An integrated circuit can include a plurality of drive monitoring sections, each including at least one transistor under test (TUT) having a source coupled to a first power supply node, a gate coupled to receive a start indication, and a drain coupled to a monitor node, at least one monitor capacitor coupled to the monitor node, and a timing circuit configured to generate a monitor value corresponding to a rate at which the TUT can transfer current between the monitor node and the first power supply node; and a body bias circuit configured to apply a body bias voltage to at least one body region in which at least one transistor is formed; wherein the body bias voltage is generated in response to at least a plurality of the monitor values.

Integrated circuit (IC) devices can be subject to manufacturing variations that can impact performance. In a typical IC device, electrical signals can be transmitted via an interconnect structure formed by multiple metallization layers, separated from one another by interlayer dielectrics (ILDs). Signals can be generated by transistors driving metallization layers between different potentials.
Many fabrication processes utilize chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) to planarize ILD surfaces. While CMP can improve planarization over other fabrication methods, it can still impart systematic and random thickness variations at the lot, wafer, die and pattern levels. Die level variation in such structures can result in performance and timing differences in the same type of devices. In particular, signal transmission paths can be affected by variations in metal-metal capacitance inherent in an interconnect structure. Differences in metal-metal capacitance can arise from variations in dielectric thickness between metallization lines and/or variations in metal thickness and width. Differences in resistance can also arise from such variations in metal thickness and width.
Active devices (e.g., transistors) may also be subject to some variation in performance. For example, uncontrollable manufacturing variations can result in "fast" transistors and "slow" transistors. Fast transistors can provide faster driving capability than slow transistors. Such fast vs. slow variations can be systematic, i.e., they can affect the mean value of performance parameters.
These and other variations can result in IC devices having differing performance limits. Conventionally, timing paths can be designed with sufficient margin to be adequate for a slowest case. This can require large signal driving devices and increased power consumption, as well as increased design effort. For some very high performance IC devices, such variations can present a limit to device speed and/or reliability.


A method includes displaying a user interface having a first region with one or more user interface elements and determining whether a shield is in a locked state or an unlocked state. The shield covers the first region when in the locked state and uncovers at least part of the first region when in the unlocked state. The method includes, in response to determining that the shield is in the locked state, displaying the shield covering the first region and disabling the user interface element(s). The method includes, in response to receiving user input on the shield while the shield is in the locked state, changing the shield to the unlocked state. Additionally, the method includes, in response to determining that the shield is in the unlocked state, displaying the first region such that the user interface element(s) is/are not covered by the shield and enabling the user interface element(s).

In various situations, humans may suffer from confirmation fatigue. For example, humans often ignore dialog confirmations when using user interfaces to perform various functions. According to research, people fail to read dialog confirmations over 50% of the time. As a result, a human who is interacting with an on-screen button or other user interface element may inadvertently select the user interface element and confirm the inadvertent selection by failing to read or ignoring an associated dialog confirmation.
Legacy hardware buttons (such as joysticks, push buttons, levers, and wall switches) provide tactile feedback. For example, in a manual transmission vehicle, a driver cannot physically put a gear shifter into reverse gear while a vehicle is in forward motion. Unfortunately, the conversion of hardware buttons into software buttons creates human interaction problems since software buttons provide little or no tactile feedback compared to hardware buttons.

Software safety-locked controls to prevent inadvertent selection of user interface elements


Systems and methods are provided for processing wireless signal components for a mobile wireless access broadband service. This can include processes for measuring signal strength of an alternative frequency by tuning away from an existing frequency associated with an existing communications path. Such processes allow determining if the alternative frequency supports a subsequent communications path in a mobile broadband wireless application. Upon the determination, the process can automatically select the subsequent communications path based in part on the measured signal strength.

I. Field
The subject technology relates generally to communications systems and methods, and more particularly to systems and methods that enable communications channels to be tuned to an alternative sector in order to determine alternative frequencies or technologies that facilitate further communications in a mobile wireless communications setting.
II. Background
Wireless companies are constantly improving next-generation networks that combine voice and data on cellular networks, for example. Collectively, these companies have spent billions on licenses and equipment to provide a broad array of new data-centric services for customers. But emerging technologies could offer a leap past so-called third-generation systems just as they are beginning to emerge. One such technology is based on the IEEE 802.20 standard, a member of the 802 family that includes the better-known 802.11b, or Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi LAN (local area network) standard has proliferated in recent years by offering broadband wireless connections for laptops and other mobile devices.
A new standard could change the direction of wireless networking, though. Whereas Wi-Fi and the newer 802.16 metro-area wireless broadband system are limited by the range of coverage areas—from a few hundred feet to 30 miles or so, respectively whereas 802.20 sits on existing cellular towers. It essentially promises the same coverage area as a mobile phone system with the speed of a Wi-Fi connection. This may account for why 802.20, or mobile broadband wireless access (MBWA), has generated interest regarding potential new applications.
One differentiating factor for these new applications is that they provide full mobility and nationwide coverage through cell-to-cell handoff with access to broadband speeds for any application. Thus, business travelers, for example, can access corporate networks while on the move and send information in real-time back to the office—just as if they were connected to the local area network at their respective office. In some cases, users get the same broadband Internet experience they have with a DSL or cable modem connection, but in a cellular mobile environment. The average speed of 1.5 Mb per user—or 3 Mbps peak data rates is much greater than offered by conventional systems.
One aspect for employing mobile broadband wireless access technologies is the concept of an active set and related protocol for managing communications between an access terminal such as a cell phone and an access network or access point such as a base station. A default Active Set Management Protocol provides the procedures and messages used by the access terminal and the access point to keep track of the access terminal's approximate location and to maintain the radio link as the access terminal moves between coverage areas of different sectors. In general, the Active Set is defined as a set of Pilots or Sectors with allocated MACID for an access terminal. The Active Set members can be synchronous or asynchronous with respect to each other. The access terminal can generally switch its serving Sector at any time among these Active Set member Sectors.
A Synchronous Subset of an Active Set consists of sectors that are synchronous with each other. Moreover, the subset is a maximal subset, i.e., generally all sectors that are synchronous with the sectors in this subset are contained in this subset. The different Synchronous Subsets ASSYNCH can be constructed using a last instance of an Active Set Assignment message, for example. Transmission from the access terminal to two different Synchronous Subsets of the active set is considered independent of each other. For example, the access terminal reports CQI to a Synchronous Subset of sectors independent of any other Synchronous Subset. One area that is of important concern is how communications are handed off between frequencies on a communications channel and/or between communications technologies that may be different between component of a given mobile broadband wireless access system.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Tune-away and cross paging systems and methods


A system includes a sensor and a processor. The sensor is configured to passively read data in packets as the packets are in motion on a network. The processor is cooperatively operable with the sensor. The processor is configured to receive the read data from the sensor; and originate map profiles of files and file data, both from the read data from the sensor, as the passively read packets are in motion on the network. The processor is also configured to infer a user role for a user who is using the file and the file data and how the user is transferring or accessing the file and the file data. Inappropriate usage being performed by the user can then be detected from the user role and the read data to control access to particular files.

A "data leak prevention" (DLP) system is a technology designed to keep a company's data in that company's network, or at least so the company can manage it and influence its motion on the company's network. A DLP system assumes that it knows where the data is which it is monitoring. Classic examples of problems a DLP tries to solve are people e-mailing to places where they shouldn't or with attachments that they shouldn't, people trying to e-mail out the company's source code, people trying to download the company's credit card database, and the like.
Initially DLP was positioned as something designed to stop malicious users from exfiltrating data out of the network. In practice, it turned into something to keep people from doing stupid things with data. It turned into a stupidity prevention system. Basically, a DLP system was good for things like preventing fat-fingering auto-complete e-mail addresses, for example, when the company's provisional quarterly numbers are accidentally sent to the Washington Post instead of the company's accountant.

System and method for real time data awareness


A fuel cell system according to the present invention is characterized by comprising a fuel cell, measurement means for measuring impedances of the fuel cell in two kinds or more of frequency regions, and first judgment means for judging two or more parameters concerned with an internal state of the fuel cell based on measurement results of the impedances in the respective frequency regions. According to such a constitution, the impedances in the two or more types of frequency regions (a high frequency region, a low frequency region and the like) are measured to judge two or more parameters such as a wet state of an electrolytic film of the fuel cell and a supply state of a fuel gas, which are concerned with the internal state of the fuel cell based on this measurement result. Since such judgment is performed, as compared with the conventional technology, the internal state of the fuel cell can accurately be grasped, and highly efficient and highly robust control of the fuel cell system can be performed.

It is known that an internal resistance of a fuel cell influences wettability of an electrolytic film in the fuel cell. When the fuel cell has a small internal water content and the electrolytic film dries (so-called dry-up), the internal resistance increases, and an output voltage of the fuel cell drops. On the other hand, when the fuel cell includes an excessively large internal water content (so-called flooding), electrodes of the fuel cell are covered with the water content, hence dispersion of oxygen or hydrogen as a reactant is disturbed, and the output voltage drops.
To efficiently operate the fuel cell, optimum control of the internal water content of the fuel cell needs to be performed. The internal water content of the fuel cell has correlation with an impedance of the fuel cell. At present, the impedance of the fuel cell is measured by an alternating-current impedance process, and a water content state in the fuel cell is indirectly grasped.
For example, in the following patent document 1, a method is disclosed in which a sinusoidal signal (a signal for impedance measurement) having an arbitrary frequency is applied to (superimposed on) an output signal of the fuel cell, and the impedance in this case is measured to grasp the water content state in the fuel cell in real time.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-86220


The moisture profile and/or moisture gradient of a paper web of at least SC quality paper is controlled in a paper machine comprising a calender (1) which has at least two roll stacks (21, 22; 31, 32), one stack has at least three rolls and another has at least five rolls. The web is moisturized to a desired pre-moisture content M1 by a pre-moisturizer (7) before the calender. At least one intermediate moisturizer (3) is arranged between two roll stacks moisturizes the web to a desired intermediate moisture content M2 before the last roll stack (31, 32), in which the web is dried to a desired final moisture value M3. For continuously controlling and optimizing the moisture profile and/or moisture gradient of the web, the pre-moisturizing W1 of the web is controlled by a pre-moisturizer (7) control parameter which corresponds to the final moisture value M3 of the web.

The present invention relates to the production of a fibrous web, such as a paper web, advantageously a high-quality SC paper web, by means of an on-line or off-line multi-nip calender.
In this description and definitions of the invention                a web refers to a fibrous web, advantageously a paper web, most advantageously an SC paper web, which is formed of mechanical pulp and/or chemical pulp, advantageously having a basis weight in a range of 30 to 80 g/m2 and a filler content in a range of 15 to 40 percent;        a multi-nip calender refers to an on-line or off-line calender comprising at least two separate roll stacks, which are apart from one another in a vertical or horizontal direction with respect to the horizontal machine plane and placed in a vertical, horizontal and/or oblique position with respect to the machine plane, said roll stacks comprising each at least three rolls which form at least two nips in nip contacts loaded against each other; and        a nip refers to a pressing zone of the web which two thermo rolls loaded against each other, i.e. a hard press roll and a soft-covered polymer roll, i.e. a backing roll, form between themselves, in which pressing zone the web is deformed as a result of moisture, heat and compression.
In the papermaking art, grades of ever higher quality are required today. As the running speeds required from paper machines are continuously increasing, the direction in calendering technology is more and more towards on-line solutions. When the aim is to make higher-quality printing paper grades, such as, for example, SC paper grades, a substantial problem is that the grade can be produced in practice only by using, after drying a multi-layer web, rewinding and off-line calendering, several of which, usually two or three, are used side by side to meet production capacity.
It is generally stated that calendering is a method by means of which the properties, in particular the thickness profile, smoothness, gloss and surface porosity of a web-like material are sought to be improved. In calendering the web is passed into a nip which is formed between rolls pressed against each other and in which the web is deformed by the action of temperature, moisture and nip pressure, whereby the physical properties of the web can be affected by controlling the above-mentioned parameters and the time of action. The good physical properties attained by calendering lead to better print quality, thereby bringing a competitive advantage to the manufacturer of paper. A problem in conventional calendering, in which the web is moisturized only before a calender, is the unnecessarily heavy penetration of moisture into the web. To diminish this problem, a calender with two roll stacks is known from FI patent application 992086, in which calender intermediate moisturizing of the web has been arranged between the roll stacks in an attempt to regulate the penetration of moisture into a fibrous web and thereby control the moisture gradient of the web.

Method, system and calendar for controlling the moisture profile and/or moisture gradient of a paper web, and a web


An outer shape of a section in the longitudinal direction at a leading edge of the strut is an aerofoil whose thickness is gradually increased along a flow direction of the combustion gas to prevent reduction of turbine efficiency caused by a shock wave generated at the strut of the exhaust diffuser.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gas turbine.
2. Description of Related Art
A gas turbine is equipped with a compressor, a combustor, and a turbine. In the gas turbine, air is compressed in the compressor and flows into the combustor where it is mixed with fuel and combustion occurs. The combustion gas flows into the turbine where energy is extracted from the gas to rotate the compressor and to drive a generator to generate electricity. After flowing through the turbine, the combustion gas is exhausted through an exhaust diffuser.
FIG. 4 shows an example of a turbine equipped with an exhaust diffuser. The turbine consists of multiple stationary airfoils (vanes, not shown) attached to outer casing 3, and multiple rotating airfoils 2 (blades) which are attached to rotor shaft 1, which rotates about centerline CL. The gas flow, F, is in the direction or left to right on FIG. 4. The turbine can consist of multiple pairs of vanes and blades (stages) attached to rotor 1. FIG. 4 shows the blade of the last stage of the turbine.
The exhaust diffuser, consisting of parts 5, 6, 7, and 8 is connected coaxially to the downstream end of the turbine. The exhaust diffuser consists of exhaust casing 6 which encases gasflow path 5 and multiple struts 8 which support journal bearing 7 which in turn supports rotor 1.
Each strut 8 is equipped with strut main body 8a, that supports journal bearing 7, and strut cover 8b that covers and protects strut main body 8a from the combustion gas F.
In the above conventional gas turbine, strong shock waves can form at the leading edge of each strut cover 8b, resulting in reduced turbine performance. FIG. 5 shows the conventional cross section A-A of strut 8. The shape of strut cover 8b consists of parallel lines in the flow direction connected by semicircles at the leading edge LE and trailing edge TE.
As the combustion gas F, having high Mach number (for example, M=0.65), flows over the strut leading edge, the flow speed rapidly increases to achieve supersonic speed. A shock is generated in the regions indicated by "a" of FIG. 5. The presence of the shock has the effect of reducing turbine efficiency.
This effect on turbine efficiency is increased when the ambient temperature (temperature at the compressor inlet) is low. The amount of air flowing into the gas turbine at low ambient temperature is larger than that at normal ambient temperature, and as a result, the Mach number of the combustion gas flowing into the exhaust diffuser is increased. Accordingly, the shock wave generated at the leading edge LE becomes stronger, resulting in further reductions in turbine efficiency.


Dual-array two-port GPS antenna systems can provide horizon to zenith reception for differential GPS applications. On a single mast, an antenna system may include a lower array of sub-arrays (e.g., fifteen sub-arrays) to provide elevation coverage from horizon up to about 55 degrees elevation and an upper array of sub-arrays (e.g., three sub-arrays) to provide elevation angle coverage from zenith down to about 55 degrees elevation. Each sub-array may be of the same construction including four dipoles positioned at different azimuth locations and configured to provide a progressive-phase-omnidirectional (PPO) azimuth pattern suitable for reception of circularly polarized signals. In a particular embodiment the three sub-arrays of the upper array have PPO azimuth patterns with differing azimuth alignments and differing excitation values to provide a desired elevation angle coverage characteristic.

This invention relates to antennas to receive signals from Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites and, more specifically to antenna systems arranged for reception for differential GPS applications.
Antenna systems providing a circular polarization characteristic in all directions horizontally and upward from the horizon, with a sharp cut-off characteristic below the horizon are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,882, issued to A. R. Lopez on Jul. 9, 1996. Antennas having such characteristics are particularly suited to reception of signals from GPS satellites.
As described in that patent, application of the GPS for aircraft precision approach and landing guidance is subject to various local and other errors limiting accuracy. Implementation of Differential GPS (DGPS) can provide local corrections to improve accuracy at one or more airports in a localized geographical area. A DGPS ground installation provides corrections for errors, such as ionospheric, tropospheric and satellite clock and ephemeris errors, effective for local use. The ground station may use one or more GPS reception antennas having suitable antenna pattern characteristics. Of particular significance is the desirability of antennas having the characteristic of a unitary phase center of accurately determined position, to permit precision determinations of phase of received signals and avoid introduction of phase discrepancies. Antenna systems having the desired characteristics are described and illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,882, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
For such applications, antennas utilizing a stack of individually-excited progressive-phase-omnidirectional elements are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,201,510, issued to A. R. Lopez, R. J. Kumpfbeck and E. M. Newman on Mar. 13, 2001. Elements as described therein include self-contained four-dipole elements which are employed in stacked configuration to provide omnidirectional coverage from the zenith (90° elevation) to the horizon (0°) or from a high elevation angle to the horizon, with a sharp pattern cut off below the horizon. U.S. Pat. No. 6,201,510 is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
In some applications, it may be desirable to employ a set of two antennas, each providing omnidirectional coverage (in azimuth) and the antennas providing complementary coverage in elevation. For example, an antenna of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,201,510 may be designed to provide omnidirectional coverage from the horizon to a specified elevation angle. If available, a second high-angle omnidirectional antenna of appropriate design and performance could be used to provide complementary elevation coverage from that elevation angle to the zenith. Used together, such antennas would provide horizon to zenith coverage for omnidirectional reception of GPS signals for DGPS applications. Available antennas for high elevation angle coverage have generally been subject to limitations in areas such as performance, size, cost, reliability or compatibility for integration into a single dual-array antenna.
Objects of the present invention are to provide new and improved antennas, including antennas usable for DGPS applications and having one or more of the following characteristics and advantages:                dual-array two-port configuration;        omnidirectional azimuth coverage with elevation coverage from horizon to zenith;        high-angle elevation coverage in combination with an array providing lower elevation coverage;        progressive-phase-omnidirectional azimuth pattern;        reception of circularly polarized signals;        configurable with two arrays on one mast;        use of one common form of sub-array in dual arrays.

Dual-array two-port differential GPS antenna systems

Bae Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc.


An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit for a semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) that protects core circuitry of the IC during normal operations, and shunts ESD events during non-powered mode of the IC. The ESD protection circuitry includes a multi-fingered MOS transistor, each finger respectively adapted for coupling between an I/O pad and a first supply line of the IC. An ESD detector is coupled to the I/O pad via a first terminal, and a second terminal is adapted for coupling to a second supply line potential of the IC. A parasitic capacitance is formed between the second supply line potential of the IC and the first supply line potential. A transfer circuit is coupled to a third terminal of the ESD detector and is adapted for biasing at least one gate respectively associated with at least one finger of the multi-fingered MOS transistor.

Robust NMOS and other ESD protection are crucial to obtain high levels of ESD robustness in CMOS technologies. In processes with the option of local blocking of silicide, ballasting resistance is introduced to ensure equal current spreading and uniform multi-finger triggering.
In order to achieve adequate ESD protection levels with high failure thresholds and good clamping capabilities, sufficient device width must be provided. Therefore, multi-finger MOS structures have been implemented for ESD protection. Furthermore, advanced CMOS technologies require high numbers of fingers, since decreasing pad pitch and minimum active area width might be largely restricted by design limitations.
A major concern with regard to multi-finger devices under ESD stress is the possibility of non-uniform triggering of the fingers. In order to ensure uniform turn-on of multi-finger structures, the voltage value at the second finger breakdown Vt2 must exceed the triggering voltage Vt1 of the parasitic BJT transistor, i.e. the voltage at the onset of snapback. In order to avoid damaging an initially triggered finger from a high current load, the adjacent fingers must also be switched on into the low resistive ESD conduction state (i.e. snapback). To achieve a homogeneity condition Vt1<Vt2, either the initial triggering voltage Vt1 must be reduced or the second breakdown voltage Vt2 must be increased.
Complications arise, for example, in standard I/O library cells, where the multi-finger MOS device is formed as a split device. In particular, the multi-finger device is formed as a split device where a first portion of the fingers is actively used by circuitry of an integrated circuit (IC) for functional purposes (i.e., the driver), and a second portion of the fingers is utilized only for ESD protection (i.e., the dummy ESD fingers). The multi-finger device can be configured for several drive strengths by including or excluding a particular number of fingers from being driven at their respective gates by a pre-driver. That is, during normal circuit operation the active fingers are controlled by the pre-driver, while the non-active dummy ESD fingers are not utilized. In this latter instance, the gates of the unused driver fingers are typically grounded, either directly or indirectly, through a resistance. During an ESD event, trigger competition between the actively used (driver fingers) and unused fingers (dummy ESD fingers) may cause non-uniform turn-on of the normally active and non-active fingers. Specifically, the driver fingers may trigger prior to the dummy ESD fingers (i.e., non-uniform turn-on of all the fingers), which may result in failure of the MOS device and damage of the IC. As such, only a part of the total device carries ESD current, while the remainder of the device does not contribute to the current flow and remains unused.
Further problems arise for drivers or other I/O circuitry, which are configured to be over-voltage tolerant (OVT). That is, the voltage that is applied to the I/O circuitry may be higher than the supply voltage (e.g. VDD). In many over-voltage cases, a single NMOS driver may be susceptible to hot carrier injection because the applied voltage exceeds the normally specified maximum voltage between drain and gate.
One method to overcome hot carrier injection concerns is to use a cascoded output driver. That is, two NMOS devices (transistors) are connected in series between an I/O pad of the IC and ground. The serially connected cascoded NMOS transistors form the output driver. The gates of the active cascoded NMOS transistor fingers, whose source is coupled to ground, are driven by the pre-driver.
Alternatively, the gates of the non-active (dummy ESD fingers) cascoded NMOS transistor fingers are tied to ground. Furthermore, the gates of the active and non-active NMOS transistor fingers are tied to a supply line (e.g., VDD) in a normally turned on condition, while drains are coupled to the I/O pad. In this manner, neither of the cascoded NMOS transistor's drain-gate potential can increase enough to cause a hot-carrier concern.
However, during an ESD event, the cascoded devices are difficult to trigger due to the longer base length of the parasitic NPN transistor. As such, the Vt1 value increases, while the Vt2 value remains substantially constant, thereby causing additional non-uniform triggering problems of the cascoded NMOS driver. Again, the issue of trigger competition may cause only a part of the transistor fingers to trigger, thereby causing premature failure. As such, there is a need in the art to provide an ESD protection device with simultaneous and distributed self-biasing for multi-finger turn-on.

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device with simultaneous and distributed self-biasing for multi-finger turn-on


A catheter irrigation device, readily attached to a fluid supply line connected to an indwelling catheter, is used to dislodge clots or blockages at the distal end of the catheter. The irrigation device comprises a pair of opposing rollers configured and positioned such that the fluid supply can be interposed between the rollers. The irrigation device further includes a flexible linkage which supports the rollers and maintains the rollers about the fluid supply tube. The flexible linkage is configured to receive the fluid supply tube and configured to deflect to cause the rollers to pinch the fluid supply tube, thus creating an occlusion. The flexible linkage and roller are further configured to slide over the fluid supply tube, such that with the rollers creating an occlusion in the tube, the irrigation device is slid for a sufficient distance toward the catheter to sufficiently increase the fluidic pressure within the catheter to dislodge the blockage. Alternatively, the device can be slid proximally for a sufficient distance to sufficiently decrease the fluidic pressure within the catheter to dislodge the blockage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to percutaneous catheterization systems, and more particularly to a device for and method of irrigating catheterization systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Intravenous ("IV") catheters are commonly used in the treatment of patients to introduce fluids directly into the bloodstream of the patient. In IV catheterization, a supply of fluid, maintained in a container, is typically located above the patient. A catheter supply tube carries the fluid from the container to a catheter attached to patient, thus introducing the fluid into the patient. The catheter is typically inserted in a vein located on the lateral side of the patient's hand or a vein located on the medial side of the arm. The catheter, however, may alternatively be introduced into another body lumen, such as, for example, an artery or an organ.
Typically, a nurse introduces a needle or other stylet through the cannula portion of the catheter and into the skin of the patient at a desired location. The nurse subsequently removes the needle after the cannula is inserted into the body lumen. Fluid flows directly into the lumen (e.g., vessel) of the patient with the fluid supply tube placing the catheter in fluidic communication with the fluid supply container. Gravity and the pressure generated by the head of the fluid above the patient produces fluid flow into the body lumen.
Flow through the catheter, however, may cease because the head of the liquid above the patient is insufficient to force the fluid into the vessel of the patient, as typically is the case when the fluid supply container has fully drained. Flow may also cease when a nurse or like healthcare provider clamps off the flow to administer medication through a "Y"-site port commonly located on the distal side of the clamp. As used herein, "proximal" and "distal" are used in reference to the proximity of the fluid supply container.
When the IV flow stops, blood clots may form and/or other organic debris may deposit on the distal end of the catheter cannula, thus clogging the catheter. Blood clotting occurs within 2 to 3 minutes after the IV flow ceases, and the clot increases in size thereafter.
Because the catheter commonly remains in place during the catheterization period, which typically is maintained for at least several days (depending upon the condition of the patient), the nurse must unclog the catheter by irrigation. That is, the nurse forces fluid through the catheter under sufficient pressure to displace the blockage (i.e., the blood clot or organic debris).
Nurses commonly irrigate the catheterization site using a syringe. The nurse first fills the syringe with liquid from the IV line and then clamps off a section of the fluid supply tube filled with liquid proximate to the indwelling catheter. The nurse inserts the needle of the syringe into the line communicating with the catheter and injects the fluid into the line to increase the fluidic pressure within the catheter to a level greater than that required to dislodge the blockage.
Although this method may be effective, it suffers from several drawbacks. The method exposes the nurse or like healthcare provider to contaminated medical sharps which raises the possibility of the sharp (e.g., the needle of the syringe) sticking the nurse. On average, this exposure occurs at least twice a day. If the syringe needle does stick (or prick) the nurse, he or she as must undergo a series of inoculations, as well as undergo a series of test together with the patient to determine among other things whether the patient is HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) positive. Such inoculations and tests pose substantial expense to hospitals and clinics.
Moreover, the nurse must retrieve a syringe after noticing that the IV flow has stopped. As mentioned above, blood clots within 2 to 3 minutes and the clot increases in size each minute thereafter. Thus, during the time the nurse retrieves the syringe, the blood clot grows, becoming more difficult to dislodge. In addition, the time expended retrieving the syringe adds to administrative costs, thus increasing the cost of healthcare.
This irrigation procedure also causes substantial discomfort to the patient. Nurses typically use large syringes (e.g. 3 to 12 cubic centimeters) to irrigate the catheterization site which raises the pressure within the catheter above the pressure required to dislodge the blockage. A substantial amount of fluid thus flows into the body lumen when the block dislodges, causing the vessel to swell or causing damage to the lining of the vessel, which adds to the patient's discomfort. Further, this irrigation process may lead to inflammation of the vein (Phlebitis), to Thrombophlebitis, or to subcutaneous infiltration (i.e, perforation of vessel wall). The latter consequence necessitates changing of the catheter insertion site, creating further discomfort to the patient and adding administrative expense. Thus, the present irrigation method, by crudely raising the fluidic pressure beyond that which is required to dislodge the blockage, unnecessarily pains the patient and often damages the catheterized vessel.

Method of catheter irrigation and aspiration


A distributed multi-layer cache in a distributed storage system is described, where the storage controller functions of the distributed storage system are separated from that of distributed storage system storage media. In an exemplary embodiment, a storage controller server determines if an object is in a cache that stores a plurality of objects. In addition, the distributed storage system includes the cache and a distributed object layer for persistently storing the plurality of objects. The cache further includes a de-duplicated cache layer. The storage controller server accesses the object from the cache if the object is in the cache and accesses the object from the distributed object layer if the object is not in the cache.

Enterprise storage systems currently available are proprietary storage appliances that integrate the storage controller functions and the storage media into the same physical unit. This centralized model makes it harder to independently scale the storage systems' capacity, performance and cost. Users can get tied to one expensive appliance without the flexibility of adapting it to different application requirements that may change over time. For small and medium scale enterprise, this may require huge upfront capital cost. For larger enterprise datacenters, new storage appliances are added as the storage capacity and performance requirements increase. These operate in silos and impose significant management overheads.
Traditionally storage systems implemented a single-level in-memory (like DRAM) cache indexed by the logical offset of the stored content. The advent of flash-based devices (like SSD), which provides fast random performance at a lower price than DRAM made them a good candidate for multi-tier caching. However, most solutions tend to extend the in-memory caching methods to the flash-based caches, which doesn't bode very well with the later. This is because most flash-based devices have poor random write performance and tend to wear out after a certain number of writes. Finally, even though there exists some solutions to distributed caching, they suffer from caching duplicative contents or require complex cache coherency solutions to ensure consistency across difference cache instances. All of the above reduce the effectiveness (cost and performance) of the distributed multi-tier cache.

Distributed multi-level caching for storage appliances


A lift-variable valve-operating system for an internal combustion engine, comprising: subsidiary cams which are swingably supported on a movable support shaft capable of being displaced within a plane perpendicular to a rotational axis of a valve-operating cam, and which are swung following the valve-operating cam; and rocker arms each operatively connected to an engine valve and operated following the subsidiary cams, operating characteristics including a lift amount of the engine valve being changed by displacing the movable support shaft, wherein the system further includes a control arm carried in an engine body to be capable of turning about a turning axis parallel to a rotational axis of the valve-operating cam, wherein the movable support shaft having an axis parallel to the turning axis of the control arm is retained on the control arm at a location offset from the turning axis, wherein a hydraulic tappet is mounted in the control arm to support one end of each of the rocker arms, and wherein a valve abutment portion provided at the other end of each of the rocker arms is in abutment against an upper end of a stem of the engine valve. Thus, it is possible to enhance the control accuracy in a state in which the lift amount of the engine valve is controlled to be low.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lift-variable valve-operating system for an internal combustion engine, comprising: subsidiary cams which are swingably supported on a movable support shaft capable of being displaced within a plane perpendicular to a rotational axis of a valve-operating cam, and which are swung following the valve-operating cam; and rocker arms each operatively connected to an engine valve and operated following the subsidiary cams, operating characteristics including a lift amount of the engine valve being changed by displacing the movable support shaft.
2. Description of the Related Art
Published Japanese Translation No. 2004-521234 of PCT Application No. PCT/EP2002/004332 and German Patent Application Laid-open No. 10237104 disclose lift-variable valve-operating systems, in which rocker arms operatively connected to engine valves are swung by subsidiary cams swung by valve-operating cams, and the lift amount of the engine valves and the timing for opening and closing the engine valves are changed by displacing engine valves and the timing for opening and closing the engine valves are changed by displacing fulcrums of the subsidiary cams.
However, in the systems disclosed in the above publications, each of the rocker arms is swingably supported at one end thereof by a hydraulic tappet mounted in a cylinder head, but the subsidiary cams are supported by a member different from the cylinder head, leading to a possibility that the position of abutment of the subsidiary cam against the rocker arm may be changed due to a thermal influence even under the same operating conditions. The position of abutment of the subsidiary cam against the rocker arm may be also changed due to an assembling error and a cumulative dimensional error caused by the interposition of a plurality of different members between a swinging fulcrum for the rocker arm and a swinging fulcrum for the subsidiary cam. Thus, in a valve-operating system designed to change the lift amount of an engine valve, there is a possibility that, particularly in a low-lift state, the proportion of the change in the abutment position with respect to the lift amount may be increased to exert a significant influence to the control of the lift amount.

Lift-variable valve-operating system for internal combustion engine


A feed rate control device for controlling the feeding operation of the electrode of a computerized numerical control type electric spark machine is equipped with an amplitude limiter, a regulator, and a proportional-plus-integral compensator. The amplitude limiter is capable of automatically limiting the amplitude of the input signal according to the moving situation of the electrode of the electric spark machine. By using of the amplitude limiter, the sensitivity of the system may be limited to a suitable level and therefore the stability of the whole system is increased. The proportional-plus-integral compensator is used to compensate the steady state error caused by improper low resolution when the output signal of the amplitude limiter is below an preliminary level. The regulator is used for facilitating the adjustment of the sensitivity of the system according to user's practical experiences.

The present invention relates to a feed rate control device for an electric spark machine, and more particularly to a servo-controlled feed rate control device for precisely controlling the feeding operation of the electrode of a computerized numerical controlled electric spark machine. Under the control of the present invention, the stability of the system is increased, the steady-state error is decreased, and the discharging efficiency is improved.
The well-known technique of electric discharging machining is widely used for removing metallic materials from the surface of a workpiece. In operation, an instantaneous electric spark is continuously supplied between the stationary workpiece to be processed and the electrode of the machine. That is, the machining of the workpiece is completed by controlling the movement of the electrode supplied with a discharging energy with specific frequency to discharge from the electrode to the workpiece. For a useful and perfect electric spark machine, the discharging current strength, the discharging time period, and the movement of the electrode thereof must be controlled precisely and properly in order to keep the discharging spark strength unchangeable and remain the gap between the electrode and the workpiece uniform.
In the operation of the electric discharge machining, the purpose of controlling the feed rate of the electrode is to control that the electrode may move along a predetermined path and keep a narrow gap from the workpiece to be processed to make a continuously discharging performance on the surface of the workpiece. However, it is found that the gap between the electrode and the workpiece is often deposited with undesired carbon deposit and residual metallic materials, which will decrease the discharging efficiency of the system. Besides, the machining parameters of the system and discharging erosion surface occurred on the surface of the electrode also effect the performance efficiency of the system. In this regard, the feed rate of the electrode must be controlled and adjusted according to real operating situations of the system, rather than moved at a constant operation speed.
An ideal discharging voltage of an electric spark machine is shown in FIG. 1. It is preferable that inserting an ignition delay before discharging happening. In this regard, the conventional electric spark machine is designed to be capable of generating a feed rate control signal to servo-motor driving circuit by filtering the signal and comparing the filtered signal with a preliminary reference signal. As shown in FIG. 2, it shows a general function block diagram of a computerized numerical controlled electric spark machine which typically composed of a regulator 10, a CNC interpolator 11, and a driving circuit 12. An electrode 13 is employed, which is capable of performing discharging operation to a workpiece to be processed. The regulator may be used to adjust the stability of the system at the start point of discharging period.
In order to shorten the idle running time, the operator may manually adjust the sensitivity of the system larger, so that the electrode may reach the preliminary discharging position at a faster speed. Further, when the electrode reaches the discharging position, the operator is necessary to adjust the sensitivity lower to make the system stable. It is obvious that the conventional adjusting operation is rather inconvenient in operation.

Servo-controlled feed rate control device for CNC electric spark machines

Industrial Technology Research Institute


An apparatus for deploying a satellite appendage such as an umbrella-like antenna reflector structure is provided. The umbrella-like antenna reflector structure includes a plurality of rib members movable from a stowed configuration to a deployed configuration. The deployment apparatus comprises a deployment tube and a central hub pivotally attached to the plurality of rib members and slidably attached to the deployment tube. The deployment tube is adapted to move along its major axis with respect to the central hub. The deployment apparatus further includes a flexible member connecting the central hub to the deployment tube and a mechanism for tensioning the flexible member. The flexible member can be used to lock the deployment tube, which in turn can be used to lock the umbrella-like structure, in a stowed configuration. Alternatively or additionally, a second flexible member can be used to deploy the deployment tube, which in turn can be used to deploy the umbrella-like structure.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to deployable structures, and specifically to systems for deploying satellite appendages such as reflectors for satellite antennae.
(b) Description of Related Art
Deployment systems for satellite appendages such as umbrella-type reflectors typically include a screw mechanism or a rack-and-pinion drive. Screw mechanisms employ a motor to rotate a metallic lead screw which rotation in turn drives a nut along the major axis of the lead screw. The nut is operatively connected to one or more structural members of the appendage such that movement of the nut causes the appendage to deploy.
Rack-and-pinion drives typically employ a motor to drive a pinion which in turn engages and moves a rack which meshes with the pinion. The rack is operatively connected to one or more structural members of the appendage such that movement of the rack causes the appendage to deploy.
Such screw mechanisms and rack-and-pinion drives have a number of disadvantages. There is potential for the screw mechanism or rack-and-pinion drive to jam, experience problems due to thermal expansion/contraction, or to exhibit unacceptable wear in use, resulting in improper deployment or a complete failure to deploy the appendage. Such potential problems make such mechanisms less reliable than might otherwise be desired.
Also, typical satellite appendages require a launch lock apparatus that relies on pyro-technic release devices. Such pyro-technic devices present safety and reliability problems and require additional electronics for the control and actuation thereof. Pyro-technic devices also require extensive design and testing efforts to ensure that the appendage structure can withstand loads associated with "pyro shock" and the resulting dynamic deployment motion which is difficult to analyze and/or simulate in a 1-G deployment environment (i.e. in a ground-based test). Pyrotechnics also require refurbishment after each use.
Accordingly, there is a need for a deployment system for satellite appendages that is configured so as to minimize or eliminate the aforementioned problems.

Apparatus and method for combined redundant deployment and launch locking of deployable satellite appendages


Systems for servicing the data and memory requirements of system devices. A DMA engine that includes a data reservoir is provided that manages and arbitrates the data requests from the system devices. An arbitration unit is provided that only allows eligible devices to make a data request in any given cycle to ensure that all devices will be serviced within a programmable time period. The data reservoir contains the data buffers for each channel of each device. A memory interface ensures that sufficient data for each channel is present in the data reservoir by making requests to a system's memory based on an analysis of each channel. Based on this analysis, a request is either made to the system's main memory, or the channel waits until it is evaluated again in the future. Each channel is thereby guaranteed a response time.

1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for transferring data to and from memory in a computer system. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for servicing the data and memory requirements of system devices by arbitrating the data requests of those devices.
2. The Prior State of the Art
An important operational aspect of a computer or of a computer system is the need to transfer data to and from the memory of the computer. However, if the computer's processor is used to perform the task of transferring data to and from the computer's memory, then the processor is unable to perform other functions. When a computer is supporting high speed devices that have significant memory needs, the processor bears a heavy load if the processor is required to copy data word by word to and from the computer's memory system for those devices. As a result, using the processor to transfer data in this manner can consume precious processing time.
A solution to this problem is Direct Memory Access (DMA). A DMA controller essentially relieves the processor of having to transfer data to and from memory by permitting a device to transfer data to or from the computer's memory without the use of the computer's processor. A significant advantage of DMA is that large amounts of data may be transferred before generating an interrupt to the computer to signal that the task is completed. Because the DMA controller is transferring data, the processor is therefore free to perform other tasks.
As computer systems become more sophisticated, however, it is becoming increasingly evident that there is a fundamental problem between the devices that take advantage of DMA and the memory systems of those computers. More specifically, the problem faced by current DMA modules is the ability to adequately service the growing number of high speed devices as well as their varying data requirements.
High performance memory systems preferably provide high bandwidth and prefer large data requests. This is in direct contrast to many devices, which may request small amounts of data, have low bandwidth, and require small latencies. This results in system inefficiencies as traditional devices individually communicate with the memory system in an effort to bridge this gap. It is possible that many different devices may be simultaneously making small data requests to a memory system that prefers to handle large memory requests. As a result, the performance of the memory system is decreased.
This situation makes it difficult for low bandwidth devices, which may have high priority, to effectively interact with high bandwidth devices that may have lower priority. For example, an audio device may support several different channels that receive data from memory. The audio device typically makes a data request to memory for data every few microseconds for those channels. Because devices such as audio devices recognize that they may experience significant latency from the memory system before their request is serviced, the audio device, may implement an excessively large buffer to account for that latency.
This is not an optimum solution for several reasons. For instance, many devices maintain a large buffer because they do not have a guarantee that their data requests will be serviced within a particular time period. Other devices maintain an excessively large buffer because it is crucial that the data be delivered in a timely manner even though the devices may have low bandwidth requirements. For example, if an audio device does not receive its data in a timely manner, the result is instantly noticed by a user. Additionally, each device must implement DMA control logic, which can be quite complex for some devices. In other words, the DMA control logic is effectively repeated for each device.
Current devices often interact with DMA systems independently of the other system devices and each device in the system is able to make a data request to the DMA at any time. As a result, it is difficult to determine which devices need to be serviced first. The arbitration performed by systems employing isochronous arbitration often defines fixed windows in which all devices that may require servicing are given a portion. These fixed windows are large from the perspective of high bandwidth devices and small from the perspective of low bandwidth devices. Thus, high bandwidth devices are required to buffer more data than they really need and low bandwidth devices often do not need to use their allocated portion of the window. This results in inefficiencies because all of the available bandwidth may not be used and additional memory is required for the buffers of high bandwidth devices. In essence, current systems do not adequately allow high priority devices to efficiently coexist with high bandwidth devices.

Arbitrating and servicing polychronous data requests in Direct Memory Access


This invention discloses a semiconductor power device disposed in a semiconductor substrate and having an active cell area and an edge termination area the edge termination area wherein the edge termination area comprises a superjunction structure having doped semiconductor columns of alternating conductivity types with a charge imbalance between the doped semiconductor columns to generate a saddle junction electric field in the edge termination.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the semiconductor power devices. More particularly, this invention relates to configurations and methods for manufacturing of new and improved edge terminations for semiconductor power devices to generate electrical field as saddle junctions to reduce the areas occupied by the termination areas while maintaining high breakdown voltages.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional manufacturing technologies and device configuration to further increase the breakdown voltage of a semiconductor power device at the terminal areas are still confronted with difficulties that the termination areas occupied large areas. The difficulties are becoming even more severe and limiting when the semiconductor power devices are now manufactured with ever reduced size. A general survey discovers that for integrate circuit (IC) chips of larger size; the edge termination takes up about 20% of the total area. However, as size of the chip becomes smaller and smaller, the percentage of the edge termination gradually increases and may take up to about 50% of the total area in order to maintain a high breakdown voltage. The termination area is a "non-active" area of a transistor because it is not useful for current conduction. Even though large areas taken up by the edge termination leads to wastes of valuable active cell areas, there are still significant difficulties in reducing the edge termination area while maintaining a high breakdown voltage.
FIGS. 1A and 1B are cross sectional view of an ideal PN junction with parallel plane breakdown voltage, and an un-terminated PN junction at the edge of a vertical power device to explain the need of improvements for edge termination. FIG. 1A shows an ideal PN junction between a P+ layer and an N− layer on top of an N+ substrate. Due to the doping difference the N− depletion layer 103 is much wider than the P+ depletion layer 101. Ignoring the edge effect the electric field within the depletion region is evenly distributed with parallel plane avalanche breakdown. This is the theoretical limit of Breakdown voltage that can be reached for the given doping levels and thickness of the lightly doped drift region when ignoring the edge effect. However, the actual breakdown voltage of a reversed bias junction can be severely degraded at the edge where the formation of P+ layer by implantation terminates, due to field crowding from the formation of a cylindrical junction, as shown in FIG. 1B. It can be observed that the shape of the depletion region is convex, and that leads to the electric field crowding near the junction.
In order to mitigate this problem, several edge terminations have been proposed, and are widely used in the industry. Some of these include the floating guard rings 90 of FIG. 1C and the Electric Field plate 92 of FIG. 1D. These techniques improve the Breakdown voltage by spreading the depletion region at the surface and thus lowering the electric field. However, these methods typically require large area for implementation, and cause an increase in the die size of the device. In addition, these techniques are prone to surface charges coming from the passivation films and/or the packaging mold compound.
Therefore, a need still exists in the art of power semiconductor device design and manufacture to provide new and improved configurations of the edge termination such that the above discussed problems and limitations can be resolved.

Configuration and method to generate saddle junction electric field in edge termination

Alpha and Omega Semiconductor Incorporated


A disk tag reading device is a device for reading contents of an electronic tag attached to a disk. A holder which is inserted into a central hole of the disk configures an antenna for communicating with the electronic tag attached to the disk.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system method for reading an electronic tag such as an RFID, etc., and more particularly, to a disk tag reading device for reading contents of a tag attached to a disk such as a CD, a DVD, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, attention has been paid to an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) system as a system for managing parts or an inventory. For example, if the production or distribution of CDs, DVDs, etc., tags of as many stacked CDs or DVDs as possible must be collectively read. However, if many CDs or DVDs are stacked, there is a problem that the number of readable CDs or DVDs is reduced due to an influence of a recording medium (metal portion) of a CD or a DVD.
FIG. 1 explains a CD to which a tag is attached. The tag 100 is attached to the proximity of the center of the CD, and a recording medium (metal portion) 101 exists outside the tag.
FIG. 2 explains a conventional example of a reading system, for example, in a case where many CDs are stacked. In this figure, a method for reading contents of a tag by connecting a high-gain antenna 107 to an RFID reader/writer system 106, and by making the antenna 107 close to the CD is used if contents of tags are read from many CDs to which RFID tags are attached. This method, however, has a problem that the number of CDs from which data of tags can be accurately read becomes small among the stacked many CDs as described above.
The following documents exist as conventional techniques for such a system for reading a tag, etc.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-357366 "Antenna Device and Reader/Writer Device"
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Publication No. 2003-69549 "Information Protection Management System Using a Recording Medium Equipped with an RFID"
Patent Document 1 discloses a technique, for example, using a pillar-shaped of coiled insulator based material antenna having a height direction that is an insertion direction into a cylinder in order to communicate with a non-contact data carrier installed on the inner surface of the cylinder.
Patent Document 2 discloses an information protection management system for recording a decryption key to an RFID chip of a recording medium on which encrypted information is recorded, and for decrypting the encrypted information by using the decryption key read from the RFID chip when the encrypted information is read from the medium.
These techniques, however, cannot solve the problem that contents of tags attached to disks cannot be accurately read when many disks such as CDs, DVDs, etc. are stacked.


A dynamic repository (either storing digital data content or pointers to stored digital data content) works in conjunction with a plurality of interfaces to manage digital content and digital rights policies associated with one or more users. Digital rights policies are unique to each user and such policies define access to digital content in the repository. The user's digital rights policy indicates the level of access a user has to digital content in the repository (e.g., the policy could indicate that the user has authorized access to a particular file for a period of seven days). The interfaces linked with the content repository are used to access and manipulate the digital data content (based upon each user's digital rights policy) and the digital rights policies stored in the content repository. The interfaces include: (a) one or more authentication interfaces for authenticating users, (b) one or more digital rights management (DRM) interfaces allowing users to add, delete, or edit the digital rights policies, (c) one or more data access interfaces allowing users to selectively access digital data content as defined by their individual digital rights policy, (d) one or more browsing interfaces allowing users to selectively browse said digital data content, or a (e) one or more content manipulation interfaces allowing said users to add, delete, or edit said digital data content.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of content storage. More specifically, the present invention is related to creating varying levels of access for specialized data content.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
With the advent of ubiquitous, broadband networks, it has become increasingly popular to purchase digital content (such as music, video, software, etc.) and to receive the content using downloadable computer files or online data streams rather than using physical media (such as CDs or VHS tapes). As this type of interaction becomes more common, new types of infrastructure will need to be developed to help manage this process, to make it easier to use and to make it more cost effective.
FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art content delivery system wherein a user is able to use a computer-based device (e.g., a personal computer (PC) 110, laptop 112, pen-based computer 113, wireless telephone 114, personal digital assistant (PDA) 116, pager 118, etc.) to establish a communication link with one or more content providers 102, 104, and 106 over a network 108 (e.g., local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), Internet, etc.). In this scenario, users are able to request and download various types of digital content (over network 108) from the content providers 102, 104, and 106 onto their computer-based device.
A popular type of digital content that is requested for download is multimedia digital content such as audio (e.g., MP3's) and video content (e.g., MPEG4). Digital content providers offer various online services wherein users are able to request and download multimedia content over a network such as the Internet. These types of services are convenient to users who are interested in downloading digital content onto their computer-based devices (as long as their computer-based device is capable of communicating with the content provider over a network such as the Internet).
In the instance that users are not at their home or office and are interested in purchasing digital content, but do not have access to their Internet connection, they are limited to purchasing physical media at various physical locations, such as a music store. At the music store, they are provided with a choice of purchasing the physical media with the multimedia content (e.g., a music CD). When users are interested in purchasing digital content related to a product of interest (as opposed to purchasing the physical media itself), they must go to a physical location such as their home or office that has access to the Internet to perform a financial transaction before downloading the digital content onto their computer-based device.
Some music stores have headsets to preview music. These previews, however, are very limited in duration, and multimedia content associated with such previews are not presented in their entirety. Thus, in the example of a music store, if a user is interested in a particular album, he/she can press a button corresponding to the album and be able to preview segments of certain songs in the album.
A problem faced by vendors of digital content (e.g., multimedia content), is that currently each must independently develop mechanisms for content delivery and Digital Rights Management (DRM). This is both costly to provide and is difficult for consumers to use as they must deal with a variety of different interfaces and access methods in order to obtain their goods.
In addition, current methods tend to constrain to way in which online media is purchased. Traditionally, for example, digital goods that are purchasable via online transactions require a network connection in order to access these goods. From an end user's perspective, however, it would be more convenient and simpler if the method by which people purchase digital goods is independent of the good's delivery mechanism.
Similarly, the type of device used to purchase digital goods should be independent of the device used to access these goods. It should be possible, for example, to use a wireless web device to purchase a high-resolution video regardless of whether the device has sufficient bandwidth to view the video or enough storage capacity to save it locally. The consumer may wish to purchase the video for later viewing on another device with a higher speed connection or may simply want to automatically download the content to another device such as a home server.
The following references provide a general description of digital content providers that allow digital content to be downloaded.
The U.S. patent to Schulhof et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,442), assigned to Information Highway Media Corporation, provides a system for distributing subscription and on-demand audio programming. Disclosed is a system for downloading digital audio data onto a portable audio storage medium and listening to it at a desired time. The portable audio storage medium is capable of high-speed data transfer that can be downloaded from such systems as a television cable system, satellite, or fiber optic telephone link.
The published U.S. patent application to Tsukamoto (2001/0013120A1), assigned to NEC Corporation, provides for a digital content rental system. Disclosed is a process that consists of a customer visiting the store with a portable storage unit, such as a magnetic disk. The user may then choose from a plurality of digital content and download the desired content onto his/her storage medium.
The published U.S. patent application to Ekkel (2001/0037360A1), assigned to Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., provides for data service at a transit terminal. Disclosed is a system that provides information content to a user at a repository. While a consumer is traveling, a data service offers information availability that can be downloaded by the user to a storage device to be viewed offline. Using a mobile storage medium such as a memory card or a magnetic disk, the individual may use the highly customizable service to download electronic information content from a host repository or server.
The published U.S. patent application to Sibley (2001/0039662A1), assigned to Hughes Electronics Corporation, provides for a digital over-the-air communication system for use with a digital terrestrial broadcasting system. Disclosed is a system for distributing electrical content using digital over-the-air communication. The process consists of a network operation center uplinking electronic content packages to a satellite, a broadcast center receiving the electronic content from the satellite, and a user device receiving the digital content via a digital channel generated by the broadcast center.
The published U.S. patent application to Ramachandran et al. (2001/0044747A1), assigned to Diebold, Incorporated, provides for a system and method for dispensing digital information from an automated transaction machine. Disclosed is a service that offers digital content information to a user through an automated transaction machine.
Whatever the precise merits, features, and advantages of the above-cited references, none of them achieve or fulfill the benefits of the present invention.

Methods, systems, and products for managing digital content


The present invention provides a method, apparatus, and computer implemented instructions for processing Web and other Internet or Intranet based services. The system for processing Web requests includes a Web server with a connection to the Internet or Intranet with a predefined network bandwidth, a set of primary Web and application server cluster nodes to process the requests, and a dispatcher to allocate requests to nodes; in addition, one or more offload server nodes are connected to the network. Client Web requests arrive at the dispatcher of the Web server, which determines whether the incoming request can be handled at the primary Web server cluster, whether all or part of the user Web request should be offloaded to one of the offload server nodes, or whether the request should be throttled. If the dispatcher determines that the request should be handled by the primary Web server cluster, it is appropriately routed to one of the nodes in the primary Web server cluster; else if the dispatcher determines that the request should be offloaded, one of the offload server nodes or service providers is selected, and the request is either routed to a primary server node with the appropriate indication to offload all or part of the request, or the request is routed to the selected offload service provider; otherwise, the request is throttled by either routing it to a node which returns information that the service is overloaded, or if the Web servers are too busy to provide even an overload indication, then the request is dropped.

The Internet is the world's largest electronic data network and continues to grow in geographical distribution and data capacity on a daily basis. Access to the Internet has become an essential part of the business process in organizations such as government, academia and commercial enterprises. The traffic directed to many popular Internet servers on the World Wide Web (Web) is growing rapidly. As a consequence, many techniques have been developed for scaling Web servers, for example by clustering computing nodes. Another technique for supporting a high traffic rate to popular sites is to cache data at caching servers external to the sites. More generally, offload servers are provided for processing some of the traffic targeted to the primary Web server.
One technique for offloading data from primary servers to offload servers, used by cache service providers such as Akamai Technologies (see www.akamai.com), is to alter the primary Web pages at the primary Web server, such that requests for embedded images in the Web pages go instead to the external servers of the cache service provider. In a typical Web page, the images are specified by Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), which typically identify the server from which the image is obtained and inserted onto the downloaded page. In the offloading technique used by cache service providers, the URL of the embedded images is modified to point to the cache service provider server(s). Using this technique, the Web browser first fetches the primary page from the home Web server. The client Web browser then determines that the URL for the embedded images is from the cache service provider. The client Web browser obtains the embedded image from the cache service provider rather than the home Web site. This technique results in significant static offloading, especially of network bandwidth, from the home Web server to the cache service provider.
Web requests from clients can be statically offloaded to offload servers using several different methods, one of which has been outlined above. In another method, all Web server requests to the primary server go first to one of the offload servers. If the offload service provider has the data to serve that request, it serves it directly to the requesting client. Otherwise, it routes the request to the primary Web Server, which returns the data to the offload server, which then returns it to the client.
One problem with the described cache offload approach is that all objects with modified URLs, such as the images mentioned above, get redirected to the cache service provider, regardless of whether the home Web server has the resources available to service the request. In fact, as shown and described in further detail below, the load on typical primary Web servers varies tremendously by day, time of day and day of year. To handle the peak load for the objects that cannot be redirected to the cache service provider, the primary Web server needs to have a significant network bandwidth, which is then sufficient to handle all of the offered load for a large fraction of the time. In fact, a primary Web server configured to handle peak expected requirements of non-offloadable objects can handle the entire offered load for most of the time. Only at the peak loads is it desirable, from the primary Web server loading standpoint, to offload some of the work to cache service providers.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,112,225 to Kraft et al. shows a task distribution processing system and methods whereby subscribing computers are used to perform computing tasks, typically a subtask of a large, aggregate task, during what would otherwise be idle time. The patent generally does not address the real-time, dynamic distribution of network processing requests as described herein.
The present inventors have determined that it would be desirable to be able to dynamically offload processing requirements from primary Web servers only when it is necessary to do so, for example because of limited Web server network bandwidth or limited Web server CPU capacity.

System and method for dynamically allocating processing on a network amongst multiple network servers

International Business Machines Corporation


A RF MOS- or nonlinear device-based surveillance and/or identification tag, and methods for its manufacture and use. The tag generally includes (a) an inductor, (b) a first capacitor plate coupled to the inductor, (c) a dielectric film on the first capacitor plate, (d) a semiconductor component on the dielectric film, and (e) a conductor that provides electrical communication between the semiconductor component and the inductor. The method of manufacture generally includes (1) depositing a semiconductor material (or precursor) on a dielectric film; (2) forming a semiconductor component from the semiconductor material/precursor; (3) forming a conductive structure at least partly on the semiconductor component; and (4) etching the electrically functional substrate to form (i) an inductor and/or (ii) a second capacitor plate. The method of use generally includes (i) causing/inducing a current in the present tag sufficient for it to generate detectable electromagnetic radiation; (ii) detecting the radiation; and optionally, (iii) selectively deactivating the tag. The present invention advantageously provides a low cost EAS/RFID tag capable of operating at MHz frequencies and in frequency division and/or frequency multiplication modes.

Conventional low cost RF EAS and multibit chipless ID tags are fundamentally limited by their linear nature. They are composed of simple passive inductors, capacitors and resistors that resonate at the reader output frequency when that output frequency matches the resonant frequency of the tag. Tag detection is performed by detecting the disturbance in the oscillating field caused by the presence of the resonating tag (which couples to the reader field by mutual inductance, as in two loosely coupled transformer coils, and causes a change in the impedance of the tag detection circuit at the resonant frequency). This means that the tag resonance signal and the reader output are at the same frequency. Therefore, the detection efficiency and read range can be limited by the signal to noise ratio of the small tag signal with respect to the large reader signal. In some instances, these tags are read by pulsing the reader RF source, then listening for the ringing of the tag oscillator as the resonance decays.
Significant improvements in tag signal-to-noise, reduced error rates, and read range (the distance between a tag and reader) can occur through frequency dividing, multiplying, mixing or shifting in a tag. In this case, the reader puts out a central frequency that excites the tag circuit, such as the nationally and internationally recognized, relatively high field strength but low bandwidth carrier signals at 13.56 MHz. The tag then couples some of this energy into a frequency away from the central reader signal. The reader can then more easily filter out the large drive signal and more easily detect the different frequency "sideband" signal from the tag.
A direct way to get frequency shifts is to include a simple non-linear device into a simple LC circuit. Generally speaking, the introduction of any nonlinear circuit element will lead to the generation of harmonics of the carrier frequency and/or allow the resonant coupling of energy into the tag at frequencies away from the carrier frequency (e.g., tag resonance=the carrier frequency for generation of higher harmonics of the carrier frequency, or for the generation of a subharmonic at half the carrier frequency, tag resonance=½ of the reader signal frequency). A nonlinear device also can allow for mixing multiple incident signal frequencies to produce new spectral components or sidebands. Diodes have been used for these purposes, to produce RF and microwave shifted spectrum frequency tags with enhanced signal-to-noise, read-range and/or a lower false alarm rate than linear capacitor based tags. However, prior to the availability of printed active electronic components, the cost of integrating discrete passive components has prevented nonlinear tags from being used as low cost, disposable electronic article surveillance tags.
For a printed RF tag, the provision of a suitable substrate and/or an effective inductor coil can be a dominant factor in determining the cost of the tag. At 13.56 MHz and below, high Q inductors of a size <10 cm in lateral dimension (typically 50-100 μm thickness) require tens of microns of metal. High Q is generally required to get (1) good coupling between the reader field and the transponder tag and (2) high read range. Directly printing the nonlinear element on to a sheet or foil of metal can provide a cost effective way to provide an inductor, a relatively temperature resistant substrate, one electrode of the nonlinear device, and/or a source for the growth of the dielectric oxide.
As is known in the art, one can grow a dielectric film on a sheet of aluminum using high throughput, low cost per unit area processes (see e.g., U.S. Pat. Appl. Publication No. 2002/0163434, the relevant portions of which are incorporated herein by reference). However, a need still exists for low-cost or cost-effective integration of non-linear devices onto EAS RF tags. The present invention concerns a structure and process for an RF resonant and harmonic, subharmonic, signal mixing or sideband generating tag, utilizing printing technology.

MOS electronic article surveillance, RF and/or RF identification tag/device, and methods for making and using the same


A photoinduced carrier lifetime measuring method capable of obtaining photoinduced carrier effective lifetime of a semiconductor substrate with high accuracy regardless of the surface state of the sample. The method includes: irradiating a microwave onto a semiconductor substrate while periodically pulse-irradiating a light onto the semiconductor substrate; detecting the microwave transmitted through the semiconductor substrate or reflected by the semiconductor substrate; and obtaining the effective lifetime of photoinduced carriers generated in the semiconductor substrate by the pulse irradiation of the light, based on an irradiation duration T1 and a non-irradiation duration T2 when performing the light pulse irradiation and an integrated value of each microwave intensity obtained by the detection.

The photoinduced carrier lifetime is used as one of indicators for evaluating internal defects within the semiconductor substrate. The term "photoinduced carrier lifetime" means the lifetime of the photoinduced carriers (i.e., the minority carriers) generated in the semiconductor substrate by light irradiation.
A μ-PCD (microwave photoconductive decay) method (see, for example, Non-patent document 1) is known as a first example of a method and device for measuring the photoinduced carrier lifetime. In such a method, a laser is pulse-irradiated onto a semiconductor substrate for extremely short time in a state where a microwave is irradiated onto the semiconductor substrate. At this time, the reflectivity of the microwave irradiated onto the semiconductor substrate changes depending on the density of the carriers induced by the laser pulse. Thus, the effective lifetime of the photoinduced carriers of the semiconductor substrate (referred to as "effective lifetime" hereinafter) can be obtained by measuring the change of the reflectivity with time.
A QSSPC (quasi steady state photoconductivity) method (see, for example, Non-patent document 2) is known as a second example of the method and device for measuring the photoinduced carrier lifetime of a semiconductor substrate. In such a method, an inductance coil is disposed to face a semiconductor substrate, to emit RF frequency radiation. Further, a light is pulse-irradiated onto the semiconductor substrate for extremely short time. At this time, an electromagnetic wave of a RF frequency is reflected by the carriers induced by the light pulse. The photoinduced carrier effective lifetime of the semiconductor substrate can be obtained by measuring the change of the reflected wave with time as the change of the currency flowing through the coil.
Further, a microwave optical interference absorption method (see, for example, Non-patent document 3) is known as a third example of the method and device for measuring the photoinduced carrier lifetime of a semiconductor substrate. In such a method, a microwave interferometer formed of a waveguide is inserted into a semiconductor substrate, and continuous light is irradiated onto the semiconductor substrate in a state where a microwave is irradiated onto the semiconductor substrate. At this time, since the microwave is absorbed by the carriers induced by the irradiation of the continuous light, the photoinduced carrier effective lifetime can be obtained by measuring the reduction of the microwave transmittance.

Photoinduced carrier lifetime measuring method, light incidence efficiency measuring method, photoinduced carrier lifetime measuring device, and light incidence efficiency measuring device

National University Corporation Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology


A draft load control system for a primary motive power source that uses hitch cylinder pressure to provide input to the control system of the draft load on the power source caused by a hitch-connected or a towed, ground-engaging implement.

The present invention relates generally to hydraulically actuated implements attached to agricultural tractors or other primary sources or motive power, and more particularly to systems and methods for controlling the draft load of an implement in such an arrangement.
One of the most common uses of agricultural tractors is to move implements through agricultural fields to cultivate and condition the soil. Implements are commonly connected to the tractor using a three-point hitch or a drawbar. A three-point hitch device typically comprises two bottom lift arms, to which the implement is connected in rotary manner to swing about a given hinge axis; and a top link interposed between the tractor frame and the implement to control the angular position of the implement about the hinge axis. The lift arms are moved by a further actuating cylinder (or cylinders) interposed between the tractor frame and the lift arms, movement of the lift arms raising and lowering the implement with respect to the ground. Three-point hitches may be front or rear mounted. Implements may thus be connected in front of the tractor and pushed through the soil, behind the tractor and pulled through the soil, or both. Similarly most trailed implements towed by a drawbar include one or more wheels pivotably connected to the implement in a manner to raise and lower the implement with respect to the ground offering an another method for altering implement position. Movement of the implement-attached wheels is used to establish implement position with respect to the ground. Three-point hitches and towed implement position control, as well as numerous variations thereof, are well known in the agricultural industry.
The digital controller used for hitch controller 200 and other digital controllers used in the tractor are coupled over the CAN bus 180. Engine control system 161 also includes a digital interface that enables it to communicate over the same CAN bus. The communications bus (CAN bus) 180 is preferably a controller area network bus such as the bus defined in the SAE J1939 standard. Individual communications circuits within the communications bus 180 are preferably Siemens or Motorola brand CAN bus controller circuits that are either integrally formed with the controllers or are coupled to the controllers. By using the existing CAN bus 180, the present invention obtains the sensor information without the need to employ additional, task-specific sensing circuits. These preferences are based upon actual field test results, and reflect choices made thereon. However, it should be obvious that components other than these will work, and certainly improvements by other manufacturers will be made and may prove even more suitable than those specifically identified herein. Additionally, while a serial communications protocol is described, use of other protocols (e.g., parallel) are equally suitable and thus not precluded by this invention.
Electronic draft control systems alleviate the need for manual hitch adjustments by controlling the position of the connected implement in response to loads applied to the tractor by the implement. The control systems allow the depth of engagement to be adjusted so that a near constant draft load is applied to the tractor to smooth tractor operation. Alternatively, control systems may maintain the implement at a near constant depth of engagement thereby allowing the implement tools to follow field contours. Such control systems typically use one or more measuring devices to sense the draft loads applied to the hitch by the implement and then generate a control output to adjust the hitch position in response to the applied loads and desired position. Measuring devices are subjected to generally harsh environments that increase failure rates and reduce reliability. Such force sensing devices are typically installed only on rear three-point hitches which limit the draft control to rear hitched implements.
Key considerations in monitoring implement draft load are the accuracy of the load reading and the time lag between an actual change in the draft load and the recognition of that change by the control system. Sensing devices capable of providing accurate and near-instantaneous measurements of the draft load are expensive, susceptible to electrical noise interference from the tractor and may be limited in their capacity.
Hitch mounted implements are supported by the actuating cylinders used to position three-point hitches. Actuating cylinders must provide an upward force on the hitch to support the implement above the ground. When the implement engages the ground and is towed through a field, a downward force is generated which must be counteracted by the actuating cylinders to maintain the implement at a constant depth of engagement. Measuring the cylinder pressure provides an efficient, near instantaneous method for measuring the downward force created by the implement. Actuating cylinders used to position support wheels in towed implements experience similar loading characteristics and may therefore be similarly used to determine downward loading on the implement.
It would be a great advantage to provide an economical and reliable system for controlling the depth of ground engagement and therefore the draft load imposed on the tractor by the coupled implement in a manner to maintain a constant draft load on the tractor. Further advantages would be realized if the draft load control system would function for any connected implement regardless of whether the implement is connected to a front hitch or a rear hitch. Still further advantages would be realized if the draft load sensing apparatus provided near-instantaneous measurements of the draft load to the control system thereby enabling automated draft control thereby alleviating the operator from manually monitoring and controlling the draft load. Still further advantages would be realized if the draft load control system could accept other parameters, such as engine load, to further refine the draft load control scheme. These and other advantages are provided by the draft control system described below.

Implement/hitch draft control using hitch cylinder pressure as load feedback


In an image captured by an infrared camera mounted in a vehicle, a featured image portion group including first and second high luminance image portions lined up side by side vertically or horizontally and a third high luminance image portion located below the first and second high luminance image portions is defined. The featured image portion group has a feature indicating that a similarity of one of a luminance distribution and a shape between the first high luminance image portion and the second high luminance image portion is higher than between the third high luminance image portion and at least one of the first and second high luminance image portions. If the featured image portion group is found in the captured image, it is determined that at least the third high luminance image portion is the image of a component of a traffic signal structure.

Some existing vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatuses detect, from an image captured by an infrared camera mounted in a vehicle, the image of an attention needed object that should be the main object of a driver's attention (e.g., a human being (a pedestrian)) other than an artificial structure. Thereafter, if an attention needed object is detected, the vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatuses perform an alerting process (e.g., sounding an alarm) for a driver as needed (refer to, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-284057).

Vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus


The foldable, multiple level playhouse for cat has a collapsible housing with a plurality of wall panels that are movable relative to each other to a collapsed or folded position for storage. Each side panel has at least one floor slot. The playhouse includes at least one floor member that is adapted to be removably connected to the plurality of wall panels. The floor member has a plurality of perimeter tabs each adapted to be received in the slots of the wall panels to lock the floor into position in the housing. The floor member has a portion that is adapted to fold downward to the floor of the next adjacent level of the cat playhouse to form a ramp between the two levels and to provide support for the floor member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a cat playhouse and a method of making same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a multiple level cat playhouse that is easily collapsible and foldable for easy shipment and storage. When assembled, the cat playhouse has sufficient structural strength to withstand the weight of a cat. More particularly, the cat playhouse has several levels of play and permits interior movement of the cat from one level to another level. Further, the cat playhouse is relatively inexpensive to manufacture since it may use one type of structural material for the walls and floors and the walls and floors themselves provide the means for fastening themselves together. Still further, the material, such as, cardboard, is relatively inexpensive.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Animals, such as cats, enjoy exploring, hiding and resting in cozy places, such as, for example, boxes, shopping bags and the like. In a home, it is desired to have an item, such as a playhouse, to provide the cat with the opportunity to explore, hide and rest in a desired location in the home. When entertaining guests, it is desirable to fold and store the playhouse and thereby provide additional room to entertain guests.
The use of playhouses to entertain cats is known. Some earlier playhouses, such as, for example, the playhouse shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,347,807 entitled Cat Condominium and Method of Making Same, which issued on Sept. 7, 1982 to Marvin Reich, is directed to a cat condominium that is foldable for shipment and, when assembled, has a plurality of compartments each with an exterior opening that relies on the natural curiosity of the cat to explore the various compartments. There is no provision from moving internally from one compartment to another.
Later cat playhouses, such as, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,536 entitled Playhouse For Cats, which issued on Sept. 24, 1991 to Reginald D. Baker, is directed to a multiple level, foldable cat playhouse that provides a plurality of beam members that extend through slots formed in the vertical panels or side walls of the playhouse and locking flap assemblies joined to the uppermost end of each vertical panel or side wall. The plurality of beam members protrude through the side walls and are exposed externally. To assembly this playhouse, each of the plurality of beam members needs to be positioned in opposed, slotted side walls. This playhouse has many more components than the present playhouse thereby increasing the assembly time, cost and complex of manufacturing the playhouse.
Thus, the prior art fails to provide a cat playhouse that permits internal movement, is easily foldable, inexpensive to manufacture and assembly, and provides a minimum number of components.