattering of photons is a relatively weak process relative to Rayleigh scattering, and hyper Raman scattering is even weaker. Conventional Raman systems are designed primarily to detect 1st order Raman scattered radiation, which has wavelengths proximate the wavelength of the Rayleigh scattered radiation. The detector 14 is capable of detecting the high-intensity Rayleigh scattered radiation 24 in addition to the low-intensity Raman scattered radiation 22. The detection of the Raman scattered radiation 22 may be difficult due to the high intensity of the Rayleigh scattered radiation 24. To overcome this difficulty, the optical components 30 positioned between the analyte stage 16 and the detector 14 include a radiation filter 34B that prevents the Rayleigh scattered radiation 24 from being detected by the detector 14, thus allowing only the Raman scattered radiation 22 to be received by the detector 14. Commercially available notch filters may be used for such purposes. Notch filters are typically very expensive and add to the bulk and fragility of any detector for Raman scattered radiation. As such, eliminating the need for a filter would allow for smaller and cheaper Raman spectroscopy systems. Accordingly, there is a need for Raman spectroscopy systems that may operate without a filter between the analyte 26 and the detector 14.
Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a technique that allows for enhancement of the intensity of the Raman scattered radiation relative to conventional Raman spectroscopy. In SERS, the analyte typically is adsorbed onto or placed adjacent to what is often referred to as a SERS-active structure. SERS-active structures typically include a metal surface or structure. Interactions between the analyte and the metal surface may cause an increase in the intensity of the Raman scattered radiation.
Several types of metallic structures have been employed in SERS techniques to enhance the intensity of Raman scattered radiation that is scattered by an analyte. Some examples of such structures include electrodes in electrolytic cells, metal colloid solutions, and metal substrates such as a roughened metal surface or metal "islands" formed on a substrate. For example, it has been shown that adsorbing analyte molecules onto or near a specially roughened metal surface of gold or silver can enhance the Raman scattering intensity by factors of between 103 and 106.
Raman spectroscopy recently has been performed employing metal nanoparticles, such as nanometer scale needles, particles, and wires, as opposed to a simple roughened metallic surface. This process will be referred to herein as nano-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (NERS). Structures comprising nanoparticles that are used to enhance the intensity of Raman scattered radiation may be referred to as NERS-active structures. The intensity of the Raman scattered radiation that is scattered by an analyte adsorbed on such a NERS-active structure can be increased by factors as high as 1016.

Systems and methods for detection of Raman scattered photons

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A power amplifier with noise shaping is disclosed. The power amplifier with noise shaping is able to minimize the noise interference a regular power amplifier encounters. The power amplifier includes a differential-mode integrator, a driving unit, and a low pass filter and integration unit. The differential-mode integrator receives a differential-mode input signal and a differential-mode feedback signal and performs integration operations to output a differential-mode intermediate signal. The driving unit outputs a differential-mode output signal and drives a load according to the differential-mode intermediate signal. The low pass filter and integration unit performs a filtering operation on the differential-mode output signal and integration operations to output the differential-mode feedback signal to the differential-mode integrator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a power amplifier, and more particularly, to a power amplifier with noise shaping.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram of a conventional audio amplifier. Referring to FIG. 1, a power amplifier, in particular an audio power amplifier, usually adopts a negative feedback to obtain a stable gain. The feedback circuit in the circuit of FIG. 1 employs a voltage regulator 140 composed of an R-R circuit, wherein β is a feedback factor (for example, β≦1). As shown by FIG. 1, a differential-mode input signal pair of VIN and VIP of the integrator 110 takes low voltages as the operation voltages thereof, while the output operation voltage of the power amplifier stage 130 is high voltage. The voltage regulator 140 of FIG. 1 is for converting the high voltages of the power amplifier stage 130 into low voltages (due to β≦1) to be input to the integrator 110 so as to facilitate the circuit running smoothly.
Since an amplifier has been evolved from employing electron tubes to employing transistors, an audio power amplifier has encountered a most challenge problem, the problem of noise interference. Usually, an output power amplifier stage 130 would draw a large current from a power supply terminal VDD, but fail to effectively perform filtering on the power supply terminal VDD; therefore, when a gate signal is triggered and requires the power supply terminal VDD to feed a pure large current in, the large current itself can not satisfy the requirement because the large current contains noise and is not pure. At the point, the noise of the large current would be fed in the whole circuit through the voltage regulator 140. The above-mentioned problem can refer to "Adel S. Sedra & Kenneth C. Smith, Microelectronic Circuit, fourth edition, chapter 8, part 2".
Although the circuit of FIG. 1 can utilize the voltage regulator 140 in the feedback circuit thereof to convert the high voltages from the power amplifier stage 130 into low voltages input to the integrator 110, but the output voltage VO (i.e., output voltage VOP and VON) of the power amplifier stage 130 contains high-frequency noise already. Thus, the DC component of the voltage can be reduced in a proportion (for example β=0.4, if the input voltage between the positive terminal and the negative terminal of the voltage regulator 140 is 10 V, then, the output voltage between the positive terminal and the negative terminal of the voltage regulator 140 would be 6 V), but the high-frequency noise thereof is not reduced therewith. In addition, the amount of β affects the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the circuit and THD further affects the strongpoint and weakness of the power amplifier stage, wherein when β is larger, we have a better THD; when β is less, we have a worse THD. In short, not only the problem of THD and noise interference can not be solved, but also the circuit connection between the high-voltage side and the low-voltage side becomes problematic and even the original input audio signal can not be kept.


An optical serial link may be formed of an optical transceiver and a reflective wavelength coupler. The coupler may reflect light beams of different wavelengths using an elliptical reflector and a dispersive element.

This invention relates generally to an optical serial link for exchanging data between two or more terminals.
The Infini-Band Specification includes a link specification that describes the behavior of a link and specifies the link level operations of devices attached to an Infini-Band fabric. See Infini-Band Specification, available from the Infini-Band Trade Association, 5440 Southwest Westgate Drive, Suite 217, Portland, Oreg. 97221 (Rev. 0.9, 2000). The Infini-Band architecture interfaces to the external world from a host channel adapter (HCA). For example, the HCA may provide communication between the fabric services and one or more central processing units which may, for example provide an Internet server function as one example. The HCA may be linked via a switch to a plurality of input/output ports. Generally, the HCA supports a link with a very high data rate.
An Infini-Band link is bi-directional communication pathway between two connect points within the switching fabric. Conventionally, the link may be formed of a copper cable. A short haul copper interconnect may have a bit rate of 2.5 gigabits per second.
One limitation of a copper link is that its bandwidth does not scale well with additional links. Electrical. interconnects on copper also face a daunting challenge in electromagnetic interference mitigation at very high data rates. This may also raise safety concerns due to increased radiation hazards.
Thus, there is a need for better techniques for implementing optical serial links at very high data rates.


Systems, computer-implemented methods, and computer program products that can facilitate sensitive data policy recommendation are provided. According to an embodiment, a system can comprise a memory that stores computer executable components and a processor that executes the computer executable components stored in the memory. The computer executable components can comprise an extraction component that can employ an artificial intelligence model to extract compliance data from a data source. The computer executable components can further comprise a recommendation component that can recommend a sensitive data policy based on the compliance data. In some embodiments, the recommendation component can further identify one or more sensitive data entities of a sensitive data dataset that are affected by actionable obligation data of the data source.

The subject disclosure relates to information retrieval and policy recommendation systems, and more specifically, to extraction of compliance obligations from a data source and recommendation of a sensitive data policy based on such compliance obligations.
Sensitive data policy generation involves the identification of legislation relevant to sensitive data concerns and deriving rules which can constrain the processing of existing sensitive data in accordance with such legislation. Identifying and tracking the relevant legislation as well as interpreting and converting such legislation into data specific constraints however is very time consuming.
A problem with existing information retrieval (IR) systems and/or techniques employed in sensitive data policy generation is that they fail to identify portions of legal documents containing actionable legislation and they fail to map such actionable legislation to certain sensitive data repositories. These tasks must be performed manually by large cross-disciplinary teams of lawyers and information technology (IT) experts.
Another problem with such existing IR systems and/or techniques is that they do not automatically (e.g., without action by a human user) generate sensitive data policy recommendations directly from data source documents (e.g., legal documents). Another problem with such existing IR systems and/or techniques is that they cannot capture all obligations, entities, and/or definitions of a data source document (e.g., a legal document), as they use keyword search techniques and/or pattern techniques. Another problem with such existing IR systems and/or techniques is that they do not distinguish entities mentioned within a data source document (e.g., a legal document) as being the subject of, or not, an obligation or a definition. Another problem with such existing IR systems and/or techniques is that they do not provide the ability to track and/or compare relevant regulations over time which requires additional manual efforts.

Sensitive data policy recommendation based on compliance obligations of a data source

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A system for processing color information in a video signal is provided. The system includes a memory with logic, and a processor configured with the logic to receive a compressed video stream that includes a frame picture having chroma samples and luma samples, wherein the processor is further configured with the logic to receive chroma information in the compressed video stream that specifies locations of the chroma samples relative to the location of the luma samples. Other embodiments for processing color information are included herein.

In implementing enhanced programming in subscriber television systems, the home communication terminal ("HCT"), otherwise known as the set-top box, has become an important computing device for accessing media content services (and media content within those services) and navigating a user through a maze of available services. In addition to supporting traditional analog broadcast video functionality, digital HCTs (or "DHCTs") now also support an increasing number of two-way digital services such as video-on-demand and personal video recording (PVR).
Typically, a DHCT is connected to a cable or satellite, or generally, a subscriber television system, and includes hardware and software necessary to provide the functionality of the digital television system at the user's site. Some of the software executed by a DHCT may be downloaded and/or updated via the subscriber television system. Each DHCT also typically includes a processor, communication components, and memory, and is connected to a television or other display device, such as a personal computer. While many conventional DHCTs are stand-alone devices that are externally connected to a television, a DHCT and/or its functionality may be integrated into a television or personal computer or even an audio device such as a programmable radio, as will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art.
One of the features of the DHCT includes reception of a digital video signal as a compressed video signal. Another feature of the DHCT includes providing PVR functionality through the use of a storage device coupled to the DHCT. When providing this PVR functionality for analog transmission signals, compression is often employed after digitization to reduce the quantity or rate of data, and thus conserve data storage requirements for media content stored in the storage device. Video compression accomplishes this data reduction by exploiting data redundancy in a video sequence (i.e., a sequence of digitized pictures). There are two types of redundancies exploited in a video sequence, namely, spatial and temporal, as is the case in existing video coding standards. A description of some of these standards can be found in the following publications, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference: (1) ISO/IEC International Standard IS 11172-2, "Information technology—Coding of moving pictures and associated audio for digital storage media at up to about 1.5 Mbits/s—Part 2: video," 1993; (2) ITU-T Recommendation H-262 (1996): "Generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information: Video," (ISO/IEC 13818-2); (3) ITU-T Recommendation H.261 (1993): "Video codec for audiovisual services at px64 kbits/s"; and (4) Draft ITU-T Recommendation H.263 (1995): "Video codec for low bitrate communications."
One aspect of video signal digitization reduces the data rate of a video signal by performing downconversion of the color information of the video signal. The human eye has less spatial acuity to the color information than to the luminance (brightness) information. A video picture is transmitted with a brightness component (luminance) and two color components (chrominance). The digital representation of a video signal includes a luma signal (Y), representative of brightness, and color difference (or chroma) signals Cb (blue—Y) and Cr (red—Y). Without loss of generality to the specification of a video signal, luminance and luma are used interchangeably in this description as well as chrominance and chroma. The luminance information is often subjected to a non-linear transfer function, such as by a camera, and this process is called gamma correction.
Color formats for these three digitized channels of information, or equivalently the digitized YCbCr video signals, can include several forms to effect a spatial downsampling (or subsampling) of the chroma. These color formats include 4:4:4, 4:2:2, and 4:2:0, as described in ITU-601, which is an international standard for component digital television that was derived from the SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) RP1 25 and EBU 3246E standards and which are herein incorporated by reference. ITU-/601 defines the sampling systems, matrix values, and filter characteristics for Y, Cb, Cr and red-green-blue (RGB) component digital television. ITU-601 establishes a 4:2:2 sampling scheme at 13.5 MHz for the Y signal and 6.75 MHz for the CbCr signals with eight-bit digitizing for each channel. Certain implementations may process each channel internally with a higher precision than eight bits. These sample frequencies were chosen because they work for both 525-line 60 Hz and 625-line 50 Hz component video systems. The term 4:2:2 generally refers to the ratio of the number of Y signal samples to the number of CbCr signal samples in the scheme established by ITU-601. For every four Y samples, the CbCr signals are each sampled twice. On a pixel basis, this can be restated as for every pixel pair, there is a sample Y1, Y2, and a CbCr shared among the two luma samples. Equal sampling (i.e., Y1CbCr, Y2CbCr) at, say 4:4:4, is simply not required for most subscriber television systems due to the reduced visual acuity for color information. Consequently, the 4:2:2 format is an industry standard for input from a digitizer such as an analog video signal decoder and for output to an analog video signal encoder that drives a television display.
MPEG-2 (Motion Pictures Expert Group) main profile uses 4:2:0 color formatting, which reduces transmission bandwidth and data storage requirements, since now for every four luma samples, the CbCr signals are each sampled once. According to ITU-601, the first number of the 4:2:0 color format (i.e., "4") historically represents approximately "4" times the sampling rate for a video signal. The second number (i.e., "2") represents a defined horizontal subsampling with respect to the luma samples. The third number (e.g., "0") represents a defined vertical subsampling (e.g., 2:1 vertical subsampling).
Thus, in the process of digitizing a video signal, the DHCT downconverts the CbCr signal components (or chroma) from the 4:2:2 color format to the 4:2:0 color format using filtering technology well-known in the art to comply to the format required for compression, which also reduces data storage consumption in the storage device. Likewise, a remote compression engine (i.e., remote from the DHCT) may likely have to perform downconversion from the 4:2:2 color format to the 4:2:0 color format using filtering technology. In transitioning from a 4:2:2 color format to a 4:2:0 color format, the chroma signal has to represent a larger pixel sampling area.
Displaying the video pictures on a display device includes the process of receiving a transmitted digital video signal or the process of retrieving the pictures of the video signal from the storage device, decompressing the resultant video signal and reconstructing the pictures in memory, and upconverting the CbCr signal components (or chroma) from the 4:2:0 color format to the 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 color format for eventual display to a display device, or for other processing. Thus, conversion again is needed to reconstruct the color information of the original signal, a process that often reduces picture quality. What is needed is a system that reduces the loss of picture quality (or preserves the picture quality) in the conversion of the chroma.


A downhole tool for cleaning and sealing a wellbore includes a wash tool configured at a downhole end of the downhole tool to generate pulses of a first fluid at a first frequency and a first pressure for washing a target interval of a wellbore. The downhole tool further includes a plugging tool configured uphole or downhole from the wash tool to generate pulses of a second fluid at a second frequency and a second pressure for depositing a sealing plug at the target interval of the wellbore. The second fluid has a higher viscosity than the first fluid, the second frequency is lower than the first frequency, and the second pressure is higher than the first pressure.

When a well (or zone) reaches the end of its lifetime, it should be permanently plugged and abandoned. Such plug and abandonment (P&A) operations usually include placing one or more wellbore seals (e.g., cement plugs) in the wellbore to isolate the reservoir and other fluid-bearing formations in order to avoid unwanted fluid communication between a formation surrounding the wellbore and a surface of the wellbore. To abandon the wellbore, a multi-step abandonment process is typically executed. For example, the wellbore may be cleaned near a desired location of the wellbore seal. Additionally, wellbore casing may be perforated to provide sealing communication between the wellbore and the formation (and/or between casings). Further, the desired location may be conditioned for sealing and the sealing material such as cement may be installed to seal the wellbore for abandonment.
In operation, each of these steps of the multi-step abandonment process is typically implemented with a separate run into the wellbore. For example, each of the steps may involve a different tool placed at the end of a jointed pipe (or coiled tubing whichever the case may be) and a different process associated with the individual step. Between the steps, the tool may be removed from the wellbore and replaced with a tool associated with a subsequent step of the abandonment process. The cycle of inserting and removing tools into and from the wellbore may be repeated multiple times until the abandonment process is completed. Additionally, some abandonment techniques may involve leaving or otherwise abandoning tool components downhole within the wellbore, and some of the abandonment techniques may require the use of jointed pipe (or coiled tubing) for deployment of the tools.
While aspects of this disclosure have been depicted and described and are defined by reference to exemplary aspects of the disclosure, such references do not imply a limitation on the disclosure, and no such limitation is to be inferred. The subject matter disclosed is capable of considerable modifications, alterations, and equivalents in form and function, as will occur to those skilled in the pertinent art and having the benefit of this disclosure. The depicted and described aspects of this disclosure are examples only, and not exhaustive of the scope of the disclosure.

Single trip wellbore cleaning and sealing system and method


In summary, provided is a wheel bearing unit having a cover element which can be used as a pre-seal to a main seal and encloses the fastening elements of the wheel flange. The outstanding sealing effect has been favored in the past, however a disadvantage in terms of assembly and dismantling is produced which the invention seeks to eliminate. Therefore one or more openings are provided which are formed in the cover. The opening or openings enable the simple dismantling or assembly of the fastening elements on the wheel flange and can advantageously also be closed, such that both the sealing effect and an easy dismantling or assembly are possible.

The invention relates to a wheel bearing unit with a wheel hub having a wheel flange with a cover provided for covering a side of the wheel flange facing away from the wheel, wherein the cover is fixed directly or indirectly on the outer ring and forms, together with the wheel flange, a labyrinth seal.
Such wheel bearing units were previously used to prevent disadvantageous effects of spray water on the seals of the wheel bearing unit. The cover can be mounted on a stationary outer ring of the wheel bearing and cover the wheel flange axially, wherein a labyrinth seal can be provided radially on the outside. In this way, the cover acts in combination with the surface of the wheel flange or with a labyrinth seal like a pre-seal that is mounted in front of the actual seal of the wheel bearing. The actual seal, also called main seal below, can be made from a cartridge seal and/or can have a sealing lip, wherein the sealing lip is in rubbing sealing contact. As an alternative to the cartridge seal, a carrier with a radial or axial sealing lip could also be provided.
From DE 10 2008 051 065 A1, a cover for a wheel bearing unit is disclosed that has a cylindrical fastening area, with which this can be mounted on the outer ring of the wheel bearing unit and partially forms, radially outside with a cylindrical projection, a labyrinth seal that is formed with a radial end of the wheel flange.
In this way, spray water is very effectively kept away from the vehicle-side inner side of the wheel flange, with which the main seal is exposed to significantly less spray way and foreign particles due to the pre-seal compared with conventional wheel bearing units. It is especially advantageous if the mentioned labyrinth seal is also partially formed by the brake arrangement.
Due to the ring-shaped construction of the cover, after the installation of the wheel bearing unit it is not possible to remove or insert bolts that are provided for fastening the rim from the flange or into the flange on the vehicle side, because this side of the wheel flange is covered by the cover and is thus not accessible.
Disassembly is also extremely problematic; in particular, for disassembly the wheel bearing must also be removed only to remove the cover. Because the separation of the wheel hub with the flange from the stationary part always involves the rolling space with the rolling bodies, this undertaking represents a disproportionately large expense.

Wheel bearing unit having a closable cover


Embodiments of a language learning system and method for implementing or assisting in self-study for improving listening fluency in a target language are disclosed. Such embodiments may simultaneously present the same piece of content in an auditory presentation and a corresponding visual presentation of a transcript of the auditory presentation, where the two presentations are adapted to work in tandem to increase the effectiveness of language learning for users.

When a learner sets out to acquire a new language (referred to herein generally as a "target language") different from their mother tongue or other language in which they are already fluent, they will typically start with simple grammatical constructions and basic vocabulary (e.g. "I ate the egg") and gradually evolve, over a period of time, to tackle more complex constructions (e.g. "I would've eaten the poached egg, out of sheer politeness, were it not for my severe dairy intolerance"). With perseverance and a well-designed path, the beginner learner can eventually attain a high-functioning level of, or even native-level, fluency in reading, writing, and speaking.
However, the acquisition of "listening fluency" requires a different approach. Many language learners, otherwise highly competent in the target language, struggle to understand native speakers speaking naturally in real-world situations, whether in conversation (especially on phone calls) or watching movies. Their ears cannot process the sound into meaning fast enough to keep up, and sometimes cannot understand anything at all if the speaker's accent is strong or they are speaking quickly and colloquially.
Many language teaching methods and tools fail in this respect because they expose learners to only artificially formal "made-for-study" speech, where the enunciation is slow, and the range of linguistic usage is limited. Both the sound and the content has been simplified to make it digestible to the learner. However, the neural circuitry humans have for decoding speech needs to learn using authentic speech, which has a very different sound from (even if it is symbolically similar to) the made-for-study form.
A different problem arises in most of the language acquisition tools that do expose the learner to sounds of authentic spoken language. This content is, by nature of the situation, too difficult for the learner to understand without some assistance, since repeated listening alone generally does not help. Typically, these tools provide the learner with full transcripts and sometimes full translations so the learner can follow along. Unfortunately, a full transcript or translation offers too much help, and the work of understanding is borne by the learner's eyes rather than their ears. It is no longer listening practice, but rather reading practice with a soundtrack.
The learner then needs a middle ground, where they get enough assistance while listening to authentic spoken language so they are "in the vicinity" of comprehension, while leaving important work for the ears, to achieve actual comprehension. It is only by forcing the ears to listen actively that the appropriate neural circuitry can be trained.
In conjunction with ear training, the learner needs to grapple with real-world idiomatic usage that is typically hard to author in made-for-study materials. Even for learning products that feature authentic spoken audio, the interface provided to learners is one of "select a word and look it up in a dictionary", rather than working with bigger chunks (i.e. groups of words) and translating within the context of passage.
What is desired then, are improved language learning systems and methods.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method for dual mode presentation of content in a target language to improve listening fluency in the target language


In an exemplary embodiment, a computer-implemented method includes providing a mapping between a set of two or more IP addresses and a set of two more servers. A weight recommendation for the servers is received, based at least in part on server data related to current states of the servers, where the weight recommendation represents a goal for distributing a plurality of transactions among the servers. The mapping is modified based at least in part on the weight recommendation. A transaction is received, directed toward a first IP address of the two or more IP addresses. The transaction is routed to a first server, of the two or more servers, associated with the first IP address according to the modified mapping.

Various embodiments of this disclosure relate to workload management and, more particularly, to effective transaction distribution absent traditional communication between a load balancer and a group weight manager.
In a conventional load-balancing system, a group weight manager (GWM) communicates with a load balancer to facilitate reasonable assignments of transactions to various available servers. The GWM provides historical, real-time insights into the servers processing the transactions from the load balancer. The GWM generates weights using those insights, where the weights apply to the servers. The weights are the bases for recommendations to the load balancer for the distribution of incoming transactions to those servers. Examples of GWMs include the IBM® Unified Resource Manager (URM) and Enterprise Workload Manager (EWLM).
For intelligent load balancing to be successful, the load balancer must implement a protocol that accepts weight recommendations from the GWM. Server/Application State Protocol (SASP) is such a protocol. Whether SASP is adopted into a particular load balancer depends on market traction and the budget available to the load balancer's vendor to develop and maintain SASP support. Many load balancers do not support the SASP protocol today, making it difficult to use these load balancers with hardware from other vendors. Thus, there are drawbacks to supporting SASP, as well as drawbacks for not supporting it.

Transaction distribution with an independent workload advisor


A radiation hard logic device such as a divider is disclosed. The logic device includes a voter module to determine an error free logic device output, a feedback module to generate a correction signal and provide the signal to a logic correction module to correct the erroneous device output at substantially the same time that the erroneous logic device is presented to the logic correction module.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to error-resistant digital logic devices, and in particular to a system and method for correcting errors in a logic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer memory and other semiconductor components are susceptible to environmental effects that can cause them to fail. One class of failures occurs as a result of exposure to radiation, which is common in the space environment. Such radiation can be devastating to a satellite lacking adequate safeguards. When cosmic radiation passes through a sensitive semiconductor component in a satellite, one of three possible conditions may result.
In a microprocessor or RAM chip, a single-event upset (SEU) can occur wherein the contents of a particular logical device such as a register or a divider become inverted (e.g. a bit flips from 0 to 1). As a result, sensor data can be corrupted, algorithms can fail, and the satellite firmware can be adversely affected. A corrupted program could attempt to execute random code or data in the memory may be lost.
Furthermore, different semiconductor devices have different susceptibilities to radiation induced failures. Some device designs may reduce (or virtually eliminate) the risk of a radiation induced failure, however, it is often not reasonable to apply such techniques to every semiconductor device. What is needed is a system and method for recovering from SEUs. The present invention satisfies that need.

Radiation hard divider via single bit correction


Synchronous SRAM may conform to Std. Sync or early-write at an external interface whilst providing late-write internally.

SRAM (static random access memory) memory devices are well known in the computer arts and usage is commonplace. SRAM may be Synchronous, i.e. clocked by edges of a clock, typically a master clock. In particular, in Synchronous SRAM, Addresses may be strobed at a rising clock edge and subject to customary set-up and hold constraints.
From a memory device (chip) user's perspective, various architectures are available and there are various trade-offs to take into account when selecting the memory architecture to use. For example, flow-through SRAM devices may present read-data one clock cycle after the memory address is presented. Pipelined SRAM devices may typically present read-data two clock cycles after the memory address is presented.
Std. Sync (standard synchronous) SRAM devices may typically expect simultaneous presentation of addresses and corresponding write-data at the same clock edge. "Single Late-Write" SRAM devices may typically expect write-data to be presented one clock cycle after the corresponding address is presented. NoBL™ ("No Bus Latency™") SRAM devices may typically expect write-data to be presented two clock cycles after the corresponding address is presented. Burst modes are also used so that a single address setup and hold may initiate the transfer of multiple consecutively addressed words of data.
These various architectures have associated trade-offs. Trade-offs may include price, clock speed, read-write turnaround times, latency, circuit complexity and more. NoBL™ SRAMs may have advantages where latency is an important consideration by reducing or eliminating deselect cycles. Std. Sync SRAM devices may be particularly attractive in caching applications, such as where price and read-speed are the dominant factors.
Also there are legacy considerations, both supplier and user become invested, over time, in various ways and in particular interfaces, thus, there can be strong incentives to provide improved but compatible devices.
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of part of the write-data circuit of a conventional Std. Sync. SRAM. Write-data may be presented at an external I/O pad 101, and clocked into a Master/Slave register 102. The data may then travel down on-chip data-in (di) lines 103 which, for example, may typically be about 6000 microns long. A write-driver circuit 104 may then transfer the data to the memory core 120 responsive to a write pulse signal (wps) from a delay circuit 105. The paths corresponding to time delays tD1, tD2 are discussed below, in connection with FIG. 3. As is conventional in similar block diagrams, only a single data or address line may be shown but the presence of multiple lines and signals in parallel may be inferred or assumed wherever relevant or apparent as is well-known in the art.
FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of part of a conventional Std. Sync. SRAM circuit. As contrasted with FIG. 1, it shows additional parts of what may be the same type of device, including part of a read-data circuit and an address circuit. In addition to the features of FIG. 1 there is an Address-Pad 201 to receive addresses (encoded as voltages) from off-chip and wherefrom they may be clocked into to Address Register 208 and thence to address decoder 209 for address selection in memory core 120. Also shown are data-out lines (do) 203 which convey read-data from the memory core 120 through write driver 104 to a pipeline register 202 and thence to I/O pad 101. The data-in lines 103 (di) switch (i.e. experience data-dependent transitions or non-transitions) even during read cycles. The paths corresponding to time delays tD1, tD2 are discussed below, in connection with FIG. 3.
FIG. 3 shows a timing diagram for a conventional SRAM, such as that of the device partially represented by FIGS. 1 and 2. It can be seen that Address and corresponding Write-Data (e.g. A0/D0) are presented effectively simultaneously. Time tD1 is equivalent to the time for data to travel from I/O pad 101 to registers 102, 208 (FIG. 1 or FIG. 2). More precisely, time tD1 is equivalent to the time to become stabilized rather than marginal or meta-stable, at the input to the registers 102, 208 (FIG. 1 or FIG. 2) responsive to a voltage transition. Time tD2 may be equivalent to the time for data to travel down the on chip data-in lines (di) 103 (FIG. 1 or FIG. 2). Time tW represents the time for the Write operation into the memory core and tR the time for Write recovery of the memory core. Other signals in FIG. 3 such as ck (data and address clock) and wps (write-pulse) are conventional in the art.
Still referring to FIG. 3 the master clock xclk is shown operating to generate timing signals W at the highest allowed frequency which is the inverse of the sum of the serially sequenced activity times, i.e. tCYCW(min)=tD1+tD2+tW+tR and f(max)=1/tCYCW(min) (seconds and Hz respectively). Thus, this configuration of SRAM provides early-write at the external interface and actually performs an early-write (as contrasted with, for example, NoBL™ devices (which may be characterized as double late-write)). SRAMs of this kind may be said to have an external interface according to static random access memory standard synchronous timings for early-write (or Std. Sync SRAM for short).

Single late-write for standard synchronous SRAMs


The present invention discloses a capacitor in an integrated circuit which comprises a first and second conductive lines substantially parallel to each other and having a thickness equals substantially to a sum of a via thickness and an interconnect thickness, the first and second conductive lines, the via and the interconnect being formed by a single deposition step, and at least one dielectric material in a space horizontally across the first and second conductive lines, wherein the first and second conductive lines serve as two conductive plates of the capacitor, respectively, and the dielectric material serves as an insulator of the capacitor.

The present invention relates generally to semiconductor device structures, and more particularly to forming capacitors in an integrated circuit.
Capacitors are critical components in an integrated circuit (IC), de-coupling power supply lines or forming series inductance-capacitor circuit for noise immunization and high speed radio frequency (RF) applications. For example, in an IC having analog circuits, capacitors are often placed near the analog circuits to de-coupling or stabilizing a power supply to the analog circuits.
A semiconductor capacitor is typically constructed with an insulator or dielectric material sandwiched between two parallel conductive plates. When a voltage difference is applied across the plates, a certain electrical charge is stored in the insulator. The amount of electrical charge stored in the insulator is defined by the capacitance of the capacitor. Both polysilicon and metal are used to form the conductive plates. However, metal-oxide-metal (MOM) capacitors have seen their increased popularity because of their minimal capacitive loss to the substrate and compatibility with logic processes.
Conventional MOM capacitors are constructed in such structures as a vertical stack, U-shape plates or horizontal stacks. The vertical stack structure is a bottom conductive plate first covered by a thin dielectric layer, then covered by a top conductive plate on top of the dielectric layer. A capacitor is formed by the vertically stacked conductor/dielectric/conductor. This kind of vertical stack structure may occupy large areas. Forming such capacitor and making connection thereto may require at least two to four layers of material depositions as well as additional two to three masking steps. The U-shape plate structure employs damascene like processes that include oxide deposition, U-shape opening, bottom plate deposition, thin dielectric deposition, top plate deposition, U-shape fill and chemical-mechanical-planarization (CMP) or etch back process steps. Both the vertical stack and U-shape plate structures require complex additional process steps and additional cost on lithograph, etching and deposition.
The horizontal stack is the most simple and lowest costly (no additional process steps or complexity) structure among the three conventional structures for forming a semiconductor capacitor. The horizontal stack structure employs coupling capacitances between sidewalls of two adjacent metal lines. The most popular layout style is to place multiple cathode and anode metal lines of a capacitor alternatively next to each other in a cross-finger style. Between these metal lines is an inter-metal-dielectric (IMD) material serving as capacitor's insulator. A major drawback of the horizontal stack structure is its low unit length capacitance due to limited height and large space of the metal lines. However, as process technologies shrink down to 100 nm generation and beyond, both metal line width and space become small enough to allow the horizontal stack structure to be competitive area wise as well, when the cross-finger layout style is employed.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an improved conventional horizontal stack capacitor structure 100 which employs not only the sidewalls of two metal lines 115 and 125, but also the sidewalls of two via lines 110 and 120 as capacitor conductors. The capacitor structure 100 is formed on a dielectric layer 150. The via lines 110 and 120 are formed in an inter-layer dielectric (ILD) 130. The metal lines 115 and 125 are formed in an inter-metal dielectric (IMD) 140. Both the ILD and IMD serves as insulators for the capacitor structure 100, therefore, its capacitor area becomes larger. However, a design rule may require that the metal lines 115 and 125 to overlay the via lines 110 and 120, respectively, and at the same time, the metal lines 115 and 125 have to maintain a minimum spacing D. As a result, the insulator of the capacitor structure 100 may not be very thin to achieve a large unit length capacitance value.
As such, what is desired is a simple, reliable and low cost semiconductor capacitor with high capacitance per unit area for advanced process technologies.

Stacked semiconductor capacitor structure

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited


A stator assembly includes a stator that opposes a rotor, which rotates about a central axis extending vertically, in a radial direction, a cover that accommodates an axially upper portion of the stator, a base portion that covers at least an axially lower side of the stator, and a circuit board that opposes the base portion in an axial direction and includes a sensor. At least one of the cover and the base portion includes a positioning portion, which is adjacent to the circuit board in the axial direction, the positioning portion being adjacent to the sensor.

In conventional fan motors, a stator including a winding and a circuit board are covered with an electrical insulator. The electrical insulator is a mold resin. As a result, the stator and the circuit board can be protected by the mold resin, and dustproof and moisture-proof measures can be applied to the motor.


A method of forming vias and skip vias is provided. The method includes forming a blocking layer on an underlying layer, and forming an overlying layer on the blocking layer. The method further includes opening a hole in the overlying layer that overlaps the blocking layer, and etching past the blocking layer into the underlying layer to form a second hole that is smaller than the hole in the overlying layer.

The present invention generally relates to back-end-of-line metallization layers, and more particularly to skip-via formation in back-end-of-line metallization processes.
Semiconductor devices on a semiconductor chip are electrically connected to the packaging connections using multiple metallization layers. Vias can interconnect different metallization layers, where some vias can skip an intervening metallization layer to be a skip via or super via.


A mixer with calibration circuit includes a first gm stage unit, a second gm stage unit, a first detecting unit, a second detecting unit, a comparison block, a control unit and a compensator. The first detecting unit and the second detecting unit are respectively connected to different gm stage unit, and the comparison block compares voltage signals of the first detecting unit and the second detecting unit. The control unit adjusts a current signal of the comparison block according to the comparative result of voltage signals of the first detecting unit and the second detecting unit. Further, the compensator adjusts the first gm stage unit and the second gm stage unit according to the current signal. Thereafter, the improvement of the LO leakage of the mixer can be achieved.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relatives to a mixer and more particularly to a mixer with calibration circuit to improve LO leakage.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Wireless communication has been widely applied in various applications. Typically, each wireless communication device requires a radio transceiver (i.e., a receiver and a transmitter). With the demand for enhanced performance, a direct conversion technology has been developed for size, cost and lower power consumption.
Referring to FIG. 1, a circuit diagram of a conventional mixer is shown. As illustrated, the conventional mixer 10 comprises a gm stage block 11, a LO switch stage block 13, and an output load stage block 15. A RF input signal is amplified in the gm stage block 11, down-converted to an IF current signal in the LO switch stage block 13, and then converted to a voltage signal by the output load stage block 15.
The gin stage block 11 comprises transistors M1 and M2, and the RF input signal, such as two differential input signals Vp and Vn, are inputted transistors M1 and M2 of the input gm stage block 11. The gm stage block 11 is capable of perform a voltage, such as Vp and Vn, to current conversion, and affects the gain and linear of the mixer 10.
The LO switch stage block 13 comprises transistors M3, M4, M5 and M6 and form a multiplication function, multiplying the linear RF signal current from M1 and M2 with the LO signal applied across M3 to M6 which provide the switching function. M1 and M2 provide +/−RF current and M3 and M4 switch between them to provide the RF signal or the inverted RF signal to the left hand load. M5 and M6 switch between them for the right hand load. The output load stage block 15 comprise two load resistors R1 and R2 form a current to voltage transformation giving differential output IF signals.

Mixer with calibration circuit and calibration method thereof


An organism of the Cytospora species produces substituted hexahydrobenzopyran compounds of the Formulas A, B, or C which are useful as angiotensin II antagonists: ##STR1##

The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays a central role in the regulation of normal blood pressure and seems to be critically involved in hypertension development and maintenance as well as congestive heart failure. Angiotensin II (A II), is an octapeptide hormone produced mainly in the blood during the cleavage of angiotensin I by angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) localized on the endothelium of blood vessels of lung, kidney, and many other organs. It is the end product of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) and is a powerful arterial vasoconstrictor that exerts its action by interacting with specific receptors present on cell membranes. One of the possible modes of controlling the RAS is angiotensin II receptor antagonism. Thus, new angiotensin II receptor antagonists and methods of producing them are highly desirable.

Biologically pure culture of Cytospora useful as angiotensin II antagonist


There is provided a discharge valve mechanism provided at an outlet of a pressurizing chamber of a high-pressure fuel supply pump that aims to reduce a backflow amount of fuel from a discharge valve and to prevent cavitation erosion. There are provided a discharge valve disposed on a discharge side of a pressurizing chamber, a discharge valve seat that closes a discharge side flow passage of the pressurizing chamber by seating the discharge valve, and a discharge valve spring that presses the discharge valve toward the discharge valve seat. It is configured such that, in a case where a minimum seat diameter of a seat portion in which the discharge valve is seated on the discharge valve seat is set to D and a spring force of the discharge valve spring at a time of setting is set to F, a coefficient K obtained by dividing the spring force F by the minimum seat diameter D is set to be 0.2 or more.

In JP 2011-80391 A, there has been disclosed a high-pressure fuel pump having a discharge valve mechanism that includes a discharge valve member, a valve seat member, a discharge valve spring, and a valve holding member coupled to the valve seat member to surround a seat surface and the discharge valve spring, the valve holding member in which a valve housing is formed.


A method in a first radio network node for handling position measurements is provided. The first radio network node receives from a second radio network node a position measurement associated with a user equipment, and a system frame number. The system frame number is associated with the second radio network node. The system frame number is further related to a point in time when the position measurement was performed. The first radio network node calculates a position estimate of the position of the user equipment based on the position measurement. The first radio network node defines a time stamp which is based on the received system frame number. The first radio network node then signals to a third radio network node a positioning response. The positioning response comprises the position estimate and the time stamp.

In a typical cellular radio network, also referred to as a wireless communication system, User Equipments, also referred to as UEs in the figures, communicate via a Radio Access Network (RAN) to one or more core networks (CNs).
A user equipment is a mobile terminal by which a subscriber can access services offered by an operator's core network.
The user equipments are radio network nodes and may be mobile stations or user equipment units such as mobile telephones, also known as "cellular" telephones, and laptops with wireless capability, and thus may be, for example, portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-included, or car-mounted mobile devices which communicate voice and/or data with the radio access network.
Each cell in the cellular radio network covers a geographical area. A cell is served by radio base station equipment at a radio base station. That is, the radio base station provides radio coverage in the cell and communicates over an air interface with user equipment units operating on radio frequencies within its range.
A cell from within which the communication between a user equipment and a base station is communicated, is referred to as the "serving cell" for that user equipment.
A radio base station is a radio network node, in some radio networks called "eNB", "eNodeB", "NodeB" or "B node", and will in this document be referred to as a base station (BS), or a radio network node.
In some versions of the radio access network, several base stations are controlled, e.g. via landlines or radio link, by a Radio Network Controller (RNC) which supervises and coordinates various activities of the plural base stations connected thereto. The radio network controller, which also is a radio network node, is also sometimes termed a Base Station Controller (BSC). The radio network controllers are typically connected to one or more core networks.
In LTE-type radio access networks, there is no separate radio network node corresponding to the BSC or RNC, and the base stations themselves, referred to as eNodeB:s comprise extra functionality.
Due to the size and complexity of many radio communication systems, operators today spend considerable effort in planning, configuring, optimizing, and maintaining their wireless access networks. These efforts can consume a great part of their operational expenditures (OPEX).
Today, operators resort to planning tools to dimension and plan their networks according to a specific business strategy. The approach based on planning tools and prediction is, however, not fully accurate. Reasons for the inaccuracies are imperfections in the used geographic data, simplifications and approximations in the applied propagation models, and changes in the environment, e.g. construction or demolition or seasonal effects such as foliage changes. Furthermore, changes in the traffic distribution and user profiles can lead to inaccurate prediction results. The above mentioned shortcomings force operators to continuously optimize their networks using measurements and statistics, and to perform drive or walk tests.
Drive or walk testing provides a picture of the end user, such as a user equipment, perception in the field, and enables the operator to identify locations causing poor performance and their corresponding cause, e.g. incorrect tilt or handover settings. Drive/walk tests are, however, not ideal since only a limited part of the network can be analyzed due to access restrictions and the cost and time involved. Further, only a snapshot in time of the conditions in the field is captured.
A viable method for overcoming these difficulties is to use the user equipments to report the observed service quality along with the locations where the measurements are performed. These user equipment reports may for example be used by a function which continuously monitors the network and estimates the spatial network performance, e.g. coverage and throughput.
For LTE, three different localization methods are foreseen. The first location function is the network-assisted version of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs) like the Global Positioning System (GPS) or Galileo. Different GNSSs can be used individually or in combination with other GNSSs. The network assists the UE GNSS receiver by providing assistance data (e.g., visible satellite list, clock corrections, reference positions) to reduce the UE GNSS start-up and acquisition times, to increase the UE GNSS sensitivity, and to allow the UE to consume less handset power than with stand-alone GNSS. The network-assisted GNSS methods rely on signaling between UE GNSS receivers and a continuously operating GNSS reference receiver network which has clear sky visibility of the same GNSS constellation as the assisted UE.
The second localization method is the Observed Time Difference Of Arrival (OTDOA) method. This method utilizes the differences of time measurements of downlink radio signals from at least three eNodeBs along with the knowledge of the geographical coordinates of the measured eNodeBs and their relative downlink timing for calculating the UE position. The relative eNodeB downlink timing can be determined from information about the relation of each eNodeB downlink timing relative a time reference. One such time reference is the absolute time in the network.
The last localization method, the enhanced cell ID positioning method, uses information about the user equipments, information about the serving cell, and the knowledge of the geographical coordinates of the serving eNodeB for estimating the user equipment position. Additional radio resource measurements like the Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) or the Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) can be used to improve the user equipment location estimate.
According to one solution user equipment reports include position information in which the user equipments report or log radio measurements (e.g., RSRP), and also provide location info if the latter is available in the user equipment at the time of reporting or logging.
One problem with the above mentioned solution is that the user equipment information is reported by the user equipment only if the position information is known at the time the report is transmitted or measurements logged. This means that the user equipment must have GPS enabled or recently used a positioning service relying on e.g. OTDOA. The UEs will typically have GPS enabled during a limited time or will use GPS frequently but over the same area, e.g., highways.
It may also be desirable to obtain a more accurate position estimate than may be provided by the above methods.

Methods and arrangements for handling positioning in a radio communication system


A device and method for supplying fresh air to a turbocharged piston internal combustion engine are described. According to the invention, a fresh gas line section of an intake manifold has an adjustable flap, and inlet and outlet ports. An adjustment device is coupled to the flap for adjusting the flap. A compressed air port having an opening leading into a chamber of the fresh gas line between the flap and the outlet is provided, and a quantity regulating device with a valve to control the compressed air is also provided. An electronic control unit controls the quantity regulating device and the adjustable flap, so that the fully opened position of the flap corresponds to a fully blocked position of the quantity regulating device.

The invention relates to a device for supplying fresh air to a turbocharged piston internal combustion engine having a fresh gas line section as an intake manifold which has an adjustable flap, a first end port for flowing in and a second end port for flowing out, between which ports a pivotably mounted shaft for the adjustable flap is provided in the tubular wall, said flap being coupled to an adjustment device for the purpose of adjustment, a compressed air port with an opening leading into the tubular interior between the flap and the second end port.
In addition, the invention also relates to a method for operating such a device for supplying fresh air to the turbocharged engine.
It is a known property of piston internal combustion engine with turbocharging that when the throttle is opened in the vehicle, the engine reacts with a certain degree of delay because the turbocharger can increase the supplied air quantity only slowly, which is known as a turbolag in the torque profile.
German Patent Document DE-PS-39 06 312 discloses a method and structure for reducing or shortening the turbolag, in which case, while the diesel engine is accelerating, a specific quantity of air is blown into the intake manifold from a compressed air accumulator. The fuel injection quantity is adapted accordingly. The turbocharged diesel engine is suitable particularly for use in commercial vehicles, such as city buses with an automatic transmission and compressed air brake system. The city buses perform a certain travel cycle by being able to predict the load and the rotational speed process of the diesel engine precisely, and in this way the blow-in time and the air quantity can be predetermined. The conditions of use for utility motor vehicles which are used in long distance traffic are quite different. These vehicles do not have any regular travel cycles and the payload varies within wide limits. Also, the driving style of the driver can exhibit large differences. The above structure and method are not well suited to address these problems.
The embodiments of the present invention provide a device and a method with which the blowing in of air can be adapted to the driving style and payload of the vehicle. At the same time the device can be installed or retrofitted as one mounted unit in various fresh gas line systems of diesel engines.
One advantage of the invention results from the fact that a flap in the fresh gas line is activated under electronic control, that is to say not only automatically by the fresh gas pressure, as is done conventionally, and that the activation is determined and processed electronically by the control unit, specifically as a function of the fresh gas pressure and also of other engine parameters.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the compressed air port is provided with a quantity regulating device which has a valve having a blocked position and any desired number of opened positions, and the quantity regulating device also has an electric/electronic input which is connected to the output of an electronic control unit, the input of the adjusting device of the flap being connected to the second output of the electronic control unit, so that the fully opened position of the flap is assigned a fully blocked position of the quantity regulating device. For example, an electronic control unit may control the position of the flap and of the quantity regulating device of the blown-in air. When the flap is commanded to the fully open position, the programming of the control unit may command the quantity regulating device to the fully blocked position. In other cases, intermediate positions of either or both devices may be commanded by the control unit.
The following exemplary outputs are preferably connected to the inputs of the electronic control unit according to this embodiment: output of the first pressure pickup whose pressure meter is arranged in the tubular interior between the flap and the first end port for flowing in and output of the second pressure pickup whose pressure meter is arranged in the tubular interior between the flap and the second end port for flowing out.
According to one advantageous exemplary embodiment of the invention, in the electronic control unit, the torque request signal can originate from one or more of the following sources: accelerator pedal, traction controller, cruise controller, electric stability program, driving assistance system or other systems which feed an external torque request to the engine control system.
According to another advantageous exemplary embodiment of the invention, the adjustment device of the flap also includes a position determining sensor for direct activation by the electronic control unit.
The exemplary embodiments of the invention also include a method for improving the acceleration behavior and emission behavior of a vehicle piston internal combustion engine, in particular of a diesel engine with turbocharging. A device is provided which has the purpose of supplying fresh air, and includes a compressed air accumulator in which compressed air is stored to be blown, in a regulated, temporary fashion, into the intake of the engine cylinder.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the method contains the following method steps:
determination of the torque request signal and feeding of the data to the electronic control unit,
determination of the engine characteristic values and feeding of the values to the electronic control unit,
determination of the position of the flap and feeding of the values to the electronic control unit,
determination of the air pressure in the interior of the fresh gas line section between the first end port and flap or second end port and flap and feeding of the pressure values to the electronic control unit,
determination of the air pressure in the interior of the intake line between the cylinder inlet valve and flap and feeding of the pressure value to the electronic control unit, as well as determination of the air pressure in the interior of the intake line between the flap and turbocompressor, and feeding of the pressure value to the electronic control unit,
processing of the abovementioned data and the measured values in the electronic control unit in order to produce activation output signals for opening/closing the compressed air valve for the temporary blowing into the intake line,
and simultaneous activation of the flap in the closing direction at the start of the blowing in process and in the opening direction at the end of the blowing in process.
According to one advantageous exemplary embodiment of the method, the following additional method steps may be carried out:
determination of the average frequency of the driver's request for acceleration by the software in the control unit, regulation of the blowing in of air and activation of the flap in an adaptive fashion with respect to the determined average frequency of the driver's request so that the air consumption is kept within certain limits but without an abrupt change in the duration of the air blowing in process.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Device for supplying fresh air to a turbocharged piston internal combustion engine and method for operating the same

Knorr-Bremse Systeme fuer Nutzfahrzeuge GmbH


The present invention relates to endothelial and smooth muscle cells genetically altered to express or over-express one or more cell adhesion factors. The invention further relates to cells genetically altered to express or over-express both cell proliferation growth factor(s) and cell adhesion factor(s). In addition, the present invention relates to nucleic acid constructs and nucleic acid construct systems that encode the cell adhesion and cell proliferation growth factors that are used to transfect/transform the cells so that they can express the factors.

Vascular diseases affect a large part of the world's population. Bypass surgery, whereby a conduit, either artificial or autologous, is grafted into an existing vessel to circumvent a diseased portion of the vessel or to restore blood flow around a blocked or damaged blood vessel, is one of the most common treatments for such diseases. It is estimated that over 1 million such procedures are performed annually.
Vascular grafts are also used as entry sites in dialysis patients. The graft connects an artery to a vein in the patient's body. A needle is inserted into the graft, blood is withdrawn, passed through a hemodialysis machine and returned to the patient through a second needle inserted in the graft.
Thirty to 50 percent of bypass grafts fail within 5 to 7 years. The average life-span for hemodialysis grafts is even shorter, often less than two years.
A primary cause of graft failure is the closing of the graft due to tissue in-growth and eventually thrombosis formation. The smaller the diameter of a graft, the higher rate of failure. Numerous approaches to improving the performance of vascular grafts have been proposed. One such approach is the use of more biocompatible and durable synthetic materials in artificial grafts.
Among the synthetic materials that have been used in vascular grafts is polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, Teflon®), which has high durability complemented by good biocompatibility. However, PTFE and similar materials are still susceptible to thrombosis formation, which limits their utility. To counter this, the interior walls of PTFE grafts have been seeded with autologous endothelial cells (ECs) before implantation. Not only do ECs provide an excellent biocompatible surface, they also have substantial thrombolytic activity. In addition, ECs prevent neointimal proliferation and inflammatory reaction in the graft. However, EC-seeded grafts suffer from incomplete endothelialization and detachment of the endothelial cells from the surface of the graft due to the shear force of flowing blood.
To improve endothelialization, ECs have been genetically altered to express or over-express vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF, U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,965). Not only can VEGF reduce the time from cell harvesting to seeding, it also permits use of lower initial graft seeding densities since rapid proliferation leads to faster graft coverage.
VEGF has advantages over other less EC-specific growth factors that can enhance endothelialization due to its reduced impact on other vascular cells, in particular smooth muscle cells (SMCs), and, as such, its reduced potential for causing adverse stimulatory effects. For instance, VEGF will recruit ECs, but not SMCs, from anastomosis sites.
While genetically altered ECs over-expressing VEGF resolve to a large extent the problem of incomplete, endothelialization, detachment of cells from the interior surface of a graft under the shear stress of flowing blood still remains a problem.
One approach to dealing with the detachment problem has been to precoat the interior surface of a graft with an adhesive matrix to more solidly fix the cells to the surface. Also, exposing the cells seeded on the wall of the graft to continuous flow conditions during proliferation to simulate blood flow has been reported. While occurring at a slower rate, ECs still detach from the walls of grafts prepared using these techniques and thus the useful life span of the grafts remains sub-optimal. In addition, the detached cells leave extracellular matrix, which is highly thrombogenic, on the grafts after detachment.
Thus, there remains a need for endothelialized vascular grafts in which the ECs can withstand the shear force of flowing blood for a longer time. This invention relates to cells that have been genetically altered to endow them with properties that enable them to resist the shear force of flowing blood and thereby to give artificial vascular grafts having greater patency times.

Vectors encoding cell growth and adhesion factors for simultaneous growth and adhesion of cells