Compounds having the formula:

Catalysts
In recent years, it has become widely recognized that ligands having C2 symmetry can be used with great effect in the design of catalysts for asymmetric synthesis. Several reviews have addressed the use of such catalysts in asymmetric carbenoid reactions. These include: Singh et al., "Catalytic Enantioselective Cyclopropanation of Olefins Using Carbenoid Chemistry," Synthesis, 1997:137–149 and Doyle, Chiral catalysts for Enantioselective Carbenoid Cyclopropanation Reactions," Recl. Trav. Chim. Pays-Bas, 110:305–316 (1991). The use of these catalysts in asymmetric transformations has also been reported in Pfaltz, "Chiral Semicorrins and Related Nitrogen Heterocycles as Ligands in Asymmetric Catalysts," Acc. Chem. Res., 26:339–345 (1993); Noyori, Asymmetric Catalysis in Organic Synthesis, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., pp. 16–95 (1994); Evans et al., "Bis(oxazoline)-copper Complexes as Chiral Catalysts for the Asymmetric Aziridination of Olefins," J. Am. Chem. Soc., 115:3328–3329 (1993); Li et al., "Asymmetric Alkene Aziridination With Readily Available Chiral Diimine-based Catalysts," J. Am. Chem. Soc., 115:5326–5327 (1993); Nishikori et al., "Catalytic and Highly Enantioselective Aziridination of Styrene Derivatives," Tetrahedron Lett., 37:9245–9248 (1996); Nicholas et al., "On the Mechanism of Alyllic Amination Catalyzed by Iron Salts," J. Am. Chem. Soc., 119:3302–3310 (1997); Johnson et al., "Catalytic Asymmetric Epoxidation of Allylic Alcohols," in Ojima, ed., Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis, New York: VCH Publishers, Inc., pp. 103–158 (1993); and Jacobsen, "Asymmetric Catalytic Epoxidation of Unfunctionalized Olefins," in Ojima, ed., Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis, New York: VCH Publishers, Inc., pp. 159–202 (1993). The C2 symmetry of a complex cuts in half the number of possible arrangements that are available for the reacting substrate or substrates. Consequently, it becomes much easier to design a catalyst with well-defined chiral influence to effect high asymmetric induction of the reaction in question. A natural extension for chiral catalyst design would be to move from complexes having C2 symmetry to complexes having D2 symmetry. Catalysts having D2 symmetry would cut to a quarter the number of possible arrangements that are available for the reacting substrate or substrates and, thus, would have the potential of being very reliable chiral catalysts.
Even though the concept of using catalysts having D2 symmetry is a very attractive proposition, the practical outcome of trying to develop such catalysts has not had much success. The general strategy, such as that described in Maxwell et al., "Shape-selective and Asymmetric Cyclopropanation of Alkenes Catalyzed by Rhodium Porphyrins," Organometallics, 11:645–652 (1992) ("Maxwell"), Morice et al., "Oxidation and Chiral Recognition of Amino Esters by Dioxoruthenium(VI) Porphyrins: Synthesis of a New Imino Ester Ru(II) Complexes," Tetrahedron Lett., 37:6701–6704 (1996), and Halterman et al., "Synthesis of D2-symmetric Benzaldehydes and Achiral Arylsipyrromethanes," Tetrahedron Lett., 37:6291–6294 (1996), has been to develop very elaborate D2 ligands built around a porphyrin core. However, the synthetic procedures for these ligands are long and give poor yields, and the resulting chiral catalysts perform only with moderate asymmetric induction. Maxwell suggests that one problem with these porphyrin complexes is that the chiral influence is too far removed from the metal center to be very effective in asymmetric induction.
In view of the unrealized promise of catalysts having D2 symmetry, there is a need for catalysts having D2 symmetry which are easily to produce and which have high asymmetric inductive effects. The present invention, in part, is directed to meeting this need.
Synthesis of Gem-Diarylalkyl Derivatives
The gem-diarylalkyl group is present in a number of important pharmaceuticals, such as tolterodine, CDP-840, and nomifensine, and sertraline. Consequently, a number of reports have recently appeared describing methods for the asymmetric synthesis of gem-diarylalkyl derivatives. These include: Frey et al., J. Org. Chem., 63:3120–3124 (1998) ("Frey"); Andersson et al., J. Org. Chem., 63:8067–8070 (1998) ("Andersson"); Houpis et al., Tetrahedron Lett., 38:7131–7134 (1997) ("Houpis"); Christenson et al., Tetrahedron, 47:4739–4752 (1991) ("Christenson"); Alexakis et al., Tetrahedron Lett., 29:4411–4414 (1988) ("Alexakis"); and Corey et al., Tetrahedron Lett., 35:5373–5376 (1994) ("Corey"). Particularly effective have been the asymmetric conjugate addition of organometallic reagents to cinnamates, decribed in Frey, Andersson, Houpis, Christenson, and Alexakis, and the aryl cuprate addition to enantiomerically pure dimethyl 2-phenylcyclopropane-1,1-dicarboxylate, described in Corey. However, these reaction schemes involve multiple steps with poor overall yields and inconsistent chiral purity.
Accordingly, a need continues to exist for methods for preparing asymmetric gem-diarylalkyl derivatives. The present invention, in part, is directed to meeting this need.
Formation of Carbon-Carbon Bonds
The aldol reaction is a central transformation in organic synthesis. See, for example, Heathcock in Morrison, ed., Asymmetric Synthesis, San Diego: Academic Press, Vol. 3, Chapter 2 (1984) ("Heathcock"). Not only is the reaction a powerful carbon-carbon bond forming process, but, also, Heathcock reports that the reaction can be made highly diastereoselective by using enolates of defined geometry. Furthermore, high enantioselectivity can be achieved by using chiral auxiliaries (Heathcock) or by using chiral catalysts. The use of chiral catalysts in enantioselective aldol reactions has been recently reviewed in Nelson, "Catalyzed Enantioselective Aldol Additions of Latent Enolate Equivalents," Tetrahedron-Asymmetry, 9:357–389 (1998). Of particular interest are aldol reactions between enolates of arylacetates and aldehydes. For example, Evans et al., "C-2-symmetric Copper(II) Complexes as Chiral Lewis Acids. Scope and Mechanism of the Catalytic Enantioselective Aldol Additions of Enolsilanes to Pyruvate Salts," J. Am. Chem. Soc., 121:669–699 (1999), recently reported a reaction between a silylketene acetal of phenylacetate and benzyloxyacetaldehyde using a Cu(II) bisoxazoline complex. The reaction resulted in low enantioselectivity (about 9%) and no diastereoselectivity. However, better asymmetric induction has been achieved in such aldol reactions by using chiral enolates (Lutzen et al., "D-xylose Derived Oxazolidin-2-ones as Chiral Auxiliaries in Stereoselective Aldol Reactions," Tetrahedron-Asymmetry. 8:1193–1206 (1997)). However, processes of this type occurring in high yields and with good diastereoselectivity and enantioselectivity has not been reported.
Accordingly, a need continues to exist for methods for forming carbon-carbon bonds with good diastereoselectivity and enantioselectivity. The present invention, in part, is directed to meeting this need.
RITALIN™ and its Congeners
Attention Deficit Disorder ("ADD") is the most commonly diagnosed illness in children. Symptoms of ADD include distractibility and impulsivity. A related disorder, termed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ("ADHD"), is further characterized by increased symptoms of hyperactivity in patients. Racemic methylphenidate (e.g., RITALIN™) is a mild central nervous system stimulant, with pharmacological activity qualitatively similar to amphetamines, and has been the drug of choice for symptomatic treatment of ADD in children. Current administration of racemic methylphenidate, however, results in notable side effects, such as anorexia, weight loss, insomnia, dizziness, and dysphoria. Additionally, racemic methylphenidate, which is a Schedule II controlled substance, produces a euphoric effect when administered intravenously or through inhalation and, thus, carries a high potential for substance abuse in patients.
At least 70% individuals who are infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus ("HIV") who have developed Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome ("AIDS") eventually manifest cognitive defects, and many display signs and symptoms of dementia. Complaints of forgetfulness, loss of concentration, fatigue, depression, loss of attentiveness, mood swings, personality change, and thought disturbance are common in patients with HIV disease. Racemic methylphenidate has been used to treat cognitive decline in AIDS patients. As described above, racemic methylphenidate, which is a Schedule II controlled substance, produces a euphoric effect when administered intravenously or through inhalation, and thus carries a high potential for drug abuse in AIDS patients.
Glutathione is an important antioxidative agent that protects the body against electrophilic reactive compounds and intracellular oxidants. It has been postulated that HIV-AIDS patients suffer from drug hypersensitivity due to drug overload and an acquired glutathione deficiency. Patients with HIV infection have demonstrated a reduced concentration of glutathione in plasma, cells, and broncho-alveolar lavage fluid. Clinical data suggest that HIV-seropositive individuals display adverse reactions to the simultaneous administration of several otherwise therapeutic drugs. It is therefore desirable to provide for the administration of methylphenidate in reduced dosages among patients with drug hypersensitivity due to HIV infection.
Methylphenidate possesses two centers of chirality and thus can exist as four separate stereoisomers. Diastereomers are known in the art to possess differing physical properties, such as melting point and boiling point. For example, while the threo-racemate of methylphenidate produces the desired effect on the cental nervous system, the erythro-racemate contributes to hypertensive side-effects and exhibits lethality in rats.
Additional studies in animals, children and adults have demonstrated pharmacological activity in the d-threo isomer of methylphenidate (2R:2′R). Although the role of the l-threo isomer in toxicity or adverse side effects has not been thoroughly examined, the potential for isomer ballast in methylphenidate is of concern for many patients, particularly those drug hypersensitive patients described above.
Although l-threo-methylphenidate is rapidly and stereo-selectively metabolized upon oral administration, intravenous administration or inhalation results in high l-threo-methylphenidate serum levels. Intravenous administration and inhalation are the methods of choice by drug abusers of current methylphenidate formulations, and it has been postulated that the euphoric effect produced by current formulations of methylphenidate is due to the action of the l-threo-methylphenidate.
Accordingly, it has been suggested that the use of the d-threo isomer (2R:2′R) of methylphenidate which is substantially free of the l-threo isomer produces high methylphenidate activity levels and simultaneously reduces methylphenidate's euphoric effect and the potential for abuse among patients.
Methods for synthesizing d-threo methylphenidate have been reported. However, these methods involve long, complicated syntheses, have poor overall yields, and require at least some separation of mixtures of enantiomers and/or diastereomers.
In view of the advantages of pure d-threo methylphenidate and the deficiency in the art of methods for making this compound and its congeners, a need exists for an improved synthetic method for making pure d-threo methylphenidate and its congeners. The present invention, in part, is directed to meeting this need.

Metal catalysts and methods for making and using same

Abstract: Compounds having the formula:

Abstract: are disclosed. M1 and M2 are the same or different and are transition metal atoms or ions; Z2 and Z3, independently, are the atoms necessary to complete a 3–12 membered heterocyclic ring; Z1 is an alkylene or arylene group; Q1 and Q2 are the same or different and are electron withdrawing groups; L1 and L3, taken together, represent —O—CR13—O—; L2 and L4, taken together, represent —O—CR14—O—; and R13 and R14 are the same or different and are selected from the group consisting of alkyl groups and aryl groups or R13 and R14 represent alkylene or arylene groups that are directly or indirectly bonded to one another. Methods for making such compounds are also disclosed, as are intermediates which can be used in their preparation. Also disclosed are methods for carrying out C—H insertion reactions using bis-transition metal catalysts, such as the above compounds. Procedures for preparing d-threo methylphenidate, tolterodine, CDP-840, nominfensine, and sertraline, are described.

The Research Foundation of State University of New York


A process of reducing internal defects or enhancing mechanical properties in local regions in a casting utilizes the combined effect of compression, high-intensity ultrasound, heat, and feeding using extra material on improving the local microstructure. A modified version of the process can be used for accelerating the creep age forming process.

Castings, especially those made using the high pressure die casting (HPDC) process, usually contain a certain percentage of defects such as porosity [1], oxides, and sometimes hot hear [2]. The existence of defects leads to poor mechanical properties, pressure-tightness, and leak-tightness of the castings [2]. When the defect is larger than a certain size, usually a few millimeters, in critical locations of a casting where high mechanical properties or high leak-tightness are required, the casting has to be rejected as a scrap.
There are two types of defects which are classified by their location in a casting: internal defects and external defects. External defects occur on the surfaces or the machined surfaces of a casting and can be repaired using welding such as laser welding and arc welding. Internal defects are difficult to repair. They exist more in heavy sections than in thin walled sections in a casting. To make things worse, the solidification structure in the heavy sections is usually coarser than in the thin-walled section. Most casting alloys contain eutectic and intermetallic phases that are brittle [3]. Large dendrites of the primary solid phase also make the distribution of the brittle phases unfavorable. The combination of the coarse microstructure and defects makes the mechanical properties low and property reliability of a casting poor. From that sense, the coarse microstructure is also considered as a kind of internal defect. In die casting, external large dendrites are found in thick section of a casting [4]. Friction stir welding is capable of removing internal defects including the coarse microstructure but has not been widely used.
Effort has been focused on preventing certain internal defects from forming during the solidification process of a casting. For example, shrinkage porosity is an internal defect and is usually formed in the heavy sections of a casting where liquid feeding from a riser or a biscuit is difficult [1-2]. Squeeze pins are usually used to reduce porosity in the middle of heavy sections or "hot spots". The squeeze pin pushes a certain amount of solidifying metal back into the interior of a hot spot [5-6], feeding the solidification shrinkage there and, in the meantime, building up pressure that is beneficial in reducing the size of a pore if not eliminating it in the hot spot [1]. However, there are a number of issues associated with the use of a squeeze pin.
Firstly, the use of a squeeze pin brings in large oxide films into the interior of a casting. The surfaces of a casting are usually covered by a layer of oxide. When an extra amount of solidifying metal is pushed back into the interior of a local hot spot in a casting, the surface oxide layer is also pushed into the interior of the casting. This layer of oxide becomes an entrapped oxide film within a casting. There is a need to break up the large oxide films into smaller fragments.
Secondly, segregation bands and cracks are formed when the solidifying surface skin of a casting is torn apart by the squeeze pin, leaving behind cracks and cracks. Large cracks are filled by the solute-rich residual liquid in the mushy zone, forming segregation bands. Small cracks that cannot be filled by the liquid remain as cracks in the casting. Thus, the use of the squeeze pin reduces porosity in the hot spot but introduces other defects in the casting. Unfortunately, internal defects such as oxide films and cracks cannot be eliminated, leading to poor mechanical properties and reliability of the casting. There is a need to close out or heal the internal cracks as well.
Therefore, there is a need for developing a novel technology that is capable of reducing or even eliminating internal defects such as shrinkage pores and cracks, breaking up oxide films, and refining the solidification microstructure in the hot spot in a casting during its solidification process while the casting is still in its casting molds.
There is also a need for developing technologies that can be used to repair a casting with internal defects detected after the casting has been made.

Method for reducing local defects in a casting


An interlock for electric power switches includes indicator followers each following a state indicator on an associated electric power switch indicating the open/closed state of the switch. A first coupler couples one end of an associated elongated connecting member to each indicator follower. A second coupler couples the other end of each elongated connecting member to an auxiliary trip member actuator which actuates an auxiliary trip member on another electric power switch to maintain it in the open/tripped condition when the associated electric power switch is in the closed condition. The first couplers include a swivel through which the elongated connecting member slides and a compliant member, preferably in the form of a helical compression spring, captured between the swivel and a stop nut on the one end of the elongated connecting member.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to mechanisms for coordinating the operation of circuit breakers so that only one of the circuit breakers can be closed at any given time. In particular, it relates to an interlock for circuit breakers each having a state indicator indicating the open/closed state of the main contacts of the breaker, and an auxiliary trip member which allows the circuit breaker to be tripped and held open. More particularly, it relates to such an interlock which incorporates a compliant member which allows overtravel of the components coupled to the state indicators without binding of the auxiliary trip members.
2. Background Information
There are a number of applications where the operation of a pair of electrical switches be coordinated such that only one of the switches can be in the on position at a time. One such application is the transfer switch which is used to provide power to a load from two alternative sources. For instance, in many cases, an auxiliary power source is provided as an alternative to a utility source. As these two sources are independent, it is imperative that the one source be disconnected from the load before the other source is connected to prevent interconnection of two sources with a random phase relationship. Typically, circuit breakers are used as the switches in transfer switches so that overload protection is also provided. However, electrical switches without overcurrent protection are also used in transfer switches.
Another situation in which the operation of electrical switches must be coordinated is in ac motor control circuits such as reversing controls where one switch is used to connect the motor to a source with one phase rotation for forward operation and another switch connects the motor with the opposite phase rotation for reverse operation. As in the case of the transfer switches, the switches for the motor control may or may not have overcurrent protection.
It is known to coordinate the operation of two such electrical switches by the use of mechanical interlocks. One type of interlock couples the handles of the two switches. Another type of interlock used particularly when the switches are circuit breakers, utilizes a plunger mounted in the switch housing of each switch which when actuated engages the switch operating mechanism to prevent the switch from closing. In one such interlock, the plungers are coupled to opposite ends of a walking beam so that when one switch is closed it pushes down on its plunger thereby pivoting the walking beam and raising the other plunger to block closing of the other switch. The circuit breaker which is held open lacks sufficient force to override the interlock and force the closed switch open. A related type of interlock described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,436,415, utilizes a pair of pivoted cam plates each coupled to the plunger of one of the circuit breakers and joined by a connecting rod for opposed action. With one of the switches closed, the cam plate associated with the other switch is rotated to an overtoggle position so that a force generated on the plunger of that open switch is directed through the pivot axis of the associated cam plate and therefore applies no force through the connector which would attempt to override the plunger on the closed switch.
Still another type of interlock for a pair of electrical switches is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,242. In this interlock, a plunger actuated by the closing of the contact arm on one switch rotates a connecting rod which acts through another plunger to hold the latch lever of the trip mechanism in the other circuit breaker in the unlatched or tripped position so that the second circuit breaker cannot be closed. A similar arrangement engaging the contact arm of the second breaker rotates a second connecting rod which in turn holds the latch on the first circuit breaker in the unlatched or tripped position when the second breaker is closed.
In a variation of the latter type of interlock, a pivoted arm which follows the rotational position of the pole shaft on one power circuit breaker acts through a connecting rod to rotate another pivoted arm on the other end of the rod to actuate a trip lever on a second power circuit breaker. A similar mechanism holds the first power circuit breaker in the tripped condition when the second is in the closed condition. The connections between the rods and the pivot arms engaging the trip levers on the respective breakers allow these pivot arms to be rotated during alternative actuations of the trip lever without moving the associated rod. To this end, the rods extend through a swivel which slides relative to the rod during reverse rotation of the pivot arm. This mechanism, however, does not allow for overtravel of components.
While all of these interlock mechanisms prevent simultaneous closing of the two switches, the latter two types especially do not accommodate well to variations in tolerances or wear or for overtravel of components.
There is a need therefore for an improved interlock for coordinating the operation of a pair of electrical switches.
There is a particular need for such an improved interlock which can accommodate for variations in tolerances and wear.
There is an additional need for such an improved interlock which will accommodate overtravel of some of the components to assure reliable operation.
These needs and others are satisfied by the invention which is directed to an interlock for coordinating the operation of electric power switches, and particularly to such electric power switches which have a state indicator indicating the open and closed state of the switch, and an auxiliary trip member which can be moved from an unactuated to an actuated position to hold the associated switch in the open condition. The novel interlock includes indicator followers each following an associated state indicator on an associated electric power switch, and auxiliary trip member actuators each positioned adjacent an associated auxiliary trip member on an associated electric power switch. The interlock further includes elongated connecting members, first couplers each coupling one end of an associated elongated connecting member to an associated indicator follower on a respective one of the electric power switches, and second couplers each coupling the other end of the associated elongated connecting member to an associated auxiliary trip member actuator on the respective other electric power switch to actuate the auxiliary trip member on the other electric power switch to the actuated position when the state indicator on the respective one electric power switch moves to the closed position. Each of the first couplers comprises a compliant member allowing initial movement of the associated state indicator on the one electric power switch before movement of the associated elongated connecting member and allowing overtravel of the state indicator when the associated auxiliary trip member actuator reaches its limit of travel. In the preferred form of the invention, the compliant member is a helical compression spring.
Preferably, each of the indicator followers includes a follower member biased by a biasing spring against the associated state indicator and the first coupler comprises a slip coupling mounted on the follower member with one end of the elongated connecting member slideably extending through this slip coupling. In this arrangement the helical compression spring is captured between the slip coupling and the associated end of the elongated connecting member. In the most preferred arrangement, the state indicator pivots on the associated electric power switch and the follower member is also pivoted. In this arrangement the slip coupling comprises a swivel mounted on the follower member with the elongated connecting member sliding through the swivel. An adjustment mechanism permits adjustment of both the length of the connecting member and the preload on the helical compression spring.
Preferably, the second couplers comprise one way connectors which transmit motion of the elongated connecting member to the associated auxiliary trip member actuator but do not transmit movement of the auxiliary trip movement actuator to the elongated connecting member so that where the auxiliary trip member on the switch can be actuated by an alternate arrangement, this action is not transmitted back through the interlock.

Mechanical interlock with overtravel compensation for coordinating operation of circuit breakers


State information of one or more extents in a stripe in a storage system is obtained, the state information indicating whether the extents comprise at least one of a failed extent and an end-of-life extent. A risk level for the stripe is determined based on the state information, the risk level indicating a possibility that data stored in the stripe is lost. In response to the risk level exceeding a first threshold, the storage system is caused to: rebuild data corresponding to the failed extent, and write the data to a sparing extent in a second storage device different from a first storage device where the failed extent resides; and write data corresponding to the end-of-life extent to a swapped extent in a fourth storage device different from a third storage device where the end-of-life extent resides, the fourth storage device being used to replace the third storage device.

In the current architecture of RAID, a resource pool is used to manage storage spaces of storage devices (e.g. disks). The resource pool divides all disks into disk extents with the same size (e.g. several GBs). The basic manipulation unit of the resource pool is not the entire disk but the resultant disk extent. In other words, addressing, allocating and creating RAID is based on the disk extents in the resource pool.
Mapped Redundant Array of Independent Disks (mapped RAID) is a subclass of RAID. In mapped RAID, a RAID stripe (which is also called a RAID extent) is used to organize disk extents. One RAID stripe includes disk extents distributed across different disks in the resource pool, so that when a disk where a disk extent among the multiple disk extents resides has an error or fails, recovery operations may be executed so as to recover data from a disk where other disk extents locate. Since a storage device in the resource pool might have an error or fail, it becomes a tough technical issue regarding how to recover data, reduce data loss and further improve overall performance of a storage system when a storage device has an error or fails.

Method, device and computer program product for managing storage system


A gable top for a carton formed from a carton blank having an outer layer bonded to an intermediate layer by a first strength and an inner layer bonded to the intermediate layer by a second strength less than by a first strength and wherein the intermediate layer is of an esthetically pleasing color and formed into a gable top by sealing together facing portions of the inner layer so that when the gable top is separated to form a pour spout the inner surface of the pour spout will be aesthetically pleasing.

There are many types of containers on the market that have reclosable pour spouts so that the pour spout of the container may be opened, a portion of the material in the container removed and the pour spout is then closed. This operation may be repeated until the container is empty. To protect the material in the container, prior to the initial opening, it is necessary to have all portions of the container sealed. This is the same whether the material is a liquid, such as milk, or a solid, such as a snack of relatively small particles. One form of pour spout for such a container is known as a gable top. In such a container, it is essential that the pour spout be aesthetically pleasing after it has been opened. In prior art containers, a plastic material, such as a polyethylene was applied to the inner surface of a paperboard material used to form carton blanks so that the carton formed from such a carton blank could be heat sealed in its manufacture. During the manufacture and prior to the heat sealing, a suitable release coating was applied to the portions of the surfaces that were to be heat sealed. Due to manufacturing tolerances, the thicknesses of the release coatings were not constant so that it often occurred that portions of polyethylene would be torn away from the paperboard on the opening of the gable top to form the pour spout leaving the portions of the paperboard exposed. In other instances, the release coating would be spaced from the heat sealing portions so that when the gable top was opened, portions of the polyethylene would be torn away from the paperboard leaving portions of the paperboard exposed. Therefore, in order to preserve the aesthetic appearance of the opened pour spout, it was necessary to form the paperboard with a pigmentation of a pleasing color such as white. The manufacture of a pigmented paper board is expensive so that it has been desirable to produce a less expensive carton but one that would be aesthetically pleasing when opened.

Carton blank and method for forming the carton blank


A one-way valve for a container supplying a liquid under pressure when the container is compressed is designed to be inserted between an outlet of the container and the end of a supply nozzle connected to the container. The valve includes a hollow body inserted partially into the outlet of the container. A base of the hollow body, which is engaged by the end of the nozzle, is open, while the other base of the body has an essentially central hole through which the liquid passes. The hollow body accommodates internally an obturator member essentially including a shaped stopper connected, via elastically deformable lugs, to a support element. The support element has a longitudinal passage of a cross-sectional area greater than that of a cavity formed in the stopper. The lugs are designed to keep the stopper within the hole of the hollow body when the container is not compressed and to allow it to be moved out of the hole when the container is compressed in order to supply the liquid.

The present invention relates to a valve for use in flexible bottles or containers, the contents of which are to be supplied by means of manual pressure, and having the dual function of:
a) moderating the speed of flow; PA1 b) preventing backflow.
An area in which the valve in question finds widespread use is, for example, the pharmaceutical sector where it is extremely important that a container used to administer liquid for irrigation or medical purposes should exclusively allow the liquid to flow out from the container and prevent it from flowing back into the container for obvious hygiene/sanitary reasons. The containers in question are therefore provided with a unidirectional valve which has the function of performing the above task.
A typical example of a container where it is essential that the aforementioned valve be provided is a rubber syringe used for intestinal enemas or irrigations. In this area of use, it is necessary to moderate the force of flow of the liquid supplied. Otherwise, local pain, cramps and a tearing of the mucous tissue could result.
Implicit reference is made in the present description to this type of container even though it, as well as the abovementioned technical field, is to be regarded purely as examples which are not restrictive.
Containers of the type in question are known and it is also known that they are generally of the disposable type.
The abovementioned containers are provided, internally at the end of the supply nozzle which is connected to the actual container, with a unidirectional valve which essentially consists of thin small disc, generally made of rubber and with a thickness of about 1 mm, which has formed in it a substantially diametral incision. Edges of the disc defining the incision move apart under the effect of the pressure of the liquid inside the container, which pressure is generated by the compressive action exerted on the container made of deformable material. The liquid is therefore able to flow out from the container and the supply stops each time compression of the container is interrupted.
The known valves of this type have significant drawbacks which are linked mainly to the fact that the disc is an extremely delicate component and this negative characteristic must be taken into account both with regard to its manufacture and to the difficulties which are encountered when carrying out the preliminary treatment which the disc must undergo before being fitted on the container, such as washing and sterilization for example.
A further drawback arises from the fact that the disc must have extremely precise dimensions so as to ensure a perfect seal in particular along its edge in order to prevent the undesired seepage of liquid between the latter and the cap for closing the container. Ensuring a uniform thickness of the rubber sheet from which these discs are made, which should remain around one millimeter, represents an unresolved problem. This has meant that it has been necessary to use discs with thicknesses varying from 0.8 to 1.5 mm, thus frequently resulting in a poor sealing action of the closing caps inside which the discs are fitted.
Another significant drawback lies in the fact that fitting the disc requires long and costly manual operations, not to mention the additional operational difficulties of ensuring conditions of absolute hygiene for the manual operations.

One-way valve suitable for use in particular in a container supplying a liquid under pressure


The correct sampling timing phase is obtained by a digital data receiver by averaging samples of the preamble of a received data burst and using the computed averages as addresses to a memory which stores correction values for the timing phase. The output of the memory is sent to a phase correction circuit for correcting the phase of the presently received data burst.

In almost all digital data transmission systems, the receiver is required to sample the received waveform once per symbol in a relatively small interval in order to minimize the bit-error-rate (BER). If the transmission technique is optimized for bandwidth and power efficiency, a sampling instance corresponding to-the maximum of the "eye-opening" (a transition from a 0 to a 1 looks like an eye) usually provides the best performance.
For continuous transmission systems, the sampling clock is typically obtained from a clock recovery loop which derives the timing from zero crossings occurring during data transitions. The clock recovery loop is typically a phase-locked-loop (PLL). The loop bandwidth B of the PLL is chosen to maintain the steady-state jitter and initial acquisition time within a reasonable range.
For burst mode transmission, it is 104 is necessary to transmit a preamble which contains a sufficient number of data transitions for the clock recovery loop to detect before receiving valid data. Typically, the Preamble contains a sequence of alternating zeroes and ones (01010101 . . . ). The length of this sequence is typically three times the loop time constant, 1/B, because a typical PLL takes this duration to settle.
A conventional burst mode sampling timing acquisition circuit is shown in FIG. 1. A received digital signal burst is input to the circuit at input terminal 106. The burst has been transmitted from a transmitter over an analog transmission channel thus rendering the originally digital burst into an analog form. The analog-to-digital (A/D) converter 100 performs the operation of reconverting the transmitted signal burst back into the digital format.
The frequency of the sampling clock which drives the A/D 100 (i.e., the sampling rate) is known at the receiver, since a standard rate is used. However, the phase of the clock is unknown at the receiver and the purpose of the circuit of FIG. 1 is to acquire the correct sampling phase, hereinafter referred to as the correct sampling timing phase.
As discussed above, in conventional systems a preamble composed of an alternating sequence of zeroes and ones is attached to the front end of a digital signal burst in order to provide a known signal burst portion for use in sampling timing (sampling phase) acquisition. This preamble must have a length, in conventional systems, of at least 3/B (where B is the bandwidth of the PLL), since the PLL requires that much time to settle.
After channel filtering is carried out by well-known techniques in order to remove other signals and out-of-band noise from the received signal burst, the burst is input to the circuit of FIG. 1 at terminal 106. The burst is then sampled by the A/D converter 100 which operates at an expected sampling rate. The A/D converter 100 samples the received signal twice per symbol. The demultiplexer 101 separates the samples and sends the odd samples, for example, onto demultiplexer output line 109, and the even samples, for example, onto demultiplexer output line 110.
The 10101010 . . . sequence of the preamble, if repeated for a sufficiently long duration, produces a sinusoidal waveform after channel filtering. This is because the channel filters are usually designed to be very tight in order to minimize the noise, and all higher order (third, fifth, etc.) harmonics are removed by the channel. This sinusoidal waveform has a frequency equal to half of the symbol rate. If the symbol timing is correct, four samples per cycle are obtained, two at zero-crossings, and two at the peaks.
The samples output onto the demultiplexer output line 110 represent samples which, at the correct sampling timing phase, would represent the peaks (both positive and negative in amplitude) of the sinusoidal wave mentioned above. These samples are sent to a transition detector 102 which outputs one of three values 1, 0, or +1 depending on whether the sample input to the transition detector 102 is closer to the maximum negative peak, the zero level or the maximum positive peak, respectively. The samples output from the demultiplexer on demultiplexer output line 109 correspond, at the correct sampling timing phase, to the zero crossing points of the above-mentioned sinusoidal wave.
A multiplier 103 receives as inputs the samples output from the demultiplexer on demultiplexer output line 109 and the output 111 of the transition detector 102. The output 112 of the multiplier 103 represents the amount of deviation from the correct sampling timing phase for the presently used sampling clock. The above-mentioned circuitry tests the samples exactly one symbol time apart for data transitions. If a transition occurs, an error voltage proportional to the sample near the transition (the sample output from the demultiplexer 101 onto demultiplexer output line 109) is fed through a low pass filter (LPF) 104 to a voltage-controlled-oscillator (VCO) 105.
The output of the VCO 105 is fed back to be used by the A/D converter 100 as a sampling clock signal. Thus, when the error voltages output from the multiplier 103 are sent to the VCO 105 through the LPF 104, these error voltages modify the phase of the sampling clock of the A/D converter so as to place the phase of the sampling clock closer to the correct sampling timing phase.
As mentioned above, in order to acquire the correct sampling timing phase by the above conventional system, a preamble of length 3/B is required. For certain burst messages, such as those generated by interactive computer-to-computer communications, network control, signaling, and acknowledgements, bursts lengths are inherently short. A long preamble adversely reduces the throughput of the system. This preamble length is the main disadvantage of the PLL method (FIG. 1) of obtaining the correct sampling timing phase.
An alternative approach uses a tuned filter. The received signal is first squared to remove modulation. During data transitions, the squared waveform has envelope fluctuation. A harmonic of the envelope fluctuation at the symbol rate, R.sub.s is obtained by passing this signal through a filter with noise bandwidth B and center frequency are equal to the symbol rate. The squaring operation, however, causes a loss of 6 dB in terms of signal-to-noise ratio. The standard deviation of the clock jitter in steady-state equals 1/.sqroot.E.sub.s R.sub.s /2N.sub.o E in radians. Typically, the tuned filter needs a preamble of length 1.25/B which is only 40 percent of that required by the PLL approach described above with respect to FIG. 1.
The tuned filter approach suffers from other drawbacks. Namely, narrow bandpass filters, needed for use in the tuned filter approach, usually require expensive stable precision components such as high-Q inductors.

Method and apparatus for clock recovery for digitally implemented modem


An electronic balance checking and credit approval system includes consumer transaction accounts, tokens, input devices, authentication hardware and software code capable of execution by the hardware, and output devices. The consumer transaction account is held in trust on behalf of a consumer by a credit extending company. The token is specific to and held by the consumer, and includes a consumer account identifier that is associated with the consumer transaction account. The input device receives the consumer account identifier concurrent with a consumer-initiated request for account balance information. The authentication hardware and software code verifies the consumer-initiated request and the consumer account identifier and authorizes access to the consumer transaction account. The consumer interface apparatus provides the consumer with a real-time account balance datum that is currently associated with the consumer transaction account. The system also includes a system and method for securely and quickly approving credit card transactions by comparing generated checksums with stored historical transaction results.

In the prior art, when conducting electronic transactions at retail stores and over computer networks, consumers using prepaid accounts and credit cards have heretofore been required to keep a substantially accurate mental tally of their account and credit balances, so as to ensure that sufficient funds are available at a particular time to conduct a particular electronic transaction. It will be appreciated that the onus has heretofore been on the consumer to maintain this running tally of their remaining credit, or risk facing the sometimes embarrassing and certainly inconvenient prospect that a particular transaction might be denied due to insufficient funds.
Some retail stores and merchants have the ability to perform a balance inquiry on the consumer's behalf, but in such event, the consumer is first required to physically surrender the payment token or account identifier to the merchant. In typical prior art systems of this general type, the merchant is then required to enter a sequence of keys into their point-of-sale (hereinafter, alternately referred to as "POS") terminal so as to enter a balance-checking mode, before a printed statement of the consumer's account balance can be made available. This prior art process is generally relatively time consuming and requires the direct assistance and intervention of the merchant's POS attendant or cashier as a credit checking intermediary, with the consumer being required to surrender their information related to their personal account and often left feeling embarrassed or disappointed in the event that the account balance is too low to conduct the desired electronic transaction.
That is, in existing transaction processing systems such as Interac, GIVEX, etc., the consumer has little or no ability to obtain a current balance of his or her account before attempting to make a transaction. The consumer may not have sufficient funds, points or credits to complete the transaction, resulting in embarrassment and confusion as to how much is actually available in the account. Similarly, and as alluded to hereinabove, in prior art situations where real-time balances have heretofore been unavailable or substantially inaccessible, the consumer is forced to either lessen the amount of his purchase and try again, or pay using alternate means. In existing systems where balance information is available at the point of sale, the consumer is required to ask the merchant to intervene on his behalf to obtain the personal account balance for him.
In the prior art, methods for authenticating electronic transactions are generally well-known, with some of these methods providing for the presentation of an account balance or credit update after the transaction is completed. Other developments in the field of electronic transactions have enabled consumers to use a transaction token, such as a plastic card bearing a magnetic strip, in more than one context, such as, for example, both as a standard credit card and as a card for performing transactions with a specific vendor. An example of one such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,865,547 (issued on Mar. 8, 2005 to Brake, Jr. et al. for a "Customer Activated Multi-value (CAM) Card"). Notably, the Brake, Jr. patent does not disclose a system that enables balance or credit checking immediately prior to conducting a transaction. As such, a consumer using the Brake, Jr. card would still be faced with the significant problems outlined hereinabove.
What is needed, therefore, is a system that enables consumers to perform an account balance and/or credit inquiry to ascertain the amount of currency and/or credit that is, at the time of the inquiry, available for conducting electronic transactions. Preferably, the system would allow consumers to ensure that adequate currency and/or credit is available before conducting a particular transaction, without the intermediating assistance or intervention of a POS cashier or merchant.
Also, in transactions involving credit cards, and after receiving an identification token from an appropriate credit card, the POS terminal in the store or place of business has heretofore typically sent an initial transaction request to a merchant acquirer and/or payment processing company (such as, for example, Moneris Solutions, Inc. of Buffalo Grove, Ill., or Payment Technologies, Inc. of Mechanicsburg, Pa.). Thereafter, such payment processing company has typically forwarded the transaction request to the appropriate credit card issuing bank, where the request was to be processed for approval. If the credit card transaction was to be approved, the bank would send confirmation of such approval back to the payment processing company, who would then have returned same to the POS terminal that initiated the original request.
Unfortunately, with these prior art systems, and although there has been no guarantee as to how quickly (or, perhaps more accurately, how slowly) the credit card transaction request and approval confirmation processes might have taken in the past, such processes may generally have taken about five seconds or so. This somewhat time consuming and convoluted transaction request and approval process has, nonetheless, been necessitated in order to ensure that a sufficient credit balance is available at a particular time to conduct a particular electronic transaction. This intricate transaction approval process may be especially necessitated in situations where, as may generally be the case, neither the POS terminal, the store, nor the payment processing company is allowed to store the specific identification token that is received from the credit card.
In view of the foregoing, it may be appreciated that the potentially significant amount of time involved in processing and approving credit card transactions may have been found to be too long and/or to have resulted in long wait times or line-ups, with reduced efficiency and/or profitability to the associated businesses, especially in the cases of businesses involving a high rate of transaction turnover, and/or during peak business hours. What is needed, therefore, and whether in combination with or quite apart from any solutions to the other shortcomings discussed hereinabove that may be associated with the prior art, is a system that enables credit card transactions to be processed more quickly, yet still in a substantially reliable manner so as to ensure an appropriate payment history associated with a particular credit card, preferably without involving the storage of a user's personal credit card information.
It is, therefore, an objection of the invention to overcome, alleviate, and/or mitigate one or more disadvantages associated with the prior art.

Electronic balance checking and credit approval system for use in conducting electronic transactions


Techniques are presented for creating a second clock signal by using a first clock signal. For instance, an output is determined that corresponds to a phase relationship between the first and second clock signals. A value, corresponding to a given one of a plurality of delays, is selected based at least partially on the output. The given delay is created, by using the value, on the first clock signal to produce the second clock signal, whereby the given delay creates a phase shift between the first and second clock signals.

A Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) is one type of clock circuit that compares input and output clock signals and attempts to create the output clock signal so that the output clock signal is aligned with the input clock signal. Alignment means that an edge of the output clock signal occurs at about the same time (e.g., within a small error) from an edge of the input clock signal. Generally, rising edges are used so that a rising edge of the output clock signal occurs at about the same time as a rising edge of the input clock signal. Typical PLLs comprise a phase comparator, low pass filter, and Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO). The phase comparator compares the input and output clock signals and produces an output that is related to a comparison between the input and output clock signals. For example, in a digital PLL, a phase comparator might produce an output proportional to a time difference between edges of the input and output clock signals. In an analog PLL, by contrast, a phase comparator might produce an output determined by an analog multiplication of the input and output clock signals. The filter acts to smooth the output of the phase comparator, and the VCO oscillates at a rate proportional to the voltage applied to the VCO from an output of the filter.
PLLs are used in a wide variety of situations, such as clock recovery from encoded digital streams, synchronization of clock signals, synchronization of input and output data, and locking onto a signal such as a radio signal. While PLLs are widely used, some problems with PLLs exist. For instance, conventional PLLs typically have some static phase error. This static phase error means that the edges of the input and output clock signals will never be exactly aligned. Moreover, PLLs typically do not provide variable phase shift capability. Instead, aside from the static phase error, the input and output clock signals are aligned (e.g., a phase shift of zero). Additionally, the PLLs have a loop noise bandwidth, which describes the effective bandwidth of the input clock signal. Noise and signal components outside the loop noise bandwidth are attenuated. Furthermore, conventional PLLs can take a large area on a semiconductor, can use quite a large amount of power, and contain variables that can be process, temperature, and voltage sensitive.
A need therefore exists for circuits that can use an input clock signal as a reference to provide an output clock signal and that can also provide variable phase shift, relative to the input clock signal, of the output clock signal.


A method and apparatus to provide network buffer descriptors grouped by memory page into page groups and access a list of the page groups to manage the allocation and de-allocation of the network buffers descriptors is presented.

Network processing functions performed by a network processor generally include parsing and examination of information stored in network buffers. Network buffers can be viewed as having two parts: a descriptor and a body. The descriptor is used to store control information about the network buffer and the contents of the body. The body is used store network data (e.g., packets, portions of packets, cells and so forth). Typically, a relatively small amount of the leading data stored in the body of the network buffer (such as header information) is of interest to an application executing on the network processor, while the rest of the network data is merely an "opaque capsule" that is passed from a receive port to some exit port. It is fairly uncommon to pass the contents of the network buffer body through such processing without modifying the leading data in some way.
Quite often, accessing (i.e., reading or writing) the descriptor portion of a network buffer is a necessary part of the data processing. If only a small part of the body is accessed, as is typically the case, the access to the descriptor is a significant percentage of the total buffer memory access for network data processing.
Typically, a pool of available network buffers is managed with a linked list (or circular ring) of descriptors. There are various types of pools, e.g., shared or flow-specific controlled. In a flow-specific controlled pool scheme, each network traffic flow owns a collection of buffers for the use within its own flow only.
When a processing resource of the network processor needs a network buffer (and therefore a descriptor), a descriptor is taken from head of the list. When a network buffer is retired from use by a processing resource and the descriptor for that network buffer is no longer needed, the descriptor is returned to the pool list, usually being placed at the tail of the list.


In a gas turbine having a compressor, a combustor and a turbine, a gaseous fuel supply coupled to provide gaseous fuel to the combustor, a liquid fuel supply coupled to provide liquid fuel to the combustor via nozzle assembly. The nozzle assembly includes a plurality of passageways for flowing a fluid into the combustor, one of the passageways being an atomizing air passageway conduit interconnecting the atomizing air passageway to one of the plurality of passageways to enable fluid flow therebetween, while not allowing the flow of fluid back into the atomizing air passageway. High pressure air from the atomizing air passageway is diverted into one of the plurality of passageways via the conduit to protect the nozzle from ingestion of hot combustor gases, thus eliminating a need for a dedicated air purge system for that one of the plurality of passageways.

This invention relates to gas turbines, and more particularly, to a liquid fuel nozzle assembly having a passive protective purge for protecting the nozzle from damage when neither water nor active purge is flowing through the water passageway of the nozzle.
Industrial gas turbines often are capable of alternatively running on liquid and gaseous fuels. These gas turbines have fuel supply systems for both liquid and gas fuels, e.g., natural gas. The gas turbines generally do not simultaneously burn both gas and liquid fuels. Rather, when the gas turbine burns liquid fuel, the gas fuel supply is turned off and vice-versa. The fuel/water system that is not being used is usually purged with air.
Gas turbines that burn liquid fuels require a liquid fuel purge system to clear combustor fuel nozzles of liquid fuel. Air is typically used to actively purge unused combustor nozzle passages during turbine operation. Purge air supplied from an external source that is regulated by a control valve. When the fuel/water system is activated or deactivated during turbine operation, the purge air needs to be turned on or off. The purge air and fuel or water are generally not permitted to be "on" at the same time for safety reasons. Thus, when activating a fuel/water system, the purge air is shut "off" before the fuel is turned on, and when deactivating a fuel system, the fuel is shut "off" before the purge air is turned "on". This sequence results in a brief period during which there is neither fuel/water flow nor purge air, thus opening the possibility of ingesting combustion gases into the fuel nozzle assembly. The brief no-flow period may also cause thermal distress of the fuel nozzle.
In one existing approach, the time-period during which both the fuel/water and-purge air are "off" is minimized for preventing fuel nozzle damage during a brief no-flow period. There are practical limits, however, as to how short this time-period can be set. Also, flowing purge air quickly into a fuel system that is full of fuel due to a prior operation may force the left over fuel into the combustor and produce an undesirable surge in turbine output. Further, the turbine control system requires some minimum time to confirm that a fuel valve or a purge air valve is in fact closed before opening the control valve to the other. The flowing of purge air quickly into a water system that is full of water due to prior operation, may force the left over water into the combustions system in this case producing the undesirable flaming out of the combustion system.
In another existing approach, a portion of combustor inlet air is diverted to wash over an outer exit of a fuel nozzle passage so that any back-flow into the nozzle will consist only of air and not hot combustion products. This approach, however, is not only difficult to implement but also includes performance side effects.
The systems that control the air purges and liquid flows are both complex and expensive. Currently, there are separate purge supplies to the atomizing air, liquid fuel (e.g., oil), and water passages. Currently, the oil and water passages are actively purged whenever oil or water are not flowing. The oil purge has shown to be crucial to thermally protect the oil tip and also to scavenge oil out of the oil passages following oil operation. While the water tip also requires thermal protection, there is no need to scavenge residual water from the water passages, as it cannot cause a problem equivalent to oil coking. With no water scavenge requirement, an independent or dedicated externally applied purge of the water passage is not necessary provided the water tip can be thermally protected by other means.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and method for a water nozzle that will thermally protect the water nozzle tip and eliminate a need for a dedicated externally supplied air purge of the water passages.

Liquid fuel nozzle apparatus with passive water injection purge


Embodiments herein provide a system (100) to estimate the amplitude of oscillations in a turbulent flow system (102) that exhibits oscillatory instabilities. The system (100) comprises of a sensor (102A) mounted on the turbulent flow system (102) to detect an oscillatory variable in the system obtaining a signal, a signal conditioner (104) that conditions the signal from the sensor, an amplitude estimator (110) that estimates the amplitude of the limit cycle oscillations, and also predict the proximity of the system to the oscillatory instability, a processor (108) connected to the amplitude estimator (110) to compare the predicted oscillation amplitude with a threshold value. The amplitude is estimated by estimating the spectral measure of the time series signal obtained from the system.

Many systems and devices that embody a fluid flow exhibit large amplitude oscillatory instabilities that adversely affect the performance and life span of the system and/or device. Predicting the onset of such instabilities and their amplitude is difficult, since the processes that cause instabilities in the system are very complex. Thus, prognosticating these instabilities is a challenging task for industries. A system that can forewarn the onset of such instabilities and estimate the amplitude of the resulting oscillations can help operators to take appropriate control action to safeguard the system form instability.
Flame transfer function or flame describing function form the basis for most conventional methods for estimating amplitudes of oscillatory instabilities. Nonlinear heat release models as well as acoustic losses at the boundaries have also been used for amplitude determination. The accuracy in the prediction of the limit cycle amplitude of acoustic pressure in the aforementioned methods is sensitive to both the Flame Describing Function (FDF) and the acoustic boundary conditions. In industrial systems operating at high pressure, it is often hard to excite large amplitude oscillations that are needed for determining the flame describing function.
Thus, there exists a compelling need to develop an apparatus and a method to predict the amplitude of limit cycle oscillations that can be used in industrial systems without much difficulty, i.e. without obtaining the flame describing function. Hence, there exists a need for a system and a method that could predetermine the instability and control various parameters of the device accordingly, to prevent the system from entering an operational regime where it becomes unstable, thus improving the stability margins.

System and method for determining the amplitude of oscillatory instabilities in fluid mechanical devices

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MADRAS (IITM)


A compact zoom lens includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens group (1) of negative refractive power, and second, third, fourth and fifth lens groups (2, 3, 4, 5) of positive refractive power. The second, third and fourth lens groups are movable to effect zooming and focusing. During zooming from the telephoto end to the wide-angle end, the fourth lens group moves from the object side to the image side. The compact zoom lens has a long back focal length with various aberrations satisfactorily corrected, and a small F-number for enhanced image brightness.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens, and particularly relates to a compact zoom lens for use in an image projection optical system of an image projection device and also for use in an image pickup optical system of an image pickup device. The present zoom lens offers a long back focal length and high-resolution combined with high image brightness with a compact package, and is particularly suitable for use in a mobile image projection device.
2. Description of Prior Art
As an important element of an image projection optical system or an image pickup optical system, optical lenses are generally required to satisfy the high zoom ratio, high-resolution and high image quality requirements. A high zoom ratio lens generally consists of a plurality of lens groups and a considerable number of constituent lens elements, whereby the overall length of the lens is rather long. To meet the additional high-resolution requirement, special low dispersion lens elements and aspheric lens elements are Her incorporated in the lens. Conventional zoom lenses are generally designed for image pickup purposes, and accordingly the back focal length of the zoom lens is normally short but can meet the requirements of the image pickup device. However, such a conventional zoom lens cannot be applied to an image projection device due to its short back focal length. For example, for a liquid crystal projector, a projection zoom lens used therein is required to have a long enough back focal length to provide room for a color separating and synthesizing optical system of the projector and also to satisfy the high resolution requirement conforming to the high resolution of the liquid crystal panels of the projector. Further, high image quality with enhanced image brightness is often required for a zoom lens. As a rule, the smaller the F-number (expressed as the focal length of the lens divided by the effective aperture diameter), the brighter the lens. A single lens usually has a small F-number, whereas a zoom lens usually has a large F-number, so the view appears dark and manual focusing becomes difficult. Accordingly, a zoom lens with a small F-number is desired for enhanced image brightness and hence better image quality. To satisfy all these requirements as discussed above, various zoom lenses for use in an image projection optical system have been proposed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,590,716 and 5,619,381.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,590,716 discloses a conventional projection zoom lens that comprises four lens groups including twelve or thirteen constituent lens elements. The overall focal length of this projection zoom lens is variable between approximately 28 mm at the wide angle end and a value between 37 mm and 38 mm at the telephoto end. The F-number is 1.7 to 2.0. This conventional projection zoom lens effectively reduces various aberrations and improves the quality of a projected image. However, there is recently not only a demand for an image with high resolution but also a demand for reduction in size and weight of the projector with importance attached to maneuverability and portability of the projector with a small panel. Compact projectors have been found to be incorporated into notebook computers, desktop computers, DVDs, and so on. Therefore, this conventional projection zoom lens is not fit for use in a compact projector because an optical system employing the four-group zoom lens, which has an overall focal length between 28 mm and 38 mm, will be bulky. Further, The F-number of this conventional projection zoom lens, which is 1.7 to 2.0, may also not satisfy the requirement for a bright image in some cases.
A compact two-group movable lens is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,619,381. This compact two-group lens includes a zoom lens group having a negative refractive power and a compensator group having a positive refractive power. Each group contains at least one aspheric lens element for elimination of aberrations. A projection optical system employing this movable lens has a low distortion and high resolution with fewer lens elements. However, this patent only roughly introduces the configuration and the function of the two-group movable lens, and does not provide any detailed description of conditions and parameters necessary to the design.
To obtain the desired zoom ratio, image resolution and optical performance within the entire zoom range, the lens configuration for each lens group of a projection zoom lens must be carefully designed. When the refractive power of the lens group is increased, the movement stroke of the lens group during zooming will be shortened and thus the overall length of the zoom lens can be reduced. However, the increase in refractive power of the lens group will bring the problem of aberration fluctuations during zooming, and these aberration fluctuations are difficult to correct.
Accordingly, how to reduce the size and weight of the whole zoom lens system while maintaining high optical performance is a problem encountered by a zoom lens designer.


A process for fabricating a dual damascene structure. First, a substrate having a dielectric layer is provided. A cap layer and a mask layer with at least one trench pattern are sequentially formed on the dielectric layer. Thereafter, a photoresist layer with at least one via pattern aligned with the trench pattern is formed overlaying the mask layer and part of the cap layer. Next, the via pattern is transferred into the cap layer and the upper half of the dielectric layer. The photoresist layer is then removed. Subsequently, the trench pattern is transferred into the cap layer and the upper half of the dielectric layer, and simultaneously the via pattern in the upper half of the dielectric layer is transferred into the lower half of the dielectric layer. Finally, the trench and the via in the dielectric layer are filled with a conductive layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the manufacture of semiconductor integrated circuits. More particularly, it relates to a dual damascene process for preventing photoresist contamination.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the semiconductor industry, much effort is spent developing semiconductor devices with high operating speeds. Due to rapid progress in integrated circuit (IC) fabrication technologies, the integration of the IC devices has increased, and raising the resistance of metal wires and the parasitic capacitance effect therebetween. The metal wires thus carry a current flow at a low speed. In order to reduce resistance and parasitic capacitance, low resistance material, such as copper, is used for metal wires, and low dielectric constant (low-k) materials are used for the insulating layer between the metal wires.
Recently, a dual damascene process using low-k dielectrics and low resistance metals has been developed to form high-reliability, low cost interconnects in the IC devices. FIGS. 1a though 1d illustrate a conventional method for forming a dual damascene structure. In FIG. 1a, a semiconductor substrate 100 is provided. A sealing layer 102, a low-k dielectric layer 104, and a mask layer 106 with a plurality of trench openings 106a are sequentially formed on the substrate 100.
In FIG. 1b, a photoresist layer 108 has been coated on the mask layer 106 and filled into the openings 106a. Next, lithography is performed on the photoresist layer 108, thereby forming a patterned photoresist layer 108 with a plurality of via openings 108a aligned with the trench openings 106a overlaying the mask layer 106 and part of the dielectric layer 104. Hence, however, photoresist contamination occurs due to amino elements in the dielectric layer 104. As a result, sidewalls of the patterned photoresist layer 108 have poor profile.
In FIG. 1c, the dielectric layer 104 is anisotropically etched using the patterned photoresist layer 108 as a mask, and the via pattern is then transferred into the upper half of the dielectric layer 104.
In FIG. 1d, the photoresist layer 108 is removed. Thereafter, the dielectric layer 104 is etched using the mask layer 106 with trench openings 106a, and using the sealing layer 102 as an etching stop layer. As a result, trench patterns are transferred into the upper half of the dielectric layer 104, and the via patterns in the upper half of the dielectric layer 104 are simultaneously transferred into the lower half of the dielectric layer 104. These trenches 104b and vias 104a formed in the dielectric layer 104 create a plurality of dual damascene structures. Next, the sealing layer 102 below the vias 104a is removed. Due to photoresist contamination mentioned above, a poor via profile in dual damascene structure results, and low IC device reliability results.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a dual damascene process for forming an additional cap layer on the dielectric, thereby preventing potentially contaminating photoresist contact with the dielectric layer.
Another object of the invention is to provide a dual damascene process for forming a cap layer as an anti-reflective layer (ARL) to improve the dual damascene structure profile.
To achieve these and other advantages, the invention provides a method of fabricating a dual damascene structure. First, a substrate having a dielectric layer is provided. A cap layer is formed on the dielectric layer, and a mask layer with at least one trench pattern is then deposited overlaying the cap layer. Thereafter, a photoresist layer with at least one via pattern aligned with the trench pattern is formed overlaying the mask layer and part of the cap layer. Next, the via pattern is transferred into the cap layer and the upper half of the dielectric layer. The photoresist layer is then removed. Subsequently, the trench pattern is transferred into the cap layer and the upper half of the dielectric layer, and simultaneously the via pattern in the upper half of the dielectric layer is transferred into the lower half of the dielectric layer. Finally, the trench and the via in the dielectric layer are filled with a conductive layer. In the invention, the cap layer is undoped silicate glass (USG), SiC or SiF, and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using SiH4 or tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as a reaction gas.


A lightweight cowl crossbar includes: a first cowl crossbeam located on a first side frame disposed at a first side of a vehicle body; a second cowl crossbeam fastened to the first cowl crossbeam and fixed to a second side frame disposed at a second side of the vehicle body; a support leg located on the second cowl crossbeam and configured to be supported by the vehicle body, and a drawing block part located on a region where the first cowl crossbeam and the second cowl crossbeam overlap.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art
Generally, a vehicle body of a vehicle is composed of side frames disposed at both sides, and several crossbeams connecting the side frames laterally.
Among them, the cowl crossbeam is a structure, which is installed horizontally at the vehicle interior of the rear of a cowl panel, to give rigidity to the front of the vehicle body. The cowl crossbeam supports a steering column, and is designed in a rigid structure that can sufficiently absorb engine vibration transferred from the steering column.
A pair of support legs supporting the cowl crossbeam are coupled to the lower side of the center of the cowl crossbeam. The support leg serves to disperse the vibration from a steering device to the lower portion of the vehicle body. A connection bar for increasing the lateral rigidity of the support leg is installed on the support leg.
Side fastening parts for being coupled to the side frames are installed at both sides of the cowl crossbeam.
In addition, various brackets for installing an instrument panel, an air conditioning duct, a sound device, a fuse box, an air bag, and the like are installed on the cowl crossbeam.
The support leg, the side fastening parts, and various brackets coupled to the cowl crossbeam are each produced by press, extrusion, casting, and the like, and then are welded to be coupled to the cowl crossbeam.
However, we have found that it is desirable that a structure of the cowl crossbar is changed according to the shape of a front slim cockpit of the vehicle based on the supply of an autonomous traveling vehicle. In addition, in the case of a conventional internal combustion engine vehicle, we have discovered that the weight is increased due to the configuration of the aluminum cowl crossbar, thereby worsening fuel efficiency of the vehicle.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the disclosure and accordingly it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.


An object of the present invention is to provide a Ni-based superalloy, especially for a conventional casting, having a good balance among high temperature strength, corrosion resistance and oxidation resistance, as compared to a conventional material. The Ni-based superalloy comprises Cr, Co, Al, Ti, Ta, W, Mo, Nb, C, B, and inevitable impurities, the balance being Ni, the Ni-based superalloy having a superalloy composition comprising, by mass, 13.1 to 16.0% Cr, 11.1 to 20.0% Co, 2.30 to 3.30% Al, 4.55 to 6.00% Ti, 2.50 to 3.50% Ta, 4.00 to 5.50% W, 0.10 to 1.20% Mo, 0.10 to 0.90% Nb, 0.05 to 0.20% C, and 0.005 to 0.02% B.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a Ni-based superalloy, and a cast product and gas turbine rotor and stator blades using the Ni-based superalloy.
Background Art
Recently, an increase in thermal efficiency in an internal combustion engine has been tried, from the viewpoint of growing environmental consciousness such as the saving of fossil fuels, reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and prevention of global warming. It is known that a thermal efficiency can be most effectively enhanced by operating a high temperature side of Carnot cycle at a higher temperature in a thermal engine such as a gas turbine and a jet engine. In accordance with a higher turbine inlet temperature, an importance of an improvement and development of materials used as hot parts of a gas turbine, i.e., a combustor or turbine rotor and stator blades, is enhanced. In order to deal with such a higher turbine inlet temperature, a Ni-based heat resistant superalloy having a better high-temperature strength is applied as a material, and many Ni-based superalloys are used at present. Examples of the Ni-based superalloy include a conventional casting superalloy having an isometric crystal, a directionally solidified superalloy having a columnar crystal, and a monocrystal superalloy having one crystal. In order to enhance the strength of the Ni-based superalloy, it is important to add Al and Ti and the like to precipitate many γ′Ni3(Al, Ti) phase, which is a reinforcing phase, together with adding many amounts of a solid-solution reinforcing element such as W, Mo, Ta and Co.
In the meantime, due to an elevated fuel price, a low quality fuel containing a large amount of impurities causing a corrosion starts to be used as a fuel for an industrial gas turbine, and it is also necessary to develop a material having both high-temperature strength and corrosion resistance. In such a material, it is desirable that a large amount of Cr forming a protective coating film be added. Examples of a superalloy, which gives weight to corrosion resistance, include conventional casting superalloys which are disclosed in, for example, JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2004-197131 A, JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 51-34819 A (1976) and JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2010-84166 A.
However, problem of such a superalloy are: when many amounts of elements added are contained, the stability of the constitution of a material is further lowered and a hard and brittle harmful phase such as a 6 phase is precipitated during a long period time of use. That is, it is difficult to develop a superalloy material having a good high-temperature creep strength and simultaneously corrosion resistance and oxidation resistance.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Ni-based superalloy, and turbine rotor and stator blades for gas turbine using the same


A pipe for simultaneously retaining a first pipe to a first port and a second pipe to a second port includes a first yoke for receiving the first pipe and the first port to retain the first pipe to the first port; a second yoke for receiving the second pipe and the second port to retain the second pipe to the second port; and a hinge joining the first yoke to the second yoke such that the hinge allows the first yoke to pivot relative to the second yoke about a hinge axis between 1) a disassembled position which allows removal of the pipe retainer from the first pipe, the first port, the second pipe, and the second port and 2) an assembled position which prevents removal of the pipe retainer from the first pipe, the first port, the second pipe, and the second port.

Devices, for example heater cores of motor vehicles which extract heat from coolant used to cool an internal combustion engine of the motor vehicle, are known to have a first port connected to a first pipe and a second port connected to a second pipe. In the example of a heater core, the first pipe may supply relatively hot coolant to the heater core through the first port while the coolant is returned to the internal combustion engine at a lower temperature through the second port and the second pipe. An O-ring may be used to prevent the coolant from escaping through the connections formed between each of the pipes and their respective ports. In order to retain the first pipe to the first port, it is known to use a collar to engage features of the first pipe and the first port, thereby preventing the first pipe from separating from the first port. The collar includes semicircular halves which include a hinge and a snap lock diametrically opposing the hinge such that the collar completely surrounds the first port and the second port when it is installed. Another collar is similarly used to retain the second pipe to the second port. While the collar may be effective for retaining the pipe to the port, it may be difficult to verify that the snap lock has been assembled successfully and special manufacturing tools and gages may be needed to snap the snap lock of the collar together and to verify that the snap lock has been assembled successfully. Additionally, since the collar completely surrounds the pipe and the port, fixturing may not be permitted to hold the pipe to the port while the collar is being assembled to the pipe and to the port, thereby allowing a potential for the pipe to separate from the port before the collar can be assembled thereto. Finally, the snap lock may be difficult to disassemble if the pipe needs to be separated from the port for service or replacement of the heater core.
What is needed is a pipe retainer which minimizes or eliminates one or more of the shortcomings as set forth above.


A method of creating a software application using an integrated development environment, IDE, running on a computing device having at least a processor, a memory, a display device and an input device. The method includes retrieving from the memory and providing on the display device a number of graphical elements each representing at least one operation to be performed on data. The method further includes enabling a user of the computing device to select and arrange at least some of the graphical elements on the display device using the input device. The method includes enabling the user to arrange graphical links between the selected graphical elements, wherein the selected graphical elements and the graphical links together form one or more graphical models of a process to be performed on data by the software application, and displaying in the IDE a 3D representation of the graphical model or models.

The present specification describes features which build on the applicant's earlier Microgen Aptitude products. For example features of Microgen Aptitude V3.00 are described in the applicant's earlier European Patent Application No. 10196007.8 (Publication No. 2,354,925) and a number of other applications. Microgen Aptitude V3.00 is a development of Microgen's earlier Aptitude product which is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/341,156 (Publication No. US-2006-0247805-A1) and corresponding European Patent Application No 06100913.0 (Publication No. 1,686,466). It should be understood that the invention and the embodiments described below may incorporate features of any earlier Microgen Aptitude product, and any of the features described in the applications mentioned above, and the entire contents of the applications identified above are incorporated by reference herein.
Aptitude is a program with a graphical interface which allows users to create complex applications without knowledge of traditional programming languages. Graphical elements, also referred to as icons, can be connected together using graphical links in order to create graphical models of processes and rules which are later converted into computer instructions.
Conventionally, computer programs are written in a programming language such as Cobol, Pascal, C++ or Java. The programs so produced consist of a set of files containing "source code" which is simply text written using the lexicon and obeying the syntax of the language. The source code is then compiled or translated into machine code and executed. The development environment for producing, managing and compiling these programs is called an "IDE" or Integrated Development Environment; "Integrated" because it normally comprises a set of tools such as compilers, linkers, debuggers, etc.
The programs in the source code files often "call" each other forming links or dependencies between them. It should be noted that the source code files and their links do not represent the logical "structure" of the software as a particular functional component such as a business rule may be coded in a large number of files with multiple dependencies so there is no clear correspondence between a source code file and particular piece of functionality.
More recently, programs designed for commercial applications have been divided into layers where the layers comprise different "models" of the final program. Typically the models are defined using source code. Essentially each layer is a collection of one or more models of the same type. Such models may for example be concerned with Business Rules, Data Flow, Screen Presentation, Database, etc. as shown in FIG. 1.
This architecture which is widely used by "Business Process Management Suites" (BPMS) has produced a radically different type of IDE which is able to cope with multiple models and to integrate them into an executable program; the development tools for each model usually generate source code—most frequently Java—which is then combined with the code from the other layers to produce an executable program.
Microgen Aptitude falls into this class of product but has taken a radically different approach whereby no source code is generated or required; each layer has an associated "modelling tool" which allows the Business User to model the Rules (say) graphically. The graphical models that are produced are diagrams comprising graphical elements (icons), and may for example represent processes and rules used in the Aptitude software. The graphical models that are produced for each layer are then combined and translated into intermediate code or "p-code". Unlike source code, this is not human readable but is interpreted by an execution engine so automating the business model.
All IDE's have a "Viewer" where the user can see all the different components (traditionally source code files) of an application. There may be hundreds or thousands of source code files and the organization of these in a manner which allows the structure of the project to be visible, is a considerable challenge. Most Viewers provide a folder or tree structure organization of the project components and these work to some degree when the project consists of a homogeneous set of source code files; however, when a layered architecture is employed where each layer consists of a different set of models, these folder or tree structures fail to provide a means to organize the many models and layers effectively.

Integrated development environment and method


A punch catch device for use with a punch machine comprising a mold. The mold of the punch machine has a mechanism to press products and waste materials downwardly until the products and waste materials are released from the mold. The punch catch device is movably positioned on the frame of the punch machine to move during the movement of the punching operation such that the products and waste materials are received in a catch basin of the punch catch device. The punch catch device includes an adjustment mechanism for adjusting the height and angle of the catch basin.

This invention relates to a punch catch device, and more particularly, this invention relates to a punch machine which has a catch device to receive products and waste materials safely.
A traditional punch machine comprises a mold. The mold has a mechanism to press products and waste materials downward until the products and waste materials are released from the mold. The products and waste materials are blown out of the traditional punch machine with a strong wind. However, the products and waste materials may fall down on the traditional punch machine if the wind is not strong enough.


A method of fabricating a hydrodynamic appendage for a ship, the method including the steps of: forming two metal half-shells having outside surfaces that form the flanks of a hydrodynamically-active portion of the appendage; forming a metal head including a mechanism for securing the appendage to the ship; and assembling together the half-shells and the head so that the head is sandwiched between the top ends of the two half-shells and closes a top portion of an internal volume defined by the half-shells. The half-shells are welded to the head so as to make the internal volume watertight.

Such appendages include a hydrodynamically-active portion that may, under certain circumstances, be associated with various accessories, such as lift-providing foils that extend from the sides of the appendage, or indeed such as streamlined ballast attached to the end of the appendage, as for a keel fin.
Such appendages are traditionally made of steel. They need to combine great structural strength, in particular in lateral bending, while also supporting ballast that present considerable weight, at least for keel fins. Nevertheless, and in particular for keel fins, it is important to reduce the weight of the appendage as much as possible so that the center of gravity of the keel is as low as possible.
More recently, proposals have been made to make such appendages out of composite material, in particular comprising carbon fibers embedded in resin. Nevertheless, that type of fabrication raises various problems, in particular concerning the watertightness of the appendage and how it is to be connected to the hull.

Hydrodynamic appendage such as a keel or a centerboard, and a method of fabrication